Category Archives: Brilliant Mind

The Recruiter Nation Live Hangout Series – With Jobvite and Fistful of Talent!

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Our first hangout is at 1 pm ET on Tuesday, November 14th 

Google for Jobs/ROI of Recruitment Marketing Spend! What You Need to Know to Look Smart!!

 REGISTER FOR THE HANGOUT BY CLICKING THIS LINK!!!

If you’re a client or follower of Jobvite, you know the Recruiter Nation Live series.  It started with the Recruiter Nation Live Conference in San Francisco last June and continued with the Recruiter Nation Live Roadshow that brought real recruiter talk to 9 cities in North America over the last three months. 

The feedback was great – you loved it, so they are back with the latest in the series – the Recruiter Nation Live Hangout Series.  Once a month, they’ll be hosting a Google Hangout designed to keep the conversation among recruiters going – focused on things you can use, like the best-kept secrets of today’s smartest and most efficient recruiters, Jedi-mind tricks proven to make you more persuasive/ get great candidate response and strategies to hold your hiring managers accountable for their choices–so everyone wins.

I’ll be on the first hangout and it is at 1 pm ET on Tuesday, November 14th and will be hosted by Kris Dunn and me, focused on the following juicy topic:

 Google for Jobs/ROI of Recruitment Marketing Spend! What You Need to Know to Look Smart!!

 REGISTER FOR THE HANGOUT BY CLICKING THIS LINK!!!

Let’s have some fun and learn from each other at the same time.  See you at 1 pm ET on November 14th!!!

Recruiters Make a Difference! @Paycor

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So, it’s pretty rare that we ever see anything good said about Recruiters, let alone a national ad campaign by a major HR technology company, but low and behold that’s exactly what was recently launched by Paycor – check it out:

(hat tip to Ben Gotkin, ATAP Executive Director, for finding this video.)

So, before the haters come out and rip on a payroll provider having good talent acquisition software, you should probably know that Paycor actually bought Newton Software. Newton is an ATS that is a best of breed top 10 ATS (in my opinion), which is now integrated across the Paycor suite of products.

So, they can back up a commercial that talks about a talent solution in a big way!

What I love about the ad is the choice of Carrie as the recruiter for this company. I would say “Carrie” matches what most people probably think of when they think of your prototypical HR lady at a company. Middle-aged, white woman. I think if you were to ask Recruiters to draw up a model demographic of an actual recruiter, they would not have cast “Carrie” in this roll.

This is why I actually love this commercial because we’re all idiots. “Carrie” actually is the average recruiter in the world. It’s not some twenty-something out of silicon valley carrying a MacBook Pro and Venti half calf mocha with a twist, wearing skinny jeans and an ironic t-shirt. “Carrie” is recruiting in the real world. “Carrie” is the 90%.

The TA Tech industry, for the most part, forgets about “Carrie”. The HR and TA Tech community combined forget about “Carrie”. They focus on “Jackson’s” and “Olivia’s”, and forget about the “Karen’s” and “Judy’s” and “Steve’s” of the world. The reality is HR and Talent aren’t done by twenty-somethings, it’s mostly done by forty-somethings and fifty-somethings.

So, bravo to Paycor’s marketing team to understanding their real user. In a world that always goes for younger and sexier, I love the realness of this ad, and that a recruiter is getting recognized!

 

Are You Hiring Raw Talent?

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Last week I got invited down to Rock Ventures (Dan Gilbert – the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Quicken Loans – yeah that Rock Ventures) to do the closing keynote for their HR and Talent Summit across the family of companies in Downtown Detroit! Fun, fast-moving culture. Seemingly every CEO of the 130 Rock Venture companies looked to be 30-ish!

As you can imagine, fast-growing organization, that can grow or hire enough talent fast enough to keep up.

One of the sessions was led by Victor You, CEO of Rock Connections, which is a call center that was built for Quicken Loans, but they found out other companies needed a high-quality call center, so they started selling their services. Most of the Rock Venture companies have a similar story. Idea by an employee, run with it, if you can make it happen, you become the CEO!

Rock Ventures is a Detroit company. When I say “Detroit” I mean “Detroit”. The entire campus is downtown Detroit. They hire Detroit city citizens. They are almost singlehandedly turning Detroit into one of the hottest growing cities in the U.S. Therein lies Victor’s problem as a CEO of a fast-growing startup.

