Bill is writing an email on the Monday following a national holiday weekend. It is a memo to his “peers” on the alley.
September, 2010
To: The Executive Team
From : Bill, CHO
Subject: A few observations and a cautionary tale
I was working late last Friday night , as my family took a trip without me. So I started working through some of the terabytes of emails burdening the speed of my hard drives. It was a surprise for me to come upon a note from a field manager, who was questioning the etiquette of our hiring practices. Etiquette was his term not mine. It became clear after reading his statement that we have a problem in the company with how we treat people applying for jobs. I only suggest this for it was not the first time I had heard about a hiring practice, which seems embedded deep within the organization. It is a sad tale I tell you now and one full of risks for the company. It deals with the special people who seem to know how to override our 3rd party vendor, who is responsible for vetting potential candidates for supervisory and lower level managerial positions.
At first I thought all of this was a fluke, but it isn’t. Let me be non-midwestern blunt: we are giving select outsiders permission to pass-go without proper vetting. I grant you many of these individuals work well, but many long time employees are watching “outsiders” move ahead of them, even though the outsiders lack experience, knowledge and understanding of the industry. Also, as you may recognize, field managers feel restricted from supervising these new, special hires with the same level of diligence as would normally be served to new supervisors and managers.
But on Saturday I attended a picnic with a few employees I have known for over a decade and without prompting they unloaded their frustrations on me about this practice. They reminded me that when I worked with them, none of this kind of behavior ever reached our operation. Now, I see that was probably due to the two decades of leadership provided by our late director, Galen Stronson. Just so you know, I modeled all of my work values after those he exemplified. He tolerated no forms of arrogance, pretentiousness, ego-mania, etc. whatsoever. He was the most straight-forward and honest person I have ever known in my life. Probably more honest than any of us have ever known in our lives.
My former colleagues told me that after I was promoted and Galen succumbed to his sudden illness, his replacement started placing new people into positions specifically created for them. My friends then said they were instructed to “teach” their jobs to these new people. Obviously, only fools would have done so without first questioning the motivations behind these requests and actions. No explanations were given. By then the director’s door had a sign on it, indicating he would see people only by appointment made through the central scheduling office of the corporation.
Please tell me what I am missing in understanding why this practice exist and what we should expect as benefits for the organization down the road? From my perspective, this kind of activity can only lead to lower morale and loss of extremely talented individuals to our competition. I already know several people, whom we cannot afford to lose, are looking elsewhere and a few are seeking retirement counseling. If you wish, I can share with you my projections on the cost of this type of hiring etiquette will have on our company within three years.
I hope you had a great weekend and I am looking forward to talking with you some more on this topic.
Bill