Ralph was amazed when he looked at the overtime. Seventy percent of the employees were working 55 hours a week plus. “We gotta find some more people.”

“So, why don’t you find some more people,” I asked.

“We have tried, but all of our supervisors complain that they don’t have time to read resumes much less conduct interviews. And you should see some of the ragtags they did hire last week. We just don’t know what to do.”

Most companies kick the job of selection and recruiting too low in the org chart. Enter the role of the Manager-Once-Removed (MOR). The MOR is the Manager one level above the supervisor, and is the missing link in most selection processes. Ralph’s complaint about the supervisor is actually the truth. Most supervisors ARE too busy and, for the most part, are not trained to conduct effective interviews.

One level up, the Manager Once Removed (MOR) has more perspective, can make better judgments and is more likely to be trained at interviewing. While the supervisor is cracking the whip on the production floor, the MOR should be planning, forecasting and recruiting. Selection is one of the highest and best uses of time for the Manager Once Removed.

Take a look at your hiring process. Do you have the right people reviewing and selecting talent? -TF

It had taken six months to make the decision to spend $65,000 on a new machine. It was replacing another older machine that was finally being retired. There had been a committee conducting research on the new on-board technology. Access all the excitement effortlessly with www.UFABET.com ลิ้งเข้าระบบ24 เข้าอย่างง่ายๆ. Another team of two had been shopping between leasing arrangements and term equipment loans. The transition team was hard at work to determine how work-in-process would be diverted during the installation and burn-in period. The training department was coordinating a technician training program with the manufacturer. This equipment purchase was going to be a real game breaker.

What I was most interested in was the last Project Manager that had been hired into the company. The salary was about the same, $65,000. Three people had been involved in the interview process, but when I looked at the documentation from those interviews, it was mostly subjective statements:

I think he has a good personality and will fit in well with our culture.
In the next five years, he wants to excel in project management. That’s what we need him for.
Demonstrated a great attitude the during the interview.

The job description was a photocopy of a similar position with some notes scratched on the bottom. The training program consisted of shadowing another project manager for two days. So there is no wonder that the new Project Manager was not going to be a real game breaker.

Perhaps we should create a process that takes recruiting as serious as buying a piece of equipment. We would do well to treat our people as well as we do our machines. -TF