Author Archives: Tim Sackett

What Happened to America’s After-Work Pub Culture?

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I’m returning from London today and there was something I noticed on my trip that we don’t really have in America. In fact, in the past year, I’ve visited Australia, South Africa, and now the UK, and in each visit to these countries I’ve noticed they have a very strong after-work pub culture.

When I talk to my grandparents it seemed like at one time in America we also had this after-work pub culture. We would go to work, do our job, and afterward we would meet our workmates and friends from, old and new, for a drink or two before heading home.

I love the after-work pub culture!

It’s not really about drinking, although a lot of that happens, it about true connection. The one thing you instantly realize about the pub culture is that no, absolutely no one, is looking at their phone! It’s so strange because you realize how much we are on our phones in America when you see this!

It’s adults, sharing a pint, having conversations. Laughing. Hugging. Just sharing their daily frustrations and joys. Then they head home and finish their day.

Somewhere in our history we stopped heading to the pub after work and started heading directly home. Why?

Part of the pub culture is a city culture as well. When you don’t get into a car, by yourself, but you walk to the train, or bus, or ferry, or to where you live directly, you put yourself in a position to stop along the way for a drink with a friend, or to meet up with some friends. As we moved out of our cities, we moved away from the after-work pub culture.

We became addicted to busy. Around the world parents have their kids play sports and do activities, but, in America, we’ve become completely insane in over-scheduling our kids. It’s not enough to have them play little league on the weekend or take piano lessons, they have to be on travel teams, or prepare for concerts, etc.

We stopped having real relationships and we started having social relationships. I’ve found other countries place a higher importance on having a real face to face interactions to consider someone a friend. They want to break bread and share a drink and really get to know the person that is you. For many Americans, we’ve grown uncomfortable with real relationships!

I think there is a balance. I’m not sure I want my Dad or Mom showing up a 7 pm each night because they’ve been at the pub, but I think it’s okay if they do this a day or two a week. I think it’s healthy for adults to have adult relationships.

I like the concept of the neighborhood pub where you can go and you know the staff and the patrons. I think an after-work pub culture acts sort of like adult therapy in so many cases. I’m wondering if the Millennials and GenZ will turn the tide and re-create the after-work pub culture in America, as we see more and more young people move back into our cities? I hope so!

Hit me in the comments on your thoughts about an after-work pub culture. Are you for it or against it, and why?

5 Things Leaders Need to Know About Developing Their Team!

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I think we try and deliver a message to organizations that all employees need and want to be developed.

This is a lie.  

Many of our employees do want development. Some don’t need it, they’re better than you.  Some don’t want it, just give me my check.  Too many of our leaders truly believe they can develop and make their employees better than they already are.  This is a lot tougher than it sounds, and something most leaders actually fail at moving the needle on.

Here are some things I like to share with my leaders in developing their employees:

1. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time” -Maya Angelou.  I see too many leaders trying to change adult employees.  Adult behaviors are basically locked. If they show you they don’t want to work.  They don’t want to work.  Part of developing a strong relationship is spending time with people who are not a waste of time.

2. People only change behavior they want to change, and even then, sometimes they’re not capable of it.  See above.  When I was young in my career, I was very ‘passionate’. That’s what I liked calling it – passionate.  I think the leaders I worked with called it, “career derailer”.  It took a lot for me to understand what I thought was a strength, was really a major weakness.  Some people never will gain this insight.  They’ll continue to believe they’re just passionate when in reality they’re just really an asshole.

3. Don’t invest more in a person than they are willing to invest in themselves.  I want you to be great. I want you to be the best employee we have ever had work here.  You need to be a part of that.  I’m willing to invest an immense amount of time and resources to help you reach your goals, but you have to meet me halfway, at least. Don’t think this means a class costs $2,000, so you should be willing to pay half. It doesn’t. Financial investment is easier for organizations to put in than for employees, but if you pay for the class and it’s on a Saturday and the employee turns their nose up to it, they’re not willing to ‘invest’ their share.

