Category Archives: Employment Brand

Employment Branding – I love the brochure

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I have a feeling that Employment Branding has jumped the shark.  This probably happened around the same time we stopped really caring about what our employment brand truly was, and we started designing the brochure about what we wished our employment brand was – and started selling the “idea” as the “brand”.  When it isn’t.

I’m a true believer in HR Pros having Marketing Chops – I’m no a true believer in HR trying to be marketing.  Marketing sells the “idea” of your organizations product or service – not the reality.  No one wants to buy reality – they want to buy the dream, the vision.  That’s why we have marketing.  They sell the crap that no one would buy if they really knew what they were buying – there’s a reason your sales and marketing folks get paid more than you – besides the fact they’re better looking.

We buy the brochure.  It’s pretty, the sun is always shining, the people are always smiling and there is a perfect ratio of white, black, male, female, wheelchairs and tattoos – and everyone is pretty. We buy the idea.

I think this is where employment branding went to die.  It just walked out and laid down next to authenticity and closed it’s eyes.

I guess I need to go back and sit down next to the coffee breath, pit stained, loud mouth, but he writes good code, reality. He’s annoying, but I can count on him to do good work – plus he’s loyal.  It’s not much of a brand – but it’s the truth…

 

(this all makes me think of the Jay-Z song Forever Young:

So we live a life like a video
When the sun is always out and you never get old
and the champagne’s always cold
and the music is always good
and the pretty girls just happen to stop by in the hood
and they hop their pretty ass up on the hood of dat pretty ass car
without a wrinkle in today
cuz there is no tomorrow
just some picture perfect day
to last a whole lifetime
and it never ends
cos all we have to do is hit rewind)

Great HR Doesn’t Come from Big HR Shops

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We here it all the time:

“They’ve got to much to lose to take that kind of a risk.”

Or statements similar to this.

As I travel out and about on the fall HR conference tour (most State level SHRM conferences happen in the fall) I’m reminded constantly that Big HR Shops (Fortune 500 companies, Big Government, Giant Non-Profits, etc.) are not who you should be turning to for the next great HR ideas.  Maybe you can turn to them for Best Practices – but is best practice – where you want to be?  Best Practice is by it’s nature – solid and fully vetted – for years.  It’s great HR from 5+ years ago. Safe. You can’t go wrong with Best Practice HR.  But please stop trying to act like it’s “great” HR – it’s not  – it’s more of the same HR.

There’s actually a name for this, it’s called Loss Aversion theory, which is basically:

“people’s tendency to strongly prefer avoiding losses to acquiring gains. Some studies suggest that losses are twice as powerful, psychologically, as gains.”

What this all boils down to in HR is what you have to lose by taking a chance.  Want a industry changing benefit program?  You have to get way out of the box.  Big HR Shops don’t get way out of the box.  By the way – Google is a big HR shop – Giant.  So are most of the other companies you continue to use as examples of “Great” HR, but they really aren’t “great” HR.  I say this because I’m tired to hearing “more of the same HR” practices at conferences being played off as “Great HR” practices, and seeing my HR peers buy it as life altering HR. It’s not – unless you have a Delorean that can’t go back in time to when it was.

So you want Great HR, you want HR that will change industries in 5 years? Don’t get caught up with a brand – get caught up with an idea.  Too often we want the “brand” – “Oh, look Southwest Airlines HR is going to be talking – I MUST go see them!”  Stop!  Southwest was great 20 years ago – they aren’t anymore – they are the same now – which is still good – but not “Great”.  You don’t want to be like Southwest Airlines right now – you want to be like Southwest Airlines 20 years ago.  You’re goal is to find that session with that person you’ve never heard of – they have nothing to lose – they will probably have better ideas.

I’m probably on an island with this one.  Because everyone wants to hear about how the “Big Boys” are doing it – because if they are doing “it”, “it “must be good.  But you know I’m comfortable on this island – this island is full of start-ups you’ve never heard of and they are fighting to make it ever day and that fight propels them into a space the “Big Boys” won’t go.  This island has a bunch of creative HR pros who don’t have books published and aren’t paid to speak  – they get their hands dirty, they make mistakes – they – make – great HR.

Recruiting’s 2032 Nightmare

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According to a recent USA Today article the U.S. birthrate is in sharp decline and is at it’s lowest levels in the past 25 years.   Here’s probably a few facts you don’t know:

– Projected 2013 birthrate in the U.S. is estimated to be 1.86

– Birthrate needed to maintain a population over a 20 year period is 2.1

Why should this concern you?

