Monthly Archives: June 2011

Mike Fox – Anti-Victim SHRM 2011

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Closing Keynote speaker at SHRM11  – was Michael J. Fox, former Teen Wolf, Back to the Future, Alex P. Keaton – MJF!

Here’s a guy who goes from High School Drop out, to major TV and Movie Star, to being dropped back to earth with Parkinson’s, and what struck me most were some of his key takeaways from his experiences.  Rule #9 of The Sackett Rules is – Don’t be a Victim – and this guy is an Anti-Victim, he’s so far away from being a victim I want to wear a t-shirt with his picture on it, like he’s Superman!

Here are a few of the gems he shared with the capacity crowd at SHRM 11 –

– “Speaking of my Dad, he’s the first person you call in a crisis, but the last person you want to show up!”

–“Life changes and you change with it, the script of your life is not written.”

–“If you’re going to be a lumberjack, you have to go to the forest.”

–“My Mom thought my head was in the clouds. My Dad was convinced it was somewhere farther south!”

–“Early success and fame is like throwing Miracle Grow on your character defects.”

-On his wife Tracey calling him an Asshole upon first meeting him on Family Ties – “Nobody talks to me that way, I’m Marty McFly!”

-After learning he had Parkinson’s – “My happiness would grow in direct proportion to my acceptance of the disease.”

–“Loss doesn’t leave a vacuum, it creates opportunity.”

–“Parkinson’s, its like standing in the road with your feet in cement knowing that a bus is coming, but not when.”

–“I was still me, just me with Parkinson’s.” on going through the 5 stages of grief.

– On telling his 5 year old son about his disease – “He still realized I was Dad, I was just shaky Dad.”

–“The only decision I don’t have in life is Parkinson’s, everything else is my call.”

–“I know about loss, about how it feels when life gets re-arranged, still, don’t play to the results.”

–“I like my job, finding a cure for Parkinson’s, but I’m looking forward to being Unemployed!”

– On his wife Tracey, her role of a caretaker and their marriage – “The more complicated it gets, the more it seems to bring out the best in us.”

It always make me feel like less of a person when I see someone who is facing a great challenge, but they aren’t complaining, they aren’t giving up, they are facing it head-on and kicking it in the Ass!  Michael J. Fox is really an inspiration to so many people who feel like they are stuck in life, or can’t make a change – he reminded a bunch of people today that they can, that they hold the power within themselves to do whatever it is they want.

Please check out www.MichaelJFox.org to support Micheal’s search for a Parkinson’s cure.

The Real Value of a SHRM Conference

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Got into a really good HR conversation yesterday at #SHRM11 in Las Vegas.  The conversation wasn’t at a session or about a session or with someone I even knew – and to me this is the real value of an event like SHRM National.  I’m sitting down, having something to eat, and I strike up a conversation with the guy sitting next to.  He’s from Dallas, TX – we go through the small talk stuff – Mavericks rocked this year, yeah it’s hot and muggy – my brother in-law lives in Frisco, etc.  Come to find out we share some similar background of both having past work experience of working in the casual dining industry – which leads to a really cool dynamic conversation about how HR and Operations work best together and how to make that happen.

The details of this conversation really don’t matter – why it happened does.

17,000 people are at this conference.  It seems like most are here to go to the expo and see what cool HR products are out there – and there are a ton, or they’re here to get continuing ed credits and attend sessions.  Here is where there is a huge miss!  I see way to many thousands of HR Pros here that hang with their own tribe, and don’t venture outside of the tight network.  I’ve been here for two days and have met new HR Pros and made connections with people in 10 different states, multiple industries and in multiple HR disciplines.  My social/professional network in HR has expanded exponentially and that is the real value of attending a conference.

So, here’s my challenge to you.

Today, tomorrow, or the next conference you attend, challenge yourself to go out of your way to purposely go out and introduce yourself to a HR Pro you don’t know, purposely begin to build and expand your social/professional network.  It doesn’t have to be someone in your same industry and your same career path – in fact sometimes this isn’t even the most valuable connections you want to have.  You’ll be amazed at the results – maybe not with just one meeting, but as you go out and do this over and over you’ll begin to see how this expands your view of HR in general.