4. It’s usually never the situation that’s pissing you off, it’s the mindset behind the situation that’s pissing you off.  Rarely do I get upset over a certain situation. Frequently, I get upset over how someone has decided to handle that situation.  Getting your employees to understand your level of importance in a situation is key to getting you both on the same page towards a solution. Failure to do this goes down a really disastrous path.

5, Endeavor to look at disappointment with broader strokes. It’s all going to work out in the end.  It’s hard for leaders to act disappointed.  We are supposed to be strong and not show our disappointment.  This often makes our employees feel like we aren’t human.  The best leaders I’ve ever had showed disappoint, but with this great level of resolve that I admired. This sucks. We are all going to make it through this and be better. Disappointment might be the strongest developmental opportunity you’ll ever get as a leader, with your people.

HR Mind Games!

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HR Mind Games is a quick hitting, 20-30 minute hangout hosted by my great friend, Kris Dunn, founder of FOT and the HR Capitalist and sponsored by Caliper, the leading provider of Assessments for Selection, Talent Management, and Leadership Development.

In each episode of HR Mind Games, we’ll cover how general behavioral assessment geekiness/expertise helps HR and Recruiting Pros make better hires as well as maximize performance once that talent is in the door!

Episode #1 is going to be a doozy – How to Hire Sales Pros Who Are “Hunters”, not “Farmers”.  We have a LOT of opinions on this people, and the scars (and behavioral science) to prove it

If you love to geek out on the assessment side – CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EPISODE OF HR MIND GAMES!!!

In our first episode, we’re going long on how to use assessments to figure out who the true “hunters” are across sales candidates.  Join us and we’ll share what we’ve learned and what to focus on from a behavioral perspective to ensure sales hires are “optimized” to bring home the bacon!!  We’ll even give you a great template to compare sales candidates to as you hit the recruiting trail!

Even if you’re unsure if you can make it or not, sign up to make sure you get the templates for future sales searches!

Future episodes: How to spot and deal with Narcissistic Managers, How to Use Assessments for Good, Not Evil…. good times in this series…

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EPISODE OF HR MIND GAMES!!!!

What’s the difference between Recruiting and Sourcing?

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I’m on the road this week at SHRM National and at The Sourcing Summit UK. Two very different groups. The SHRMies will be more traditional HR and Recruiter types that wear a lot of hats. The SOSUites will be very specialized in sourcing.

I get asked a lot about what’s really the difference between Recruiting and Sourcing? Or, where does Sourcing end and Recruiting begin? Or something similar to these questions.

The answer is it doesn’t matter.

The organization has a need for talent.

The organization has to find or grow talent.

You and others in the organization need to figure this out.

So, figure it out!

Everyone is going to design and process this differently. Some will have Sourcers take it all the way until the candidate is screened, then the Recruiter will come into finish the process. Some will have the Sourcers just find the talent, then have the Recruiter work to contact, screen, etc.

It doesn’t matter how you design it if it works for your organization, and, this is key, it’s replicable no matter who you have in the role.

Stop. Think. Let that process for a second.

One of the biggest mistakes I see really good organizations make is they build and design process around the talent they have right now. One piece of that talent changes and all of a sudden it no longer works.

“Well, Tim, did all the sourcing and just handed me great talent!” Great, Tim quit because he was doing most of the work and you took all the credit. How is that process working now?

Talent Acquisition is really hard when you have to make it up new each time you have an opening! Talent Acquisition becomes sustainable when you can plug in skill sets you need and the machine keeps spitting out talent no matter who it is.

Is it Sourcing? Is it Recruiting? It doesn’t freaking matter. Make it work for your organization.

What I find with the most innovative TA shops on the planet is they didn’t look at what everyone else was doing. They looked at what their organization needed and they solved for that problem. Many times the solution was doing something no one else was doing.

Career Confessions from Gen-Z: Go Spend Some Time Abroad!

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Your favorite Gen-Z blogger has returned to the States! After a tumultuous day of traveling (I won’t bore you with the details), I returned on Tuesday night from my 6 week study abroad trip to Spain. My trip to Spain was the best timesof my life filled with so many cool new experiences all over the country, including a lot of new foods, shopping, and SO MUCH GELATO.

