Realistic Job Previews let candidates know the  job they are entering into may not be ideal for everyone.  For instance if you are hiring for an assembly line position, you don’t want to talk about the benefits of community if the job is spent sitting in isolation.  Similarly if you’re hiring for a sales position, you want incoming applicants to know that it takes a lot of networking and phone calls to do the job properly (as a self-confessed introvert, that’s enough to keep me away from the position!)

And that’s really the goal.  Realistic Job Previews want to “weed out” applicants who aren’t a good fit for the position.  It doesn’t do anyone any good to find out after 6 weeks that the position isn’t right.  The company loses money on hiring costs, training, and lost productivity.  While the employee spends 6 weeks in a position that they despise.

Sometimes though, we look at Realistic Job Previews as being “negative”.  That somehow we are scaring away our best candidates by being honest about the work.  But that’s exactly the opposite of what’s happening.  Employees are only “the best” if they fit with the job.  Someone who is destined to be a rocket scientist would never be happy cleaning bathrooms.  While someone who loved the idea of working on a predictable assembly line would not enjoy the chaos of being an Emergency Room doctor.

To be great employees our passions need to line up with the job.

This is why here, at Meaning To Work, we stress the importance of  identify the meaning in our lives before we come to a job.  As I’ve said before, no job brings meaning to someone.  They can only bring meaning to their work.  And if you have someone who despises sales calls, they will never be a great salesperson.

With that said, there are three things you can do to improve the results of Realistic Job Previews within your company.

1. Give your Realistic Job Preview orally - spoken RJP’s work more effectively than written ones
2. Give your Realistic Job Preview at the time of the offer – if you wait until after they accept it’s too late (the expectations for the job have already been set).  If you do it too soon, people may make up their minds before they have all the information.
3. Include the possibilities of career advancement – if there isn’t advancement let them know.  If there is, people want to know that as well.

Realistic Job Previews can make a difference in your organization.  After all, do you want to simply have a body in the job?  Or do you want to have a motivated employee contributing to the company?

photo provided by flickr

related information: a TSA video designed to be shown to potential candidates