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The Talent Fix Book Club Launching in January 2019! Monthly Development for your TA Team!

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If you are a regular reader of this blog than you clearly know I wrote a book, The Talent Fix, that was launched in April 2018. I have been overwhelmed by the awesome response and I would like to give back to the community that has given me so much. 

Beginning January 23, 2019, I’ll hold a monthly book club webinar, for free, where I’ll be going over each chapter of the book in detail, from a discussion point of view. Each webinar is scheduled for one hour, it might be a bit less or a bit more depending on discussion and questions. 

Each month, I’ll pull out some of the highlights and strategies, discuss them in more detail, open up the discussion to Q&A from the book club attendees, and probably bring on some micro-celebrity Recruiting guests as well to talk shop and continue to challenge the way we think about Talent Acquisition! 

We’ll go one chapter at a time, and while they might be too slow for some, most people don’t even read one book a year, so we’ll go slow and make sure we have truly dynamic discussions each week! 

The schedule will breakdown like so: 

  • January 23, 2019 – Introduction to the Book Club, we’ll breakdown Kris Dunn’s Foreword and I’ll tell you the “KD” story, plus a bonus topic of what recruiting tools you need to look at in 2019! 
  • February – Chapter 1 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • March – Chapter 2 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • April – Chapter 3 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • May – Chapter 4 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • June – Chapter 5 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • July – Chapter 6 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • August – Chapter 7 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • September – Chapter 8 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • October – Chapter 9 – Highlights, discussion, and live Q&A
  • November – A look forward to preparing for 2020, looking at our next book club read, and a mini-demo of the hottest recruiting tool on the market I found in 2019! 

Also, remember, I’ll bring in several surprise guests that are genius level TA leaders, sourcers, and tech experts as well! 

Register for the free Talent Fix Monthly Book Club! 

This will be the easiest Team Development you’ll do all year! I’ve already had multiple teams contact me about signing up! One TA leader went out and bought each member of his team the book so they could get started and be ready for January 23rd! 

Buy The Talent Fix on Amazon or SHRM Members can buy it directly from the SHRM bookstore at a discount with your SHRM membership! 

I can’t wait to talk to everyone on January 23rd! If you have any questions, just send me an email at sackett.tim@hru-tech.com! 

Does Technology Have an Impact to a Great Employee Experience? @PwCAdvisory

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We’ve been told for at least two decades that the key to a great employee experience is what? 99% of answered probably one of two things:

1. Working for a great leader.

or

2. Having a best friend at work.

The reality is, the true key of a great employee experience is probably farther down the Maslow pyramid then we want to believe.

For sure it’s great to have a wonderful boss and great friendships at work, and those two things will give you a great employee experience, they will only give you a great experience is some others thing are first met. Things like being paid a wage that you feel is fair for the job you are doing and that is comparable with others doing the same job. Actually liking the job you are hired to do. Having the tools and technology available to you to be successful at your job.

PwC recently released their Tech at Work Report and found that while leaders believe they are attempting to deliver the right tools and technology (90% of executives believe they are paying attention to their employee’s needs when introducing new technology), only 53% of employees feel their leadership is actually delivering on this promise.

Our executives feel satisfied with their technology experience at work, while most employees are much less satisfied than their leadership team. Why? I would guess that most executives don’t live and work in the same tech environment as their teams, and while strong leaders will bring their teams in on those tech selection decisions, most do it so far into the process that employees will feel they can’t push back on decisions that have really already been made.

The PwC report also found that 73% of employees know of technology systems that could help them produce a higher quality of work. If that’s the case, that we aren’t giving our employees these tools, it will most likely lead to higher turnover. Employees will find work environments and work experiences that will assist them in being the most successful they can be, especially in today’s ultra-low unemployment environment.

Another critical factor found in the Tech at Work Report is that our employees want both digital and face-to-face interactions, but it depends on the interactions. For common HR/Work interactions (scheduling a vacation, IT help desk support, employee benefits, etc.) our employees prefer a digital experience. Whereas when we do things like training, communicating with peers, etc., we would much rather have those interactions face-to-face, and technology free.

So, how can we utilize technology to drive a great employee experience? 

First and foremost, we can decouple technology and the employee experience. These two things work together in a positive, or a negative, way when it comes to delivering a great experience. Also, the PwC report recommends:

– Don’t make technology decisions without knowing what the impact will be for the end-user. Sure you did that job, a decade ago, but have you done it recently?

