Anecdotally Yours

I’ve been in Human Resources for a total of 17 1/2 years–which is, incidentally, my entire career.   I took pride in it unlike I did with any other aspect of my life.  For about 12 1/2 years, my career was how I identified myself.  Five years ago that changed, in the most wonderful, yet terrifying way.  Five years ago, I became a mom.

As with any profession, there are parts of my chosen field I’m not terribly crazy about.  For example, whenever there is a RIF (Reduction In Force), I cringe, thinking about what my role will be.  Those types of things aside, I honestly love my career.  I love talking with new people all the time, matching up candidates to positions, helping managers and employees work through issues, and completing Affirimative Action Plans.  Anyone whose business is working with people knows that it’s a recipe for something different every day.

That having been said, I didn’t understand what “something different every day” truly meant until I became a mom.  Looking into my Aidan’s eyes the very first time I saw him, I was completely in love.  The emotional whirlwind that followed was one that every parent knows: love, worry, more love, frustration, pride, insanity, excitement… you get the idea.  I had never before felt such overwhelming emotions in my life.  And they continue now, five years later, on a daily basis.

After my maternity leave, I went back to work 80% time for a few weeks and quickly realized that as much as I loved my career, I had never loved anything as much as that sweet baby boy.  Between an hour and a half commute each way, I was only seeing him about an hour a day, and that just was not something I could live with.  I have been working two days a week ever since.  I never saw that coming.  I always imagined that I would be a mom who worked full time… but we often don’t know how we’ll react to a situation until we’re in it. 

I was so thrilled that my boss was amenable to a scaled-down schedule, and I just don’t understand why more people don’t have the opportunity to enjoy this type of arrangement.  I now identify myself first as a mother, but I am no less of a professional than I once was.  In fact, I am an extremely loyal employee, giving my personal phone numbers to hiring managers, checking e-mails and voice mails on days off and being as productive as possible when I’m at the office.  Honestly, I am a pretty good deal for a company!  More companies could retain new parents, employees caring for elderly parents, and those who want to give back to their communities by being more flexible about work schedules.  Yet so few employers seem to be jumping on that band wagon.  It’s really a shame, and I wish more companies realized they can keep star performers to the benefit of their bottom lines, by offering better work-life options.

I have an enviable situation, to be sure, and I am deeply grateful for it: grateful to my husband, my boss, my employer.  I never take for granted the blessing that is my work-life balance.  I truly wish more people could have it.  Hopefully, one day, it will be much more common.

***HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY SWEET, PRECIOUS AIDAN!***

I bought a netbook… which is completely beside the point of this post.  But it was during the process of buying said netbook that I was inspired to write a blog post on Gen-Y’s virtually innate knowledge of technology and the quandary of how to interview them about it.  Upon arrival to the section of the store containing my coveted netbook, I discovered several on display, all connected to the internet.  Seizing the opportunity to make my purchasing experience as easy and uneventful as possible, I quickly staked claim to two netbooks and set each of my children up to the www.pbskids.org website.  My eldest quickly said, “Mommy, how can I move the arrow?  There’s no mouse!”  I showed him how to use the keypad mouse and where to click and my little “prodigy” was off to the races!  It took me only slightly more time to illustrate to my almost-3-year-old how to do the same, but he, too, caught on and played what he calls the “make George walk” game.  Occasionally, my eldest had to help him, but all in all, they had fun and got lost in their little cyber world and I calmly made a well-informed, relaxed netbook purchase.  I watched from the register as my little darlings navigated the Web with nary a glitch, musing how naturally it all came to them.

While I have added the disclaimer on this blog that I believe my children to be exceptional in many ways, in this realm it is my opinion that they are neither exceptional, nor unusual.  On the contrary, they are downright ordinary.  Today, children simply grow up with technology.  I don’t know exactly how long this has been the case.  It’s definitely been a somewhat recent development, from an historical perspective.  I have definitely noticed a more relaxed, knowledgeable approach to all things technology with my successor generation, the Gen-Ys.  Which is why this experience left me to ponder:  How much do we really need to probe Millennials about their computer experience?  I was having a discussion with a hiring manager in the not-too-distant past about a candidate who was my first choice to hire.  The manager wasn’t “entirely comfortable” with her computer experience.  (I feel I must state that this was not an Information Technology position–just one in which basic computer skills were necessary.)  The candidate graduated from a Big Ten university last year.  I was fairly confident that her computer skills exceeded those of the hiring manager and yours truly!

How much detail do we really need in order to be comfortable with the computer experience of Gen-Y’s?  Is it naive of me to think that if they have a degree from a reputable university that they’ve clearly done plenty of work on word processing software and could practically teach a course on conducting Internet research?  If they’ve taken any speech communications classes whatsoever, wouldn’t they pretty much have to be proficient with PowerPoint?  Do we even need to ask what e-mail systems they’ve used, since all of them are fairly interchangeable and intuitive?  Do we ask if they have a web site or just assume they’ve created one at some point?  (Okay, maybe this last one assumes a bit too much, but you see my point.)

