Category Archives: The HR Rules

Ridiculous Terminations

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Once in a while in HR we have to make ridiculous decisions to terminate an employee.   Maybe it’s a well liked, popular employee, an employee with long tenure close to retirement, an employee who did something supporting their beliefs but still wrong, etc.  Those kinds of decisions come in all shapes and sizes.

What about firing an employee who was abused by a spouse, and because the company feared the spouse might come to the placement of employment, HR terminated the employee to protect all the rest of the employees?

What do you think about that call HR friends?

I have had to fire some employees for reasons I did not support in the least, but I was directed by a senior executive to do it.  Period.  I had two choices – 1. Fire the employee, or 2. Lose my own job and someone else would fire the employee.  While those few and far times don’t sit well with any HR Pro, most of us are put in that type of situation at least a few times in our career.  Do I become a martyr and quit to show my support for this employee, or save myself?  I’ve always decided to save myself.  Family to feed, mortgage to pay – does it really matter the reasons – either way I’ve had to compromise my true beliefs and do something I didn’t believe in.

As Paul Smith says – “Welcome to the Occupation!” (Great HR blogger, BTW, Check him out)

So, what about our example above with your employee who is being abused and you fire her because you don’t want her crazy husband showing up at your office with a gun?! What did you decide?  Let this poor woman fend for herself, or are you going to help her and put all of your employees at risk?  I bet a fair amount of you are not going to fire her!! What if I told you she was an elementary school teacher and her place of employment was surrounding 400 children. Now what do you do?!?!

From Gawker and a real-life example from San Diego, CA:

Earlier this year, Carie Charlesworth and her four children were removed from Holy Trinity School after she gathered up the courage to disclosed her struggles with domestic violence to the school’s principal.  After what the second-grade teacher’s called “a very bad weekend with [her ex-husband],” the unidentified man arrived outside the school, prompting a lockdown.

She was subsequently put on “an indefinite leave,” and then formally terminated three months later.”

Of course the employer wouldn’t comment on publicly about personnel issues. (I love that HR statement!)

Want to know why women don’t come forward about domestic violence issues? It only takes a few examples like this.  This is one HR firing I don’t think I could have done – losing my job or not – I’m positive my wife and kids would have understood. I understand you need to protect all of those children – but you need to try some other things before throwing out an employee and 4 of those kids onto the street to fend for themselves.

The Myth of Being a Highly Selective Employer

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We all think it, don’t we?  We all want to believe in this notion that we only hire the best and brightest – we only hire quality.  We are ‘highly’ selective.

We’ll show our executives really cool data that shows how ‘highly’ selective we are.  Number of applicants per hire – 25,000 people applied for this position and we only took the best 1!

I read something interesting recently from Time magazine and college admissions at highly selective colleges – think Harvard, Yale, MIT, etc.  Schools that are super hard to get into because of how selective they are – much like your hiring process of your organization. From the Time’s article:

“What many parents and students don’t realize is that increasing numbers of applications isn’t necessarily a sign that it’s harder to get into a selective school; rather, it’s a sign of changes in behavior among high school seniors. More and more people who aren’t necessarily qualified are applying to top schools, inflating the application numbers while not seriously impacting admissions. In fact, it has arguably become easier to get into a selective school, though it may be harder to get into a particular selective school…

The most recent study available from the National Association for College Admission Counseling shows that between 2010 and 2011 (the most recent years available), the percentage of students applying to at least three colleges rose from 77% to 79% and the percentage of students applying to at least seven colleges rose from 25% to 29%. In 2000, only 67% of students applied to three or more colleges, while 12% applied to seven or more.

The net effect of this behavior is to create an illusion of increased selectivity. Especially at the most selective schools, an increase in applications generally leads to the acceptance of a smaller percentage of the students who apply. However, students who meet the academic and extracurricular thresholds to qualify for competitive schools will still get into a selective college; it’s just less likely that they’ll get into a specific competitive college. These schools work hard to not admit students who won’t attend;  the acceptance rate and the matriculation rate (the percentage of accepted students who attend) are key measures in many college ranking methodologies, so both admitting too many students and admitting students who don’t attend can hurt a college’s ranking.”

