Category Archives: Business

Fear Can Create Sustainable Success

Posted on by
1

I’ve been told that fear can only create short-term success.  That’s a lie.

You see I grew up with a single mom.  She probably didn’t sleep most nights, and the nights she did it was probably helped by a glass of cheap boxed wine.  She had a mortgage and she had two kids to feed.  She lived every single day in fear.  Fear of losing her kids.  Fear of losing her house. Fear of her check bouncing at the grocery store.

She did the one thing she knew how to do, recruiting, and started her own business.  She started as a branch manager for a local temporary employee company.  Learned the business in the hardest way possible. Temp staffing is the lowest common denominator in the staffing world.  It is the definition of ‘grind’!  She knew technical staffing, high end bill rates, was a much better life, but she was a woman and it was the 1970’s.  Fear.

She built a successful technical staffing business that has lasted for the past 35 years.  Never has the fear stopped.

You see she grew up in an era where you managed by fear.  It seemed normal.  If I’m living in fear, why shouldn’t I share some of this fear.  It was a very common management tactic in the baby boom generation.  You had Opec, the cold war, recessions, etc.  People didn’t believe they have the choices they have today.  If you got a job, you had to keep ‘that’ job, and if that meant a little fear, so be it.

If you didn’t do what you were told.  If you didn’t make your monthly goal. If you talked back. All of that could get you fired, and you never wanted to be fired.  Fear.

I took over the company five years ago.  I’m a man.  I also have fears.  I fear I won’t be able to pay my mortgage if I don’t have a good job.  I fear how I’ll pay for my son’s college education. I fear I’ll have enough money to ever retire.  Different fears than my Mom.  But I live with some fear in my heart.  Maybe I was wired that way from growing up the way I did.

Fear pushes me out the door to work every single day.  Fear isn’t my enemy.  Fear of failure motivates me to succeed.  If I didn’t have fear, I’m not quite sure how I would perform.

I tend to believe businesses and business people who succeed have embraced living with this fear.  They’ve decided to become partners in a way.  Fear is their life coach. I won’t call fear a friend, but I know it’s something I can count on. Rarely a day goes by when we don’t meet for some reason or another.

Here’s what I know from 35 years of sustained profitable success.  Fear isn’t what you believe it to be.  We believe fear can only motivate for short bursts, and then people will fall down in a puddle and be less productive.  That’s a lie.  The unmotivated are selling this version of fear.  Those who don’t want to reach levels they never thought they could, are selling this version of fear.

Fear can create sustainable success, but it might not be as comfortable as you would like it to be.

Baltimore Ravens Failed HR 101

Posted on by
4

By now everyone has seen former Baltimore Raven running back, Ray Rice, knock out his wife with two punches to the head in the elevator of an Atlantic City casino.  My question is, why didn’t anyone in the Baltimore Raven’s organization see this before agreeing to bring him back initially, with only a two game suspension?

The Raven’s claim no one in their organization saw the video from inside the elevator until it was leaked to TMZ this week.  Do you buy that?  I don’t.  Twenty years in HR and I would have put a stop to this with one decision.  “Ray, you want to be a part of this organization, we need to see what happened from inside the elevator before that happens.” But, I can’t get the tape, the casino would release it, it’s not mine to get, etc. Bullshit.

Then, I guess you don’t want to play football very badly.  It’s a very simple HR problem.  You have an employee (Mr. Rice) who does something you believe to be really bad, but you can’t fully prove it, but you know he can.  Make him prove he’s innocent.  Make him go get the tape.  An innocent person will do that.  A guilty person will give you excuses about why they can’t.

I truly think that someone on the Ravens knew what was on that tape, but had the casino’s word that it would never get out, and they believed them!

Once it got out, yes, they did the right thing.  But, it never should have gotten this far.  Good organizations get the information they need, or they stay conservative as possible.  The video footage was out there. If TMZ can get it, you better believe the Ravens could have gotten it.  It’s all about money and pressure.  The Ravens have both and decided not to use it to get to the truth.  That’s an example of a poorly run organization.