There are a number of reason – one might be that you need as many young people as old for the simple fact of having enough young people to take care of your older population.  If you turn that equation upside down (Taiwan 1.1 or Portugal 1.3) you have a society full of older people and not enough young people to fill the jobs needed to keep running your society.  The U.S. already has 3 Million jobs left unfilled because of lack of skilled employees – today. Imagine if you now have millions of less workers to even choose from – and by the way – skilled workers aren’t coming from other countries because their societies are growing and need them.  That is what our country’s employment picture will look like in 2032.  I know for many people right now this sounds very good – because of our high unemployment – but this will be a HR/Recruiting nightmare for those young HR/Talent Pros starting out their careers in the next 20 years.

Being the Futurist that I am -I’ve already provided a solution to this problem back in 2011 over at Fistful of Talent- Should You Encourage Your Employees To Have Babies – check it out. Basically my advice remains the same – as U.S. employers we need to create a positive, encouraging environment for our employees, with family-friendly policies that make our employees feel like starting a family is a good thing, and that if they do start a family their job and ability to get a promotion won’t be compromised.  This is not the case as many U.S. employers right now – for both men and women in the workforce.

As HR Pros and organizations we tend to think this isn’t our issue.  It will take care of itself – but as we look at countries with low birthrates, the issue doesn’t take care of itself and those countries have a worker crisis going on right now.    We need to change our ways right now – we need to be family friendly employers – we need to, as HR Pros, be concerned and find solutions for our employees around daycare, flexible schedules and other practices that will help our employees with families.   I know it sounds a bit the-sky-is-fallingish, but the numbers don’t lie we are headed for some of the hardest hiring this country has ever seen.

One solution I’ve thought of, that I didn’t bring up in 2011, is baby sign-on bonuses!  We do it for college students – I think we start doing for babies of our best employees.  I mean if parents can arrange their kids marriage, what stops us from arranging their first job?  Nothing! That’s what.  Imagine how happy your employees would be to cash a $20,000 check to help with baby expenses for the simple task of forcing their kid to come to work with your company upon college graduation.  It seems so simple – I’m not quite sure why no one has started this yet!

58% of College Students Are Willing to Lie

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According to a recent study by NetImpact – What Workers Want in 2012 58% of College Students (1,726 total in the study) would take a 15% pay cut to work for an organization who’s values matched their own.  In another study, I’m willing to coach the Los Angles Lakers for less than half what they are paying their current coach (1 total in this study)!

These studies are silly – it’s hypothetical, college kids still believe in things – like fairness and equal opportunity and you’ll always be able to drink 12 beers and get up the next morning and run 3 miles.  Let’s wait for all 1,726 college students who took the study to get a job and then 5 years from now when they are employed we’ll go to them and force them to make a choice –

1. You keep your current salary and stay with your current job

2. You take a 15% pay cut and move to Employer A which happens to have the same values as you, under the current leadership team

I will bet my entire life savings that less than 58% of those people would choose to leave their current employers (no matter what job they have) and take a 15% pay cut!  In fact I would be fairly confident to say only about 10% would take us up on our offer, and they were already looking or getting pushed out. So, what does the study really say? That college students being asked silly hypothetical questions for a study about how they will act in the future, are willing to lie.

Why do I think these studies are silly?  Because solid, well meaning, HR Pros will go out and start recruiting folks to their organization who have the same values that “they” have.  “They” being the key word.  Who is “they”?  Well, Tim, we went to our leadership and our managers and our employees and we did value assessment and we found that 73% of our folks valued honesty and integrity over 67% that valued hard work and a fun work place.  Oh, you’ve got it figured out…

Here’s what I’m thinking – values are hard to hire – but you think they aren’t.  I can hire for skills, I can hire for past performance, etc. When it comes to values and morals, I’m really throwing myself down the rabbit hole.  Hiring for values and morals puts the selectors values and morals into play way too much.  If Peggy is your main screener – you better damn hope Peggy shares the exact values and morals you’re trying to hire for – or you’re going to be in for a surprise down the road.

I’m not saying don’t do it – I’m saying you better weight it appropriately with some other criteria.  I seem to be in the minority who still believes having the fire power to do the job, and some past performance to back it up, is still fairly important when selecting candidates. And if Humility doesn’t seem to be a part of their value chain, I think I might be able to work around that – if they can perform!

Dating Your Job

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I’m at SHRM12 all week and the pleasure of sitting through Malcolm Gladwell‘s keynote this morning! He is by far my favorite author and he was really the only must see for me here at SHRM12 – yes, I have a complete man-crush!   I didn’t stand in line to get his autograph at the SHRM book store, but only because I hate lines!  Gladwell spent most of his time analyzing why generations are different, he’s a great story teller, and gave great examples of why my generation – GenX – is completely different than the millenials – which we all know – but he really went deeper into the subject.

