Category Archives: The HR Rules

3 Steps To Finding The Smartest Employee In Your Company

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I couldn’t sleep the other night, probably because of the 14 Diet Dews I had throughout the day, but I had an Epiphany while staring at the ceiling in the dark.   I figured out a way for HR Pros to find the Smartest Employee in their Company!  It isn’t a complex algorithm or a set of cognitive assessment tests – it’s a simple matrix – but it’s very effective.  Now, you might be asking yourself:

 “Why do I need to find the smartest employee in our company?”

Which would be legitimate – unfortunately at 2 a.m. I didn’t ask myself that same question – I just thought I came up with some crazy Einstein type shit!  But, like most things I deal with, I can come up with a plausible argument to why it’s important to find the smartest people in your company.  My reasons:

1. Smart people have the potential to do smart things.  In an organization you want to make the right decisions – usually dumb people don’t.

2. Smart people usually know other smart people. In an organization you want to get rid of your dumb people, and hire more smart people.

3. Smart people know the fakers.  Organizations make people selection mistakes, it happens all the time, don’t be embarrassed, just don’t let one decision turn into another by keeping a mistake.  Smart people know your bad hiring mistakes, because they can read through the B.S.

Now for the Matrix!  Like I said it’s simple – which is also why it’s genious, because anyone can do it.  It goes a little something like this (hit it!) –

First Step: down one side of your matrix list your employees by level of responsibility. Most responsible at the top, down to the least responsible at the bottom.  Some of these you’ll just have to do the eyeball test on, and slot people as you see fit – don’t get to worked up over this – just get the most responsible up top, the least down low – the ones in the middle don’t matter anyway.

Second Step: Across the top of the matrix list total compensation of each person to the corresponding column.  For the most part you should end up with a sheet that shows the most responsible person in your organization, making the most money, and slowing but surely working your way down to the least responsible, least amount of money.

Third Step: The Smart Employee Search.  Here’s where the rubber hits the road!  Now, look at your matrix and find the highest paid employee, with the corresponding least amount of experience.  Boom! You just found your smartest employee.

I told you it was easy!  This person has figured out how to, relatively, make the most money by having virtually no responsibility.  Say what you want – but that is one smart person!  You need to pull that person in and find out how to get them more engaged into your daily operations.  Don’t take this as a joke – dumb people don’t figure this out – you just don’t fall into a highly paid, low or no responsibility job – you have to work to get there.  Don’t underestimate this person’s capabilities – because guess what – everyone else has!  That’s why your working your butt off until 6pm, and they’re out the door at 3pm going to their golf league – for about $4000 less than you make. They’re going home with no stress, while you’re on your 4th therapist – this year.   They love coming to work – you have a hard time pulling yourself out of bed.

I love these employees – I try to hang with them, learn from them – I feel like I’m an anthropologist learning about a forgotten species – they intrigue me so.  A word of caution though – don’t try and capture and change these employees – don’t try and be “smarter” than they are – and change their job or their scope or their pay.  Remember, they’re smarter than you – you’ll just frustrate yourself as they find another position – doing even less for more!

Is HR Wasting Your Time?

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I had a conversation the other day with a corporate HR Director and we were talking recruiters – corporate recruiters.  My friend had a dilemma, a classic corporate recruiting scenario.  Here’s her problem – she has recruiters who are doing a decent job, but they won’t get out from behind their desk and get out into the organization and get face-to-face feedback from the hiring managers. But – here is the real reason:  the recruiters feel like they are “wasting” the hiring managers time.

“So” she asked, “How do I get them out to build these relationships?”

Great question – but she asked the wrong question (was partially my answer).  Her problem isn’t that her recruiters aren’t building the relationships face-to-face – the problem is they feel they are “wasting” someones time.  They don’t value, or understand the value they are providing to the hiring manager – if they did, it sounds like they wouldn’t have a problem with visiting with the hiring managers.  It’s a classic leadership fail – solving a symptom instead of solving the actual problem.