Rock doesn’t want to have to relocate everyone they hire to Detroit. They want to hire those people already in Detroit. As you can imagine there’s a skills gap. The normal Detroit citizen is like most urban center citizens. Lower educated, lower income, less likely to have a college education.

Victor graduated from the University of Michigan. Engineering grad who didn’t like engineering. So, he went and sold mortgages. Did pretty well. Good enough that Dan Gilbert made him CEO of a company! What I love about Victor is he gets talent. He gets talent at a very different level than 99% of CEOs on the planet.

Victor explained it the group as “Raw” talent versus experiential talent. Almost all of us hire experiential talent. We have a job opening. That job needs a certain level of experience. So, that’s what we recruit and hire.

Victor doesn’t look for experience. Victor looks for raw talent attributes. What are those?

  • Hard working
  • Pride in the work they do
  • Wants to be apart of something bigger than them
  • Never satisfied

He saw that many Detroiters had these attributes, but no one was willing to give them a shot because they didn’t have the ‘experience’. He was like, “we can teach them the job”, it’s harder to teach them the raw talent attributes. In fact, you can’t teach those raw talent attributes.

The results have been off the charts! Great retention. High performance. High diversity. High concentration of Detroiters.

In a tight talent economy, you need to start changing the way you do things. We need to open up these modern day ‘apprenticeships’. We need more CEO leadership like Victor You.

Dream Jobs Are A Lie!

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I hate that we are meant to feel that we should have our dream job.  It’s drilled into our society at nausea from mass media, our celebrities, our teachers and spiritual leaders. It’s all basically complete bullshit, but we eat it up like it came directly from G*d.

It didn’t.  Whichever G*d you believe in, she/he never said ‘Thou shalt have your dream job’, never.

Celebrities stand on award stages and tell our children to never give up their dreams, you can do whatever you want.  No.  No, they can’t.  Let’s face it, Mr. Celebrity, you were given a gift, most people don’t have that same gift, so stop telling my kid they can be you.

I know this upsets some people.  They love to live in a fantasy world that someday they stop working their 9 to 5 and start being a fairy princess.  I hate to tell you this, but you won’t.  Sorry, Billy, you’re an overweight short kid with bad eye sight and irrational fear of clouds.  You won’t be the next NFL Hall of Fame quarterback.  But you might be a really awesome Accountant, and that’s not a bad gig.

I don’t have my dream job.

I have a job I like a lot.

My dream job would be to make a ton of money managing and/or coaching a professional sports team. I would take basketball or baseball.  I really think I would be happy with either.

I know that won’t ever work out for me, so I don’t spend much time really thinking about it.  It would be stupid for me to do so.  But that’s my ‘dream’.

If it’s my dream, shouldn’t I give up everything I have and chase it?  Give up my well-paying, really good job.  Give up my house.  My kid’s college education.  My retirement account.  I mean this is MY dream!

Mr. Celebrity said I can reach my dreams.  We all can.  We just have to want it more.  We just have to not give up striving for it.

I met a person last week who said he had his ‘dream job’.  It was a good job, but he also told me he missed his kids because his dream job made him travel a lot.  He also said his dream job had him working harder than he ever had prior.  The longer he talked, the longer it didn’t sound like a dream job, and the more it sounded just like every other job.

The concept of dream jobs is bullshit.  That’s okay.  The sun will still come up tomorrow, even if you tell yourself I’ll never have my dream job.  You’ll be alright.  You can still have a really good, awesome life.

Be wary of someone telling you to chase your dream job.

If you want Genius, You Can’t manage to Ordinary

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Most leaders I know want brilliant, creative, genius outcomes from their employees. Awesome! I love high expectations.

Genius, though, is a fickle thing. 99.99% of us will never reach the genius stage in anything we do in life. If you’re lucky enough to work with, be friends with, or manage a genius personality, you know these cats aren’t normal.

Some folks can reach a genius level in one aspect of their life. This lady is a genius at selling software, no one is better. This dude is a genius at creating and improving processes like no one else.

Leaders usually try to manage the genius like every other ordinary employee.

Therein lies the problem. The genius isn’t ordinary, they’re extraordinary. We have a hard time wrapping our small leadership brains around this idea of treating one person differently than the rest is the right thing to do. We were ‘trained’ to treat everyone equally.

