Hiring for Your Own Kind - Workology

Hiring for Your Own Kind Hiring for Your Own Kind After two years of a very solid HR team, I received notice that an HR Analyst in my department would be leaving us. Stephanie Hammerwold (also a fellow Blogging4Jobs contributor), decided it was time for her to move to Southern California and pursue an HR gig on her own. Im stoked for her but sad for the HR team. We are losing a great HRer! That being said, it was time to get my butt in gear and try to fill a vacancy quick! It felt like a long time since I had had to recruit for an HR position on my team and Stephanie is leaving a huge gap to fill. I have found myself reevaluating the structure of the department and how we support the business to determine the best way to move forward. But more importantly, I have had to reevaluate if Im walking the talk. You have to lead by example, right? Im always coaching managers to ensure they have fair and consistent hiring practices, so I need to make sure Im doing the same. In HR we are always guiding, suggesting, enforcing, etcetera, etcetera how managers react and handle almost every situation in their day to day work life. So, I ask myself: Am I following my own rules? Its so easy to be super critical when you are hiring for: Someone who will be working for you and with you everyday You know right away if someone is full of bull sh#%$ You are filling a vacancy where the existing incumbent is doing a great job This person will touch a lot of people in the organization and almost all potential employees (they need to represent the company image) You have to move fast without sacrificing the quality of the process Im putting a lot of pressure on myself to ensure I spend ample time to find the right person. Not only am I interviewing someone   but they are also interviewing me and the HR team to determine if me, the department and the company will be right for them. I have to be careful not to oversell the position. It would be horrible to fill a vacancy that doesnt meet the expectations of the new hire. I have also started to come to terms with the fact that we may not have an overlap with Stephanie leaving the new person starting. This is definitely not ideal but we will have to make do. This will show us if we have truly done a good job cross-training. Just like I coach managers to remain open, I need to remain open to new perspectives and different personalities. Instead of focusing on specific degree, years of HR experience, or finding another Stephanie; I need to find someone who hold the qualities that are well suited for the position, the department and the company. Dont get me wrong, the HR experience is very important but some of that stuff can be learned. Being that there are still a lot of people looking for job(s and the company I work for is very attractive to many people in our community), it has been easy to get applicants (which is very fortunate). Another great advantage in this process, is to be able to reach out to my network of other HR professionals to get the information about applicants. Its always great to hear some informal feedback from other professionals that you trust. Hiring for Your Own Kind What are your best recommendations for hiring HR professionals?