It use to be that you were only as strong as your weakest player. Today, you are as strong as your strongest connection!  Go get stronger.

The Sackett Rules

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I have to say my friend and great HR Pro/Blogger – and Top 10 HR Bloggers to follow at SHRM 11 (I was #11 by the way) – Matt Stollak gave me the idea for this post. Being slighted by Monster.com’s @MattCharney gave me the motivation.  On to the Sackett Rules:

The Sackett Rules

1. Don’t call in sick on Mondays or Fridays – no one believes you. (My staff knows this one well)

2. Everyone has a price, it’s a recruiters job to figure that out.  Never take “I’m not interested” as a reason – you just haven’t found out the price where they would be interested. (I don’t want to shovel cow manure, but if you pay me enough, well, heck – where’s the shovel?)

3. It only costs a little more to go first class.  (My Grandpa use to say this – then my Mom – now me – it’s about doing things right.)

4. People won’t remember what you said, but they’ll remember how you made them feel. (That’s why I bring great snacks to meetings, and try and have a funny story!)

5. Always be nice to Mom’s with young kids. (Their day is always much harder than mine.)

6. There’s always a reason to kick an old man down the steps, just don’t do it. (via Chris Rock – this just makes me laugh)

7. Don’t cross the streams. (from Ghostbusters – I use this one with my youngest son, it makes him laugh – he’s never seen the movie)

8. No touching of the hair or face. (Ron Burgundy in Anchorman – my wife will laugh at this – I don’t like people touching my almost gone hair and I had Lasik surgery years ago and don’t like anyone touching my face – and I don’t like bees!)

9. Don’t be victim. (Yeah, you pretty much control what happens to you, I have very little patience for people who play the victim)

10. If you are scrubbing the kitchen floor in your boxer shorts – don’t do it with the shades to the sliding glass door open, while your neighbors behind you are having your other neighbors over for drinks on the back deck. (enough said I believe)

11. No longer use any budget money for Monster.com membership. (see above link)

As will all rules, The Sackett Rules are subject to change at any moment – or whenever my wife tells me to change them.  And Matt, thanks for helping me reevaluate my 2012 Monster.com budget!

 

SHRM 2011 – The Year of the iPad

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In a few days I’ll be leaving for the SHRM National Conference in Las Vegas to pick up some knowledge, blog about HR stuff and try and win me another iPad – because every guy needs 2 iPads! I thought last year was the year of the iPad – but it really was Year of the iTouch at the SHRM Expo Hall.  HR Vendors aren’t the most creative set, so it becomes fairly easy each year to pick out the big giveaway at each booth that all the HR Pros will be going after.  I think last year a few went out of their way to get iPads, but most still went easier route and got the iTouch.  This year, 2011, there is no doubt.  So far I’ve gotten roughly 100+ postcards and 30% are giving away at least one iPad.

So, what else will the Expo hounds being filling their reuasable recycled grocery bags with this year?

Hope to Get:

1. An iPad, of course.

2. One of those silly Monster.com stuffed animals, affectionately called “Trump”, short for Trumpasaurus. I’m not sure why but the SHRM attendees lose their mind over these things, but they do – every year!

3. Chocolate – let’s face it 80% of the people attending are women, not enough vendors pay attention to this. After walking around 5 miles of expo hall and 2 miles back to their hotel, SHRM attendees want 3 things: a hot bath, a cold glass of wine and some chocolate (and maybe to rent Sex and the City 2 OnDemand in their room).

What they’ll be Re-Gifting:

1. Black and White Kindles.  Really, I saw a number of these on postcards – which HR vendors are so disconnected that they would giveaway a black and white Kindle – when the color is available and for $150 more you can have an iPad?  Grandmothers get ready, looks like Christmas will be Black and White Kindle time this year.

