I must admit that I have found the recruitment process challenging in every single position that I have had. As a senior executive I have often been involved in hires by other managers and frankly they do not seem to fair any better. As far as I can tell there seems to be no correlation between the interview process and the quality of the hire. First pick hires often end up adding no value and at times even destroy value. Fourth picks often end up flourishing and becoming stars. Is there any reason to have an interview as part of the recruitment process? Continue reading
Tag Archives: HR
Building an Effective Working Relationship with the Human Resources Department
One of the challenges faced in writing about management is that it can be difficult to differentiate between what might seem like platitudes and genuine advice. For example in terms of managing one’s human resources the idea of succession planning seems like a great idea, but what does it actually mean? It is like advising a sick person to just get better. Great advice, but useless in terms of actionable information.
How comfortable are managers with their HR skills? A simple, but valuable, proxy for an answer is the number of results for books matching the keyword “human resources” on Amazon: 209,344. Assuming a lack of authors and publishers with a fetish for publishing human resources books in the absence of any demand, it would appear that managers have an unslaked thirst for solutions to their HR challenges. So how to solve this epidemic? Perhaps the answer lies not so much in generating new concepts or recycling old concepts but in explaining in better detail well established concepts.
A World of Grumpy Old Men
I reached a senior executive level at a relatively young age. This was met with incredulity by many people. Some believed that as an Emirati I must have been appointed to my position due to family connections. Others accepted that I might have a strong education but I had no experience. All felt that I had not ‘earned’ my position. That a certain amount of ‘seasoning’ in the trenches was part of the unwritten code for promotions. It was puzzling.
I asked my friends and colleagues in London and New York what the norms were in these global financial centers. They painted a completely different picture, a culture based on meritocracy and accountability where there is nothing wrong with ‘seasoning’ but firms were happy to back a younger candidate if he exhibited potential. Indeed, these companies felt that creating a fast track system was an important element of their success.
Leadership ≠ Dictatorship
In an executive position that I previously held I was building out my team and the company had a policy of recruiting internally first. This policy appeals to me in principle in that it gives employees the chance to widen their skill set and reduces recruitment costs. In theory I should also have access to superior information on the employee, but as it turns out human nature and unethical behaviour circumvents that from happening. Continue reading