A lesson for HR on being human
Written by Verne on November 26th, 2007Note: The following is a rant. And if you’ve caught on to anything about me on this site, you’ll know that it’s not about me. But let’s call it an after-thought to something that I have had experience with, and have recently been reminded of. Lastly, remember that just because it’s a rant, it doesn’t mean there isn’t an important message that comes with it.
Being a new graduate, most of the people I surround myself with have either recently gone through the job hunt or are currently involved in the process. And it’s definitely a grueling one, to say the least - resumes and cover letters flying out of holsters and networking events filling up your calendar, leaving you just enough energy to smile and keep a firm handshake as you make your valuable first impressions.
Getting the interview used to be half the worries. You’d get the phone call or email and half of you would jump for joy while the other half faints out of panic as you try to pick the best time slot (the whole primary vs. recency effect thing). You’d prep your ass off on situational questions and you’d walk into your interview with that same smile and firm handshake. On your way out, you may or may not still be holding that smile, but even if you did, you’re still going to meet that other half of the worries as you wait for the verdict. And if you thought that was tough, think again.
Most modern corporations today are moving towards multi-round interviews. That’s right, so you can expect to have everything described above done up to 3 times - if you’re lucky to get past each subsequent round. Standard procedure usually begins with a phone interview. If you make the cut, you’re granted the opportunity to visit the office and have a face-to-face interview with a panel of scary people. If you make that short list, then you’re invited back once again to write a case and do a presentation (or in some cases, a simulation of some sort). Following that, you may be grilled again in another interview.
No matter how many questions you ask in a single 30-minute interview, you’re always taking a bit of a risk when you decide to invite that individual to join your team. The truth is, you can’t learn everything about a person in 30 minutes. And that’s why doing these multi-round interviews make sense. It throws the candidate into different stress environments and lets you see them under different lights. Many aspects, like the case competition or simulation demonstrate the candidate’s ability to think on their feet, giving you a glimpse of how they’d survive if they were to be tossed into the fast-paced environment that is your company culture. It’s a great way to really judge the adequacy of your candidates and put their loyalty to the test.
And now jump onto the other side of the desk for a moment and consider this: after the stressful, grueling, and torturous month of tests, interviews, and other superhuman tasks a candidate has done to try to prove that they are worthy of your company’s acceptance, how do you think it makes your company look when after all’s been said and done, you send them a generic and impersonal email that says “after careful review of your qualifications, we have chosen to pursue other candidates at this time”? Firstly, like crap. But secondly, and most importantly, like they wasted a month of sleepless nights on a company that doesn’t care enough about their people to give them a personal call to tell them that they didn’t make the cut.
Here’s the lesson (and sorry it took so long to get here): take care of your people, even those you don’t hire. Because if you don’t, sooner or later, you won’t have people to hire anymore. They say a negative impression spreads ten times faster than a positive one, so for your own sake, tie up those loose ends.
Be human, and most importantly, remember that your candidates are all human as well. Yes, even those you don’t hire.
/rant.
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