The off-the-cuff revelation that she had been looking for a year and a half was made to delegates attending the CIPD's closing keynote panel debate. Human Resources asked her at what point holding out for the perfect HR head was doing staff a dis-service.
Hornsey replied: "I might be doing the people there a dis-service. I have possibly unrealistic expectations, but I believe this should always be the case if you want to hire the right person."
When challenged again about whether Google deems no-one in the HR industry to meet its strict - we asked snobbish - expectations, she added: "In the Google culture we would never hire anyone who was not quite right. Even if one person on the [interview] panel did not like the [HR head] candidate, we would not hire them."
Later in the discussion, Hornsey said: "We would always take people on their fit with the culture, rather than their fit with the job. A talented person can do many different roles."
Google admits 'unrealistic expectations'
Google's HR and staffing director, Liane Hornsey admitted she may be doing her Irish employees a dis-service, after revealing she still had not found a head of HR for Ireland after 18 months' of searching.
