HR Professional

HR Recruits HR

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Wanted: HR Professional with highly developed competencies as an organizational strategist, workplace advocate, and change champion. Must be dedicated to excellence.

Depending on the organization, the role of the Human Resources function can range from transaction based (focused on process), to operational (focused on goal achievement), to strategic (focused on organizational vision and mission). In many cases, all three of these components are required of the Human Resources function at any given time and in any given way in order to meet organizational demands.

How then, does the Human Resources professional recruit and fill a Human Resources vacancy? While this question may have a simple answer (use the same processes that are in place for all recruitment campaigns), there is an additional element of scrutiny that must apply when our profession looks to hire for itself.

A recent article posted on thebalancecareers.com offers some practical advice on the types of questions that HR professionals can use to recruit and hire for other HR professionals.

Click here to read the article.

As noted in the article, the questions suggested for use during an HR interview follow the range of HR competencies through each of the tactical, operational, and strategic requirements. We can also infer, through the types of questions asked, the role that HR plays within the organizational structure.

If the questions focus specifically on tactical, process-related issues it is possible to infer that the organizational need is for a tactical, process-oriented HR professional. Conversely, if the questions focus on organizational strategy, then the need is to fill the position with an individual focused on and experienced in HR strategy.

One HR question that pops out from the list identified in the article is, “What do you enjoy the most”? Hopefully the answer for each of us is linked somehow to the ability to influence the workplace (and its people) in a positive way. If we as HR professionals do not find joy in our work, then we are truly in the wrong profession. We must love what we do in order to do good work.

No matter what the organizational needs are, or how they are defined, the Human Resources professional must be able not only to meet them, but also to anticipate and respond to future demands.

So, in addition to the competencies identified at the beginning of this blog, we should add the talent requirements of flexibility, forecasting, and fun, along with an additional heap of love for HR.

 

Discussion Questions:

  1. How do HR-related interview questions reveal organizational commitment to the human resources function?
  2. Write three interview questions that you would like to be asked as an HR professional.
  3. In your opinion, should HR professionals be recruiting to fill positions for their own profession within an organization? What are the benefits and risks?

Risky Business

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Hand stopping dominos
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In our Health and Safety studies, we focus heavily on the systematic need to understand the links between hazard recognition, risk assessment, and controls. Each of these three elements must be in place in order to ensure a safe workplace for our colleagues. Of these three, risk assessment may be the most challenging to manage as it is based on degrees of probability.

 

To use a very simple example, when one sees a worker attempting to climb up a ladder that is not secured, the risk-related question is, what are the chances that the worker will fall off that ladder? As the probability, and therefore the risk, is high we must take action by controlling the situation and preventing the worker from going up the ladder until it has been properly secured.

When this happens, the intervention is not always perceived by the worker as necessary or even helpful. Often the person providing intervention is viewed as being overly dramatic, rigid and controlling. When that person is the Human Resources practitioner, their professional responsibility lies in preventative intervention based on the best of intentions and sound practices to ensure employee protection.

Are Human Resources professionals who work in the field of Health and Safety overly cautious and highly risk averse? Based on a recent psychological study published by Geoff Trickey of the UK, it seems that there might be some merit to those claims.

Click here to read the article.

Rather than viewing the tendency for risk aversion by Human Resources professionals from a negative perspective, the author characterizes this tendency in a positive way, as one that is prudent. The prudent risk type is one that is “systematic, orthodox and detailed.” The HR professional with a high tendency for prudence relies on clarity and order. This helps to reduce organizational risk. It seems that our ability to focus on details and apply an organized, systemic approach is essential to promoting a culture of health and safety in the workplace.

Let prudence prevail!

Discussion Questions:

  1. How would you characterize your own approach to taking risks?
  2. From a Human Resources perspective, how do you rate your own psychological characteristics against the author’s findings?
  3. Do you agree or disagree with the characteristics and tendencies that the author provides? Why?

Benefits of Blind Auditions

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Does objectivity really take the sting out of rejection?

Source: ofoto/Shutterstock
Source: ofoto/Shutterstock

Bias.  We all have it.  It appears either as implicit or explicit; conscious or unconscious.  It is always with us as part of our own perception of the world.

It is, also, one of the biggest obstacles that keeps getting in the way of effective hiring processes.  How we impose our personal biases on others may have an incredibly powerful impact on candidates throughout the job selection process.

The following podcast from CBC’s “The Spark” , discusses a few different methodologies to reduce the impact of bias during the applicant screening and interview assessment stages.

Click Here to Listen to the Podcast.