Ever since I started college, I knew that studying abroad was something that I definitely wanted to do. I didn’t necessarily know where I wanted to go, but I knew that I needed to go. Gotta travel while you’re young! Everyone always says that studying abroad will give you a whole new perspective to how you see the world, and I always thought that they were just being a little dramatic. Now, I have to agree with them and I have a new outlook.

Here in the United States, we tend to isolate ourselves. I’m not trying to make a political commentary, I understand it; the US is huge and we’re pretty far from the vast majority of other countries in the world. But by doing this, we are casting a portrayal of uncertainty to other cultures. We tend to know very little about other places and their people, especially if we have no personal attachment to that place.

By going abroad and communicating with people from a different culture, I was able to see that they’re not all that different from us. I was able to connect with these people that live thousands of miles away from me and form a bond with them. They may live their lives so differently (I mean, who likes eating dinner at 10), but we’re all out here just trying to live our lives as best as we can.

This trip has taught me that it is absolutely essential to expose yourself to different cultures, especially at a young age. Traveling is expensive and it can seem impossible for some people to spend time abroad, but I believe that exposing yourself to new cultures can teach you so much more than many classes can. It is rare that you will only ever interact with people from your culture, especially in the melting pot that is the USA. By having experience communicating and connecting with others from around the world, it will be easier to work with and relate to these people that you may interact with in your jobs, school, or wherever else.

I have learned so many lessons from Spain, but most importantly I have gained an appreciation for the world. There is so much amazing stuff out there that we don’t get to see and we may never get to see! It’s important that we encourage everyone to go out and have cool experiences all over the world. By fostering a global appreciation of other cultures, we could solve a ton of problems. So, @myparents, please start taking me on you vacations!

Also, I will be starting my first internship and full time job on Monday! If you have any advice for me or things that you’d like to hear about in upcoming blog posts, leave a comment!

Compliance vs. Contribution – What Kind of HR Pro Are You? #SHRM18

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I spoke at SHRM National yesterday. I have to say I love the SHRMies! I never feel out of place at a SHRM conference. The pros that come are like most of us. We are trying to get better. We aren’t perfect. We really want to do great work. We have challenges.

There is one thing, though, I can point to that seems to separate those SHRM HR pros who are moving quickly into modern HR, and those who are not.

It really can be boiled down to Compliance vs. Contribution.

Everyone in HR is concerned about compliance. It’s part of the gig. Those who ignore compliance do not have a long career in HR.

Compliance-focused HR is also a trap.

I’ve said this my entire career, that it’s not HR’s job to eliminate risk. It is HR’s job to mitigate and advise of risk.

Bad HR tries to eliminate risk, so much so, that it many times turns into threats. The treats sound like this:

“Jim, you can’t do that because we’ll get sued!” 

“Mary, you can’t ask your team to do that because it’s against policy!” 

“Pat, if you decide to take this direction we’ll have to get legal involved!” 

This is HR trying to eliminate risk. This is bad HR.

Here’s how HR contributes to the success of an organization while mitigating and advising of risk:

“Jim, I understand what it is you want to do. There’s some risk, let’s be clear about this. If ‘we’ go this direction, we have to be prepared for “X”. Knowing this, how do you want to move forward?”

“Mary, I definitely hear what you need from your team. There are some complications because we have some policies in place. It doesn’t mean we can break or change those policies but puts us at some risk in the future. How about instead we try this…”

“Pat, I’m a little uncomfortable going the route you want to take. I think it would be best for ‘us’ to get some insight from legal and see if they might have a less risky way for us to proceed.”

Compliance vs. Contribution is really just a change in language and communication. One will get most of your team to want to work with you and keep you in the loop. The other will shut off your team from wanting to interact with you, and actually increasing the likelihood they get themselves and the organization in trouble.

I love my SHRMies who are looking to contribute. I desperately want to turn on a light for my SHRM brothers and sisters who are so compliance focused they are missing a great opportunity to contribute the greater good of the organization!

Never stop trying to raise the profession.

The Talent Fix – My new SHRM Produced book is now available to purchase! If your organization is having trouble hiring, this is a must buy! 

Talent Fix Review: My mom says it’s her favorite book that I’ve written!!! (I’ve only written one book!)

Purchase The Talent Fix now! 

