Psychological Damage
It’s been 177 days at the time that I write this post that I have been out of an HR job; that’s about 4,248 hours, or 1,770 working hours that I have not been functioning in the profession I fought against all odds to be to in, and love with my whole soul.
A couple weeks ago I threw off my jean jacket in a room adjacent to the restaurant and bar I manage, put on the blazer I had hung in my car, and placed my laptop on a box of plastic cutlery. The music from the bar could still be heard through the wall but I had no choice, this company wanted to meet to discuss next steps and even though they dismissed the idea that their timing interfered with the bar schedule, I was hopeful my soul would return to its home in HR and an offer would be made.
And as the last 177 days have concluded, this one day ended no different. Sitting there in a blazer on top with bar clothes on bottom, my front house team holding down the fort a wall away, my laptop balanced on a box of plastic cutlery, I smiled as a perfectly polished HR Director in a beautiful home office told me no, again.
I rushed through the pleasantries because I knew the dinner pop was coming and my team needed me. The Zoom Room of Rejection closed and I opened up the timer on my phone. I set a timer for 5 minutes, locked my phone, scooted my chair back from the makeshift desk, and wept.
I put my head in my hands and gave myself 5 minutes to feel another blow to my psychological state. I felt the weight of the six hours of interviews I went through, four of those being the day after the US Presidential Election, and the weight of what it meant to go another month without the pay I need to take care of all my bills.
For five minutes I allowed myself to feel the weight of being exactly where I was ten years ago when I was trying to break into this industry; poor, frightened, determined, rejected, fierce, exhausted, psychologically damaged by this process. I felt the exact feelings I had 10 years ago about those interviewing me - how much they did not care about my schedule and how difficult these interviews times were for this blue collar job I’m holding down.
When the timer went off I wiped my tears, took off the blazer I used to wear all the time, put back on my jean jacket, and led my front house team for the rest of the night.
Walking through the last 177 days as a candidate, and watching so many of my warrior peers do the same, my memory keeps returning to every interview panel I’ve been on as the interviewer.
And I’m ashamed.
This demoralizing and psychologically damaging 177 days has brought to light the amount of damage I have done as an interviewer and I am obsessed with the idea that recruitment processes are inherently designed to damage human beings.
I know that I’m treading on thin ice here as I am the Employee Relations expert and not the Recruiting expert, however, as a lover of humanity and a deeply bruised candidate I am laying awake at night wondering how often HR is getting recruitment right.
How often have we not cared how inconvenient an interview time is, how long the process is, or what the process could be doing to the human that is already so wrecked from life?
I’ve sat in the room when recruiters are berated and abused into faster timelines which in turn damages the workforce because we hire the wrong talent, causing trauma and turn over.
I’ve sat in the room when hiring managers refuse to pull the trigger and drag along top talent until they’re so emotionally drained from the process they either exit the process or succumb to negotiations that aren’t favorable, both scenarios causing damage for all involved.
And I’ve set so many 5 minute timers in the last 177 days trying to collect the pieces of my own candidate experience that can only be described as psychologically damaging and I’m just screaming loudly…could we be doing this better?
This question could be asked to no better recruiting expert than Garry Olive, a brilliant warrior and a force to be reckoned with in the recruiting world.
This bruised candidate and ER expert needed to know from a fellow expert…do you think we’re psychologically damaging people in our recruitment processes? Can we do this better?
And my dear friend Garry graciously agreed to answer as a guest on this blog and give you his opinions on how the recruiting world can do this right:
Is the Recruiting process broken? In a word-YES. And yes, it is causing damage.
Recruiting has been broken for a long time now. The advent of technology combined with bias and racism makes for a very unsavory stew.
There is hope however. And I think a big piece of the solution pie lies with both recruiters and coordinators. Recruiters are often marginalized, underpaid, minimized and reduced to being mere order takers with unrealistic expectations heaped upon us.
Fix number one is for organizations around the world to treat and value their TA teams in a much more substantial manner. This can easily be done by offering market rate pay, and steady employment. No more 90 day contract positions without benefits. Six month minimum for assignments along with full healthcare benefits and PTO days has got to be our new normal.
Quick note to recruiters, treat your coordinators with the utmost respect on a daily basis so you can also have a trusted sidekick on your own personal journey to save recruiting.
Secondly, If you see something say something. And no, I’m not advocating going to work for Homeland Security. I’m speaking of effecting change within your sphere of influence. Think of the change that recruiters can effect if we respectfully call out ineffective hiring processes, diversity hiring issues, compensation transparency. Recruiters can and should call out these issues when they occur.
We don’t need to call out a hiring manager or even our own managers on a Zoom call but at least we should empower ourselves to have those conversations to let them know what we are seeing. Imagine the change we could effect on our organizations if we all started to do this. What was once thought to be controversial would be a norm.
Candidate Care- Recruiters and coordinators have within us the power and skill sets to be true ambassadors to each and every candidate we encounter. This means never being dismissive of anyone who wishes to work at our company. This means providing timely responses to candidates.
I am a big believer of over communicating with candidates. Give them all the available information, share the good and bad with them. If you can arrange for a job preview then do it. Although it may not be practical for them to visit on-site right now with Covid, maybe they could talk with a current employee about how it is to work at the company.
Embrace Transparency- Go all in here. Make transparency a non-negotiable. Be transparent with all of your stakeholders, your candidates, your hiring managers and your coordinators and recruiting manager.
When dealing with your candidates set a realistic timeline with them and always update them immediately if things are changing. And of course 2020 has been a year like no other. The only way I believe to confront this current landscape is to be transparent about what is happening within your organization.
Other ways you can embrace transparency is to be upfront about the compensation. If your comp sucks, let the higher ups know about it and don’t be afraid to have that conversation with candidates about being able to meet their salary requirements.
Additionally as much as possible take your candidates out of the black hole aka the ATS. I know its tough when dealing with high volume type roles but as much as possible reach out to as many candidates as possible. It may be that you can only send out an email but communicating with as many candidates as possible will at least humanize the process. And that’s a great step in the right direction.
Finally if in the end when one of your candidates doesn't get the position, please let them know. The worst thing is to say nothing at all. A phone call is the most human way to do this but if you must send an email, at least you’ve let them know. This will garner unending respect and loyalty for you.
Bias Training- This should be done on a regular basis. We all have biases and the only way to eliminate them is to first be aware of them. TA leadership can and should offer this type of training on a monthly basis to their teams. In the absence of that, we recruiters and coordinators can embark on our own bias sensitivity training journey.
As an HR professional, I am deeply sorry to the candidates that I have damaged, the humans that have had to set timers after leaving the Rejection Room where I have delivered the news after a process that could have been better. I promise to do better and be better and never do it the same again.
As a candidate, I have not been this exhausted in 10 years and my only hope is that you incredible recruiting warriors will hear Garry’s advice and apply the words like a medicine to your processes so that others like myself may set less timers, experience less damage, and our workforces look less traumatized. We can be better, we can do this right, we can recruit like the heroes we are.
2021 we’re coming for you.