Nothin’ Human About These Resources

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Tim Sackett

********GUEST POST ALERT***********

The post is brought to you by John Whitaker from People Results. John calls himself the Texas “Me” – which I’m not sure I would ever admit to, but at least he has enough sales sense to flatter me for a guest post – plus I like his writing style! Check him out – he’s good people.

Occupational hazards come in all forms … Cops get shot, waiters get stiffed and dentists smell breath that would gag a dog. In human resources, the hazard is learning to hate people. Ironic, yes?

HR Senior Execs are toadies to the “real” leaders of the organization … Generalists are often witness to the most base of human behavior. Specialists in compensation or benefits are collecting hollow-points in the chamber, waiting for one more person to complain about their pay, their coverage, their co-pay, or their 401K compared to what “other” companies offer.

All HR people bear witness to the double standards and favoritism that somehow benefit the worst people. Seriously, do you know how annoying and despicable we are as a species?

Yup, by and large HR folks are a pretty acrimonious bunch. None of these, however, hold a candle to the most jaded of all HR professionals … the Internal Recruiter [Generalus nofriender].

Experience in staffing is invaluable as you move up the HR food chain, but I suggest you begin to encounter diminishing returns after Year Two. Why is this?

Think about it from the perspective of the recruiter:

Volume – after you’ve looked at 10,000 resumes, had phone interviews with 1,000 job seekers and had your head ripped off by 100 hiring managers, you cultivate a certain level of pure exasperation for idiots.
Too much inside knowledge – You know what really ticks off the average recruiter? Getting exposure to the offers that other people get when they walk in the door. Even worse, seeing the ridiculous “add-on’s” that candidates (or current employees) demand before assuming a new role – especially when they get the stupid requests.
Second-fiddle syndrome – During the initial interview & selection process, the recruiter is the critical person for a candidate. BFF, sounding board, coach, advisor ~ then they get hired and pfffffft. Count on it, once they get the job, the recruiter is a toot in the breeze.
The bad hire – If a newbie flames out, it’s the recruiter’s fault. If the newbie goes on to be CEO, nobody cares or remembers who brought them into the company.
“Real” HR – Even within their own kind, Recruiters are the whipping post. They don’t do “real” HR work and the internet has reduced a lot of their job to a screen & sort position. Whenever the topic of outsourcing comes up, you can be sure that Staffing is in the crosshairs as a first cut.
Career vacuum – Stick around too long in the recruiter role & you’ll be given the career kiss of death, the dreaded “Senior Recruiter” title. You now have zero transferable skills internally and you’ve priced yourself too high for an HR “rotation” assignment. Either suck it up or get your own resume ready, ‘cuz your fate is sealed.

A decidedly grim view, I know, but I speak the truth because I care.

So, what do you do about it?

Top three things to do immediately and often:

1. Make it known that your five-year plan does not include being a phone-jockey for job applicants.

2. Gain the gracious support of your internal clients:

a. Offer perspective and insight they don’t normally get from their recruiter.

b. Challenge them on the ranking and selection of candidates.

c. Remind them of the cost-avoidance (a great ROI in theory, but they may not give a rip) you offer them by providing a service an external recruiter would charge thousands of dollars to do.

3. Push those in charge to let you “shadow” or participate in any number of different functions.

And for Pete’s sake, do it before you get promoted to Senior Recruiter.

Recession Fallout in HR

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Tim Sackett

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!

#15 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Tim Sackett

For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

This week’s Rap Lyric comes from Eminem protege Curtis James Jackson III, or as he’s more popularly known – 50 Cent (or do you write that as $.50) off his 2005 album The Massacre. 50 Cent became the first artist in Billboard history to have 3 Singles in the Top 5 at one time with this album – but not one of those 3 gave us this weeks Lyric! From his song – In My Hood, here is the Lyric:

“Now you can be a victim, or you can lock and load.”

The concept of “being a victim” has shaped my leadership perspective in an enormous way. If you haven’t got a chance to read the book “The Oz Principle” you need to – it’s a heavy read – but I ensure you will not be a victim ever again, in business, after reading it!