– Get the right people in the decisionmaking loop who do know the current job and the impact new technology will have on the end user.

– Upskilling your workforce to new technology is not training, and we need to think about this process much differently. Employees who are upskilled are much more likely to value their experience and be retained longer.

Employee Experience is huge for 2019. With historic low unemployment and a demographic across the workforce that will keep unemployment low for the near future, it’s critical for organizations and leaders to understand how technology is driving positive employee experiences for great companies. Go check out the PwC report, it’s loaded with great information and advice!

Can we talk about the Kevin Hart Academy Award thing!?

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If you haven’t seen or heard, comedian Kevin Hart was asked to host the Oscars. It’s a big deal for an entertainer to get that gig, 25-30 million viewers big! After it was announced, some news outlets ran some stories about some homophobic tweets that Kevin did in 2009, 2010, and 2012.

The tweets are definitely insensitive. If you had an employee sending out those tweets, you would have a problem on your hands. Kevin is a comedian, and he truly believes he was being funny. He hasn’t sent tweets like that for the last five+ years.

The Academy asked Kevin to apologize. Kevin said he already apologized for those tweets and that is old business. The Academy said apologize or step down. He stepped down. He then went on Instagram and explained himself and why he wasn’t apologizing –

“I chose to pass, I passed on the apology. The reason why I passed is that I’ve addressed this several times. This is not the first time this has come up, I’ve addressed it. I’ve spoken on it.”

Hollywood Reporter did a poll of over 2200 adults and asked what they thought and here were some of the results:

  • 42% of viewed Hart as favorable, 14% viewed the Academy as favorable. (the rest in the middle)
  • 56 percent of respondents agreed with the statement, “An old social media post does not represent the person who posted it and has no influence on my opinion of someone.”
  •  44 percent agreed with the sentiment, “Social media posts are a form of expression and influence my opinion of someone regardless of how old the post is.”

GLAAD president and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said of Hart’s stepping down, “Hart’s apology to LGBTQ people is an important step forward, but he missed a real opportunity to use his platform and the Oscars stage to build unity and awareness.” I agree with Ellis, I would have loved to see Kevin come on and use his humor and influence to show people who he truly is and what he stands for.

This is some real life stuff.

We have employees. We have friends. We have family. We ourselves have said things and posted things for any number of reasons that we might probably don’t stand behind, but it catches up to us and now someone makes to make a big deal about it. There is a ton of learning here. I love comedy! I can put what a comedian says in the context that it’s a joke and it might be 100% the opposite of what they truly believe.

There’s a big part about Comedy is about pushing the line of what we feel is acceptable. We hear someone say something on a comedy stage that you would never hear in public and shock and awkwardness makes you laugh, not necessarily because you believe the statement, but because of how ludicrous it is.

What Kevin Hart does on Twitter is very different from what we see from other non-comedians on social media. That’s a huge difference, but Kevin doing it makes some feel they can do it. Again, it’s been a long while since he’s done this, and I think the Academy was wrong in not standing behind Kevin and saying, “Kevin has addressed these past tweets and apologized in the past, we won’t ask him to do that again, the Kevin we know and love is a man of…” That’s all that had to happen, and all of this would have gone away.

I think he and the Academy missed an opportunity to speak about this on one of the largest stages around. To bring awareness to a subject that hurts many people. 14 and 15-year-old boys still use “gay” as a negative when joking candidly with their friends because they don’t hear from people like Kevin Hart saying that it’s not a negative. Finding ways to make jokes using negative phrases and turning them into positive phrases, and yes it can be done and it can be funny.

I do not think something you posted on social media should follow you around for years if you’ve addressed and apologized for it, but it does, and it will. The cost of education at every age is super expensive. Kevin found out how expensive it can be at a very high level.

What do you think?

Forced Hugs will Continue in 2019, and you’ll Like it!

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Let me make this perfectly clear, I never forced anyone to hug me!

I did for 30 straight days once make one of my sons give me a kiss goodnight, or he wasn’t allowed to buy an airsoft gun. That was different, I only did that because I felt, as his parent, he needed to feel comfortable kissing another man. Wait, that doesn’t sound right. He needed to know it was alright to give a kiss to his father. I mean, he kissed his mom good night, what’s wrong with me!?