According to my Alma Mater’s web site, more than 98 percent of undergraduate students bring a computer with them to campus.  That’s astounding to me… and I’m not THAT old!  My roommate Junior and Senior year had a laptop… of course, she also had a sports car!  I, and most other people I knew, had neither.  I actually earned some extra pizza money by borrowing her laptop to type up papers for people… because many people in my graduating class weren’t proficient with keyboarding.  

We live in an age in which technology has become such a common part of our everyday life, that we don’t even notice it half the time.  I know I, a Gen-Xer, take it for granted and can barely function if my broadband connection slows down.  I can’t imagine the level of nonchalance of the next generation, whose parents and siblings always had computers and whose computers always had a mouse (I can’t be the only person who remembers the “Slash-File-Retrieve” command in Lotus circa 1991). 

So, my point, at long last, dear HR and recruiting professionals… How much should we probe?  I don’t mean this as a rhetorical question by any means.  For positions requiring “normal” computer usage, how much detail do we really need from the educated Gen-Y candidate?  Do we probe on and on, trying to get Millennials to describe what is likely to be second nature to them, risking their internal eye-rolls and diminishing interest in our nefariously antiquated organizations?  On the flip-side, is it discriminatory to ask more detailed questions of us Gen-Xers and Boomers? 

I am truly interested in my colleagues’ thoughts on this topic, so I hope you’ll share.  One thing I know for sure:  my son has more computer experience at the tender age of four than I had the day I arrived on my college campus!  I wonder what recruiters will be asking him about his experience with technology eighteen years from now…

How often have you heard phrases such as these uttered from the mouths of generally intelligent, well-meaning, business-savvy hiring managers: “Her resume looks great, but I really wanted 8 years of experience, not 6″ or “His background has extensive marketing, but I really wanted someone with experience marketing this minuscule product that no one else has ever heard of”? Sound familiar? Yes, to me, too.

Many a hiring manager has had a vision of what they consider to be the “perfect” candidate, and talking them into someone “less than perfect” can be a daunting task. Furthermore, with the current economy, many managers with positions to be filled can’t understand why they should have to “settle” when there are so many qualified candidates out there who are out of work.

I’ve had a pretty good track record over the last 18 or so years of getting nay-saying hiring managers to see the proverbial light by using some of the following techniques. Now, as a disclaimer, I’m not guaranteeing 100% recruiter satisfaction or your money back (wait… was there payment involved here…?), but I do believe you’ll be able to turn around many of your more stubborn clients by bringing these key points to their attention. I know I have.

1.  Give a little to get a little.  Bottom line:  By hiring a candidate you believe possesses some level of “shortcoming”, you give them an opportunity to grow.  We need to bring people on board with great experience and skills that they can apply to the position in order to succeed.  However, we have to hold up our end of the bargain and allow that person to grow in their field of expertise by teaching them something other than our company’s cultural idiosyncrasies. 

2.  Why would we want them?  In other words, if you find a “perfect” candidate, one who seems to fit each and every requirement your hiring manager’s heart desires, why would we want them?  Because an HR professional must ask his/herself:  Why would this person want a job identical to one they are already performing?  Regardless of what anyone says, few people are usually looking for a new position solely because of money.  People are BORED!  They want to grow!  They want to learn more things!  (Or their manager may be a sociopath, but that’s for another post.)  If someone is in a position doing exactly what I’ve advertised they will be doing at nearly the same skill level in our position, that raises a large and brightly-colored red flag for me.

3.  The Lonely Hearts Club Effect.  Ever read the personals?  Ever scope the relationship matching web sites?  Liar!  Of COURSE you have!  Okay, okay… you KNOW someone who has!  We’ll stick to that.  I got married when I was thirty—I’ve read plenty of ‘em.  Ever notice all the wonderful qualities the people posting on those sites possess?  They sound so intelligent, multi-faceted, witty, fun, romantic… Ever meet any of them?  I have.  Trust me, they ain’t all that.  Same goes for candidates.  If you think you’ve found the “perfect” candidate, remember that too good to be true usually isn’t.  We like imperfect—it’s human.  Besides, perfect in that job means all they have to strive for is the manager’s job! 

4.  Seriously???  This is my answer to many of the hiring managers I’ve worked with—I’ve worked with them awhile to get away with that as a direct quote, but, yes, it’s what I actually say.  It’s the best response when what a hiring manager wants something so specific to the job that it’s completely unrealistic to think it’s actually going to be found.  Marketing very specific products, recruiting for specific positions, those sorts of things.  We sometimes have to point out the whole KSA’s concept.  If you hire for Knowledge, Skills and Abilities, those things are usually pretty applicable to any facet of marketing or recruiting or what have you.  If you hire someone with great marketing experience who can’t figure out how to market your widget, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong!

All of us HR-types have worked with client managers who won’t budge. Those are the ones whose positions will remain open for 12-18 months. I’ve been there in the not too distant past. That’s when I must lay down the law, and not because they’re messing with my time-to-fill average. The fact is, I’ve had to point out many less-than-perfect candidates several months into the recruiting process and illustrate that had we hired any number of them, they’d have been up to speed long ago. While this may infuriate many a nay-saying hiring manager, it does effectively drive the point home.