We got home from vacation recently and like most families we were foraging through the cupboards and refrigerator to make dinner our first night back home.  I poured some milk for my son and he asked me “is that milk alright?”, like somehow I hadn’t considered its feelings, but he mostly meant was it still good.   Sure the expiration date had passed a day, or so, prior – but I did the Dad smell test, and that milk was more than alright!  He wasn’t in agreement, so our “alright” milk took a trip to never-gonna-get-drank-land down the sink.  Expiration dates on food are great – it helps us understand when something goes bad, protects us from ourselves and what we think is good and bad – which can be subjective.  It makes me think that we should have expiration dates on our employees!

During the recent holiday weekend I got to watch a ton of football – both college and NFL – and if coaches don’t have an expiration date on them, I’m starting a movement that we should add these to all coaches.  The Philadelphia Eagles head coach, Andy Reid, is an excellent example.  Here’s a guy who has taken his team to 5 NFC Championship games and 1 Superbowl – but still it seems like his expiration date is up in Philadelphia.  It’s not that he’s a bad coach, in fact he’s arguably the most successful coach the Eagles have ever had with a winning percentage over .600%, 2nd only to Bill Belichick during that same time.  So, why has his expiration date come up?  It’s all about expectations.  Once you gain success, it’s not good enough to maintain that success or, G*d forbid go backwards – you have to keep getting more successful.  The only way Reid get’s more successful is to win the Superbowl – which is tough to do.

There are a number of other reason people should have expiration dates with organizations, these include:

• Chronic Average:  This is for the people who just never really do anything- they just exist in your organization.  After a while, they need to just go exist at another organization.
• Convicted Idiot: This is the person who makes a certain bad decision, so bad, that their expiration with your organization must come up. Think, hitting on the bosses wife at the holiday party, or worse!  Probably can’t legally terminate them, but they need to go someplace else.
• 1997 Top Salesman/woman:  This happens way to much – yeah, you were top sales person a decade ago, either get the trophy back or go give another organization your attitude!  We tend to keep them around because we are hoping they’ll regain their top form – but they don’t – let them expire.
• My Boss Is Dummer than Me: An organization can take only so many of these, for only so long – Ok, you win – go be smarter than us someplace else.
• No Admins Left To Sleep With: I’m hoping the title of this one explains it as well – otherwise you might have reached your HR expiration date at your organization!

I was reading a short interview recently in ESPN the Magazine about Nascar up-and-comer Brad Keselowski, who is having a great year on the track.   The article was really around Brad’s advice/opinion on why he is having success and one point stood out to me over everything else. He said:

“I worry about job security every day. If you ain’t worried about losing your job, you can’t drive at the right level.  Even after winning at Pocono on August 7th, I remember thinking, at least this buys me a little more time. When the day comes that I’m not afraid of getting fired, I’ll lost my edge.”

Nothing like professional sports to bring out performance anxiety!  The fact is professional sports like Nascar, golf, tennis, etc., is the ultimate pay for performance model.  For the most part, professionals in those type of individual sports only get paid if they perform well, and only keep getting paid if they continue to perform.   It’s like the commission sales person – you either sell, or your kids don’t eat this month.  Most people hate living and working under this pressure – but some thrive and Brad gives you a little insight to how they do it.  Don’t ever get comfortable.  Don’t ever stop feeling what it feels like to not have a job. Because when you do, you might as well start looking for a new job at that very moment.

I love this!  This is an insight to one’s soul.  It sucks to be unemployed, especially is you’ve worked for a long time.  To get up in the morning and not have some place to go is very unsettling, to say the least.  But as HR Pros, how many times do we see people who have gotten to “comfortable” – who have forgotten what it feels like to be unemployed?   Maybe even you are at this point right now!   This is a gift that we can deliver to our employees.  To sit down and have the “looks-like-you’re-really-comfortable-right-now” conversation.  It’s not a threat, it’s a developmental conversation around – “what else” – what else could you be doing that you’re not, what else is out there for you to accomplish and how can I help you get there, what else do you need to do to ensure you keep this job?

To often we have these types of conversations with employees who are struggling, instead of with those who are coasting.  If we had more of these conversations with our coasters, we would probably have very few struggling conversations – and believe me the coaster conversation is much easier to have – because it’s being had with positive intent.

