Specific Hiring Delima

¶ … Hiring Dilemma

This report is a human resources case study review regarding a city's hiring dilemma. The case revolves around several key points that can either make or break a newly hired database administrator, a programming director and a large city's data-processing department consisting of five sections of computer programmers, each made up of a senior programmer and three to four trainees and. The department generates computer systems for the city and this function requires the programming director and the staff to spend a lot of time with the system's users and they are known as being highly professional.

The boss has informed the program director in the past that he wanted to hire a database administrator and recently did so. The problem is that although this individual seems qualified on paper, several mistakes may have been made by the boss in the recruitment and hiring process which has lead to some dissention in the ranks. The person hired is the spouse of a newly hired police chief brought in from another city.

The city office did have a spousal precedence established that when new department heads came on board that their spouse often also followed suit and found jobs somewhere in the city government. In this case, the wife has the credentials for the position and she was awarded a higher income than the existing team members. The problem is that the majority of the staff feels that she was given the job because of her husband's position, she was paid too much and that they were not even considered for the position.

Administration dealing with "qualified spouse"

In this case, the recruitment policy, hiring process and pay scale administration seems to have gone over the deep end. This process should instead have been a preestablished process that followed a set of rules. For example, since there was a history of previous spouses getting jobs once a husband or wife was hired, there should be no surprise to the employees. Although this does not make the hire of Muffy right, it should placate the staff to the historical trends and nature of being a city employee.

However, what should have happened for this position was that a thorough recruiting plan and job description should have dictated who was finally hired to fill database administrator position. There is nothing wrong with the Chief's wife getting the job if in fact she was the best qualified person to successfully pass a rigorous interview and screening process. In this case, there was no mention of the competition for the job and part of the complaints the staff had entailed that they were not asked or given an opportunity to apply for the position.

If there was a possibility of one or more individuals on the existing team could have been qualified for the position, then they should have been examined in a pre-employment assessment tool for all eligible candidates. In addition, the job descriptions again would have clarified who and what type of educational background may have been needed.

How do you justify to your staff the fact that Muffy is making a higher salary than any of them and that they did not have the chance to interview for the position?

There are two answers that immediately come to mind - I can't or she was way qualified... From the perspective of I can't, I would focus on two specific points. Either she is getting too much or the staff is getting too little. The results of this hire already created morale issues that undermine relations. It will be critical to make sure that the staff understands that they are being treated in a fair and consistent manner and that the lower-paid employees are getting paid at the appropriate level that incorporates a full range of upper and lower limits for their particular jobs.

The second point would be to demonstrate her credentials including relevant experience, knowledge and potential to increase the department from previous jobs and assignments output. This would go a long way in showing why she was hired over the existing employees and that it had little to nothing to do with her spouse being the chief. Again, a sound job description and the details of hiring from either the civil process or some other documented hiring procedure and policy could justify her coming on board.

How does the personnel office handle this problem in light of the city's civil service system?

As noted, compliance issues with regard to hiring should have been taken into consideration. For example, the ADA would prohibit discrimination against all qualified applicants with disabilities. Determining the essential functions of the job before beginning the interview process would have been a more professional approach. If any of the staff were disabled but felt that he or she could have don the database administrator job for instance, that individual may have had a viable legal position was given to the spouse of the chief even though he was qualified and therefore discriminated against. But it is not just the disabled because the Chief's wife got the job seemingly with no other outside competition.