Category Archives: Employment Brand

Recruitment Marketing Is Not One-size Fits All!

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Hey, gang I’m running a sponsored post by the great folks at Spherion regarding their 2014 Emerging Workforce Study which has some really great data, check it out. 

The big ‘Wow’ that came out of the study for me is how organizations might be discounting how potential workers are using social media to influence their decision on who they work for! It used to be we would primarily rely on our social networks to give us insight to how we thought about potential employers.  “Oh! I know my aunt used to work there and she loved it!” Or, “I know my neighbor works there and says it’s awful!”   Now, it seems like we have an endless supply of opinions and connections about potential employers via the use of social media.

From the study:

    • 44% of workers believe social media is influential in their view of a company they might work for.
    • 51% of workers agree their company’s online reputation impacts its ability to recruit workers.
    • 46% of workers say when they consider new employment, the company’s online reputation will be as important as any job offer they are given.

Too many organizations still do not believe social media really has that much of an impact to their hiring, or their ability to attract the best hires. This is especially true in small and medium sized businesses (SMB). In reality, SMB organizations might be impacted by a negative, or positive, social media perception of candidates than larger organizations, where the data gets washed out by the many numbers.

One other piece that came from the study is how organizations are failing to market towards all generations.  Some of this, for sure, is based on the use of new media, which tends to target a younger workforce.  Organizations really need to dig into their recruitment marketing strategy and specifically look at what mediums are we using and what are those mediums getting us from a candidate demographic perspective.

More interesting data from the study:

    • Less than half (45%) of companies utilize tailored recruitment strategies based on different age groups or professions.
    • Yet, recruiting workers isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. Manufacturing workers are mostly likely to land their job through a staffing agency, while accountants rely on professional associations and networking, IT workers use online sources and admin/clerical workers secure their jobs through classified ads and company websites.

The reality is most organizations don’t dig into this, because like Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men, you don’t want to know the truth!  The truth is, in my opinion, most organizations want to market towards younger workers, so they’re completely fine using a one approach marketing strategy that misses out on older, more experienced workers.  It’s a poor strategy, for sure, as more competitive organizations are figuring out very quickly on how to use and leverage a more experienced aging workforce.

Check out the 2014 EWS Infographic:

Spherion EWS Employment Life Cycle Infographic (first 3 phases)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Disclosure Language:

Spherion partnered with bloggers such as me for their Emerging Workforce Study program. As part of this program, I received compensation for my time. They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about any idea mentioned in these posts. Spherion believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Spherion’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations. 

Top HR Products for 2014!

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I like new technology, which is why I’m headed out to the HR Technology Conference this week.  HR tech has continues to transform how we deliver HR and Talent solutions to our organizations.  I’m always amazed at the new stuff that comes out each year.  Human Resource Executive named their 2014 award winners for Top HR Products last week, and the awards are given out at the HR Technology Conference.  I’ll be checking all of these out for sure, but here is a preview of the award winners:

Appcast.io – www.appcast.io

A recruiting marketing platform that helps organizations fill their hard-to-fill requisitions by marketing it to 6,000 career and consumer sites on a pay-per-applicant basis.

Entelo Diversity – www.entelo.com

Entelo claims to have a program that will help you hire black people! Or women, veterans, Hispanics, etc. Basically, you can stop trying to search job boards using words like “Black” and “Spanish”.

Halogen 1:1 Exchange – www.halogensoftware.com

Halogen takes performance management to the next level with Halogen 1:1 Exchange.  This is a one-on-one meeting-management tool that works with other Halogen TalentSpace modules and is designed to spur greater communication, collaboration and coaching. The module tracks the frequency of these one-on-one meetings to provide employers with evidence these discussions are occurring. It also correlates the impact they are having on performance ratings, engagement scores and turnover.

Health E(fx) – www.healthefx.us

Health E(fx) is a stand-alone solution designed to help employers avoid penalties while optimizing their benefits strategies, decisions and costs within the Affordable Care Act environment.

HireVue Insights – www.hirevue.com

I’ve seen this one live and it’s awesome, can’t say enough about it! Basically, it analyzes your digital interviews to automatically give you the best candidates based on 15,000+ attributes. All your candidates.  Have 1000 apply, and you know you’ll only really look at the first 25 you applied, even though number 999 might be your best? Insights solves this! Plus, tells you which hiring managers are your best at selection!

IBM Social Learning – www.ibm.com

IBM Social Learning, powered by IBM Kenexa learning solutions and IBM social-collaboration and analytics tools, is designed to help people engage with one another, contribute expertise and learn from others using interactive media in near real-time.

Match-Click – www.match-click.com

Match-Click is a video-driven recruiting platform designed to let employers give job candidates a preview of their new corporate environment and potential supervisor and co-workers, through short, 20-second video clips featuring hiring managers and would-be colleagues describing the position and the organization.

