Stuck Between Management Demands: How Should I Handle Conflicting Hiring Expectations?

Hello Seniors,

I have come across a problem. Kindly suggest a solution. I am working in a dealership of Ford India, where I am the sole person handling the HR department. In our organization, the CRM is going on maternity leave, and management is uncertain about her return. The Regional Service Manager of Ford India keeps pressuring me to find a capable person with good automobile experience for the CRM position. However, the owner of the company wants me to hire a fresher at a lower salary. The owner wants me to inform the RSM directly that within a month, I am unable to find a suitable candidate.

I am in a dilemma about what to do. If I hire an experienced CRM, the owner will be dissatisfied with me. On the other hand, if I admit my inability to find a good candidate, the RSM will doubt my capabilities.

Seniors, could you please advise me on how to handle this situation?

Thanks and Regards,
Jasmeet
HR Officer

Dear Jasmeet,

To do things the right way, you may have to do a bit of an analysis presenting both the pros and cons of hiring a seasoned CRM vs. a fresher and let your superior decide.

A fresher may be cheaper in salary, but the time and resources used to train up a fresher can be substantial. Also, true results can only be seen after 6 months.

As for a seasoned CRM, at least what he or she needs to do is to focus on the company culture, systems, and processes without undue concern about his or her domain competency. Results can be seen in a shorter timeframe.

As CRM is a customer-facing job, can your company afford to put a fresher in front of a customer? The automotive industry in India is experiencing organic growth, and everyone wants a bigger market share. What's the business strategy of your company? What's the manpower strategy to achieve the business goal?

Having served the automotive industry in my country, Singapore, for the last 10 years, the industry requirement for a CRM is a degree holder with at least 5-7 years of industry experience.

Hope this is useful.

Regards,

Autumn Jane

Your skill sets and the CRM skills/competencies are surely different. Then why the insecurity? Are you not competent in your job? Secondly, never make the mistake of comparing yourself while hiring an employee. Instead, base your hiring decisions on a perfect evaluation methodology/assessment of the new hire, keeping in mind constraints such as experience, salary, and the experience level of the new recruiter.

Dear Jasmeet,

Mr. Alwas has given a good solution to you. Even though she has not submitted a resignation letter, how can we come to a conclusion to hire a fresher/CRM? During her maternity leave period, you can assign these responsibilities to an in-house person to take care of until she returns. This is also a good opportunity for the in-house person to prove or improve themselves.

Let's also consider the views of our senior members.

Sreehari

My dear Jasmeet,

Life is nothing but how we tactfully act upon preferences. You are the best judge as you handle persons, things, and matters. When you ask others, they will go by their individual experience or give logical suggestions. As many of our friends opine, your immediate boss must be satisfied first. And you must be able to reason out properly your decisions.

All the best.

R. Ganesh

Hi,

You are working for your company, not your RM or whatever. I think you should think about the company; there are a hundred mouths and a thousand suggestions. It is you who will make the decision. Best of luck.

Regards,
Poonam Bisht

In the doledrum situation, what is the best you can do? I see this is a totally unprofessional approach from their side. So, talk to both of them, advise and suggest from your perspective. Last but not least, you have to go along with the owner of the company. "You can select the organization, but you can't choose your boss."

Hi Jasmeet,

You are certainly caught up in a Catch-22 situation, and there are no hard and fast rules in such cases. Even I faced a similar situation some time back, and based on my personal experience, I suggest paying attention to your reporting relationship in this case. Whether you report directly to the owner or to the Regional Head, keep your immediate boss in the loop of what's happening and let that person know about the views of the other superior. Inform your boss that you have already discussed the matter with the other superior and, if possible, ask him to have a one-on-one discussion with him as well. Since both of them are at almost similar levels in the hierarchy, reaching a consensus regarding decisions would yield better results. After all, everybody is concerned about the benefit of the organization only!

My virtual friend Jasmeet,

As I am from the BPO-Telecom/Outsourced industry where I had to listen to my directors and clients as well; so I used to address this sort of impasse situation as the "SANDWICH POSITION."

Be a self-guided missile in this regard.

As both your RSM and parent company are not following the legal side of the HR department concerning maternity leave; please go with the flow and remember the word "JOB" (Just Obey Boss).

Now the question is whom to follow?

My answer is, lose seven days, ask your RSM to provide an experienced CRM for that position, and in case he succeeds in providing the same, ask your parent company that it was the RSM's choice.

Act and pretend as per situational needs.

Regards, Abhijit Goswami from Kolkata

Email: abhijit.gosw@gmail.com

Dear Jasmeet,

Your posting indicates that there seems to be dual reporting for you, which is, of course, a delicate and complicated situation. Rather than finding a solution to your problem, you are worried about satisfying your bosses.

Please understand that maternity leave is statutory, and you cannot terminate anyone during their maternity leave. You can seek a temporary replacement for the duration of her maternity leave. If she does not return even after exhausting her entitled leave, you can extend the tenure of the temporary appointee. It is always better to hire a competitive person for any position so that you do not need to compromise on the quality of work.

Please try to persuade your bosses and convince them to approve your proposal.

Thanks & Regards,

Balamurugan Sivaprakasam
Head-HR, ICIL-MM Nagar

Hello Seniors,

Thank you so much for your valuable suggestions. I appreciate that you have spent your precious time thinking about my problem. I had a word with my boss & RSM, and they managed to talk with each other. I am trying my best to convince them of my point.

Thank you.

Regards,
Jasmeet

Dear Jasmeet,

Merry Christmas :)

Your loyalty should be with the company owner first, as he is the owner of the company and he has to pay the amount, not your RSM. Even your RSM is also accountable to answer to your company owner. So, according to me, just follow what your company owner says, because an RSM can be changed in the company, but the company owner cannot be changed.

The following is based on the assumption that the current CRM decides to leave the organization after maternity:

Different industries have different practices. In the automotive industry, when the Principal partner (in this case Ford) appoints a dealer, the dealer is expected to meet agreed KPIs. These KPIs usually include meeting sales quota, service standards.

The dealership appointment is not permanent. It is renewable depending on evaluation outcome based on how dealers meet these KPIs.

Your dilemma will not be solved by being loyal to the company boss that pays your salary or by ignoring the RSM because he is an outsider or just a company employee. If you want to be a strategic HR, then you have to look at the big picture. As mentioned in my earlier post, your job now is to find a balanced solution - one that meets both the strategic intent of the business and the needs of different stakeholders - your boss, your RSM, HR, staff, and even customers.

Regards,
Autumn Jane