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Why
are some recruitments successful while others are disastrous failures?
The amount of time, effort and money spent in the hiring process
very often comes to naught because hiring managers make some inevitable
mistakes. Yes, the recruitment process is more complex than meets
the eye, and it is this inability to understand the subtle factors
of the system that leads to hiring the wrong person, which often
becomes a calamitous situation for the company. At a time of changing
market scenarios what makes the hiring trend more complex is the
fact that the recruiting board has to find a meeting ground between
short-term priority and long-term organisational goals.
 Why
is it necessary for the recruitment process to be very focused?
Finding out whether the person is the “right fit” in the
organisation culturally is as important as testing his/her skill
sets. Sudha Jagadish, chief operating officer and HR head of Chennai-based
Dax Networks, believes that building a candidate pool before even
it is required is a must. The lookout should be for a person who
had an exact job, in the same industry, in the particular business
climate, and from a company with a very similar culture. Failure
to identify the exact company needs is one of the reasons that leads
to wrong hiring. Adding to this is the inability to test the exact
skills of the candidate. At times organisations hire out of desperation
and consequently land up paying the price of inducting a candidate
who is not suitably qualified or skilled to take care of the responsibilities.
Blindly promoting from within and hiring because the candidate was
referred by a friend are the other mistakes that are oft repeated.
The
CV of a person is in fact the most common blind spot as it often
exaggerates the truth and can be misleading in the selection process.
Manoj Mandavgane, HR head of ICICI Infotech, warns that keeping
this in mind becomes essential for HR personnel to get an accurate
picture of the candidate. Furthermore, often it is the good communication
skills of the candidate that help him/her succeed in the interview
without the necessary domain knowledge or skill.
Rushed
hiring can lead to overlooking of many factors. “One has to
check where the candidate comes from—from the perspective of
suitability to work in the new culture, which could be different
from the earlier organisation; and from the perspective of ability
to work in teams, customer-facing skills, ability to work under
pressure, etc,” says N Muralidharan, managing director and
vice president of Jobstreet.com India. The recruitment process should
take care of the speed (of filling the vacancy) and relevancy (skills,
experience) of the recruit. Cost effectiveness plays an important
part too.
The
cost factor
Hiring
overqualified candidates is one of the main reasons that cost per
hire shoots up. Rajaram Agrawal, managing director of recruiting
firm TalentAhead India points out that it is common for organisations
to get swayed by degrees from the IITs or IIMs, without actually
checking whether the candidate fits in the organisational context.
Hiring managers also get unnecessarily impressed if a candidate
has worked with IT majors like TCS and Infosys for instance.
Aditi
Malik, global HR head of Mphasis agrees, “One tends to get
impressed with degrees and qualifications and often hires people
more qualified than necessary for a position. This invariably results
in higher cost per hire as well as disproportionate investment on
retention.” Recruitment being a very strategic area, Malik
however feels that for any company an under-investment in this area
will have an impact both on the organisation’s P&L and
brand image. According to Agrawal it is not uncommon for organisations
to lose a
good candidate who asks but does not gets a desired salary. He joins
the company for the time being but consistently looks out for another
job, and whenever he gets it (say after three to six months), he
leaves for what he feels is his deserving remuneration.
In
search of the super-employee
It
is a known fact that most hiring managers are on a lookout for a
superhero who could fill in the shoes of the predecessor, instead
of directing their efforts to finding someone who should have less
evident faults than the previous incumbent. “It is like the
case of every mother wishing her baby is like the ‘Horlicks
baby’, plump, photogenic, etc. Yes, every organisation looks
for readymade guys, ideal in all aspects, but they too realise that
it is wishful thinking. Finally depending upon the position the
wish list is fine-tuned and objectively looked at,” says Muralidharan.
Malik acknowledges that organisations tend to look for super employees
who not only have the requisite background skills but also have
good attitudinal and recognition skills. However, while it is necessary
to look for super employees in order to create a world-class organisation,
the definition of “super” needs to be looked at. “For
example in our industry, it is not necessary that a developer has
excellent communication skills, be extroverted and has strong technical
skills. Thus every organisation should be realistic in its definition
of a super employee,” adds Malik.
Mandavgane
states that at ICICI Infotech from the time of interview there is
a very clear focus on the kind of person the company is looking
for. And if the concerned candidate meets even 60 percent of the
set criteria the person is recruited. The company believes that
the remaining 40 percent can be gained on the job and the training
provided in the organisation.
Team-based
hiring
Team-based
hiring has been gaining significance in recent times. While the
hard skills of an individual are easy to check out, it is the soft
skills that need deeper drilling. Muralidharan asserts that generally
an assessment between an exprienced team of recruiters and from
across functions is considered a rather foolproof method. Additionally,
the candidate also in turn gets to have a taste of what’s in
store. So while organisations do this from their angle to take care
of the blind spots, candidates too look forward to meet and exchange
views across people of the prospective employer to check the “chemistry”.
At
ICICI Infotech freshers and junior levels have to take a written
test. Their first level interview is with a panel of domain/technical
experts followed by a joint interview by an HR personnel and a senior
tech person. For senior level hiring (for instance a project manager)
there is a similar two-stage interview process—one by a technical
team and another a joint panel. The blind spots of a fresher vary
from that of an experienced personnel. Mandavgane believes that
freshers are more transparent but one has to assess their potential
correctly, while experienced personnel are able to project desired
strengths and hide undesired personal weaknesses. A fresher is evidently
more mouldable than an experienced person.
What
determines the bottomline of the recruitment process is the fact
that this is the time when neither the company nor the candidate
look at a long-term relationship (not more than three to five years),
both are aware that it is a mid-term togetherness.
Feedback
may be sent to sudipta@expresscomputeronline.com
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