It’s Labor Day, my Union said I didn’t need to blog today.
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Happy 3-Day Weekend!
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Category Archives: SHRM
The Top 20 Branded HR and Talent Pros: Meet Joel Peterson from Goshow Architects
Let’s face it – Fearful of the spotlight and conservative to a fault, HR pros generally aren’t the best examples to look towards when it comes to professional branding. Kris Dunn (Kinetix RPO, The HR Capitalist) and Tim Sackett (HRU Technical Resources, TimSackett.com) think that needs to change. That’s why they created this series – The Top 20 Branded HR Pros(sponsored by the team at Glassdoor).
KD and Tim searched the globe for HR Pros who used the tools at their disposal (writing, speaking, social and more) to brand themselves in the HR space, but limited the results to actual practitioners in the areas of HR, Recruiting and Talent Management. No consultants, no vendors. They found out well-branded HR pros who are actual practitioners are hard to find.
Tim and KD are running the Top 20 they found here on the HR Capitalist and at TimSackett.com. No rankings, just inclusion in the list and some notes on why. There are at least 20 well-branded HR Pros in the world. These are their stories.
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One of the coolest things about working with Glassdoor on the Top 20 Branded HR and Talent Pros has been I get to meet and introduce you to some pretty great people. Today is no exception to that! Joel Peterson is our next great pro on the Top 20 Branded HR and Talent Pros! Joel is the Director of HR for Goshow Architects the largest woman-owned architectural firm in New York City.
Joel is the Social Media Director for the New York State Council of SHRM and Master’s graduate in Acting! What? Acting? Yeah, that makes him perfect for working in HR! Here is Joel’s player’s card:
Joel’s player card is solid across everything! He’s like a five-tool baseball player, he doesn’t have a weakness when it comes to branding himself as an HR professional. As a writer Joel started a very blog series on SHRM called Life as a HRDEPT1, to help others like him that were running HR as a department of one. Joel was also on the SHRM National blogging team this summer in Las Vegas.
As a speaker Joel is involved with local and state level SHRM meetings, various industry events and his own little video project called #AuthenticLife, check it out:
Joel is what we like to call Twitter famous, Tweeting over 23,000 times! You can connect with him on Twitter at @Joelyoh. What does he tweet about? All the stuff that makes HR cool, if that’s possible! Plus, he gets involved with a ton of the twitter chats around various HR topics. Like many of our Top 20, Joel has found out how to leverage the power of LinkedIn. He has close to a thousand followers following his posts on LI, where he cross promotes his SHRM series HRDEPT1.
Joel is one of the bigger users of Instagram in our Top 20 list with over 600 followers and almost 800 posts. Joel utilizes Instagram to share and promote one of his passions outside of HR, the Special Olympics, where he was on the technology team supporting the World Special Olympics in LA this past summer.
Congratulations Joel on making the Glassdoor’s Top 20 Branded HR and Talent Pros in the world! Make sure you connect with Joel, you shouldn’t have a hard time finding him!
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The Top 20 Branded HR Pros is brought to you by Glassdoor, who invites you to attend the Annual Glassdoor Employer Branding Summit on September 25th, where a stellar speaker lineup of industry experts and thought leaders exploring the intersection of employer branding and talent acquisition, the candidate experience and employee engagement.
Tickets are sold out, but wait! You can attend the livestream online featuring studio coverage with Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett by registering here (click to register). Fun and games are sure to be a part of that coverage.
THE TOP 20 BRANDED HR & TALENT PROS: MEET Neil Morrison from Penguin Random House UK
Let’s face it – Fearful of the spotlight and conservative to a fault, HR pros generally aren’t the best examples to look towards when it comes to professional branding. Kris Dunn (Kinetix RPO, The HR Capitalist) and Tim Sackett (HRU Technical Resources, TimSackett.com) think that needs to change. That’s why they created this series – The Top 20 Branded HR Pros(sponsored by the team at Glassdoor).