Some times the right leadership decision to set precedent. To treat someone differently than the rest because that’s what needs to be done to reap what the genius has to give you. It’s not that the genius necessarily wants or asks to be treated differently. It’s the fact that if you want genius you can’t manage them like their ordinary, otherwise, you’ll probably just get ordinary.

 

I Hate Lists! But Less When I’m On Them…Sackett’s Top HR & TA Influencers of All Time!

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It seems like there are fewer lists out recently as content. Five years ago lists as content were huge! It was the go-to content for every crappy content marketing professional in HR and TA technology. Why? Because they get traffic! People like to see their names on lists, or not see their names on lists and wonder why “he” is on the list and I’m not on the list.

Recently, Engagedly came out with the ‘Top’ 100 HR Influencers of 2017. The list is alphabetical but it also has numbers, so it looks like Uncle Lou Adler is #1 on the most influential list of HR pros for 2017. I’m number 77. Stacey Zapar is #99. Kris Dunn is #26. If you know the alphabet you can almost play a game guessing what number you might be! (Editor question – if it’s not ranked, why put numbers on it?)

So, anyway, I hate these lists, but I hate them less when I’m on them because, well, I’m human. It feels nice that someone thinks you might know something about something and put your name on a list of other people you probably think are smart. The problem with most lists, like this, are that the person putting them together probably hasn’t met or spoken to 97% of the people they’re putting on the list.

The Engagedly list added a ton of ‘influential’ HR people I’ve truly had never heard of! Most are heads of HR for giant Fortune 100 type companies. I’ll say that’s smart. If you want to sell your product to an enterprise buyer, butter up the heads of HR at big companies and tell them how smart and influential they are. That’s just good business!

The problem is ‘these’ people, for the most part, really aren’t influential. Big giant HR is usually vanilla. They use big giant vanilla technology and they do things that are safe. That’s not really influence, is it?

Outgoing SHRM CEO Hank Jackson is on the list. Hank definitely has some influence in HR, but he’s also retiring in December, wouldn’t Johnny Taylor, the incoming CEO, be a better selection? Penelope Trunk is on the list. Has Penelope done anything in HR in the past decade? She recently said she was sick of her own advice! That seems influential.

William Tincup, my friend, and a super smart guy is on the list. He’s also on the board of Engagedly. Shocking he made the list…

Like I said, I hate lists, because what I did above is what everyone does when they see these lists. No one is like, “Oh. My. God. Thank you for this list! I had no idea who I should listen to in this space!”

Okay, I’ll stop being a dick. The criteria I would use for a list would be something like: People I have had dinner with and I would pay; People that have taught me something in HR and/or TA and/or Life; People I’ve hugged because I like them, not because I felt like I had to; People I think are smarter than me; People that get it.

Here’s my list of Sackett’s Most Influential HR/TA People of All Time (also the best dinner party ever or the most dysfunctional family get together of all time, and every single person on this list I’ve met in person and probably hugged!):

– Celinda Appleby – Employment Brand expert at Nike, an Awesome smart lady with some sass! 

– Jason Averbook – HR and TA Tech genius, one of the best presenters in the world, first person I forgot to add to this list!

– Chris Bailey – CaymanHRGuy is his claim to fame, but he might be the best person in HR period. Smart, fun, giant heart.

– John Baldino – My HR guy on the East Coast, Smart, Caring, Just good people!

– Kassandra Barnes – HR technology marketing leader, sassy, smart, always open to trying new things.

– Michelle Berg – HR Executive and consultant out of Canada, super involved in HR community, hustler to the n’th degree.

– Josh Bersin – Everyone knows Josh, some dislike him, some love him. I like how he thinks.

– Steve Boese – Mr. HR Tech, #8ManRotation, One of the nicest guys you’ll meet in HR and he really knows his stuff!

– Bill Boorman – The most connected HR/TA guy in the world and always willing to go for a drink. Super kind, super smart.

– Sarah Brennan – One of the most underrated HR/TA Tech minds on the planet, expert home flipper, awesome person.

– Terryl Bronson – Trench TA Leader, my friend from my days at the Bee’s, always willing to help others, world class stick man.

– Steve Browne – Mr. SHRM, nicest guy in HR. The most positive, uplifting HR leader you’ll ever meet.

–  Dawn Burke – HR Leader who flat out gets it, funny, high energy, one of my closest friends in HR, she’s just good people.

