Category Archives: Trench HR

Michigan HR Day 2014!

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Tomorrow, Wednesday April 23rd, I’ll be speaking at the 5th Annual Michigan HR Day.  What the hell is that, I assume you’re asking yourself!?  Well, five years ago, Michigan Governor, Rick Snyder (He’s the One Tough Nerd guy) and his team thought Michigan needed an HR Day, so they made one up.  Apparently, no one on his team was aware that Michigan SHRM had an annual state conference to discuss virtually the exact same things.  Now, Michigan is lucky enough to have two state conferences, one by Michigan HR Day and one by Michigan SHRM.

Michigan HR Day is actually really big.  1000 or so HR Pros from all over the state.  They keep it super cheap, like $50, and you get a full day’s worth of HRCI credits!  Maybe that One Tough Nerd guy is smart after all!

This being the fifth year, I was asked to speak.  I wasn’t asked the first four years because I wasn’t boring enough.  This year’s keynote will be given my Quicken Loans Chief People Officer, David Nachbar.  I’m actually interested in hearing him for the simple fact that Quicken Loans is like the new age Detroit sweatshop!  Stick 5,000 20 somethings into buildings in downtown Detroit selling high cost loans to people who can’t afford them, and little buy little purchase up all available real estate in the city of Detroit until you can rename the city ‘Quicken Loansville.’  Can’t wait to hear about their culture!

The lunch keynote is given by some legal person regarding the Affordable Care Act. I’ll spare you the details…

You see where this is going.

I get to bring up the rear!

I’m in the last session and doing Social Recruiting MacGyver Style, teaching HR ladies how to the Facebook and the Twitters to recruit great talent.  I’m giving out Coach Bags and Free Hugs, it’s going to be a blast.  At least once I’ll show a slide of Richard Simmons and use the word “Pimp” repeatedly when discussing LinkedIn!

Unlike SHRM, I wasn’t asked told I couldn’t swear, so I’m assuming I won’t be asked back for the 6th Annual Michigan HR day.  That means you only have one shot to come see me.  I’m on at 2:15pm, if you come and try to leave I will purposely call you out in front of the entire room.  You can follow all the happenings on the Twitters @MichiganHR or #mihrday.  I love to meet people who read the blog, so if you do come out and see me, please stop by afterwards and say ‘Hi!’

The Secret to Great HR

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(I’m on vacation, that’s not a secret, but this post is because it ran in Jan. 2010 almost no one read it!)

I was given a gift this past holiday season – my brother bought me Bill Simmons’ latest book, The Book of Basketball– which is quite possibly the greatest book ever written, all 700 pages of it. It’s not just about the NBA (although it’s pretty damn comprehensive on that subject), it also has many leadership and life lessons as well.  One of my favorite parts has to do with Piston great and Hall of Fame guard, Isiah Thomas*, explaining to Bill the “Secret” of basketball – to the point of what it takes for a team to win a world championship in the NBA.  Boiled down into a sentence or two, the secret to winning, according to Isiah, has to do less with great individual players and more about a group of really good players, foregoing personal statistics, for the good of the whole.  Sounds simple enough – we all get that – but then why do so many great players miss this easily understood concept?**

Don’t worry about yourself (and your own success), worry about your team’s success, that is, if you truly want to be successful.

I started to think about this concept in all other areas of my life.***  HR isn’t difficult, usually, for the most part, it’s a fairly straight forward concept – get great people, keep great people happy, customers benefit, profits come, stakeholders happy, repeat.****  But, there has to be a secret, because probably 80% or so, of HR Pros out there, don’t get it and aren’t helping make their organizations better through great HR.

So, like Isiah, I’m going to share The Secret To Great HR.  I know what you’re thinking, why would I do this – I could easily go all Malcolm Gladwell on you and write a book, and be a thousandaire, or something. But I’m not, I’m giving it away free because I like karma better than money*****  and I see it as my gift back to all the HR Pros out there who could use the help right about now.

The Secret To Great HR –

The secret is extraordinarily simple, it’s all about a few close relationships.  Depending on what type of organization you come from, it has to do with the relationship you have with those who are running operations. First, every organization has some type of operation – meaning every organization produces something – product, service, etc. Even in church, the pastor runs operations – sharing the gospel with people, for example.

So, in your organization, to have great HR – the leadership in HR, must have a great relationship with the leadership in Operations.  I’m talking husband/wife great relationship******* your best friend in the world type relationship, someone you could go on vacation for a week, and share a hotel room type relationship. The blocking and tackling of HR isn’t difficult – but becomes incredibly difficult without support from your operation’s partner.  People miss this – and it’s very simple.  Instead, in HR, we work to make new processes, new programs, better orientation, more specific recruiting plans, user-friendly HRIS, etc.  Then, we get completely frustrated when we can’t get rank and file to follow some very simple steps to make it all run extremely smooth.

