Should Potential Workers be Allowed to “Test-Drive” a Company?
Like a sort of home test-drive, people were able to actually “test out” a house, which would help influence their buying decisions. They could discover the good, bad and ugly of a home and neighborhood, such as noisy neighbors, safety, nighttime neighborhood occurrences and whether or not their family and belongings will actually fit inside the space.
Although Yahoo said that this show didn’t start a national trend, the story reported that real estate agents still encounter “sleeping on it” requests every now and then.
One interesting example the story notes is about a man who wanted to stay the night to check out the water pressure in an $856,000 NYC apartment before purchasing. The story explains:
“It’s the strangest request I’ve ever experienced in my life for someone who wanted to purchase an apartment,” Ohl says. The seller said “Yeah, I guess, as long as he brings his own towel,” she says. While the owner was in a different room, the buyer took a shower and was satisfied with the water pressure and heat.
Apparently, after the man asked to test out the showers in other apartments but was denied, he ended up renting the original apartment. This and other examples listed in the story show how allowing a potential buyer to “sleep on it” and test-drive a home could result in a greater chance of purchase.
And although not every buyer is thrilled with this idea due to safety concerns, the concept led me to think about the hiring and onboarding process.
Can you imagine if potential employees were allowed to test-drive a company? Not only would this improve the hiring process and potentially secure top talent, but it would also improve the candidate experience.
Think about it: Some candidates aren’t even given the opportunity to tour a company; they can’t even see where they’ll be sitting and who they’ll be working with before deciding on an offer. Most times potential employees are going in blind with the exception of the research they’ve conducted on a business and whatever else the hiring manager explains during the interview(s).
Like potential home buyers, I think allowing candidates to test-drive companies would help them feel more comfortable with their decision in taking or rejecting a job offer. It’s similar to how college recruiters take prospective athletes on tours attempting to persuade them to choose that university—only this would be corporate style.
Making the onboarding process more fun and interesting is always much more helpful to new hires. For example:
- Clear Channel Communications Inc. in San Antonio assigns new hires “peer coaches” who help answer questions and concerns before the workers’ official start dates;
- Rackspace Inc. has a four-day orientation process filled with games, skits, costumes, thumping music and a limbo bar; and
- Bazaarvoice, a tech firm in Austin, Texas, sends its new hires on a weeklong scavenger hunt with the objective to bring new workers up to speed on company culture and lingo.
To help candidates test-drive a business, a company can allow them to go through an actual work day. This can include everything from a typical work day schedule (arrival and dismissal times) for the role, completing some assignments similar to what the role requires and meeting potential teammates and supervisors. The candidates can receive a tour of the building and even meet with upper management (if possible) just to offer a feel for the company’s culture and management.
Implementing this “test drive” into the hiring and onboarding process may be the difference between securing and losing top talent because it will offer potential workers a real-life, hands-on experience of what working for a business will entail.