(2025-02-17) Procopio The Real Reason No One Is Hiring Or Getting Hired

Joe Procopio: The Real Reason No One Is Hiring or Getting Hired. All the dots are connecting to one person, and that person needs to start doing their job.

Sheila is a very talented friend of mine. There’s this job she wants. And she should get it.

But she can’t get anyone at the company to talk to her.

it’s maybe the real reason no one is getting hired.

And the ironic thing is that it’s also the easiest problem to fix.

About six weeks ago, Sheila checked the careers page of a company she had always admired. To her shock, a new listing on that careers page described a job that Sheila was perfect for.

Confused, frustrated, and beaten, we called in a hired gun.

You All Know “Rosa” Too

Rosa got a response from the company right away, because she went HR to HR, and what she found out was alarming to me, but not to her.

**“Same shit,” she told me. “HR has the ball and they’re holding it.”
“They’re running through the process, applications are in, probably thousands, and they’re filtering them, probably with AI, and they haven’t hit their number yet.”

OK. Not shocking. But why can’t we reach anyone?”
She made a noise that sounded like he didn’t want to answer. “I’m guessing. They might have a gag order on the rest of the company until they finish what they’re doing

She also wouldn’t speculate on the reason for the silence from leadership, but noted it’s happening a lot

Honestly, I don’t care why the silence is happening. I care very much that it is happening.

A CEO should only have to hire a few people a year, and every other hire in the company can be delegated. And then when the hire gets delegated to a VP or Director, that person should only be hiring a few people per year. And then when it hits a manager or team leader or senior whatever, that person should only be hiring a few people per year.
The thing is, that hire is the most important thing that leader will do until the right person falls into place.

We’ve forgotten that. We’re relying on machines and boilerplate job descriptions and overworked junior HR reps to do the most important thing we do as leaders.

There’s only one person who can fix this. It’s not HR, it’s not the hiring managers.

Why don’t those VPs and Directors and Managers have their own pipelines?

there are still loads of connections between your best folks and their best folks.

if they’re in a managerial role, why aren’t they leading the hiring of their team with robust help from HR?