Henrietta (name has been changed) worked for Big Company for several years. Then she had a baby and quit working to stay home.
Her boss valued Henrietta’s skills and begged her to come back. Henrietta agreed, provided that she could work remotely. Her boss agreed.
After salary negotiations, Henrietta received an offer letter, contingent on a background check, and a start date. Henrietta arranged daycare for the offspring, which she had to start paying for on her agreed-upon start date.
But that start date came and went, and she didn’t start working. Do you know why?
Big Company couldn’t verify her previous employment.
Do you remember who her previous employer was? Oh, that’s right, the same company she was working for now. Yet somehow, they couldn’t find a record of her working there.
Henrietta produced her last W2 from Big Company and has a new start date. However, she had to pay for a week of daycare that she didn’t need. It’s a real expense (as anyone who uses daycare knows).
She now considers HR to be incompetent. Her boss considers HR to be incompetent. Meanwhile, the business partner or employee relations person they will work with had absolutely nothing to do with this incompetence. Employment verification was likely outsourced to a third party who has nothing to do with Big Company’s policies or strategy.
This is the problem with HR and talent acquisition, and outsourcing. Many TA people emphasize that they are not HR. Both say they aren’t the outsourcing company. You can say, “Oh, that wasn’t HR or TA, that was the silly outsourcing company!”
It doesn’t matter. People develop negative attitudes toward the entire profession when one part of the HR realm falls apart.
When you consider outsourcing to focus on the strategic aspects of HR, remember that your employees will judge you based on the worst call center employee they encounter.
If the incompetence is the verification is with the outsourcing company, that incompetence within the employer is in choosing an incompetent outsourcing company.
Let me tell you a story. I applied for a job. I received interview info for another candidate (for the same req). I politely emailed TA, asked him to confirm my interview day snd time, no mention of his error. The day of interview I had to wait 45 minutes because no one entered me in “the system” so I wasn’t allowed out of the lobby. Interview went well. TA called and offered me the job! Then called me 2 hours later and rescinded, oops wrong candidate. He called me a few days later, and invited me to apply for a different position. I did, and the Excec VP of HR called to offer me the position. Not sure if he knows about the prior mix up or if it was coincidence. I started work. Insurance wasn’t letting me enroll. Same with retirement. The Benefits guy sent me a screenshot of my account “everything is fine on his end” EXCEPT my SSN was wrong. I had to bring my original card on the 1st day AND they made a copy of it. My last job used the same providers, and the providers advised my SSN was wrong (I finally called BCBS to ask why I couldn’t enroll). It took 3 weeks to fix. I’m not confident it is fixed on my life ins and other benefits, guess we’ll find out if I die. I’m still here, but I have no love nor trust for our HR.