HR Strategy for Dummies

Posted on May 2, 2012 by Tim Sackett

In HR we have to have a strategy for everything. What’s your employment brand strategy? What’s your orientation strategy? What’s your open enrollment strategy? It’s not really strategies for most of these – they’re processes – but we get hit over the head so many times in HR we stopped calling our “processes” – “processes” and started calling our “processes” – “strategies”. It makes us feel strategic when we have strategies!

Unfortunately, it’s rare that I see a real strategy for an organizations talent – their people. We strategically have many strategies in HR – our strategic benefits strategy, our compensation strategy, our recruitment strategy, etc. These really aren’t strategies either – these are more, what I call – HR operational initiatives – it’s the crap we do on a daily basis – it’s our jobs. It’s not strategy.

What is strategy? It’s a plan of action designed to achieve a vision.

We do really well on the plan of action! We usually fail on the last part – achieving a vision – because usually we really don’t have a vision – unless you consider doing the job a vision!? It’s not. The vision part of your strategy is by far the most important part – it needs to connect to the heart and minds of your HR group. They need to truly believe in it – it will shape decision making at all levels in your department – or at least it should!

Your HR Strategy needs to speak to what you truly believe on the people side of your business. It’s alright if your strategy and your current reality are not yet at the same point – you need to have a vision to be able to reach it. Very few organizations design their strategy based on their current state – unless they’ve already reached that pinnacle of excellence they desire. Too often I see HR departments go to design an HR Strategy – and it breaks down because people try and throw reality into the mix – “Wait, this isn’t who “we” are – we aren’t what you are saying…” I love realist – but they usually aren’t the best ones to draft your HR Strategy! You obviously need reality in your strategy – but not so much that you just regurgitate your current state.

I can’t tell you what your HR Strategy should be, but I can tell you some elements that better be a part of it:

The level of talent you need to achieve your organizational strategy
The type of talent you need to achieve your organizational strategy
The personality traits your talent will need to be successful in your organization

Not every organization needs high energy, go-getter, experienced individuals to be successful – some do. Some need calm, mild manner, entry levels to be successful. Many organizations need a large mix of talent, traits and experiences – heck – most of us do! In the end – we all need great talent that cares about their personal outcomes, they care about organizational outcomes and they believe both of those things can be accomplished under our roof.

Lastly, make your HR Strategy simple – so simple everyone in the building can spout it off in under 5 seconds. That will be hard to do – but that will make your strategy lasting and effective.

Look Who Got All Brand New

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Acting Brand New: (definition via Urban Dictionary):

When a person displays that they are better than their friends, or treats their friends indifferently, especially where there has been a relationship of good standing previously; hence the term ‘new’. i.e. without any history with you. Or,

Using it in a sentence: “Why Jamie acting brand new like he don’t know nobody? Just be cause he got a car don’t mean shit, we practically grew up in the same house and yesterday he said he couldn’t come over my house because it has a garage. I was like, well what about all those other 1000’s of times.”

I was reminded of the concept of “Acting Brand New” this past week when speaking about a client we use to work with. We don’t work with them now because the value equation just didn’t work out for the two of us (meaning: we weren’t making enough money for the work they were willing to give us!). The company was tough to recruit for because they had a super bad reputation and nobody locally wanted to go to work there, on top of that, they willing to be pay leaders to make up for their terrible reputation. I’m not in the business of providing bad talent – it won’t keep me in business long – they could only afford average talent – and average talent doesn’t want to work for horrible companies, unless you pay a premium – so what you’re left with is bad talent.

The reason this past client came up is because they went through some re-branding – new name, new logo, fresh coat of paint, etc. They still have the same openings and they are trying to “act brand new” – like somehow the people in a local market will forget who they were and want to come work at the “new” company. They don’t – still have bad culture, bad leadership and bad wages. BTW – that’s the triple threat of not getting any talent! You end up with people who couldn’t get jobs anywhere else.

Which leads to the concept of – how do you get “brand new”? If you’re unfortunately at a company like our previous client mentioned above, how do you turn this around? You can only become “Brand New” by actually being something new. Name changes and new logos don’t do the trick – you have to have leadership that actually act different, that model the behaviors you want to become, that are willing to cut out some cancer and not allow it to grow back. It’s tough! Too many of us want to change our Name and Logo first – I get that – Signs and Symbols. But that’s completely backwards when getting all brand new – you do that last. That way when someone comes back to see if you really are all brand new – your exterior matches the interior.