QUEsocial – www.quesocial.com

Another one I’m really interested in seeing live! QUEsocial blends employer branding and social recruiting into a social talent-acquisition Software-as-a-Service technology platform. The idea is to enable recruiters and — by extension, employers — to “amplify and extend” the employer brand through individual recruiter and sourcing networks.

RecruitiFi – www.recruitifi.com

RecruitiFi is intended to offer organizations a new way to source talent by letting them select and post jobs to 250 expert recruiters from its membership pool of approximately 2,000.

Skillrater.com – www.skillrater.com

Skillrater.com is a cloud-based performance-feedback tool that incorporates social networking and collaboration.

There will be hundreds of other companies as well. I’ll make sure to give you a run down on some companies and technology that you haven’t ever heard of, yet, when I return.  The coolest part of HR Tech is finding a company that is nothing today, but will be industry leading in 3 to 5 years.  Last year I saw Blackbook HR and their Sense product and they are blowing up – such a great piece of technology to help us with one of HR’s biggest issues – Turnover!

Who will it be this year? I can’t wait to find out.

I’m Hiring! Are you sure you want to work for me?

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Okay, I’m adding a Recruiter to my team.  At hru-tech.com, we do mostly engineering and IT contract recruiting, some direct placement recruiting and some project RPO work for clients around the country.

I would put my team up against anyone.  They’re that good, and most are homegrown!  That’s right, the majority of our staff came in entry level and we smacked off that new car smell like an old bag of Taco Bell that’s been sitting in your back seat for three weeks in the summer.

I started looking around and getting the word out a couple days ago.  You would think it would be easy.  I don’t really ask for a lot, but I sure know it when I ‘hear’ it!   Recruiting is a pretty good gig.  It’s transferable. I’ve worked in 5 different states, 4 different industries and my recruiting skills I can take with me anywhere.  It’s the one thing I can guarantee you if you come work for me. You’ll always be able to find a job and make money.  Every economy needs good recruiters.

The pay is way better than your normal crappy sales jobs selling cell phones or renting cars to people that bring in their phone bill and a report card. The hours are pretty good. No weekends. A few nights here and there.  You get to interact with a great group of people. The latest and greatest recruiting tools.

What’s crazy to me is how hard it is to find people who want to do this job, and that can be good at it!  I like for people to have a four-year degree.  The actual degree isn’t as important, as the process of gaining that degree.  I find those who worked their way through college, tend to be better recruiters.  Bartenders might be the best previous job if I was forced to pick one. Any kind of job that had you on the phone talking to people would be second.

There’s also a need for people who don’t freak out when they are held accountable for results.  That eliminates most people who want to work in government or big companies.  My recruiters don’t sit around and wait to get paid.  So, self-motivation is important, as long as it’s targeted in the right direction.

Work-life balance is really important to me.  Hold on, let me define work-life balance.  Work-life balance is when you do enough work that I pay you so you can have things and do things you want to do.  It’s not you doing whatever you want at any time you feel.  That’s not balance.  Balance means equal both ways, work and life.

We aren’t saving the world.  For some people that’s really important.  We do find people some really, really good jobs.  Some people find that cool and rewarding.

I care about you as a person, and I want to see you be wildly successful.  I’ll treat you like family. The family that you actually like, not the ones you try to forget about.

The position is in Lansing, MI. No, you can’t work remote or virtual or on a boat, unless the boat is in the parking lot of our building, then you can work on a boat.

So, if you’re interested send me a note – sackett.tim@hru-tech.com.  

If you are interested, and I don’t think you’re a fit, I will actually tell you why I don’t think you’re fit.  Some people like that. Some people think they’ll like that.  Some people don’t like that at all!

Are You Tired of Your Employment Brand?

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You might be tired of your employment brand…but your candidates aren’t!

That’s real.

This happens all the time in organizations.  Talent acquisition isn’t feeling successful, or they’re getting pressure to do more/better/faster, and they start looking for excuses.  The one excuse that always comes up is ‘our employment brand is old/tired/sucks, etc.’   It might be that it is old/tired/sucks, but it’s usually just an excuse.

Here’s what happens internally at your organization.

1. You have an employment brand. If you say you don’t, you’re lying to yourself! You do, you just didn’t have a part in making it!

2. You’re having trouble attracting the talent you want.

3. You believe having a really cool new employment brand will help attract the talent you can’t attract.  Which it might, but most likely not.

4. You use your old employment brand as a crutch to why you can’t be successful in talent acquisition.

The real problem has nothing to do with your employment brand.  For most companies, your candidates have little knowledge of what your actual employment brand really is.  Most candidates equate your employment brand to your consumer brand.

So, externally your employment brand is what it has always been.  The real problem is we get tired of our employment brand really fast because we are dealing with every single day.  We forget that most candidates only will engage our employment brand usually once in a lifetime.  So, they aren’t tired of it at all!

