Tolerance Stack up and Recruitment

Let us say 100 precision engineered components when assembled together will make a fully functional car. On each of the 100 components, a maximum error margin of 0.5% (half a percent) is permitted. Let us also say that we have used the maximum allowed leeway for error on each of the 100 parts. How faulty will the finally assembled car be, when made out of these 100 parts, each of them having an error of 0.5%?

Whatever the arithmetical answer to this question may be, we are told, in reality, the motor car will be at least 78% faulty. Quality guru Phil Crosby calls this the Tolerance Stack-up. The errors from the initial parts of the assembly slowly add up in the subsequent parts of the assembly, and the permitted tolerances are exceeded because of this “stack-up” of tolerances. If the chassis is crooked, all that you mount on it will simply add to the errors.

The cost of training/correcting an employee to make him/her a “good fit” is anywhere between 6 to 10 times the cost of recruiting a “good fit”. This is a great example of Crosby’s Tolerance Stack-Up at play. When a candidate is in for an interview, the Senior Managers are all busy, or have been “called away”. It is a pity that Senior Managers think that there can be anything in their jobs that is more important than recruiting. 

Look at 3 major personal benefits for the Senior Manager who participates in recruitments:

1.     A Talent Scout for life: Successful international cricketers mention their first coaches with pride and gratitude, for spotting them when they were very young. This makes for an endorsement that virtually launches an unknown small-town coach on a huge second career. On the day one becomes a people manager, you have also become a Talent Scout for life. When the talent you spotted becomes big, you become big as well.

2.     Your LQ soars: When people you chose are the right fit for your company, and they win laurels all around, your Leadership Quotient (LQ) goes up. If leadership is all about followership, you now have a long queue of followers waiting to sign up under you. When asked to take on a critical project or role, you will never be short of the right talent. You only have to ask, and they are ready to work for you.

3.     ‘The Observer Becomes The Observed’: This is a philosophical maxim from Jiddu Krishnamurthy. They notice that you are observing people around you all the time, to pick rare talents. When the talents you chose do well, you become the ‘observed’ for having such an uncanny knack to choose the right person, every single time. They will also envy you for being so popular and respected amongst your recruits.

Recruitment is the first component on the list of many things that go towards making an engaged and energized employee. When this first component is faulty, Tolerance Stack-Up ensures that the errors from the subsequent components add up dangerously, to make for a skewed end product. We have heard a lot about how recruiting the right person is good for the organization. It sure is. How many managers know and realize that the benefit of recruiting and/or helping to recruit a superstar into the organization has professional benefits for the Senior Manager as a person?

Managers merely hire resources. It takes a leader to recruit good people