Category Archives: Branding

3 Reasons Talent Communities are NOT the Future of Employment

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I know a lot of really smart, brilliant people who espouse that Talent Communities are the second coming of Christ, in regards to employment and recruiting.  Business Week even had a recent article where they called “Talent Hives” (I guess their version of “Talent Communities” – the future of employment – which means this concept is now hitting main stream and soon you’ll see June the HR Manager down at the local Tool & Die Shop trying to set up her talent community.  Here’s more from Business Week:

“These are communities of people interested in an employer (whether because they’re job hunting themselves, or just curious, or because they’re fans of the product or service the organization produces) and willing to be in two-way touch with that employer over time. (For the simplest example of a Talent Hive, think of a Facebook (FB) company page or a LinkedIn (LNKD) group). Talent Hives are popular because they’re easy to set up, and because the two-way and group communication makes it easy for companies to learn more about potential job applicants (including people who are currently working for their competitors) even when they don’t have open positions.”

Great theoretical concept.  But I think theory and practice don’t always align because the real world steps in an kicks it in and kicks them both to the curb.  Here’s 3 reasons I don’t see Talent Communities as the Future of Employment:

1. Reality – Talent Communities are established by you and ran by you (the HR/Recruitment Dept.) – that’s means you need to deliver content, sometimes unique, definitely engaging. Very few people, in HR worlds, have the skill/ability to do this.  You can shop this out, at a cost – a cost of not only money but also authenticity – there goes that community feel.  And, by the way, you’re doing this for a benefit you may, or may not, get in the future when you have an opening you believe you might have.  How many organizations are really going to do this long term? It’s a small percentage, congregated into smaller specialty industries – with really big budgets – to make it sustainable.

2. Logistics – Talent Communities assume “Talent” – that talented people you would want to hire will voluntarily want to join your content driven community and interact.  That’s a huge assumption! Gigantic!  First, you (yes, you – who else will do it) needs to go out and find the great talent that you someday want to work at your company and engage them to be apart of your community.  I don’t know about you – but 99.9% of the HR/Talent Pros I know don’t have the capacity to make this happen – either through time or skill.

3. WIFM (What’s In It For Me) – Talent Communities don’t deliver enough WIFM.  Talented people get this – they are fooled by your “Community” which isn’t really a community but a holding pen for potential future candidates and you have to know they know this. This means someone who ops into your community gets the deal – I want to work at your place – so I’m going to engage with you – and you will engage with me – and one day you’ll hire me – and you’ll use that number to justify how great Talent Communities are so I can keep this job as Talent Community Manager and justify my $50K+ salary.  How’s that work for you?

Let’s face it – I don’t know much – but I think I know a little about recruitment – and to me Talent Communities seem to be a lot of smoke and mirrors and well it’s easier/safer than just picking up the phone and finding/calling the talent you want (which is dirty and evil for some reason).  I know some folks have some great examples of Talent Communities working – good for them – I hope they keep working for them.  I guess this message goes out to the HR majority – it isn’t as easy as it might sound.  Before jumping in with both feet – make sure it’s right for you.

The Employee Walk of Shame

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I’ve lost jobs and I’ve called old employers to see if they would want to hire me back – I’ve usually gotten a response that sounded something like – “Oh, boy would we want you back – but – we just don’t have anything. Good Luck!”  Many of us in the talent game talk about our employee Alumni and how we should engage our Alumni – but very few of us really take true advantage of leveraging this network.

I was reminded of this recently when a friend of mine took a new job.  You know the deal – shorter drive, more money, growing company – oh, golly, just where do I sign!?  The fact was, it was all they said – shorter drive, more money and they were growing – but they forgot to tell him was – our operations are broken beyond repair, you will work 7 days a week and probably 12-14 hours per day because of the mess we have, but keep your head up – it’s the only way you won’t drown here!

So, now what does he do?

Already had the going away party – bar night out with the work friends with the promises to do lunches and not get disconnected – packed up and unpack the office into the new office.  Let’s face it big boy – you’re stuck!  Not so fast.  He did the single hardest thing an employee can do – he called his old boss – after 7 days – and said one thing – “I made a mistake, can I come back?”  Luckily for him – his past boss was a forward thinking leader and so this past Monday – he did the 2nd hardest thing an employee can do – he made the Employee Walk of Shame.

You can imagine the looks from people who didn’t know him well – “hey, wait a minute, didn’t you leave?” Having to tell the same story over and over – feeling like he failed, like he wasn’t good enough.

