I wanted to share these thoughts with you. A major HR disruption is way overdue and I found this to be a good article to start our discussion.  Whenever I have hired staff, either as a founder of a startup or as an executive working with my HR departments, I have viewed the hiring process as a fantastic opportunity to inspire, attract, identify, bond and create communities of potential current and future employees. As I will mention at the end, some companies (few) do this beautifully with extreme tact and art. This is about those who choose not to.

It is important to note that HR needs to sell itself to a candidate as much as the candidate needs to sell themselves to HR. It is a two way street. The new generation makes decisions very differently, often predicated by how they feel about the company and the people they meet. HR plays a key role in that. Not only do we need to change the HR process but the nature of the entire culture of the hiring process. The points below refer to both the HR process and the hiring culture. On a positive note, recently I sat in a hiring video conference where the HR exec did a great job, completely setting up the candidate for success and making the candidate feel extremely positive about the interview. Nicely done. It is also important to note that while the hiring process includes many individuals, HR is the front facing entity to the candidate. This article covers mainly this point around the HR culture and interview process.

The art of HR is beginning to erode rapidly, as many HR staff and executives are blowing the experience by:

• Impolite and abrupt communication – I am hearing horror stories of some company HR staff treating prospective hires. As I mentor many individuals at different stages of their career, I am shocked with what I hear and see. In one instance an HR exec wrote to a candidate who was having a hard time deciding: “ We are extremely disappointed and outraged that you went through the interview process and opted not to choose us. This is going to reflect very badly on the rest of your career”. Snap! In this instance the candidate was a recent graduate who was devastated reading this letter. Needless to say she chose a different job and we worked through it. In another instance, the HR person wrote that ‘she was getting progressively irritated about the candidate’s persistence and enthusiasm .’ Wow. That should be a good thing, right?
• Not realizing that today’s candidates have huge networks and networks are vocal and interconnected. You mistreat one candidate, many hear the story, many more decide not to join the company. This is the Network Effect. Ignoring the network effect is a really bad idea. We all know the tech companies which have extremely poor reputations. HR can use the hiring process as a way to mend fences with the outside world, instead of burning bridges. Network effect is very real!
• HR seems to get ‘annoyed’ dealing with candidates. News flash- dealing with candidates is one of HR’s main jobs. It is like saying, the dev teams are frustrated with development?! Ouch.
• Extremely long and obscure interview processes with little to no explanations offered by HR! Recently, I was told by one candidate that his hiring took 2 years and involved 16 trips to HQ. Seriously? That is insanity! Joining a company should be a joyous occasion, not an exercise of will, perseverance and ulcers!
• Making interviews like an unappealing tactical judo exercise, rather than familiarizing AND EXCITING the candidate with the company. Specially new incoming hires who have little to no experience are extremely vulnerable. They are the source of new ideas and innovation for the company. They may not be able to withstand the judo match!
• Diversity is real and should be discussed openly by HR. Not wanting to discuss diversity issues is not an option, as the facts and stats are known by the outside world.
• Collaborate with the candidate vs. make it adversarial! So much easier to be nice than not nice. Hey why not be nice to the candidates?
• Give the candidate a fair chance to negotiate and don’t have a ‘take it or leave it attitude’. It suffocates the candidate.
• HR is highly empowered and not just there to carry out the wishes of execs and fill headcount. HR has tons of weight to impact and change the hiring culture. Tons!
• And many more points which we could discuss…

Whether a candidate is hired today, next year or not at all, there is a massive ‘experience and network effect.’ This is the effect that you hear echoed at dinner parties when your friend says: “Oh, never talk to company ‘X’ – they are horrible and totally wasted my time! ‘  This process is completely up to HR to fix and remedy. So why not do it right and make it a pleasant experience? I learned a lot about this in my previous executive positions when I would lose candidates and find out that they were very frustrated with the ‘interview process’ – they felt totally ignored and mistreated. Why not do it right?

Human Resources is the arm of the company that make sure bridges are formed and pools of talent remain very excited to join the company, now or later! With today’s transparent world and options such as Glassdoor, HR groups need to realize that their actions are even more transparent. Offend one candidate and 1000 or more in the network become aware and a bad reputation is built. I am witnessing more  ‘out of line’ behavior by some (not many thankfully) HR groups today, which I find unacceptable. I am also seeing HR generally feeling more empowered to express such behavior with WOMEN rather than men candidates. I am not generalizing, nor is this article about gender hires,  but as I mentor many women and involved in many groups, I really don’t like what I see and hear!

So, it is time we disrupt HR just like all parts of our business is being disrupted. Human Resources is perhaps the most important external LINK of a company, representing the company. This means it is extremely important to treat this honor properly. Having said that, as stated earlier,  some companies do this extremely well, but many have a long way to go.  We need to have this dialog openly, honestly and out loud.  HR is a beautiful thing. Also important to note that as so much as HR is being automated and outsourced, finding and perfecting the ‘human’ art of HR is even more important today than ever before.  What do you think? As always would love to hear from all of you.

Let’s disrupt to innovate HR, the Hiring Culture and regain the beautiful ART of HR!