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Effective Recruitment of HR


Added to these pressures, HR people are particularly difficult to evaluate since the very least they can do is produce a decent resume (CV) and do a decent job of interviewing. This is a threshold capability for all HR people - but for a good hire you want to find someone who can be distinguished as a superior performer.

When I am hiring HR people, or helping others do so the first thing I consider is the context. Will this person be a member of a reasonable sized HR team with peers and colleagues who can help them with their development, or will they be the sole HR person at that location, or indeed the business.

If they are going to be the sole or most senior HR professional at a specific location the second question is about the support systems - is there access to a corporate HR team or a specialist team or is this person going to have to cover all the bases. This consideration impacts on the 'risk profile' of the hire. The more stand alone the role the less risk that can be taken since there will not be others to help them if they get stuck and the management team, and indeed the whole organisation will be impacted by their decision.

So in this situation you hire the person who can do the job; the one that offers the safest choice.

As with many things in life the lower the risk the lower the upside. If you hire someone because they are 'the safe bet' the chances are that you will not have found your 'undiscovered star'.

Organisations, of course, need both - safe bets and stars.

Therefore if you are hiring an HR person into a bigger team then you can afford to take someone who has all the right competencies and characteristics, who has a strong self development orientation, but who may not have prior experience in all the areas they will be working in. If you hire someone with the aim to help them develop into the role you need to have an organisation which has both the capability and capacity to so develop them and also the desire and willingness.

Given free choice and the right environment I always look for competencies and attitude in any hire I make, with knowledge and experience coming second. But when context dictates I will be the first to go for knowledge and experience over all else!

I have written this from the point of view of an HR hire, but clearly it can apply to other areas as well.



Published by: Lisette on 02/03/2009 - Add a comment

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