One example that he gave stuck with me, when he used the concept of dating to explain one of the main differences between these two generations. As a GenXer you just didn’t go on many dates – you were lucky to go on a few per year – because once you met someone and you liked each other – it immediately became exclusive – it’s what we did.  Millenials network and date much differently and are willing to go on many more dates and continue dating, finding more than one person they might connect with.  Because of how millenials network, they open themselves up to many opportunities to date.  Doesn’t sound like a bad deal – based on how my dating life went!  I met my wife the first week of college – we will celebrate 20 years of marriage in July!  (so, basically, I had 1 date in college – luckily it was a VERY good date!)

Here’s where I think we run into problems with this type of mentality -with how millenials network – their job!  I get a feeling way too many are just dating their jobs as well.  Many hiring managers are in the GenX age group – which causes them to want employees who view their job like they view their job – it’s a marriage – not a date!  Gladwell pointed this out as a difference that was neither good or bad – just a difference that we as organizations will have to work through.

As an HR Pro I think the big hurdle we have to help our organizations overcome is this concept of being married to your job. It’s easier said then done.  Try telling a hiring manager that it’s alright for a candidate to have 4 jobs in 4 years – they don’t buy it – heck, I’m not sure I fully buy it – it’s a tough paradigm shift to make.  I do think we have the ability, though, to influence this paradigm with our hiring managers – and to get the best talent we must be willing to look through our own filters to help our organizations.  Having multiple positions can be a huge benefit – it’s not always a sign of a “job jumper” – especially over the past few years. We have to provide better tools for our hiring managers to get them to feel comfortable with the skill sets and talent the candidate brings, and less uncomfortable with job longevity of candidates.

Stay tuned for more SHRM12 learning’s.

Candidate Screener #1 – Baby Car Seats

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There are some things I hesitate to write about – and this is one of them.   Sometimes, in HR, we allow are hiring managers to do somethings that should get us sent straight to hell. First class ticket – and we deserve it.  I have to be careful on how I phrase this one – let’s just say there is this major U.S. company that made Billions of dollars last year, and for a number of years before that.  Their product is something almost all of us have used in our lifetime.  And let’s just say, that maybe, once in a while (or every time) they interview someone – male or female – they “kindly” escort this person out to their safe, security-gated, parking lot, to their interviewees car.   A naive HR Pro would say, “Aren’t our hiring managers nice to do that.”  A savvy HR Pro would say, “Why the hell are you doing that?!”

You clicked the link with the title – so you already know why they escort candidates to their car – they want to see if the candidate has kids.  Ouch.  The feeling is, they don’t want to hire folks with kids, because folks with kids need more time off, and miss work more, and, well, just aren’t as engaged as non-anchor dragging childless employees.  Ouch, again.   There is an HR person, or two, that will be burning in hell for allowing this to continue.

And let’s continue to say, “hypothetically” that I know a person who has witnessed this type of thing happen – hypothetically.  What would you tell the candidate, hypothetically?   First, I’d tell them the truth!   Look you are about to be judged, in a negative way, on your desire and ability to procreate. That being said, we have a couple of options: 1. You can bail on the opportunity. (Great financial opportunity – you can imagine the culture!); 2. You can clean your car out of all incriminating evidence that you have children, like children, were once a child.   Hypothetically – most people are choosing #2.  That surprises me a little – but it’s dependent upon the job market, personal situations, etc.  A ton of factors go into people making that type of decision – I’m not judging – I’m empathetic to the cause!

Crazy right?  It’s 20 and f’ing 12!  We (hypothetically) have hiring managers looking for baby seats in the back of a sedan as a legitimate screening criteria for a job.  God help us.

If hypothetically the above story is true and I somehow get in a terrible accident because somehow my brake lines were cut, accidentally, just know I died with a car seat in the back of minivan – I’m not hiding it for anyone! Fight the Power!

 

 

Calibrating Your Talent for Succession

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I’ve been a part of one organization that thought it was pretty important to do Talent/Succession Reviews (sure every organization will tell you it’s important, but very few actually do anything about it really!) on a normal basis (that basis being twice per year -whether we wanted to do it or not!).  That organization was Applebee’s – before IHOP bought them and gutted it like a homeowner prior to foreclosure – and we called them Calibration Meetings.  We were a growing organization, so having an updated succession plan was critical for success.   We thought we had a decent process, the meetings took way too long – usually all day, sometimes a day and half, and at the end we had a clear picture of where are top players were in their development, who needed our help, and who we needed to go out and shoot.  Perfect.

Here’s what the Calibration Meetings taught me out Talent/Succession reviews:

1. Once you talk about an individual employee for 10 minutes – even the best employee turns into a pile of crap with a million flaws.  Put a time limit on how long you spend on a person, focus on the positives they bring to the team (believe me that’s really hard to do).

2. You will find every reason a person shouldn’t be working for you – and you will still struggle to kick them off your bus.