5 Things That Demonstrate You’re Not Getting Paid Enough

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I was reading an article recently, it was one of those “Best Places To Work” type of articles. Since I run a company, I’m always looking out for good ideas on how to take care of your employees without spending a dime – unfortunately – “Best Places” companies that make these lists usually don’t give you these type 0f ideas! What you get from “Best Places” articles are all the over the top crap – gourmet cat food for your in cube pet-mate, free liposuction for your spouse and discounted tattoo eyeliner coupons. I would love for my company to be on the top of every single “Best Places” to work article – but we probably won’t. I care too much about my employees to make that happen.

What?!?

Yes, you read that right – My greatest weakness is I care too much!

It costs an organization a ton of money to make a “Best Places” list – not in actually applying to make the list (oh yeah, they are chosen randomly – you have to apply – the Top 100 Greatest Places to Work isn’t really the Top 100 Greatest Places to Work – it was the Top of the companies that applied for the award Greatest Places to Work), but in doing all the silly crap they do, so they sound like a great place to work. Many of the best places to work, will never be on a list, because they are spending their time, money and effort – on their employees!

Here are some things that “Best Places to Work” companies and You Not Getting Paid Enough have in common”

1. If you’re company has unlimited gourmet free breakfast, lunch and dinner provided – you’re not getting paid enough. Cut that crap out and pay me $10K more per year – I’ll bring in my own Greek Yogurt and granola.

2. If your company pays to have your laundry done and your house clean – you’re not getting paid enough.

3. If your company is taking you on luxury vacations and dinners that cost more than your monthly home mortgage – you’re not getting paid enough.

4. If your company spend more on marketing themselves as a great place to work, than on your employee development – you’re not getting paid enough.

5. If your CEO flies to work on a daily or weekly basis – you’re not getting paid enough.

So, how do I show my employees that I care and that we have a great place to work? I don’t waste money on things that ultimately become a negative when I need to take them away because we aren’t making the money for our shareholders. All great places to work, eventually become average or crappy places to work – because sustaining luxury programs that you put in place when your doing well – become negatives to engagement when you tighten your boot straps.

Pay your people fairly. Meet their needs as adults. Treat them professionally and with respect. That’s a great place to work.

10ish Questions with Cynical Girl – Laurie Ruettimann

Posted on April 4, 2012 by Tim Sackett

So, I completely stole this idea from Erica Moss’s 10 Questions with Laurie Ruettimann: HR Chick and Blogger at The Cynical Girl, partly because it was a great idea and partly because I know Laurie, a little – we jumped off a building together – Laurie’s Jump(notice Laurie’s Mission Impossible style landing, My Jump – and I know some other HR type Dudes who know Laurie (Steve Boese, William Tincup, Lance Haun, Matt Stollack and Kris Dunn) who have snarky humor like mine and would love to ask Laurie questions – but not the type of questions that Erica asked!

Erica’s post on Laurie was great – they both played it straight – it was nice and safe. I thought we could have a little fun with Laurie, if she was game – and she’s almost always game! So, here’s my 10 questions for Laurie Ruettimann – to protect the guilty I won’t tell you who asked which question:

1. How often do your interns write your posts?

(LR) Not often enough. They would be better if I had a few interns dedicated to writing about Human Resources and recruiting. Because I’m short-staffed, you get shitty posts about cats and hoodies.

2. Do you ever get tired of being sarcastic and/or cynical?

(LR) Tiger momma gotta wear her stripes, yo. Honestly, I am more of a hyper-introspective Debbie Downer than I am cynical or sarcastic. Much of my negativity is turned inwards. And yes, it’s a burden. Years ago, I told my husband that I wanted him to say ‘I love you’ more often. He laughed. He thought I was being ironic. And maybe I was. I don’t even know, anymore. So, uh, yeah, my tough-girl act gets old.

3. What will your next blog be called? Cynically Punk or The HR Cat Lady?

(LR) My next blog will be called ASK THE BLONDES. I’m working on it right now, actually. I have a writing partner. You just got the scoop. (That how we role at The Project – Sometimes you have to slap the interns around to get the best news – but it’s always worth it!)

4. If you were the head of HR at Jos. A. Banks (Laurie’s favorite Men’s store – Holla Sponsors!), how would you find people that can innovate the “Buy one suit – get three suits, five shirts and eight ties for free” discount space?

(LR) Easy. I’d look to China. Cheap labor makes anything possible. Just ask General Electric or Apple.

5. What role in HR could disappear tomorrow and no one would notice?

(LR) Payroll. In fact, its all but disappeared. We get paid through the power of computers and magic. (Do you hear that sound? That’s the silence from all those Payroll speaking engagements Laurie just gave up!)

