By Manny Roman
I am about to disturb most of you with this month’s column. I will provide my opinion on the task of filling an open position in a department. As a position becomes available, the manager must make many decisions. These decisions will impact the department and the organization for a considerable length of time.
The availability of an opening provides an opportunity to revisit the job description to ensure that departmental and organizational goals and objectives are accurately addressed. The job description should have well-defined criteria for qualified applicants including education, training and experience. It might also be beneficial to list people and relationships skills that are required or desired. Once we have the job and candidate descriptions well-defined, the decision becomes the dreaded internal or external dilemma. Do we promote from within or hire from outside?
I will explore a non-all-inclusive list of issues inherent in promoting from within first. Internal promotion is good for morale they say. It offers a career path and provides hope for advancement. A long time ago, a mentor told me that when you consider promoting from within, you need to figure out who will quit and whether that will be acceptable. I add, who will stay and disengage, whether passively or actively. Without the support of the team, failure is nearly guaranteed.
Will you settle for a nearly fully qualified internal candidate for the sake of the internal promotion? How will you fill the opening left behind by the promotion? Will you wind up now with two new people who will need special attention as they acclimate to their new positions? Will there be a need to provide additional training? A benefit of internal promotion may be that the promoted individual should already be fully aware of the goals and objectives of the department and the organization.
Hiring externally can be a long recruiting process of advertising, interviewing, evaluating, selecting, offering and not coming to an agreement, then repeat. An outsider may cost more. He may also disengage some team members. Others may leave the newly unknown future “Boss.” The individual will need time to acclimate to the goals and objectives and may need additional training. He may also bring some bad habits and undesired baggage with him. His people and relationships skills may be unknown or only hearsay. He may bring a fresh and new perspective that could prove beneficial. He may possess skills unavailable internally.
As you may have surmised from the above, I don’t know which is the better way. I strongly believe that the right move is situational. Here is what I think I know: Communication is key.
Continually communicating with your reports is key to minimizing the effects of a new “Boss.” Having a well-defined set of goals and objectives for each report. Continually evaluating and adjusting these during scheduled one-on-ones will allow for discussions of opportunities and evaluation of the report’s needs, desires and personal objectives. Short of a sudden promotion opportunity, the one-on-ones should provide the manager the opportunity to have honest and direct discussions regarding enhancement of requisite skills.
I personally would post the promotion opportunity with the job description and the required and desired skills for the department and the organization to have the opportunity to formally apply. I would also recruit externally. This would be a time-bound process at the end of which, I would evaluate the situation for any fully qualified candidates. If no fully qualified candidates exist, I would conduct a quick evaluation of what “fully qualified” means and act accordingly. This is where I end the discussion since your own individual circumstances will determine how you will proceed.
We all work under organizational constraints and objectives that may force our decision in one direction or another. HR may decide who the “qualified” candidates are or whether they are internal or external. In any case, the person will report to you and work within your department’s culture, make sure you make the final decision. Although you don’t have to like someone to work with them, it is important that there is mutual respect. Make sure that you and your team can hit the respect button.
Manny Roman, CRES, is association business operations manager at Association of Medical Service Providers.