I’m guessing this guy will never get a chance to play football again in the NFL.  I can’t believe another team would ever take the publicity hit to bring him in, even if he ever gets reinstated by the NFL.

It begs the question: what if this happened to one of your employees?  Yeah, you would fire them, but do you believe they should ever get a chance to work again in their chosen profession?

It’s messy. It’s HR. Ray knocked her out.  She forgave him and married him.  Life is really screwed up.  My guess is eventually he’ll have to work somewhere, or he’ll end up in prison, probably where he should have ended up in the first place.

I know one thing, the NFL pays better than prison.

 

Would You Sell Your Backup Candidates?

Posted on by
3

Here’s the staffing game has taught me over the past 20 years.

1. Great candidates get hired.

2. The difference between a great candidate and a very good candidate is one hiring managers gut feeling (usually).

3. The very good candidate that didn’t get hired, is someone elses great candidate.

This means that many of you are just sitting on another organizations great candidate!  This means you’re sitting on something very valuable to someone else.  Something that others would probably pay for.

Question:

Would you be willing to pay to have access to Google’s ATS?

Yes.  Yes you would.  More than you pay for LinkedIn Recruiter, I’d gamble!

This begs the question: would you be willing to sell your backup candidates?  The ones you didn’t hire, but would have if your first choice didn’t accept.

So, what if your organization, your talent acquisition department, decided to start calling up other organizations that you know of who had similar needs and say, “Hey, we got what you want!”   Do you think you could turn your corporate in-house talent acquisition department into a money maker?  Yes. Yes, you could.  Will you?  No.

It really wouldn’t take much.  Within your staffing process you add a little disclaimer, you know the ones nobody reads, which gives you freedom to ‘sell’ the contact information to those submitting for your jobs to other companies who are also looking for similar talent.  From there you establish some relationships with other companies.  Negotiate a price.  Sign some simple agreements. When communicating with your backups about not getting the position, you pass along some good news. While they didn’t get the job they applied for, you have another position, with another company they might have interest in.

Bam!  You’re printing money.

Very little extra effort, and almost no extra resources needed.  Your talent acquisition department just turned into a profit center.

No organization would do this because they believe it will ‘hurt’ or ‘damage’ their employment brand.  “Tim! If candidates knew we were going to sell their information to other companies, they wouldn’t apply to our jobs!”  Or, maybe they would because they actually want to work for you!  If that’s your process, what option do they have? Plus, all your doing is potentially giving them more options.  How many people do you know that don’t want more options?

While no one is doing this publicly, I’ll tell you it is happening privately.  I’ve been approached by corporate talent acquisition pros who are willing to ‘sell’ me access to their database for a fee.  I pay them.  They deliver to me candidates who applied to their positions that they never wanted to begin with, or couldn’t use.  I haven’t ever did this for the simple fact that each time I was approached, the person was doing this behind the organizations back, with them wanting the check made out directly to them, personally.  That’s shady.

But, if a company was willing to do it all above board as a paid service…I can’t tell you I would be in!

Prospective Employee Camp

Posted on by
3

In athletic recruitment there are these things called ‘Prospect’ camps.  Depending on who you talk to these are either just coaching staff supplemental income, or serious recruitment functions needed to get prospective student athletes on campus.

Whatever they are, they’re a little genius!

Here’s how the entire system works.  Usually an assistant coach emails your kid, who has a dream to play college athletics, that they are having a prospect camp and you’re invited to attend, for $150. Two things just happened: 1. Your kid just got an email from a college coach; 2. That coach insinuated that your kid is a ‘prospect’!  Either way, there’s a good chance you’ll bite and pay the $150.

A couple of things happen at these camps.  Coaches actually invite players they really do have interest in, and they invite anyone else who is willing to pay $150!  So, a hundred kids show up, two or three which have actual ability to play college athletics, and they go through drills and modified games.  You instantly know who has ability because the coaches spend time with those kids.  If your kid doesn’t have a coach talking to him or her, they don’t have ability.  It’s a real quick and easy way to set your own expectations.