Your Weekly Dose of HR Tech: @ClaraLabs – Book More Interviews #SHRM18

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Today on The Weekly Dose I review the unique interview scheduling technology, Clara. Clara Labs uses an intelligent automation software platform and actual humans to ensure you get more interviews booked with the candidates you want.

What makes a great technology? It’s simplicity.

Scheduling an interview is overly tough. It’s a pain the ass, but it’s not intellectually difficult to figure out! Clara Labs figured out a way to take HR and Talent Acquisition out of the middle of this process, without candidates feeling like they’ve lost contact with your organization and/or your HR/TA Team.

I think most HR Tech companies on the market would call “Clara” A.I., but Clara Labs stays away from this popular jargon to not over complicate a very simplistic idea and process that everyone involved with scheduling interviews love – HR/TA, Candidates and Hiring Managers.

So, how does it work?

Basically, Clara works through your normal email communication channel. All you do is “CC” Clara in your email exchange, just like you would a Recruiting Operations/Admin-type person who would normally become your middle person to set this up.

Once you cc Clara, she takes over on both sides and schedules an interview with the candidate and the hiring manager. And does so using Natural Language Processes that makes everyone feel like it’s a real person doing the work.

You can simply say in the email:

“Hey! Tim, we would love to have you come in and meet with Mary and interview for the position. I”m going to have Clara set this up for us. Can’t wait to meet you in person!”

Clara then takes over and communicates back and forth with all parties finding a common time that works for everyone and even follows up as the meeting gets close to remind all parties.

Here’s where Clara is unique. If something happens that is out of the ordinary and the “Clara” can’t figure this out, a real human jumps into the process, as “Clara”, and takes over, so nothing ever falls through the cracks.

Sometimes setting up interviews gets complicated, or a candidate starts requesting or asking things during this process. It’s important for great candidate experience that these things are handled appropriately, and Clara Labs makes sure “a human is in the loop” when necessary!

I’m in love with simple tech that just works! Clara Labs actually used Clara to set up my demo and schedule a time with me and it really seemed like I was dealing with a real person and not a bot!

If your team is getting bogged down by being the ‘middle’ person in getting interviews set up, or if you’re the type of TA shop that has pushed this onto your hiring managers to set up, this is a great tool to help them! Before adding another person onto your Recruiting Ops team, this would be a great way to increase capacity on your team or pennies on the dollar!

Another great TA Tech you should be setting up a demo to see! If you are doing mass volume interviewing this would be a lifesaver!

The Weekly Dose – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market.  None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion.  There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on The Weekly Dose – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

Want help with your HR & TA Tech company – send me a message about my HR Tech Advisory Board experience.

#SHRM18 – Johnny Taylor is the Exciting Leader HR has Needed!

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I’ve been a SHRM member since 2001. Over that entire time, I have never been excited about the leadership of my professional organization in HR. It’s not that SHRM didn’t have good, solid leaders, but they were never people who inspired me in my profession.

At the SHRM National Conference this year in Chicago, Johnny Taylor, SHRM’s new CEO, will take the stage and many in attendance will get to meet the man for the very first time. I think you’re going to be impressed!

Now, this isn’t my first experience with Johnny. I first ran into Johnny about 8 or 10 years ago when he was an HR leader and doing the speaking circuit. I had never met him. He gets on stage and kills! I had to go on after, which is never a good feeling. In my mind, I was like, “this dude is going to be famous!” I’m not sure CEO of SHRM is famous, but he’s done alright for himself!

The podcast link below is from Joey Price’s Business, Life, & Coffee pod where he got Johnny to sit down with him and really open up about the HR profession like no other SHRM leader I’ve ever listened to. In terms of what Johnny (remember, the CEO of SHRM) thinks would be his ‘ideal’ HR professional, he had four attributes:

  1. P&L knowledge and responsibility, with Business Operations background.
  2. Experience managing people, with a high degree of empathy.
  3. Keen understanding of the legal landscape
  4. Strong sense of culture

Do you see anything on that list of an ideal HR pro that speaks to ‘functional’ expertise?

