Monthly Archives: September 2011

And when I woke up, I was 70…

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My friend Kris Dunn has a saying in his family that started with his father – “We Work” – it speaks to the work ethic his father instilled in him, and he is attempting to instill into his own boys.  I tend to think that my father and Kris’s father would have gotten along really well!  I’m sure my boys are sick of me telling stories of things my father made me do growing up in his household.  My dad was classic in saying “I don’t care how late you want to stay out – but you will be going to school/work the next morning.”  I never questioned it, I just got up and went to work.  Both my parents were that way – I never once remember them staying home from work because they were sick.   During my high school years my dad would wake me up at 7am to go chop wood – we lived in the city!  He always was helping someone out with some project, that somehow included me – which was his way of just getting my butt out of bed.  But you know what – it worked.  I work.

I was thinking about this a lot this week as I interviewed a bunch of candidates for recruiters, to work with me at HRU.   I find myself interviewing, really only concentrating on one thing: Do I think this person is a “worker”?  You know what I mean – someone who doesn’t even realize that the clock struck 5pm – that doesn’t even take a second to question whether they should come into work when they have a sniffle.  Someone who has it wired into their DNA – to work.  I tend to really like those kinds of employees! Like Kris’s dad – like my dad.

My dad turns 70 next year – he still works a professional position – 50+ hours a week.  I beg for him to retire.  It’s selfish of me – I have 3 sons – I want my sons to have memories of my Dad, like I had of my grandfather – but the bastard works to much!   Plus, it would certainly help logistically – since Kim and I are trying to cart 3 boys to 3 different practices, events, etc. – I need a full time driver – who better than their grandfather!  He feels that is a company is still willing to pay him a good salary at 70, and he still enjoys and feels respected by those he works with and supports – why shouldn’t he keep working.  I can’t argue with that.

I know people – you know people – who want to retire “young” – 40, 45, 50 – you hear them all the time.  I don’t ever think that.  I work.  Doesn’t matter if it’s in this office, or at home, or somewhere else – I’m going to work.   I have a strong feeling that one day about 30 years from now, I’m going to wake up one morning and realize, I’m 70.  Then I’m going to throw my legs over the side of the bed, take my shower, have a glass of Metamucil, and go to work.  I’m a Sackett, that’s what we do.

 

3 Things HR Pros Can Learn from “Moneyball”

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There’s a new Brad Pitt movie out – calm down HR ladies this isn’t your “Legends of the Fall” Brad Pitt movie – this one is about baseball and he doesn’t take his shirt off! (BTW – my favorite Brad Pitt movie of all time? “Meet Joe Black” – he plays the best looking version of “death” that you’ll ever see)

The movie is called “Moneyball” and it’s based on the true story of how Oakland A’s General Manager, Billy Beane, changed baseball by focusing on statistics and measures in selecting baseball players, versus traditional baseball selection methods that were subjective at best.  Beane’s new approach turned the Oakland A’s into a contender, at the same time spending less than half the salary of clubs like the Yankee’s, Boston and the Dodgers.

So, What can an HR Pro learn from Moneyball?  A bunch – but I’ll give you 3 (adapted from Fast Companies – 3 Lessons Every Manager Can Learn from Moneyball):

1. Production trumps all else.  I know organizations that only hire from certain colleges, or look to recruit from big name companies – all of that really doesn’t matter.  Find someone who produces – that’s what matters.   We spend so much time on where someone graduated from, and how the person looks and where they grew up – then we go and hire this “china doll” and they don’t do a darn thing!    I’ve been known to piss off my hiring mangers, once in a while, because I won’t allow them to move someone off the bus – for the simple fact “they just don’t fit in”.  Really?  Well the metrics show me they’re one of your top 3 employees in your group! Find a way to make them fit in – that’s your job as a leader.

2. Give Your Employees a Gift.  And by “Gift” I mean – “tell it to them straight”!  We don’t do anyone any favors by beating around the bush.  If someone has a career-derailer, tell them – tell them soon – tell them clearly – tell them what will happen if they don’t change it.  It will be the best gift they have ever received.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen managers let go of good, solid employees, because they had one thing wrong – and no one would give it to them straight – and give them the opportunity to change.    Beane’s approach was very direct and to the point – our goal is to win championships – you need to change this or get better at this – or you won’t be a part of this process.  It’s not – “well, it sure would be helpful if you could get a little better at such and such.”  It’s “We love you – you need to do this – now – or we will still love, but just not while working here any more.”

