During my initial recruitment and phone screen, I found the interview process to be very relaxed, yet professional. The recruiter did an excellent job of keeping me updated on the process.
The second interview was over the phone with the director. Not necessarily a workforce management guy, but he was very direct and honest about the department's pain points and areas where improvement was needed. He was also very knowledgeable about contact centers, which is not always the case.
My first interview on-site was a bit different. I had an opportunity to meet with operations leaders at all three customer service sites (two of them via webcam). Based on the setup of the conference room, it appeared that Unum spent a considerable amount of time and money to ensure that all sites had the ability to stay connected visually, as opposed to a simple speakerphone environment. I also had the opportunity to meet two members of the resource planning team.
The final interview (for me) was a hastily-called meeting with the three site directors. It did not go smoothly and started late with an absolute ending time. I will be honest when I say that I was not very comfortable with the directors and vice versa. I'm not entirely sure if even the three directors had the same vision as it pertained to resource planning. The director did not seem to be very interested in getting to know me; for whatever reason, I could FEEL that I simply wasn't his guy. Although I brought my laptop filled with examples of my work, he never wanted to see it, which should have been my sign that they weren't really interested. Although they promised to call back within a few days, they never did. I had subsequently received an offer from another organization, but since my first choice was Unum, I wanted to get a definitive answer on where I stood. I emailed the recruiter and they called me the next day to inform me that they had selected other candidates to continue with the interview process. The recruiter was a true pro and I would love to have a team full of individuals just like that individual.
Looking back, I'm actually OK with not getting the position. Based on my research of the company and its culture, I'm not certain that I would have been successful there. Not because of incompetence, but simply trying to find ways to get a large number of leaders to listen and work together. I would have been better off working as a consultant for Unum, rather than as a manager. I wish them all success, but it won't be easy.