I recently had an interesting conversation with a hiring manager. He wants to interview a current contractor on his team for a full-time role. However, he is having some reservations.
Mainly…this guy has trouble showing up for work. When he does come in, it’s usually around noon or so. He’s missed meetings, missed 1:1s, and is often hard to find. Hearing this, my immediate thought is, “Why are we even talking about this guy and, more importantly, why is he still contracting on your team?”
The reason this guy is still around is that, when he is working, he’s a freakin’ machine! He may not be at his desk, but he’s putting in the hours. Much like me in college, he’s often online at midnight or 2 in the morning. He’s still putting in 50+ hours per week. And, the work he cranks out is great. He’s found and fixed problems that could be major. He’s stepped up to work on new challenges facing the team and had great success. In general, he’s impressed a lot of people with his raw talent and abilities.
But, then…he misses an important AM meeting, and everyone goes, “Gawwww!”
So, what to do?
We don’t work in an environment that expects you to be chained to your desk from 9-5. We encourage people to set their schedules and just do a great job. Telecommuting is made very,very easy for us so that, on a fine sunny day when we would rather work outside than in our office, we can. Or…we can just work from home and start our weekend a bit early, as long as the job is done.
Still…even with our work-life balance and telecommuting capabilities, we’re still expected to be team players. We’re still expected to be with our teams when it’s important. Results are often driven by these team efforts.
I think, if one decides to go forward in a situation like this, two things are important.
–First, from an HR point of view, it’s important for me to outline what our culture expects from our employees. Sure, we make it easy to work from home. But responsibilities don’t lie only in your production. Senior people are expected to serve as mentors to more junior people. We want to grow the talent on our team, and that will be a real challenge if you’re always working remotely.
–Second, it’s really important that the hiring manager sets expectations around what defines success in a particular position. Practices that can be tolerated by a work-horse contractor cannot become practices of a full time employee, of which much more is expected. Success in this role is defined, not just as being a kick arse programmer, but also in being a rock star teammate who helps the team become better as a whole.
If we decide to move forward, are we essentially condoning his behavior? By knowing beforehand what we’re getting and hiring him anyway, are we telling him that we’ll continue to look past his absence? Maybe. But, an important factor about making the switch from contractor to FTE is that your overall performance affects your bottom line. Raises, bonuses, stock and promotions are all dependent on your total contribution. If we’re condoning it by hiring him, he’ll see a big rebuke come review time.
Do you know what this guy really, REALLY wants? Is anyone really tuned in to his stated and validated professional motivations? If not, then it will probably be difficult if not impossible to gain sustainable compliance. But once you know what he wants, and you’ve ALSO verified it through observation, peer assessments, perhaps even a Myers-Briggs (or other tool), then you have a sit down – Tony Soprano-style – and say something such as, “Joe, I’m going to level with you: we want to hire you full time. I understand your wants/needs/motivations are X, Y, Z. I think we both know we can deliver on that. But here’s the problem (insert problems here). If you don’t make some changes and prove to us that you can play by the rules, we just won’t feel good about moving forward with the offer. What can you commit to when it comes to attendance/punctuality?” Give him some kind of unstated time-frame and keep an eye on him. My $.02
One of the things that makes him a valid contractor is that you do not, and should not, control his time. Nor should he be a “teamplayer”. You have hired him for his productivity and it sounds like he is fulfilling that role. If you want to make him act like an employee then you had better make sure you classify him as an employee. Then you can make him come to meetings and be a team player. Of course you may be shooting yourself in the foot with that change.
One thing I’d be curious to learn is what the purpose of those meeting he keeps missing is. Are they relevant? Do they matter to getting work done at all? It seems like the business world is full of meetings that people think are important but really aren’t.
I agree, being a team-player is important (and I also agree with Michael that for contractors, maybe it’s not). But does being a team-player mean “showing up to a meeting” or does it mean “working with a team to get work done.” Those two aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, but they’re not necessarily mutually INCLUSIVE either.
Hmmm…these are all great point. Thanks for the input.
The dude interviews this week. Who knows, maybe he won’t pass the interview. But, if he does, I think it’s important to make it clear that the expectations of an FTE are more than those of a contractor.
I feel slightly like a person marrying someone thinking she can “change” him. My worry is that we’ll set expectations, he’ll agree, but then fall back into contractor mode in 6 months.
We’ll see how the interview goes.
@Jason – I’m interested in your perspective on the importance of him having his butt in a seat and being at these meetings vs. getting his work done. Does it matter?
I think a lot of ROWE proponents argue that it never matters. I think it situationally matters – this may be a situation where he should be there and it does matter, but I get the impression that’s not the case.
Chris…I’m not sure butt in seat is the most important part. Even with ROWE in mind, I think that it is important for an employee to contribute to making the team better, not just himself. It involves mentoring more Jr people as well as being available for best practices and general brainstorming…at least, for this position.
If that can always be done remotely, great. I just don’t think it can be all of the time.
So, I would say that butt in seat isn’t as important as butt with your team, when it needs to be. When that is is subjective.
Seems to me that if you take this fellow on board, and perhaps even if you keep him on as a contractor, the message you’re sending is: “All that matters is if you bring in the results. How you do it doesn’t count.”
In this situation how do you stop him reverting to part time contract work for others,at low cost subsidised by your salary.
It sounds like he is past the threshold where a sufficient difference in degree becomes a difference in kind. Perhaps he’s too smart to be a FTE, not in the sense that he’d have to be stupid to work at your company, but in the sense that the level of competence he displays is key to why he does not fit the 8 to 5 culture, or at least your 8 to 5 culture.
If his colleagues were of like ability I bet he’d be there all day, every day. But in the more likely instance that the gap is palpable, there is no surprise if he likes your challenges and your money but takes a pass on the rest. If he fit the standard issue 8 to 5 culture he would have long since accepted employment somewhere else and you never would have met him.
I totally agree with the advice to find out what makes him tick and then find a way to satisfy that within your constraints. What you see as the positives of FTE might be precisely what repels him.
Since I do not know the culture there, I would also be concerned that IF he comes on as an FTE, and expectations are made clear not only to this individual, but I would re-communicate to the team. Right before the summer vacations kick in is in my mind an appropriate time to address.
my $.01
The guy works until 2 AM & you’re wondering why he doesn’t make morning meetings?? How’d you like someone to tell you to be back for a meeting a mere 6-7 hours after you finish work the previous evening? Obviously he’s a night owl. If you want him at your meetings, you’ll have to meet him halfway on his schedule. 4 PM is a good time for a meeting anyway, that way you’ll be sure to stick to your agenda and wrap it up by 5 (or whenever you-all usually leave for the day) instead of letting anyone ramble off-subject and waste time. I also heartily agree that the vast majority of bosses do a lousy job of running meetings and waste vast quantities of employee time (& therefore money — add up those person-hours, it’s not pretty), so be very careful not to be holding meetings when sending out an e-mail or meeting 1:1 will do. But obviously this guy likes working from home. Think about all you can do with e-mail, conference calls, etc. With all the available technology, set up a few cameras and he can probably do a fine job mentoring, working with the team, etc., and still enjoy his own schedule and stay at home if that’s where he prefers to be. Think outside your own box and be more flexible yourselves, for the sake of keeping him happy! The rest of the team thinks this is annoying? Tell them they can have the same flexibility as soon as they show the same productivity.