The Blame Game : Hiring Edition

I’ve been gathering a fair number of timely anecdotes from job seekers who have recently found themselves summoned to multiple interviews for a single job. Candidates have been finding themselves running the gauntlet of 3 to 5 to 8 (EIGHT!) interviews. (note: that’s not 8 separate people such as one might encounter during a group interview; that’s EIGHT separate and distinct “appointments.”)



Let’s imagine how this would play out for a candidate — we’ll call her Janet — who has submitted a job application for the position of Accounts Payable Manager with a mid-sized regional bank:



1.Recruiter/HR staffer conducts phone screen



2.Interview with HR Director



3.Interview with Director of Accounting



4.Interview with peer (s) – A/R Manager, Purchasing Manager and Payroll Manager



5.Interview with Team Members – A/P Supervisor and 3 A/P Clerks



6.Interview with Controller



7.Interview with CFO



8.Interview with CEO



Janet spends hours upon hours of time interviewing with additional time devoted to prepping, driving, parking, and completing an assessment or two. She’s required to take what amounts to nearly 2 full days of PTO from her current job. By the time it’s all done, weeks have passed and the seasons have changed. And chances are it’s not been quality time. The interviewers, undoubtedly, have asked the same (useless and often inappropriate) questions repeatedly.



Then, at the end of this process, someone needs to make the selection decisions. But who will it be? Are all 12 people going to sync up, have a robust discussion and evaluate the candidate(s) in alignment with a decision matrix that reduces bias? Are they going to acquiesce to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion ? Or are they planning to spin a roulette wheel to see where it lands?



I’ll tell you what they’re going to do: the Director of Accounting, who will be managing this A/P Manager, will make the final hiring decision…as they should have been prepared to do all along.



So why this charade? This inescapable and endless PROCESS (with a capital “P”)?



Blame avoidance. It’s that simple. It’s the human desire to avoid corporate shaming and finger-pointing (like that Spider-Man meme) if things go sideways with Janet as an employee.




“Janet is just not performing up to my expectations, but we all interviewed her, so I guess we all share the blame,” says the Controller.



“She’s really hard to work for,” Bob, the A/P Clerk, says to Margo, the A/P Clerk, “but I guess we just didn’t see that when we met with her.”



“I just can’t get Janet to focus on meeting deadlines,” her boss, the Director of Accounting, explains to the CFO. “But we all agreed she was the top candidate so none of us picked up on it.”




Hey! Maybe if we divvy up the responsibility and allow managers to abdicate their responsibilities to, you know, “act like managers” and make decisions…then we ALL share the blame when we have a less-than-stellar outcome!



*****



this post was also inspired by a recent post on the HIPPO effect from Dorothy Dalton The post The Blame Game : Hiring Edition first appeared on Robin Schooling .