KD and Tim searched the globe for HR Pros who used the tools at their disposal (writing, speaking, social and more) to brand themselves in the HR space, but limited the results to actual practitioners in the areas of HR, Recruiting and Talent Management. No consultants, no vendors. They found out well-branded HR pros who are actual practitioners are hard to find.
Tim and KD are running the Top 20 they found here on the HR Capitalist and at TimSackett.com. No rankings, just inclusion in the list and some notes on why. There are at least 20 well-branded HR Pros in the world. These are their stories.
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Let me introduce you to HR Pro Neil Morrison! I believe Neil is the lone non-U.S. resident on Glassdoor’s list of the Top 20 Branded HR and Talent Pros. I’m not sure what that says about the list or Neil, but just a fact when you pull the data we did from Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Writing and Speaking background and overall brand ambassador data, Neil showed up in a big way, all the way from the U.K.!
Neil is the Group HR Director for Penguin Random House in the U.K. For the U.S. audience that is equivalent to a SVP of HR in America. So, we have this big HR executive who has found the time to brand himself, and also understand the importance to his career, his profession and his organization.
I know Neil as a fellow Talent Advisor on CareerBuilder’s Hiring Site, where we have both been writing and speaking on live web chats for the better part of a year. Neil has a great English accent, so I kid him on the chats about how everything he says sounds more brilliant, to my ear, than it probably really is! He knows I’m kidding, because what he says is always brilliant!
Here’s Neil’s player card:
On the writing side of the fence Neil is the Kris Dunn and Laurie Ruettimann equivalent of HR blogging in the U.K., dare I say Mr. Punk Rock HR! He was one of the first, if not the first, HR bloggers to grab ahold of the U.K. audience with his smart, witty writing style, and he’s not afraid to tell it like it is. His blog is called Change-Effect.com where he writes about HR, Talent and Leadership weekly.
As a speaker Neil is active in CIPD (U.K. SHRM type organization) and speaks often to HR professionals all over the world. He is a true international brand advocate for his organization and CIPD. Neil has won several awards including the UK’s Most Influential HR Practitioner. Neil also has the most professional LinkedIn profile pic of any of the Glassdoor Top 20 Branded HR and Talent Pros!
He is all over the Twitters – @NeilMorrison with over 9,000 followers and 20,000 tweets, sharing his international HR perspective. The one thing I know about Neil, which is unique to someone at his executive HR level, is that he makes time for those who seek his help. Neil is a great mentor in HR to so many pros, and truly makes time to give back to the HR community.
What doesn’t Neil do well? He hates Instagram! He’s an amatuer photographer. So, Instagram is not something he enjoys to partake. Which helps to point out, to be well branded you don’t have to do everything, but you do have to do something really, really well!
Congratulations Neil!
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The Top 20 Branded HR Pros is brought to you by Glassdoor, who invites you to attend the Annual Glassdoor Employer Branding Summit on September 25th, where a stellar speaker lineup of industry experts and thought leaders exploring the intersection of employer branding and talent acquisition, the candidate experience and employee engagement.
Tickets are sold out, but wait! You can attend the livestream online featuring studio coverage with Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett by registering here (click to register). Fun and games are sure to be a part of that coverage.
THE TOP 20 BRANDED HR & TALENT PROS: Meet Steve Browne of LaRosa’s Inc.
Let’s face it – Fearful of the spotlight and conservative to a fault, HR pros generally aren’t the best examples to look towards when it comes to professional branding. Kris Dunn (Kinetix RPO, The HR Capitalist) and Tim Sackett (HRU Technical Resources, TimSackett.com) think that needs to change. That’s why they created this series – The Top 20 Branded HR Pros(sponsored by the team at Glassdoor).
KD and Tim searched the globe for HR Pros who used the tools at their disposal (writing, speaking, social and more) to brand themselves in the HR space, but limited the results to actual practitioners in the areas of HR, Recruiting and Talent Management. No consultants, no vendors. They found out well-branded HR pros who are actual practitioners are hard to find.
Tim and KD are running the Top 20 they found here on the HR Capitalist and at TimSackett.com. No rankings, just inclusion in the list and some notes on why. There are at least 20 well-branded HR Pros in the world. These are their stories.