Johnny is the CEO the SHRM membership needs at this point in the history of our profession. Business savvy, great communicator, an HR leader who you easily see running your company. Not running HR, running your company.

Kudos to Joey Price for getting a great interview! Kudos to Johnny for opening up and letting the SHRM membership see who he’s all about. I’ll be cheering him on as a SHRM member and hope he’s wildly successful.

No pressure, Johnny! I’m sure you’ll kill at national!

The Talent Fix – My new SHRM Produced book is now available to purchase! If your organization is having trouble hiring, this is a must buy! 

Talent Fix Review: My mom says it’s her favorite book that I’ve written!!! (I’ve only written one book!)

Purchase The Talent Fix now! 

Career Confessions from Gen-Z: My Dad is the Greatest!

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I bet you didn’t expect a post from me on a Monday! Well here I am, with an extra post just to celebrate the creator of the Tim Sackett Project, the “foremost expert on workplace hugging”, HR microcelebrity, or otherwise known was my father. Many of you know my Dad from his witty blog posts or his presentations at HR conferences. While my Dad may be a fantastic writer and public speaker, he has a lot of cool, sometimes very strange, and special qualities/talents that I thought I would share!

  1. No one can make a better Valentine’s Day box. My brothers and I would have the coolest boxes every year growing up
  2. He is an expert griller and lawn mower#justdadthings
  3. He is really good at deciphering baseball signs and play calling signals from other teams’ coaches
  4. He can coach just about any sport and will make sure every kid not only improves, but has a super fun time
  5. He is one of the single most caring people in the world. He will go to the end of the Earth to help any person that he cares about
  6. He is really good at finding cool shoes, jackets etc, sending them to me, and then buying them for himself
  7. He can yell louder than most people at the referees at MSU basketball/football games
  8. He can give real and helpful advice for any situation. I wouldn’t have been able to make some extremely hard decisions these past years if it weren’t for his support
  9. He is able to come up with a wildly inappropriate joke/slogan/title for any possible situation
  10. He is the most hard working person in the world. You think you’re hustling, but my Dad is probably hustling harder!
  11. He can find a nickname for any single person
  12. He is an expert dog walker and can speak dog talk like no other
  13. He can find his way anywhere. I swear he has a GPS system in his brain. You could drop him in the middle of any city, and he’d find his way
  14. He is able to find the light and positivity in any situation. There are very few days where I haven’t seen my Dad smiling and laughing
  15. He is the most loving person I know. He loves a lot and unconditionally

As many of you know, my Dad is the greatest. He can write, run a successful business, make a pretty great family (in my opinion), basically he can do it all! There is nothing that I could do to ever repay him for all that he’s done for me, but I thought that I would just make his try and display amazingness for others to appreciate. Happy Father’s Day Dad! I love you so much.

-Cam

“We Can’t Find Talent!” Stop it! You sound dumb! #SHRM18

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So, I’m going to be speaking at SHRM National next week on Monday at 10:45am. The title of my talk is “What Your CEO Wishes HR & TA Would Start Doing!”

One of the things our CEO wishes we would start doing is finding them some talent! But, we tell them it’s “hard” to find talent. It’s not hard to find talent…

It’s hard to talk talent into coming to work for you when you virtually have no differentiating factors from any other job or company in your market.

I hate it when a CEO says, “We ‘only’ hire the best talent!”

No, you don’t! Stop it! You sound like an idiot!

You hire the talent that applies for your jobs at the time they are open that is willing to accept your average pay, your average benefits, your average hiring managers, your average work environment, and your average career ladder.

Does that sound like something the ‘best’ talent in the world is looking for?

The crazy part is we all actually do have something special in our organizations. What is it? How the hell should I know, it’s your organization, not mine! That’s for you to discover! Or make it up, no one really checks that closely to see if you’re actually telling the truth. Perception is the reality!

If you tell people you’re great, most will actually believe it if you put enough marketing and shine behind it!

See you in Chicago SHRMies!

The Talent Fix – My new SHRM Produced book is now available to purchase! If your organization is having trouble hiring, this is a must buy! 

Talent Fix Review: My mom says it’s her favorite book that I’ve written!!! (I’ve only written one book!)

Purchase The Talent Fix now!