These camps are a necessary evil of the function of recruitment.  While most parents don’t like them, they all pay the money and have their kids attend.

These prospect camps got me to thinking if we in HR could do this in our organizations.   Could we charge $150 to have potential employees come in and check us out, while we check them out?  We run them through some tests, show them our facilities, make them compete against others in their same job function, spend time with our employees.  At the end of the day, we offer a couple of them jobs.

Could it work?  Maybe not for the average organization, but what about Google or Apple or some other big organization that has thousands wanting jobs with their company?  I think it could work.  The one issue we face is the expectation.  “Well, I paid $150 what do I get for this?!”

We would have to deliver $150 worth of ‘value’ in these Prospective Employee Camps.  I think that is probably the easy part.  Think interview skills, resume skills, leadership skills, some hardcore job function skills based on what they actually do.  It’s part self-development, and part dating game.  People pay millions of dollars per to sites to find their perfect romantic match, with most failing to do so.

Prospective Employee Camps might just be a way for your organization to set itself a part from all the noise, and get candidates to come in that truly interested in (I’m willing to pay to be here, truly) and want to be a part of your organization.  I know, crazy idea, but when you see it work in one area it just begs to be tried in another!

 

Why I can Recruit and You can’t

Posted on by
1

TaxFoundation.org recently released a map that shows how much $100 is worth for each state.  The concept being where you live has a huge impact to what you can afford to buy with that same $100 bill. Here’s the map:

It begs the question, why would anyone live in D.C.? Or New York? Or California? Or New Jersey?

I’m not a coast guy.  I live in 4 bedroom, 3 bath house in Michigan that costs under $350K.  It’s new. It’s in a great neighborhood. I don’t have a highway running through my backyard. I’m close to a university, shopping, good restaurants, etc.  I’m getting the most out of my $100!

Don’t get me wrong. I love to visit big cities. Chicago and Detroit are both close, so those are easy. New York  and D.C. are great. California and Texas are lovely. I’m always thankful to come home.  No traffic. Little crime. Kids still seem to be kids.  Basically, I’m Ward Cleaver.

Michigan, and the Auto Industry, is going through a big growth bubble right now.  It’s a combination of the Auto industry coming back. No one bought cars during the recession, so pent up demand.  Aging auto workforce that stayed on through the recession and now wants out.  There are thousands of jobs in Detroit for technical workers.

Recently, I had a company contact us about helping them find automotive engineering talent to go to California for a start up.  They want to build an entire car start up in Silicon Valley.  My first question was, why?  They don’t really have a good answer to the why.  Besides the fact, well, this is where we are now.  Okay. I can recruit auto engineers for you, from Detroit to Silicon Valley. But understand, Detroit talent is going to have sticker shock!  Major sticker shock!

They are use to getting more that $100, for their $100, and now I’m going to tell them I’ll give you $85 for your $100.  This is really like a decrease of 25% to go and do the same job.  Well, they said, we’ll pay more.  25% more?  Even so, my $350K house is $1.3M in Silicon Valley for less house.  But you’re close to the beach!  For $1.3 I better be on the beach! Is the mindset of an engineer from Michigan!

Recruiting is a mindset.  You can see why I can recruit folks to the Midwest!  I know the hot buttons to push.  Everyone has a certain value they want for their $100.  For some the ocean and the beach and sunny weather is price they will pay for.  For others, they want less traffic, quiet, clean air.  It’s your job as a recruiter to be able to find that value, and not let your own perceptions of that value get in the way.

The Managers as Coaches Myth

Posted on by
3

This isn’t necessarily a new concept, but it’s one that is popping up a ton lately in conversation.  The basic concept is we should be our managers and supervisors to be ‘coaches’ to their employees, not managers.   The view from Organizational Development and Training folks is that coaches are more of a representative of great leadership than we would normally think of when we think of managers and supervisors.

Um, what!?!