An illusion of increased selectivity…You see, just because you turn down a high number of candidates doesn’t make you more selective – it makes you popular.  Too many organizations, and HR departments, are marketing that they are highly selective based on some simple numbers that give an illusion of being highly selective, when in reality, they’re just good at processing a high number of applicants – but not really being ‘more’ selective.  Just because you turn down 24,999 candidates doesn’t make you selective – it just means you have a high number of applicants.

So what does make you selective?  Quality of hire – which I can argue is another very subjective metric in most organizations – but at least it’s a start.  Can you demonstrate with real measurable items that the applicants you’re hiring are better or getting better than those previously?  This creates a real evidence that you’re becoming ‘more’ selective and on your way to becoming ‘highly’ selective.

3 Giant Misnomers of HR Technology

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One of the big things that hits you right across the face when attending SHRM’s national conference is all the technology that is being peddled at the conference. Hundreds of companies are all there competing for your HR dollar on how they are going to make your HR life easier.  The problem is  – I don’t really get what of these companies really do!  There’s no real differentiation amongst any of them – and I actually follow the industry!   It seems like the current popular ones like Ultimate Software,  Silkroad  and Halogen can do everything!  I mean everything but actually ‘do’ HR! That’s the trick right?!  You get sold on the fact that ‘this’ software is going to change how you ‘do’ HR forever – but you still have to ‘do’ HR.  It will definitely change how you do HR – no doubt.

The problem is, of the thousands of HR Pros who are attending SHRM this week – 99.9% couldn’t tell you what one of these company does from the next.  They all claim to be able to solve an HR issue that ails you.  That’s one of the biggest issues I see with most of the all-in-one suites – if you have one problem – let’s say it’s succession – you really have to convert everything over to their entire platform – because they have workflow that integrated.  That isn’t a bad thing – but put on your work boots – because you’re about to take on a gigantic project and change your entire way of doing HR – to solve that one problem you were facing!

The 3 Giant Misnomers of HR Technology:

1. HR Technology Makes HR Easier. HR Technology doesn’t make HR ‘easier’.  It makes HR faster.  The technology allows you to do things at a higher rate, gives you more capacity – but not easier.

2. HR Technology Will Make You Better at HR.  Again – it’s a piece of software.  If you’re a crappy HR Pro – You’ll now be a crappy HR Pro with an expensive piece of technology!  Way too many company executives fall into this trap.  We’re bad at HR – let’s go spend a boat load of money on technology and then we’ll be good at HR! No you won’t.

3. HR Technology Will Save You Money. The one thing you’ll find when looking into purchasing HR technology is that tech sales pros are exceptional at delivering to you a ROI model so it seems like HR all of a sudden went from cost-center to profit-center over night!  It won’t.  Good HR Tech costs money. Implementation, upkeep, training, etc.  The savings are ‘soft’ dollars and hard to sell to a finance person who gets reality.

Sounds like a I hate HR Tech, doesn’t it?!  I don’t – I love it!

I just see the blank stares and confusion on the face of my fellow HR pros when the walk the expo floor.  Do you need HR Technology to be good at HR?  Yes.  Competency in HR Technology is probably one key ingredient to being a ‘great’ HR Pro – that so very few of us actually have!  How do you get it?  Free Demos baby!  All of these companies give free demos – use them!  Teach yourself.  Make a friend in IT and ask questions when you don’t get it.  If you went through one demo per month on a piece of HR Technology, you would be amazed at how much you would actually learn about HR, your own HR shop and things you can do to improve yourself and your organization!

Live at SHRM 2013 – Don’t Rob My House

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Hey, I’m live today at the national SHRM 2013 conference in Chicago – please don’t rob my house while I’m gone!

This hit me this morning as I woke up in Chicago and thinking about the 15,000 plus participants here at SHRM with me, who’s watching their stuff while they’re out!?  Do you think there is a business opportunity here? House sitting for SHRM could be big business – for watchers or robbers! 😉

Here’s what I’m doing today –

– Meeting with Glassdoor and ADP – two companies that I think most people don’t really understand what they actually do now, compared to what we think they do.  (Check out Fistful for live interviews!)

– Live at The Hive at 2:30pm with the entire Fistful of Talent crew.

– Pimping the Expo floor to see what is new and innovative for HR and Recruiting.

– Hugs.

