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I wanted to be Anthony Bourdain.

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I didn’t anticipate that Anthony Bourdain’s suicide last week would have any impact on me. I loved watching his show. I love to cook, but I don’t consider myself a foodie. I love to travel, but I don’t consider myself worldly.

Anthony allowed me to be a foodie and worldly from the comfort of my own home, but even that wasn’t what I really loved about watching his show. He had this quality that I envied. The quality where you would find yourself saying, “when I grow up, I want to be like him”, except I’m grown and I still want to be like him.

Anthony went to some great places in the world, and he went to some shit holes. What I loved about Anthony was no matter where he went, he found beauty. Usually, the beauty he found was in the people he met. A simple meal, great conversation, moments. That was the true beauty of his show.

He was able to show me what was really important in life. Not that I didn’t know, but it’s rare for a personality to do it in such a way where you felt like you were sitting at the table with him. In fact, you felt at any time he could be at your table and the show would work just as well.

It didn’t have to be some exotic, out of the way, locale. When he came to Detroit, he said he wanted to be from Detroit. Come on! No one really wants to be from Detroit! Anthony did. He was a rare creature that wanted to be from everywhere because he saw the beauty in everywhere.

It wasn’t naïve. He also saw the shit. He saw the awfulness, which made him appreciate the beauty in all places. That’s what I envied most I think. It’s easy to beauty in beautiful places, it’s hard to see beauty in the worst places.

In the end, we don’t get enough of the moments that Anthony was creating. Some good food, some great company, with real conversations where we listen to the beauty and the pain. Where we take the time to have a two-hour meal and just enjoy each other.

Years ago, one of my most favorite people in the world past away, Leo Buscaglia (the Love Doctor). It was another death that impacted me more than I thought it would. I just knew I would desperately miss him.

An interesting thing happened, though, in that I didn’t miss him. I carried him with me. When I re-read his books, I heard his voice reading them to me. I could watch his talks on YouTube. I have a feeling I won’t miss Anthony as much as I think, because I’ll watch endless re-runs of his show, and it will feel like he’s still here with me.

I’m happy to have found Anthony Bourdain, along with millions of others. My life is better for having known him, even if he didn’t know me. He taught me how to be a better traveler. A better person in a small way. I so appreciate this.

I mourn for his friends and family that knew him intimately. For his daughter, that will spend a lifetime wondering why, and never being able to find an answer. I hope his death will save others, and maybe inspire all of us to sit down with friends more often and break bread and share a glass.

Regardless, I still want to be Anthony Bourdain…

Managing Change in HR and TA – What Would Sackett Do?

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Hey gang! On May 21st (this upcoming Monday) there is a free online virtual summit around change and innovation. I was invited to participate and you can hear my interview on thoughts around innovation in HR and Talent Acquisition, as well as, how I think we (HR and TA) should be change leaders in our organizations!

As a featured guest I’m able to share FREE passes to the Summit. I don’t think they really understood how many people read the blog! They said my free passes are unlimited by just clicking on the link – so Enjoy! I know there are a bunch of other great folks speaking as well around change and innovation so check them out!

Whether you are a leader who is experiencing a change in your organization, an HR professional who is dealing with change, or someone looking to reinvent how you show up every day, you may benefit from conversations with some of the brightest thinkers in Change and Innovation around the world.

The Summit provides tools, strategies, and concepts on how to best lead change and navigate the future of work.  Whether you’re leading a Fortune 500 organization or looking to reinvent yourself, this Summit is packed with insights and practices to promote innovative ideas and successfully implement change.

Click this link for your FREE Pass and be sure to catch my session!

The Change and Innovation Summit runs May 21st-25th and it’s on-demand, meaning you can come in any time during that week (if you’re signed up) and catch the sessions you want when you want since they will all be recorded.

Go check it out and let me know what you think. The virtual conference format has become popular in the past couple of years. It allows thousands of people access to some great information that previously they just couldn’t afford to travel to conferences, or couldn’t afford the time away from the office! For whatever reason, attending this ‘virtually’ becomes a great option for everyone!

Every New Leader Has Two Things!

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Are you a new leader or do you know someone who is about to get into a new leadership position? This post is for them!

Every time a new leader starts in a position they only bring two things with them:

  1. Your resume.
  2. A speech.

Your resume is easy. It’s all the crap you did in your career to this point. You’ll be judged on that resume by your new team. It can go a number of ways, but usually, if you got hired, you have the resume to back it up.