I’m not sure what people are thinking but I’ve been ‘coached’ and have been a coach most of my life.  When you tell me I should ‘act’ more like a coach, and less like a manager I get very confused.  Let me give you a little insight to how most coaches behave:

– We yell. Usually a lot.  Yeah, you don’t see that at your 8 year old’s soccer match, but go to a high school football game, basketball game, soccer match, etc. Don’t even get me started on college!

– Our vocabulary consists of about 6 words I don’t use on this blog very often.

– Our intent is to get our players to be a more aggressive version of themselves for a short period of time to help us win a game.

– I’ll make you cry.  It’s actually a goal of mine.  To push you beyond your comfort zone so you’ll breakdown and comeback stronger.

– If you worked really hard and give it your all I’ll give you a hug and maybe pat you on the backside.  If you fail, I’ll probably yell more.

– I’ll publicly extol the virtues of team, while behind the scenes push internal competition beyond a healthy level.

– I love it when my players want to kill each other, and having a fight at a practice isn’t really a bad thing.

This is the reality of coaching once you get beyond very young youth sports where everyone gets a participation medal.  This is real life.  Not every sport, not every coach. But if you took the top 100 most successful coaches in every sport, you would be shocked at their behind the scenes behaviors. You wouldn’t like most of them.  You wouldn’t want them around your kid.

But, let’s go ahead and teach our managers to be coaches!

Here’s the deal.  What training and OD are teaching our managers to be, are not coaches.  It’s an altruistic version of what they want coaches to be.  They believe coaches are there to just help you along to get better and build great teams.  Which conceptually is true.  How it’s done is not something your training department or OD would want to sign up for!

It’s a difficult concept.  Most athletes who have really been coached at a high level get it.  Coaches are super hard on you, because that’s the only way to make yourself better and win championships.  They’ll push you beyond what you think you’re capable of.  In the end you usually end up respecting your coach and are thankful for the pain they put you through.  Mostly, it ends up good.  But is that a process you really, truly want your managers and supervisors to put your employees through?

Doubtful.  You want all the outcomes of a great coach, but you’re not willing to allow them to go through the process of how a great coach gets his or her team ready for battle.  Give us the result without the process. It just doesn’t work that way.

 

It’s Too Long

Posted on by
5

Wait for it…

“That’s what she said!”

I saved you the trouble.

Being too long is a major problem in the world today.  People aren’t willing to wait, primarily because they don’t have to.  Baseball can’t attract a young audience because the kids don’t want to sit around for three hours, at a minimum, to find out the outcome of the game.  Soccer is exploding in the U.S. because it’s 90 minutes and they don’t even stop the clock when someone is injured!  No commercial breaks, except for a short halftime period.

People won’t read a 700 page book, they want 300.  No one wants to watch a three hour movie, make it two.  Why do we have to have an hour meeting, make it thirty minutes.

Being too long is not a weakness you want to have in todays world.  Being too long is now a sign that you probably don’t really know what you’re doing.  If you can’t be short and concise, you’re looked at as ‘old fashion’.

That’s what your candidates are thinking of your selection process.  You try and tell yourself, and your leadership, that we ‘take our time’ because we want to ‘make the right decision’. But your competition is making those same decisions in half the time.  You’re old fashion. You’re broken.  You’re taking too long.

Moving fast used to be considered reckless.  Older generations would tell us to ‘slow down’.  Measure twice, cut once.  But, what if I made a process where measuring once was all that was needed, and I could eliminate the second measure?  Wouldn’t that be better?

The legacy of the recession in Talent Acquisition is this, you had less to do, so you filled that time trying to add value.  There is a tipping point to adding value.  You extending the length of your selection process at a point no longer adds value.  You’re taking too long to make hiring decisions.  I know this because I’m constantly hearing stories of candidates you want, accepting offers from other companies before you’re ready to make an offer.

You’re taking too long.

 

1st Timers Guide To Buying HR Technology and High Priced Handbags

Posted on by
1

STOP! Calibrate and Listen…before you go, “Ugh! Tim’s doing another webinar!”, check this out – it’s different than other stuff we’ve done.  Negotiating job board contracts, annual ATS service agreements, knowing what new technology to buy, etc. It’s all way frustrating and confusing…for me, and I’m guessing you.  I want us all to get better at this stuff, and this webinar is going to put us all back in the power buyers position!

