Every now and then, you read an article that you have to
share with others. It’s just too good to keep to yourself.
That’s the case with Anne
Kreamer’s recent Harvard Business Review blog post,
“The
Rise of the Rude Hiring Manager.” In the post, Kreamer shines a fair and fairly
unflattering spotlight on the experiences of several individuals as they
undergo the rigors of today’s job search, recruitment and hiring processes.
Kreamer describes how these individuals are put through
their paces by prospective employers—often being asked to interview multiple
times over the course of months, to take on test “assignments,” and to deliver
polished business plans, proposals and presentations as part of the process of applying
for an open position. During their ordeals, these candidates also experience administrative
incompetence, a lack of timely communication, and just plain rudeness from
their potential employers. And the sad fact is these experiences are growing
more common.
Although the headline of Kreamer’s post calls out hiring
managers specifically, the entire hiring process is actually at fault here. At
one point, Kreamer astutely observes: “I can’t pinpoint exactly when the hiring
process went off the rails, but I believe it began in the late 90s, when cost
cutting became a mania and headcount was slashed to the bone, requiring every
employee to do the work of many. With so little margin for error, every hire
became a fraught decision, and the fear of making a mistake loomed larger and
larger.”
Vetting candidates became increasingly complex and
time-consuming, Kreamer writes, and “new hurdles were added until someone
interested in a director-level position … is now routinely required to submit
the kind of analysis and proposals that were once the province of in-house
executives or paid consultants.” Especially harrowing is the interview process,
which ballooned from an average of 12 days in 2009 to an average of 23 days in 2013.
Putting job candidates through a reasonable but thorough
screening process is just good business. But it appears this process has gone haywire
at many organizations, which is just bad business. After all, the candidate
experience we provide says a lot about us as employers. It’s the first taste
people get of our culture, our work environment and how we treat our employees.
If we have any hope of consistently hiring
the best talent and building great employment brands, we need to fix the broken
candidate experience—and the sooner the better.
~
Connect with the individuals and sources highlighted in this post by clicking the links below:
@AnneKreamer
@HarvardBiz
@AnneKreamer
@HarvardBiz
