Question
I need to hire someone with some specialized skills that my team does not currently possess (a cross between a business analyst and a project manager). I have interviewed several people in my company who do the sorts of things I think I need. They are not available to assist, as they are already booked on other projects, but are willing to talk about what they do, how it benefits the company, what their credentials are, and so on. I even have the hiring slot available.
Now for the tough stuff. I have basically cobbled together a fictional position description to satisfy the Human Resources Department and posted the position internally. First, how do I determine what questions to ask potential candidates, since I am looking for skills neither I nor my team know much about? Second, how do I guide the successful applicant into a working slot that we are basically making up as we go along?
Nick’s Reply
That’s a good one. How do you select a person to do a job you haven’t defined which requires skills you don’t understand?
Beware the broken job
I applaud your honesty. Many managers try to fill jobs like that while pretending they know exactly what they’re doing. I call this a broken job.
- There’s no clear, objective definition of the work or the desired outcome.
- There’s no clear, objective measurement of performance.
- The manager is throwing bodies at a problem the manager doesn’t really understand.
- The manager desperately needs to have a short-term task done, but can’t specify what the job will entail afterward.
This is where honesty, candor and a willingness to break the rules will be more helpful than ten HR managers and a highly polished job description.
Do you need an employee or a consultant?
My first step in a situation like this would be to forget about the job description. You don’t really have one — except to appease HR — and you don’t really want one. It could lead you terribly astray. If you don’t know what you need, you’ll wind up hiring the wrong person to do it, and you’ll fire them for doing it poorly!
Step back and get a handle on what it is you’re managing. Are you managing an ongoing function or an outcome? This will help you figure out whether you really need to hire an employee to perform the function, or to contract with another department or consultant to manage the process that will yield the outcome you need.
Pick one or two people on your team to work with you on this “development” project. Then, break the rules. Don’t fill the position — not yet. Rent some help instead.
Get help
Invite a few consultants to come talk with you about the deliverable you’re trying to produce. (Alternately, arrange to have one of those internal experts visit with you. Maybe you can arrange for a part-time assignment, or a series of nice dinners where they can eat and teach.) Pay each of these consultants to show you what the deliverable is and how it’s produced. This should not take a lot of time or cost a lot of money. Using more than one consultant will help you triangulate on the truth you seek. Having a couple of team members work with you will keep you honest and avoid tunnel vision.
Finally, hire the best of the consultants to help you define the process (that is, the job), and to help you establish metrics for performance. This will take longer and cost a bit more, but it will cost less than hiring the wrong full-time employee from the get-go. As a manager, your first objective is to understand the work, not to get the job done.
Don’t set yourself up for failure
Once you’ve got a handle on what the work is all about, how it’s done, and how to measure performance, you can decide whether you need to hire someone, or subcontract the work to another department or assign the whole thing to a qualified consultant. You probably don’t need to be able to do the work yourself; you just need to “get it”.
You can even have the consultant help you recruit, guide a new hire into the job, and do some training. (HR might have a bird when you suggest this. Be ready to squawk back.)
Just remember: ultimately, the person responsible for the hire and the job function is you, not the consultant (or HR). If by this point you’re still not confident about managing this kind of job function, you need to seriously consider subcontracting it or assigning it to another department that can handle it. Don’t set yourself up for failure.
Beware the job description
Companies often waste their money on consultants. But, I believe this is a situation made for a consultant — an expert whose help you can apply over a finite period of time at a finite cost to improve your own ability to do your own job as a manager more profitably. Don’t be afraid to go into learning mode with a consultant. Admit what you don’t know and ask questions. Ask to be taught. Have the right attitude, and you will soon develop the knowledge you need to move ahead and tackle the challenge you face.
Job hunters take note. This honest manager has provided us with an important lesson; a secret about hiring. The job description on file down in the HR department might be a sham; nothing but a place-holder for a position that no one understands. What does that tell you about job descriptions? They’re often perfunctory, designed to satisfy bureaucracy’s hunger for paper; not to help you prepare for a job interview. To get the real scoop on a job, go talk to the manager and the manager’s team.
Ever apply for, or try to fill, a broken job — a job you don’t understand? Why does this happen? How can it be avoided? How should this manager proceed? There’s a whole other angle on this that I didn’t even touch on — what is it?