– DJ Jazzy Jeff cocktail party at the house of blues.

Initial perception – most companies are trying to be everything for everyone in HR.  We do talent management, we do payroll, we do succession, we do all HR all the time.  The problem is – they don’t.  Sure the software systems are probably much better than what you have currently – but it’s still a piece of software.  HR is ‘done’ by technology it’s done by people having conversations with other people, and solving problems.  The tech helps you do all of that faster – but you still have to do the heavy lifting and difficult conversations.

Don’t think you have to have the next big fancy thing to do great HR – you don’t.  If you have money and work in an environment that needs to move fast – there is some great systems available.  If you don’t have money – don’t use a tech excuse of they you can’t do great HR! The SHRM Expo has so many great things for HR and Talent Pros to buy, but all of them are nice to haves, not must haves.

One last thing – apparently at SHRM I’m a blogger – I’m not press. I’m cool with that, I don’t want to be considered press – to me ‘press’ is real writing – my writing is more graffiti than real writing.  But (there’s always a but!) – if you want me to ‘interview’ and meet with your vendors get the ‘press room Nazi’ off my back when I want to do that in quiet in the press room!  I was actually told today “You’re not press! You have to do that in the bloggers lounge!”, in front of the executive I was bringing in to interview!  Nothing like traditional SHRM making you feel like a second class citizen!

FOT and Me at SHRM National 2013

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I only have one goal when I attend the annual SHRM National Conference:  Make Friends!

Yep – I want to meet HR Pros from all over the world and connect.  I’ll be in Chicago this year from Saturday (leading a panel at the SHRM National Student conference Saturday afternoon) thru Tuesday.

Monday June 17th will be the big Fistful of Talent event – at 2:30pm at The Hive – which is SHRM’s social media breakout area.  The FOT crew will be presenting “The 3 Best Things You’ll Bring Back from SHRM – FOT’s Gift to HR Pros” – in typical FOT fashion the gang will be giving you low-cost/no cost ideas that you can take back to your HR shop and put into immediate use.  They’ll be out of the box – they’ll be fresh – they’ll be entertaining.  Come see the Fistful team, and yes I’ll be giving out hugs!

What’s the best time to connect with me? 

Sunday afternoon and evening.  Monday any time except at 2:30pm – which I’ll see you at The Hive!

What’s the best way to ensure you get time with me?

I like Diet Mt. Dew.  I go on long searches to find Diet Mt. Dew through giant conference halls all over the world.  I’ll come visit your booth if you have Diet Mt. Dew.  (I also like Sprinkles Cupcakes, long walks on the beach, Gin and Tonic with a lime, Nike gear and sweet potato fries)

How can you find me?

@TimSackett on the Twitters.  Sackett.tim@hru-tech.com on the emails.

What’s going to happen when we meet?

A hug. If you having hugging issues we can shake hands and when you leave I’ll hug you then.

See you in Chicago!

 

 

2013 – Smoking In the Office

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I’ve decided I’m going to start allowing my employees to smoke in the office.  Maybe it’s watching too many episodes of Madmen, or maybe it’s just some psychological phenomenon about growing up with parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. who all smoked that I weirdly like  hanging out with smokers – but I don’t smoke.  Don’t get me wrong – I’m not allowing traditional lighting up – this is 2013 – we’re going Electronic!  E-Cigarettes are all the rage and I can’t think of a better way to cure my mental cravings about hanging out at smoke breaks than to just allow my staff to start lighting up – alright I don’t know if you call it lighting up maybe it’s powering up those E-Cigs and getting their E-Smoke on!

E-Cigarettes are coming big business because of the assumption they’re safer. From BusinessWeek:

“The electronic cigarette is about to have its turn in the spotlight. The battery-powered gadgets transform nicotine and other substances into an inhaled vapor and have been marketed as a safer alternative to tobacco smoke, which is drawn into the lungs and increases cancer risks. The rapidly growing e-cigarette business—expected to top $1 billion in annual sales in the next few years—is racing to command a bigger share of spending among smokers and potential smokers ahead of possible regulations from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.”