– Heather Bussing – The one employment attorney on the list, which means she is my go to for all this stuff, and a damn good writer!

– Johnny Campbell – Ninja. Always looking to move forward. Pushing the envelope of recruiting worldwide. Charismatic.

– Teresa Carper – My VP of HR in my own shop at HRU. Super stud, won’t be outworked, ferociously loyal, brilliant.

– Glen Cathey – Boolean Black Belt Dude. The smartest guy in sourcing you’ll meet who doesn’t believe he’s the smartest.

– Lis Cervenka – Employer branding expert, TA tech executive, great marketing mind, respect the hustle.

– Matt Charney – Brilliant writer, sharp wit, wickedly funny, gets the game better than almost anyone in the industry.

– Joel Cheesman – One of the few ‘experts’ I listen to, truly knows his stuff and isn’t afraid to let you know it.

– Jackye Clayton – Awesome HR/TA Tech knowledge, a better person, funny, my sister from another mister.

– Graeme Close – Professor, best and most interesting wellness speaker on the planet, Nutrition consultant to Olympians & professional athletes.

– Connie Costigan – C.C.! One of the top HR tech marketing and communication executives on the planet, and just a great person.

– Gerry Crispin – The Godfather of Candidate Experience and TA, who I hope to become when I grow up. Life long learner.

– Amy Cropper – Quietly one of the smartest TA minds in the room who doesn’t feel the need to throw it in your face.

– Jim D’Amico – My partner in the Michigan Recruiter’s Conference, passionate TA leader, awesome person, brilliantly funny.

– Paul DeBettignies – Kindest, hardest working TA pro on the planet, always willing to get involved and help, gets recruiting at another level.

– Mervyn Dinnen – Super smart HR writer/blogger out of the UK, always asks the right questions to make you think.

– Kelly Dingee – Sourcing expert to the stars. Kelly can break down sourcing for the masses like no other person in the industry.

– Jim Durbin – Get recruiting and finding talent at a completely different level than 99.9% of the world and can show you how.

– Holland Dombeck-McCue – The Kid! Recruitment marketing genius, under the radar, oh, the places she will go!

– Kris Dunn – The OG, my ride or die, simply the single best HR/TA blogger on the planet and my best friend. #8ManRotation

– Ben Eubanks – The analyst from Alabama, and the nicest HR analyst you’ll ever meet! Smart, hardworking, always willing to share.

– Mary Faulkner – HR leader who is always on and willing to get involved, takes no prisoners and one of the few willing to tell it like it is.

– Craig Fisher – Employment brand expert, good people, respects the hustle. Gives back to our community constantly.

– Melany Gallant – HR Tech content marketing guru who is unafraid to try new stuff, which makes her stuff industry leading.

– Joe Gerstandt – Freak flag flier, one of the top D&I speakers/minds on the planet, someone most of us would aspire to be.

– Jamie Gilpin – HR and TA tech marketing executive, started most of the stuff others are doing right now, awesome lady.

– China Gorman – Great leader, period, gets the HR industry better than most, she’s the boss you wish you had.

– Ben Gotkin – Co-founder of ATAP, super passionate TA pro willing to work behind the passion.

– Shane Gray – Tireless advocate for TA worldwide, always willing to help and has outstanding ideas. Hustle times infinity.

– Kevin Grossman – Mr. Candidate Experience, gets HR marketing at a different level than all of us. Super nice dude.

– Chris Harvilla – Super brilliant TA Tech mind and leader, could run any TA shop in the world better than you’re doing it right now.

– Lance Haun – Kind, wicked funny, always helpful, truly understands the industry and how to help make it better. #8ManRotation

– Michael Heller – HR Tech CEO, grinder, an executive who truly works to understand the practitioner’s pain, and that’s rare! He’s good people.

– Maren Hogan – Marketing expert, hustles her ass off, a brilliant writer, so helpful. Never leave your credit card with her. 😉

– Paul Hebert – No one gets recognition, incentives, and employee engagement better than this man. Plus, he’s an awesome hang.

– Chris Hoyt – The recruiting guy, loved by all including my wife who is super hard to win over! I love talking shop with Chris.

– Carmen Hudson – One of the smartest TA consultants you’ll ever meet, has always shared her time with me, Talent42 Co-founder.

