All things being equal…doesn’t happen

July 24, 2006 · Filed Under For the love of HR 

It is a common argument in HR circles:

“All things being equal…”

You can end that statement with a bunch of different things but what I hear most often is in analyzing the interview process. Something along the lines of “All things being equal, being nice gets you the job.” Or “All things being equal, dressing well will get it done.”

I have a startling revelation: all things aren’t equal. They rarely are. This mindless philosophy of HR people has to stop. The best qualified person wins the job (usually) and there wasn’t an equal to have to choose from. I have been in a situation where people have been very close but never equal. Why? Because communicating well, dressing nice and being a type of person who can work well with others DOES effect equality. It is never this black and white “both candidates have five years of experience doing exactly the same thing they would be doing here, there is no real difference between the two and I don’t know how to decide.” There have been situations where I think both could do a good job but this person will do a better job for X,Y and Z reasons.

It seems pointless to me to spend a lot of time opining about all things being equal because it happens so rarely. You should dress well because it will disqualify you or severely handicap your chances of getting a job. You should work on your communication skills for the same reason. People aren’t evaluated for just their on paper qualifications. That might be the only place where people are “equal.”

And if you search my blog and find the phrase, this tongue lashing is deserved.


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Comments

4 Responses to “All things being equal…doesn’t happen”

  1. cris on July 24th, 2006 7:48 pm

    People are in did different. I am still studing HR but for my working experience i am sure of that: for good and bad reasons that’s true.

    In brief and at first, besides efforts not to make irracional choices we all do it. We like more this person than that other because she or he was more quiet or active and we ourselves are the measure for it. Is it fair? Probably no and we can be mistaken. It is important to try to avoid it and try to not forget what exactly you said: people deserve equal chances. We take all years of college trying to learn the best way to prevent bias. But we also learn that we make choices, we are not perfect and some autors say we might be right - to trust is a good policy.

    Well we’ll get back, if you want to this subject.

    Don’t ever think that a closed door it is not oppening a new window - it always does it! Good luck!

    [Reply]

  2. maxie on July 25th, 2006 4:22 am

    Exactly! I just had this experience - the hiring manager started out by asking how to chose between three current employees with “the same” qualifications. Oh - except that one has horrible attendance, and one has a issues getting along with others, and one has 15years of solid employment with great attendance and a wonderfull attitude. Once she said it all out loud, the hiring manager realized that they weren’t so “equal” after all!

    [Reply]

  3. Your HR Guy’s Blog » on July 25th, 2006 11:33 am

    [...] Todays blogswap post is brought to you Alise Cortez, co-writer of the Improved Experience blog. She writes much more intelligently in regards to why “all things being equal” is bad, bad, bad! This is a take off of my post on the same subject. Thanks Alise. [...]

  4. Jim Hasse on February 10th, 2007 12:23 pm

    As an HR guy, how do you react to the question about when is the best time for a disabled job candidate to reveal his or her disability — before or during a job interview?

    For a lively discussion about this issue among job cadidates with disabilities, go to http://www.tabinc.org/net/archives/2007/01/disability_disc.html

    Jim Hasse
    Senior Content Developer
    eSight Careers Network
    http://www.eSight.org

    [Reply]

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