HR plays a huge part in this story because it was HR who can make this walk of shame – a little less rough.  Let’s face it, it is different.  You just don’t leave and come back like nothing happened – something did happen – there was reason he left and that reason isn’t going away.  A transition back needs to be put into place – even though he was gone 7 days.  It’s not about just plugging back in – it is about re-engaging again – finding out what we all can do better so it doesn’t happen again.

It’s also about making sure you let those employees who you truly want back – that they are welcome to come back (assuming you have the job) and not just saying that to everyone.  There are employees who leave that you say a small prayer to G*d and thank – there are others where you wish there was a prayer you could say so they wouldn’t leave.  Make it easy for your employees to do the Walk of Shame – it helps the organization – but realize they are hurting, they are embarrassed, but they are also grateful!

The Value of a Really Crappy Job

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As some of you may have realized from recent posts (Wanted: People Who Aren’t Stupid), I’ve been interviewing candidates recently for the position of Technical Recruiter working for my company HRU. I love interviewing because each time I interview I think I’ve discovered a better way to do it, or something new I should be looking for, and this most recent round of interviews is no different.  Like most HR/Talent Pros I’m always interested in quality work/co-op/internship experience – let’s face it, it’s been drilled into us – past performance/actions will predict future performance/actions.  So, we tend to get excited over seeing a candidate that has experience from a great company or competitor – we’re intrigued to know how the other side lives and our inquisitive nature begs us to dig in.

What I’ve found over the past 20 years of interviewing is that while I love talking to people that worked at really great companies – I hire more people that have worked at really bad companies.  You see, while you learn some really good stuff working for great companies – I think people actually learn more working for really crappy companies!  Working at a really great companies gives you an opportunity to work in “Utopia” – you get to see how things are suppose to work, how people are suppose to work together, how it a perfect world it all fits together.  The reality is – we don’t work Utopia (at least the majority of us) we work in organizations that are less than perfect, and some of us actually work in down right horrible companies. Those who work in horrible companies and survive – tend to better hires – they have battle scars and street smarts.

So, why everyone wants to get out of really bad companies (and I don’t blame them) there is actually a few things you learn from those experiences:

1. Leadership isn’t a necessity to run a profitable company. I’ve seen some very profitable companies that had really bad leadership – people always think they’ll leave those companies and they’ll fail – they don’t.  Conversely, I’ve worked for some companies that had great people leaders and failed.

2. Great people sometimes work a really crappy companies.  Don’t equate crappy company with crappy talent.  Sometimes you can find some real gems in the dump.

3. Hard work is relative.  I find people who work at really bad companies, tend to appreciate hard work better than those who work a really great companies with great balance.  If all you’ve every known is long hours and management that doesn’t care you have a family – seeing the other side gives you an appreciation that is immeasurable.

4. Not having the resources to do the job, doesn’t mean you can’t do the job. Working for a crappy company in a crappy job tends to make you more creative – because you probably won’t have what you need to do the job properly, so you find ways.

5. Long lasting peer relationships come through adversity.  You can make life-long work friends at a crappy job – who you’ll keep in contact and be able to leverage as you move on in your careers.  And here’s what each of you will think about the other: “That person can work in the shit!”  “That person is tough and get’s things done” “That person is someone I want on my team, when I get to build a team”

We all know the bad companies in our industries and markets.  Don’t discount candidates who have spent time with those companies – we were all at some point needing a job – a first experience, a shot at a promotion or more money, etc. and took a shot at a company we thought we could change or make a difference.  I love people who worked for bad companies, in bad jobs with bad management – because they wear it like a badge of honor!

Employment Branding – I love the brochure

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I have a feeling that Employment Branding has jumped the shark.  This probably happened around the same time we stopped really caring about what our employment brand truly was, and we started designing the brochure about what we wished our employment brand was – and started selling the “idea” as the “brand”.  When it isn’t.

I’m a true believer in HR Pros having Marketing Chops – I’m no a true believer in HR trying to be marketing.  Marketing sells the “idea” of your organizations product or service – not the reality.  No one wants to buy reality – they want to buy the dream, the vision.  That’s why we have marketing.  They sell the crap that no one would buy if they really knew what they were buying – there’s a reason your sales and marketing folks get paid more than you – besides the fact they’re better looking.

We buy the brochure.  It’s pretty, the sun is always shining, the people are always smiling and there is a perfect ratio of white, black, male, female, wheelchairs and tattoos – and everyone is pretty. We buy the idea.

I think this is where employment branding went to die.  It just walked out and laid down next to authenticity and closed it’s eyes.

