Playing Hard to Get? You May Be Letting the Best Get Away

I have friend who is a genius at sales. And a well-respected HR services company in her adopted home town just missed out on being able to recruit her. The reason? They played hard to get. So she got away. Even though she is one of the highest producers in her city, her recruiters bogged down the interview process with so much emphasis on process and track record that she finally just got disgusted and withdrew her candidacy. It wasn't that she wasn't game to talk turkey in terms of her past successes, it's just that this hiring company wanted her successes to have been measured precisely in the ways *they* measure successes (which means she would have had to convert her track record of the last four years into *their* terms...and they were never really clear about what those terms are).

This ridiculous, unimaginative way to dealing with her taught her an essential truth about this company: They were more interested in processes than in relationship building (which is her personal secret to her amazing success). And that would be a definite cultural mismatch. So she said "buh bye." And so this company flung her back into the hiring ocean, perhaps to be caught by one of their competitors. Not good.

It's popular today to say, "We hire for passion, train for skills." Sounds good, but do you really? Or is this just something you'd like to *think* you do? Over recent years I've seen example after example of companies allowing true stars to slip through their fingers. Why? Because their hiring managers are dispirited doofusses who have no nose for sniffing out passionate talent -- or talented passion, whichever you prefer. They're so focused on checklists, track records and certifications, that they're looking down at their clipboard and not bothering to glance up to catch the sparkle of enthusiasm in the eyes of the candidates.

Your best candidates aren't ever going to have a resume that looks like a coffee drinker's frequent customer's card. All the holes won't necessarily be punched precisely the way you want them to be. And there's no way you can anticipate precisely every single little credential and ability that your company will need in the immediate, middle or distant future. So throw the clipboard away!

What you can be absolutely certain of is this: Your company is going to need employees who love their work so much that they are constantly learning and creatively putting together experiences, relationships and skills that will help them ask all the necessary questions whose answers will help your company grow.

If you're having trouble finding and recruiting passionate people who will give their all to your company, take a good look at your hiring managers and recruiters. How passionate are *they* about your company and its critical mission? Are they hiring to make the world a better place? Or are they hiring to fill their quotas? Do they know how essential passion is to your company's particular mojo? Or are they just checking the boxes? Are they inspired and excited about your company's mission? Or is their resume in circulation as well?

There are two sayings I want to introduce here: It takes one to know one. If that's the case, make sure that the people who are in charge of sifting through the candidates (from writing job descriptions all the way through the processes to the person making the final offer) love their work and are over the moon about their jobs and your company!

The other saying I'm fond of, especially after speaking to my friend this morning. It comes from a friend of hers who gave her this advice during their dating years: "If you play too hard to get, you won't get got."

Get it?

Why I Love HR

HR puts feet to dreams. When leaders and entrepreneurs lie awake at night and spin grand castles in the air, pretty soon they have to start asking themselves where they are going to get the talent to build those castles for real. When ordinary folks dream at night about building exciting careers – or simply paying the mortgage and feeding their family – eventually they have to start asking themselves what companies are most likely to help them make their dreams come true. Two sets of dreamers at opposite ends of the employment equation. But they need each other. Where do they find common ground? HR, of course.

HR puts the world to work. Consider the billions and billions of people who go to jobs every day around the planet. Steady paychecks. Safe working conditions. Reasonable management policies and leadership behaviors. Fair prospects for advancement. In many countries, unprecedented surges in standards of living. Who’s behind that? HR.

HR works better than the United Nations. Not only does HR put the world to work, HR puts the world to work together. In most major cities around the globe – certainly in the greater Boston area – companies large and small are filled with representatives of many nations – many of them would be in armed conflict with each other on their native soil. But unified by the common mission of their companies’ profitability and competitiveness, these employees work shoulder to shoulder toward their shared goal of a better future for themselves, their families, even each other.

HR is never satisfied with itself. HR professionals know that there is always room for improvement. There is no profession so dynamic and ever-changing as a people profession – especially one that must marry the intricacies of people and business strategy. And the mere fact that HR never forgets that things could be done better is one of the reasons why I love HR.

HR takes care of its own. I don’t think there is a better, more developed, more welcoming, more elaborate network of colleagues in any other profession. Throughout the world professional HR groups and SHRM chapters and classes and seminars and workshops and monthly “hole-in-the-wall gangs” convene, complain, kvetch, kvel, and share all the insights, news, and creative solutions they can. Even competitors generously share their best practices with each other. To borrow a line from a song from West Side Story, “When you’re in HR, you’re in HR all the way.” In HR you belong. You’re embraced. You grow. You give back. You’re welcome.

HR builds communities. Communities are filled with employees, former employees and future employees. Through HR, companies partner with community leadership to foster stability, hope, growth and development for all their citizens and constituents. When there are jobs people stay. When people stay there is a tight fabric of relationships, memories, dreams and willingness to invest and sacrifice for an even better future.

HR is a stupidity buffer. HR is often the only thing that stands between terrible ideas from company leadership and its people (and its customers, and its shareholder interests). With its legal, fiduciary, strategic and human understanding of the people impact of any kind of leadership initiative, HR has the best vantage point of all the functions in a company, and has the perspective necessary to put the brakes on “stupid leadership tricks.”

HR saves lives. HR is on the front lines of all the personal battles faced by modern humanity. Depression. Addiction. Domestic violence. Illiteracy. Street crime. Divorce. Despair. Thanks to the many initiatives and support systems that HR has assumed over the last 20 years, employees have a chance to prevail over their personal nightmares and sources of shame and stress.

HR makes greatness happen. No matter what we do for a living, we all share a single calling, which is to use our talents to make the world a better, more hopeful place. But none of us can fully manifest our potential all by ourselves. Even the most talented and singular visionaries need the support of organizations to bring their genius to the marketplace. We need each other. We come to our chosen organizations with our various gifts and talents and skills. And we look to HR to sort it all out for us, plug us into the places where we can do our best work and together – as a team – we lean into the wheel and build a future for ourselves, our families, our communities, our world that matches our best dreams and values.

HR matters. And that’s why I love HR.