I’m a hugger, you all know that I wrote the rules on hugging in the workplace, and clearly, the CEO of Ted Baker, an iconic British fashion company, Ray Kelvin, did not read my rules! (editor side note: I love me some Ted Baker shoes, without hugs from Ray!)

For those who didn’t see (I had about a dozen of my friends and readers send me a link!) Kelvin got himself in trouble for what has been perceived in his company of “Forced” hugs:

“Thousands of people have signed an online petition to end a practice of “forced ‘hugging'” and demand a better way of reporting alleged harassment at fashion chain Ted Baker.

More than 2,000 members of staff and customers of the UK retailer have called on the firm’s founder and CEO, Ray Kelvin, to alter his behavior, including “inappropriate touching,” which they say is “part of a culture that leaves harassment unchallenged.”
The call has come in an open letter to the company’s board of directors on the online platform Organise, which runs workplace-specific campaigns.”
Ray! Ray! Ray! All you had to do was follow the rules, Ray!
Look, I love giving a hug as much as the next person, but ‘forced hugs’ are super creepy!
I don’t want to let one creep stop the practice of hugging professionally. I mean, let’s not throw out the baby with the bathwater, people! Hugging is fine if you follow the rules. Forcing someone to hug you is not fine. That’s pretty clear, right?
Now, this is the fashion industry and Ray is worth $660 million dollars, and if my career in HR has taught me anything, I’m fairly sure we’re about to see a lawsuit trying to make Ray worth less than $660 million. If Ray was worth $660 dollars he probably wouldn’t be able to force hugs on anyone, or if he did, he would be in jail!
It’s hard being a middle-aged white dude in 2018 with all the other middle-aged white dudes running around like they’re in an episode of Game of Thrones. Just because you have money doesn’t mean you can do whatever it is you want. Like you can’t just be the President and just say whatever is on your mind on social media and grab women by the, oh wait…
So, I’m a middle-aged white dude who likes to hug. The question is, should I stop?
That would all depend on whether or not my hugs are making you uncomfortable (don’t comment Kris Dunn, your words are irrelevant here, I know you like my hugs deep down in places you’re afraid to bring up at your therapist) and/or are unwanted. That’s why I put together the rules people! Over 1 million people have read the rules. Also the updated New & Improved Version! The Rules on Hugging in the Workplace, work, if you follow them!
Rules people! Let’s make HR great again!

GM Closing Plants is Just a Good Business Decision!

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I’m in the heart of GM country! My company, HRU Technical Resources (technical staffing), has worked with GM for 38 years! I have multiple family members that have worked at and retired from GM. GM is important to me, personally!

GM closing a few plants is the right decision. This decision might cost my company business and that will hurt.

President Trump can get really worked up over it and try to shame the GM executive team into changing their mind. The UAW can get all worked up and claim it’s the worst thing ever, but the reality is GM has to make the right business decision for the health of all GM employees for the future, not just for today.

In the past, GM wouldn’t have made this decision. They would have kept plants open and kept building cars that weren’t selling. The President would be happy. The UAW would be happy. And ultimately the U.S. Taxpayers bailed them out of bankruptcy. This time around GM, and their CEO Mary Barra, is making the sound financial, and very difficult, decision to close plants that aren’t making it.

Bravo, Mary Barra!

I feel for the UAW members who will be affected. I feel for the GM salaried employees who will be affected. It’s a horrible thing to lose a job and I don’t wish that upon anyone, ever.

This is still the right decision, as it will make the company stronger long-term and protect those jobs of the thousands of other UAW and GM salaried employees. You can’t keep building cars and trying to sell products that no one wants. GM doens’t do small cars as well as some of their competitors. Maybe never have. If you want a small/mid-sized car in the U.S. you buy a Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, or maybe even a Hyundai. The numbers don’t lie.

Every organization has to make unpopular and painful decisions to protect their business and help it thrive.

“Well, GM is going to profit $5 Billion in 2018, smarty pants, what about that!?!?!”

Yep, they are. That’s what a strong business is supposed to do, make a profit. All the stakeholders of a business demand it! Those stakeholders of GM are: UAW members, salaried GM employees, GM shareholders, GM supplier base, GM retirees, etc.  We’re talking hundreds of millions of lives that rely on GM being successful.

Healthy organizations go through times of growth and times of contraction. You have a product that is taking off, you add employees to meet market demand. Those products go out of favor and you reduce your employees base to meet that lack of demand. If you don’t, you go out of business and ALL employees and stakeholders suffer.