3.  Sometimes the Mix isn’t right and needs to be changed.  We’re HR Pros, our primary job is to build top performing teams of adults.  As with any team, you might have the best talent, but the mix of individuals isn’t right, so the team doesn’t perform as it should.  Don’t be afraid to mix it up.  That doesn’t mean you have to go out and fire people – but it might mean you move some people around from one team to the next.  Let’s face it, most of the jobs in our organization can be learned by a high performing person from another part of our organization – that’s just reality that most of us don’t like to admit to!  If you have a good manager who isn’t making it “happen” in their department, swap him with the lady in operations who is an up and comer and see what happens.

 

Do You Have The Right Job?

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I came across a new HR Blog (well, it’s new to me) – A Fool With A Plan – that reminded me of a classic Chris Rock bit about whether you have a Career or a Job (warning: some language not appropriate for some work places – unless you work at my office, then you better wear earmuffs):

How do you know if you are in the right job/career?  Time seems to move way to fast.  You get to work and before you know it’s lunch time, then you look up and it’s time to go home, or you make the “choice” to stay a bit later to finish up something you are working on.  Unlike Chris – I believe people can have jobs they love as well, that might not be a career.  Plus, I know a ton of people who have very successful careers – who hate what they are doing.

It’s not easy finding both a great career and a great job.  You might find a career that pays you a ton of money, and you really like that, but something is missing, something just doesn’t satisfy you.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not here to tell you to forget the money, and just do what you love!  Those people usually are trying to get me to pay them for stupid stuff I can do on my own for nothing!   There’s a balance.  Very few of us are lucky enough to do what we love, and what we love pays us enough money to get all those things we think we need.

I’m proud to come from a family of hard workers, from my grandparents to my parents, I was lucky enough to have been surrounded by people who just naturally worked.  I try to bring up my 3 sons with those same ideals – I don’t complain in the morning when I’m the first one up and off to the office – it’s what I do – it allows us as a family to have a very comfortable living – that makes me feel good.  Would I rather be out golfing or fishing all day – things I “love” to do?  You better believe it!  But I’ve yet to find someone to pay me what I make in my “career” that allows me to sit on a boat, on a lake all day.

I do agree with Chris, though, on major thing – if the clock doesn’t seem to move when you are at work – you are in the wrong job!

 

Things…

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In this edition of Things – we will be looking at Things I wish I had on my desk right now –

First off, I wish I had one of those original Sports Illustrated Sneaker Phones – that would be Awesome! Not really to use, since we  are on the phone all the time, but just so that I could pick it up and use it when someone walked into your office and saw you holding a shoe to your head!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next thing would probably be a big bowl of Circus Peanuts, and I mean an abnormally large bowl where people think “you’ve got a problem with these Circus Peanuts.”  I don’t know why I like these, they are the texture of a sponge and but as a boy I could eat an entire bag and not even throw up orange!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next thing I would want is a Darth Vader digital clock, because it’s nerdy and completely cool!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final thing and probably my most coveted item of wanting would be a completely awesome, overly large picture of myself, but done in the very nerdy 1980’s class photo double image portrait.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That would be the perfect office!

 

 

Is Walmart the Toughest HR Gig on the Planet?

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Let me give you a couple things to ponder about Walmart:

-1% of Americans work at a Walmart

-$.36 = amount of profit per $10 spent at Walmart

-600,000 +/- (Number of new employees hired by Walmart annually)

-$15,000,000,000 (Yes that’s Billion) in operating profit.

-$10,000 (the amount of salary increase if Walmart spent every cent they made in profit and divided it equally amongst all of its employees)

So, What does this all mean?   It means that working in HR at Walmart might be the single toughest job in HR in the entire world.

Most Americans would believe that Walmart employees, the normal rank and file – store level employees, are underpaid – on average a full time associate probably makes about $20,000 per year.  Not to great of a living wage.  So, let’s play G*d/CEO and now you’re in charge.  We are going to give you all $15B in profit and let you go out and pay everyone more.  Do you really think going from $20K to $30K is going to change lives – pull someone out of poverty, move them into the suburbs?  No – it won’t.  By the way – Walmart isn’t a non-profit – so thanks for the raise, but the Board just fired you, because you don’t know how to run a company!

I not here to praise Walmart as the savior of our society – they do plenty wrong – like most big businesses who are trying to make shareholders happy.  I’m here to try and get some HR Pros to take another look and have some respect for some peers (of which I really don’t know any Walmart HR Pros – I just believe it’s on tough job!) who are making it happen each and every day, on a scale not one of us can imagine!  Let’s face it, working in HR shops at Zappos, Apple, Google, etc. aren’t really that tough. Yeah, I said it. Sure it was tough work getting on top, and it’s work each day staying on top – but trying being on the bottom for a while – try working for a corporation that is so tight on profit margins that you only have 3 cents of every dollar you bring in to do anything extra for employees – and when you decide to do something extra – multiply that figure by 1.5M!  “Hey, we want to give away a Thanksgiving Turkey to all of our employees”, equals a $25.5M grocery bill!   Makes your $4K budget for a holiday party look pretty good doesn’t it!