I guess I need to go back and sit down next to the coffee breath, pit stained, loud mouth, but he writes good code, reality. He’s annoying, but I can count on him to do good work – plus he’s loyal.  It’s not much of a brand – but it’s the truth…

 

(this all makes me think of the Jay-Z song Forever Young:

So we live a life like a video
When the sun is always out and you never get old
and the champagne’s always cold
and the music is always good
and the pretty girls just happen to stop by in the hood
and they hop their pretty ass up on the hood of dat pretty ass car
without a wrinkle in today
cuz there is no tomorrow
just some picture perfect day
to last a whole lifetime
and it never ends
cos all we have to do is hit rewind)

Great HR Doesn’t Come from Big HR Shops

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We here it all the time:

“They’ve got to much to lose to take that kind of a risk.”

Or statements similar to this.

As I travel out and about on the fall HR conference tour (most State level SHRM conferences happen in the fall) I’m reminded constantly that Big HR Shops (Fortune 500 companies, Big Government, Giant Non-Profits, etc.) are not who you should be turning to for the next great HR ideas.  Maybe you can turn to them for Best Practices – but is best practice – where you want to be?  Best Practice is by it’s nature – solid and fully vetted – for years.  It’s great HR from 5+ years ago. Safe. You can’t go wrong with Best Practice HR.  But please stop trying to act like it’s “great” HR – it’s not  – it’s more of the same HR.

There’s actually a name for this, it’s called Loss Aversion theory, which is basically:

“people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.”

What this all boils down to in HR is what you have to lose by taking a chance.  Want a industry changing benefit program?  You have to get way out of the box.  Big HR Shops don’t get way out of the box.  By the way – Google is a big HR shop – Giant.  So are most of the other companies you continue to use as examples of “Great” HR, but they really aren’t “great” HR.  I say this because I’m tired to hearing “more of the same HR” practices at conferences being played off as “Great HR” practices, and seeing my HR peers buy it as life altering HR. It’s not – unless you have a Delorean that can’t go back in time to when it was.

So you want Great HR, you want HR that will change industries in 5 years? Don’t get caught up with a brand – get caught up with an idea.  Too often we want the “brand” – “Oh, look Southwest Airlines HR is going to be talking – I MUST go see them!”  Stop!  Southwest was great 20 years ago – they aren’t anymore – they are the same now – which is still good – but not “Great”.  You don’t want to be like Southwest Airlines right now – you want to be like Southwest Airlines 20 years ago.  You’re goal is to find that session with that person you’ve never heard of – they have nothing to lose – they will probably have better ideas.

I’m probably on an island with this one.  Because everyone wants to hear about how the “Big Boys” are doing it – because if they are doing “it”, “it “must be good.  But you know I’m comfortable on this island – this island is full of start-ups you’ve never heard of and they are fighting to make it ever day and that fight propels them into a space the “Big Boys” won’t go.  This island has a bunch of creative HR pros who don’t have books published and aren’t paid to speak  – they get their hands dirty, they make mistakes – they – make – great HR.

58% of College Students Are Willing to Lie

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According to a recent study by NetImpact – What Workers Want in 2012 58% of College Students (1,726 total in the study) would take a 15% pay cut to work for an organization who’s values matched their own.  In another study, I’m willing to coach the Los Angles Lakers for less than half what they are paying their current coach (1 total in this study)!

These studies are silly – it’s hypothetical, college kids still believe in things – like fairness and equal opportunity and you’ll always be able to drink 12 beers and get up the next morning and run 3 miles.  Let’s wait for all 1,726 college students who took the study to get a job and then 5 years from now when they are employed we’ll go to them and force them to make a choice –

1. You keep your current salary and stay with your current job

2. You take a 15% pay cut and move to Employer A which happens to have the same values as you, under the current leadership team

I will bet my entire life savings that less than 58% of those people would choose to leave their current employers (no matter what job they have) and take a 15% pay cut!  In fact I would be fairly confident to say only about 10% would take us up on our offer, and they were already looking or getting pushed out. So, what does the study really say? That college students being asked silly hypothetical questions for a study about how they will act in the future, are willing to lie.

