Everyone would agree that certain bits of information are material when making hiring decisions. For example, an applicant’s ‘documented’ hobby of robbing banks is likely material when applying to work in one. Also, a candidate’s three bankruptcies is probably material when considering that person for a job as a financial advisor. And I would think that an HR person would be interested to know that the candidate applying for a role as an air traffic controller is on medication for depression and chronic stress syndrome. Now before the affirmative action types out there get up in arms, I am not suggesting that firms should avoid hiring such candidates. In fact, based on the recent performance of my RRSP portfolio, I am fairly certain my own financial advisor is depressed, stressed, and with luck, looking for a bank to rob before he puts us all into bankruptcy. In any event, all I am saying is that such information is material to good hiring decisions.
Companies are also treasure troves of information that have a bearing on the likelihood of good hiring decisions. There is the coffee table stuff, the facts, the figures, the storybook corporate culture, the participative leadership and the grand vision that companies lay out come hiring time. And then there is the stuff that’s hidden or forgotten in the attic, the idiosyncrasies, the peccadilloes, the little imperfections of every organization, that really determine who will fit or fail in a given job. As a headhunter held accountable for finding candidates who will fit, I know all too well that these latter bits of info are material to my success. I also know that many companies cannot understand why any candidate looking to buy a beautiful, fluffed-up organizational house would care about what’s in the attic.
To give an example, founder-managed companies consistently fail to disclose the presence of family members among the employee population. They simply do not consider it material. We once did a search for a company looking for a Vice-President of Sales. I remember the founder expressing dismay at the incompetence of the previous two incumbents and grilling us on our ability to distinguish competent from charlatan sales candidates. Upon being awarded the search we began contacting potential candidates only to be greeted by laughter when we mentioned the name of our client. Keen observers that we are, we know that hysterical laughter does not bode well, so we probed only to find that the founder’s wife was a sales representative in the organization. As one candidate said, ‘good luck finding someone who wants to touch those dynamics’. When we asked the CEO about this, he thoughtfully responded, ‘So what? She is very good at what she does’. Though we did not think it appropriate to ask exactly what she did, it was clear that the CEO did not consider this detail material to why previous incumbents had failed nor did he believe it played a role in the personality traits of candidates best able to deal with it.
Time after time we learn of daughters, sons, brothers, nephews and childhood friends sprinkled throughout private companies with varying impact on firm dynamics. And while these veritable untouchables motor along doing whatever they do, we are asked to find executives who will calm their substantial wake. The options rarely include taking the keys away to the Sea-Doo.
In the world of hiring, just as a company would like to know that the candidate they are interviewing suffers from debilitating headaches, so candidates would like to know that the CEO, or worse junior, is known for giving them. Somewhere out there is a company made for that candidate and a candidate who will thrive in that organization. Any information that helps put those together is material.
Looking for a dynamic HR role? Stay away from the entrepreneurial tech sector.
January 1, 2012
In a recent survey of HR graduate students, the technology sector rated among the most coveted destinations to ply their trade. It is viewed as a world of innovative people, technologies and approaches where progressive talent management, OB/OD and related HR work awaits.
The Cry to Replace RIM's CEOs – A Truly Dumb Idea
October 13, 2011
Leaving aside the recent service outages, the shellacking of RIM in the press is a tad surreal to behold.
For the few Luddites not familiar with the firm, Research in Motion is the successful Canadian smart phone pioneer with revenues of $20bb per year, no debt and cash in the bank. They manufacture products that remain popular around the world and continue to boast technological innovations unmatched by any competitor. Their most recently launched smart phone devices have been well reviewed and appear to be selling well. And though the company's first version of its new tablet, the Playbook, has room for improvement, it is a promising piece of technology.
Context: When Companies Confuse Start-up Experience for Start-up Experience
October 7, 2011
I had the occasion this week to chat with an entrepreneur still licking his wounds from a stalled startup venture. His tale is a reminder of how easily companies misunderstand organizational context when hiring. For startups, such a misunderstanding can be fatal.
