Category Archives: Communication

Fifty Shades of HR

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My friend Laurie Ruettimann wrote a funny post over at The Cynical Girl on Fify Shades of Grey – and how crappy she thinks it is (go check it out). That post gave me inspiration to write this one, plus the fact that for Mother’s Day I bought my wife the first two books of the series (which is before this SNL bit even ran – making fun of all the guys buying this on Amazon for their wives).    I’m not going to get into the content of the book – it’s lady porn – and this is a family site. Ok, it’s not a family site – but I have standards – although they are very low, I still have some!

Here’s what I don’t get about Fifty Shades, I mean besides most of the terms – why is it Ok for the ladies in the office to talk about sex, but when the guys do it HR is called and we go through an entire round of discipline and sensitivity training?  Don’t tell me that the ladies aren’t talking about it – you’ve read the book – they are saying things that make the most harden HR Pro blush!  Yet, we chuckle and walk away – it’s just the girls – they don’t mean any harm…

I tend to think we allow this double standard for the simple fact 80% of HR Pros are female, so other females either join in the conversation or turn the other cheek.  This is reason #3247 that HR is hard – we send mix messages to our employees constantly.  “Don’t ever engage in sexual conversation in the workplace – there is no place for it – unless it’s a popular book that all the ladies are reading, then have at it, but only if your a female or gay male, otherwise it gets creepy!” (That’s actually wording from our official policy!)

Shades of Grey, literally, has no place in HR – yet we deal with “gray” constantly in our profession and in the workplace.  Individual contributor is creeping out the front desk person by hanging out around her work station to often and we discipline the individual contributor.  Executive is creeping out the front desk person by hanging out around her work station to often, and she gets fired.   Your co-worker “borrows” a ream of paper to do some printing at home and he gets written up like he stealing company secrets. Executive uses the companies IT staff to help put together his kids science project and no one says a thing. Gray.

It might just be the male in me, but the Fifty Shades conversations seem fairly black and white.  Unfortunately, in real life, we can’t have our cake and eat it to.  Leave the books and the stories and the workplace debriefs of chapters 4 and 5 at home where they belong.  We have enough creepy in our workplaces – let’s not be a part of the problem!

“Following Your Passion” Is For Suckers

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One of my favorite bloggers is none other than Mark Cuban – yeah the NBA Dallas Mavericks owner – he’s a brilliant writer at Blog Maverick.  Recently he wrote something so good, something I believe in so much – I’m just going to re-run the entire thing because I could not have said it any better myself.  Here’s the post:

Don’t Follow Your Passion, Follow Your Effort

I hear it all the time from people. “I’m passionate about it.” “I’m not going to quit, It’s my passion”. Or I hear it as advice to students and others “Follow your passion”.

What a bunch of BS.  ”Follow Your Passion” is easily the worst advice you could ever give or get.

Why ? Because everyone is passionate about something. Usually more than 1 thing.  We are born with it. There are always going to be things we love to do. That we dream about doing. That we really really want to do with our lives. Those passions aren’t worth a nickel.

Think about all the things you have been passionate about in your life. Think about all those passions that you considered making a career out of or building a company around.  How many were/are there ? Why did you bounce from one to another ?  Why were you not able to make a career or business out of any of those passions ? Or if you have been able to have some success, what was the key to the success.? Was it the passion or the effort you put in to your job or company ?

If you really want to know where you destiny lies, look at where you apply your time.

Time is the most valuable asset you don’t own. You may or may not realize it yet, but how you use or don’t use your time is going to be the best indication of where your future is going to take you .

Let me make this as clear as possible

1. When you work hard at something you become good at it.

2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more.

3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it

4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen.

Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it.

It’s probably the worst advice we ever give out as HR Professionals – “Oh, just do what you Love!” or “What are you passionate about? Do That!”, etc.  This is development!  This isn’t helping someone truly get better!   It’s psycho-babble that is sold by an industry that has found out they can make money on you by telling you this crap because you like to hear it – it makes you feel good.  But it’s not reality.

Adult learners – for the most part – are hardwired by the time you get them.  They are very hard to change.  But, if they are good at something, and they even put more time and effort into that thing – they can become “really” good at it – they can become “experts”.  When you become an expert you will be amazed at how passionate you become!

3 Things HR Professionals Should Stop Apologizing For

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Rookie Hiring Mistakes

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The New York Times recently had a good article titles “The Top 10 Rookie Mistakes for Entrepreneurs” which looks at the top reasons people usually fail when starting a new business.  As you can imagine many of the reasons where typical: expense control, fiscal responsibility, having a strong value proposition, etc.  But out of all 10 reasons there was one glaring omission on why so many new business owners fail – when it comes to hiring and the HR side of the business:

11. Holding on to Bad Hires too long.

This might be the biggest Rookie hiring mistake ever – it definitely is something we can all relate to – I don’t know of one leader that at some point in their career hasn’t done this!