– John Hudson – He ran HR for Oprah, fools! Drop mic. Truly an awesome guy, always willing to help, great HR mind.

– Teela Jackson – Recruiting leader out of the ATL, true pro, super funny, gets recruiting at another level.

– Linda Jonas – An Aussie, living in Berlin, who just works tirelessly within the industry. Respect her hustle and willingness to always ask questions to make both sides smarter.

– Matt Jones – Recruiting leader who is an expert in the game, gives back constantly, great positive energy, closer.

– Charlie Judy – HR leader/expert who gives back to the industry constantly, gets workplace culture at a completely different level.

– Micole Kaye – Influencer marketing expert, a millennial who acts like a Gen-X, super high ceiling because she’s unafraid.

– Katrina Kibben – Employer branding, marketing pro, writer, involved. Someone who is always willing to help and give back to the community.

– Kyle Lagunas – My favorite TA/HR analyst, wicked funny, fabulous, will poke fun at his own industry, smart.

– George LaRocque – Always knows where the money is, constantly letting the industry know stuff before anyone else, I listen to him.

– Sharlyn Lauby – The vast HR community loves the HR bartender and so do I, straight talk in a way that doesn’t talk down, she writes for those HR pros in the trenches.

– Madeline Laurano – In a world of puff out your chest analyst, Madeline is a pros-pro who quietly knows more than 90% of the room. Flat out produces great research.

– Jason Lauritsen – Super HR leader, better guy, truly wants to see you be a better you. One of my favorite people in the industry.

– Jessica Lee – The most talented young TA leader on the planet, period. Brilliant mind. Tireless worker. Great spirit.

– Tony Lee – Working constantly to evolve SHRM from the inside, awesome guy, always working to make his business better.

– Steve Levy – Polarizing TA genius who will tell you exactly like it is, even if you don’t want to hear it. Truly knows his stuff.

– Roy Maurer – Expert writer in our space, not a hack blogger like me, kind, giving, always willing to help hacks like me get better.

– Jennifer McClure – The one HR speaker everyone wants to hear and see, self-made, constantly improving, such a good person. Knows what she talks about.

– Trish McFarlane – No one in HR in the past decade has come farther in their career. HR leader, analyst, HR Tech executive.

– Debbie McGrath – Founder of HR.com, she’s forgotten more about this industry than I’ll ever know. Constantly innovating.

– Rob McIntosh – Executive TA advisor that is a top 1%er in terms of knowing more about TA than all of us. One of the few I read and listen to in this industry.

–  Victorio Milian – A better human than you and I will ever be, HR consultant and leader, one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet, with a keen eye.

– Crystal Miller Lay – Employment branding and recruitment marketing expert and leader, constant hustle, unapologetic in a good way.

– Jessica Miller-Merrell – The queen of HR/TA blogging, HR/TA tech expert, constantly pushing forward, challenges the norm.

– Danielle Monaghan – The only head of TA for a giant corporation I’ve ever met you will tell you exactly how it is, publicly. So awesome!

– Neil Morrison – HR Executive out of the UK. Might be smartest HR dude on the planet. Great writer and thinker. I’m love listening to him.

– Kevin Mullins – HR Tech marketing executive, flat out ‘gets it’, a driving force behind WorkHuman, had great vision.

– Shannon Pritchett – Worldwide sourcing leader, Ms. SourceCon, super smart and willing to give back to the community.

– Laurie Ruettimann – Friend. Original HR blogger with snark and sass, showed everyone else how to do it. Mentor of mine. Smart beyond our industry.

– Tim Sackett – Like I said, I hate lists, but I hate them less if I’m on them!

– Lars Schmidt – HROS co-founder, Fast Company author, employment brand strategist who is super nice, helpful and giving.

– Robin Schooling – Trench HR leader, blogger, an awesome lady who just gets HR at a level most will never get to.

– Jason Seiden – Branding genius, overall genius, one of the few people I shut up and listen to when they speak. Always has great ideas.

– Mary Ellen Slayter – Content marketing expert, good people, knows where the bodies are buried in our industry and can use that knowledge to help her clients.

– Leela Srinivasan – Top 3 HR/TA Technology CMOs on the planet who also never invites me to her events. She’s smart that way.

– Marcus Stewart – HR professor at Bentley Univ., best friend since junior high, the single smartest person I know.