: :
Hi Nick. I have been following your newsletter since I first heard you on Brian Lehrer’s show . . . late 90s or early 00s, maybe? I always find your advice interesting and spot-on. So I suppose we’re overdue for our first disagreement. ;-) Outsourcing to consultants for something/anything is the correct choice just about as often as hiring through HR is. I’ve seen consultants fail or waste money 100% of the time in my 30 year career in both the private and public sectors, and — surprise — as a well-paid former consultant who is now mortified about that vampiric deviation. If you have not read The Big Con, I highly recommend its exploration of the corrupt “consultancy” system. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/mariana-mazzucato/the-big-con-consulting/
@Chaz: Thanks for that link. I’ve never been one to tout consulting as a way to run a business. I didn’t say it, but Dee did below: I was suggesting a temporary expert, not a firm. A sort of skunk-works solution that could possibly be funded under the radar. However, I am glad I finally gave you something about which to disagree with me! Thanks for your long-time support! (I had loads of fun doing all those WNYC segments with Brian!)
Nick is referring to individuals, not the big “consulting” companies.
There is so much retired and semi retired talent out there willing to contribute for a reasonable amount that it makes sense to get a POV from them.
Nick. I’d agree with you, but HR and upper management 9 times out of 10 won’t allow the time needed to pursue your method, which is likely the right way to do it. They will close down the position. give it to someone else, or black mark you.
The usual way that companies do this, I have found, is to write a BS JD, interview a bunch of people, even taking them to later steps, and then pulling the job and relisting. Rinse, repeat. So you get a bunch of rejected candidates who’ve done free consulting work for you.
I’ve seen this so many times, from total redos to pushing a job requirement from the very bottom to the top. And it can be “minor”, like bringing in marketing software like HubSpot or managing Salesforce.
And then the finance people pull the job as not filled.
“HR and upper management 9 times out of 10 won’t allow the time needed to pursue your method,…”
True.
Therefore,
“How can I hire someone for a job I don’t understand?” OP asks?
No problem, HR “professionals” across the country have been doing this for close to a generation.
Since you already “cobbled together a fictional position description to satisfy the Human Resources Department” you saved HR valuable time since they LOVE hiring managers who simply submit descriptions, sit back, and let the “professionals” do the rest.
Given decades of self-proclaimed proof, HR departments around the country agree: “Don’t understand? No worries!”
Word to the wise, be prepared to possibly wait for up to a year or more before any new hire is made since, in their “dedication” to serve you, HR seeks out the “Purple Squirrel” candidate that matches every “keyword” perfectly in their “Super Candidate 5000” screening software.
Wash, rinse, repeat…
@Chris: You get the second been-there-done-that award today!
@Dee: You’ve clearly been-there-done-that!
You said that there are others in the company that do this work, just not for your team, and that you’ve approached them with questions.
I would first define what you really need, and what will help you most – i.e. What are you trying to fix. Use that to revise the job description. Before making it final, share it with those performing similar work that you’ve already talked to. They may think of something or share an idea that could help define the role.
And then, could you ask one or two of them to be on the interview team? They’ll be better at correlating the interviewee’s comments and responses to the work, and picking up on red flags that you might miss.
As the sacrificial victim in a similar scenario, I can only back up Nick’s advice to nail down what you want to accomplish, how to get it done, and identify the tools and support needed before you start looking for candidates. I took a job doing the same work that I had done for a similar company. The scope of the position, size of the company and its various location, were the same as my previous employer. (The two companies were rivals in the same kind of business.) I learned that they were “a bit” behind in the work (a federal compliance issue) but was told that I would be given a chance to catch up.
During the interview process I told them the one tool I would need to do the job done, a licensed software that did the work of a trained administrative assistant tracking cases and producing timely correspondence. I reccomended the software I used previously along with a couple of alternates. “No problem” was the response so I accepted the job.
Within a a month I learned that that the backlog of work and the seriousness of the lapses were far greater than I was told before hire. The records were in shambles. Poor handling of prior cases compromised the company’s attempt to put things on track but I was expected to work miracles to ward off litigation. Worst of all, no one had bothered to check the cost of the software I needed before assuring me they would get it. There was no budget for it and a markedly inferior and useless product was bought at a fraction of the cost. I was told to use it anyway .There was no way I could do my job the way it was supposed to be done. I couldn’t quit -bills to pay- and so I endured the worst six months of my career. I understand it took the cheapskate company several more tries to fix this mess but I eventually lost track. I think a litigous union later had some fun dragging the company into Federal court over the failure to fix things. No sympathy from me!
Great post, really good comments.
It all triggered this in my mind: Ready-Aim-Fire beats Ready-Fire-Aim every time.