I was part of a candidate feedback session with a member of our executive team. In my two years at the company, this was one of the rare times that I had an opportunity to have an ET member in the room.
Usually during feedback sessions, I’ve always taken the position of neutrality. I rarely get asked my opinion about candidates. I try to keep this position of neutrality in an effort to allow my hiring managers the ability to not feel pressured into “hiring someone that HR wants”.
During the session, one of the VP’s goes first, followed by the HR Generalist and then around the room. Our ET member weighed in and then looked at me and said “What do you think?” I believe that the look on my face was of shock, because the words were kind of stumbling out of my mouth. The ET member then just says “Don’t think like HR, I want you to think like a business man and tell me what you think”!
I gave my assessment, agreed that both candidates were good, but the internal one would ramp up faster and right now, time is a luxury that we don’t have in excess.
As I embark on the journey of evangelization, looking for ubiquity and my voice I was jolted into reality by an admired colleague.
Think like a business man! Simple, quick, & poignant advice from someone in the trenches.
