Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

We had a situation arise in hiring.  We are currently hiring for two positions.

We offered one position to a young woman who came here from another country.  Today we found she applied for a visa extension but may or may not get it in the 3 months she has left on her current visa.
Which means in 3 months she could be gone. I know nothing about immigrations laws other than what I looked up on the internet.  From what I see we could sponsor her for a H-1b visa. If we want to go to that extent.  Because at this point I don`t know enough about if she will work out.

My partner an I both really like her and feel she would be a great asset to our small company.

I would like to take a chance on her. My partner says I am getting too emotionally involved in her personal issues and we should move on.

We spent the last 2 months going through dozens of resumes and over a dozen interviews.  She was the first one I really felt had the raw talent and personality that would help us grow the company. Call it an intuition.

Bottom line, in 3 months she may or may not be here and we would have to start the whole process over. This current interviewing time has really hurt us. Jobs got behind. Marketing has fallen behind. Not to mention the stress!

Since we are hiring for two positions, one idea was to hire the second person with similar qualitfications to move up into her position if she were to leave.  Which, of course, would mean we would have to look for that position.

I am having a very difficult time with this one.

Hi there - I am a human resources/ safety consultant with 14 years experience.  Before going out on my own I was a Human Resources Manager at a manufacturing company.  Here are my thoughts on your situation...

I have encountered similar scenarios in the past.  It is very expensive and time consuming to sponsor a visa. I am a believer in trusing intuition. Your situation is difficult because your instincts say that the employee will be an asset to the company, but she hasn`t worked there long enough to confirm. Although it is difficult, I agree with your partner about not looking at the situation from an emotional level. It usually comes back to bite you in the @%*.

Unless your company is prepared to take on the expense and time of the visa sponsorship, I would go with your "plan B" with a twist.  See if you can write a letter for the employee to submit with the visa paperwork saying that she is employed with your company.  It may help speed the process.  Also ask when she submitted the paperwork for the renewal.  If she just sumbitted it, the odds are that it won`t be processed in time. Continue recruiting for your second person that could fill the gap if needed.  Evaluate your recruiting practices to make sure you are recruiting smartly.  Recruiting is a challenge for most companies.  Here are some things to look at... Where are you placing your ads (maybe you are not reaching the right audience)?  Is your ad copy effective (does it properly describe the job and qualifications)?  Are you effectively screening resumes and picking the right people to interview?  Sometimes when a company runs into a recruiting challenge, making a few changes to the recruiting tactics can make all the difference. 

I hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you want to discuss further.

Lori Barber

loribarber@golimbo.com

Lori,

We offered her the job on Monday. She was to get me the signed job offer letter today. She reapplied for her visa today. She called us right after she applied and they had told her they did not know if it would go through in time.
So I am not sure if I can write a letter now or not.

Our first ad got dismal results.  That one was on CareerBuilder and in the local paper.  We re-wrote the ad to be more descriptive and added our logo and put it on monster.  We received over 100 applications.  About 30 were from out of state, so we did not consider those. 

Those we found had the qualifications or looked interesting we did a phone interview with - or tried to.  If we left a message and they did not call back, we did not pursue.  If they were up to muster on the phone interview we had them come in for a first interview.  From there we narrowed it down to the strongest for a second interview - which was basically a test to see what level they were at and also told us more succinctly if they were exaggerating there talents. We did a total of 6 second interviews.

We were pretty thorough, I like to think.

This one woman stood out.  From her enthusiasm to her portfolio to her personality.  She wasn`t as skilled as some others and sometimes her english isn`t the best, but there is just something about her.  Like I said, intuition.

Hi - It sounds like the odds are not good that the visa will go through in time.  The processing time depends on a variety of factors. You could say in the letter that you just offered the job and hope that she will be able to stay on with the company...

It sounds like you are on the right track with recruiting.  Phone screens are the perfect way to save time. If you want, I can take a look at the ad and give feedback. What is the job you are trying to fill?  Where is your company located?

You could also consider other recruiting options such as temp-to-hire. You will pay more per hour for a temporary employee, but save the time and expense of recruiting.  Another plus to temporary employees is that you can easily end the assignment if it doesn`t work out.

In today`s world employers expect their employees to be committed, loyal, hard working, flexible, available 24x7.....and in return we give them a pay check every month. WOW!

I don`t think companies `do enough` for their employees. I believe the companies who `help` their employees with their `outside` work situations will be the employers who survive in the future.

If I wanted this individual to join my company I would do everything I could to get her. Good people are hard to come by these days. In return won`t you get a more committed, loyal, hard working individual?

Andrew

The whole issue boils down to whether I want to put time and training into a person who may be gone in 3 months - and then I have to start over.

I cannot quantify hiring her for any other reason than a gut instinct.  If I am wrong it causes a big problem for me and my company. It has already caused a big rift between my partner and I.

Keep in mind that you have already made a job offer.  If you recind the offer solely due to her immigration status, you face a potential discrimination lawsuit.  I know it doesn`t seem fair to the employer, but that`s how the law works. I would consider her to be a "temporary" employee who will help out while you continue to recruit.  In the meantime, you never know- her visa may be approved in time.  Also - when she starts work, be sure that you properly fill out the I-9 form and carefully examine the employment eligibility documents.  Again, my input is based on many many years of hiring employees and handling sticky immigration issues.  I know it is hard to approach things from an impartial, objective viewpoint at times.

Lori