Why do I think these studies are silly?  Because solid, well meaning, HR Pros will go out and start recruiting folks to their organization who have the same values that “they” have.  “They” being the key word.  Who is “they”?  Well, Tim, we went to our leadership and our managers and our employees and we did value assessment and we found that 73% of our folks valued honesty and integrity over 67% that valued hard work and a fun work place.  Oh, you’ve got it figured out…

Here’s what I’m thinking – values are hard to hire – but you think they aren’t.  I can hire for skills, I can hire for past performance, etc. When it comes to values and morals, I’m really throwing myself down the rabbit hole.  Hiring for values and morals puts the selectors values and morals into play way too much.  If Peggy is your main screener – you better damn hope Peggy shares the exact values and morals you’re trying to hire for – or you’re going to be in for a surprise down the road.

I’m not saying don’t do it – I’m saying you better weight it appropriately with some other criteria.  I seem to be in the minority who still believes having the fire power to do the job, and some past performance to back it up, is still fairly important when selecting candidates. And if Humility doesn’t seem to be a part of their value chain, I think I might be able to work around that – if they can perform!

A Job Post with Your Name On It!

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I was in a conversation the other day with another Talent Pro and she was asking me for some advice on getting better applicants to apply for her postings.  I asked a number of questions but one that really got the conversation moving was:

Do you know who you want to apply for this position?

She told me “Yes” and then went on to give the specifications of the job description.  I said “No”, do you know the Name of the person you want to apply to this position?  She laughed – she thought I was joking – I wasn’t.   Well, I half-wasn’t.   It was a quirky idea, but in the right environment and small to medium community you could really make a splash by actually naming your post after the person who you really want to take the job.  Can you imagine!

Wanted “Michael Smith – Chemical Engineer” – please apply today!

The obvious issue at play here is – well – if I knew the name of the person I wanted, why wouldn’t I just call them up and ask if they wanted the job!?  GREAT question – why don’t you?  It’s actually fairly easy to find names of competitor employees you might want to hire.  So, why don’t you call them up and ask them if they want the job you have?  You know why?  Because it’s F’ing hard to do!  That’s why the search industry is a multi-Billion (with a “B”) business.

So, instead of calling them – just make a job posting with their name on it – and go float it around town – through your social channels, on your website, maybe a job board posting, etc.  Believe me – it will get back to the person you are looking, and if they are interested – they will come calling.  Seems silly, but I bet it would work far more than it wouldn’t.  People like to feel wanted.  How much more wanted can you get than a company creating a job posting with your “actual” name on it!  THIS job is for me! You would say to yourself.

In a tough talent marketplace, sometimes it’s the easy, simple things that make the difference.  Sometimes people just want to know they’re wanted.  We make this search game so difficult sometimes.   I always tell people I have the easiest job in the world.  I just have to ask people if they are interested in a job, I have open.  Pretty easy!  I’m not trying to launch the space shuttle or fix someones heart – I just need to see if they would have interest in making a job change.  The rest is just market variables, all of which, are probably pretty similar to the next guy.  Many times, it comes down to only one thing – me showing interest in them, and their current company not showing the same level of interest in keeping them.

I say give it shot – what’s the worse that can happen – you get your community talking about your company and how aggressively you’re going after people?  That’s not all bad – either way!

Got’em Right Off The Boat

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Don’t know if you’ve seen this, but a company called Blueseed recently announced their plans to build a ship to house Technical start-up workers off the shore of San Francisco, far enough off shore to in ‘International’ waters.   Makes you trying to get around the Visa issue just a little easier, now doesn’t it!?  What we’ve run out of H1B’s for the year – don’t worry about it – just hire them and put them on the boat!   Gives a whole new meaning to “off-shoring”.

Here’s the explanation from Blueseed:

As a foreign national, to legally earn a paycheck in the United States, you would need a valid U.S. work visa. To live and earn a paycheck aboard the Blueseed vessel, you will only need a passport.

If you are outside of the U.S., you’ll have to enter the U.S. first before boarding the Blueseed vessel. The best way to do this, and to be allowed to legally come to mainland, is to obtain a B1 (business) or B2 (tourist) visa. These visas are easier to obtain because they don’t grant the right to work in the U.S., are usually valid for 10 years (check validity for your country here) and are often combined into a B1/B2 business/pleasure visa. Nationals of 36 industrialized nations are exempted from this requirement for travel periods of up to 90 days, under the Visa Waiver program.

I like it.  I like when someone finds away around the system legally – or so they’ve interpreted it to be legal.  It’s creativity, in business, at it’s best!   We have a problem (not enough technical workers) – we’ve found a solution (building a big barge and anchoring just off the shores of the United States for you to hide house such workers).  It causes everyone to have an instant opinion – you either think it’s legal or that it’s not legal, or you think it’s good for business or bad for business – it’s polarizing.  It’s change.  It’s fun!