6. F – Marry – Kill: Jennifer McClure, Sarah White and President Obama?

(LR) Marry Jennifer McClure because it’s easy to be with her. She brings me treats. F*%k President Obama because he’s a black guy. Kill Sarah White but only because she likes recruiting and HR technology a little too much for my tastes.

7. How do you reconcile the fact that you are neither punk nor cynical – but just a cat-loving former HR practitioner?

(LR) I used to be young and fun. Now I’m a hardcore punk rock feminist anarchist who drives a Volvo and does Pilates just to have a hobby. Sometimes I binge eat Ben & Jerry’s and think about my 20s. Thanks for reminding me of my sad and pathetic adulthood, Timmy. (Editor’s Note: that question wasn’t from me – you’re welcome!)

8. If you die, can I be your ghostwriter for The Cynical Girl?

(LR) You can be my ghostwriter now. I’m short on interns.

9. From you professional HR perspective, what was the deal with Skipper and Gilligan?

(LR) I never watched that show but I’m pretty sure he was doing her in the copier room. Wait, do corporate offices still have copier rooms? (Editor’s Note: Clearly you never watched the show – they were both male stuck on a island after a 3 hour tour)

Thank you Laurie, tell the interns they did a wonderful job answering the questions and for the photo they sent!

Thanks again to Erica – for such a wonderful idea!

Check out Laurie and her writing at The Cynical Girl – she’s a fantastic writer and I love her take on all things HR and Corporate!

Make HR Suck Less

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Are you working in a HR department that sucks? You know if you are, it’s alright, you can admit it – it’s the first step of changing it.

I bet I talk to over a hundred HR Pros a year that begin the conversation with – “our HR department sucks!” or “my company doesn’t get it when it comes to HR” or “Our HR department is terrible”. It’s not the outlier, it’s the norm. So, many HR Pros working in HR functions where the organization has the feeling that “HR” sucks in our company. If you’re not in one now – great – but chances are you have either been in one before, or eventually you’ll make a “grass is greener” decision and put yourself into this situation.

You know what? We have the power to make HR Suck Less. Yes, you do. Stop it, you do. No really, you do. Alright that’s enough, just play along with me at least!

Here are the 3 steps to making HR Suck Less:

1. Stop doing stuff that Sucks. But Tim! We have to do this stuff. No you don’t – if your HR shop blew up tomorrow – your organization would still go on. Over time you’ve “negotiated” to do all this sucky stuff – thinking it would “help” the organization, or give you “influence”, etc. Stop that. Give it away, push it out to other departments – start doing stuff that doesn’t suck, more than doing stuff that does suck. It’s not easy, but it can be done, little by little.

2. Get rid of people in HR who Suck. Some people get real comfortable with sucking. They wear their suckiness around like a badge of honor. You need to cut the suck out of your department – like cancer!

3. Stop saying that you Suck. We brand ourselves internally with everything we do – and if you say that you suck at something – the organizational will believe you suck at something. If you say we are the best in the industry at recruiting our competitions talent away from them – you’ll be forced to live up to that – and little by little you will live up to that and the organization will begin to believe it as well. Signs and Symbols!

Every single HR Shop who feels they suck – doesn’t have to suck. If you feel you don’t suck, but everyone else tells you that you suck – you suck. You’re just delusional and you keep telling yourself things like “we have to do this stuff”, “it’s the law”, “we don’t have a choice”, etc. This is the first sign you’re comfortable with sucking – you aren’t listening to your organization. No one has to suck – you can decide to do things in a complete different way. Perception is reality in terms of sucking. You need to change perceptions, not reality. You can still accomplish the exact same things, just do it in a way that people think you rock. Start saying “Yes” to everything – not “No”. “No” sucks.

Sucking less is a decision – not a skill. You all have the skills – you just need to make the decision – to stand up and believe – Today we will no longer Suck!

It’s Back! FOT’s Top 25 HR/Recruiting Blogs!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Fistful of Talent – which I’m proud to be a member of – is releasing it’s Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs. What’s really cool about this list – unlike some other lists I have poetically mentioned in prior posts – is this isn’t made up by some random analysis, of random metrics – this thing is totally un-apologetically 100% subjective! That’s right, we (the FOT Tribe) sent in our own Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs that we love to read -the blogs we are fans of – and we ranked them 1 to 25. Simple – yet very effective!