Mary Barra is making the tough decisions that her male predecessors were unwilling to make. Let that sink in a minute. Sure GM has closed plants in the past, but that was usually the last thing that happened, and only after they spent years burning cash and pushing forward no matter what the market was telling them.

So, yeah, this hurts. Closing plants and terminating people hurts. This is a strong business move, and it’s the right call for GM. Mary will be unpopular, but she’s doing what is needed for the whole, not the few.

I had a wise mentor once ask me a question. “Tim, do you want your team to throw you a party?” I didn’t understand. “Well, if you do want every employee wants, they’ll love you, and when you get fired, they’ll throw you a big party down at the local pub for your going away! If you do what’s right, they won’t like you as much, and they won’t throw you a party, because you won’t get fired. So, do you want a party or not?”

Mary doesn’t want a party, she just wants to do what’s best for everyone.

1 True Fan is How it all Starts!

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You’ve probably heard of the idea of 1,000 True Fans. Seth Godin gets a lot of credit for the idea, but he’s quick to point out he got it from Kevin Kelly over a decade ago.

True Fans are those people who really believe in you and your work. They make it a point to consume your content. If you’re close to them they’ll make a point of coming to see you. Most people don’t have any fans. Think about your normal employee working their average job. They do good, solid work, but no one is going out of their way to hear what they have to say.

Kelly’s idea about 1,000 True Fans is this:

“A true fan is defined as a fan that will buy anything you produce. These diehard fans will drive 200 miles to see you sing; they will buy the hardback and paperback and audible versions of your book; they will purchase your next figurine sight unseen; they will pay for the “best-of” DVD version of your free youtube channel; they will come to your chef’s table once a month. If you have roughly a thousand of true fans like this (also known as super fans), you can make a living — if you are content to make a living but not a fortune.

Here’s how the math works. You need to meet two criteria. First, you have to create enough each year that you can earn, on average, $100 profit from each true fan. That is easier to do in some arts and businesses than others, but it is a good creative challenge in every area because it is always easier and better to give your existing customers more, than it is to find new fans.

Second, you must have a direct relationship with your fans. That is, they must pay you directly. You get to keep all of their support, unlike the small percent of their fees you might get from a music label, publisher, studio, retailer, or other intermediate. If you keep the full $100 of each true fan, then you need only 1,000 of them to earn $100,000 per year. That’s a living for most folks.”

That’s a very good living for 99.9% of the world’s population. I could live comfortably in the U.S. on $100,000. Maybe not NYC, or San Francisco, but most places $100K gives me a wonderful life.

I wrote a book, The Talent Fix, that was launched in April 2018. I’ve written every day on this blog for over eight years. I’ve been blogging in the HR and Talent space for a decade. I know I have some True Fans. I don’t think I have 1,000, although I’ve sold way over 1,000 books. I think I would be comfortable saying I’ve got 100 True Fans.

Some might read that and think, well that’s not very much, but I would disagree! Think about your own life. Who are your “True Fans”. If you said tomorrow you’ll be on stage in your hometown talking about whatever and it costs $25 to see you, how many people are showing up? Now take that number and take away your parents, your spouse, your kids, etc. Now, how many are showing up?

100 is a good number. I’m working to get to 200, then 300, and maybe one day I’ll have 1,000 True Fans of my work. That would be very awesome!

My best True Fan story is that my wife jokingly calls me a “Micro-celebrity” saying there’s really only a couple dozen HR and Talent Pros in the world who know who you are. One day we were going on a trip and we were walking through Detroit Metro Airport. The new terminal is giant, a mile long.

So, we are standing in the middle of the terminal as people are rushing by to catch flights. We are discussing where we should grab a bite to eat before we get on a long flight and a guy walks by me. He stops and turns and says, “Hey, you’re Tim Sackett!” I said, I am, and started up the conversation around how he would know me, etc.

Turns out, he’s a ‘fan’ (his words, not mine), read my blog every day. Just happen to be making a connection in Detroit, he was a Talent Pro from the east coast. What a small world! As he walked away I could feel my wife staring at me, knowing she wouldn’t be able to fit my head into the plane! I mean, when your wife calls you a micro-celebrity and then you get noticed in an airport, well…

That how it all starts, one true fan who will notice you in an airport and show your wife you’re completely a micro-celebrity!

So, what does this have to do with anything? 

