Who should we choose?

HR Beginner

I'm still in the middle of a problem I posted a few days ago (titled: "It's not what you know" Thanks for your responses!). Can any of you share more of your wisdom and insight, please?

Scenario: One open clerical position, two interested candidates. One is a current ee, for which this would be a promotion; the other candidate, external, is the daughter of someone in administration. The way I see it, neither choice will be "right." :-S

The daughter is the best fit for this position and has the skills to make it work. The ee is a good candidate, but honestly not the best fit and not as skilled (but wouldn't agree). It will still seem like, "...Not what, but who you know" won the race.

Is there any way to make them both happy short of finding another open position? We are a rather small agency (48 ee's) and this is the first time we ever encountered an ee desiring a position "transfer."

Hatchetman

Given that you are trying to make everyone happy....

What about job sharing?

The two split the job of the current employee and the job they both want.-- each one during the week spends 20 hours on each job.

You'd have to work out combined pay rates (I assume each job has a different wage rate).

Take a look at the FLSA regs on computing the combined hourly rate:

[url]http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=29&PART=778&SECTION=115&YEAR=1998&TYPE=TEXT[/url]

[url]http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/get-cfr.cgi?TITLE=29&PART=778&SECTION=419&YEAR=1998&TYPE=TEXT[/url]

Don D

I suggest that rather than 'pleasing' these two candidates, your focus should be entirely on doing what's best for the organization. Placating family members and caving in to the desires of less than qualified incumbents will bring little to your organization or your personal credibility. It will surely set you up for 'next time this occurs'. One thing that some well funded organizations do when this type of thing surfaces is enlist the help of a third party or someone totally and entirely disinterested and who has no knowledge of the players and let them sift the flour and recommend the outcome with written reasoning. You can pay to have the decision outsourced, you can get free recommendations from a business group in the community, or if you're fortunate enough to have a College or Jr. College in town, they will gladly take this on as a one day classroom project. One of these potential solutions may give you the 'distance' and impartiality your organization needs. Of course another alternative is to go with the outsider, pleasing her relative but pissing off the incumbent for evermore. The remaining alternative is to promote the 'bad fit' incumbent, shut out the other applicant and incur the wrath of her relative and what it may do to your personal career in this small organization. Good luck. x:-)

Balloonman

Well you already answered the question:
"The daughter is the best fit for this position and has the skills to make it work. The ee is a good candidate, but honestly not the best fit and not as skilled (but wouldn't agree)."
You have identified the best candidate. The issue is not that, but dealing with the person who was an internal candidate. Be honest with them, let them know that while they were a strong candidate, candidate x was felt to be a better fit. Also who will this person be working for? Which candidate did they choose. Don had a great idea to get a 3rd party involved. We did that with a controller position to help decide between 2 equally good candidates.....give you more information to help in the decision.
Talk with the employee who is not getting the job after the other person accepts but before it is announced. You might also follow up with a short note thanking them for applying, and letting them know you will keep them in mind for any future opportunities that they might be a good fit for. At least they are looking to move up, showing some motivation and desire to move up.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Gillian

These types of decisions really are a fact of life in any organization, and if you become overly concerned with placating everyone each and every time you will go nuts. You make the right decision, do your best to explain to the one who came out on the short end of the stick, then get on with the next project and the next decision, some of which will have similar dilemma's to the one that you currently have.

Paul in Cannon Beach

I faced this decision recently when I hired a full-time assistant (so I could spend more time here). Two candidates. One good. One great. There were some other issues too. The "good" candidate was internal, looking for a new challenge, etc.

I wrestled with it for awhile and decided to proceed fearlessly. I reviewed their interview notes, experience, and the needs of the position and simply chose the one that was the best fit. I hired the great candidate and here is basically what I said to the internal good candidate.

"Bobo (not his real name), I want to say thank you for applying for my assistant position. I am honored that you would want to work with me. You are a good match for a position like this. Unfortunately, there is another candidate who is an almost perfect match. It was a hard decision. I would like to talk with you further about your career here and what I can do to prepare you for the next big step."

He handled it well. I have my great assistant. She is everything I expected her to be. Life is good. I hang out in HR Hero all day writing haiku now.

Paul

jojo

I agree. Your job is to find and hire the best candidate that will help the organization. Because you also have an internal candidate brings an interesting situation but having a outside candidate that has ties to someone doesn't help the situation. I feel that since the internal candidate is already a part of the "team" they do require "special" treatment that those outside do not. I am not saying they should be hired but if they are not they deserve the upmost respect in telling them WHY they did not get the job. Not just the standard "There was another candidate that best fit our needs". They deserve to be told what was missing in skills, how the interview went, what they can do to improve for the next time a position opens, some helpful hints on the areas you thought were lacking (for example at our business most of the internal candidates that are at entry level jobs looking to move up are lacking in interviewing skills and resume writing) We then offer to help them improve on these if they like. This, you may think, might help them leave the company for a better job elsewhere. But we have seen that although the candidate disapproves our decision (Which every candidate probally does) they see that we are trying to help them grow and that our decision was thought out and that we are not discouraging promotion and growth. This goes a long way towards loyality and "belonging"

I feel we all have a responsibility to not only have the company grow but also our employees. This justifies part of the bottom line that the Upper Execs are looking for in the business sence and us getting out of purgatory quicker. xpray

HR Beginner

My, my! You are all as wise as I thought! Thank you so much for sharing your opinions. They did help solidify the answer. We held a group interview with each candidate. The consensus was to hire the daughter, not the current ee. I must have the "difficult conversation" with the ee tomorrow morning.
Wish me luck!
Thanks again, my friends. xhugs

Balloonman

It is not as hard as you think.......and it will get easier. Paul outlined it well, and just remember, how would you want to hear the news? If you treat the employee right, they will remember that! And will quickly get over not being chosen.
My $0.02 worth
DJ The Balloonman