The lines between private, public and charitable sectors are merging, says David Philpott, so should the recruitment and payment systems also re-align?

“If you were a biscuit, what type would you be and why”? This was not a party game question, but a semi-serious question asked by one of the members of an interview panel I recently chaired. Since the interview was not for a job but rather for a prestigious honorary role leading a young business organisation, we thought it entirely appropriate.

I have often deployed similar curveball questions in job interviews though and seen the HR expert on the panel wince at the inappropriateness of it. “What book are you reading now and what was the last CD you bought? I might ask. There is of course no right or wrong answer. It is how the candidate responds to an unexpected question and their powers of recovery if thrown off balance that always interests me. And in any event, what do the HR departments - or Human Remains departments as I rather unkindly refer to them - know about leadership and building teams? “Lots” shout all of you who swear by Belbin, and Maslow and get fascinated by psychometric profiling and 360 degree appraisals.

Heading for a bonus culture?

The point of all this preamble is simply to acknowledge that there is perhaps no science to getting the right person for an important role. In my experience, the right process often delivers to wrong outcome. Gut instincts and intuition are often a better bet. So how do the great banks and corporations get their man (or woman) and then feel justified in offering them bonuses for success and in some cases failure?

Being the slightly warped and twisted person that I am, I have derived a perverse pleasure from watching corporate fat cats, wriggling on hooks, as they seek to justify - or are forced to surrender - these exorbitant sweeteners. I speak of my slightly warped and twisted view of such matters, because whatever I might think and feel – I know for a fact it is sheer hypocrisy on my part. If I were offered a six-figure bonus, I am sure I would have signed the contract before you could say Stephen Hester – and fought tooth and nail to keep it if such an arrangement came under the spotlight of media scrutiny. Mea culpa. In mitigation though, I have a mortgage. I doubt most of these Captains of Industry making the headlines do.

Throughout my working life, I have never ceased to be amazed by the number of incompetent, nice-but-dim, numbskulls who make it to the top of the corporate ladder. Indeed, I have lost count of the number of senior staff in the public sector of my acquaintance who have most certainly been promoted to the level of their incompetence.

Payment-by-results

However, there is no doubt that a good person can bring exponential results and that such people should be rewarded. I know a man for example (2 Corinthians 12:2 - let the reader understand) who has just secured £250,000 of additional income per annum for a charity by renegotiating a contact.

Notwithstanding the concerns of the third sector in general and the Institute of Fundraising in particular regarding the payment of commission and bonuses, I recognise that in the first and second sectors such arrangements are par for the course. Indeed, even our much maligned NHS – or as I like to call it, the Politburo - has for many years operated an internal market based on payments-by-results.

I suspect that as the lines between all three sectors blur with charities snuggling up to business in search of new revenue streams and ever more statutory services are delivered by not for profits and private businesses, we will need to borrow from each others’ cultures and learn from each other when it comes to recognition and reward.

Oh, and just in case you are wondering if the Jaffa Cake person – ‘hard, dark and mysterious on the outside but a soft and tasty surprise underneath’; or the Garibaldi –‘no flies on me’ (cringe); or the Hobnob –‘complex but with depth of texture’ was appointed – well it was none of these. The Digestive (not even Chocolate Digestive) got the post because as she - this trainee accountant said - “I am predictable, dependable, reliable and what’s more, there are never any shocks or surprises with me.” That is exactly what we were looking for.

The question for you though, is would you ever employ a Jammy Dodger?