Time for a Recruiter Declaration of Interdependence

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can,
And wisdom to know the difference.”

The Serenity Prayer is the name we give to an untitled prayer attributed to a sermon by Reinhold Niebuhr in 1943. It was distributed by the US Armed Forces and several church organizations at the time giving him widespread notoriety. He was later quoted as saying that it had probably been around for centuries and he did not believe that he had actually created these words himself. The beliefs behind this prayer would seem to have been present in the days of the late 1700’s when the founding fathers of a fledgling nation saw independence from foreign involvement as something that they had the power to change. When all other courses of action had been eliminated, there was no other alternative except to respond decisively and authoritatively. It seems to be ingrained in all of us that every situation falls into two categories: The things we can control and those we cannot control.

There are daily frustrations in everyone’s job that make life miserable. These are the often unmentionable environmental factors which seem to undermine the very jobs we have been given to do. Objectives are set, measurements are imposed, and there are always those little irritants that often seem to be intentionally placed in the path leading toward success. We are politically conditioned not to complain, but sometimes it seems that our sanity depends on recognizing the factors that are out of our control and deal with them. On the other hand, we are not isolated from the causes of these factors and in some instances we do have the ability to strike back and take command. In a sense, we have the ability to proclaim our freedom from factors which get in our way and do something about them.

In business, the recruiting function often suffers attack from external forces that would derail the process. The difficulty is in doing the mental triage necessary to ferret out the battles that may be won and those which are fighting windmills. Improvement of the recruiting process and making a more meaningful contribution to the bottom line requires identifying the causes of conflict and determining the most productive places to introduce change. So what are the causes?

• Control by non-professional sources – The term non-professional does not imply unprofessionalism, but addresses decision-making outside of the recruiting profession. The recruiting and staffing function is a support activity, not a profit center. Usually the business does not directly associate the hiring function as a contributor to the business even though it may often be the life blood that keeps it going. It is often difficult to summon up the wisdom to know the difference between absolute brick-wall boundaries and made-up rules imposed by unknowing management. Senior management may make bureaucratic decisions which impact the ability of recruiters to fully exercise the authority they need to be successful. Lack of input from HR or recruiting professionals result in these decisions being made in a vacuum. Similarly, budgetary decisions may be made regarding salaries and recruitment operational budgets without considering the return on investment from recruiting. Legal objections enter the argument, especially with regard to the use of social media, which always seems to assume the worst case scenario, thereby creating roadblocks by not allowing use of this medium to be truly “social.” It takes some probing into the unknown to be able to uncover all these factors and address them since they generally lie outside of the normal direct lines of communication.
• Influences by non-related functions – Hiring managers have a mission to produce results. They do not have an in-depth understanding of the labor marketplace and often are lured into believing isolated anecdotal incidents, taking them out of context and believing them to be the norm. Because they have been selected to be leaders in their functional areas and are ultimately accountable for their actions, it is easy for them to assume that they are experts in other areas as well, including how to recruit most effectively. Recruiters must work with them to aid in reaching common goals for the business, but must also maintain balance in the organization. Often this is not about a lack of respect for recruiting as an equally skilled profession, but a lack of understanding about what it does. When management introduces emotional factors involving favoritism and nepotism into the argument, an additional difficulty arises which can never be truly addressed logically. For both sides, it takes a lot of maturity to discuss these issues without taking it personally.
• Support by non-recruiting partners – In most battles, everyone on “our side” wears the same uniform and we can usually assume that it is the enemy firing shots at us. In the trenches of human resources, friendly fire sometimes takes us by surprise or we don’t really know who is shooting at us. Such shots most often come from HR generalists who see a recruiter’s direct relationship with management as a threat to their authority. When workforce planning and organizational development do not include a recruiting perspective, it become difficult to engage in dialog which can improve the process. Also, compensation professionals with a strict interpretation of the limits of salary growth in certain areas can inadvertently undermine searches for candidates in difficult areas.

Obviously, these points are only the tip of the iceberg. Passivity will not solve anything and aggressive action without the possibility for compromise makes the situation worse. So how can a recruiting organization make a declaration of independence while maintaining their relationships and avoid war? It is called interdependence. One thread runs through all of the obstructions to recruiter’s freedom to act and that is a lack of mutual understanding on the part of all parties concerned. A recruiter’s proclamation of freedom of action must include a promise to support the organizational goals and promote a climate of cooperation with our other partners. It would go something like this: “We hold these truths to be self evident: That the recruiting function is a professional entity which is endowed by company management with certain responsibilities and duties which imply the right to cooperation, respect, support and recognition. To secure these rights, we pledge to raise our own awareness of the critical factors that contribute to the success of the business, to understand the needs of management in execution of their functions, and to become knowledgeable of the duties of other human resources professionals.” In short, we demand the same respect for our profession that others expect from us. To ring this bell of freedom requires us to all be ambassadors of our professionalism.