Incompetent hiring practices

[ericschand]

Another thread reminded me of this...

So I'm looking for work.

I find a number of leads, they all lead to interviews.

Rejected by one company, 2nd on the list. Offer from one company,
but for some reason they decided when I counter-offered that they
would pay 60% of pay up-front, the rest in "bonuses". Uh, no thanks.

2 more interviews, both went very well. Both companies say after their
second interviews, "You *will* get an offer from us."

Great. One offer comes, slightly low, but I can negotiate, no biggie.
As this happens, the 2nd company phones up, and the HR person
says, "Would you accept any offer that we put in front of you?"

This completely caught me off-guard. WTH does that mean??
So I replied that the offer would be listed and worked through.
Now she got audibly annoyed. "List?!? What list?? Why would you
have to work through a list?!?" I replied that I would have to
weigh the benefits, pros and cons of the position.

She then basically asked if I was interested. I told her that
there was no way I was going through 2 interviews, plus time, etc.,
to not be interested. I don't have the time to waste like that.

Fast forward one week. The low offer, I counter, and they
counter, etc and we come to agreement. I tell them I need
2 weeks, so I run off to hand in my resignation.

Fast forward two weeks. I'm now in my new position. My
phone rings. It's the HR person from the second company.
She starts going into an offer spiel, so I interrupt, and say
that I have already accepted a position at a different company.

She once again gets audibly annoyed, with her voice going up
and stuff. She says that it's only been a couple of weeks.
I tell her, no, in fact it's been over 3 weeks. As such I naturally
assumed that they were no longer interested and accepted
a different offer. She then says that, hey, she was on holidays!
My response was, "so....?? I can't just sit and wait, I had other
offers, and since your company wasn't giving one, I had to
accept another." Then I said my goodbye's and hung up. Any
longer and I might have told her exactly what I thought of her
and her company.

First off, who the heck does she think she is with her,
"Would you accept any offer?" Forget the "any" for a moment,
but why would I bother with the interviews if I wasn't interested
in the position? What was she getting at? (I think she was
trying to figure out if she could lowball the offer)

Then, to get annoyed that I accepted a different one, because
she was on holidays?? So, you are going to try to hire someone,
and then you leave on holidays? And you don't bother delegating
the task on the way out?

The whole thing reeks of incompetence.

Please tell me that this is not a normal occurance.

ers

[jolinar of malkshor]

The problems seems to be in HR. Every business is screaming for people to work but instead you get a ###### HR person who want s to haggle over salary, probably to increase her bonus.

When are these business going to realize that if you want quality staff you treat them professionally and grab them when you can.

Good for you.

[JiriHrdina]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

The problems seems to be in HR. Every business is screaming for people to work but instead you get a ###### HR person who want s to haggle over salary, probably to increase her bonus.

When are these business going to realize that if you want quality staff you treat them professionally and grab them when you can.

Good for you.

Its like anything. You have good HR people and you have bad HR people. The good ones know how to attract good candidates and then how to treat them through the hiring process...the bad ones...well don't.

[Rhettzky]

That's why I like to do my own hiring. The job market is too screwed up right now to leave it in other peoples hands anyway. When a good candidate comes along it's nice to know that you tried your hardest to get them on board.

[ericschand]

Originally Posted by jolinar of malkshor

The problems seems to be in HR. Every business is screaming for people to work but instead you get a ###### HR person who want s to haggle over salary, probably to increase her bonus.

Do they actually get a bonus for bringing in cheaper?? Or do they get
a bonus on finding someone qualified and within a reasonable salary
range?

Any HR people want to let us know

ers

[CaptainCrunch]

I do some HR consulting now, and I can tell you some horror stories. Basically I work with companies to automate thier hiring process, reduce turnover, and work with them on why thier employee's have lower then average productivity.

There are a few things that companies really need to focus on

1) We're in a tight job market. Its likely that you will lose a good candidate to another organization if you don't make decisions in a matter of days, and keep the common mistake is that they still work like this is a buyers market for people instead of a sellers market.

2) Companies still hire on instinct (Hey I love what you said, it was funny, your hired). Instead of using measurements that test skills, knowledge and behavior.

3) HR people put to much emphasis on money, and believe it or not money is not the biggest priority for people that have been in thier field for more then 5 years.

4) HR people don't know how to screen for counterfeit candidates. That incompetant person that puts his feet up on the chair, and works merely for the paycheck. He probably shouldn't be there, but the HR person needs to fill her quota, so he's hired, and at the end of the 90 day probation period is probably turned over.

5) People leave right, they're your best source of information. Why did they fail? Why are they quiting. But do HR People do proper exit interviews? Not a chance, and if something negative is said by the dearly departed, the HR person or thier manager are going to ignore it.

6) HR people don't really care if they have a disgruntled workforce as long as thier putting bums into positions. You wouldn't believe how many blank deer in the headlights looks I get when I talk about blind surveys.

Basically in areas like Calgary with the difficulty in finding people, HR is becoming crucial, and it can no longer be thought of as a cost center, and you have to make sure that you have a exceptionally good HR person with some kind of business vision running it. But I see way too many old school HR types sitting in those chairs with no clue, and terrified that somebody is going to find out.

rant off

[Barnes]

I had a company call me on a Saturday and asked if I could come in on a Monday to meet with the manager of the department I would have been working in. This was after one interview. I was to call this person and she said she looked forward to working with me. Whaaaa? I called the guy back and asked if I could look over the job offer before Monday as he had not given me any salary info, hours etc. It turns out, it was for the same amount of money as i was making at the job I left and I would be working weekends. I said I was a little unsure if I wanted the position and would review the offer and get back to him before Monday if he would send it to me. He started YELLING AT ME OVER THE PHONE! Why am I wasting his time. I needed to make a decsion right thenover the phone. I asked for until the end of the day to make my descion upon the arrival of an offer. I waited until 11:59 and wrote him back an email telling him, I don't believe that he was upfront with me at the interview and asking somone to accept a job offer over the phone on a Saturday was ridiculous and unprofessional. I would under no circumstances work for somone that treated a potential employee in this manner as it dosen't bode well for the treatment of me if I did become an employee.

This was for a large tech co btw.

[V]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

I do some HR consulting now, and I can tell you some horror stories. Basically I work with companies to automate thier hiring process, reduce turnover, and work with them on why thier employee's have lower then average productivity.

There are a few things that companies really need to focus on...

Hmmm, I worked with a rather large company (Stantec) and it seems they tried to break every rule you stated in your post. I kinda figured they had a bad HR group.

[Clarkey]

Originally Posted by Barnes

I had a company call me on a Saturday and asked if I could come in on a Monday to meet with the manager of the department I would have been working in. This was after one interview. I was to call this person and she said she looked forward to working with me. Whaaaa? I called the guy back and asked if I could look over the job offer before Monday as he had not given me any salary info, hours etc. It turns out, it was for the same amount of money as i was making at the job I left and I would be working weekends. I said I was a little unsure if I wanted the position and would review the offer and get back to him before Monday if he would send it to me. He started YELLING AT ME OVER THE PHONE! Why am I wasting his time. I needed to make a decsion right thenover the phone. I asked for until the end of the day to make my descion upon the arrival of an offer. I waited until 11:59 and wrote him back an email telling him, I don't believe that he was upfront with me at the interview and asking somone to accept a job offer over the phone on a Saturday was ridiculous and unprofessional. I would under no circumstances work for somone that treated a potential employee in this manner as it dosen't bode well for the treatment of me if I did become an employee.

This was for a large tech co btw.

Did the guy respond Barnes?