Don’t think that this is rare, recruiters feeling like they are wasting hiring managers time – it happens constantly at the corporate level.  Once you train your recruiters (and hiring managers) on the value the recruiters are providing – you see much less resistance of the recruiters feeling comfortable getting in front of hiring managers to get feedback on candidates, and actually making a decision.  This moves your process along much quicker.

What value do recuiters provide?  Well, that seems like a real stupid question – but there aren’t stupid questions (just stupid people who ask questions).  Here’s a few that will help your corporate recruiters understand their real value to hiring managers:

  • Corporate recruiters are the talent pipeline for a hiring manager. (or should be!)
  • Corporate recruiters can be the conduit for hiring managers to increase or better the talent within their department.
  • Corporate recruiters are a partner to the hiring managers in assessing talent.
  • Corporate recruiters are a strategist for the hiring managers group succession planning
  • Corporate recruiters are your hiring managers first line of performance management (setting expectations before someone even comes in the door)
  • Corporate recruiters are tacticians of organizational culture.

So, the next time you hear a recruiter tell you “I don’t want to waste their time.” Don’t go off on them and tell them to “just go out there and build the relationship” – educate them on why they aren’t wasting their time. Then do an assessment for yourself to determine are they adding value or are they just wasting time – all recruiters are not created equal – some waste time – and it’s your job as a leader to find ones add value. 

A critical component to all of this is building an expectation of your hiring managers of what they should expect from your recruiters.  They should expect value, they should expect a recruiter who is a pro, who is going to help them maneuver the organizational landscape and politics of hiring, they should expect a recruiter is going to deliver to them better talent than they already have, they should expect a partner, someone who is looking out for the best interest of the hiring managers department.  They should expect that their time won’t be wasted.

The 2nd Biggest Lie We Tell In HR

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I love that HR Pros get so worked up about Performance Management and delivering great feedback to employees about their performance and development.  It’s one of things I really enjoy about HR – we help show people the way to becoming better versions of themselves.  Herein lies one of HR biggest problems, though, not everyone is going to get better. In fact, I think it’s the 2nd biggest lie we tell employees:

“Everyone can be successful.”

No, they can’t!  BusinessWeek had a good article last week called Be an Optimist without Being a Fool which examined this notion that there is a difference from having people believe they can be successful and the belief they can be successful without significant effort on their own part.  From the article:

There are quite a number of motivational speakers and self-improvement books out there with a surprisingly simple message: believe that success will come easily to you, and it will. There is one small problem in this argument, however, which unfortunately doesn’t seem to stop anyone from making it: it is utterly false.

In fact, not only is visualizing “effortless success” unhelpful, it is disastrous. This is good advice to give only if you are trying to sabotage the recipient. It is a recipe for failure. And no, I’m not overstating it…

But there is an important caveat: to be successful, you need to understand the vital difference between believing you will succeed, and believing you will succeed easily. Put another way, it’s the difference between being a realistic optimist and an unrealistic optimist…Believing that the road to success will be rocky leads to greater success because it forces you to take action.

In my experience in HR, within area of employee development, the times I saw people succeed the most were the times when I almost had to take the job away from someone.  Those times when not only myself, but their supervisor, thought they had no shot to succeed, that they didn’t “have it” in them to reach the level that was needed, and we were up front enough to share this gift of feedback.  Facing the up hill odds, they fought for it and were successful.  The times I’ve watched hiring manager, after hiring manager, blow hot air up employees butts about how successful they’ll be, those employees rarely ever come close to the high praise they were given.

When I was at Applebee’s the collective leadership called this “delivering a gift” – that’s what we called those “opportunity” conversations.  Tim, we love you enough to give you this gift or letting you know what is holding you back, and what are the mountains in front of you.   For those with some self-insight, this was indeed a gift.  A gift that allowed you to make a decision, was I willing to make the necessary changes to reach that next level, or that it was time for me to go, because I knew I wasn’t willing to put forth that effort.  In the end, not everyone will be successful – in fact very few will be – so don’t tell them this lie – you are doing a disservice to your employees.

So, what’s the 1st biggest Lie we tell in HR?

We treat everyone equal.

Jumpers

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“I wish you could step back from the ledge my friend,

You could cut ties with all the lies,

That you’ve been living in.”