You don’t need to boil the ocean. You don’t need to recruit every candidate. You don’t need to have everyone see your employment brand. You need to start with one, then two, then three. That’s doable, you can do that, I can do that! Trying to do that with everyone, that seems impossible!

I’m Addicted to Hustle Porn!

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You follow Gary Vee on Instagram, right? I mean he’s just a truth teller! I don’t go to church, but I do watch Gary Vee videos any time I really need something from a higher power! (My friend Connie Costigan just threw up in her mouth a little – she can’t stand Gary!)

Gary Vee is probably the king of Hustle Porn! He’s made himself extremely rich out making people believe all you need to do, to become successful, is outhustle and outwork the next person. I actually believe this concept, but only if you already have a number of other things, like a brain, a decent reputation, the ability to connect with people, some sort of skills, etc.

All things being close to equal, outhustling and outworking your competition will push you over the top more times than not.

So, what’s Hustle Porn?

Hustle Porn is the concept that people put out on social media about how hard they are hustling always. It’s that Instagram photo at midnight of you still in the office all dark, except your laptop screen going with your latest project. Basically, projecting that you’re successful because you’re working late into the night.

Hustle Porn is basically the same thing as Crossfit Porn, Gluten-free Porn, etc. For most people it has nothing to do with reality, it’s all a mirage, but what it’s doing is making us all believe we have to do these things to be successful. You always have to be on! I work 24/7/365! I never turn it off! If I’m not putting in 100 hours per week, I just don’t feel fulfilled! You know what I’m talking about, this porn gets thrown at us constantly!

Reddit’s Alexis Ophanian came out this week and called Hustle Porn the most toxic and dangerous things in technology, in regards to the tech work environment:

“This is one of the most toxic, dangerous things in tech right now,” he says. “This idea that unless you are suffering, grinding working every hour of every day, you’re not working hard enough.”

“It’s such bulls—, such utter bulls—.”

Ohanian is referring to the fetishization of extremely long work hours, typically by entrepreneurs or tech workers, who give up nights and weekends to code their software or build their businesses.

What do I think? 

I think Alexis is a whiny, rich, child!

No one told Alexis he had to work 100 hours a week to make his dreams come true. No one tells any of us that we have to work 100 hours per week to make our dreams come true.

But, guess what? It takes a lot of f’ing work to make your dreams come true!

Do you hear Bill Gates go, “Oh, I wish I would have worked less on Microsoft!” No. Did you hear Steve Jobs go, “Oh, if really regret all the time I put into Apple to make it successful!” No! There work is their passion, so they wanted to put that time in to make successful. In fact, if you asked them if they would do it all again, they would!

Building a successful business is the American Dream. American Dreams don’t happen if you work 9 to 5 pm. Sorry, that sucks, but’s it’s mostly true! Hard work doesn’t always guarantee success, but it delivers more success than average work. You will almost never find anyone go, “yeah, well you know, I just showed up to work each and did my 40 hours and that’s when it all came together and I became super successful!”

I don’t have any problem with people wanting and believing they need to work harder than everyone else to become successful. Very few will do it, in reality. It’s not for everyone. The majority of people will work a normal job, collect a check, have other things in their life, and complain about some rich prick who has everything and they don’t understand why. But, those same people will never put in the work. The real work. The hard work. The long work.

The world needs ditch diggers. The world needs cashiers. Accountants. Lawyers. Doctors. Teachers. Engineers, etc. The world also needs those crazy entrepreneurs who will work ungodly hours for years trying to make their dream come true.

My issue with Hustle Porn is when you see idiots masking as hustlers when you know the truth! They throw up that IG photo of them flying on Sunday and they think somehow they’re a superhero because they flew out on personal time to make a Monday morning meeting in another city. Welcome to the show idiot, you’re not a superhero, that’s life!

The real hustlers don’t have to show how hard they’re working, what they will produce, will tell their hustle story.

Your Weekly Dose of HR Tech: @LinkedIn’s Talent Hub – LI jumps into the ATS space! @HireOnLinkedIn

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Today on The Weekly Dose I dive into LinkedIn’s foray into the applicant tracking space, with Talent Hub. For years the LinkedIn super users have been begging for an ATS from LI, and at LinkedIn Talent Connect their wish was finally granted! LinkedIn is calling their new ATS, Talent Hub and it’s built for mid-sized organizations that are full LinkedIn Recruiter users.

