Do Unto Others… part two

My last blog struck a chord. I received several confirmations about the importance of the idea, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I’m happy to hear that but it seems that many are simply not practicing it.

I had one consultant reach out to express her dismay, saying she too is hearing more stories of hiring managers being disrespectful to candidates.

I had a VP reach out and share his experience attempting to hire a product manager for his company. He started his comments by suggesting to me that hiring is far worse at non-executive levels. They received over 100 resumes, which they short-listed to five. They conducted an initial interview with each. He then reduced the list to 2. Each of the two candidates had three additional interviews. The VP chose the candidate he wanted to hire.

They brought the candidate in for an in-person interview with the group CEO. The VP was told it was a formality and that it was his decision. The candidate interviewed with the CEO, the hiring VP, and the VP of HR. The candidate came in dressed appropriately. He answered all the questions effectively and clearly demonstrated his knowledge and competence, the VP relayed to me.  Once the candidate left, the CEO said no, this person won’t fit in here.

Turns out the candidate had some bumps of some sort on his face and neck. The hiring manager knew this as they had video interviews prior to the in-person interview. The VP was dumbfounded and pushed back, saying he is highly competent and can clearly do the job; to which the CEO replied, “no.” As I mentioned in my last post, when someone shows you who you are, believe them. After the CEO left, the VP expressed his dismay to the VP of HR who said, I’m just as speechless as you.

The HR VP relayed the bad news to the candidate. The candidate ended up writing a nasty email saying why did you waste my time and I’m glad I didn’t get the job and accept it; I would have had to work with you people. You see if you have something physical that the whole world can see you know you may be discriminated against. It could be something like this individual, having burn marks on your body, being overweight, dark skin, Asian, native American or Indian. It doesn’t matter, you know you may be discriminated against.

I’m not naïve, I believe we all discriminate. As much as I’d like to believe I don’t, I’m sure I do, and I try my best not too. Yet this CEO’s behavior is an incredible demonstration of ignorance, further magnified by the fact that he’s Asian and should know better.

If you hire people, you already know how difficult it is to find highly qualified candidates. I also believe that in recruiting you should zig when others zag, meaning don’t do what everyone else is doing. Hiring highly qualified candidates who may be discriminated against is an example of zigging. In addition to the possibility of getting a highly qualified candidate that others may overlook, you will, in my opinion, likely get a very loyal employee (as long as you treat your employees well and with respect). They will likely be loyal as they know they can be discriminated against, but because you gave them an opportunity to shine and demonstrate the best version of themselves, they will frequently be more loyal than other employees. They may even work harder than the next person because either they believe they need too or to express gratitude or appreciation for you hiring them.

Any CEO worth their weight will tell you that their most valuable resource in their company is their people. However, this is yet another example of an executive being disrespectful to another human being. Seems this CEO either doesn’t believe his people are his most valuable resource or would rather have a less competent individual who looks good. Pathetic.

As I was contemplating writing this blog something occurred to me. OMG, each of us has something that may not appeal to another person or group of people. It’s unfortunate if it’s something physical; but, what about an employee who has something hidden? Hidden, you say; what could possibly be hidden? Well, the candidate may lack drive, or have social behavioral issues, maybe they have emotional issues or simply don’t pick up things or learn as fast as you do. Have you ever hired someone like that? Of course you have and possibly, eventually you may have fired them because some aspect of their personality, behavior or mental capacity you felt was an obstacle to them doing the job.

That is exactly the point. Your job as a hiring manager is like the General Manager of a sports team. Your job is to assemble the best possible team which you think can play together and win. Everyone’s not a superstar. You need role players, some who may be asked to do the work others don’t want to do. But that’s how you build a winning team. The name of the game in business is to execute; it’s not a beauty contest.

Several years ago, the consulting firm I worked with hired a young woman with just one hand to be a support person for some of the consultants. I was fortunate enough to have her assigned to me. She was and is awesome. She was highly competent, delivered what she promised, had a great personality and sense of humor. She was not afraid to challenge me. We had a great working relationship.  I loved working with her and miss working with her. We were a great team. Can you image that? A great employee, admin no less, with only one hand. That’s what building a winning team that can execute looks like.

Shame on you CEO. The good news is the CEO later got demoted and the VP is now reporting to a new CEO. He is breathing a sigh of relief.