Aug 04

Lazy hiring practices

Business Management, unemployment No Comments »

A couple of months ago, I posted about ‘The art of hiring’, and made a claim that this traditional art was essentially dead, however, it may be better described as ‘sacrificed at the altar of digital automation’. The great server in the clouds is now taking over and doing the work that most HR professionals used to do. If you don’t have the perfect combination of string words, tags, meta-tags, or categories, the computer matrix will just spit your application out. No longer do you get to rely on creativity, the ability to connect, or heaven forbid (especially as a sales person) sell yourself.

I understand that these engines are created to give companies with job opportunities, a way to reach a much broader audience. I also understand that these engines give the job seeker a portal to jobs that they might not ever see, or know about. These can be very positive things. My contention is that I believe that it has become easy for HR professionals to rely on the tool to do their work for them, and therefore miss out on opportunities that a more traditional approach might have brought them.

The position that I applied for was formatted in one of these portals and I met all of the required criteria according to what was listed in the description. So, as promised in my post, I said that I would update this blog with any results of the application process. I didn’t get a call…or an email. Or even a cold, impersonal form letter. Nothing. Nada. Zip. In the process, I went from being interested in the position, to being glad I didn’t know who the company was. It would have been very disappointing if they were a company that I already knew about and respected.

If this company ever happens to read this post (grin), here are some suggestions:

  1. Treat your future employees like you would want to be treated in the hiring process
  2. Use the technology, but don’t rely on the technology
  3. Always, make contact with your ‘customers’. Allow them to interact with you, even if it takes some time.
  4. If you are ashamed to hide your name, you may have a problem with your product.
  5. Practice good business. The market will not always be an employer’s market. Eventually, you may have to work hard to get anyone to consider you.

I hope the job was a good fit for whoever made it through their electronic gauntlet. What about you? What is your experience with today’s hiring process?

Tagged with: • • • •
May 20

What happened to the art of hiring?

Business Management, unemployment 1 Comment »

A couple of days ago, I got a note from a friend, who gave me a link to an important looking job, and one that I have the experience to jump into. However, it was linked to one of the monolithic job search engines. As I read this description, my first response was to jump through the hoops, slave myself to their procedures and try to see if I could actually get a real person, who wasn’t reading from a script, to call me. Here is an excerpt of the job description:

istockphoto.com

Vice President of Sales and Marketing
Established mid-sized company in the packaging/marketing services industry is seeking an experienced V.P. of Sales and Marketing. Qualified candidate must have a history of success at achieving revenue & margin growth by leading a sales team in selling solutions to senior management in a competitive B-to-B environment. We recently made a significant investment … We are looking for a strategic and results driven person to join our management team and play a key role in achieving our growth goals of becoming an industry leader …. To meet this goal, we need to build a sales team with strong process and consultative sales skills. We expect the ideal candidate to motivate, coach and hold sales team accountable to new business results, while growing existing business. This position will lead and manage activities and results for the departments of Sales, Marketing, Customer Service and Estimating.

Essential Duties:

  • Communicating job expectations; planning, monitoring and appraising job results.  Sales coaching, counsel and disciplining employees. Initiating, coordinating and enforcing systems, policies and procedures.  Provide accurate, complete, and timely submission of required progress reports, forecast quotations, budgets and rates. Develop action plans; measuring and analyzing results and initiating corrective actions. Ensure service excellence by establishing and enforcing process and standards for every client interface. Lead the team effort and create a team based culture. Promoting and encouraging professional development within their reporting departments.  Responsible for understanding and committing to carrying out the company’s Quality Policy and Quality Objectives.

This sounds like an important position and something that is mission critical for the employer. It would seem that this company wants a Linchpin, a rain-maker, and certainly a leader that inspires/builds the team to new heights. Unfortunately, they treated this description just like they were looking for a run of the mill, line worker. A cog in the system.

Memo to employers:

If you want the kind of senior leader, who must drive your organization, lead, inspire and be creative, please consider the following the following ideas.

