Recently, I have noticed more and more businesses are pigeon-holing people based on skill or one required task. Its not just corporate cultures who are doing this, I have seen more and more smaller firms hire people based alone on one skill set. It is becoming more prominent in China as businesses try to streamline processes and increase efficiency as labour costs increase as the China market matures especially in Tier 1 cities. However, this is going to come to haunt businesses as they head towards Chinese New Year, a time when people go home with family and think about the year ahead. Many employees who work for businesses that have started pigeon-holing people will look for new employers that provide more challenges and opportunities to grow.
Providing challenges and the opportunity to grow with your company is going to start to outweigh your company’s reputation and the location of your headquarters. Too often in China people look for the perfect person for the position they have open and assess each candidate on whether they are right for the position – usually this involves a check-list,  which is really another form of pigeon holing.  This method of recruiting just emphasizes the rigidity of the culture and therefore the company will miss out on people who can contribute in multiple areas of the company. The person might not have all the skills that you want for the position but may have a wider understanding of the industry or clients or suppliers, etc. Of course, attitude, passion and past positions are other attributes that you need to take into account when searching for the right candidate.
How is pigeon-holing a recipe for churn? Creating a culture where people are pigeon-holed into one or two tasks may create task efficiency but it will also create churn as employees lack challenges and a pathway through the company. It goes back to the hiring process, when you look to employ people don’t use a checklist, look at their wider skill set and immediately determine how they could progress in your company and what areas they could contribute to your business. Providing challenges and a pathway to grow is a great way to retain people, but you need to effectively communicate this to each employee and not just at their annual evaluation. Â Always remember, the people who have a wider skill set, (which shows a willingness to learn and change) are better long term employees as they can grow within the company over longer periods of time thus reducing your churn rate and hiring costs.
SIDENOTE: This is does not only apply to creative or white collar businesses it also applies to production lines or other singular task work environments. People doing one task all day may create efficiency but people are not robots and in the long term can have a psychological impact as we have seen this year occur in the manufacturing sector.