Edition 492 – Test Drives

Earlier this year, when I was going through the whole car buying analysis exercise, I’d narrowed the list down….to a point. Goodness knows the list needed narrowing down for the OCD car nut inside of me, once I printed the spreadsheet that it all appeared on, came to three A3 sheets of paper!

At some stage, I needed to get in and actually drive the car!

The Lexus NX 350 F Sport was the car I’d started the journey thinking “this is the one”. I ended up back at that point, when it looked like at one stage, that I was considering much farther, and wider, in terms of cost, manufacturer and features.

Then, when I took the car for a drive, I was not just underwhelmed, I was disappointed.

There were 3 things that stood out in a 15 minute test drive that said to me, straight away, this isn’t the car for me.

1. The road noise inside the cabin was much louder than I expected, and certainly not what I would have envisaged being representative of a $90K plus car.
2. The low down torque required to get the car off the line, from a standing start, or on a freeway merge, seemed to be completely lacking.
3. On a hot February day, the climate control simply struggled. That was possibly to do with the panoramic sunroof that might look good on paper, but simply lets too much radiant heat into the cabin.

You can’t know any of that, sitting in the car, inside the showroom, when the motor is off, and the dealer representative is in your ear, pointing out the features of the vehicle.

The same applies for staff, when you onboard them. All the best prepared resumes in the world, and the “on my best behaviour” interviews that a candidate partakes in, counts for nothing, when the rubber hits the road, and those employees are on the shop floor, or in the new office.

A number of family business owners that I know and work with, engage in a “test drive” strategy for some new staff. One owner, in particular, asks people to trial their employment for a week or two, on full blown casual wages, just to see whether the performance matches the promise.

Another family business owner generally knows inside of 72 hours, but most certainly inside a week, whether someone will work out, and therefore, are worth pursuing as an employee.

Another one, still, adopts this strategy, when potential staff have their hand out for more money than what the position generally entails. In that situation, someone who was demanding 30% above the standard hourly rate, couldn’t actually perform a basic function of the role, even though they had a two decade plus career in the field.

None of this would have been found out, if the test drive hadn’t have occurred.

Now, whilst I accept that there might be some people out there, that suggest these practises exploit workers, I’d fight strongly against it on two grounds:

1. The potential employee is paid over the odds, to demonstrate their skills, in a trial situation; and,
2. The workplace laws in this country, are so tough and, I would argue, so against the employer, that small and family business owners can be (and I’ve seen on many an occasion, have been) hamstrung by employees who have overpromised and underdelivered, to the point where they are a drain on the business, once employed.

The employment market is changing. I don’t believe the unemployment numbers are correct. In fact, I’m of the belief that they’re sitting higher than what the ABS official results state, based on what I’m hearing, amongst my clients. Perhaps, test drives, are the best way to determine whether or not the person who says they’re right for our business, is actually that person.

This Week’s Tip

“Why do I believe the unemployment numbers aren’t correct?
Almost every business owner at the moment is indicating that any position advertised has a
higher response rate, and a higher quality of response, than 12 months ago.”