  1. Do not force your creative leaders to have to become a commodity in the search engine black hole.
  2. If you want the candidate to commit to your company, have the courtesy to give your name before deciding to date. This description is so sanitized; it makes me wonder what you are hiding.
  3. Don’t waste time, for either side.
  4. Review the cookie-cutter language before you post the job description. These words are not attractive to sales/marketing creatives…hold, monitor, discipline, enforce, correct, and commit to objectives that are not collaborative. Necessary yes, but give me something to really get excited about.
  5. Great jobs, the ones that sales executives kill for, do not force you to email in a resume. Resumes give employers everything you need to reject candidates, rather than allowing you to really find the right person to sit on your bus. If you want a professional resume writer (or liar), that is what you will get. If you want a mentor, coach, persuader, creator, builder and game changer, have the candidate sell himself using what they are best at…and what you must have leading this battle plan.

When you are hiring a key position like sales/marketing/business development, this person is ‘not an errand boy’, or ‘someone who will merely go down a checklist’. This job must ‘innovate, create new opportunities, connect with hard-to-reach people, and build success’. (Seth Godin, Linchpin)

I am going to do an experiment with this job and see if I can find a way to standout just enough to get through to a real person, who understands the creativity that it takes to make things happen.

“The competitive advantage that the marketplace demands is someone more human, connected, and mature; someone with passion and energy, capable of seeing things as they are and negotiating multiple priorities … flexible in the face of change, resilient in the face of confusion”. – Seth Godin, Linchpin

What good/bad experiences have you had with the job search?

Tagged with: • • •
Mar 31

A tale of three jobs

Business Management, Life, unemployment No Comments »

Recently, I had the chance to interview ‘Joe’, who is one of the millions of Americans who have experienced unemployment in one of the worst recessions since the Great Depression. As we talked, he offered up a great case study for employers and human resources professionals, and prospective employees. Here are some observations from Joe’s experience from the past two years.

istockphoto.com

Joe was an executive in a mid size company when his new boss sat down with him after nine months  of supervising him and told Joe to resign. It wasn’t a performance issue according to the boss, but rather a ‘compatibility’ issue. Resign next week and the company would cover the gap with salary, company car, equipment and insurance during the search.

Joe hit the job hunt trail and within three months had a job opportunity. The company rolled out the red carpet. They said that they needed fresh blood, fresh ideas and were offering a future executive post. Joe asked very specific questions about direction, fit, expectations and culture (was it micromanagement?). He heard the answers he wanted to hear and not knowing any difference, signed up. Seven months later Joe had the pink slip meeting with a severance package; similar reasons…great performance, relationships, production, but not the ‘right fit’.

Though discouraged, Joe spent time trying to understand how great performance was still forcing him to leave companies. Joe launched into his second job search in twelve months, and three months later had three job offers. Wondering if the corporate environment was the wrong ‘fit’, he took a job with a start-up company.  Initially, the job had great flexibility and a seemingly bright future. Three or four months into the job, everything began to be micromanaged. Eleven months after being hired, Joe was handed his third pink slip. Again, job performance was not the issue. This time it was cash flow.

Joe and I talked about each of these scenarios and out of that discussion, made the following observations for employers and prospective employees to consider:

  1. It all starts at the hiring process. Learn how to interview, from both sides of the desk. Ask questions and don’t be afraid to search for answers.
  2. Take some time to understand personalities. Profile testing can be an extremely valuable tool to help get the right fit.
  3. Be honest. Either side can tell the other person what they want to hear in order to close the deal. In the long run, it may backfire.
  4. The layoff/discharge process can be very productive for the employee if they have tangible ideas to improve themselves. This doesn’t mean laying out specific negative performance (if any), but offering specific ideas for improvement. ‘Just doesn’t fit’ isn’t very productive and doesn’t help either side avoid the same things in the future.
  5. Communicate. In Joe’s case, he asked lots of questions, but the employers, in some cases, didn’t understand themselves well enough to share honestly, or simply weren’t willing to do so.
  6. Don’t offer weak reasons for discharge. If you can’t legally put it in writing, at least spend a few minutes talking it through. It is totally unproductive without at least hearing the reasons.
  7. Honor you commitments. If you agree to something (severance), follow through.

What has your experience been? Have you had to face some of these same issues?

Tagged with: • • •
preload preload preload