2. Any coffee mugs, pens, water bottles, etc. – basically any logo crap they can take back to the office to keep the tribe happy.

3. Something for the kids.  I will say a few HR Vendors have picked up on this and have gotten good at getting small, unique items that kids would like, thus Moms and Dads will stop by their booth to take one home for little Johnny.

What they won’t be getting, but will need:

1. Hangover medication.

2. Tattoo removal kit.

3. Anything of real value (at least in the Expo Hall).

Here’s a tip: The guys at Talent Anarchy got the “prized” presentation spot of 7am on Monday June 27th – right before Monday’s General Session with Arianna Huffington, do yourself a favor and make this the one day you get up early.  Jason and Joe put on a show, and they truly get HR – it could arguably be the best session being put on by SHRM this year.

 

 

What We Still Don’t Get In HR

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“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.”

Albert Einstein

Its about that time when the HR conference season gets into full swing, so I’m beginning to prepare myself for the hundreds of conversations I’ll have with great HR Pros all over the world.  One thing that I will hear over and over, and more than anything else is: “HR just doesn’t get…”  To be honest I think HR gets a whole bunch, but I think many of us lack the courage it takes, at the right time, to show how much we actually get, and so we sit there with our mouths closed and others than have this perception we don’t get it.  But we do – we just weren’t able or ready to put our necks on the line, at that moment.

I do agree, though, that there are still certain things we struggle with in HR.  For me the above quote from Albert, sums up what we still struggle to appreciate in HR – we hire people for one set of skills, then upon arrival or at another point in their tenure, expect them to perform a different set of skills.  This happens everyday in our organizations, and it’s a classic reason at why most people fail in your organization.  I bet if you went back and measured your last 100 terminations in your organizations – 60% of your terms would fall into this category – person wasn’t performing – but the job they were asked to do was different from what they were hired to do.

So, what is it that we still don’t get in HR?

HR (we) don’t get the fact that we hire for a certain set of skills.  The job changes, so we need a new set of skills.  Training and Development is still living in this dream that they can drastically change adult learners by having a 4 hour training session and having each participant sign a sheet saying they received the training. Then, we all sit around a conference table analyzing our turnover and wondering what happened, and why all these people magically turned into bad performers.  It’s not them – it’s us!

So, what can we do about it?

The first step is realizing HR, and the organization, are part of the problem.  You can’t hire a bunch of fish because you need great swimming skills, then change the skill need to climbing and expect your fish to turn into monkeys.  It has never worked and it will never work – even if you change your department’s title from Training to Organizational Development.  So, do you just fire everyone and start over?  Maybe.  If the skill need changed that drastically. More realistically, we have to have better expectations on the amount of time and effort it is going to take to get people back to “average” performance – not “great” performance.  Setting realistic expectations with your operations partners will give you better insight to what route your organization is willing to suffer through.  Either way, there will be some suffering – so plan on it, prepare for it – Then go buy a bunch of bananas, because wants those fish learn how to climb, they’re going to be hungry!

Things…

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Spent half the week with Kris Dunn in Omaha speaking and presenting for the Omaha HR Pros at HRAM on what HR Pros can learn from a money-hungry VP of Sales, and we had a ton of fun with the folks in Omaha!  While traveling my mind had extra time to roam, so here are my Friday Things:

Phone Cords: Let me just say this – I think the invention of the cordless phone, and further invention of cellular phones, has been the downfall of society.  How’s that for a statement!? So, really, Tim, phone cords were what was holding society together! Let me explain…When I was a kid, we had 1 phone in the house (yeah, yeah, and you walked to school up hill, both ways), that phone happened to be located on the kitchen wall next to the dining room.  So, if you wanted to talk to someone, you had two choices – call them or actually go find them in person and talk face to face.  Now my parents weren’t heartless, we had like a 20 foot phone cord, so for privacy you stretched all 20 feet of the cord into the dining room and buried yourself in the corner, so you could talk “in-private” with the family 20 feet away.  The phone cord kept everyone informed, made sure no one got to far off the reservation before Mom and Dad knew what was going on – in essence – the phone cord kept the family together.  It also forced me and my sister to learn how to communicate appropriately, since you were going to here about it if Mrs. Smith answered the phone and you didn’t address her properly, when asking if Johnny could come over to play catch.  I bet you never knew such a simple item, and subsequent loss of such item, would have this big of impact on society.  God Bless the Phone Cord!