Any time I hear a talent acquisition pro tell me they can’t attract talent, and blame their employment brand, I question their ability to actually recruit.  Being able to attract talent has very little to do with your employment brand, and more to do with your own perception of your employment brand.  Our reality is most candidates have hardly any idea of our employment brands, until we engage them with it.  If you are great at selling your brand, the candidates are more than likely going to have a positive perception of your employment brand.

If you believe your employment brand sucks.  More than likely so will the candidates you’re contacting.  It comes back to your attitude about your company.  I’ve never seen or heard from a recruiter who desperately loved their organization who said they couldn’t find talent!   Coincidence?  I think not.  If you love your organization, and you recruit, you usually are pretty successful.  If you don’t like your organization, and you recruit, you usually are pretty crappy at it.

Just because you’re tired of your employment brand, doesn’t mean everyone else is.

 

The Crappy Job Badge of Honor

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Make HR Suck Less

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

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

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

Here are the 3 steps to making HR Suck Less:

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

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

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

Every single HR Shop who feels they suck – doesn’t have to suck.  If you feel you don’t suck, but everyone else tells you that you suck – you suck.  You’re just delusional and you keep telling yourself things like “we have to do this stuff”, “it’s the law”, “we don’t have a choice”, etc.   This is the first sign you’re comfortable with sucking – you aren’t listening to your organization.

No one has to suck – you can decide to do things in a complete different way. Perception is reality in terms of sucking.  You need to change perceptions, not reality.  You can still accomplish the exact same things, just do it in a way that people think you rock.  Start saying “Yes” to everything – not “No”.  “No” sucks.

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

Making Your Jobs iPhone 6 Plus

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I think there is an epidemic in our society, and I’m going to blame Apple.  Sure other cell phone companies do the same thing, but Apple was the one who really made this such an issue.  Last week Apple released the latest version of the iPhone and the entire world stood in line to get the latest phone.

I have a iPhone 5s, the new version is iPhone 6 or 6 Plus.  Apparently, my iPhone 5s is now garbage.  But it’s not.  But Apple wants me to think it is, so I get the new version.

The HR Problem in all of this is our employees and managers are doing the same thing with our jobs.  Let me give you an example.  You hire a great candidate last year for an opening you had on your Finance team.  A year later this great hire is doing really good, in your view it was a successful hire.  But there’s a problem.

This great hire wants ‘more’, wants ‘different’, wants a new version of their job, the iPhone 6 plus version!

It’s only been a year an already the employee believes they deserve an upgrade.  Their manager isn’t ‘controlling’ the situation, which is probably the major underlying problem.  The manager is actually feeding the problem by believing it’s also something they need as well.  Let’s face it, the manager hasn’t had an upgrade since you guys were handing out Blackberrys, she is pissed! Where is her iPhone 6 plus level position?!

In terms of HR, this is a major problem across all industries.  No one wants to have your iPhone 4 jobs. People are mocking your iPhone 4 jobs.  They might accept your iPhone 5 jobs, but only because they have no iPhone offers.

What should you do?

Ultimately, this is an expectation level setting leadership discussion.  It starts before the offer is made, before you ‘allow’ someone to accept your offer.  Too often we allow new hires to believe, don’t worry you will always have the latest and greatest version of this job.  When our reality is, we try to upgrade as often as possible, but you shouldn’t expect to always have the latest and greatest.

If you feel that having the latest and greatest is really important for a potential hire, it might not be the right hire for you and your organization. That’s okay.  We get caught up in this belief that we have to hire the most talented candidate, not the candidate who is the most talented for us. Only a few of us can offer the latest versions of jobs, most of us can’t.  The world needs ditch diggers.

The 6 Things You Need To Know To Be Great At HR

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The one great thing I love about going to HR and Talent conferences is that you always get reminded about what really good HR should look like.  It doesn’t mean that your shop will be there, but it gives you something to shoot for.  I’ll admit, sometimes it can be frustrating listening to some HR Pro from a great brand tell you how they ‘built’ their great employment brand through all their hard work and brilliant ideas.  All the while, not mentioning anything about “oh, yeah, and we already had this great brand that marketing spends $100 million a year to keep great!”

Regardless, seeing great HR always reminds me that great HR is obtainable for everyone.  Great HR has nothing to do with size or resources.  It has a lot of do with an HR team, even a team of one, deciding little by little we’re going to make this great!

I think there are six things you need to know to make your HR department great:

1. Know how to ‘sell’ your HR vision to the organization and your executives.  The best HR Pros I know are great storytellers, and in turn great at selling their visions.  If you don’t have a clear vision of what you want your HR shop to look like, how do you expect others to get on board and help you get there.  Sit down, away from work, and write out exactly what you want your HR shop to look like.  Write it long-hand. Write in bullet points. Just start.  It will come.