(Partial lyrics from “Jumper” -by Third Eye Blind)

In HR we have Jumpers.

I’m always amazed at how comfortable I’ve become over the years with Jumpers.  It’s not something I expected when I decided to get into HR, but it’s something that I’ve ironically become to expect from people.  Let me explain what “Jumpers” are in HR.

A “Jumper” is someone I think is comfortable throwing empty threats onto your desk.  Do these sound familiar:

– “If I don’t get “X”, I’m going to call my Lawyer…”

– “If you don’t do “X”, I’m going to quit…”

– “If my supervisor doesn’t change “X”, I’m going to accept this other offer…”

– “If I don’t get this promotion, I’ll be contacting the EEOC (or any number of government organizaitons)…”

The problem we have with jumpers, is your never for certain that they won’t jump.  I expect that we in HR become comfortable with jumpers because we become immune to the constant threat facing us.  In a way it’s very similar to a parent that threatens a child if they don’t eat their vegatables, they’ll sit at the dinner table until they do, and then 20 minutes later let’s them leave the table without finishing the vegatables.  In HR, too many times, we are the child leaving the table.

I’m not saying that this is good – because I tend to believe too many of us in HR miss these opportunities to handle these when they arrive and before they become an actual major problem.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told employees – “well, if you feel you need to contact a lawyer – then you have to do what you feel you have to do…”  I’ve done this because I (and you) know – they aren’t contacting any lawyer – they’re just trying to push out buttons and get what they want.  99.9% of the time, or higher, a lawyer is never contacted.  But what happens when someone does?  All hell breaks loose, that’s what!  Now you have executives running around, asking questions, looking for reports and notes and documentation, etc. 

I’m not saying you should treat your Jumpers differently – I’m just saying that you need to be careful at how comfortable you become with Jumpers.  It’s an HR trap, that they don’t teach you in either the PHR or SPHR – you’ll never see a chapter on “Jumpers”.  You won’t see a session at SHRM national on Jumpers.  But if you’re in HR, you will deal with Jumpers weekly, some of you, daily.  The great HR Pros are great because they are able to filter out the fake jumpers, from the real jumpers – and when they find a real one – they grab ahold and keep them away from the ledge.

So, what do you do if you have a jumper?  Take it serious, but don’t over react.  Dig into what the jumper really wants (many times it’s just someone to listen). Work to keep the dialog going – even if it means coming back or another meeting later on (Jumpers usually don’t jump, if dialog is in play).  Lastley, don’t force a jumper to jump – give them some o

The Unpaid Internship: HR’s ethical dilemma or Victimless crime

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HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

Free labor is like crack to any organization.

HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

A soft economy is like a crack dealer of free labor that businesses can’t resist.

HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

Most job opening in the US want 5 years of experience, so unpaid internships allow workers to gain much needed experience.

HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

An internship is a win-win proposition for businesses and workers. They provide an exceptional opportunity to discover and cultivate talent.

HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

Last year businesses profited millions of dollars of the direct work of unpaid interns.

HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

An internship is an investment – for both parties involved.

HR is the most ethical part of your organization.

Free labor is like crack to an organization.

(inspiration from Chris VanWyck of www.ciesadesign.com (great creative firm) – check him out @cvdub on twitter)

You’re Not Required To Act Like a Jerk

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I was on vacation last week – Yea Me!  I got to spend a ton of quality time with Kim and the boys as we hit Northern Michigan and pretty much just laid around for most of the week.  One thing happened during the week that stuck with me, and with my kids as we were hanging out in one of the small sleeping towns up north.  First, most of Northern Michigan closes down during the winter – shops, restaurants, etc.  They’re mostly summer towns that open up between Memorial Day and Labor Day (you get a peak into life in Michigan – we only get 90 days of temps warm enough to wear shorts).  So, as we were walking in between the 3 shops that were open all year – we decided to cut across the street, instead of walking the other 100 yards to the next corner.  A car stopped to let us cross, very neighborly, and that caused the person behind them to also stop – a local plumber/repairman (he was driving a van with his name and number on the side).  We crossed and the local repair guy yelled out his window as he passed “that’s what cross walks are made for!” in nasty-jerk tone – which wasn’t missed by my kids – who were concerned – I laughed – since it was funny someone would put one ounce of energy into caring that a family didn’t use the crosswalk in a town where we were clearly the only ones walking around and no traffic!