I’d like to see some company take it one step further – put a floating work place in International air space!  Sure that would make your work place 12 miles straight up in the air – but can you imagine the base jumps down to the ground!  Talk about an extra benefit for your employees – even your employment brand would rock – “Working Here Is A Thrill A Minute!” or “Jump Into Your Career with Us!” – I mean the ideas are endless. Plus, with my airspace idea you won’t be hampered by just living hear water – you can move that sucker anywhere on Earth!

So, what do you think about Blueseed? Good idea or cheesy-creative attempt to get around U.S. Immigration and Labor Laws?

 

3 Things HR Professionals Should Stop Apologizing For

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Fast Company recently had an article – “3 Things Professional Women Should Stop Apologizing For“, which were:

  1. Their Financial Expectations (I.E., pay us the same!)
  2. Their Physical Appearance (I.E., Sorry we aren’t club ready – I was up with a sick kid all night!)
  3. Their Professional Accomplishments (I.E., Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I can’t brag about what I do great!)

It’s a great article, check it out.  This got me thinking about all things we Apologize for in HR – that we should stop apologizing for – so here’s the Top 3 Things HR Pros should stop apologizing for:

1. You Getting Fired!  Oh, boy this could be #1, #2 and #3!  I can’t tell you how many HR folks I’ve trained over the past 20 years that I’ve specifically said “When you let this person go – Don’t apologize!”  I mean truly, what are you saying! “I’m sorry you are terrible at your job, or made the decision to sexually harass your co-worker – you’re fired!”  When you really think about it – it sounds funny.

2. You Not Getting Promoted.  This is almost the same as apologizing for getting fired.  Instead of apologizing to someone for not getting promoted, how about you give them a great development plan so they can actually get promoted!  Organizations can be big hairy breathing things – sometimes decisions are made and you won’t no the reasons.  HR Pros shouldn’t apologize for you not getting promoted – but they should help you navigate the political and organizational landscape.

3. You not liking your Boss, your Job, your Pay.  Ugh!  We tend to apologize for all these personal ‘happy’ choices a person makes.  The last time I checked, I never forced anyone to take a job, or forced them to accept the pay I was offering them, or forced them to work in the occupation or career they chose.  These are their own personal choices – if you don’t like it – LEAVE!  Go be happy somewhere else.  I hope that you’ll be happy here – but I can’t force you to be happy. I’ll try and give you a solid leader, with good pay and challenging work – but sometimes what I see as solid, good and challenging might not meet your expectations.  That’s when you need to make a happiness decision!

So, what should you apologize for a HR Pro?  I can think of two things that I apologize for on a regular basis: 1) Things I can Control (If I control it, and I screw it up, I need to offer you an apology); 2) Surprises!  (I might not be able to control surprises – but they suck when it comes to business and your livelihood – I apologize for surprises because in HR it’s my job to make sure those don’t happen to you as an employee).

Video Interviewing for Cavemen

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When I start to think about adding something like Live Video Interviewing or Video Screening to my HR/Recruiting Toolbox – I instantly go to about 100 reasons why we can’t do that in our environment!

It’s too Technical!

It will take too much time!

It will cost too much!

I’m not smart enough to make this happen – and I don’t want to look like an idiot in my organization!

The Kris Dunn and I are two 40ish white guys – who normally struggle changing the clocks on our VCR DVD players – so we get it – we get your feelings – this HR technical stuff, is well, at times, just too technical!

So, we decided to do something about this for our fellow HR/Talent Pros – we’re doing a free, live webinar on the 5 Ways to Use Video to Raise your HR  & Recruiting Game.  Our intent is to break this down so even your Mom and her iPhone can show you how to add video into your HR Shop – whether you have a 1 person HR shop or a 100 person HR shop – we’ve got some ideas for you.  If you haven’t used any video let in your HR Shop – this is a must see Webinar – it will blow your hiring managers away and help you fill reqs so much faster – and the value proposition is ridiculously cheap!

Kris and I have gotten to play around with this and through trial and error, and a few IT folks yelling at us, I think we have some simple ideas that can help you begin.  Plus, for all those who register for the Webinar – we’ll provide you with a Tool Kit to help give you some step-by-step instructions to get started – again For Free. Why do we do this for Free?  I would ask myself – well we don’t!  We have a sponsor – HireVue – who pays the technology bill to allow us to provide it for Free!  Win-Win for you.

Sign Up Today – unfortunately we have a “Technology” limit of how many people we can accept and our last Webinar filled up very quickly!  (isn’t that such a cheesy sales line!)