Tweet

The Horrors of HR - Part One: Hiring, Teasing, Checking In

Guest post by: Betsey Nash

Article Overview: Can your employees' work environment become "too friendly - too comfortable"? If so, how do you address this issue? Betsey has some advice.

The Horrors of HR - Part One: Hiring, Teasing, Checking In

I spoke to the Rotary Club of Los Osos, CA, on the day before Halloween last year, so, considering the timing, I entitled my remarks: "Why Hiring is Like Bobbing-For-Apples". Think about it: Most people go through this routine for both exercises:

• close your eyes and scrunch up your face
• get up your courage and take a deep breath
• plunge blindly into a tub of cold water
• flail around until you happen to latch onto something before you drown
• and your choice depended on the size of the stem

How can we expect to make good choices if this is our approach? Did you know that almost 2/3 of our hiring decisions are made in the first 5 minutes of the interview? The seats are not even warm. And almost half the hiring managers report they have caught an applicant in a lie on their resume.

Why aren't we better at this? Isn't this the most critical part of the employee-employer relationship? You've heard of speed-dating? This is speed-hiring, I guess. Probably about the same success rate, too.

So we talked about some of the best interview questions - we've already discussed it in a previous article. Repeat after me: Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. We discussed the pros & cons of hiring the friends of your best workers - it's only a matter of time before some Cal Poly student will clone a great employee as their senior project.

A business owner asked me how to handle the following situation in her office: The employees are all good friends and talk to each other as if they were just hanging out: teasing, loud laughter, slang, very laid back. If the close relationship fell apart, would she have a law suit on her hands? Should she insist on a more professional atmosphere and business-like treatment between her co-workers or just be glad everyone gets along?

Coming from large corporate experience, I am always thinking ahead to the lawsuit. But in this case I thought she should talk to each of them individually and check in to see if they were OK with the atmosphere in the place. (Keep their answers confidential, but make notes about the conversations.) Get their input on when they do their best work - in the quiet moments, in the collaborative times, when they are relaxed, when? And tell them that you want a more professional approach. You still own the joint. The blending of personal and professional lives is natural for the younger generation of workers. In relationships, technologies, dress styles, personal calls, shopping, they overlap everywhere. But it's causing more traditional supervisors great grief. It may not be the end of the world, but we had better learn how to manage it.

By the way, in February I can give a talk called "Why I (heart) HR" if anyone would ever ask me. I know, horror stories are much more fun. If only they weren't true. That's the scary part.

Related Articles
  Four Employment Reference Checking Tips for Managers
  Human resources horrors: When HR goes bump in the night
  The “References Checks Are A Waste Of Time” Myth:
  A Reliable Predictor of Job Performance
  Solving Your Hiring Dilemma
  The Top Ten Hiring Mistakes
  COMPENSATING BALANCE LOANS FOR BUSINESS/REAL ESTATE
  The Pros and Cons of Hiring Green Salespeople
  ••••••>Use a Reciprocal Link Checker to Verify Your SEO Methods
  What are you hiring for?
  PEO's Help with Small Business Background Screening
  No Time for Cold Feet
  When Potential Employees Lie
  Branding: How KFC Is Trying to Reclaim Its Brand Identity
  Do You Know Who You Are Hiring?
  Great hires / bad hires: how to tell the difference BEFORE you make the offer
  Free Sales Hiring Mistake Calculator
  Company Loyalty
  How to Hire the Right Person for the Right Job
  Pee Tweet

Article Tags: friends, friendships, hiring, horrors, relationships, work



Related Forum Posts
Re: looking for experienced affiliate feedback - Hi Nancy, Hiring an experienced firm to market and sell your products is certainly a viable option. It all depends on whether you want to spend more of your time or money. Hiring a firm is going to cost a good bit I imagine. On the flip side, to do most of the work yourself and attract affiliates to sell your products for you will require much less money but a lot more time and effort. Do you have a budget to work within? Or perhaps maybe you have a loan to get things moving?
Re: Search Engine Optimization - Hi Thomas, So what would you recommend? Hiring an SEO expert or simply trying your hand at doing it yourself?
Patent information - I'm also interested in Part 2. Thanks.
Patent Process - Interesting to hear your experiences with the patent process - what's Part 2?
Re: Attention Age Doctrine - Hi Andy, So how did you find of "The Attention Age Doctrine" Part 1? And has following its guidelines yielded any positive results yet?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Is the Media to blame for losses in super?

Are You Fulfilled

Are You Listening?

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.