Ashneer Grover, founder of BharatPe, shared his thoughts on the recruitment process and said that he does not believe in lengthy hiring processes and notice periods.
Calling such practices a waste of time, he advocated for a ‘hire fast, fire fast’ approach. He shared this while speaking in the podcast ‘Limitless with Ishan Sharma’.
He said that companies spend too much time hiring a candidate and then give the individual a lot of time to prove themselves, which can take up to a year.
Joining him on the podcast were Asish Mohapatra, co-founder and CEO of OfBusiness and co-founder of Oxyzo Financial Services, Sarthak Ahuja, director at Niamh Ventures and content creator, and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder of Info Edge, which owns Naukri.com.
“What I have basically understood about hiring, and a lot of people don’t agree with this thought, it’s hire fast, fire fast. What’s happening currently is that you are investing a lot of time in hiring a person, you go through multiple rounds. The candidate is also, naturally, on his best behaviour. When a candidate comes to sell himself or pitch for himself, then the salesman in him is at its peak. At the end of the day, you will get to know whether he will work or not only after you give him his tasks,” said Ashneer Grover, adding that he personally has not seen a 100% success rate in hiring the right candidate.
“Sometimes people are able to sell themselves very well. My realisation is this – we spend 3 months identifying the ideal candidate, then the candidate serves his 2 months of notice period, so we wait for those 2 months. We have, at this point, already invested around 6 months into this role. Once the candidate joins, we want to give him the same amount of time to prove himself. So from 6 months, now it is 1 year. Now, for a year, you have spent the opportunity cost in that role. After a year, you realise he is not a good fit. I think the best thing to do is to do local optimisation. You decide you need a candidate in a week-15 days, you get him in fast. Judge him on his work faster. And it is very simple to understand who works and who does not. So, hire fast and fire fast,” said Grover in the podcast.
Asish Mohapatra shared his experience from his career in ITC, McKinsey, and Matrix. He said he prefers to hire freshers with around 0-3 years of experience and mould them for the role. These employees often stay loyal to the organisation and are eager to prove themselves.
“The problem with this pool is that the amount of time they would take to understand the nuances of the role would be longer than an experienced employee’s,” said Mohapatra.
He added that they aim to create a college campus-like environment at work, with no designated seats for employees. This atmosphere helps employees bond better, making their personal lives an extension of their work lives. Mohapatra mentioned that this approach lowers attrition rates.
Source Agencies
