Remember, Jon and Kate Plus 8, the reality TV show with the lady that had sextuplets, on top of already having twins?  Kate Gosselin was back in the media eye again recently as a participant on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.  She made the news because no one recognized her! In a good way. From the story on Xfinity:

If you tuned into Celebrity Apprentice this past season and didn’t immediately recognize Kate Gosselin, you weren’t alone.

But the reality-TV star, who first burst into our collective consciousness when Jon & Kate Plus 8 premiered in 2007, has a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why she somehow looks younger now, at 39, than she did when her TLC run was just beginning.

“I think when the world met me I was three days post having sextuplets, so the only place you can get from that point is younger,” she told E! News on the live  Celebrity Apprentice finale red carpet last night when asked about her seeming physical transformation.

“So It was really just eye-trickery, I think,” Gosselin continued. “You guys saw me at my worst first, and then I just kind of reversed in front of your eyes. It was nothing amazing, it was just, when you met me, who was that person?”

What does this have to do with your turnover?

You don’t allow candidates to ever see you at your worse, ever.  Then, you’re shocked when they leave because they couldn’t handle your worse.

Now, I’m not telling you to completely go crazy and show all your dirty laundry to every potential candidate.  Certain companies can really learn something from this. It’s the companies that have absolutely awful turnover, especially compared to your industry norm, and can’t seem to figure out how to fix it.

It’s, also, those companies that seem to try and hide their dirty laundry the most when they’re interviewing potential hires!  I get it.  You have unstoppable turnover, you need more bodies, you have a bad reputation in the market, and you want to show everyone you’re trying to change it.  The problem is, people then have a false hope as compared to the reality you make them step into.

Show them the ugly Kate, and eventually the beautiful Kate might come through, and they’ll love you even more. (see how I brought that full circle?! I’m a pro.)

The only way to fix really bad turnover is to hire people who don’t mind your worst side.  Those people will stay around and actually appreciate your growth to a better environment.  If you try and talk a candidate out of the job because they can’t handle it, and you show them how bad it actually is, and they keep coming back and wanting in, you probably need to give them a shot!

We try and do the opposite. “Let’s hire people who worked at great companies, with great environments, and they’ll help us get to that!”  No they won’t.  They’ll fail.  People who come from great companies, buckle when presented with horrible environments.  You need to find people who like your worst. Those people will make it.

The way to stop turnover is to get fully staffed. Sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not. Get staffed with people who will stick around. Then work on upgrading, little by little. Quality doesn’t help awful turnover. People willing to get dirty, help awful turnover.