Post by Gustavo Rocha, lawyer and consultant in management, IT and quality for law firms. He’s the author of Gestão.Adv.br (content in Portuguese only):

“I am not an expert on Brazil but I’m entitled to say one thing: cheap labour is no longer an advantage.” (Peter Drucker)

May be the quote from Drucker might answer to the title question, but some employers (lawyers, partners, directors and managers as well) do not share this point of view. Why is that? I could understand their disagreement, given that finances talk louder.Why should I hire any lawyer on an attractive wage when I could pay peanuts, given the few jobs and big search on the present market?

The answer seems straight forward: less pay, less cost, more gain.

It doesn’t work like that, though.

When hiring someone we’re trusting them with a job, an activity, a sector. They’ll spend weeks and months training (even while doing their job, they’re adapting to internal routines, other people, procedures, etc) and by the time they’re ripe to do the job, they like to prospect some sort of growth.

Growth, yes. Who wants to keep on doing the same thing for years on end?

Some might say: when I hire a receptionist, I want her to be always a receptionist. Right, but it depends, I might add. If you run a small business, that receptionist will help with the documents, supplies, answering the phone and lots more. In time she could- and should- get the chance of performing some other job. Then, instead of just hiring a new employee, the firm will actually hire a new receptionist, thus transferring the former to the new position.

Just think this through, cheap does come costly.

If you don´t invest in a career plan adequate to your reality and add to it goals and structural investments, this might sentence the end of your business.

It’s the people who make the companies. This has to be the point of view.

Hire people on a 3 month trial. After that time reassess their performance and give them a raise, if you find them worth it. First get to know people, then invest on them.

If hiring for a partner position or any like that, let them know that they’ll be assessed within 6 months. Just set a deadline and keep it. Telling an employee that there’s going to be an evaluation to renegotiate the pay and just “forget” about it, is worse than saying nothing at all.

Remember that when you create expectation, you either create joy or frustration.

Invest in your business. Invest in people!