I’m not saying that it’s easy to pick the Top 25 – for starters no FOTer blog can be a part of our list – which right there eliminates probably the 10 greatest blogs on the planet! So, I might have to recommend to Kris that next year we call the list – The Top 11-35 HR and Recruiting Blogs! That being said we looked at hundreds of blogs – many of us have our personal favorites – many of us really like and read blogs that our out of the HR world – as our personal favorites. What I can tell you – is the Top 25 – are solid! If you are looking for a list of HR and Recruiting blogs to follow – you won’t go wrong with any of these!

FOT’s own Steve Boese will be doing his thing tonight at the HR Happy Hour – unveiling the winners and talking HR with some of the top HR bloggers in the business – go check him out –

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/steve-boese/2012/03/23/hr-happy-hour-141–the-hr-blog-power-rankings

HR Happy Hour Episode 141 – ‘The HR Blog Power Rankings’

All Hail The Newest Job Board

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Tim Sackett

With the Death March of Monster that has been going on in the media lately (check out Jason Buss’s post on it from last week – 7 Warning Signs For Monster), I thought it was high time we start giving kudos to the new King of the Job Boards!

So, without further ado – Please give a warm welcome and many slaps on the back to…

What did you think I was going say – CareerBuilder?! They are just Monster with different shoes.

The real congratulations goes to LinkedIn! They put so much time and effort into building their next generation job board, I’m really proud of them. It wasn’t easy to reinvent the job board industry, but they found away. Sure it was by first establishing themselves as a credible “networking” site, before pulling wool over the eyes of its members and selling their contact information to corporate recruiters for $8500 per year. I mean it was pure genius! It actually brings a tear to my eye.

Monster and CareerBuilder could only have dreamed of making a site that looks like a legitimate networking site, one that HR folks actually encourage their employees to get onto – only to be systematically picked off by their competition. Pure magic!

Today I’m going to recommend, as a HR community, that we do something to recognize LinkedIn as the biggest HR innovation of the 21st century. Somebody call Bill Kutik to see if he can put this award together in time for HR Tech 2012. It was going to be no small task to reinvent the job boards – but as a Talent Pro I’m sure glad that somebody figured it out – Thank You LinkedIn! We bow to your greatness.

You Don’t Want a HR Social Media Position

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Do you know how many times in the past 12 months I’ve heard someone say – “I’m looking for a social media position”? Enough to know that we don’t need that many Social Media HR people!

Let me give some HR job seekers a little tip – You don’t want a position in HR that is created around social media! This is a dead-end HR job. (Oh boy, as I just wrote that I could hear people that I know losing their f’ing minds!) Take a minute and let yourself really think about it, before you respond. Social Media is sexy and fun, and you can add some value to your organization, and even some to HR – but if you really want to be in HR – taking the path of social media isn’t going to move you up in HR. I run into too many HR Social Media folks who have really no clue about HR – but they LOVE their jobs. Many of these folks seem to be out of those jobs very quickly – job after job after job.

You see it doesn’t take an organization long to understand that social media isn’t a position – it’s a tool. A tool that can be used by everyone in HR, without a ton of effort, once you get the train going down the tracks. That’s why you see HR Social Media positions crop up, then get cut in a 6th month window. Organizations want results, they want to measure productivity – and while social media has a ton of things you can measure – it’s really hard for a HR Social Media Pro to prove their value.

“But Tim – I LOVE social media and HR – what am I suppose to do?” Employment Branding is probably the best fit. But you need more than social media chops for this – you need some marketing chops, some creativity, some business sense and networking ability to make this work. Employment branding isn’t building a facebook page and using the term “Talent Community” in every meeting you attend. It’s your ability to share your organizations story, while at the same time not losing the look and feel of what your actual brand is – that’s much harder than it looks! You can be this highly conservative established brand, and try and sell your employment brand is young hip come-as-you-are party – it’s not authentic and it will fail. Thus, you have to find a way to share the value and positives of what you actually do have. I know so many employment branding folks who fail, for the simple fact that they “try” to establish an employment brand, this isn’t their brand. “But we want a cool brand like Google!” Well, you’re not Google – you’re GM – you’ll never be Google – but you have some cool stuff of your own – share that.

Look I get it – Social Media is exciting and sexy – but don’t confuse that with your ability to create a career path using it. There are about 15 people in the world that have been able to do that, for longer than 6 months, and there are about 500,000 HR positions. Love Social Media in HR, just don’t LOVE it. Integrate the tools, have real HR chops – look to last past 6 months.

