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I just started at a new company a few weeks ago. We have an internal candidate, Steve, for a position, and the hiring manager does not want to interview him because Steve previously worked a temp position in their office and made many mistakes that caused many issues. The problem I’m having is that they never told Steve there were issues with his job performance. 

Steve applied for this position two times and is now reaching out to me (the HR director) to find out why no one responded to his application. I’m having difficulty figuring out what to say because management never documented anything about his issues. I tried to get the hiring manager to interview him as a courtesy, and I’ve been told to say he is not a good fit for the role. 

On another note, Steve has a bachelor’s degree in the field he applied for, and on paper, he looks like a great candidate. However, he has been moved into three different jobs over the last year because departments continue to have issues with him, but nobody has told him or documented anything. Help! 

The first and most important thing about your question is figuring out who the problem is. The problem is not the internal candidate. The problem is the management.

Look, good employees come and go. Even the best recruiter and the best hiring manager make mistakes from time to time. Sometimes you’ll get employees who just aren’t good at the job. Sometimes, there is absolutely nothing you can do to make them better.  But sometimes, they need feedback and training.

It looks like your company decided to do absolutely nothing other than move Steve around. As expected, doing nothing did not make Steve a better employee.

Here’s your plan as the new HR director. You don’t want to just ignore this and write Steve off as a failure, because if Steve hasn’t gotten any feedback, it’s doubtful that managers gave other employees feedback as well. You have a rotten situation where no one knows how they are doing.

Negative feedback is kind

No one likes to receive negative feedback — we all want to think we are awesome. But if you don’t receive feedback telling you what you need to change, you won’t change. And if you don’t change, you end up like poor Steve, who “looks good on paper” but can’t get an interview. 

How much kinder would it have been for his first boss to sit down with Steve and say, “Hey, you did A, B and C, but what I needed was D, E and F.” Or, “Steve, this is the third time I’ve had to talk to you about this. I will put you on a performance improvement plan so that the expectations are clear. I will help you and provide you with regular feedback so you can improve.”

If his bosses — any of the ones he’s had since joining the company — had told him what he needed to do, it would have been his choice whether or not to do it. If he chose not to — fine, it’s a free country. But then you could have used his failed PIP to terminate him and hire someone who wanted to do the job.

It is kind to let someone know what they need to do.

Stop the management ghosting

Nice managers don’t like to give negative feedback because it’s confrontational. A lot of people don’t like to say negative things. They prefer to do the management equivalent of ghosting: to say nothing and hope that the lousy employee becomes someone else’s problem.

You need to sit down with your managers and train them to provide feedback for all employees — not just struggling ones. Feedback doesn’t have to be scary and formal. Often, a simple, “Next time, please do X. Y doesn’t work because that goes against company policy.” Or “You made a mistake in your report. You need to add this column, not multiply it.”

Find resources for managers to use to train their employees. When one employee struggles with Excel, send them to an Excel class. If someone doesn’t know how to act in a meeting, teach them. Yes, the conversations can be a bit awkward at first, but it’s a kindness to help people learn how to succeed.

Hold managers accountable

Managers generally earn more than individual contributors because managing is hard and has higher stakes. And managing people means doing the hard things — including having difficult conversations with employees.

Steve’s current boss needs to take the lead on the current problem. They need to sit down with Steve and review his current workload and the areas he needs to improve. Tell him if Steve isn’t performing at a high enough level to be promoted. Tell him what he needs to do to reach that next level.

You may need to spend considerable time coaching Steve’s boss, but it will be worthwhile if you can get managers to manage.  

Have a dilemma for the Evil HR Lady? Send questions to evilhrlady@gmail.com.

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