HR Undercover

We work with clients to hire for many different positions — from C-Level leadership all the way to production staff.

One of our assessments, commonly used for hourly positions, measures basic things like productivity, ability to get along with others, and likelihood of turnover. The assessment takes only 10 minutes to complete.

Our client had a candidate come in and apply for an hourly position. After they filled out the application, the candidate was asked to take the assessment, and then wait in the lobby. The results came through to the hiring manager immediately. The candidate scored a 1 out of 10 in the “getting along with others” category. The hiring manager invited the candidate back to ‘wrap up’ the process. When it was explained that they reviewed the application and felt that this role was not a good fit, the candidate literally lunged across the desk in anger at the hiring manager.

The hiring manager called us after the interview was over and expressed great relief at being able to predict this type of outcome before it was too late.

Not only was my manager in a mortgage company the worst leader of people I had worked for in my entire career, I was so happy I had already decided to leave my job when she was showing her direct reports how to forge customer signatures. You know, the complicated docs customers sometimes do not understand? Heck, in her case, maybe they neve even got to try and read them. So what was her great secet? She would simply take a doc the customer had signed, hold it up against a window and place the unsigned doc over it and trace the signature. So simplistic it’s stupid. But she was showing her staff how to do this!

I prep display windows in a department store. An executive on the merchandising and display team has a fixation with including live animals in the display window…. Really, what are they thinking?

It’s Easter – wouldn’t baby lambs be cute in the window with the merchandise? Well yes, they are adorable until that one gets sick with diarrhea – and rubs his rear all over the window! Ahh, the customers walking by thought it was so cute! It was loads of fun to clean up too.

Or Summer…. What could say summer better than a flock of Pink Flamingos? Do you know how tall Pink Flamingo’s are? Let me tell you. They are so tall, that when they poop it can – and it did – fall on the top of the kid size mannequins. Not the kind of image that the merchandising team was going for.

Sometimes it is the customer on display. In our store, the windows all connect to one another, so the crew can basically walk window to window for the whole block. One day, a woman walked past the first window. Unbeknownst to her, the back of her skirt was tucked into her panty hose – exposing a good portion of her butt – and yup, there was no underwear. Obviously a quick potty break gone bad. Of course all of us inside working on the window display were laughing hysterically, and some followed her all the way down the block trying to get her attention. She could not hear them – and do you know NO one on the sidewalk, or at the cross walk stopped to tell her about her “display”? Yes, they saw and were staring and laughing but no one said anything to her! I often wonder how she found out.

Like many small towns, we love our minor league baseball here, and I was lucky enough to land a job working in the front office.   Since we’re a small club, some of my duties extend to outdoor maintenance, and I am always grateful for the opportunity to be outside to watch the games.  Game days are always special; the air is filled with the smell of roasting hot dogs and the sound of future ball players yelling, “Hey batter, batter, swing.”  On one afternoon, a particularly threatening sky didn’t do much to dampen fan enthusiasm, but the eventual rainfall told me there would be a delay.  I knew our ground crew was a bit short staffed and would need my help pulling the tarp over the turf.  I’m not necessarily a strong woman, but I’m pretty fit and thought I could be of help, I mean it’s just a tarp, must be like making a bed, right?  Little did I realize that “man down” means nothing when it comes to covering the field, in fact, every man for himself seemed to be the prevailing motto.

In a downpour, I found myself at the upper end of the tarp, smack in the middle dragging it across a soggy field.  The rain was pummeling down, the turf was slick and SPLASH, down I go, losing my grip and instantly being covered.  Well, imagine what’s running through my head, “should I just stay put and maybe no one will notice?” or should I inch my way through and out an inconspicuous corner?”  I decided the latter was the most sound choice (we do experience flash flooding and getting swept away to save what little dignity I had left didn’t seem a good trade-off).  As I was just about to make my escape, confident I was only inches away from going unnoticed, our announcer shouts, “MARCO.”  What choice did I have?  Out I flew from underneath the tarp hearlding, “POLO.”

After waiting several weeks for a new vice principal at our school, we were introduced to him one morning before classes began.  Unfortunately, most teachers were not impressed.  Later on, we knew we were right when he made the daily announcements over the  public address system.  He got right to the point by telling us that he knew that the PA System didn’t work in a lot of class rooms. So, he would fix that immediately, but he had to know which class rooms were not receiving his message.  In order to find out which class rooms were not hearing him, he requested that those teachers who could not hear him please call immediately and identify their room.

I work for a company with a very fun, very young, very techy and close knit culture.  The kind of place where employees might play Rockband in the breakroom at lunch, go karaoke together on a Friday night, or even form their own company band (that’s another blog post!).  The work environment is extremely flexible, with many employees managing their own schedules and working in home offices.  The company is also one that is willing to take risks on employees who might be on the inexperienced side, but who have the high-energy, enthusiasm and potential to take-off in the long-term.  We have employees around the world, but the culture of our organization is consistent across all geographies.  It is the type of place where you can wake up at 6 a.m. on your birthday and glance at your Facebook and already have birthday wishes from around the globe from all the wonderful people you work with.  The first time you visit any of our international offices, you feel as if you’ve known the employees you meet forever.  We work extremely hard to preserve this culture, as we believe it is the foundation of our company.  This story illustrates why…

Three years ago the company hired John as a Business Development Manager.  John tore it up during his first year with the company and was pretty much a rock-star employee off the blocks.  Eventually, he slowed down, and got to a point where he had been in a slump selling almost nothing for quite a long time.  His manager, Ben, was reluctant to let him go because of his prior performance (and the fact that letting someone go from this company always feels like cutting someone out of your family), but after several conversations and no progress, Ben had decided that we needed to let John go.  Business is business.  I knew, as the HR Director, that from a business perspective, this was probably the right call, but it was heartbreaking, nonetheless, as John was a great buddy of mine.  I knew it would be a difficult conversation for Ben, as well.

About an hour after Ben’s call with John was scheduled, I called Ben to check in with him on how it went and how he was doing.  He told me it didn’t go how he anticipated.  I’ve come across enough zany situations in my company to wonder just what this meant…

It turns out, he’d told John that the company had made the decision to let him go, and John had begged him to stay.  He explained that he loved working for this company and didn’t want to go anywhere else.  Ben explained to him that this is a business, and John assured him that he understood and then threw him a curve ball.

“I’ll work for no pay.  You can suspend my base salary for the next four months and I’ll work for only my commission.  If I haven’t turned it around by then, you can fire me, but give me this chance.”  He also showed Ben some information about his pipeline that had just come up recently.  Ben had to think about it, but not for too long.  “You’ve got yourself a deal,” he told John.  How could Ben turn down having an extra sales person for free?  I was also shocked when I heard the story, who offers to work for no pay?  I was also thrilled to know John was down but not out.  I didn’t want to see him go if he didn’t have to.

Four months later, we started a new fiscal year and reinstated John’s base salary.  Not only had John turned it around, but he demonstrated the kind of potential and committment to the company that convinced the management team he was sales management material, and he was promoted.  The promotion was announced at a quarterly meeting when the entire North American team was in town, none of whom knew just how far John had come in the previous four months, with the exception of Ben and myself.  I immediately walked up, gave John a hug, and congratulated him on the promotion.  John just gave me a knowing smile and said “Thanks…it’s been a crazy year.”