Special Comment from the HR Underpants - Part 1

Human Resources Underpants Part 1

Question #1 - Please Link to  http://jaundicejames.com/ and/or http://jaundicejames.com/category/interviewing-a-reformed-hr-pro-series/

Answer #1

HR really doesn’t have the power - hiring managers do.  Hiring managers make the actual decisions on whether a department may add staff and who goes on to the “bonus round” of the interviews in most companies.   If HR got to be “the deciders,” you would have a lot of very nice, well-spoken, prompt, well dressed, good-smelling and attractive people in New Hire Orientation; their actual skill set would be subject to “further review.”  

I haven’t met many in-house recruiters who are self-actualized enough to even think about their role in the lives of so many people. It’s a numbers game.  Give the hiring manager 10 viable candidates, move on to the next position.  Most don’t play games and disqualify people for even the slightest offense such as a minor typo or mispronouncing the recruiters name on a call-back; they are just looking forward to lunch and to their co-ed volleyball game after work. Recruiters are not really the bad guys; they too worry about their jobs, and most recruiters I know are just waiting for an opening in another part of HR or operations.  It’s really more clerical than cynical.

The key issue may be that the volume of resumes and applications received for any given position results in only handful of submissions being reviewed.  Software “screens” for words and phrases.  Further, regardless of reason, recruiters are taught to stay far away from someone who appears, in our HR jargon “jumpy” i.e. people who are perceived to “job hop.”   Having a resume/application pulled for review by an actual person is akin to having your numbers selected for PowerBall.  It is sound advice to “network” to get a job.   A recruiter who is handed a resume/application by a current employee just got a gift and has to do a little less “digging” in cyberland.