Buying HR Technology (System of Record/HRMS, Applicant Tracking Systems, Performance Management Systems, etc.) should be as easy as buying a high-priced handbag or the latest pair of Jordans!  You see it. You like it. You know it’s going to fit and work for your needs. GO! Make the purchase. But it’s not that simple. Buying HR Technology is hard, confusing and frustrating.  A miss can potentially stall your career and undermine your creditability.

Fistful of Talent is here to help.  In classic FOT style,Steve Boese, the Co-Chair of the HR Technology Conference, and I, will break down the issues surrounding buying HR Tech in our latest webinar on August 28 at 12pm ET (sponsored by BambooHR), entitled Buyer’s Remorse: The  FOT 1st Timer’s Guide to Buying HR Technology.

Join us on August 28 at 12pm ET for “Buyer’s Remorse: The FOT 1st Timer’s Guide to Buying HR Technology,” and we’ll hit you with the following:

  • The Difference between a Suite or a Best-of-Breed Product: Why you should care? Which one is right for you to buy? We’ll break it down based on your unique needs.
  • The Decision Tree/Process That Helps You Arrive at the Right Decision Regarding Which Solution to Buy. Yes, we can tell you exactly what to buy! But we won’t, because great HR Pros need to understand how to make these decisions. But don’t worry—we’ll show you how!
  • 6 Tips and Tricks the HR Vendor Community Uses to Get You To Buy Their Product—which might not be the product you actually need. Learn how to make sure you don’t succumb to these tactics when making your next buying decision.  This section alone will ensure you take control of your next buy like a pro!
  • The Secret for Getting Your Organization to Invest in HR tech and How to Build ROI for your Executive Team. Every buying decision comes down to the why and ROI, and your ability to persuasively and concisely get your organization to support your recommendation.  Sometimes the hardest part of an HR Tech buy is your ability to get approval to buy!

    Bonus Feature: CEO     Ben Peterson, from BambooHR (an HR solution specifically designed for small-to-medium-sized HR departments), will stop by and do a quick Q&A with Tim and Steve to discuss the biggest mistakes he sees HR buyers make when making HR Tech purchases… and how to avoid making those same mistakes yourself!

Things that are hard:  Riding a bike on a freeway. Getting your kids to eat peas. Buying HR Tech. Join us on August 28 at 12pm ET for “Buyer’s Remorse: The FOT 1st Timer’s Guide to Buying HR Technology,“ and we’ll make buying HR Tech easier. You’re on your own with the other two.

REGISTER TODAY!

10 Mistakes You Don’t Want To Make In HR

Posted on by
3

I thought it was time that I randomly start listing mistakes we make in HR and letting those coming into HR what not to do.  So, here you go, enjoy!

10 mistakes you don’t want to make in HR:

1. Hiring someone who reschedules their drug test more than once.  I’m willing to give someone one reschedule, stuff happens.  After one, if you’ve got a druggie trying to find out how to keep his Mom’s pee warm long enough to make it to the testing center.

2. Creating a leadership training program when it’s really one bad leader who just needs to be canned.  Everyone knows who the problem is, and now ‘HR’ is making everyone go through training one person needs.  They hate us for this.  Just shoot the one bad leader and move on.

3. Changing policy or making a new policy, when it’s really one idiot who is taking advantage of the current situation. See above.  We do this because *93% of HR Pros and Leaders are conflict avoidant (*Sackett Stats, it’s probably higher!).  Come join the 7% of us who aren’t, this side of the pool is really enjoyable!

4. Designing health benefits that are better for you, but worse for everyone else.  Don’t tell me this doesn’t happen!  It happens all the time.  The person in charge of plan design sees something that will help them, and believes it will also help everyone else.  Oh, look! We now can go see the Chiropractor for massages, but I can’t get my kid the name brand Asthma medicine he needs.