He was being a jerk.  Probably he is a jerk – most people don’t just act like a jerk – you either are a jerk or you’re not jerk.

I’ve run into quite a few HR folks in my life who tend to be jerks.  They don’t have to be jerks, but they let their informal and sometimes formal “power” in HR to turn them into jerks.  You know these people – they tend to be black and white – in a world full of grey.  These are the people who love to exact punishment that doesn’t fit the crime.  They are the ones who won’t let somebody sign up for insurance because they missed the deadline by a day, and gosh for bid, if they let one person, than they have to let everyone, right!?   These are the ones who won’t hire someone who had a DWI on their record when they check their background – 15 years ago – because well come on when they were 19 years old – they never got a DWI.  These are the ones who use their progressive discipline to fire a solid performer, because again – you were 15 minutes late and when we started the process 18 months ago we told you, you couldn’t be late again – ever, or you would be fired. They are jerks.

HR Pros – don’t kid yourself when you do something stupid to an employee and you try and justify it by saying “that’s the policy/rule” or “that’s the process” or “well, I can’t do anything about that” or “that’s not up to me” – more than likely you’re being a jerk.  You don’t have to be a jerk – you’re choosing to be a jerk.  In almost everything we do in HR, we can chose to help someone, in one way or another – but to many of us make the decision not to help and be a jerk.  You don’t have to be a jerk to have accountability and consistency within your organization – you have to have the guts to say “no” when the time calls for it.

Where to find the Best Recruiters

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Logical Argument (that I had with someone recently):

Best Recruiters = Best Companies to Work For

Rationale: The best recruiters bring in the best talent, the best talent make the best companies.

Illogical Argument (but factual):

Worst Companies to Work For = Best Recruiters

Rationale: If your company is the worst company to work for – meaning – you have bad environment, and a bunch of other negative stuff, it’s going to be very hard to recruit top talent to your organization.

———————————————————————————————-

I was having this conversation with an HR executive that I highly respect – but he can be a major idiot (i.e., he use to be my boss – which in itself doesn’t make him an idiot – that he does on his own).   Here’s my point.  Working at a bad company, makes it extremely hard to recruit.  This type of environment breeds recruiters who either fail (and usually very quickly) or through tremendous odds succeed in finding talent to little by little make their organizations better.  His point is easy: Great company, everybody wants to work for you, recruiter cherry picks best talent and then calls them to tell them they’ve won the Job Lottery (my explanation – not his!).

I’m not sure this is the chicken and egg scenario. Does the company make the recruiter great, or does the recruiter make the company great.  I really believe great recruiting can turn around a company that isn’t so great. But, average or even sub-average recruiters many times won’t pull down a great company.  At the same token – I do believe the Best Companies to Work For – have more average recruiters than great recruiters – (oh boy, I said it) – why?  Because working in recruiting for a Best Company, makes you lazy – you know longer are the hunter – you become the farmer.

Before you blow a gasket – I’ve worked in both environments – crappy going out of business company where nobody wanted the job you were offering – to – industry leading best company to work for everyone wanted your job, even the crappy jobs.  It was easier working for the latter.  Did the best company still have challenges, you bet – but it was still easier.  We had high class problems at the best companies (oh no! how do we properly select from all these great candidates) – compared to the bad company (oh no! how do we keep the doors open next week if we can’t hire enough people).

So, what’s my point?  If you are looking to hire a great, top performing recruiter – don’t believe the hype – that they need to come from a “Top” company.  Where they need to come from is a company that has faced major recruiting challenges, and they’ve found ways to be successful in-spite of those challenges. If you find a recruiter who has always live in fairy’s world their entire career – you throwing them into your nightmare might cause their halo to fall off.

Should HR Be The Volunteer Police?