So what does “being a victim” mean in business?

Being stuck in the “victim cycle” or “being a victim” really means you’re stuck in the blame game. “I’m not successful because my boss doesn’t allow me to me.” “I can’t finish the project because I don’t have enough resources.” “I can’t do my work because other people don’t do their work.” Etc. To rise above this victim cycle means to take control of your destiny – you see it, you own it, you solve it, you do it. No excuses, no blame, no finger-pointing.

In HR it’s so easy on a daily basis to be a “victim”. “Well, we don’t control that decision” or “They won’t give us the budget to do it the “right” way.” We are given so many outs each and every day – to make it not be our fault. But our organizations and our employees need for us to set an example that is different. One that says – “It doesn’t matter – we’ll make it work anyway” or “I’ve got your back, we can do this!” It’s not easy and I’m the first to admit I can’t do it every day, every time – but I sure try.

I surround myself with non-victims – it’s who I want on my team. I don’t want to here – “I can’t” – I want to hear “I can”. You can do anything in business when you have people who all support each other, want the best for each other and have a belief that no matter what – we’ll get it done. That’s my team.

5 Things That Demonstrate You’re Not Getting Paid Enough

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Tim Sackett

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.

#16 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on April 13, 2012 by Tim Sackett

For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #16 Rap Lyric That Shaped my Leadership Style comes from Coolio off the 1995 Dangerous Minds soundtrack, from his song Gangsta’s Paradise. This might be the one song every 40 year old white guy can still sing word-for-word at the local Holiday Inn bar karaoke night – but that still doesn’t take away how great of a song this is. Ranked #38 in VH1’s 100 all time Hip Hop songs, it was by far Coolio’s biggest hit. They Lyric:

“They say I need to learn, but nobody’s here to teach me. If they don’t understand, how can they reach me?”

I guess they can’t; I guess they won’t. I guess they front. That’s why I know my life is outta luck – Fool! (see 42 – still got it!)

I’ll give you some extra time with this one, because I know you all had to listen to the full version – besides Eminem’s Lose Yourself – is there a better song associated with a movie? You know a song is good when it’s better than the movie!

This lyric reminds of how we onboard in our organizations. In HR, this is something I think we can always get better at, and we tend to just try and process this down so that onboarding takes as little time as possible. When in truth – onboarding should be an ongoing process that takes weeks or months, and HR ensures the great talent we bring into our organizations actually gets everything – I mean EVERYTHING – they need to be successful. We owe it to them – and to often we throw them a set of keys, a laptop and a phone and say “Go!”

Somehow we feel like – “hey, we’re paying you a salary – you should know what to do”, but they don’t – we need to teach them. Raw talent doesn’t mean you’ll be successful in our unique organizational dynamics and culture. I’ve seen way to much great talent leave organizations – where the organization feels like the person was a failure – even though they came in as a Rock Star, and they go on to their next position and they are a Rock Star. You didn’t reach them – in fact, you probably didn’t even put in the effort to reach them.

Remember – we don’t hire idiot, worthless people. Every person we hire – comes in with the highest expectations. They have good experience, good energy, good background – we ensured that. If they fail – it’s on us – not them (mostly).

Recruiting is Worthless

Posted on April 11, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Paul DeBettignies recently had an article over at ERE – Where Have All the Recruiters Gone – which gave me the idea for this post. In Paul’s post he wonders why recruiters are networking face-to-face anymore. I think many of us in the recruiting field who have been in the field pre-internet, probably wonder this and many more things as we look at how the industry has totally transformed over the past 20 years. A person today can get into recruiting, sit at a desk, have great internet skills, marginal phone skills and make a decent living. They probably won’t be a great recruiter – they probably won’t make great money – but they’ll survive – they’ll be average or slightly above. It’s why the recruiting function in most organizations gets a bad rap! In corporate circles I’ve heard it called “worthless” many times – and for some this is their reality.

Recruiting is Worthless, if…

…you’re a hiring manager and you never have face-to-face conversations with your recruiter when you have an opening, and when you don’t have an opening.

