Dear applicant

Human resource madness

Dear applicant:

Thanks for your interest in our envied company. Unfortunately we presently don’t know how you could serve us. We are not really interested in your ideas or we don’t understand them. We have inspected your profile in every detail but it just won’t really match up to our vacancy. We are so busy administering all the applications from people who want to work with us, that we get paid well doing this and have no time to understand what the world is about. So why don’t you go looking for other job opportunities?! We wish you all the best for your career.

What’s wrong with this? Everything.

This standard human resources (HR) e-mail template is still used every day without thinking, by a large number of companies, big and small.

There are good reasons to stick with this habit. It is easier for HR people to pretend they know what they are doing, and what’s good for their company, than to rethink what people and work are all about.

But there are a number of reasons to give up this habit. Here is one. People outside your company are more important to your survival than people inside your company. Because the likelihood that someone outside your company can challenge you, can provide ideas that help you, can make you aware of opportunities that you don’t see, is 100%. Although you still should assume the vanity to know what’s good for yourself, you might want to give room for others to discover what’s good for you.

There are people who apply for vacancies and there are those who send unsolicited applications or business proposals. The latter are more valueable to you and you should never send them away. If you do, you are denying yourself access to talent, ideas, ressources. I believe that every new contact, wether they are applicants for vacancies or volunteering business partners, should all be treated as if they are volunteering business partners. Mix & match: YES. Cherry picking: NO.

Companies like to see themselves as ships navigating through troubled waters. They should leave the ships to the people and start to think of themselves more as the docks instead, the infrastructure to which people can attach themselves, and their ships.

The goal of life is people, not products. The main output of companies are people, not products. Attracting talent could be easy, if your sourcing strategy would engage people and if you could stop being afraid of giving away your company’s insights. You might harbour superspecific knowlede or technology. But again, the likelihood that someone outside your company finds a better way to use it or to complement it, is 100%.

5 Comments

mo | May 23, 2006

Brilliant Alex, :)

Alex | May 23, 2006

I am just warming up you know, ;) When i am face to face with some very charming HR madams, my most congenial self will have to cope.

Thank you Mo! It’s nice you are stopping by.

mo | May 26, 2006

you mean you're that lucky?
isn't it supposed to be a grumpy overweight man, that looks like he owns you?

Alex | May 27, 2006

Nohh, nahhh, not that lucky of course. The grumpy old man is also sometimes found.

mo | May 31, 2006

I prefer the beach..