So, what can you do today?  Think about unemployment – in fact – think about it every freaking day.  About what it feels like, about what it will do to your life, about how you can stop it – because you can – don’t believe the hype that says you don’t have control – it doesn’t matter  – Mr. Corporation will just lay you off.  Those people who are pushing each day for better performance, who don’t settle, who don’t get comfortable – they aren’t getting laid off.  Unemployment sucks – remember that!

I got a chance to spend some time this past weekend with a group of veterans and here’s what I came away with…

As HR/Talent Pros we are constantly looking for “silver bullets” when it comes to hiring.  We’ll pretty much try and do almost anything it we think it’s going to bring our organizations better talent.  This is why I’m perplexed at the one huge Talent miss most organizations are not fully invested into using – Veterans!  Think about the following benefits of hiring veterans:

•  Team Work – if anyone has been drilled on team work – it’s our military men and women.  Many of us struggle in our organizations to get our people to play nice with each other – and here we have this huge pool of talent that is all about team work (No One Gets Left Behind isn’t a slogan, they have lived it!).

•  Follow & Give Directions – HR Pros have classic stories about employees who can’t follow simple directions – and/or can’t give simple directions. I’d bet 90% of HR Pros nationally will at some point this year be having conversations with their senior leadership about “leadership” training – that simply consists of getting their managers to give straightforward, concise directions and feedback.

•  Ability to work under pressure and meet deadlines – When someone’s life or safety is at risk, you learn how to work under extreme pressure, which probably pales in comparison to much of the pressure we put on ourselves and our employees in normal work situations.  Regardless, having individuals who can not only handle pressure, but thrive under pressure, are skills our organizations need.

•  Planning and Organization – One thing our military veterans are known for is the training they receive in regards to planning and organization – and it’s the one thing we struggle with getting our employees to be good at.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve spoken to hiring managers where they’ll say “it’s critical this person be highly organized” – veteran’s military training turns them into organization machines.

•  Flexibility and Adaptability – One thing is constant in all of our organizations – Change!  We spend so much of our resources on change management – primarily because we know our employees, for the most part, will freak out at the slightest change.  Not veterans – they have lived in a world where they were forced to adapt and change constantly, based on external environmental changes they had no control over – again – their training takes over – they move on and work to continue the mission of the organization.

So, why do we as HR/Talent Pros struggle to hire Veterans?  First off I have to say, from personal experience, not hiring veterans is not an issue of the veterans, but it’s an issue of HR Pros!  We (the HR collective) are very set in a single mindset that we can only hire people, and our hiring managers will only accept people, that meet every qualification listed on the job description – which is complete BS – but we allow this to continue.  Am I going to go out and hire a former Army tank mechanic to run my accounting department? No – they don’t have that background – but could I hire a great person and train them to be a machinists, or an inspector, or a hundred other positions in our organizations!   We are a “instant gratification” society – so we struggle with the concept of hiring great solid citizens, then training them to do what we need.  “But Tim! You don’t get it – we train them, then they take off on us!”  Yeah, I get it – stop using that as an excuse – people don’t leave great work environments – and by the way – veterans have a higher loyalty index than your average employee.

Also, there are some misnomers we truly need to dispel –

1.People go into the military because they were trouble makers or not smart enough to get into college.  Not true – I know plenty of stupid, trouble makers who went to college! And I can show you pictures!  The fact is, at 18 years old many of us didn’t know what we wanted, but they might have known going to school for another 4 years wasn’t something they wanted.  The military seemed like a better option – and for the majority – it definitely was.

2.  Veterans are rigid and only know top-down management style.  In the 1950’s this was true – but today’s veterans have gone through so much soft skills leadership training it would make the most skeptical OD person smile.

3. We don’t have the time or money to train veterans for our work environment – we need fully trained people now!  No you don’t – is that why you’ve had that position open for 6 months – because you need it “Now!”?   The fact is, this is an organizational choice and you as an HR Pro have the influence to change it.  There is so much money out there for organizations to train returning veterans it borders on ridiculous – but you’ll have to do some work with your local veteran’s employment offices to get it – but it’s there.

We live in a great country – no matter what the 99%ers are telling you.  We have great men and women who make a personal choice to keep this country great – in our military veterans.  As employers, as citizens, we owe these men and women a chance – a chance to make our organizations great, a chance to pay them back with opportunity for their service, a chance for them to show us they made the right decision to serve our country and become highly functioning, loyal, mature adults ready to work their butts off for your company.  All they want is a chance to show you they can be great.  They are asking for a handout – just an opportunity.  We hold that opportunity – are you willing to give it to them?