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I can’t remember the exact time and place I met Steve Browne in person but I think it was at the Ohio State SHRM Conference. Steve stands about a foot taller than me, so I saw him way before he saw me! What instantly struck me about Steve is he has an infectious personality and energy that people are drawn to in a very good way.
Steve Browne is the Executive Director of HR for LaRosa’s Inc. out of Cincinnati, OH. LaRosa’s is a restaurant chain with about 1500 employees and Steve is responsible for running their HR team. If you have ever worked in HR in the restaurant and/or retail industry you know Steve is knee deep in the trenches of real HR work on a daily basis! This makes his ability to brand himself and his organization so remarkable.
Here is Steve’s playing card:
Steve is also super involved with his volunteer work at the local, state and national level with SHRM. Steve has been on various boards for SHRM in the past, but he also is currently running for SHRM’s Executive Board, which is a very high honor! Steve also is a frequent speaker on the SHRM circuit, statewide and nationally.
On the writing side of the business Steve is part of CareerBuilder’s Talent Advisors, where he gets to share his real-life HR strategies with a huge audience. Steve also is hugely creative with a weekly HR inspired song he sends out to a growing following. Each week Steve takes a popular song and changes the lyrics to be HR and Talent inspired! He’s been doing this for years, and it’s awesome to see this creativity coming from an HR guy!
Twitter was built for people like Steve. Over 35,000 tweets and going! Steve has a huge twitter following where he gets to share all of the latest and greatest HR and Talent content with his followers. Steve has never met a tweet he didn’t like! Instagram on the other hand might be more of a challenge, but you can’t count Steve out of conquering this medium as well.
He’s an HR’s Pro, Pro. In the dictionary next to HR Pro there should be a picture of Steve Browne! As good of an HR guy, he might be a better person. Active in Scouting (his son just received his Eagle Scout rank) and always willing to help whomever might need it. Make sure you connect with Steve, you’ll be better for it! I’m super excited Glassdoor choose to recognize Steve for his professional efforts. Congratulations Steve!
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The Top 20 Branded HR Pros is brought to you by Glassdoor, who invites you to attend the Annual Glassdoor Employer Branding Summit on September 25th, where a stellar speaker lineup of industry experts and thought leaders exploring the intersection of employer branding and talent acquisition, the candidate experience and employee engagement.
Tickets are sold out, but wait! You can attend the livestream online featuring studio coverage with Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett by registering here (click to register). Fun and games are sure to be a part of that coverage.
SHRM National Speaker Feedback!
Got my/our SHRM National Speaker Evaluation back last week. It’s always fun to get and look at the comments and how you rated as compared the average. Kris Dunn and I co-presented at SHRM this year. The session was titled: We’re Bringing Techy Back, and it focused on how to buy HR technology.
Here were are ratings, based on 152 responses:
| Item Rated | Our Average Rating | All Session Average Ratings |
| Quality of Information | 4.41 | 4.27 |
| Presenters | 4.58 | 4.32 |
| Too Basic | 16 | 14 |
| About Right | 78 | 82 |
| Too Advanced | 1 | 1 |
| Didn’t notice | 4 | 4 |
| Did They Sell – Yes | 2 | 5 |
| No | 98 | 95 |
All that is cool. Pretty good ratings. KD and I were happy with the presentation. Great turnout and high participation.
The great part of the SHRM Presentation evaluation are the Real comments that people leave you.
We got a lot like this (95%):
– “Love these guys! Fresh, from the heart, solid content. Fun.”
– “HR Pros need to have this presentation.”
– “Most informative session I’ve attended. Best presentation so far!”
– “Best session I’ve been to in years! Tons of practical advice. Very engaging!”
We got a few like this (1%):
– “Offensive towards vendors and sales people.”
– “The corny jokes at the beginning could be done without. Humility is a good thing.”
– “Very disappointed – a topic of great interest and the deliver ruined the presentation.”
We got some that made us laugh!