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So, here’s the number – 2.7* – an employee is 2.7 times more likely to volunteer (for charitable missions) if their boss volunteers as well.  That number presented to me at a conference recently, from a study Blue Cross/Blue Shield did in one of it’s larger organizations.  Also, an employee is 2 times more likely to volunteer if their bosses, boss volunteers. 

So, what?

At first glance it might seem like an irrelavant number – one study, about 6,000 employees – not really comprehensive enough to prove anything. You maybe right.  But as I thought about it – it seems to pass my “feel” test – it just feels right.  You know when you hear a number sometimes and it just seems valid, that what this seems like – so, I tend to believe in what the presenter was saying based on her statistics.  Here’s what else the study found:

  • Those employees who volunteer, on behalf of the company, have less atrrition (again, seems to make sense)
  • Also, those who volunteer have higher engagement scores
  • Finally, those who volunteer, have higher performance.

It’s the Hat Trick of Good Employee Metrics right? Low Turnover, High Engagement, High Performance – it’s the employees we all want.  So, how do we get them?!?!? Oh, yeah, that’s what the study was all about – Get you Leadership (managers, directors and VP’s) to volunteer – and have them invite their staff. 

So, what does this have to do with HR?

Oh, yeah – sorry, I forgot you dont’ plan holiday parties.  Pull yourself away from that fancy dashboard for a minute – I going to make you strategic.  Find a leader who already likes to volunteer or would have interest in doing it – with a little help.  Work with one or two of the countless organizations in your community right now that need volunteer help and set up the first time, be the organizer – use your “leader” sponsor to rally the troops – and just allow your employees to go an volunteer for this one thing.  Then sit back and see what happens.  It’s pretty cool.  People are talking with each other, laughing, feeling good about themselves and their company. They come back to work and the conversation will continue – the leader that was there getting dirty will be viewed differently by those attend – he or she will view those workers who attended with a new found respect.

You can be in HR, be a planner and be strategic – you have a the secret formula – you know how to lower turnover, higher engagement and higher performance – don’t you think your executives will find that strategic?

Winning the HR Lottery

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You know what’s funny (well, I think it’s funny anway) – I refuse to play the Lotto. Any of the games – PowerBall, MegaMillions, etc. Until – they get above $100 Million!  Once they get above $100 Million – I’m all in.  Here’s the funny part – I get it – I get how stupid the whole thing is.  I know I’m more likely to get hit by lightening, while running with siccors, next to Kevin Bacon – I get the odds.  I get that I’m actually making my chances of winning even less, by only playing when the numbers are higher.  To me – That’s funny… why in the world do I still do it, when I understand the odds I’m facing?

First – the Lotto is really the last American Dream.  It use to be get a great job, marry, buy house, etc.  Not anymore – all we have left is the Lotto baby.  So, if I’m really going to live the American Dream – I don’t want to “just” win $5, 10 or even 50 Million – I mean, can you imagine actually winning the Lotto and only winning $1 Million!  You can’t retire and quit your job on $1 Million after taxes – you would still have to work – but not only that – you would probably have to work even harder because you would be all ghetto rich and go buy a house and other stuff you can’t afford.  So, if I’m winning – I’m winning the Big One -or nothing.  It’s my dream – go get your own.

So, what does the Lottery have to do with HR?  It’s the concept that a very small number are going to win, and most are going to be living the “real” American Dream of living check to check, average work environment, average leadership, just plain average.  But! for a slight few – they win the job lottery – even some in HR win the job lottery.  I use to think, there was no such thing as the job lottery – the people working for those “Great” companies, getting those “crazy” benefits, and “outstanding” quality of life – well, they were just the tops in their field and the recruiting departments of those teams searched the entire universe to find the best.  Right!? I mean don’t tell me it could be right place, right time – I stumbled into a 7/11 looking for a roller hot dog and Slurpee and the clerk talked me into spending $1 more dollar on a ticket and now I’m the richest guy in my trailer park…it couldn’t be that…could it?