Why?  Because mostly we do this, without operations really buying into, or even wanting, our latest and greatest new thingy we just put together – For them, by the way!  If you have a strong relationship with Ops, they will tell you what they need, help you design it, roll it out for you, and make their own processes to ensure it’s followed.  Wow! Doesn’t that sound nice? All because of a relationship.*********

PS: *****If you don’t get the use of “*” references, read The Book of Basketball******

PPS: It’s my inner dialogue thoughts

*I liked Isiah, being the huge Piston fan that I am – but really more of a Joe Dumars fan – when I was 16 my Dad got tickets to see the Pistons vs. Lakers (my other favorite team – being that Magic is a Sparty) and after the game I got my picture taken with then rookie, Joe Dumars and 7′ 5″ Chuck Nevitt – I can still remember the conversation: Me “Joe great game”; Joe (looking completely exhausted and pissed he had to take pictures after a Sunday game on national TV with the Lakers, with some fans, who only got the chance because Tropicana or some other sponsor told him he had to do it) “Thanks” – Smile – click – interaction over.  I’ll be a fan of Joe the rest of my life!

**I say simple enough, but let’s face it most people are idiots and don’t get this, and really only worry about themselves.

***So, besides work, that means youth sports and how to keep my wife happy

****I always find it amazing how you can use a shampoo-rinse-repeat analogy in almost any conversation.

*****Not really, I like money a whole lot, but I’m really hoping this blog thing turns into a TV deal – so I got to give a little away for free – wet the appetite so to speak.

******I know some might be thinking husband/wife aren’t a great relationship analogy – but that’s because you didn’t find your soul mate – sucks to be you – sorry.

********It helps to go out drinking with them as well – after a couple of drinks, somehow what they really want from HR comes out!

Candidates with Hickeys

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(I’m on vacation – I originally posted this in Feb. 2010 over at Fistful of Talent. Also going on 16,123 days of never having a Hickey!)

Kris Dunn, our the HR Capitalist, had a blog post “How To Destroy a Lifetime of Trust as an HR Pro in a Single Day…” where he explained how a direct report broke the cardinal rule in HR and shared confidential information, or more specifically tried to use confidential information for personal gain. It wasn’t something illegal, it had nothing to do with their individual functional performance as a Director of HR, but what this person did was destroy the trust they had with their leader (although I could argue that if a HR Pro can’t keep confidential information confidential – you probably do have a performance issue). Good post – go over and read it, if you haven’t.

The post got me thinking though about how a person recovers from this type of transgression. (Also take a look at this WSJ article “How a Black Mark Can Derail a Job Search“.  As a leader, Kris was pained for sure, because this person had “High-Potential” and was an “A” player.  But when certain things happen, professionally, you have to cut ties and move on.  So now, this Hi-Po has a huge Hickey.  Interestingly though, this Hickey can’t be seen when you look at their resume or interview them in person, but it’s a Hickey they can’t get rid of.  So, barring a life-turtleneck how does one cover this puppy up?

It’s interesting because I think that probably the best of us have a hickey or two that we would rather not have our current or future employer know about.  Sometimes they’re big-giant-in-the-back-of-a-Chevy-17-year-old-I-will-love-you-forever hickeys and sometimes they’re just oops-I-lingered-a-little-too-long type of hickeys. Either way, I would rather not expose my hickeys and have to worry about how this will impact the rest of my professional life. And here’s where most people drive themselves crazy.

As HR Pros I think it’s important for us to be able to help our organizations determine the relative value of individuals.  This person was a rock star at ABC company – did something wrong, couldn’t maintain that position any longer with ABC because of said incident, and lost their job – now we have a chance to pick up a Rock Star (and probably for a discount).  The question you have to ask is not could we live with this person if they did the same thing here?  Because that really isn’t the question – you already have that answer – No.  The question is: do we feel this person learned from said wrong doing and is there any risk of them doing it again?  You might come to the conclusion – yes, they’ve learned, and yes, there is potential they might do it again (let’s face it, if they did it once, they’ve shown they can do it, so there’s always a risk) – but it’s a risk we are willing to take.

So how does someone come back from a transgression at work? The answer is that they have some help.  Eventually, someone is going to ask the question, “why aren’t you with ABC Company anymore?”  They’ll give you the canned answer they’ve been developing since the moment they lost their job. If you’re a good interviewer, you won’t buy the first answer:  “I mean really?!  So, you decided it was better off not to have a job. Is what you’re telling me?!”,  and you will dig to see the hickey.  Hickeys are funny in that you really can’t take your eyes off of them, but for those who can get by the hickeys, you might just find a great talent who is grateful for the second chance.

But, you also might find someone who just likes being in the back of that Chevy and getting Hickeys. You’re the HR Pro, though, and that’s really why your company pays your salary, to mitigate risk versus the quality of talent your organization needs to succeed.  So, you have to ask yourself, can you live with a Hickey or not?

