The Bus Kept Rolling

One windshield wiper quit this week.

No notice. No exit interview. It simply stopped showing up for work.

The bus kept rolling anyway.

That may be the best way I can describe what I watched happen inside our recruiting department.

It was a rough week from the standpoint of oversight, communication, and process.

A few isolated situations exposed small inefficiencies. Responsibilities were interpreted differently. Handoffs were not always as clear as everyone believed they were.

In one situation, the recruiting team entered a hiring process somewhere in the middle and was still expected to know everything that should have happened before and after that moment.

That is a little like being handed half a recipe, walking into a kitchen where everyone is already cooking, and then being asked why dessert is not ready.

Nobody intentionally dropped the ball.

The process simply stopped carrying it at a certain point.

That is one of the uncomfortable benefits of a difficult week. Small gaps that remain hidden when everything is going smoothly become much easier to see when the work gets complicated.

Someone asks why something was not completed.

Another person believes it belonged to a different department.

Two people both say they followed the process, but the work remains unfinished between them.

That is when a process proves whether it is actually clear or merely familiar.

As the head of a department, part of my responsibility is to find those gaps.

I need to understand what happened, where communication stopped, who owned the next step, and whether the process accounted for the situation in the first place.

I cannot ignore the windshield wiper simply because the bus is still moving.

But I also cannot stare at one broken windshield wiper for so long that I fail to notice who kept the bus on the road.

While these issues were being discussed, my team kept working.

The requisitions did not care that we were having process conversations.

Candidates kept applying. Hiring managers kept asking. Open positions remained open.

My team kept sourcing.

They kept making calls.

They kept conducting phone screens.

They kept scheduling interviews.

They kept communicating with candidates and hiring managers.

They kept presenting offers and making hires.

The work did not pause because we were reviewing the work.

They continued to turn and burn through the small things that recruiting requires every day. Most of those things are never seen by the person who eventually hears that a position has been filled.

To everyone else, the hire may look like one successful moment.

The recruiting team knows how many searches, calls, messages, conversations, follow-ups, interviews, and decisions were required to reach that yes.

That is another reason process matters.

A good process does not only reveal where something went wrong.

It also reveals how much work continued to go right.

When I ask one of my recruiters where a search stands, they can take me directly to that point. They can show what has been completed, what is happening now, and what remains.

Sometimes the answer is still sourcing.

I know that answer can sound like the requisition has not moved.

But the position can remain in the same place while the recruiter moves every day.

The local market may not contain candidates who meet the requirements. The search may need to expand into another area. Relocation or travel may create another challenge, especially when recruiting for skilled trades.

Another search is completed.

Another call is made.

Another conversation happens.

Being stuck at one point is not the same as standing still.

A process makes that distinction visible.

It gives my team the ability to own its work without becoming defensive. It also gives me the information I need to support them, redirect the search, or identify where something outside their control is slowing the process.

But if I only use the process to locate mistakes, I have missed half of its value.

People need accountability.

They also need to know that someone noticed their consistency.

That is why I am taking my team out for Mexican food today.

Nothing extravagant.

Something easy, something fun, and definitely something filling.

There will be plenty of pats on the back, a few well-earned attaboys and attagirls, and probably more chips and salsa than any recruiting process could reasonably track.

Recruiting may not be able to solve every problem with Mexican food, but I have yet to see chips and salsa make morale worse.

This is not a reward for perfection.

We are not perfect, and this week made that very clear.

It is recognition for persistence.

It is my way of telling them that I saw the problems, but I also saw the effort.

I saw them continue doing the small things when it would have been easy to become distracted by the noise around them.

I saw the bus keep rolling.

Leadership requires us to repair what is not working.

It also requires us to recognize the people who kept everything else moving while we figured it out.

I feel honored to work with this team.

I am proud of their effort, their consistency, and their willingness to keep doing the work even when the week became messy.

The windshield wiper still needs to be fixed.

But today, I am taking a moment to thank the people who kept their hands on the wheel.

When you look back at your own week, are you only noticing what needs to be repaired, or are you also recognizing the people who kept everything moving?

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