No “BIAS” About It

Last week I fired a long-time client. Hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past several years were earned working with this person, and nothing to indicate that was going to change – until I learned that he was a racist.

I’m honored to have “CPC” at the end of my name. And as a Certified Personnel Consultant, I’m also proud to be an EEOC supporter:

It is illegal to discriminate against a job applicant or an employee because of the person's race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, age (40 or older), disability or genetic information.

Throughout my career, I’ve always been an open book. Ask me anything, and I’ll give you an honest answer. I’ve extended Facebook relationships to numerous clients, and it builds deeper relationships. Why? I want people to know who they are working with, and it establishes another level of trust and commitment with my candidates and clients.

Every day I have to judge candidates. That’s part of the reason why clients pay me:

• Are they a great sales professional, or just a good one? (And frankly some suck!)
• Will the personality match with my Hiring Authority?
• Do their career objectives fall in line with what my client offers?

Every day I have to judge prospects that could become clients:

• Do they have a technology/niche that can be sold in the market?
• Culture and how they treat their staff: toxic vs family-friendly?
• Do they abide by the EEOC?

Here’s a conversation I had with a prospect in late December:

“Don, just get me a woman, they fare better in front of our clients, and our last 4 successful hires were women.”

My response was simple, “I will present any and all qualified candidates for the job. Refusal to see candidates based on gender will not allow us to work together.”

“I thought you should know that our best hires have recently been women. That’s cool, I just want the best people. You’re the expert.”

Guess who they hired – a man. Oftentimes the hiring authorities don’t know- they’re Sales Managers. Of course their HR teams are skilled in this area, but HR aren’t often the best recruiters. That’s where my job as a true Consultant comes in to play.

Outside of work, I lack the desire to judge people. It’s easy for me to compartmentalize. I respect people’s own viewpoints on any issues: politics, religion, why Tom Brady is NOT the best QB of all time. But I do know right from wrong. There is no room in my world for hatred.

Recently the same client made comments to me that questioned his character, and specifically his attitude towards race. The comments immediately made me look back at our working relationship of several years – and since we’ve all got consistent patterns of behavior, it was in fact true, he had only hired white men. Deeper dive showed that I had presented, and he had interviewed candidates of all backgrounds over the years.

Then there were the questionable memes this person liked to share demeaning our country’s first black president. However the straw that broke the camel’s back was when he flat out told me that the “white race was under attack and we need to protect our fellow Caucasian brothers and sisters.”

Game over. In this instance, I didn’t ask my boss for permission to fire the client. I told them I was doing it and showed them why. Their immediate response was “Great decision. We’ve got your back.”

When it comes to candidacy, I won’t judge you on your race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability or genetic information – I seek only the best talent to pair with my clients. And I seek only the best clients that share the same values!