This brings in all that was good about 1970’s business and modernizes it! (did you catch that the only thing I think about a ‘good’ 1970’s business was their ability to smoke in the office!) I can’t wait until my next big conference room meeting with 20+ employees all smoking away on their E-Cigs, talking sales, talking red meat they’ll grill that night – if that isn’t quintessential Americana I don’t know what is!  Sure its a little more metro-sexual America, but it’s 2013, let’s face it – so few of us can pull off the Marlboro Man look anymore!

I know most of you think I’m joking but wait and see HR Pros.  E-Cigarettes are not considered ‘cigarettes’ by the FDA.  If you have an employee come in and want to suck on a battery powered device at their desk that emits water vapor – are you going to tell them ‘No’!  Especially when that same employee could chose to take an hour+ per day off to stand outside and fire up for real?!  Doesn’t productivity and health demand you allow your employees to E-Light-Up at their desk or workstation?

What do you think HR Pros?  Will you join me in allowing your employees to E-Light Up in the office?  Do any of you allow this now?  Has any employee approached you and asked to do this?  Will you shoot the first employee who is standing outside taking a 10 minute smoke break who is puffing on a E-Cigarette?

93% Employment!

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I don’t know about you, but I think having a 93% employment rate is pretty damn good!

Take this little test:

1. Pick any profession or trade – even unskilled positions.

2. Bring in 100 currently employed people within your specific position you chose.

3. Interview all 100.

4. Now – tell me out of the 100 you interviewed – would you offer a position to 93 of them!?

No way, ever, in any position!

Let’s break down the 100 interviews:

– 3 – you’ll have 3 candidates that won’t even show up – car trouble, emergency, alarm clock didn’t go off, etc. (these are automatic ‘No’s’)

– 4 – you’ll have 4 candidates that will show and you will wish they hadn’t for a number of reason – most dealing with hygiene and/or obnoxious laughing or talking.

– 2 – you’ll have 2 candidates that will be completely arrogant and won’t fit your culture – no offer.

– 5 – you’ll have 5 candidates that you’ll like, but they won’t like you.

The reality is your pool is about 85 of 100 on your very best, most lucky day.  You’re not really selecting from 100 ever.  So now you have 85 candidates of which you’ll find some too light or too heavy on experience,  you’ll hate the school they graduated from, you’ll get bad references on a half dozen, etc.

93%!

I’m telling you right now – at 93%, America is fully employed!  I’m always amazed to hear people in business talk about high unemployment.  I don’t think they really understand what that number represents.  When you talk to HR people, 100%, they’ll be able to give you a list of people who are working for them, that they wish weren’t working for them, but they can’t find anyone better!

93%!

 

 

Having Sex On The Job

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If you’ve been in HR for about a day you’ve had to deal with Worker’s Compensation claims and the longer you’re in HR the better the claims get.  This recent worker’s compensation claim from an Australian employee, though, might actually win (assuming this whole HR thing is a contest of who has the best story). From the Sidney Morning Herald:

“The female Commonwealth public servant at the centre of the case, whose name has been suppressed, was required to travel to regional NSW in 2007 and stayed at a motel booked by her employer.

She arranged to meet a male friend and, after going out for dinner, the pair went to her motel room and had sex.

In a statement in previous court hearings, the woman’s sexual partner said they were ”going hard” when a light fitting was pulled from the wall and fell on her. She suffered wounds to her nose and mouth, as well as psychological injuries, and has faced a lengthy legal battle to receive a payout.

Her claim was initially accepted by Comcare, but was revoked in 2010 and reviewed by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal, which found sexual activity was ”not an ordinary incident of an overnight stay like showering, sleeping, eating”.

The woman appealed against that decision in the Federal Court and won in April last year, a judge finding the injuries were suffered in the course of her employment.”

So, here’s the game – most HR pros already know this, but for the new HR Pros – In the comments share you craziest worker’s compensation claim.  While you think the one example above can’t be beat – well, you’ve never played this game before!

Here’s mine:

“…”

You know what – I don’t have one even close to the example above.  You win Australia.

1 Reason Interns Suck

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I get pimped constantly to write about companies and their products and I rarely do.  It’s not that I don’t like the companies, products or people – but it’s boring!  Recently, Katie Farrell, was pimping me to write about her client InternMatch and more specifically a report they did called “State of the Internship 2013” where they actually had some fun data to report and one interesting piece I couldn’t turn up!  In full disclosure – Katie and InternMatch paid me absolutely nothing to do this – which is probably why I don’t pimp more stuff for Katie (come on Katie! Some cookies, a diet Dew, anything – really!).