Two Kinds of People: I believe you can put the entire world into two kinds of people – when going to a traditional Omaha Steak House (or Texas House, or Ruth Chris’s, or Del Frisco’s, etc. – you get my drift – high end $40 steaks) you have people who order a Steak or you have people who order the Chicken or Fish (whether they order Chicken or Fish makes no difference they’re the same person).   I’m an American.  If I’m invited to a high-end Steak House – you can best believe Timmy’s eating Steak!  If you order Chicken or Fish, you have some unresolved psychological issues from childhood that need to be dealt with.  I think I’ve said enough on this issue – you other people know who you are.

College World Series: The CWS might be the great college playoff type event in all of sports.  College baseball is funny, because unless you live in the SEC territory or have a kid playing college baseball, nobody pays attention.  But once per year, college baseball takes center stage in Omaha – and it’s the coolest place in the world to be!  Think major big time college football game, giant rivalry (Texas vs. Oklahoma, Michigan State vs. Michigan, Florida vs. Georgia, etc.) – for 10 straight days!   It’s like the final four, but with baseball and tailgating – in fact I think the CWS has taken the best of college football (tailgating atmosphere) and the Final Four (a bunch of games in short period or time, with an eventual champion) and put them together in one event.  If you ever get the chance – you have to experience the NCAA College World Series.

How To Get Me To Visit Your Booth at SHRM11

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Like everyone who will be attending SHRM’s national conference in Las Vegas at the end of June, I’ve been getting some postcards!  Ok, I’ve been getting an obscene amount of postcards, all vying for a few minutes of my attention when I hit the expo floor at the conference.  I think it’s funny how they come in all different shapes, sizes and colors – all giving me the hope that I might win an iPad, or some other gotta-have item (BTW – @WilliamTincup – www.tincup.com – might have had the best advice ever for HR vendors working the expo at SHRM – giveaway ladies shoes!) if I just stop by and visit.

Here’s the problem with your postcards – I throw them away – yes, even the ones that say I need to bring it with me to participate in your giveaway, or bring the card for a “special gift” – unless that “special gift” is an iPad or cash or shoes (I’m not a lady, but I am metro and like shoes!).  So, how do you get me to stop by and see your booth?  Here are some suggestions:

– Margaritas – I like margaritas, and if you’re serving them up, you have me for one (or two) – I’m all yours.   StarrTincup served beer at The HR Tech Conference last year in Chicago, and their booth was packed the entire time the beer was flowing.  FYI – this works better in the afternoon!

– Star Power – Sorry to tell you this, but your CEO isn’t a star – so I don’t care if they are at your booth.  While I’m sure they are very important and have much power back at headquarters – they’re just another salesman on the floor at an Expo.  But I will be stopping by Dice.com’s booth on Monday June 27th at 3pm. Why? Because they are brining in some HR Star Power with Steve Boese, China Gorman and Laurie Ruettimann – 3 HR folks who I admire and that all get it – and they are serving wine (which I don’t care for – but some might – see “Margaritas” above). The moral of this story – star power and alcohol do mix.

– Caffeine – This works really well in the morning – bring in some great coffee drinks and you’ll attract a crowd to your booth – BUT not me!  Bring in Diet Mt. Dew – and not only will I show up at your booth – but I’ll talk about you all morning on Twitter and pimp your booth real hard!  Chocolate also works well here – woman and chocolate tend to play well at SHRM.

– Call Me – I’m not sure exactly what people spend on postcards, but I’m guessing $1-$2 per piece.  If you took 30 seconds to call me and ask me to stop by – there is a 86% chance I would.  So, go find a high school student who just got done with classes, give them a 30 second script and a call list of HR folks coming to SHRM – and start calling – you’ll save about thousands of dollars and get better results.

