Some time ago, I had the opportunity to interview for a newly created head of HR role with a PE-backed company that was seeking to develop its HR function.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the initial interview, the recruiter (who happened to be a white man hired by the PE firm) talked to me about the company\u2019s desire to improve their DE&I efforts, evangelize company culture, and grow the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the second interview, the COO (who happened to be a white man hired by the PE firm) talked to me about the company\u2019s mission, business model, and growth trajectory. He described how the company is ready to make an investment in the HR function to improve their DE&I efforts, evangelize company culture, and grow the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The third interview was with the company\u2019s HR Director (who happened to be a Latina woman who had been working with the company for several years and not<\/em> brought in by the PE firm). Prior to the interview, I had checked out her LinkedIn profile and noticed that we had similar backgrounds. We both had master\u2019s degrees, though she actually had two. We both spoke Spanish, though she had bilingual proficiency and I had conversational proficiency at best. We both came up in HR as generalists, though she had a few years\u2019 more experience as well as global experience, which I did not have. I figured there must be a reason why this person was not being considered for the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I got to the interview, I asked the HR Director an open question about what had been going on with the HR Department. She explained the function\u2019s current operations and the improvements that she had made during her tenure. It was impressive. I asked what should come next for the department, and she explained that now that the basic foundation was in place, HR needed to lean into culture, into DE&I, and into evangelizing the employee value proposition. That was aligned to what I had heard from the recruiter and COO. So what is needed from this new head of HR role? \u201cWell,\u201d<\/em> she replied, \u201cwe need someone who has the time and the vision to take us to the next level.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The fourth interview was with the CEO (who happened to be a white man). He described the company\u2019s history and how the company is now ready to make an investment in the HR function to improve their DE&I efforts, evangelize company culture, and grow the team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I recommended that he cancel the search, promote his HR Director to fill the newly created role, and invest in a team to support her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I shared my observation that he already had an HR leader in place who was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his business, well-qualified to do the job, and who happened to be a woman of color. Invest in her. Hire resources underneath her to free up time so that she can deliver on her vision. I told him, honestly, that she was a better candidate than me for the position, and I withdrew from the process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That company ended up hiring a white woman with even less experience than me to do the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was clear that they couldn\u2019t or didn\u2019t want to see the potential sitting right in front of them. Many times internal talent gets overlooked, because we think we already know the extent of that person\u2019s capabilities, or because we don\u2019t want to lose them in their current role. But it\u2019s important to take a second look at the potential within the existing team before seeking out someone new. Nurturing and promoting from within is great for morale and great for business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for me, the right opportunity was elsewhere, at Saatva<\/a>, where I\u2019ve had the privilege of building an HR team and function that I am very proud of.\u00a0 I try to live the lessons of that job interview. We have our own in-house recruiters who are committed to our values and who understand the importance of diversity in hiring.\u00a0 We work with management to make investments in developing emerging leaders. And we never dismiss home-grown talent, even when it doesn\u2019t conform to pre-existing ideas of who should inhabit the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article has been reposted on\u00a0LinkedIn<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n