Comments on: Should You Replace the Incumbent?

By: Keith Halperin

Keith Halperin — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 23:36:10 +0000

Thanks, Lou. If we recruiters could *act as providers of needed work resources (where that would be provided as FT, PT, contract, no-sourced [eliminated], through-sourced [automated], or out-sourced work) instead of just sellers or renters of walking/talking widgets, we could provide much higher value-add to our customers and clients.

Cheers,

Keith keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

*Unfortunately, I haven’t had employers beating down my door lately for me to do that for them…

By: Richard Araujo

Richard Araujo — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:42:40 +0000

Honestly, Merlynn, I’ve never found anything as useful as performance profiles as described above. Getting HMs to focus on what actually needs to be done instead of a laundry list of skills which in a perfect world would lead to those things getting done is key to a good hire. Skils =/= performance in the end, they are a part of it, not the whole thing. Whether or not you put it in your official job description is one thing and a decision you have to make based on what you assess your risk as, but you should always have the profiles available and use them in your process. My company unfortunately still uses stale job descriptions, force of habit among most people is what it comes down to, and one I haven’t been able to break. But I’ve managed to get performance profiles in use informally and they have made a difference. There’s no easier or better way to keep your eye on the ball, keep all parties accountable, and keep all candidates in context and judge them appropriately.

By: Lou Adler

Lou Adler — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 20:10:38 +0000

@merlynn – in my new book The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired (Jan 2013) the largest labor law firm in U.S. will advocate that performance profiles are far superior than traditional job descriptions! So you’re contention is totally without merit. The third largest law firm – Fisher and Philips wrote a white paper in 1997 asking their clients to use performance profiles to prevent compliance and wrongful hiring claims. They even won a number cases when they were used, and lost many when they weren’t. If you go to our site – louadlergroup.com – you’ll be able to formally request a copy of the the F&P report. If you buy Hire With Your Head you’ll see of a copy of the same white paper in the Appendix. To make legal claims without due diligence or to suggest that what I recommend is totally inappropriate. However, many people in HR do make major decisions without understanding the law.

By: Merlynn Bertini

Merlynn Bertini — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 19:48:47 +0000

While in theory performance based job descriptions have merit. The disclaimer at the end of your article points to why they (performance based job descriptions) should not be used. There are already enough “land-mines” for Talent Organizations(i.e, insuring ADA requirements and accomodation, diversity, discrimination issues, etc.,) Unbiased, non-discriminatory hiring practices are supposed to be based on the requirements of the position–and if the candidate has the necessary skills to do the job.

These are legal issues and employment attorneys–depending upon whom they represent (employee or company) would either be drooling or going ballastic if a company were to use performance based job descriptions. The exposure and risk for companies would be too great.

Merlynn