I had exactly 1 company reach out to me personally and ask me to visit them at their booth to see their new stuff – I can’t wait to visit with the folks from Halogen!  Oh, and if anyone talks to @EWMonster, Eric Winegardner – tell him I threw away my CareerBuilder poker chip postcard yesterday, but I’m still waiting on my invitation to a Monster party!

 

Finding a Deal in the Talent market

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I’m an American dammit, and American’s like deals – we want 40% – 60% off stuff, even if you priced that crap up 75% to begin with (hello Kohl’s!) – I don’t care – just give me a receipt that shows I saved $45 dollars on a $90 pair of shoes and I’m sold!   I think HR Pros are even worse at this concept – probably because 75% of us are  female and like a good sale as much as the next guy gal, but also because we rarely have any money in our budget, so we need to make our dollar stretch!

This is why I think it’s funny that most HR Pros do a terrible job at trying to get Talent on Sale.  Yep, you read that correctly – you can get great talent on sale, but we often refuse to do it.  Here are some of the best talent bargains we often miss:

1. New College Grads: This can be tricky in finding a real deal.  First, you have to get one that has cut the purse strings from mommy and daddy, and doesn’t want a freaking trophy for just showing up to work.  I look for new grads that had to work their way through college in the dirtiest job possible – those are the kids who really get it – get what it takes to work.  Also, look for kids who worked nights and weekends – even if your schedule doesn’t need them to – they’ll just appreciate you 9 to 5 environment even more!

2. Alumni: This seems like an obvious one, but as I talk to HR Pros around the country, most hiring managers still struggle in hiring back employees who left them, looking for greener pastures.  If an HR Pro can talk their hiring managers into really tapping this pool, you can find some great bargains, because the people come in already trained and already acclimated to the culture – two huge over-looked values when hiring new.   This is really an ego thing with hiring managers – if you can get them to check it at the door – you can make some great hires.  Before you go put a ton of money into a Boomerang or Alumni type program, spend some time surveying your hiring managers – what you find might surprise you!

3. Old People: Before you blow a gasket on the term “old people” – let me explain.  I use to be young, now I’m over 40 – and while I still feel young, my kids look at me like I should be in a museum on display!  People aren’t lying when they say 30 is the new 20 and 40 is the new 30 – people are beginning careers later in life, living much longer, and healthier than ever.  So, when I see someone who is now 60 – I can’t think – oh, they’re only a few years away from retirement. Heck, they might not retire until 75 or later – and I’ll take 15 great years from a hire – especially from someone who has proven over the past 40 at what they can do.  This is the greatest untapped labor pool in America right now!

4. Single Moms and Dads: OK, you’re going to have some attendance and flexibility issues, but if you know that going into the hire – you won’t find anyone else who “has” to work harder to make it all work.  Some of the best workers I’ve ever had are the full-time single moms and dads (where no other parent is in the picture) and they’ve proven they can handle the single parent role for a few years. Word of caution – new single parents will have many more issues than ones who have figured it out.

So, am I advocating paying these people less? No!  What I’m saying is you’ll get more for your dollar with some of these hires than you’ll get from your college grad, 5-7 years of experience with one employer. Why?  Because every hiring manager is looking for the latter – and thus that market gets overly inflated for no reason.

Where else do you find your talent bargains?

photo credit: http://www.couponaudit.com

Things…

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Based on the fact that I’ve sweated through about 15 shirts this week – summer is upon us (which means in Michigan we only have about 8 more weeks until snow!) – so I’m going to run down some of my summer things –