– “Kris interrupts Tim a lot.” (thanks, to my one fan!)
– “Found that the tech session has paper evaluation forms!” (well…)
– “The guys attempt at being funny affected credibility.” (You’re telling us!)
One of the biggest takeaways was a lot of comments about what people were hoping we would have done more of, namely, tell them exactly what vendor to use, for certain situations. It’s the “what ATS should I buy?” dilemma. Kris and I addressed this because we knew this would be stuff people would want. The problem is, a great technology for one organization, might be the exact wrong technology for another organization.
With such a diverse crowd at SHRM, it is almost impossible to recommend one HR and Talent vendor over another, if we are being honest about what is the best choice for your organization specifically.
This does bring up a great issue, though, across all the SHRM attendees.
People commented on this because they truly want an unbiased and trustworthy opinion on who they should be looking at, and what they should be buying. They don’t trust vendors, for the obvious reason the vendor is trying to sell you. They don’t trust industry analysts because they are all in bed with someone. They don’t want to pay for consultants.
The HR and Talent industry doesn’t have a Consumer’s Report or Trip Advisor to give HR Pros unbiased advice. So, they look at people, like Kris and I, as someone who will tell them the truth. Which we would, and did, for many who stayed after and we had one on one conversations with about their specific issue.
I think SHRM could fill this void with some kind of behind the member wall “Trip Advisor” like site that allows all of us to give our own feedback on all HR and Talent technology. This community share would be invaluable for all of us trying to make that next buying decision.
Get Your Employees to Stop Sleepwalking Through Open Enrollment
Hey gang! I’m doing another SHRM Webinar to help you get your employees more involved in this year’s Open Enrollment, and give you some of the background to what frustrates them the most, along with some tips on waking them up!
Do way too many of your employees default into exactly the same plan they chose the year before…just because it’s easier? Is their reluctance to even consider making changes to their benefits costing them — and your company — serious money?
If so, you’re going to love the advice I have to offer about waking up your benefits sleepwalkers in this lively one-hour webinar.
Specifically, you’ll learn:
- Why the same old, same old is so appealing to people, and how to make change seem less intimidating
- Smart ways to deal with the blowback you might get if you take away a plan option
- Why employees find making benefits decisions so dang hard – and how you can help alleviate their stress
- What you can do to jolt your benefits sleepwalking employees awake once and for all
In short: if you’ve ever struggled to get employees to embrace a new plan or to take any action at all during open enrollment, this is the webinar for you!
August 20th at 2pm EST – just in time for your afternoon nap on the East Coast, and your lunch nap on the West Coast!
Free Webinar (Sponsored by SHRM and ALEX) – How to Get Your Employees to Stop Sleepwalking Through Open Enrollment—And Help Them Make Better Decisions!
REGISTER HERE!
HR Never Wins the Dress Code Game
You probably saw this last week when the internet got all hot and bothered over a 17 year old girl who worked at JC Penny got sent home for a dress code violation. She tweeted out a picture of herself dressed in JC Penny bought ‘career’ apparel that she was wearing at the time (see pic above). The only place where I see this being dressed appropriate for work is probably Hooters, but you know me, I’m super ultra conservative right winged nut job, so what the hell do I know…
Many wanted were angry over what they saw as a double standard, although I’m not sure what that double standard is. I would have been more upset over a 17 year old boy wearing this outfit to work than the girl! I would have sent both home, so there goes your double standard.
The real issue here is that JC Penny labeled this outfit ‘career apparel” to the customers, but didn’t find it career appropriate for their own associate. If JC Penny is labeling this outfit on their shelves appropriate work wear, why is it inappropriate work wear for their own employees?
Well, I have some reasons:
1. It’s tight and revealing for the average customer of JC Penny. The average age of a JC Penny shopper is 103 years of age. The last thing an old person wants to see is a fourth of July wannabe stripper. That’s knowing your customer base. I’m sure if she was working at Hot Topic, she wouldn’t have been sent home.