I love listening to the great HR Pros from the “Best Companies To Work For” – so much excitement and passion for their organizations. But, what I really like to hear – is how HR Shops in the not so great companies to work for pull it off, especially those of giant companies.   It really stops being HR as 99% of us know it.  It becomes an entire operation onto itself.  Walmart can make a benefit change, a design change, a selection assessment change – and entire industries are moved because of it.  We (the collective HR lot of us) decide we want to increase copays by $5 per office visit and it doesn’t even register as a change.

Love’em or Hate’em HR at Walmart is something that fascinates me.  We all get to listen to best practices of our peers and steal the best ideas and make them our own.  Walmart HR has no peers – everything they do is industry best practice, because no one is in their league from an employment standpoint in private industry.  When’s the last time they won an award in HR?

The Most Brilliant HR Tool Ever!

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The TechCrunch Disrupt conference was in San Fransisco last week, and as always a few pretty cool things come out of this event.  One in particular caught my eye and gave me a great idea for HR Pros!  From Forbes – The Craziest Company At TechCrunch Disrupt:

I give you Talk O’Clock. The “social alarm clock” with the tagline: “Let a stranger wake you up.” Instead of using a regular alarm clock, you can have a random person you don’t know call and wake you up. You don’t know who will call you, though you can choose the gender of the caller. Users don’t get each others’ phone numbers because the company will dial the caller first, then connect him or her with the sleeper.

People who want to, say, yell and scream to wake others up, can choose who they want to call–they only see the person’s first name–and select who they want to call.  If the caller isn’t there or no one is available at that time to wake a person up, Talk O’Clock has a robot caller.

Why in the world would you want a stranger calling you and why would you want to talk to someone when you’re half asleep? Sometimes it’s hard to wake up and hitting the snooze button doesn’t work, says Alexy Kistenev, founder and CEO of Talk O’Clock. But a real person is much more likely to wake you up if they’re talking to you.

Isn’t that the coolest thing ever!  Some random person in the world calling you to wake you up!  No me! You!  If they tried calling me, that wouldn’t be cool at all.  But! It got me thinking – what if we designed something similar for HR Pros to use to wake up their employees who have trouble getting to work on time!  Now we have a useful tool.

Just think about this for a minute.

This could have awesome Corporate Cultural benefits.  I’m talking rope course-if-one-goes-over-the-wall-we-all-go-over-the-wall life changing, culture changing kind of momentum.  Stick with me.  Let’s say Mike struggles to get to work on time.  Mike isn’t a bad guy, he just has a thing with mornings, in that, mornings aren’t his thing.  Otherwise he’s your above average performer.  Most companies put him on some sort of “Progressive Discipline” process, and eventually Mike gets fired.  What if, instead of firing Mike, you let random employees at your work wake Mike up each morning!  Wouldn’t that be fun!  I mean, for the employees doing the waking.  Plus, Mike gets to feel the love to – the company cares enough about him to get his butt out of bed every morning.

I haven’t come up for a name yet for my new company that wakes employees up, by using their co-workers as alarm clocks – so I’m open to suggestions – hit me up in the comments and let me know what you think.

God Bless My Chicken Sandwich

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I got to visit “down south” last week – it wasn’t “real” down south, it was more Northern Down South – as in Raleigh, NC.  Before haters start losing their minds about me knocking the south – let me say – y’all have really nice weather!  I mean, every single time I go down south, or Northern southish areas – I always tell myself how stupid I am for living in Michigan – where we get 90 days +/- of semi-decent weather – which means, yes we wear shorts when it’s 50 degrees, because it’s 40 degrees warmer than 10 degrees, which is what we spend our lives in about 6 months a year.

Back to the Northern Down South of Raleigh and my Blessed Chicken Sandwich.

You know what we don’t have in Michigan – I mean besides warm weather, good schools, jobs and decent seafood?  We don’t have Chick-fil-A!  Well, wait a minute, I take that back, there’s one in Detroit – but we don’t count that one, because I really don’t want to get shot – plus it’s almost 2 hours away.  I’m not saying that I wouldn’t risk my life to get an original Chick-fil-A sandwich – because they are just about that good – I think it’s their secret ingredient they call “crack” which makes them so addicting.