Merthiolate: I’m not sure if many of you remember or recognize this word/name – but I think I can jog some memories.  When I was a kid in the summer – skinned knees and elbows were pretty common – you would run inside, with blooding dripping all through the house, yelling for help like you were just shot.  My Dad, bless is born-on-a-farm-raised heart, would get out the “Mathiolade” (as he called it – it was the cut and scrap cleaner – that actually wasn’t cleaner, but an antiseptic) that would dye your skin bright pink – and hurt worse than the actual scrap or cut!  I think my Dad actually did this to me early on in the summer, so I wouldn’t ever bother him again the rest of the summer with minor scraps and cuts, because after he doused me with the this “acid” and branded with a “Scarlet Letter” of bright pink – I definitely wasn’t going to go back and ask for his help again.  I remember coming home with dried blood down my leg and soaked into my sock and having him ask why I didn’t come home for a band-aid – and telling him it wasn’t that bad – but thinking I wasn’t going to have get off on torchering me with “Mathiolade”!

Mint Chocolate Chip: I’m not sure there is a better flavor of ice cream in the world!  The only thing better than a cone of mint chocolate chip, is a bowl of Cold Stone Creamery’s Mint Mint Chocolate Chip – which is some combination of mint ice cream, chocolate chips, brownie, and fudge (side note – it might actually be worth the $23.95 per bowl that they charge – almost). Plus, for some reason my sons don’t like mint ice cream, so I don’t have to share it with them.

Sunflower Seeds: We play a lot of baseball in the summer at our house and I’m usually coaching 1 or 2 teams.  This means throughout May, June and July I’m probably sitting at a baseball diamond 5-6 nights per week on average.  As a coach, or even a parent, you tend to have a lot of nervous energy and nothing to do with it – so like most baseball players – I eat sunflower seeds.  To put this into perspective we buy the 5 gallon bucket of sunflower seeds from Sam’s Club.  It can’t be healthy eating a 5 gallon bucket worth of sunflower seeds.  Ironically, this is the only time I eat sunflower seeds – I don’t even think about eating them at any other time.

 

 

 

When Are Your Employee Development Costs Underwater?

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I’ve been thinking quite a bit lately about development vs. performance.  How much money should you put into an employee to get out of them the performance that you need vs. how much money should you pay to get the talent that will perform at the level you need without having to develop them.  Remember – Training and Development are two different things.  Training is the knowledge you give someone to do a specific function or job at your company that is unlike another company.  Development is knowledge you give an employee that will help them at your company, or any other company – it’s transferable.  Yes, there’s some gray area – some training will help some at other places as well.

Here is the dilemma – you have a position to fill – and you can do it a number of ways but two are predominant –

1. Hire High Level Talent – will cost more, but you don’t have development costs, they will come in and perform at a higher level right off the bat.  Let’s think about an engineer with experience – for $85K

2. Hire lower/no experience Talent – costs you much less, but you’ll have a ton of ramp up time to get them up to speed and performing at a level you need. Let’s think about the same engineer at $45K.

So, our opportunity cost seems to be around $40K in development -simplistically (clearly the opportunity costs are much greater taking into account an experienced person in the short-term will produce more, make fewer errors, etc. – so $40K is just the salary difference) .   If you were to take $40K and a young fresh engineer with a great attitude – could you have them producing the same as an engineer with 5 years experience within a year?  That’s the $40K question right!?

As HR Pros we tend to gloss over this entire equation on every position we have and let our hiring managers tell us what they need, instead of really analyzing the organization needs short-term and long-term.  If a group already has 80% of their headcount with under 5 years of experience, maybe it makes perfect sense to go after the senior talent. But if the group is loaded with senior talent and the hiring manager just doesn’t want to take the time and energy to “develop” a new employee – so they ask for another senior – are you really thinking strategically about your people needs?

The flip side of this is having the patience as an organization to know – we hired low level experience with a commitment to develop – we can’t freak out when the person is at 9 months and not giving us the same performance as our person with 10 years.  We struggle with this concept many times – and let our hiring managers pull us down with them.  “Well, there both engineers – so we shouldn’t expect different levels of performance.” Yes, we should – one has 1 year, the other has 10 years – they better be performing different – or I’m paying my 10 year guy way the hell to much!

The Big Question – When was the last time you sat down with a hiring manager and did and ROI on their employee development costs, as a comparison to the talent they have within their group?