Here’s the problem with this mistake:

  • You want to believe that your hiring process works – so, the person just needs more time.
  • You want to believe in the person – I mean all people want to do well, right!? – so, you give them more time.
  • You want to believe you, as a leader, can help the person through this – so, you give them more time.
  • You want to believe that you don’t make hiring mistakes, that’s for other idiots – so, you give them more time.
  • You want to believe, period. So, you give them more time.

This happens to the best leaders in the world – usually numerous times – before they get how bad this is for themselves and their organizations.

I think most people see ‘holding on to bad hires’ as a sign of weakness.  “Oh, you know Tim, he doesn’t have the balls to just go and fire Joe!  If Joe worked for me, he wouldn’t have made it one day!”  We hear this kind of stuff from our managers all the time!  The truth is, this has nothing to do with weakness – this has everything to do with Hope.  We never hire someone thinking “Oh, boy this gal is great, I can’t to fire her in 90 days!”   You don’t hire, to fire.  That’s why this becomes so tough.

Only after we get scared and hardened from enough bad hires – do you truly understand what the negative impact is, to hanging on them for too long.  Many people will say – they are “long to hire, and quick to fire”, but that’s a lie.  The majority of us are quick to hire, and long to fire.  It’s a rookie mistake – one we all do, or have done.  So, what am I telling you?  When you know.  When you truly know (your gut tells you, your metrics tell you, your peers are telling you) that you’ve made a bad hire – do the right thing for you and your organization.  Remember – you didn’t fire them, they fired themselves.

 

 

Just Make It Better

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If your sitting in your HR office right now reading this, about to create some new HR stuff – stop – your wasting our time (and by “our” I mean all of us employees in the organization).  “Wow – look who woke up on the wrong side of the week!”

It’s not that I don’t think being creative is important – it’s Hugely important.  Being creative in HR just isn’t important.   I know you think it is – that’s because you want to be creative – so you make yourself believe that’s important.  But the reality is – anything you can do – I can do better.  No, not because I’m better than you – I mean I probably am – but that isn’t the point.  I can do it better because – all I’m going to do is take what you’ve already done – and make it better.

In fact I’ll do a few more things while working on improving your thing:

1. I’ll make it cheaper

2. I’ll make it more simple to use

3. I’ll make it fun to do

See – stop being creative – and just start making things better.

From an article in Fast Company:

The line between becoming a pioneer and a “me-too” flop can be unclear when you’re in the weeds of development. Uncertainty is an easier destination to arrive at than confidence, especially when the truth is, there’s no such thing as making anything that’s really new. Everything is an evolution of something else. But you can make something better. When in doubt, ask yourself if you’d use your new product instead of the market leader’s. If the answer is yes, keep going. If it’s no, then stop and rethink.

This obviously talks about products – but services and what we offer in HR are very similar.  Is what you’re doing in HR better than what your competition is doing in HR?  If yes, carry on. If no, make it better.  It isn’t hard – it will take some hard work – but it’s not mentally challenging.  When I see people unwilling to make their HR Shops better – I know one of two things are at play: 1. They’ve given up on the organization, and they need to go, or 2. They are fundamentally lazy, and need to go.  It’s a painful truth most leaders just don’t want to realize.

Just make it better.

HR Strategy for Dummies

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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.

Recession Fallout in HR

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I have a feeling I’m about to preach to the choir.  I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with hiring manager lately – that just don’t get it! (I hear you saying “What do you mean “lately” – did hiring manager “ever” get it!)   The Recession has made our job very hard – Today – especially if you are currently trying to hire anyone with technical skills (engineers, designers, IT professionals, Scientist, etc.).   During the Recession we had candidates coming out of our ears!  Today, it seems like, almost overnight, technical jobs across the country have turned on like a fire hose!  Everywhere companies are trying to find technical talent – in all industries – all at the same time.   Remember that baby boomer Tsunami of retirement we were suppose to see?  This feels like the first waves are hitting the shore in terms of technical hiring!

I’ve spoken to engineering schools that 100% graduation hires, plus companies now paying for engineering seniors, senior year of tuition!   I’ve spoken to companies that have had to double their payroll projections – mid-budget year, just to have enough money to hire the same amount of projected hires at the beginning of the year.  In HR and Recruiting we get this – the market moves, sometimes very quickly, and organizations have to be prepared to adjust and move with it – or risk causing some very bad outcomes to our operations.  But, do our hiring managers get this?