– Matt Stollak – The only HR professor on the planet who has been able to make the transition into mainstream HR writing. Sparty. #8ManRotation

– Mark Stelzner -HR advisor to the who’s who of HR leaders on the planet. Might be the person in HR who can fix you the fastest, and he’s just a great guy.

– Will Staney – TA consultant, industry expert, always willing to give back and work to make the industry better overall.

– Bret Starr – Marketing genius who doesn’t believe he is. Nice dude, great leader. Some of the best ideas on the planet.

– John Sumser -Brilliant dude, industry guru respected by all, one of the few who will ask the toughest questions and get the answers.

– Ronda Taylor – HR marketing expert, Twitter hashtag guru, constantly helping others get better at the game.

– Ron Thomas – Global HR leader, tireless industry advocate, awesome person, your guy on the ground in Dubai!

– William Tincup – Part of my tribe. Great sense of humor I’ve ever met. Smartest guy in our industry. I envy his mind. He’s my go to on most things in life.

– Ambrosia Vertesi – Exceptional HR leader who is wise beyond her years, HROS co-founder, creative with a great sense of humor.

– Jess Von Bank – Tireless industry sales executive who is in constant hustle mode, not constant sales mode.

– Jeff Waldman – Social HR Camp founder, constant industry advocate north of the border, brilliant TA mind.

– William Wiggins – Exceptional HR Leader, one-half the great Wiggins-Hudson duo, one of the funniest HR pros I know.

– Mike Wood – Marketing leader for Globoforce, never stops, behind the force that has become WorkHuman, one of the good guys!

– Stacy Zapar – Constant hustle. Super talented TA leader. Uses her skill sets better than anyone on the planet. Beyond nice.

– Shaunda Zilich – Employment brand leader at GE, can build a motor cycle, thinks about EB completely differently than everyone else!

Okay, I know I’ve forgotten about fifty people, so I apologize to all those friends and smart people I’ve left off this list! Also, I know it’s not in perfect alphabetic order. Look it’s my list, I can arrange it any way I want!

Damn, this list thing is harder than it looks!

 

 

We’re Like the Venmo of Recruiting

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So, for the Gen-X and older folks reading this I first probably need to explain what Venmo is. Venmo is a digital payment system, like PayPal (Venmo is actually owned by PayPal) but different. It’s a mobile app that allows you to make payments between friends and socialize the exchange. Out to dinner, want to easily split the check, one person pays, the others “Venmo” them their share and you get this cool friend feed to see what everyone is doing.

I’ve got three GenZ sons and they Venmo. They don’t carry cash anymore, so when they need to exchange funds with friends, it’s all done on their smartphones.

So, we constantly see talent acquisition and HR technology call themselves the “Tinder” of recruitment, or the “Uber of HR”, or some other stupid comparison to make themselves sound way cooler than they really are. I figured no one is saying they’re the “Venmo” of Recruitment, so what the hell, I’m stealing it before anyone else can!

Here’s my Venmo for Recruiting product. It’s a mobile, crowd-sourced app that shows your network where everyone is interviewing and allows you to share information, contacts, questions, reactions, etc. of your interview experience. Candidates can crowd source positions with each other, ask for help in making connections with companies they’re interviewing with, and share how a certain hiring manager might be to work for.

I’m going to start there. Only candidates, no employers, to build traction. Completely free, I’ll live off my angel funding for the first three years on our way to 50 million users. Then, we turn on the employer portion, ala Glassdoor but better, that will allow employers to see what networks are saying about them and their jobs, but not allow any responses or interactions.

You get to see this new voyeuristic kind of experience that is hidden camera in nature to know what candidates truly think about your organization, your hiring managers, your interview experience, your jobs, etc. Then, it’s up to you to make some decisions on how to change what you don’t like, highlight what’s going well, and basically find ways to use the data from our “Venmo of Recruiting” (it’s trademarked!).

If I know anything, I know TA leaders will pay for inside information to what candidates truly think about them. They’ll pay a lot! Also, they’ll continue to pay to see how that data changes with the changes they make. How cool would it be to have this kind of lab environment and be able to test out pieces of your candidate experience and see real-time feedback?

Also, how cool would it be to have a network sharing real information about interviewing, jobs, organizations, etc., on a mobile platform within your trusted network if you’re a candidate? Venmo for Recruiting. I’m calling it “FeedMo.us” – Feedback and More.

