Purple Elephant in the Recruitment Room

Just recently I found a job announcement of the VP of HR for a respectable and long standing institution that upon reading the job requirements required no commitment to governance or ethical behaviour requirements.  However, doing some Google business intelligence and reading the company's website governance and ethics are their guiding principles.

The newspaper accounts and the blogs suggest sloppiness in handling clerical filings of supposed federal requirements.  The fine was substantial but the alleged wrongdoing was much larger.   Whether or not other financial institutions were fined and for how much isn't important.  When you have a brand that suggests moral integrity, any allegation of wrongdoing whether intentional or not will cost that institution some embarassment and need for restoring public confidence.  In addition, leaders of the organization will have a harder time disciplining employees for a failure to balance their cash drawers if this is a simple mistake and not an attempt to defraud.

The allegations that any culpability lies at the feet of the church which 50 years ago divested ownership is misplaced.  However, the comment that it was just sloppiness cannot also be condoned.  Corporate leaders and board members are required to do what is right for the stockholders.  I'm pretty sure that the attorneys advised them to make no comment.  So does there lack of comment suggest culpability?  No, but it does require that they must do something more to regain the trust and confidence of their shareholders and customers.  To ignore the issue in a job announcement and the selection of a key corporate employee (VP of HR) may suggest another problem. 

Part of the job requirements within the job announcement are to align organizational action plans to strategic initiatives, values and the mission statement.  While I have added elements of corporate governance and accountability to the job announcement, the interview for the position and the selection requirements will be interesting.  It would be interesting to be a "fly on the wall" to see if the issue is even broached.  Maybe the fact that they are advertizing outside indicates the need for openness and new ideas.  I'm enclosing my amended version of the job announcement with the amendments underlined.  No one in their announcement provides you with pain points, but here might be what you can expect if interviewed for that job. 

Although I added the Baldrige leadership principles to the announcement to make it more strategic, I'm not sure that Baldrige alone would have prevented this sloppiness of filing to occur.

http://www.box.net/shared/3dx0xxpj3e