2. There a difference between marketing and operations. Just because marketing is calling something ‘career appropriate’, doesn’t mean your HR and Operations folks will feel the same way. Welcome to the reality of working in a corporation. People aren’t always on the same page, and that is a bad thing.
3. 17 year olds have no ability to understand the broader picture of the corporate politics at play here. It’s too bad someone couldn’t have better coached this young lady on how to handle this situation to have a better impact for herself and fellow employees. Going nuclear wasn’t the best option for her.
4. HR never wins when it comes to dress code, because of these kinds of issues.
HR should give up the dress code policy whenever it’s an option and let your operations team own it. They know their customer base. They know their work environment. They know their employees. Let them build a dress code that works for them, and trust they’ll do what’s right for the organization. I’ve done this three times in my career, and all three times it worked out wonderfully, and I didn’t ever have to deal with dress code ever again!
5 Great Excuses To Miss a Co-workers Wedding
I had one of my Recruiters ask for some advice this week. It wasn’t work advice, it was a little more personal. She had told a person she would attend a wedding of a family member with them, but was having second thoughts. It was one of those Holy Crap moments! I don’t really like this person that much, and I don’t want to go to a family wedding with him and send the wrong message.
So, what was my advice? It started out pretty straight. Tell them the truth! “Look dude, I’m just not that into you, and the last place on earth I want to be on Saturday evening is sitting at a table with your parents and Aunt Betty with them thinking “ours” is next!”
As you can imagine, that wasn’t going to do. Not that she didn’t want to tell him the truth, but she also didn’t want to hurt him. She was looking for a softer way to cut him loose. You know! A how-do-I-get-him-to-not-want-me-to-go excuse – like he can’t stand my breathe or I have hammer toes, or something!?
Now, she was truly diving into my end of the pool! You want a “Fake Reason” why you can’t go! YES! I’m in HR. I’m in Recruiting. I’m the king of fake excuses of why people don’t get the job! I’m on it!
So, here’s the first 3 I gave her:
- You haveVD! (Ok, I know this is strong right out of the gate – but let’s face the facts – most dudes will run from this! Funny Fact: She is a millennial and had no idea what “VD” was! I’m old! Using WWII references like it was cool 2015 slang!)
- Your Dog has Cancer!(Sketchy I know, but girls and their pets…this one might work. Funny Fact: Her dog actually did have Eye Cancer, but was cured, so not technically lying…)
- You have to Babysit for a Co-worker!(Now this one is fraught with problem – guys have gotten this one before and they might pull a. “Oh, I’ll come and help!” then you’re stuck and have to find some brat to babysit for the night. Funny Fact: She was like “Oh, hell No! I have a Real Job, why would I babysit!”)
All of this brainstorming got me thinking of how I’ve personally gotten out of going to Co-workers Weddings that I didn’t want to go to. Here are my Top 5 Excuses to Miss a Co-worker’s Wedding:
- I’ll be on Vacation! This is good because you usually find out about the wedding of a co-worker way ahead of time. All you have to do is actually plan for this and take your vacation during the weekend of the wedding. Far, far away from the actual wedding.
- My kid has a sports tournament out of town that weekend. A little sketchy, but it is really hard for them to verify you really didn’t have a sports tournament, and let’s face it, I’m going to my kids sports game (the 127th of this year) vs. your once in a lifetime moment.
- I came down with the “Flu”!This one nobody believes, but it’s the go-to excuse because everyone uses it and it has been internationally certified as an acceptable lie to get out of anything.
- My Mom/Dad/Grandma/Grandpa/Great Aunt Betty/etc. fell and are at the hospital. I needed to go see them. They needed my help. It was serious. Let’s face old people fall. In fact, it might be the only thing they have left to do. You hear about old people falling everyday. Very usable excuse in a pinch because it’s somewhat believable and old people don’t remember later on when someone asks “How are you doing after your fall?”, and they’ll go “better” and then complain about their aches and pains.
- I’ve got another Wedding that same day! Again, believable, but what you’re really saying to the person is “I’ve ranked you lower than someone else in my life. I hope you understand, but I didn’t buy you a place setting off your registry!”