So, when we got to the Northern Down South city of Raleigh we went to the the first Chick-fil-A we could find – I ordered two original sandwiches, drinks, etc. at the drive thru, and the worker said my total and then said “God Bless You”.  Um, what? “God Bless You, sir.”  Oh, boy – you just said “God Bless You” to an HR boy – I don’t even say “God Bless You” to my priest (not because I’m in HR, because I’m not Catholic, but still!).   Now, I get it – it’s about culture – Chick-fil-A isn’t open on Sundays and openly espouse their religious values in their corporate purpose:

Chick-fil-A exists “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”

I’m all good with people believing in who and what they want to believe in – that’s the HR in me – but when God comes between me and my favorite chicken sandwich – it just seemed a bit weird.  Now, I know – I’m a Yankee – I probably don’t get the Northern Deep South.  I’m sure the dude wasn’t trying to ruin my lunch by his attempt to be nice – but those individuals outside of the majority I’m sure feel a little uneasy about such open displays of religion in the work place.

God bless Chick-fil-A for driving their corporate culture – fiscally it has worked for them, there is no argument there. If they ever open a location in Lansing, MI I’m sure I’ll go, even if they “God Bless” me, for the simple fact I’m American, which means I’m willing to slide my ethics for a great chicken sandwich.

Buying Twitter Followers Won’t Help Your Brand

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The Following is a Guest Post by Erin Palmer (also check out her bio below) – she contacted me and wanted to write a guest post, I said she could if she could make me laugh, she did – it took McDreamy to do it – here it is…

I was a nerdy kid by default. I had to wear gigantic red glasses when I was a child. Glasses that my tiny nose could barely hold up. Glasses that magnified my eyes to thrice their normal size. The point is, I didn’t stand a chance of becoming cool until I got my first pair of contacts in seventh grade.

What do my childhood scars have to do with buying Twitter followers, you ask? It’s pretty simple. When my birthday rolled around every year and my mom gave me cupcakes to bring to the class, suddenly everyone was my friend. The cupcakes bought me an entire classroom full of buddies, but as soon as the tasty treats were gone, so were my new pals.

Buying Twitter followers is like a real life version of the eighties classic “Can’t Buy Me Love.” In this film, a pre-McDreamy Patrick Dempsey pays a cheerleader to pretend to be his girlfriend in order to get popular. It works at first, but then it backfires (the way that only a gloriously cheesy eighties movie can). Poor Patrick Dempsey lost his real friends and his fake friends because his plan shattered his credibility. Purchasing Twitter followers cheapens your brand and can cause your actual followers to lose trust in you.

Twitter is about communication, so why pay for a following that won’t lead to genuine interaction?   Patrick Dempsey’s character was better off with his handful of loyal geek friends than the huge group of fickle popular kids that turned on him right away. Having thousands of followers that aren’t reading your Tweets is like putting up a billboard and covering the ad with a giant sheet. If no one sees it, it isn’t promoting anything.

Also, many of the sites that sell Twitter followers make you follow back. Nothing sullies a brand’s reputation faster than a bunch of followers hawking discount medications and “free” cruises. If you want your brand to reap the benefits of Twitter, then you have to do the work the old-fashioned way.    Tweet regularly and make it interesting and relevant. Reach out to people and companies that will find your brand meaningful. Reference eighties movies as often as possible (ok, so this might not work for everyone, but it will make me follow you).

Patrick Dempsey’s character makes a moving speech in the cafeteria when he realizes that what really makes a person cool is to be yourself. Tweet from the heart, not the wallet. You and your brand are special just the way you are.

This guest post was written by Erin Palmer. Help Erin prove that reaching out is the best way to gain followers by following her on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.  When she’s not watching bad eighties movies, Erin works with Villanova University’s online programs. University Alliance and Villanova University can help you earn your HR degree or HR certification. For further information about these programs, please visit http://www.villanovau.com.

My favorite HR mistake

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I’ve made more mistakes in my HR career than I care to even remember – I could probably write a book!

It’s funny to think about your mistakes, because I think invariably every person takes those mistakes and tries to turn them into some type of “learning”.   It’s a classic interview question – so, Mr. Sackett, tell me about your biggest mistake in career and what did you learn from it?   I even have asked it myself when interviewing others.   Just once I want someone to answer: “well, besides coming to this lame interview, I’d have to say drinking my way through college, getting average grades, and having to take positions within HR probably is my biggest.  What I’ve learned is that all those kids in band, in high school, on the debate team, really were smarter than me, and my ability to be third team all-conference point guard, in hindsight, probably didn’t get me into the career I was hoping for.”