…you’re recruiters believe it isn’t there job to find talent, talent will find them.

…your organization believes it’s the recruiting departments job to find talent. It’s not, it’s the hiring managers job to ensure they have the talent they need for their department, recruiting is the tool that will help them. This “ownership responsibility” is very important for organizational success in ensuring you have the talent you need.

…your recruiting department acts like they are HR – they aren’t – they are sales and marketing. Too many Recruiters, in corporate settings, don’t want to recruit, they want to be HR – which makes them worthless as recruiters.

…if your recruiters have more incoming calls then outgoing calls.

…if your recruiters believe their job begins Monday thru Friday at 8am and ends at 5pm. The best talent is working during those times and most likely won’t talk to you while they are at work. That’s not a slam on you or your company – they are great employees, it’s what we expect from a great employee.

…your senior leadership team feels they have to use an “executive search” company to fill their higher level openings, because our recruiting department “can’t handle it”.

…if they are victims – “it’s not my job”, “we can’t do that because…”, “marketing won’t allow us to do…”, “our policy won’t allow us…” etc.

…if they just send hiring managers resumes of candidates that have come to them, without first determining if the person is a fit for the organization and a fit for the hiring managers position – before sending them on.

…they haven’t developed the organizational influence enough to change a hiring managers, hiring decision.

Recruiting is worthless if in the end they have failed to show the value of their service back to the organization.

Recruiting is the one department in the organization, besides sales, that truly has the ability to show ROI back to the organization, yet so few of us take advantage of the opportunity we have! There is nothing more important, and have a bigger competitive advantage, than our organizations talent – and oh by the way – THAT IS US! We control that. Recruiting isn’t worthless, unless you make it worthless.

Make HR Suck Less

Posted on March 28, 2012 by Tim Sackett

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!

#19 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Tim Sackett

For the background of this list – see my original post from 2-10-12.

The #19 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style comes from Ice T’s song New Jack Hustler from the New Jack City movie soundtrack – classic early 90’s movie by the way, with a great part played by an up-and-coming comedian Chris Rock as Pookie. (Editorial comment – isn’t this entire thing an editorial comment? – If you haven’t checked out Ice Loves Coco on E on Sunday nights – you’re missing the best TV ever! To go from Gagnsta Rapper to Law & Order actor to Ice Loves Coco is a trip beyond imagination!) Ok, here’s the lyric:

“I had nothing and I wanted it; you had everything and you flaunted it…”

I think you can break down most people into two groups: the haves and the have nots. I tend to live my life like a “have not” – which means I push to become a “have”. How does this shape my leadership style? I’m rarely satisfied. I always think I can do better, or do more. The “haves” in the world tend to sit back and become soft – they don’t push as hard any more, they don’t work as hard anymore – they have it. The “have nots” are the exact opposite.

Many that know me would probably say – well, wait a minute – you’re a “have” – great job, great family, etc. – who are you kidding – you’re a “have”! But that’s the real difference – I don’t consider myself a “have” – and I don’t act like a “have” – from a leadership standpoint that means I don’t allow my team to act like “haves”. I’ll blame my mother for this – as Prince said “She’s never satisfied” and neither am I. This can be a difficult leadership trait to have – most people don’t like working for someone who isn’t satisfied easy. Knowing this I work extra hard to surround myself with high potential folks who score off the chart on Results Orientation. I want people on my team – who want it more than I want it! We go to work – every day – we bring it.

I love coming to work for that simple fact – these folks – my team – bring it! They work like they have nothing – and they want it!

It’s Back! FOT’s Top 25 HR/Recruiting Blogs!

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Tim Sackett

Fistful of Talent – which I’m proud to be a member of – is releasing it’s Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs. What’s really cool about this list – unlike some other lists I have poetically mentioned in prior posts – is this isn’t made up by some random analysis, of random metrics – this thing is totally un-apologetically 100% subjective! That’s right, we (the FOT Tribe) sent in our own Top 25 HR and Recruiting Blogs that we love to read -the blogs we are fans of – and we ranked them 1 to 25. Simple – yet very effective!

