On episode 104 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Madeline Laurano, Jessica Lee, and Tim Sackett come together to discuss catalogs, the follow-up to The Great Recession, and Tesla’s latest drama.
Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!
2:15 – Does anyone still get catalogs? Tim and Madeline still get tons sent to their houses.
4:30 – Tim thinks that a mailer would work well as a recruitment tactic, even better than email or texting.
5:15 – Tim shares a story that he’s going to put in his book! You heard it here first, folks.
8:30 – Tim’s story revolves around a marketing study where they asked a community what the top realtor in their area was. They created a fake realtor, did some marketing, and then re-asked the community who the top realtor was.
10:00 – Studies are showing that a large number of people who left their jobs during The Great Resignation are regretting their decision to leave their previous position. Madeline thinks that these shifts were pay-driven, and people didn’t take into account other factors.
13:40 – Tim said he had regrets when he left Applebee’s. Although it seemed like the right decision, he felt the repercussion of the decision almost instantly.
20:30 – Tim was at SHRM a few weeks ago, and a lot of the discussions had “The Great Recession” in their title.
21:30 – Tesla and Elon Musk are tracking office attendance by following the “office ID swipe-ins.” If you can’t come in, employees are supposed to email in a message that they won’t be in the office today. Tim thinks this is draconian and feels very similar to calling in sick for your kids at school.
24:45 – Tim says that he’s embarrassed by the number of people he’s had to fire by “pulling swipes”.
30:00 – JLee hired someone recently that was affected by the Tesla layoffs, and the new hire said that the reports of the layoffs are pretty accurate.
33:00 – JLee mentions how often, when layoffs are happening, HR professionals are given scripts for legal reasons, but there are ways to make it seem more human and empathetic.
36:30 – Madeline was a part of an analyst firm where there were secret talks about layoffs, and she felt like they handled it poorly in comparison to JLee’s Marriot example.
Back in the Dark Ages of recruitment, when I started in the field, we didn’t have email or texting. We used the phone, in person events and most importantly, direct mail. I was the Physician Recruiter (I had a fancy title, but this was my job) at a small hospital in Peru, Indiana. We did a direct mail piece that incorporated Neon Yellow and Pink envelopes and an Elvis stamp, which had just been released that year. I got a ton of response, and actually hired a Dr we sourced this way.
That being said, I think that in this current day and age, in the current job market, a direct mail piece could be very advantageous. It’s not what everyone is doing and it might find the right person who you wouldn’t have found otherwise.