I’m hear to say – not enough have gotten the message!

Over the past few months, it seems like we are having daily “conversations” with hiring managers who are still wanting to see the same 20 candidates they saw during the recession, and turning down candidates for minor things like “he seemed a little shy”, “she was from Tech and I like State grads”, “he’s had 2 jobs in the past 10 years!”   I’ve had hiring managers have interviews, come back and say they like both candidates really well, but would like to see some more – when there aren’t any more!   It all sounds familiar doesn’t it!  The Recession did this to them!  It made the greedy – it made them ultra picky – it made them believe there is a never ending pool of great candidates who only want to come work at your company.   Ugh! I hate the Recession!

So what?

In HR/Recruiting this is where we become marketers – we start selling – and what we are selling is an idea.  An idea that the world is different, they sky is falling and there’s only one person left to hire.  That person – is the stupid candidate I just put in front of your face!!! (wouldn’t that be great if we could say that!?)  Look, I understand you and your hiring managers “only want to hire the best talent” – BTW – so does everyone else.  But times are changing – if you want to hire the best – you better be paying the best – or at least offering the best value proposition as compared to your competitors.  Lines of candidates are out their just waiting for calls any longer.  It’s simple addition – more technical job openings than candidates + baby boomers now beginning to feel like they can retire = our job just got a lot tougher!

 

Tell Your Critics To Suck It

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In the corporate world everyone is a critic!  Everyone!  We’ve gotten really good at a learned behavior – no longer can we send out a final product the first time. Why?  Because everyone wants to trash it and change it – so it can be this really nice piece of Vanilla!  Welcome to Corporate America. But you know what – this isn’t new – critics have been around since Jesus – and critics have been wrong since before Jesus!   I wanted to share with you some famous things that critics got wrong:

Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, by Ludwig van Beethoven (1824)

What the critics said in 1825: “We find Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony to be precisely one hour and five minutes long; a frightful period indeed, which puts the muscles and lungs of the band, and the patience of the audience to a severe trial…” –The Harmonicon, London, April 1825

Moby-Dick, by Herman Melville (1851)

And the critics response: When Melville died in 1891, Moby-Dickhad moved a grand total of 3,715 copies…in 40 years! The below was typical at the time of the book’s release:

“…an ill-compounded mixture of romance and matter-of-fact. The idea of a connected and collected story has obviously visited and abandoned its writer again and again in the course of composition…Our author must be henceforth numbered in the company of the incorrigibles who occasionally tantalize us with indications of genius, while they constantly summon us to endure monstrosities, carelessnesses, and other such harassing manifestations of bad taste as daring or disordered ingenuity can devise…” -Henry F. Chorley, London Athenaeum, October 25, 1851

Animal Farm, by George Orwell (1945)

What the critics said about the book we all had to read in high school: “It is impossible to sell animal stories in the USA.” –Publisher’s rejection

Here’s what I know – true creativity in what we do, does not come from running our ideas through everyone and their brother for approval.  If your organization wants your employees to be truly creative and innovative – stop pushing teams.  Teams don’t make masterpieces – they can do some pretty cool stuff – but pure creativity isn’t one of them.  We push “Team” so hard in HR and in most organizations it sometimes makes you think like this the only way everyone in the world must work – but it’s not.  An HR Pro that can determine the proper work structure throughout their organization is truly valuable – “team” isn’t always the answer – and you should have other tools in your toolbox.

 

You hear artist all the time say “I don’t listen to my critics”. This is valuable in that they know listening to a critic will hurt their art.  Unfortunately, in business, we don’t always have the ability/decision to not listen to our critics (who could be bosses, peers, friends, etc.).  In business telling your critics to “Suck It” could be a big career derailer!  So, when do we go all “Suck It – It’s my project” in the workplace?   First, I wouldn’t suggest you approach it, beginning with “Suck It” – although you will get their attention – I think we all have the ability in our work environment to push back appropriately when you truly know you have something that will make a difference.  But, it’s about having the conviction to stand behind it and not let it get changed.  That’s your marker – “am I willing to put my career/credibility/bank of influence on the line for this idea/project/etc.?” If you are – it’s time to pull out the “Suck It” card and push forward.  For most of us, this might never happen in our work lives – maybe once – but it’s rare.

 

I think what we learn over time is that not all of our critics are bad – and some actually might help truly make us better.  The key is to continue to have confidence in what you do – without it – your work critics will make your work life less than artistic.

Look Who Got All Brand New

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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

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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.