The HR Issue

As Europe thrives with an employment issue a bit everywhere, I was thinking what's the role of HR Specialists on this.

Let's see how it works with qualified jobs: a company either hires by itself an employee or outsources it with some big recruitment player like Michael Page for example. The principle is very basic: the outside recruiter, who knows little about the client's business (yes they will tell you they know everything and that they worked in the field yada yada yada), gets on his database and seek for candidates that are already working in the area. It's funny, as it happened to me once. I worked in sales and was trying to move to management. So the recruiters - all with no exception - told me I should look for something in sales since that was my area of expertise. A few months later I went work to a management position, with a company that was recruiting directly, that is, without a recruitment specialist on the way. Two years later, I decided it was time to use my management skills with something I had experience in: sales. So I went again talk with the recruitment specialists, those that two years ago denied me a position in management. And now guess what? "Well, since now you're doing management I'd advise you to look for something in management."

Funny isn't it?

Bottomline is: recruitment specialists like any other specialists are interested in one thing: money. Otherwise they'd shut doors. So it's more safe to send a candidate to a client that has recent experience in the area than one who doesn't. So, forget all the bullshit about people's development and personal growth. It's bullshit, period. They are all more focused in making you do something you probably don't love, on other words, they want to send candidates to employers that are "interview bullet proof" (ideally, a young adult, with no children, a college degree and experience in the area).

All of this brings out an issue: when you start working companies will assume you love what you do. So they'll expect you to work long hours and that you will deliver above expectations. In the meantime they'll also think that they can bring out what supposedly is "the best of you" which in fact, is the same for all companies: they want you to be determined, self confident, out of the box minded, multitasking ability and a house in Saint Tropez.

What if you're not like that? Well, you have to be like that, or you don't get a nice job and obviously a nice paycheck.

With the current unemployment rate we have in Europe right now the recruitment schizofrenia continues and worsens as time goes by. One day they'll want robots (they have already..) with all the characteristics above mentioned.

My advise: people should be recruited for what they love to do. Markets cannot suck in all people, since just because you want to be a photographer doesn't mean you'll get a nice job doing it. But recruiters should start the process backwards, that is, they should send candidates to companies for what they love to do, not for what companies want people to be.

Companies have to work with what's truly available at the labour market, not with some transformed individual who wanted to be a clown at circus at turned out to be a software engineer.

And I say this not even by the humanity part of it, but by the success of some businesses: successful companies these days, are the ones who can find people for what they love to do (Apple, Google, HP, list goes on..), not for the stereotyped profile they're trying to inject on people's mind.