“I guess I have my receptionist and a lower level supervisor making those decisions,” Byron replied. We were talking about how resumes were initially reviewed from a job posting.
“So, what could you do differently to get a different result?” I asked.
“But, I don’t want to waste the time of my hiring manager,” Byron protested.
“Let me get this straight. The open position is for a high level supervisor with a Time Span around nine months? This position reports to a manager who reports to you?” Byron nodded his head affirmative.
“You are right,” I continued. “I don’t want to waste the time of your hiring manager. Your hiring manager will have difficulty making this hire anyway.”
“What do you mean? Ron is the hiring manager,” Byron replied, still backpedaling.
“Yes, but Ron gave you these three resumes, right?” Byron nodded again. “How would you rate capability for these three candidates?”
“Well, they are clearly unqualified for the position. They are barely supervisor material, more like team leaders. Their Time Span is nowhere near nine months.”
“So, why did Ron pick these people over other candidates?”
“You are right, he did say these people were the only ones within our budget.” Byron’s face betrayed puzzlement. He suddenly no longer believed Ron’s reason. “But, the pay bands for this position were clearly above the salary requirements for these three candidates.”
I allowed a few quiet seconds before I picked up the next step. “Let’s get Ron in here and see if we can shed some light on what is happening. Remember, I am looking to determine who the best person is to drive these resumes.” -TF
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Tom, good point here. In todays market, we don’t want to lose potentiale candidates because of an mismatch in understanding the job description, or the hiring organisation of the company.
Certainly for candidates with experience and specific knowledge the general recruitment guidelines aren’t enough. The question is: “What is a good recruitment strategy for my company?”
I’m really enjoying this series (I like all of your postings related to hiring). As a former hiring manager, I was always frustrated when there was some sort of layer between me and the resumes that come in. Typically, though, it was HR weeding out the ones they felt didn’t pass muster. Unfortunately, in trying to save me a few minutes they ended up wasting hours.
As well intended as HR is, their function is to help, yet often, HR does not have the technical expertise, nor a proper evaluation of Time Span to help. So often they get in the way.