Feedmo.us is now taking meetings with angel investors. Just send me a note if you’re interested in being a part of Venmo for Recruiting!

10 Ways Old White Dudes Can Stay Relevant in the Workplace

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I don’t consider myself an old white dude, but I’m sure most of the twentysomethings working for me probably think I’m the old white dude! Old white dudes are at a crossroads of the American workplace. They used to be on top. There was no better role to have in the American workplace than to be an old white dude!

But times they are a-changin (only old white dudes and hipsters will get that reference!).

In today’s workplace old white guys are as desired as foot fungus. Somewhere between WWII and last Tuesday old white dudes became irrelevant, well, I mean unless you’re a Fortune CEO or President, besides that stuff.

But, I’m here to help. I mean, eventually, I’m going to fall into the old white guy category on the diversity and inclusion surveys so I better find a way to pull us out of this funk and make us super cool again! Here what you need to be doing old white dudes:

1. Denounce all other old white dudes. That way you’re not ‘that’ old white dude, you’re the cool new old white dude who got ‘woke’ (look it up on Urban Dictionary old white dudes).

2. Stop wearing cargo shorts. Apparently, the kids decided cargo shorts are lame and only old white guys where them. Remember those shorty-shorts we wore in the 1970s and 80s? Yeah, those are super cool now. Wear shorty-shorts and show a ton of leg!

3. Hide the fact you like money, small government, and hate taxes. If you want to be cool you have to be willing to give up most of your money to a government who has continually shown to have no idea how to spend our tax dollars for people who claim they can’t find a job.

4. Buy comfortable marching shoes – but not those lame white Nikes or New Balance sneakers all the old white dudes have – go for Nike Air Max’s. Cool old white dudes march with our brothers and sisters who have been wronged. If you don’t march, or at least show up at their parties in downtown areas, you can’t join their click. Also, get ready to wear a ton of rainbow stuff. Calm down, no one looks good in rainbow, but the after parties are super fun!

5. Sell your $60, 000 pickup or sports car and buy a Prius or some kind of Subaru. Only old white dudes drive expensive pickups and sports cars. Cool old white dudes drive Prius’s and Subarus. A good second option is a bike and ride it to work.

6. Talk about Tacos like they’re your new religion. Cool folks in the workplace ‘love’ tacos. Not only are they great food but you’re also supporting a diversity group by eating them, I think. You can’t just ‘like’ tacos. You have to want to have sex with tacos. Tacos should be your primary conversation point each day until you die.

7. Get into a workout routine and then push what you do onto anyone within ten feet of you at all times. It’s cool to workout, but it’s more cool to workout and then make everyone else feel stupid who doesn’t do your workout. Old white guys golf and go boating. Stop all of that. If you want to get into the water buy a paddle board and a rack for the top of your Subaru.

8. Complain about your super long eight hour work day and how you could do all of this working at home in two hours. The goal of becoming a cool old white guy is to fit in. Sure work-life balance has never been better in the history of America, but that shouldn’t stop you from railing against the machine.

9. Be super chill about all dumb decisions people make. To be a super cool old white guy, you have to be super chill about how everyone else decides to live their life no matter how stupid it might seem. “Hey, Mikey, love the new face tattoo! I’m sure that will really help your career path! Super cool!”

10. Never say anything about diversity and inclusion. Old white dudes can’t have an opinion about diversity and inclusion because you don’t know the struggle. Even gay old white dudes should probably keep quiet. I mean Tim Cook is an old gay white dude and he runs Apple! Does he really know the struggle!?

There will come a time when old white dudes will become a minority in the world, but you pointing this out just makes you sound like a racist old white dude, so cut that stuff out. Just suck it up, buy some slim fitting jeans and throw away all y0ur Docker Khakis, no one wants your theories on changing demographics.

You might grow a crazy long beard. Many old white dudes have found that really awful long beards help them blend in a bit better. Like ‘hey, I’ve got a way too long beard, so maybe I’m not an old white dude, but a Viking!” People love Game of Thrones in the workplace, so it might help.

Hey, hit me in the comments about how ageist this is or what other great ideas you might have to keep old white dudes relevant in the workplace!

 

Email Heroes – Are you one?

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For most of their careers, my parents could never check their work email at home.  It did mean that they probably stopped working when they got home, unlike most professional employees today.  My parents also rarely made it home at 5 pm and worked in the office many Saturdays and Sundays when the work needed to get done. The world changed, we can now get work done almost anywhere.

