Lather, Rinse and Repeat

I read a very cynical article last week by a man protesting the instructions on his shampoo bottle. Perhaps he is forming an OWS (Occupy Wall Showerstall) movement. According to his account, he violated the cardinal rule of lather, rinse and repeat with no noticeable difference in his hair. He did not elaborate on the tests performed to verify his opinion, but an unfounded claim can still be true. I am constantly preaching against made-up rules, so is this really one of them?

Corporate recruiters are bogged down in administrivia and are constantly encouraged to follow questionable rules. Part of the reason for so many regulations, which for the most part are counterproductive and take recruiters away from actually recruiting, is because so many things can go wrong in an onboarding situation. The ultimate candidate experience should not stop on the first day of becoming a new employee. Payroll, benefits, office setup, computers and miles more of yadda yadda yadda can unravel the best of hiring campaigns. The lead time for making day-one an uneventful happening begins with the recruiter and often ends there as well. Even if there is a crack administrative staff to handle details, only intimate knowledge of the process and rules keeps it from going astray.

Other recruiting distractions fall into one of three categories: Fear of legal action, lack of trust that individuals will do the right thing, or “because we’ve always done it that way.”

• There is legitimate concern in a litigious culture that someone will sue, however the truth is that even if you are doing everything right and your records are pristine, you can still be sued. When someone tells me of an instance where they were asked about some nit-picking detail in court I ask, “How did that work for you” and, more often than not, neither the question nor the answer had any impact on the hearing.
• Laws that assume the evil nature of man restrict original thinking by forcing everyone, good or bad, into the same mold. To insure that the plodders do their job, the heroes are forced to follow the same lame rules. New ideas must cater to the weakest link in the chain to be adopted. Since it is assumed that everyone will try to get around the system, rigid rules and penalties for minor deviation from policy is part of the restrictive practice.
• “Status quo” is a Latin phrase loosely translated to mean “Don’t even dare to suggest change.” I have seen some recruiting shops where time-tested and proven techniques are still working but showing the signs of age. Some kind of slothful inertia keeps everything moving along in the same old rut. These made up rules are often a show of authority by someone and have no real substance other than resistance to move from traditional methods.

Now some may say that my oversimplified version of challenging made-up rules for recruiters is just as cynical as the shampoo rebel’s comments. He makes a very good point in that many people never question instructions that appear to be legitimate. It is commonplace for people to take such descriptions and expressions literally without even thinking about kicking in the common sense genes. Actually, he is dead wrong. A chemist friend of mine explained that the first lathering of the shampoo actually is not a cleansing step, but is necessary to change the pH of the hair to allow the second lathering to do its job. Product claims can be created by research or by marketing and we are never really quite sure which ones are true. We do know that closed minds will never move forward and a thinking mind will produce results.