Business is not without its share of problems. The problems span the benign to those that are malignant, metastasized and on the verge of killing your business. Sometimes the solution to a complex problem is not readily available. In the interim, you ruminate over the potential outcomes and possible solutions. In the heat of the ruminating you deduct that the issue at hand is one that needs a complex answer. You then turn to some lofty methodology to solve said problem.
You’re probably saying what’s wrong with this? Surely, a some methodology will get rid of this problem indefinitely. Wrong!
Let’s take Six Sigma for instance, it is a methodolgy born out of the manufacturing industry and conceived to put an end to defects as a result of faulty processes; therefore reducing the variability of outputs. It sounds wonderful and I’m sure we can thank this methodology everytime we drive our cars or operate any machinery without injury or faulty output. However, since when did the “people” business of HR need a manufacturing methodology to tell them whether a process is ill-conceived or whether or not we are delivering a true value proposition to our customers?
The truth is we know very well what the myriad of issues are and how to solve them. Instead, we use “Methodology Interruptus” as a front to seem like we are doing something lofty, complex and even smart, but really we had the answer to the issue all along. While the methodolgy is interrupting us from using our brains and working the problem we are spending a ridiculous amount of man hours charting, evaluating grids, calculating statistics all to tell us what we already knew- Houston we have a problem!
The question we need to be asking ourselves is what is the solution? What is the simple solution? If there is anything we get flack from our stakeholders for it is fast-track decision making and a reluctance to provide a simple but intelligent solutions. Solutions is what we are supposed to be good at. You know where the business continues on another day and the employee and customer are thriving and happy. I have news for everyone “people are not robots (at least not yet)”. As such, I don’t think you need any flippin six sigma, lean or other methodology to figure out what’s wrong with the “people” side of business.
The long and short of it is get your head out of the weeds or the clouds depending on where you sit and observe, listen, watch, probe. You may be shocked to find that the answers to your most complex issues are right in front of your face. The people are your solution. The business begins with the people and it will surely end at the hands of people.
HR let’s get back to basics and stop getting fancy. Boycott “Methodology Interruptus” the next time you see it in your organization.
If I had a dollar for every time I had a jobseeker tell me “well I thought I was qualified”- I would be an immensely rich woman and therefore would not be writing articles on the world of HR in my spare time but I digress. There is a sentiment among some jobseekers that you should apply to everything you “think” you are qualified for. On one hand this is true as I constantly encourage candidates that have not had the privileged of being scooped up by my company to keep an eye on our career website and apply to what they “think” they are qualified for. I may be misleading these candidates because what they “think” they are qualified to do and what they are actually qualified to do may differ.
For instance, I may think that with my aptitude to learn new things, some training and a few advanced classes in Microsoft Excel that I could be an accountant. The reality is I am a HR professional by trade with a degree in Psychology. While I may be extremely intelligent and have “fire in my belly” to do whatever I put my mind to-I am not; nor will I ever be qualified in the mind of a recruiter or hiring manager to be an accountant.
The fact is when a company posts a position and there are “minimum requirements” listed. You need to meet all of the minimum requirements. The minimum requirements in a job posting are usually non-negotiable. Conversely, the “preferred requirements” are such that they would make you all the more attractive as an applicant but they are not a necessity.
Unfortunately for jobseekers, the time when employers hired for attitude and trained ready and willing people is a thing of the past in most sectors. Employers for the most part are looking for candidates to come in and hit the ground running with minimal training and/or downtime. That means you cannot merely “think” you can do the job with reasonable assistance; you must be qualified to do it. Whether or not you are indeed qualified will be defined by individual companies. However, jobseekers should know that their knowledge, skills and abilities or (KSA’s as we call it in HR) should be the focal point of their resume and it should reasonably match the requirements of the position for you to move on to be reviewed by the hiring manager.
Here are some tips on assessing your qualifications when applying to a job:
1) Read the job description carefully. Don’t skim through job description and serial apply to jobs. If you read the job description you should be able to discern whether or not you would be qualified to do the job.
2) Be reasonable. If you have worked as a cashier at Stop & Shop for the past three years and are pursuing a degree in Anthropological Studies with a concentration in Middle Eastern History do not apply to a Comptroller position. At every level in an organization, there are required KSA’s and competencies as well as mandatory on-the-job experience you must have to move up the ladder. Creep before you walk.
3) Make sure you meet the minimum qualifications. Some companies will be a little flexible on these. The threshold you should use is 80%. If you meet 80% of the qualifications requested in a posting- apply to it. The worst that could happen is your application will be rejected. The best case scenario is the recruiter has the ability to be flexible on certain qualifications and you get through.
4) Attitude and Aptitude are two different concepts. While many will agree that sometimes it’s better to hire someone with a positive attitude than someone with a negative attitude and a degree from Harvard- you need to pay attention to whether the company has specifically stated that they are willing to train. Just because you are bubbly and pleasant does not mean that you have the qualifications to do the job- it just means you’re nice.
5) If you don’t immediately feel confident that you could perform the duties of a position without extensive training you probably are not qualified to do the job. Don’t let anxiety about being unemployed and/or your ambitions to land a job cloud your ability to make informed decisions about your career.
My first job out of college was in staffing. I was so excited and proud of myself that I was able to land something in my field. I attended every seminar and workshop there was in my college career center to prepare me for this job.
