Marriages fail because of unfulfilled expectations. There is an old joke that men marry women hoping that they will never change and women marry men hoping that they can change them. Well neither of these is going to happen, so what went wrong? When there is any kind of interpersonal relationship in which reality falls short of unrealistic expectations there is trouble brewing. A topic near and dear to my heart is the relationships that must be maintained between a recruiter and everybody else that is needed to make hiring happen. The candidate experience is measured by how closely each side of the interviewing table meets the expectations on the other side. Which are worse, arrogant recruiters or narrow minded hiring managers? Probably the one that fails to define expectations for the other. Why do new employees remain loyal to their recruiter? Probably because they met each other’s expectations. Do all of the HR functions pull together as a team to facilitate hiring? Probably not unless matching expectations takes priority over parochial viewpoints. Does a CEO know the name of the head of recruiting? Only the ones that expect great things and work with novel ideas.
Defining how life should work instead of finding out why things break down should be the goal of everyone. Focusing on the expectations of others and compiling messages that both transmit and listen for matching ideas is not an oversimplification of problem solving. Prevention is preferable to the need to cure.
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May 20 -Â Setting Expectations: Triage of Recruiting from All Sides – The word triage is obviously French in origin and may have originated on the battlefield during the Napoleonic Wars. By the time World War I became a reality, the term in its medical sense was in common usage. Wartime catastrophic wounds and limited medical resources raised the need to make quick battlefield decisions on which patients would receive priority treatment.
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May 21 – Setting Expectations: Defining Job Requirements – A common lament from job seekers is that they have no idea from a posted job description whether or not they are qualified for the position. Of course, a certain amount of this stems from wishful thinking that their dream job is within reach. It also seems to be human nature that an inflated sense of self drives people to believe that others should see in them the potential for greatness. – more –
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May 22 – Setting Expectations: Recruiters as a Constant Career Companion – If it is done right, the bond of trust that is built between a recruiter and candidate for hire is stronger than almost any others that happen after the hire. A recruiter is not a social worker, but honesty between professionals builds a relationship that may last a lifetime. One internal company survey that explored this phenomenon saw a perception that the human resources partner for a group had less trust or recognition as an expert than the recruiter that worked with an employee toward an ultimate hire. – more –
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May 23 – Setting Expectations: In the Universe of HR Specialization – The relationship of recruiters to corporate HR functions can be one of conflicting notions about the importance of various details in the recruiting campaign. In large companies where there are sufficient resources to assign specialty functions to different people there must be an air of cooperation and coordination to keep the hiring process from becoming stuck in a bottleneck. – more –
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May 24 – Setting Expectations: Recruiters, Occupy the Table – There was a time when the common lament heard in the human resources community was that they wanted a “seat at the table.†Mention that in any gathering of HR people today and the audible groans will roll over the room like thunder. Like any other phrase that becomes cliché because it is overworked, misunderstood, and misused, this concept is in reality both right and wrong at the same time. – more –
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