You don’t have to be LinkedIn Recruiter users to actually use Talent Hub, but it would be silly if you weren’t. Talent Hub was built for the sole purpose of being able to utilize all of LI’s products more effectively and efficiently, primarily Recruiter being the main one.

Why use LinkedIn Talent Hub for your ATS? 

First, if you already have an ATS and you’re a LinkedIn Recruiter shop (meaning you use LI Recruiter as your primary source of candidates) LI did build Recruiter System Connect (RSC) and has already built out integrations with many of the largest ATS’s on the market (Greenhouse, Jobvite, Taleo), and also built integrations with non-ATS providers like Workday Recruit.

Most mid-sized recruiting shops currently use around 9 tools to attract and hire candidates. Most of those shops would prefer one tool, full integration. Talent Hub was built to be that one tool, assuming you already use LinkedIn Recruiter has your primary sourcing tool. Also, crazy customization is not something you need. Talent Hub is a Saas model ATS and can be configured, but not customized. I find most mid-sized shops don’t need customization as all, so this will be a good fit.

What do I like about LinkedIn Talent Hub? 

– Love how LI built out a workflow that is modern, effective, and efficient. From the first intake/strategy meeting with a hiring manager, Talent Hub gives you market insights immediately while you’re building out the requisition with your hiring manager, that will help you save time and resources right off the bat!

– Talent Hub was built for hiring manager collaboration and they have their own dashboard that not only allows them to view and comment on candidates, it also gives them a deep view of the work that is being done (or not done) by the recruiting team on their opening. No longer will you have to answer the question, “So, what’s happening with my req?” Every HM will know in real-time what’s been done! I absolutely love this! LinkedIn is calling this the “Hiring Manager Digest”.

– Job distribution and social share are built in and you would expect that from a newly built ATS. What you get from Talent Hub is a fully integrated sourcing platform that as soon as you put in your requisition the system is already working in LI to show you exactly who’s in your talent pool to begin sourcing.

– Inmail and Email in one fully integrated platform. No longer will you have to deal with two inboxes, now you will have one for all of your email related communications.

– A robust scheduling tool that is really next level as compared to other ATSs in this market and price point. Allows your recruiting team to place values and priorities on each part of the interview process, so that if your number one decision maker has to cancel for some reason, the system automatically updates and reschedules everyone so a candidate isn’t being pulled back and forth until the ‘right’ person can be there.

– Offer process includes real-time market compensation data as part of the process to help the organization waste less time messing around with below-market offers.

What you won’t find in Talent Hub: 

– Indeed and Google for Jobs have no integration with Talent Hub, so your jobs won’t automatically show up on those platforms and you’ll have to manually work to get your job on those platforms or build workarounds.

– No Text/SMS messaging, although, I’m told this is on the roadmap. I understand why it’s not there, as it hurts Inmail usage, but in a modern ATS text messaging is a must, especially if you’re using your ATS/Recruiting platform to hire hourly candidates.

Talent Hub is fully designed to take advantage of LinkedIn’s other recruiting tools. It’s designed for non-LinkedIn users, and for good reason! LinkedIn Recruiter users wanted something to help them hire more candidates, faster, and LinkedIn definitely delivered on that! We can argue until the cows come home on whether or not a recruiting shop should be tied so strongly to one tool, or not, but it’s really a moot point. Talent Hub was designed for those who love using LI Recruiter and find it very effective. It was not designed for some super sourcer who has 32 Chrome sourcing extensions.

Should you demo Talent Hub? If you use LinkedIn daily to recruit, you should demo! The integrations between the products are super tight and make it really easy to use. The hiring manager digest is something every single ATS will steal and put on their roadmap! The data insights that help you with your intake meetings with hiring managers are a game changer.  So, yes, go give it a demo and see what you think!

The Weekly Dose – is a weekly series here at The Project to educate and inform everyone who stops by on a daily/weekly basis on some great recruiting and sourcing technologies that are on the market.  None of the companies who I highlight are paying me for this promotion.  There are so many really cool things going on in the tech space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on The Weekly Dose – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

Want help with your HR & TA Tech company – send me a message about my HR Tech Advisory Board experience.

The Newest Leadership Concept that will take 2019 by Storm: “Sunshining”!

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Have you heard of “Sunshining“? I’m guessing most of us haven’t. I came from Reed Hastings the CEO at Netflix. Netflix has a really transparent work environment and Reed and his executive team has started telling employees exactly why someone has been fired. They call these talks “Sunshining”!