I should have known from the all day boot camp, I mean all day peer interview-that I was signing up for something outlandish. Anyhow, love my alma mater, but they did not and could not prepare for the nonsense I encountered at this company.
There were many reasons why this experience was a nightmare, but this one incident sticks out. I worked with a group of people that had their own little clique. It was a creepy clique-in that the way they interacted with one another was highly inappropriate. When I say “highly inappropriate” I’m not being lame or a prude. They were all kinds of “touchy feely” with one another-quite nasty.
The “terrible threesome” (no pun intended) is what I called them in my head. Here I was fresh out of college trying to gain experience in HR and make a name for myself and their only concern was to initiate me into their little threesome. One day, I was walking down one of the corridors to my cube and one of the women from the “crew” slaps me with all her might on my behind and says what’s up girlie? and winks” I was shocked at first and then I got angry. I have to be honest it took everything in me not to knock her on her behind-but I digress. Instead, I put my HR hat on and tried to recall the by the book protocol I learned in school and my internship regarding the resolution of these issues.
I confided in my mentor at the time and she fully backed me in escalating the issue. Here’s where the dummy in the story reveals himself. I went to my immediate boss to make a complaint regarding my co-worker swatting me on the behind. When I finished telling him the story , he says “Suzy” did that? I don’t believe it! I’m sure she didn’t mean to do that. Maybe you should speak to her about it. I’m sure she would apologize. I think you are taking this out of context.” I let him know that she was purposeful in the way that she swatted me on the behind and I want this escalated and rectified.
He claimed to have discussed it with the Director of Business Operations. The kicker is nothing was ever done and I was never notified of the outcome of this “alleged” invesitigation.
In hindsight there is so much more I could have done to rectify this, but I was “wet behind the ears” and didn’t know as much as I do now about my rights.
Some thoughts on this experience:
1) It is never cool for a supervisor or employee relations professional to inject their own feelings into an investigation.
2) Employees have a right to have their complaints acknowledged and resolved no matter how trivial it may seem to the employer.
3) No one has the right to invade your personal space. It’s easier said than done, but do not be intimidated by people if you are uncomfortable in your work environment.
4) HR usually is the place you go to rectify these situations. However, if you should have the same luck I have had in these situations- do escalate until there is a resolution. Sometimes when reflecting on that time, I regret not sticking it to them.
5) Lastly, company culture is extremely important to your success and well-being. Examine, research, observe and probe interviewers during the screening and interview process about the culture of the company.
They probably won’t be upfront and tell you that they are running a makeshift harem during the work day, but you can use your common sense and gut to make informed and intelligent decisions about whether a company is right for you.
In a previous life I worked for an organization that managed outsourced emergency departments and hospitalist services for hospitals nationally. Our accounts were in extremely difficult markets which meant that every physician we had the honor of hiring was priceless.
You would think that the variables of difficult markets and rare findings of board certified emergency management physicians would make a company do all it could to retain their employees-not so much.
My last year there we were losing key accounts left and right – the first red flag. Every recruitment/marketing effort I made was met with calls of angry vendors saying they were never paid for previous ad placements and marketing-yet another red flag. To top it off I am on-call one day where I receive yet another angry phone call from a hollering physician who was getting ready to go on vacation and did not receive his paycheck- the red flag to bring clarity to the rest. Here I am little ol’ physician recruiter doing my duty as on-call supervisor for the weekend and I have to find out why this man hasn’t been paid and get him his money before he leaves for Europe.
When I called my superiors and explained that this physician was highly upset and screaming over the phone- I was told the following: “We paid Hospital “X” on time last month- now we have to rotate it and pay another hospital on time. Dr. Smith should stop whining. I’ll call him!”
When I heard this my head was spinning. The dr. was wired his check as a result of his hollering, but I thought to myself; why should any hard-working employee have to “holla for a dollar”?
This man was a pain in the you know what, but that was neither here nor there. He showed up, did his work and now was relying upon this money to take his family to Europe. Why shouldn’t he be paid on time?
For several months following this incident, we continued to rotate the pecking order for who would get paid on time. It resulted in a lot of hollering and discontent among our staff. Morale among the physicians was on a rapid decline and as a result we started to lose some of them. More importantly, it made my job as a recruiter extremely difficult. I don’t have to tell you all how quickly bad pr travels in a niche market.
Here are some takeaways from this experience:
1) Companies: The partnership between you and your employees is as such: they provide a service and you pay them for said service. PAY your employees for God’s sake!
2) Employees: When you work for a company where you see these kind of shenanigans going on- run for the hills! You don’t have to be the CFO or Comptroller to know the end is near.
3) The executives in your company should not be vacationing in Bora Bora and driving high end cars and you can’t afford to pay for ads and marketing; let alone pay your employees. Something is wrong with this picture.
4) If the service you provide is one in a niche market, please know that there are four or more companies behind you to take your business. That said you need to be on point and if your expenses are exceeding your profit it may be time to cut back. Just saying…
5) This is just a general insight- Just because you have “always” done something a certain way doesn’t mean its the right way. I was brought aboard to innovate and shake-up the recruiters that were already there. It stuck for about a month and then it was business as usual.
The moral of the story is: “Pay your employees for the work that they do and profits will come back to you.” “Don’t pay your employees at all and your empire will surely fall.” That is all!