But it never happens – no one is really honest about their mistakes – because in making most mistakes you do something stupid – something so stupid, you’d would rather not share it with anyone.  So, we come up with answers like – “my biggest mistake was working to hard on a project with my last employer, and not getting others involved, and I’ve learned while you can get the project done and on time by yourself, you really need to include everyone.” Vomit. And somehow has HR pros we accept this answer and move onto the next question, almost like that question was just a test – a test to see if you were stupid enough to actually tell us, and brighten up our day!

But, I’ve got one – I do have a favorite and two friends of mind recently made me think about it.  My favorite HR mistake – Telling someone to go after a promotion and  more money, leaving a position they truly enjoyed.  When I started my career right out of college, I gave myself 12 years to become a Vice President.  Seemed like a logical goal at the time – but in hindsight seems obviously stupid now.  It took me 16 years, and only after I realized it no longer mattered did I reach that level.  My two friends both recently had opportunities to leave organizations and positions they really liked – I gave them both the same advice – you can’t even come close to measuring the value of truly liking the job you have – you just can’t.  So, answer me this one question: Do you love what you are doing, and who you are doing it for? If it’s yes, stay put.  It’s that simple, that was my learning.  I’ve left two positions in my life where I loved what I was doing, and loved the organizations – both to take promotional opportunities with other companies.  Both times I made the wrong decision. Tough mistake to make twice

I use to give out this advice to people – go ahead and leave – you’re going to have 10+ jobs in your life, might as well move up as fast as you can.  I don’t do that any longer – in fact I spend time now trying to talk people out of taking new jobs – which I know is ironic since at my core I’m a recruiter! But over time you learn a few things from your mistakes and maybe I’m just trying to share my knowledge…

Hug An HR Pro Today

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I will by flying on 9/11 this year, I don’t seem overly concerned by this, just as I’m sure people in Hawaii aren’t concerned about going down to the naval shipyards on December 7th.  Dates and history have a funny way to making us do weird things – like not flying a specific day because a number of years ago an unthinkable tragedy happened on that day, so we now know that it’s a possibility it could happen again.  So, we schedule are flights for 9/12 thinking somehow it’s safer.  It probably isn’t.

I read an article this week that put the tragedy of 9/11 into perspective for me ten years later.  The writer is a local Michigan writer, and he relates the 9/11 tragedies with tragedies that many people face at certain times in their life.  In Michigan this past spring we had a young man die on the basketball court after hitting a game winning shot, when his heart stopped.  It made national news for many weeks, was covered on ESPN as his team went on to play in the state playoffs without their star players and friend.  It was heart wrenching (see the Wes Leonard story here).   From the CNN article by LZ Granderson:

“I didn’t tell him I loved him or hugged him or anything,” Charles said. “Now I won’t ever get that chance again.”

Sadly I hear some element of that phrase over and over again from mourners reflecting on words left unsaid, gestures not made. And even though we all understand in our heads that tomorrow is not guaranteed, it is so hard to live a life that illustrates that understanding in our hearts.

Over the next several days, our nation will spend a significant amount of time looking back at the morning of September 11, 2001, and how much that event changed us.

We will analyze the war on terror and relive accounts of that day from first responders.

Celebrities will talk about where they were when the towers were struck, experts will look at what we need to do to shore up our security and pundits will pontificate on whether the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have really made us safer.

Undoubtedly, there will be moments in which it will feel like overkill, and I’m sure some of it will be. But I believe these are important stories to cover, important questions of morality to ask.

However in the midst of this 9/11 media avalanche, we should be careful not to overlook the most important lesson from the attack, and that is not to take life for granted. You never know which day is your last.

Hug your children.

Hold your spouse’s hand.

Call your mother.

Like most people I’m fascinated by all the stories of heroism during 9/11 and I love watching them on TV, and it still today makes me sick to my stomach to watch in horror the planes hitting the towers and the towers coming down.  10 years later it still seems unreal this happened in America.  I agree with Mr. Granderson’s take in that many people face tragedy each and every day, and for those who never got a chance to say goodbye, when it seemed like just another day when you left in the morning – what we miss, what we really want back, is that opportunity – the opportunity to tell that person how we feel, to hug them, to tell them we love them.  When that is taken away – it’s a personal tragedy for all of us, because you live with that regret forever.

Don’t miss your opportunity today to tell those you love how you feel, take that extra moment to give your wife and kid a hug on the way to work, and stop by and give your HR Manager a hug – G*d knows they need it!