3. If a person is ready for the next level, and you don’t make it happen – they will leave.

4. People appreciate being told where they stand in your succession plan, more than they appreciate the feedback from a performance review. (it’s really the best indicator of their true worth)

5. You must tell everyone where they stand in succession, even the bad ones, for it to really work.

Want some help getting your Talent/Succession Reviews started? – check this out:

Halogen is bringing in the team at Fistful of Talent for a quick, street smart webinar on how to bootstrap a talent review and get started with Succession Planning.  Attend “Zombies, Grinders and Superstars:  The FOT Talent/Succession Review”. 

Register Today for the Wednesday June 20th webinar!

 

A Job Post with Your Name On It!

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I was in a conversation the other day with another Talent Pro and she was asking me for some advice on getting better applicants to apply for her postings.  I asked a number of questions but one that really got the conversation moving was:

Do you know who you want to apply for this position?

She told me “Yes” and then went on to give the specifications of the job description.  I said “No”, do you know the Name of the person you want to apply to this position?  She laughed – she thought I was joking – I wasn’t.   Well, I half-wasn’t.   It was a quirky idea, but in the right environment and small to medium community you could really make a splash by actually naming your post after the person who you really want to take the job.  Can you imagine!

Wanted “Michael Smith – Chemical Engineer” – please apply today!

The obvious issue at play here is – well – if I knew the name of the person I wanted, why wouldn’t I just call them up and ask if they wanted the job!?  GREAT question – why don’t you?  It’s actually fairly easy to find names of competitor employees you might want to hire.  So, why don’t you call them up and ask them if they want the job you have?  You know why?  Because it’s F’ing hard to do!  That’s why the search industry is a multi-Billion (with a “B”) business.

So, instead of calling them – just make a job posting with their name on it – and go float it around town – through your social channels, on your website, maybe a job board posting, etc.  Believe me – it will get back to the person you are looking, and if they are interested – they will come calling.  Seems silly, but I bet it would work far more than it wouldn’t.  People like to feel wanted.  How much more wanted can you get than a company creating a job posting with your “actual” name on it!  THIS job is for me! You would say to yourself.

In a tough talent marketplace, sometimes it’s the easy, simple things that make the difference.  Sometimes people just want to know they’re wanted.  We make this search game so difficult sometimes.   I always tell people I have the easiest job in the world.  I just have to ask people if they are interested in a job, I have open.  Pretty easy!  I’m not trying to launch the space shuttle or fix someones heart – I just need to see if they would have interest in making a job change.  The rest is just market variables, all of which, are probably pretty similar to the next guy.  Many times, it comes down to only one thing – me showing interest in them, and their current company not showing the same level of interest in keeping them.

I say give it shot – what’s the worse that can happen – you get your community talking about your company and how aggressively you’re going after people?  That’s not all bad – either way!

Got’em Right Off The Boat

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Don’t know if you’ve seen this, but a company called Blueseed recently announced their plans to build a ship to house Technical start-up workers off the shore of San Francisco, far enough off shore to in ‘International’ waters.   Makes you trying to get around the Visa issue just a little easier, now doesn’t it!?  What we’ve run out of H1B’s for the year – don’t worry about it – just hire them and put them on the boat!   Gives a whole new meaning to “off-shoring”.

Here’s the explanation from Blueseed:

As a foreign national, to legally earn a paycheck in the United States, you would need a valid U.S. work visa. To live and earn a paycheck aboard the Blueseed vessel, you will only need a passport.

If you are outside of the U.S., you’ll have to enter the U.S. first before boarding the Blueseed vessel. The best way to do this, and to be allowed to legally come to mainland, is to obtain a B1 (business) or B2 (tourist) visa. These visas are easier to obtain because they don’t grant the right to work in the U.S., are usually valid for 10 years (check validity for your country here) and are often combined into a B1/B2 business/pleasure visa. Nationals of 36 industrialized nations are exempted from this requirement for travel periods of up to 90 days, under the Visa Waiver program.

I like it.  I like when someone finds away around the system legally – or so they’ve interpreted it to be legal.  It’s creativity, in business, at it’s best!   We have a problem (not enough technical workers) – we’ve found a solution (building a big barge and anchoring just off the shores of the United States for you to hide house such workers).  It causes everyone to have an instant opinion – you either think it’s legal or that it’s not legal, or you think it’s good for business or bad for business – it’s polarizing.  It’s change.  It’s fun!

I’d like to see some company take it one step further – put a floating work place in International air space!  Sure that would make your work place 12 miles straight up in the air – but can you imagine the base jumps down to the ground!  Talk about an extra benefit for your employees – even your employment brand would rock – “Working Here Is A Thrill A Minute!” or “Jump Into Your Career with Us!” – I mean the ideas are endless. Plus, with my airspace idea you won’t be hampered by just living hear water – you can move that sucker anywhere on Earth!

So, what do you think about Blueseed? Good idea or cheesy-creative attempt to get around U.S. Immigration and Labor Laws?

 

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).