The CEO Hiring Practices at HP
October 3, 2011
The press tells us that Hewlett Packard is the largest technology company in the world with revenues of $126bb. Impressive as those numbers may appear, they do not seem to impress HP's Board of Directors. You see they do not believe that any of the firm's 324,600 employees are capable of leading it. Not one person. Not this year or last year when CEO changes were made. In fact they were apparently not capable six years ago or even eleven years ago when CEO changes were also made. But before summarily indicting the firm's succession planning/leadership development programs, it is useful to consider the track record of the external candidates who were considered better choices than the firm's internal candidates. This analysis decidedly shifts the spotlight to the competence of Hewlett Packard's Board of Directors.
The Folly of Believing What You Read
September 19, 2011
Some time ago we posted a blog titled ‘So you REALLY want to be a CEO?' which looked at the human costs of climbing the upper rungs of the management ladder. The blog was based on a series of articles immediately following the ‘resignation' of Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler. All of these articles presented a cautionary tale of life in the fast lane, the long hours, the extensive global travel, and the shareholder pressures that accompany an uncooperative stock price. They also spoke poignantly of the physical and emotional toll that such unrelenting pressure took on the Pfizer CEO who eventually resigned in order to attend to his family and health. As it turns out however, much of this narrative may not have been true
Before sending us your resume (and then getting frustrated with us) ask who we work for
July 25, 2011
A friend of mine is a trustee in bankruptcy. As his title suggests, he and his firm serves those contemplating the ‘cleansing' process of personal bankruptcy. Potential customers compare service providers, select one, and then pay the chosen firm a fee to initiate and manage the ensuing process on their behalf. However, as soon as the relief-seeking customer signs on the dotted line, the trustee's allegiance shifts to the creditors for whom they then seek to maximize debt recovery. This shift in who works for whom must be a tad unsettling for people who already have a heap of problems and stress on their hands.
What Dating Services Can Teach Companies About Hiring
June 1, 2011
Executive-level hiring is a decidedly aspirational endeavor. Organizations idealize their workplace cultures, select for attributes that will fit into those romanticized environments, and then immerse unsuspecting hires into their ice-cold reality of their works-in-progress.
How to Survive a Startup - by Jill Ram
April 20, 2011
If you're an executive and you're thinking of joining a start-up, know what stage of a start-up to join. If the company is in its first year or so, don't expect to make significant changes. If you join after the company is somewhat established and mistakes have been made and learned from, you'll likely be more successful from the outset. If the founder has stepped aside, well, by then, the company is likely not considered a start-up anymore. It won't be functioning like a big company yet, and it won't have all the structure in place that it needs, but it will be run with more practicality and with less emotion. Timing is everything so choose it well.
Good News for the Old, Overqualified and Overlooked
March 18, 2011
It is expected that a significant percentage of the baby boomer generation will drive right past the Freedom 55 highway exit. For many the goal of early retirement will have proven to be unattainable hype, while for others the ups and downs of working will appear more attractive than the prospects of working up and down the local lawn bowling leadership board.
Pressed for time? Blame those Benedictine Monks.
February 24, 2011
It is among the principal reasons candidates tell us they are open to consider a change in employers. They are tethered to it, yet somehow it still flees. It is time, the most precious of resources, and for many harried executives they want some of it back.
Though their relationship with time may be strained, it is worth pointing out that it was not always this way. In his fascinating book Time Wars, Jeremy Rifkin chronicles the evolution of our modern relationship with time. He points out that in traditional agrarian and pastoral cultures, time was a very naturalistic notion maintained in cyclical, repetitive, biological and even sacred terms. The ‘passing of time' was cued via the changing seasons, biological lifecycles and lunar patterns and thus, the cadence and tempo of those societies were finely tuned to the cyclical rhythms of their physical environments. As he states, "Our early ancestors coveted the circle, perceiving time as eternal return, a ceaseless repetition of an endless cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth". Since these cyclical rhythms could neither be accelerated, nor altered, the cadence of these societies' was natural and harmonious.
Executive Search: What's in the Attic is Definitely Material
July 3, 2008