HR- It’s Not “One Coat” Paint

Do you paint?  I did when we moved into our new house a couple years ago.  I checked several brands of paint, found the perfect colors, then proceeded with painting.  I was painting over white walls so I believed that one coat of paint would cover the walls.  WRONG.  I hand brushed a 2nd coat over each wall and achieved perfection.

Why am I writing about paint and HR you wonder?  Well, I just saw an add for “one-coat” paint.  My initial thought was “great!  what everyone needs”, but is it?  I googled one-coat paint and looked at several brands that carry this.  One site said to be careful and read the paint warranty because all one-coat paint claims are not accurate.  According to https://howstuffworks.com, ” With additional pigment to improve their covering capabilities, true one-coat paints are otherwise just more expensive versions of ordinary latex or alkyd paints.”  (**Note- the one-coat paint commercial just came on again as I type this.  They are really pushing it!)

Back to HR and paint.

HR people are like paint.  There are always people selling themselves as the latest and greatest one-coat paint.  Sure, they may come on strong but can they really cover the role?  Why should a company hire this type of pushy HR person only to learn later that the covering capabilities are not really there and the flaws begin showing through.  This can be said of any employee a company hires.

My vote is to stick to some tried and true methods of recruiting for culture and fit in your company.  You may think you’re hiring the “ordinary” version of a latex-paint-like employee, but in the end, you may just come out ahead of where you’d be if you had jumped at hiring the slick, expensive “one-coat” version.