2. Buy two pairs of shoes: one of your employees and one of your hiring managers. Try them on constantly.  These are your customers, your clients.  You need to feel their joys and pains, and truly live them.  Knowing their struggles will make you design better HR programs to support them.  Support them, not you.

3. Working hard is number 1.  Working smart is number 1A.  Technology can do every single transaction in HR.  Don’t allow tasks and administrative things be why you can’t do great HR.  Get technology to do all of this busy work so you can focus on real HR deliverables.

4. Break something in your organization that everyone hates and replace it with something everyone loves.  This is usually a process of something you’ve always done, and people are telling you it still has to be done that way. Until it doesn’t, and you break it.  By the way, this doesn’t have to be something in HR.  Our leaders and our employees have so many things that frustrate them in our environments.  Just find one and get rid of it.

5. Sometimes the path of least resistance is the best solution. HR people love to fight battles for the simple act of fighting the battle. “NO! It has to be done this way!” “We will NOT allow any workarounds!”   Great HR finds the path of least resistance.  The path of greatest adoption.  The path which makes our people feel the most comfortable, even if it isn’t the path we really, really want to take.

6. Stop being an asshole. You’re in HR, you’re not a Nazi.  Just be nice.  We’re supposed to be the one group in our organization that understands.  Understands people are going to have bad days and probably say things they don’t mean.  Understands that we all will have pressures, some greater than others, but all pressure nonetheless. Understands that work is about 25% of our life, and many times that other 75% creates complete havoc in our world!

Great HR has nothing to do with HR.  Great HR has a lot to do with being a great leader, even when that might not be your position in the organization.

Job Descriptions are Just Commercials for Jobs

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Only Employment Lawyers and HR Pros from 1990 believe that Job Descriptions are important legal-type documents that are still needed in 2014.   Most companies have given up on job descriptions (JDs).  At best you’ll find them, today, using ones from back in 1990 when people thought writing JDs was an important part of human resources.  You’ll still find a few HR Tech vendors around trying to make you believe this is an important skill to have.

Our reality, though, is that JDs are really just a marketing tool to get you interested in a position and company. Nothing more, nothing less.

If this is true, 99% of companies are failing at JDs in a major way!

The other 1% are using titles like “Ninja Developer” and think they’ve gotten it solved.  The problem we all share is that we haven’t let marketing just take this part of our business over. It’s a legacy thing.  Somehow we believe only people in HR can write job descriptions.  It’s that ‘legal’ thing again.  We need to make sure we put “EOE” on the bottom, and you know you can’t trust marketing to do that!

Last week a Facebook group I’m in shared the following employment branding commercial:

I know, this isn’t a job description, but do you really think the JDs at Kixeye look like your JDs?  No, they don’t!

I know. I know. Your company can’t do something like this.  You’re probably right.  But you can do something that is more like you. More authentic.  More real. More, well, you.

That’s the problem with your JDs.  They aren’t you.  In fact, I would argue they aren’t anyone!

Your JDs, most JDs, are just a boring list of job requirements, that may not actually be required, and skills needed to do the job, that may not actually be needed to do the job.  Job descriptions have turned into those things most companies are embarrassed to even show you.  Weekly, I have conversations with companies that will either say they don’t have a job description, or the job description is old and updated, or just flat out ask me to help right them a new one!

It’s time HR gave up the job description business and handed it over to marketing where it belongs.

 

Chipotle’s Sweatshop!

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Last week the Chipotle location in State College, PA (home of Penn State University) posted this sign on the door:

“Borderline sweatshop conditions”.

Have you ever gone into a Chipotle restaurant?  You pretty much see most of the kitchen.  There is a little prep area hidden from view, and it looks much like everything else you can see.  Stainless steel, well lighted, air conditioning and ventilation. Chipotle’s food safety is right on par with most major chains, they take it very seriously, the worst thing that can happen to a chain is the bad publicity of a food related illness.

“Borderline sweatshop conditions”.

The hours of this specific location are from 11am to 10pm, Monday through Sunday.  Workers probably get in around 10am, or so, to prep. A manager might have to be in earlier for deliveries and such.  My guess is they’re out each night around 11pm.  Each location will have 3 to 4 managers to cover those hours.  There are two times per day that a Chipotle restaurant is busy, 11:30am to around 1:30pm, and 6pm to around 8pm.  It can be very busy and hectic during those ‘rush’ eating times.

“Borderline sweatshop conditions”.

I would love to send these former Chipotle workers to a real sweatshop.  To a place where they weren’t getting paid $10 plus per hour with free meals, training, safety equipment and potential to move up. To a place where they actually didn’t have the choice to lock up millions of dollars in facilities, equipment and food, and just walk away for the day.  To a place that was actually a sweatshop.

This is why ISIS hates us.