Those who can, do

Normally I don’t join in bashing HR —jobs associated with my master’s degree are generally considered HR jobs even though I don’t work in recruiting or hiring. Also, I see the need for having a group dedicated to developing job requirements, screening applicants, and ensuring the hiring process stays legal. However last week I applied for a job and the difference in how that application has been handled has me rethinking my position.

I applied for a job by email on Monday and got an email back within two hours from the person who ended up being the hiring manager. That fast response is pretty amazing: if I even hear back from a recruiter, it’s usually days or weeks later. Usually I don't hear anything at all; it's as though my application disappears into the ether never to be heard from again. He asked if I were available for a 30 phone screen the next day and when I agreed that I was, he sent an agenda outlining what he wanted to cover in that 30 minutes. I’ve never gotten an agenda for a phone screen.

At the end of the phone screen on Tuesday, he asked if I would be available to come in later that week to their offices for a 90 minute interview with three of them—notice again the super fast decision-making process here. I was still interested in the job so I agreed. I got an agenda for the meeting on Thursday plus more detailed information about a presentation he’d asked me to prepare.

They will make their hiring decision by Wednesday (yes, the day after tomorrow). I’m not sure I want this job, and I’m not sure they will even make me an offer. But the way they’ve handled the process has been really refreshing—no lengthy delays, no pointless hoops to jump through, just clear expectations about what was going on. HR could learn something from these guys.

Weeks from disaster

Have you ever watched the show Seconds from Disaster? This National Geographic show ran from 2004 to 2007 and analyzed everything that happened in selected disasters. The disasters ranged from natural disasters to oil rig explosions to train and plane crashes.

One that still haunts me was about a plane that crashed because the tail mechanism broke and put the flappers or whatever they are called into a position which forced the plane to nose dive straight down. The cockpit recordings are chilling as the pilot asks the co-pilot two or three times “Are we flying? Are we flying?” as they hurtle to the ocean below.

My job feels a little bit like that right now.

Due to the complete inability of Congress to pass a budget, the contract I work on full time will probably go away May 7. In the meantime, my company has pitched an intensive consulting effort to improve graduation rates at the programs we support. This is supposed to demonstrate how much they need the services we offer. Normally I’d be all for this project since organizational consulting is something I specialize in. But I don't have high hopes for a good outcome for the following reasons:

• The classes are approaching the halfway point--in other words, we can't change the selection process which is a big problem at a lot of programs
• 80% of the chosen programs cannot meet their graduation targets because they have already fallen below those levels. The best we can do is mitigate damage.
• I have no assigned resources to gather and analyze the data I need to create the get well plans
• The whole thing must be completed by May 6, and the programs don't graduate until various dates in June. So we won't even know if we did anything effective.
• I'm out all next week training another class which puts the timeline in jeopardy.

Much like the pilot in that doomed flight, I’ll be doing all the right things for this initiative and I, too, won't be flying.