I’m not saying that it’s easy to pick the Top 25 – for starters no FOTer blog can be a part of our list – which right there eliminates probably the 10 greatest blogs on the planet! So, I might have to recommend to Kris that next year we call the list – The Top 11-35 HR and Recruiting Blogs! That being said we looked at hundreds of blogs – many of us have our personal favorites – many of us really like and read blogs that our out of the HR world – as our personal favorites. What I can tell you – is the Top 25 – are solid! If you are looking for a list of HR and Recruiting blogs to follow – you won’t go wrong with any of these!

FOT’s own Steve Boese will be doing his thing tonight at the HR Happy Hour – unveiling the winners and talking HR with some of the top HR bloggers in the business – go check him out –

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/steve-boese/2012/03/23/hr-happy-hour-141–the-hr-blog-power-rankings

HR Happy Hour Episode 141 – ‘The HR Blog Power Rankings’

Losing Your Job – Tebow Style!

Posted on March 21, 2012 by Tim Sackett

By now most of the free world knows that Peyton Manning accepted the quarterback position with the Denver Broncos who already had a quarterback in Tim Tebow. Ouch.To be honest it was really the only way that the Denver Broncos were going to get out of this Tebow mess. I like the kid, but he isn’t one of the better NFL quarterbacks, and he certainly wasn’t going to take them to the Super Bowl. Now they have a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback in Manning – who, if he fails, will have at least accomplished one thing for the Broncos – he got rid of Tebow without the fans losing their minds! Tebow is a fan favorite, which is like saying, fat kids slightly like cake – Bronco fans, heck, NFL fans in general, lost their minds about Tebow run last season. Getting rid of him wasn’t an option for the organization – until something so good came along it made everyone forget how much they loved Tebow.

You see great Talent has a way of doing that – making you forget about your favorites. Do you have a Tebow in your organization? I bet you do – and you know if you tried to get rid of them, your employees would lose their minds, culturally it would be bad, productively it would be bad, moral-wise it would be bad. So, you don’t do it – even if the person really isn’t holding up their end of the bargain any longer.

So, what do you do?

You do what Elway did with the Broncos – you bring in better talent and cut bait with your employee favorite! You have to do this. You have no choice. To keep an under-performing employee, just because everyone likes that person – is HR death! But, what do you do if the person is an average employee and well liked, but you get a chance to bring in superior talent? You do the same thing – but you you have to very careful on how you make that transition. Unfortunately, the talent that you and I bring into our organizations usually isn’t as highly publicized as a Peyton Manning! So, we, as HR/Talent Pros, have to do some of our own internal PR work on the new talent.

What does internal PR on a new hire look like? It starts with getting your leadership team all on the same page – they need to be excited and 100% supportive of the new person. Then focus on the new person’s direct team/department. They don’t have to be excited – remember they just lost someone they love – but they have to be supportive. The best way to do this is through a structured transition meeting – where they get to learn about the new person, but also voice their pain of their loss – it’s good for both parties to be on the same page. The final step is to get of the news release to the rest of the organization if all the high points of the new talent. Be careful not to do this first, because people will instantly run to the new group and ask about it. A transition meeting has to be done, so they a ready to respond and be supportive of the new person. To often in our organizations we rush to “tell everyone” before the person starts, or soon after, it’s more important to wait on this communication and get those closest up to speed first.

No one ever wants to let go of an organizational favorite – but in HR it’s our job to increase the talent of our organizations – sometimes that means making an unpopular decision. The best HR Pros find ways to move the organization forward quickly and while be supportive.

The Tim Sackett Project

TA & HR Expert, Dad, Backup Point Guard on my over 40 men's team

Category Archives: Staffing

#15 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

“Now you can be a victim, or you can lock and load.”

5 Things That Demonstrate You’re Not Getting Paid Enough

#16 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

“They say I need to learn, but nobody’s here to teach me. If they don’t understand, how can they reach me?”

#19 Rap Lyric That Shaped My Leadership Style

“I had nothing and I wanted it; you had everything and you flaunted it…”