I believe in every great company, they are great people employed, doing great things to keep their companies on top.  I also believe, in the worst companies, you will find great people, doing great things, just trying to keep their companies afloat.  In fact, those great ones, at the worst companies, might be even a little better than their counterparts at the best companies.  I also believe that every company, even the great ones, have “pretenders” – people who live off the reputation of the company they work for – and try and pin their company’s reputation on their chest as their own.  I know this because I run into many of the “pretenders” professionally, and within minutes of having a real conversation with them, it’s painfully obvious, they are not their companies.  That’s how the Lottery works – it doesn’t discriminate, it doesn’t show favorites, it doesn’t force you play – it just does.

Don’t believe me? You are at a great company – and I must be wrong!  Check out your demographics.  I’ll bet 75%+ of your workforce comes from within 50 miles of your location.  So, what you’re telling me, is you live in some “freak” community where 75%+ of the people just happen to be the top in their field!  No you don’t – you just happen to have one very common trait with many of your co-workers – you all were in the right place, at the right time.  You all one the job lottery!  Don’t be defensive – there isn’t any need – I’m not going to be defensive when I win the $100M and someone says, “you’re only rich and powerful and where polka-dot shoes because you won the lottery!” For which I’ll say – “Yes, yes I did. No get back to work, ironing my underwear.”

Embrace you good fortune my HR brethren, I’ll even celebrate your good fortune with you – but please don’t act like your G*d’s gift to HR because you were lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.

Who’s Better – Big HR or Small HR?

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This isn’t really a fair question – but someone asked me this recently.  What they were trying to get at, was are HR Pros in very large Fortune 500 companies, better than the HR Pros you find in small to medium sized companies.   It’s not a question with a simple answer, because you find great HR Pros in both areas, and you find horrible HR Pros in both areas.   But here’s what I think you find more of in each:

Large HR Shop:

  • HR Pros skilled in very specific segments – think 10 feet wide and a mile deep
  • HR Pros that have a better understanding of technology (since they have the resources and need to use large scale systems)
  • HR Pros who have a higher level of what I call “Political Savvy” – they know how to CYA!
  • A larger percentage of HR Pros who fail to connect with business outcomes (calm down big shop HR Pros!) – with larger numbers and specialization, it’s more difficult to really connect your outcomes to the organizations bottom line.  Tell me what percent of revenue increase do you get by increasing marketing’s group overall diversity by 3%?  See – it’s difficult – the pie gets cut into too many slices to be noticeable.
  • HR Pros that have a better sense of programs that have broad reach (diversity/inclusion, OD, succession, etc.)
  • Big HR shops tend to have some bottom-feeders, which is more about the nature of large organizations, than large HR (it’s easier to hide, and large orgs are more willing to give people too many chances).

Small HR Shop:

  • HR Pros skilled in a variety of HR functions – think a mile wide and 10 feet deep
  • HR Pros who are more creative (no money, forces the creativity process – don’t argue with me until you have no money and still have a CEO yelling for results)
  • HR Pros who are skilled at telling executives – “No, you can’t do that.” (as in no, you can’t hit employees no matter how much they frustrate you)
  • HR Pros who are forced to show exactly how much money will be “saved” or “made” for each decision they make – direct bottom line impact
  • HR Pros who are real good fire fighters, and rarely have time to focus on the long term objective of moving the organizational people practices forward

So, who’s better?   Depends on the needs of the organization you are working with.  But, here’s what I know – if you are a HR Pro in a small shop, and you’re good, and you like it, and you have aspirations of moving up in HR into a big shop – there is a very good chance you will not like it.  It’s just not for everyone.  Big HR shops get involved with some extremely cool projects, cutting edge HR stuff, which are great. Small HR shops really get an up-close and personal view of how their decision making impacts the business, which can be extremely satisfying for those looking for that impact. 

I know great people in both small and big HR shops – I tend to see the big guys not respecting the small guys as much as they should – but that’s life – buy a helmet and deal with it (if you’re from a small shop you probably already know your helmet size).   I also tend to see small HR making the bigger legal snafu’s – primarily because they tend to be moving so fast, things get missed.   Who’s better – the HR Pro that can see the benefits of both, make relationships with both and learn from both – those are rare indeed.