Should an HR Manager Hire an Unprepared but ‘Qualified’ Candidate out of pity?

What should an HR Manager do when a candidate shows up to a job interview unprepared? This is obviously an interesting question. And yes, the “humanity” in you is probably prompting you to answer in the affirmative. But before you do, pause for a moment and really think about this –would you hire a candidate who showed up for an interview unprepared?

As you may well know, the recruitment process is very crucial to every company’s overall aim to succeed. It is during this process that the qualified and competent employees are selected, while the ones not so qualified are let go. Now, here is the interesting thing – the fact that part of the measures for competence is “preparedness”.

Why Would HR Hire an Unprepared Candidate?

Let us now consider the issue one more time. Why would a recruitment manager even think about hiring someone who showed up to an interview unprepared? Could it be that there are no potential candidates that can possibly fill the position? Or is the recruiter simply giving the job to the unprepared candidate out of pity? Whatever the reason, we can all agree that this scenario is very far-fetched if we are being honest. But some recent posts on LinkedIn have been trying to normalise it. And now, an actual HR Manager is speaking out against the trend.

What an HR Manager Said

Yemi Faseun, the Head of Human Resources at Glo Nigeria, said it’s time for those peddling this unrealistic narrative to stop. Writing on LinkedIn over the weekend, he expressed worry over the proliferation of stories such as the one below.

“Last week, I interviewed a candidate through Skype for a role in our company. He was totally unprepared and was attending to his kids during the interview. I got to know he’s a single parent. I was disturbed but I gave him the job. Let’s be human first in all we do.

“Sounds familiar? Before you like and share, no it didn’t happen. Am I the only me who’s noticed this trend on some posts here on LinkedIn Boulevard? They thrive on ‘sympathy stories’ and the protagonists are always the saviour of the universe. They fired the HR for being inhuman, they left a million dollar job for xyz reason, they saved a candidate from being harassed by a man during an interview…and the list goes on. It becomes quite disheartening when you read same ‘how I saved the world’ account from 4 different people, each person claiming and owning the story. May be we should change tactics and allow the beneficiaries of our actions and inactions be the story tellers…”

What do you think about this?

We understand that some people may not agree with Mr Faseun’s submission. And it’s okay. After all, agreement is one of the basic things that makes us humans…

Note, however, that the intention of this article is not to campaign against human sympathy. We should all be considerate to each other when necessary. But at the same time, be careful not to allow “sympathy” to override your corporate goals. If a recruitment manager hires the wrong staff out of pity, productivity/efficiency will suffer. And this can never be good for any business.