GapJumpers is a technology based resource that allows for ‘performance auditions’ which may open the door to a different approach for candidate screening.  It is, in essence a ‘blind’ audition.  The statistics cited in the first interview seem to speak for themselves when the use of blind auditions improved the diversity of demographics in a particular selection process.  In the second interview, Ian Cook explores the issue of bias in recruitment processes from multiple aspects including the actual sourcing of candidates from diverse constituencies.

All of these tips and techniques seem to be critical in order to reduce the risk of bias in selection processes.  Why?

It is interesting to note that this clip begins with a very powerful emotional memory, described by the host, about getting the good news confirming her new job.  On the other side, she refers to the emotional reaction that each one of us may have all felt when we were rejected for a particular position.

We are so diligent in the field of Human Resources about neutralizing and objectifying processes in order to minimize our implicit biases and unconscious perceptions.  We want to make the processes fair and accessible.  As we make processes more bias-free, neutral, and objective are we striving to reduce the emotional, subjective, feeling elements linked to making the ‘right’ hiring decisions?

This may be what we want to achieve from a process perspective.  However, in the end, does any objective process really take the emotional sting out of rejection?

We cannot forget that rejection, no matter how it is delivered, it always hurts.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How would you perform in a ‘blind’ job audition if you were not able to present yourself in person?
  2. According to Ian Cook (second interview), there are fewer examples of ‘reverse discrimination’ in Canada than in the United States. From your experience, what evidence supports this statement?
  3. What is reputational effect? Why is this important in any recruitment process?
  4. Promoting a diversity referral process seems to be similar to networking. What are the specific benefits that a diversity referral process would provide?
  5. As an HR professional, how will you respond to individuals want to make ‘networking’ connections with you?
  6. Do you remember your first job offer? What was your reaction?
  7. Do you remember being rejected for a job? What was your reaction?

Boom or Bust?

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It may seem that the concepts of HR Supply and HR Demand come from an almost clinical approach.  This is most evident when we look at these concepts through a human capital lens and try to apply formulas to predict the ebb and flow of human resources supply and demand.

Words Boom and Bust on opposite ends of a balance
Source: Mark Carrel/Shutterstock

Predicting the patterns of potential employee movements are not isolated exercises – They are all connected and part of bigger picture circumstances.

For example, the overall economic situation in Alberta provides us with an excellent opportunity to consider how individual employees will be impacted by the changing economy.

Click Here to Read the Article

As we read in this article, Alberta was once the province offering an abundance of HR demand. There were lots of jobs and lots of opportunity.  Now, Alberta is the province facing the very real impact of too much HR supply – Increasingly fewer jobs and much less opportunity.  HR’s role will be critical in determining how this oversupply will be managed and, most importantly, how the individual employee will be impacted as a result.

We cannot forget that any HR supply and demand analysis is about people.  Analysis and formulaic approaches help us with planning predictions; however, we must remember that the implementation of these plans will have an impact on our fellow humans as we all move into a challenging and unpredictable future.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What types of compensation strategies would lessen the need for layoffs in Alberta?
  2. If you had to accept a wage reduction in order to have your work colleagues keep their jobs, what would you do?
  3. Identify three critical steps that the HR professional should be taking when considering staffing reductions due to economic indicators.
  4. What would be the biggest challenge for you when preparing an HR plan that includes staffing reductions?

Why Aren’t We Sharing What We Learn?

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Source: Lightspring/Shutterstock

In our Human Resource studies related to Training and Development, we read and hear about collaborative learning and systems thinking as key concepts and drivers for the learning organization.  Systems thinking, in particular, brings forward the need for understanding organizational and management issues in context with each other. Research and analysis are all part of systems thinking which allow for organizations to learn and to grow using evidence based methodologies. It seems, however, that there is a continuing divide between the learning that business organizations achieve based on management research and the learning that is produced in post-secondary communities, based on purely academic research.

This divide is explored in an interesting article, by Fiona McQuarrie.

  Click here to read the article

Isn’t it time for research that results in management learning and research that results in academic learning to come together and be shared in order to be truly collaborative?  Ms. McQuarrie’s article speaks very clearly to the need for all of us to start communicating about what we have learned, so that we move out of a silo-based mentality that hoards information and into a collaborative, shared learning community that benefits all members of our respective academic, management, and Human Resources related constituencies.

Discussion Questions:

  1. How will you apply what you have learned through research in your HR studies into practical application as an HR professional?
  2. What benefit does academic research bring to the Human Resources profession?
  3. How should organizations share research based learning inside and outside their respective communities?
  4. Where can you access current Human Resources related research that provides leading edge learning?