When did we start defining work as sitting in the bathroom at home and replying to emails in five minutes as work?

Let’s face it, most people aren’t really working when they are home if they don’t normally work at home.  They like to believe that what they’re doing is real work, but if can also wait to be done the next morning when you arrive at the office, you’re not doing real work, you’re just narcissistic.  Oh, I better immediately get back to John and tell him I can definitely do that interview at 8 am, next week Friday…

We act like checking work email at home is the same as donating a kidney or something.

Studies show that 59% of males and 42% of females respond to emails when out of the office.  Those numbers actually sound low to me. The survey also shows that younger workers are more likely to think about work when going to bed and when waking. Just wait! Pretty soon thinking about work will be the same as work!

Are we losing our f’ing minds!?

Seriously! I want to know.  Having the ability to check and respond to emails outside of the office increase your work-life flexibility, but we talk about it like it’s an anchor.  That iPhone is only an anchor if you make it an anchor!  I have a son who plays baseball and I watch as many of his games as I can.  In between innings I always check my email and respond to work if necessary. I do not consider that work. I consider that watching my son play baseball!

Making the decision to take a half a day to watch my son play baseball is easy, because I know I can balance both jobs I have, running a company and being a Dad.  Does my son care that I’m checking email while he’s warming up in between innings?  No. He doesn’t even notice.  It’s not like I’m behind the backstop giving a performance review over the phone while he’s up to bat! I’m just checking and following up on some emails.

If you decide you want to stay connected to your job and organization while you are out of the office, that is a personal decision. Don’t act like you’re a hero going above and beyond by keeping up on your emails. You’re not, everyone does that.

If keeping up with your emails is the real work you’re doing, you’re highly overpaid and easily replaceable. If telling your coworkers you checked emails while out of the office on some personal time to show how dedicated and better you are than them, you need to get a life, email hero.

7 Things You Must Do if You Want to Hire the Best Team!

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Every once in a while I run into someone who “gets it”. Who understands recruiting, talent acquisition, and this whole big HR world at another level. They make it easy, or at least for them, it’s easy. It’s easy because they have a crystal clear vision of what they want and how they are going to go about getting it.

I read an article this week in some obscure publication that probably twenty people read, but the author just got it! Carmen Di Rito is co-founder and chief development officer of LifeCo UnLtd in South Africa (I’ll be speaking at HR Tech Fest in September in Johannesburg! I’m going to invite her over for sure!). Here are her guiding principles when it comes to talent:

  • Look for attitude alignment: When recruiting for a new position, look for alignment in thinking first, then competency and expertise.
  • Be fanatical: Fixate on building a cohesive, robust team that believes in and lives your values so that you have a culture you are proud of—and enjoy being a part of.
  • Be brutally honest: Share the frustrations, challenges, and demands of the job upfront, as well as the mandate of the organization. No sugar coating. Share who and what the organization is—authentically.
  • Develop a compelling, audacious vision: A strong vision will attract people who are courageous, tenacious, and hardworking.
  • Disrupt: The social sector is challenging, rewarding, but above all, disruptive. Build disruptive strategies to recruit, develop, and retain talent.
  • Experiment: Constantly improve processes and policies to unleash talent at all levels.
  • Expect excellence and reward high performance. Obsess over quality. High-performing teams and winning cultures aren’t born out of mediocrity. An organization’s leaders must be exemplars of excellence and high performance.

It’s really good, right!?

“High-performing teams and winning cultures aren’t born out of mediocrity.” This is something I would expect to hear from me, or older dudes my age, not someone who graduated college in 2010! Carmen is a pusher! Working for a non-profit!

If you can do these seven things consistently, you’ll be a great leader and you’ll run a great organization. Simple. Yet extremely hard to maintain. Why? It takes extreme perseverance and fortitude as a leader to maintain this high standard of yourself and your team.

The best organizations and leaders in the world do this. From giants to start-ups. In HR and TA we tend not to think at this level, at least average performers don’t! We tend to think about a lot of other details that might help get us to this point, but also most likely won’t.

I don’t feel like this is aspirational for Carmen. I believe this is her true north. This guides her daily decision making. She can lead a small non-profit or a major Fortune 500 company and she’ll be the same leader. That should be aspirational for all us!