What is your top excuse for not going to a co-worker’s wedding?
It’s Always Someone’s First Time
Sometimes I forget that many other HR and Talent pros aren’t as geeky about the profession as I am. I like to break down the profession of HR on the following scale:
1. The 1%ers. These are the people who really get HR and Talent. They are the ones who actually decide what the future of the profession will look like, because they are smarter than all of us. I am not one of these folks. I love to hang out with these folks, and I’m happy to call some of them friends, but I’m sure I annoy them with my questions and trivial insights.
2. The First Ten. The top ten percent of our profession. Most of these are folks are the people you see running big HR shops, HR thought leaders, pundits in the space. Smart folks to be sure, but also folks are involved beyond just doing the job of HR. They are the foot soldiers of the one percenters. They carry the message. I like to think I’m here most days.
3. The Masses. These are the good men and mostly women who do the work of HR and Talent Acquisition on a daily basis. These are SHRM members, who might go to a national conference, state conference and definitely attend local meetings every once in a while. They are in the trenches every day, fighting the good fight, trying to make organizations better through great people practices. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
4. The Why We Hate HR pros. These the bottom ten percent folks. These are the HR and Talent pros that make the organization hate HR. They use their power in HR for bad, not good. They take out their crappy, meaningless lives on unsuspecting employees. These folks should be hung publicly. They work to bring down the entire function of HR as a whole, but think they actually do good HR work.
I try to remember this scale when I talk to HR and Talent pros around the world. Most just want to do better, and most are seeing problems and issues for the first time. It’s not that they “don’t get it”, they have never seen it. It’s there first time.
Someone might be very experienced in HR and Talent, but seeing something for the first time, or have made the decision to try something they have never tried. As a first ten it’s my role, I believe, in the industry to help those folks in any way I can to get better. That helps the entire profession to get better.
So, what does this all mean?
I want to encourage HR and Talent pros to reach out. If I can’t help you, I’ve got great friends who can. The community will help you get better, if you really want to move your organization forward. We love success stories!
At one point in time we were all first timers doing this HR and Talent thing. We either learned through trial and error, or through someone helping us that had already experienced what we were trying to do. The cool part about the community I hang out with, is we all remember our first time, and want to help you with yours.
T3 – @RocketLawyer
This week on T3 I take a look at legal benefit provider Rocket Lawyer. Rocket Lawyer allows your employees to manage, virtually, all of your legal needs online. Employees can create legal documents and legal forms instantly with safe & secure storage, e-signatures and lawyer review.
This is one of many fringe benefit options that an employer can pick up for their employees, like pet insurance, dry cleaning, free lunch, etc. Some employees will find this service invaluable, and some will never find a use for it. What I know is HR pros get way to many inquiries from our employees for legal advice and help!
While my employees might like a free lunch, the HR person in me really would like them to have another outlet for legal advice and services!
The one issue that I see happening constantly, and it’s only going to get worse based on demographics, is employees having to care for aging parents. Rocket Lawyer can help your employees set up power of attorney, ask real lawyers in their state and area about their legal rights and advice in regards to dealing with their parents estates, etc. This is one issue I just continue to hear from more and more employees on, where they need real legal advice, not my ‘legal’ HR advice!
Rocket Lawyer is not an EAP. It’s a full blown legal technology that allows employees to take care of a ton of legal documentation on their own for no additional fees. Handle landlord and rental contracts, Immigration and Visa issues, Pre-nuptial agreements, set up a will, etc. It’s self serve legal services, online, for a few dollars per month, per employee.
The other piece I like about Rocket Lawyer is that as an organization and HR the service is totally separate and confidential. This takes the burden off you and your organization in dealing with your employees legal issues, but at the same time you are giving the professional support to help them take care of their business.
I was impressed. Great, easy to use interface. Simple to set up documents online. The service could easily save your employees thousands of dollars in basic legal fees. Check them out, and get a demo. Could be a great add to this years open enrollment plan!
T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market. None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion. There are so many really cool things going on in the space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find. If you want to be on T3 – send me a note.