5. Talking about how much less money you make in HR, as compared to a bad performer in any other area. No one cares that you make $25K less than Mark in sales who is a buffoon.  It just makes you look bad and petty.

6. Throwing a fit about hiring an executives kid, or anyone else they want you to hire.  Just hire the executives kid.  This is not a battle you want to fight, it’s not worth it.  In the grand scheme of things this one hire doesn’t mean a thing.  The kid will either be good, average or bad.  Just like the rest of hires we make.

7. Designing a compensation plan which, by peer group, puts you higher than other functions.  I don’t care what the ‘Mercer’ data says, you shouldn’t put out there that you should be making $15K more than the person in Finance at your same level.  No one believes you, and they don’t trust you can handle this when the data doesn’t seem right.  This is especially sticky for Compensation Pros, who always believe they should be paid higher within the HR function.

8.  Thinking you can be ‘friends’ with people you work with, outside of work.  I’m not saying it can’t happen, it might.  It just becomes really bad when you have to walk into your BFF Jill’s office and ‘can’ her one day.   You can have very friendly relationships at work without inviting those folks over to the office for Girls Night Out.

9. Believing it’s not your job to do something.  In HR we fill the voids left by every other function.  It’s our job to do everything, especially those things no one else wants to do.  Never believe something is not your job!  It is.  Plus, that actually adds value to the organization.  Be the one function that doesn’t bitch and complain when they need to do something that isn’t on their job description!

10. Telling an executive they can’t do something because ‘we’ll get sued’.  Our job in HR is not to tell executives, or anyone else, they can’t do something.  It’s our job to tell them how they can get it done, while making it less risky to the overall organization.

What mistakes do you see HR makes?

 

I Hate Buying HR Software!

Posted on by
Reply

I’m your typical HR buyer.  Each year I negotiate contracts on a number of products, from ATS, HRMS, Recruiting Tools, Selection Tools, etc.   I usually demo and look at 6-10 new products each year.  Okay, I’m not typical that way, I love new stuff and what it can do, so I like to check it out.  Beyond that, I’m very much your typical HR buyer.

Every single time I go through a buying decision I feel like I’m buying an expensive car or a house.  Hell, that’s usually the cost of the contract of whatever product I’m buying!  Therein lies the problem.  I hate buying cars and houses.  It’s stressful and I always have this deep feeling I’m getting taken!  You know the feeling.  The feeling like you paid too much, and someone else buying the same exact product as you paid less!

I hate that feeling!!!

I don’t mind paying what everyone else is paying for a product.  I feel like a failure, as a HR Pro, when I find out I paid more than someone else, and I check!  That’s the one cool thing about writing for talent and HR blogs, I have a Big network (that’s what she said)!  This allows me to connect with other HR and Talent Pros and ask them what they paid.  I have a deep urge to know whether or not I got a good deal and a bad deal.  And, I’ll be honest, if I got a bad deal, it really affects how I think about the company.

Because these decisions are so stressful for me, I decided to do something about it.  I called the one guy that knows more about HR Technology and industry more than anyone else I know, Steve Boese!  Steve is the co-chair of the annual HR Technology Conference (want $500 off? Use the code: SACKETT14 when you register), which is the 2nd largest HR conference to SHRM national, but arguably becoming the must-see HR conference of the year.  HR Tech has all the players in one spot and all the HR decision makers, it’s a very cool place to see the future of HR unfold in front of you!

I asked Steve to help me put on a webinar, that would not only educate me on how I should be buying HR Tech, but also uncover all those tips and tricks to make sure I don’t ever again have that bad feeling I have when I buy!  The webinar title: Buyer’s Remorse: A 1st Timers FOT Guide To Buying HR Technology and High Priced Handbags!  You see, I feel buying HR Tech, should be as easy as buying a handbag without the buyer’s remorse!

This one is personal to me!  I think all HR Pros can learn from all the mistakes I’ve made in buying HR technology and from Steve’s brilliance!

Come join us on August 28th at Noon EST for this FREE webinar: