It’s been a year since I took over the Laboratory Services Team and I have to say that I love my team. My staff is comprised of some of the most wonderful people imaginable. They are hardworking and not only willing to take direction, but actually want to learn and do a good job. I’ve yet to see any of them fail to meet a challenge head-on. Of course, it’s not all rainbows and unicorns. Even though I treasure my team members, some of the challenges of the job, not so much. One of my pet phrases has been:

It’s like juggling chainsaws and babies.

Managing a multidisciplinary team is difficult enough without the added pressure of recruiting, and navigating the sea of union side letters and parameters. Although I don’t disagree with the MOU or the union backing it, at the moment, it’s causing me more problems than it’s solving. My recruiter and I have come to the conclusion that the planets have aligned, the stars are in retrograde, and there’s a full moon on the horizon. I’m new to the concept of recruitment and staffing, so this is new to me, but even my recruiter has never seen a more complex, convoluted, hiring process.

Working for a public agency has a lot of plusses, but it’s all about balance; if there are positives, there must be negatives. Among these are adherence to the letter of the law as established by different bargaining units, public outrage and disdain for us and our jobs despite the fact that they were obtained by an open recruitment process, and Freedom of Information Act requests that back sites like Transparent California, which publishes our salary and benefit information for the public to peruse. I won’t delve into the fact that, in doing so, we’re denied any semblance of privacy when it comes to our income based solely on the fact that we’re ‘government’ employees.

Anyway….

Recruitment: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

A little history of my team is required to make this easy to digest.

When I was hired as team manager, I had a team of six, none of which I hired, but I wasn’t complaining as they were excellent workers. One of the first things that I did was to tell my staff that I was advocating for them: if there was someplace that they wanted to work in the organization, they should put themselves on the transfer list. This is an internal list of eligible candidates working within the same classification that can move laterally into a like position, or at the very least, be granted an interview. Later on, once they had moved up and out, I wanted to remember me as the boss that encouraged them to reach for their dreams.

As it turns out, this was both a blessing and a curse. Within the first four months, my first staff member left to move up to a higher classification—I was so happy for him. Yes, I was sad for us to lose such a talented and energetic member of our staff, but he was being given an opportunity to follow his dreams. Unfortunately, this was the first pebble releasing from a dam on the verge of bursting.

Less than six months later, two more staff members abdicated for other positions at different locations—both promotional. Again, I’m filled with pride and happiness for each of them, but I’m now drowning in the aftermath of flood. Why? Because I’ve only just replaced the first of the three that have left…and he’s not working out very well.

I understand that there is a process to staffing and recruitment. Let me give an overview of how it works in my agency.

Stage 1: Recruiting to replace an employee who has accepted an position internally, (i.e., the very definition of bureaucratic red tape)

1. Fill out a staffing requisition to replace exiting staff
   

   NOTE: this cannot be created beforehand even if you absolutely know that they are leaving. All positions are assigned a static position control number (PCN) and if, on paper, the PCN is occupied, it is not eligible for recruitment, which means that an individual needs to be moving (offer made and accepted) into a vacant PCN before a staffing requisition can be routed for approval.
   

2. Once the staffing requisition has been completed, it’s then routed for approvals. This can be a long and arduous process—especially in my “group”. (Our top-down organizational structure progresses as follows: executive, group, section, unit, team.) Unfortunately, this is usually where things get stuck. Our group manager only signs personnel-related documents once a month. When you’re desperate to fill a vacancy, this delay can actually cost thousands of dollars in overtime for the staff members that have to backfill for the departing employee. Additionally, the effect on morale can be devastating.
   
   1. As a subset of this step, at any time, the group manager can change, edit, or deny the request. In the case of my first recruitment for an administrative assistant, my request was downgraded. More on that later.
      
   2. Additionally, the group manager can hold onto the request for as long as they want, forget about it completely, or lose it. Oh goody!
      
3. Yay! The staffing requisition has finally been approved. Now it’s off to Human Resources to post. Per the MOU, all positions posting concurrently internally and externally must be made available for no less than 10 working/business days, which does not include alternating Fridays (when our main office is closed) and holidays—I do NOT ever recommend trying to recruit during the end of year holiday season.
4. Okay. The posting has closed and HR has received 150 applications for a single position. This is the rule, not the exception. After they’ve done their due diligence in prescreening applications, the remainder are forwarded to the recruiting manager for review. In this case, that’s me. Luckily, I didn’t receive 150 applications. No, I was only forwarded 73 applications to review. Do you know how long it takes to review 73 applications for an entry-level position to find the right fit? No? I didn’t either. Suffice it to say, it takes a very long time.
5. I whittled my stack of resumes down with the help of my interview panel, which consisted of myself, another team member working at the same classification (lab assistant), and our QA chemist. Oh, did I fail to mention that all interviews are conducted by panel? Again, the rule, not the exception. Together, we managed to—somehow—bring the candidate list down to 23, then 15, and finally 12, of which we intended to interview all of them in order to create a selection pool to draw from if necessary for the next six months.
   
