Right Vs.

Perfect Hiring
 
Nadeem Yousaf
 
Recent news about pathetic performance of Pakistan International Airlines
and Pakistan Television Corporations that both of the organizations are
facing huge financial losses and on the verge of bankruptcy is food for
thought for Human Resource Consultants, researchers and for the hiring
authorities in the public and private sectors.  These organizations claims to
have very sophisticated job description and job specifications based on sound
job analysis. In these organizations, a snobbish panel interviews the
candidates and claims to hire the best and highly qualified personnel for
various departments. On paper, selection process is rational, complex and
cumbersome through which a candidate goes through. However, the ground
reality is that outcomes of these ‘highly qualified people’ are not very
reassuring. It is not that only that these two organizations are suffering from
the ‘perfect hiring’ syndrome but other large national and international
organizations could have a similar situation; however they are not yet in the
limelight. For example, many international and national not-for-profit
organizations might have perfect hiring systems but unfortunately they could
not deliver as per expectations whether it is poverty alleviation programs or
spreading education among poor in Pakistan and other developing countries.
Perfect Hiring syndrome not only prevails in large and national organizations,
small organizations do suffer from it. The writer can recall an academic
institution, where a dean was hired who had perfect credentials but could not
perform and alienated the staff so much that employee turnover tremendously
increased thus he was unceremoniously removed from the position before
completing the contract. This preface leads to a very interesting question, are
relevant education and specific work experience sufficient for progress and
growth of an organization or to achieve targets?

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Indeed, reading job descriptions in the advertisements of large and financially

well resourced organizations scare many capable people even to apply
because the demanded job specifications are such that only a phantom could
have. These professionally well-written job descriptions and job
specifications are technically impressive but miss number of key points that
are essentials for the development, progression and growth of the
organization - these key points will be highlighted later in the article. Mind it,
developing the required skills is not so much of the problem as it has already
been proved by the Indian IT industry.  A recent research report shows the
secret of Indian IT industry growth is that they do not depend much upon the
past relevant work experience but are more concerned about the attitude. 
Interestingly these American researchers advise Americans to learn from the
disciples (Indians) how to implement human resource practices that get high
performance even though Indian education system is not as strong as
American or the other developed countries. It is important to bear in mind
that this is becoming an obsolete idea to draw a long job description and
demanding very specific work experience because, first of all, it is not
possible to find a person that completely fulfills the demands of job
specification; second, even if you find a technically sound person, no
guarantees can be given that s/he would perform up to the standard.

An organization or a firm will unlikely to grow or accomplish targets only by

having technically sound personnel unless people are enriched with key traits
such as right attitude, sincerity, dedication, honesty, vision and learning to
learn abilities.  Without these key traits, neither micro nor macro
organizations can grow. Micro organizations and firms can learn a lot from
macro organizations and the vice versa. Take example of Shaukat Aziz,
whose CV was impressive and elevated to the position of Prime Minister to
put the economy on the right track but he could not because he did not
possess above mentioned enriched qualities. His shortsighted short-term
decisions brought the country on the brink of bankruptcy.  Example from
macro organization has a lot to offer to the top management of micro
organizations that high expert knowledge, experience and offering ready-
made solutions not necessarily bring fruitful results for the system.

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The crux of the article is not to discard importance of job analysis, job
description and job specification or psychometric and personality testing;
rather, the idea is that these rational selection methods will only be
productive when the above mentioned factors get due importance in the
process of hiring and be part of the job specification. Absolutely relying on
perfect selection methods may be possible for some operative levels rational
positions since ‘2+2=4’ type ready-made solutions are expected and
desirable. Acceptable performance standards for such positions can be
quantified and the incumbent can easily be held accountable if performance
does not match with the set standards; hence it is less difficult to control and
take corrective actions if the incumbent of rational position does not perform

On the contrary, above mentioned traits become more important for

generalist positions because policy and strategic decisions emanates from
these positions that not only affect performance of the rational position
holders but also development of the organization. Moreover, accountability
and assessing performance become more difficult for generalist positions
because performance is quality based than quantitative for this reason
honesty and sincerity is vital. Ready-made answers from generalists should
be discredited because they are occupying positions where ready-made
solutions do not work effectively. Mind it, provider of ready-made solutions
might lack the required creativity and innovation, which is demanded from
the generalists. For generalist positions, hiring is better against the right
attitude and vision along with other traits than prompt ready-made solutions.

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Another important point that is important to highlight that plagiarizing job

analysis does not help in finding the right person because all organizations
operate in unique internal and external environments and cultures.
Unfortunately, visiting branches of various banks escalates the doubts if job
analysis research has really been done in the Pakistani firms and institutions.
If job analysis research has done in banks one does not find uneven
distribution of work where a few are overburdened and rest of the employees
either busy in gossiping or enjoying swings of the reclining chairs. This
situation could have two interpretations: either HR personnel are lethargic
and prefer to download job analysis, job description and job specification of
the Western companies from the internet or companies consider conducting
internal research in this direction as waste of resources. So it is highly
recommended that organizations must conduct job analysis research and
prepare concise and precise job description and job specifications that
matches local culture and environment to find the right person than a perfect.

  Monday, November 3, 2008