Bad is Stronger than Good

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I spoke at the inaugural TLNT Transform event last week in Austin – my topic was – What Your CEO Wished HR Would Do. One thing that came up during my presentation was a conversation around “Must Do Moves”. Must do moves are those things in your organization that you grab a hold of, as an HR Pro, and make sure they happen. I asked the group a question:

Do you have anyone in your organization that you need to get rid of?

100% – all hands raised – Yes! If you work in an organization that has a decent size – let’s say 100+, you almost always have a least one or two folks you would be better without. (for the record – my staff is less than 100, and I don’t have anyone I need to get rid of – they all rock! Don’t hate, I just follow my own advice!) As HR Pros we hear about this in meetings with your executives and hiring managers – “Oh, if we could only replace John, we would be so much better!” My point to the HR Pros in the audience is this is a value item that we can own in our organizations. Must do moves – especially those that make our organizations stronger, need champions. When it comes to staff moves – we are that champion.

What we realize, but many of our hiring managers fail to realize, is that Bad is Stronger than Good, when it comes to employees. We hear all the time “Addition through Subtraction”, and yet we struggle in our organizations to make this happen. Most likely this happens in your organization because you are trying to make your hiring managers, manage, and have them make this decision. When in reality they have made the decision – they told you. They hate conflict, even more than you do, and this was their cry for help. Take it – run with it – make it happen. It’s the one thing in HR we are all good at – process and planning. Put a plan together to get rid of your Bad and make it happen.

I didn’t just say – go fire. That’s not a plan. Well, it is a plan, but not a very good one. I said make a plan to get rid of the bad. That means working with the hiring manager to determine timing, back-fill options, sourcing, recruiting, progressive discipline – all that good stuff – but make it happen. Really – make it happen. Executives like doers! They like doers that get rid of Bad in our organizations. We own the Bad people in our organizations. Any time you have a Bad person in your organization – you need to take on the persona – this Bad person is my fault, and I’m taking care of it. Bad is Stronger than Good – you have to fight hard against Bad.

Want to look and be better in HR – own Must Do Moves in your organization.

Want me to come and tell you what other things your CEO wants HR to do? Contact me – I’m cheap – not free – but cheap.

How are you treating your Muse?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Tim Sackett

I stumbled upon a really cool site a while ago called, Letters of Note – Correspondence deserving of a wider audience – check it out. While picking through the posts/letters I found one that was awesome written by Nick Cave regarding his rejection of his 1996 MTV Video Music Awards for Best Male Artist. This is the full letter:

21 Oct 96

To all those at MTV,

I would like to start by thanking you all for the support you have given me over recent years and I am both grateful and flattered by the nominations that I have received for Best Male Artist. The air play given to both the Kylie Minogue and P. J. Harvey duets from my latest album Murder Ballads has not gone unnoticed and has been greatly appreciated. So again my sincere thanks.

Having said that, I feel that it’s necessary for me to request that my nomination for best male artist be withdrawn and furthermore any awards or nominations for such awards that may arise in later years be presented to those who feel more comfortable with the competitive nature of these award ceremonies. I myself, do not. I have always been of the opinion that my music is unique and individual and exists beyond the realms inhabited by those who would reduce things to mere measuring. I am in competition with no-one.

My relationship with my muse is a delicate one at the best of times and I feel that it is my duty to protect her from influences that may offend her fragile nature.

She comes to me with the gift of song and in return I treat her with the respect I feel she deserves — in this case this means not subjecting her to the indignities of judgement and competition. My muse is not a horse and I am in no horse race and if indeed she was, still I would not harness her to this tumbrel — this bloody cart of severed heads and glittering prizes. My muse may spook! May bolt! May abandon me completely!

So once again, to the people at MTV, I appreciate the zeal and energy that was put behind my last record, I truly do and say thank you and again I say thank you but no…no thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Nick Cave

In the last line of the 2nd paragraph he says, “I am in competition with no-one”. That wasn’t meant to be a cocky statement in any way – it was meant to be humble. He does his music for him, not for recognition, not for awards – he would be doing his music if no one paid him. Now, because someone is paying him, he’s not going to change his feelings. That is integrity!

Do you feel this strongly for anything in your life? You would be fortunate if you did.

The Tim Sackett Project

TA & HR Expert, Dad, Backup Point Guard on my over 40 men's team

Category Archives: Branding

Look Who Got All Brand New

5 Things That Demonstrate You’re Not Getting Paid Enough

10ish Questions with Cynical Girl – Laurie Ruettimann

You Don’t Want a HR Social Media Position

How are you treating your Muse?