Very good piece. It really puts all the responsibility on the employer as it should be. See, if you do your job of getting people good for your environment, it doesn't matter whether their output is 1 or 100--the cost of integrating them is proportionate. For example if u have an intern with output 1 who fits your environment and the cost is .1 and another whose output is .25 and the cost is 5, ie to train them, you have a problem. It doesn't matter the output. It matters how frictionlessly they can join your company and not cause problems. And that is all up to u to forecast. I contract out all of the world all the time to developers of varying skill levels, motivation levels and personalities. It's up to me to match the right task to the right developer. And I don't need everyone to have 100 productivity or even have many available work hours.
The most important bit for me is not to treat people as 'disposables'. The ease with which people get hired and fired really does not sit well with me. Employers are way too quick to hire people rather than to do a serious vetting up front. Spending real time on a hire is definitely worth it and once you've narrowed it down to a shortlist it's perfectly ok to spend half a day or more with a prospective hire in order to make sure they are who you need and that the fit is right, that you're not hiring a fish for a tree climbing job.
But once you've pulled the trigger on that the responsibilities run both ways. Employers are quick to expect loyalty but are loathe to display loyalty in return. This can be vastly improved upon.
The best way to judge the health of a company is a single number: employee turnover as a fraction of the total company size.