Here’s the 1 Reason Why Interns Suck:

“If a company has pets in the office, it would dramatically increase an intern candidate’s likelihood of applying (24.3%)”

 

I don’t care what you say – that is fascinating data!  Not only does that one data point tell you how worthless it is to hire interns – it gives you actual first hand data about what is really going on in the mind of a college freshman and sophomore that you’re paying bottom-line dollars to!   1/4 of potential interns are swayed in their internship decision by the simple fact if they can bring Ms. Cookie Kitty with them to their big-girl summer job.  Fascinating – with a capital F!

I always viewed internships as a public service for employers.  It’s very similar to buying lemonade from the 8 year old kid running a lemonade stand on a cardboard box on the street corner. You don’t really need a lemonade – but it’s cute and makes them feel like their a real person.  The reality is, the 8 year old, like the college intern doesn’t really want to work for your lame department and learn real skills – they want ice cream truck money – scratch that – they want beer money!

If I was running a Fortune 500 HR shop here is what my internship program would look like:

1. Hire Interns

2. Make them do the worst jobs in our company – no matter what their degree program.

3. Try and get them to quit the internship program.

4. Make it the absolute worst summer of their life.  Boot camp for Frat Boys and Girls.

5. Those few that make it – get automatic offers to come to work real jobs the next year.

Oh, I hear you saying “Tim you have no idea, we need our interns to love our company so we have recruits when they graduate!”  No you don’t.  You need to find people who will work.  I mean really work.  Hire those people.  Don’t hire someone who determines their work future by whether they can bring their cat or dog with them to their summer job!  Oh yeah, they had some other real statistics as well – but that was the only interesting one.

 

SHRM – Think Small, Act Small

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For anyone who reads my blog you know I have healthy love-hate relationship with SHRM.  I need to explain this relationship because so often people tell me to just forget about SHRM and move on with my life – sort of like you would with an ex-girlfriend.  The problem is I don’t love SHRM like an ex-girlfriend; I love SHRM like someone loves golf or basketball.  It’s the kind of love that when you hit a great shot in golf you love the game, then the next shot you hit into the water, and you hate the game, but you keep coming back each week to play again.

I don’t want to give up on SHRM, I want SHRM to be what I need it to be as someone who loves the profession of HR.  So, here’s what I need from SHRM.  I need SHRM to act small.  I need SHRM to act like a niche organization.  I need SHRM to stop trying to be all things to all HR Pros. 

You know what happens when you’re big and you act big?  You become vanilla.  You become Chevy.  You become something a bunch of people will buy, but no one truly loves.  People put up with you, they don’t reach out for you.  You’ve become the necessary evil within the profession.

The million dollar question is, than, what does that look like or how does SHRM do that – smaller?

Trying to be all things to all people kills almost every single company and organization, eventually.  It might take 10 years, it might take 100 years, but eventually someone else will come along and be the company or organization a person is looking for.  It will feel special.  It will feel exclusive (like me having an SPHR).  SHRM tries to be a one-stop shop for all things HR, and as such the majority of the development and material teaches to the lowest common denominator.  

Go above ‘best practice’ – reach for ‘ground breaking’.  Have a goal to ‘Wow’ the membership with such insight it blows them away.   In the end, other professional organizations should be reaching out to you on how they can do the same for their professionals.  Go beyond HR 101 and show HR Pros the importance of leading and running the business.  I want my SHRM to lead the transformation of HR, not be part of old HR that is joked about across industries.

Also, I want my SHRM to have a little bit of a sense of humor!  SHRM, have you attended a conference outside of HR?  Holy mother of Francis you guys take yourself seriously!  Lighten up – we’re the people, people.  It’s alright to make fun of our profession, that’s an easy way to have some open and honest discussion on how to change.   One last thing – stop allowing boring people to speak at conferences!  Here’s how you select a great lineup – you must educate and entertain (not or, it’s ‘and’), you must give the audience something they can use tomorrow in their HR shop and it wouldn’t hurt if these great speakers had red hair and lived in DeWitt, MI.