It’s not just about explaining why someone got fired, it could be about almost anything. This radical transparency is part of Netflix’s unique culture and employee experience. If you have a question about anything, you’re encouraged to ask out in the open, and leadership is encouraged to welcome these discussions, even those that might be taboo in most company cultures:

In one “sunshining” scene described by the Journal, former talent chief Tawni Nazario-Cranz was asked by Hastings in front of dozens of executives why she paid for some of her team’s makeup and hair styling ahead of a company launch event. Nazario-Cranz said that if a manager took employees to a golf outing it wouldn’t be questioned, which led to a debate about “gender equity,” one person in attendance told the paper.

Employees are also encouraged to review each other and share feedback with their teams. There are”real-time 360″ lunches and dinners for feedback and criticism, with one former executive saying the pressure to participate was the “hardest part about the culture.”

 

Can you imagine sitting down in front of a department of employees and saying, “Hey, everyone, you all know Tim, your boss, well, I just fired Tim because Tim quite frankly wasn’t getting the results we hired him to get. Tim is right here, right now. Let’s discuss!”

 

Um, what!?! “Yeah, hey guys, let me wipe the tears away from my eyes, I’m still in a bit of shock, I guess I’m most concerned with how I’m going to pay my mortgage and tell my partner I just got fired, but what would you like to know?”

 

Holy crap! That could not happen, ever! Unless you had this culture of ongoing performance feedback and accountability where it was 100% out in the open that this was happening and there was no ill will. Even then, I’m still skeptical! I mean, I’m willing to sit down as a fired employee and talk to the troops if Reed is giving a giant parachute! “Oh, yeah, hey guys, I just lost my job, but I’m fine, I’m thinking of taking a couple of years off to pet puppies or something!”

 

Do you think your company culture could handle this right now?

 

I’m doubtful, primarily because this isn’t something you can just turn on and the next day start doing it. This is a fairly radical cultural shift to even open up and be that transparent across the organization. I think most of us would tell ourselves we would love to work in that type of environment until the mirror is turned on ourselves!

 

That’s a tough leadership environment to be a part of for sure!

 

What didn’t make it through Netflix’s leadership team? 

 

Having employees see each other’s salary! Reed wanted to open this up, the rest of the leadership shot this down:

 

Starting last year, Netflix allowed any executive above the director level to see the salaries of all employees, a decision that, like most of those detailed by the Journal, received mixed reviews from the people interviewed. In the case of employee pay, some said it led to awkwardness, while others said it encouraged people making less money to try and get raises. However, Netflix executives recently shot down an effort by Hastings to allow any employee to see the pay of any colleague, regardless of rank, the paper said.

 

I think that’s a giant step of any organization, but it’s probably the one step that needs to happen to fix gender pay inequality for good!

5 Things Great Employers are Doing to Drive World Class Candidate Experience in 2019!

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I’m still struck at how for the most part, we treat candidates like garbage. Historically in Talent Acquisition, we had this really weird power dynamic that took place. We believed we (TA) had jobs to give out or not give out, like prizes, so we would force candidates into our processes and make them jump through hoops.

It’s been a super hard habit for many of us to break! Even with historic low unemployment numbers!

I have some help for you! 

I’m partnering with the folks over at Candidate Rewards to put on a free, live 1-hour webinar titled:

5 Things Great Employers Are Doing to Drive World-Class Candidate Experience in 2019! 

What can you expect to get from this webinar?

– 5 Rock solid strategies and tactics you need to be using to deliver more candidates to your organization!

– 3 Things great organizations never do to candidates, and that you can easily change in your own TA Shop!

– Candidate Experience data that will give you the ammunition you need to change your executive’s mind and give you more budget money to fix your Candidate Experience issues!

– Live Q&A with me on your toughest Candidate Experience questions!

Candidates Experience has been one of the hottest topics over the past five years, and it’s never been hotter when it comes to the hiring environment that we are in right now! Right now is the perfect time for most of us to look at our 2019 strategies around Candidate Experience, because for most of us it’s TA Budget Time!

If you don’t plan, you plan to fail! That’s what we are always told, right!? So, let’s sit down for an hour and discuss how to make 2019 the best year you and your TA team has ever had!

REGISTER NOW for this free webinar! 

I’m looking forward to presenting this information, it’s the first time I’ve ever done a Candidate Experience presentation, and I’m sure my takes will probably be a bit different than most, but you’ll have to let me know!