6. Being the interviewer is much easier than being the interviewee. We spent two full 8-hour days interviewing all 12 applicants, scoring each according to a set of predetermined criteria. Immediately following, we ranked the candidates from top to bottom. Immediately following the interviews, I went back to my office and submitted out hiring recommendation. And then I waited…..
   
7. And waited….
   
8. And waited.
   
9. Nearly three weeks after submitting the approved hiring recommendation to HR, I was told that they can now start the week-long background check.
10. Oh yeah, HR doesn’t want to start an employee mid payroll cycle either. I mean, they can, they just don’t want to.
    
11. Finally, more than seven months (!) after losing a staff member, I finally have a replacement. Unfortunately, the recruitment took so long to fill that two more staff members have now left and now I have to start the process all over again…sort of.
    

Stage 2: Piggybacking off of a still viable recruitment

1. This process is surely easier and faster. Right? Actually yes, but it can—and in my case, is—fraught with complications. This time, since I’m recruiting for the exact same position with two viable PCNs, approvals were quick and easy. Step 1, done!
   
2. This time, we didn’t have to post inside/outside concurrently because we had already interviewed and ranked external candidates. But, an MOU side letter specifies that we must post internally for 10 working/business days. In this situation, since I’m now down to one experienced staff member (from the original four) and one trainee, I’m getting desperate and my recruiter knows it. He’s doing everything he can, even trying to find concessions if possible. (He’s pretty amazing.)
   
3. Spend the 10 working/business days with my fingers crossed that I no one applies. Why? Because if an internal candidate applies, I’m required to interview them. This is a delay I can’t really afford. Additionally, internal candidates are graded on a pass/fail system, not a numerical grade scale. In other words, I either hire them or not, which kind of sucks since I’ve already essentially selected my top six candidates, but we’re all about giving existing employees prime choice. Here’s where things got complicated for me.
   
   1. I received three applications. Since I’m hiring for two positions this time, I have to interview them all.
      
   2. Twist: the first applicant is a probationary employee (has been on the job less than six months), the second candidate is eligible, and the third is non-responsive.
      
   3. Twist 2: our office is located 45 minutes east of Los Angeles (headquarters in Los Angeles) and candidate one lives in Beaumont, over an hour away, and candidate two lives in Desert Center, 2-1/2 hours away. Really? For an entry-level position? Candidate three has been withdrawn after failing to responding to any form of contact.
      
   4. Twist 3: if I choose not to offer candidate 2 a position, I must interview candidate 1 (probationary employee), but I must interview candidate 2 first, and since I’m hiring for two positions, I’m required to interview both candidates on different days regardless of a pending offer. Only when I have eliminated one or both candidates can I move onto the existing external candidate pool.
      
4. Gather the original interview panel together for ONE interview. Fine. Whatever.
   
5. Surprisingly, we were all impressed with the candidate—I honestly didn’t think we would be. We agreed to make her an offer. One down, one to go. We’ll be repeating this same process on Monday with candidate 1 (probationary employee) and making a determination immediately following.
   

In the meantime, my final staff member has been offered a promotion and will be leaving as soon as I’m able to release her. Then I start the process all over again.

In summary, I started out with six staff members in June 2016, lost one in October, gained one in March (new admin), lost two in April, gained one in May, will gain one in June, will (probably) lose one in June (failing probation), gain two in July, lose one in … summer. In other words, in the span of less than one year, I’ll have lost and replaced more than half of my staff.

Downgrading

Remember that I mentioned that downgrading a position was a potential stumbling block in the recruitment process? It was up there, in Stage 1, step 2(a). This happened to my recruitment for an administrative assistant.

Briefly, while recruiting for a (series of) replacement lab assistants, I was also recruiting for a new administrative assistant. Our agency classifies most positions as I, II, or III with I being entry-level. I requested and was initially approved to recruit for an administrative assistant II, which I fully justified by stating that this was MY replacement (I was an admin III) and this would provide me with an experienced backup providing me with much needed assistance. This was downgraded to an admin I, which essentially ties my hands for up to five years as I have to spend that amount of time fully training three brand new admins. They are all brand new to the agency and, at this time, my most senior staff member has been with the agency for all of two years. Admittedly, he is one of the hardest and quickest learning admins I’ve had the opportunity to work with. Come summer, he’ll also be the only male member of my staff. I think he’s up for the challenge.