7 Habits Of Remarkably Likeable HR Managers

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Ripped from the pages of Inc. Magazine’s recent article 7 Habits of Remarkably Likeable Bosses, I give you…something slightly different:

7 Habits Of Remarkably Likeable HR Managers!

1. They are named “Kay”.  Have you ever really not liked someone named, Kay!?  Kay just seems like a friendly lady with at least 3 cats and grandchildren, a whole lot of grandchildren.  Kay is helpful.  Kay will give you a hug when you need it.  Kay brings in really good comfort food with funny names like “Redneck Bunt Cake”.

2. They dress up on dress up days at work.  You know what I’m talking about.  They wear green on St. Patrick’s Day.  They wear their normal sweater on Ugly Christmas Sweater Day.  They aren’t afraid to be apart of the festivities.  People like people who are involved.

3. They order right mix of cookies for the conference room.  Don’t even think about discounting this as ‘remarkable’!  Have you ever been late to a meeting and had to choke down an oatmeal raisin cookie!?  Likeable HR Managers know you need at least a 3 to 1 chocolate chip to raisin mix at a minimum, really high performers will forgo all raisin cookies all together.

4. They are forgetful.  You know that one holiday party where you had too much to drink and hooked up with a coworker, and your HR Manager saw? Yeah, don’t worry, she forgot on purpose, because she doesn’t want your one bad decision to haunt your entire career with the company.  Likeable HR Managers tend to forget your misdeeds (that are forgivable) and remember the value you bring to the organization!

5. They Drink the Kool-Aid.  A likeable HR Manager is one who is also an organizations cheerleader.  They support top managements decisions, and in turn help others in the organization to see the benefits as well.  This isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  Getting everyone to move in the same direction is a very powerful trait to have.  Some will view it as they are just followers, I view it as a great strategy to build influence.

6.  They cuss at your CEO.  You wouldn’t actually know about this trait, because besides being remarkably likeable, they’re also remarkably professional and only do this behind closed doors of your CEO’s office. But they do it, and they’re the only one who does it and gets away with it.  It keeps your CEO from going crazy train, and they appreciate it, as long as it stays between just the two of them.

7. They don’t rake sh*t.  You know what happens when you rake sh*t that’s been lying stagnant for a long time?  It stinks. That’s just like problems in your organization that have been laying dormant for some time.  You begin digging up and turning over stuff, you’ll find stuff that stinks.  Many times that stuff has been taken care of and is water under the bridge. No reason to rake sh*t, unless you just like the smell.

For those who will hate on this and say “I don’t want to be liked, I want to be respected!” I say, “Why, not both!?”  It’s not a one or the other choice, you can have both.  The HR Pro who can be respected and likeable is the HR Pro I want working for my team!

In The Trenches

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Okay, HR fans, here’s the game, I give you a real-life HR scenario and you tell me how you would handle it if your were the HR person in charge of handling it. Got it!?  Here’s the issue:

You’re a Regional HR Manager of a major chain of Pizza restaurants, most of your business is home delivery.  This means you primarily have location managers, pizza cooks and drivers.  It’s a random Tuesday in the Detroit metro area and one of your drivers leaves on a delivery to local address.  When the driver arrives to the address and goes to the door, there are two armed men there to rob him of his $37 and change, and of course the pizza. 

Unbeknownst to the would-be robbers and you, your driver grew up on the streets of Detroit, and he is legally carrying a concealed weapon of his own (gotta love the D!).  He decides he’s not giving up his $37 or his Pizza without payment, and he let’s off 3 shots into one of the would be robbers and takes off.  Your driver didn’t get hurt, didn’t get robbed, but he also didn’t deliver that pizza!  The shot robber was discovered by police at a nearby hospital and booked, the other robber has yet to be found.  (By the way – this is from an actual story in Detroit this week!) You get the call from one of your District Manager who wants to know what she should do with your driver, who is looking to return to work, he’s got a family to feed.

Now, what do you do Mrs. or Mr. Regional HR Manager of Jet’s Pizza?  (a very good pizza place, by the way.  Also, little known Michigan fact for those who don’t live in Michigan – for some reason Michigan is like the large pizza chain capital of the world with both Little Caesars and Domino’s being started and headquartered in Michigan. No one knows why.)

Classic HR theory would have us look at our policies and past practices.  What? You mean you might have had this happen before?!  It’s Detroit, it might have happened earlier that evening.  You have a policy against your employees shooting your customers? Again, it’s Detroit, the policy might actually spell out when it’s alright to shoot customers.  Regardless, something will happen to this young man. Will you fire him, do nothing, set him up with EAP, reward him so other employees do the same, etc.?

Hit me in the comments and let me know what action you would take if this was your HR shop.  I’ll follow later with what action I would take