I was about twenty years old when I decided that my dream job was to be a Vice President of Human Resources. Now many years later, I'm still in hot persuit of that dream. Unfortunately, one of the things I'm learning is that it hasn't been enough years. It surprising that in a world where multi billion dollar companies are run by Stanford dropouts and twenty something boyscouts, companies are still hanging on the the failing philosophy of hiring.

"Seeking Director of Financial Planning"

Reporting to the VP-Finance, you will perform key financial reporting and operating support functions in an energetic, team environment. Communication skills (both written and verbal) are required. CPA/MBA and/or prior experience in either public accounting (Big 4) or software is strongly desired, and experience with Oracle is a big plus. Bachelor's degree in Finance or Accounting is a must. The ideal candidate will possess 9+ year's work experience within an accounting function and possess strong supervisory skills. Candidates must be pro-active and possess strong presentation skills in this entrepreneurial environment."

Something is strikingly missing. If you don't know what it is, then you're probably missing it in your recruiting procedures. Maybe in fact, it's missing from your vocabulary, from your experience. It's probably one of the single most important skill anyone employee can have and even if it's not immediately recognizable as an asset to this position today, what about the next step? "Must be able to effectively interact with other, both management AND subordinates". Okay, so the first one generally isn't a problem, especially if you don't consider high turnover a problem, but the ladder? Well, that can be a serious problem, such a big problem, most companies don't even recognize the necissity to address it. It's like black on black or white on white. Unless a hole is poked in one when the other is supposed to be dominate, no one notices that anything is out of place. For the purpose of this discussion, I'll call it "The Bolton Syndrome". The boss, the co-worker, the manager that is so obnoxious, so abusive, so innapropriate, so out of control, yet so totally competent in their skill that no one seems to care. If you follow the news, you've heard the stories of John Bolton, US ambassator to the United Nations. Stories of yelling at employees, throwing things and using innapropriate languague abound, and dispite the discussion of this behavior, no one seems concerned about the general pervasiveness of such beahvior and the damage it can do in the workplace. I would argue that this behavior, in the long run, is more costly and more damaging to a company, it's retention, productivity and it moral that the much discussed sexual harassement. The reality is that real sexual harrasement rarely happens in the average workplace. Very few men are willing to risk their livelyhood, their reputation and their future over a woman in the office and as controversial as this may sound, the ones that are most likely are as sick as someone with a drug addition.

I once worked for a company who had just let their head of Human Resources go. He was still getting paid, not unusual for a top level executive that has to be "let go". He was accused of sexually harassing two subordanates in his department. Rewind three years, appearently this guy had done this before, but no one bothered to check his background because he was somehow aquainted with a high level executive in the company. Not that it would have mattered if his references HAD been checked. Today, most companies would rather just stay out of it thank you very much. While I was working for this company, I uncovered over $40k in overpaid bills and many thousand more dollars in under deducted employees. Throughout the company, turnover abounded as managers treated their employees poorly, the training, compensation and benefits were either poorly designed or none existient and the company thought that was SAVING them money.

I've learned how to improve the overall performance of the four areas of human resources I've dealth with in this article, recruiting, training, compensation and benefits. I look forward to applying my ground breaking philosphies at my next employment stop.

Marina Boyd
HR Executive