There’s nothing you can do about your resume when you start a new position. You are who you are, regardless of how you got to this point in a new leadership role. It’s too easy for people to check up on you, so lying isn’t a real answer, especially when starting a new job.

The speech, on the other hand, is completely up to you!

Every new leader needs to come into the new role with ‘the speech’. Your speech. What does your speech need to have in it? Well, that really depends on what kind of leader you are, but here are some basic components:

1. Why you? Why are you the one to lead us? What is your personal vision in life?

2. What were you hired to do?

3. What about us? How do ‘we’, your team, fit into this?

4. How will we know if we succeed or not?

5. What are some things we should know about your style?

This is your Day 1 speech. I know you want to wait a while. Get to know your new team. Get to know the ‘real’ problems. Get your feet on the ground. But you can’t. You don’t have that time.

You have to come in and be ready to deliver your speech. This one speech will most likely dictate your success as much as your resume. You will either kick off this new leadership position with the right momentum, or you’ll just be another schmuck to take over and do what every other person before you did, fail.

Does it feel like I’m putting too much weight on this one thing?

I’m not. I’m actually trying not to scare you, because most people don’t give great speeches when they’re terrified they’ll fail. But, don’t kid yourself, this Day 1 leadership speech is critical to your success.

You are now the leader. Everyone is looking at you for the answers. You might not have any of them, yet, but you better make it sound like you have them, or you’re about to discover them!

You only bring two things with you into this new position. You only control one of them, at this point. Don’t miss.

 

The Talent Fix – My new book is now available to purchase! If your organization is having trouble hiring, this is a must buy! 

Talent Fix Review: My mom says it’s her favorite book that I’ve written!!! (I’ve only written one book!)

Purchase The Talent Fix now! 

Are you “True” to your game?

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There is a phrase that is often used in a number of contexts, the phrase is:

“Stay true to the game” 

I’ve always almost seen it used when talking about sports, and almost always in basketball. But I’ve seen it used across pop culture for decades.

“The game” is that thing you do. Maybe it’s sales. Maybe it’s accounting. Maybe it’s basketball. My ‘game’ is recruiting. Third-party, corporate, RPO, the vendors that support recruiting, we are all in the same game.

“Stay true” well that’s a little more difficult to define for each of us. What does it mean to ‘stay true’ to recruiting?

If you pull out recruiting and think about what does it mean to ‘be true’ to anything. Think about that one thing you’re most passionate about. How are you ‘true’ to that passion? How do you think about it? How do you ensure it’s number one in your life? What do you give to that passion to demonstrate it’s your truth?

I think this helps to start paint the picture of what being true to recruiting is all about.

My game is recruiting. If I’m true to my game there are things I need to do. Here are some of things I do to stay true to my game:

– Consume anything about recruiting I can get my hands on.

– Network with people in recruiting at all levels that are better than me.

– Take calls and notes from others in the field who want my knowledge and share constantly.

– Constantly think and act in a way that will raise my game.

– Understand that being true to recruiting is a choice. My choice.

If I’m going to be true to my game I need to constantly search for ways to raise my game and raise the game overall as a profession.

I’m a busy guy (aren’t we all!). I run a staffing company (HRU Technical Resources). I write every day and share freely with the community. I wrote a book (The Talent Fix). I volunteered and I’m on the board of the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals (ATAP) as the President-Elect, and I run the Michigan’s Recruiter’s Conference each year.

At the same time, I constantly push my team to leverage the latest and greatest recruiting technology on the planet, and push them to be life-long learners of sourcing and recruiting. I’m sure that isn’t the easiest environment to work in. But, I’m staying true to the game.

It’s Monday. You have a choice to make today. Do you stay true to your game, or not?

Do you even know what your “game” is? If you do, congratulations, you are already on a great path! A powerful path! Knowing what game is yours is more than half the battle. Once you find it, the work to stay true isn’t work, it almost becomes an obsession of sorts! In a good way!

So, my challenge to you this Monday is simple. In the comments below, tell me what your game is. Then, tell me what you’ll do this week to stay true to your game! Go.

The Weekly Dose of HR Tech: @Greenhouse Inclusion! #ghOPEN

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This week I’m in New York City at the Greenhouse OPEN, the recruiting user conference put on by ATAP sponsor Greenhouse. This morning Greenhouse made a major product announcement of Greenhouse Inclusion. 

Greenhouse Inclusion is an add-on product to the Greenhouse ATS that will help organizations in their attempt to attract and recruit a more inclusive workforce. From Greenhouse’s VP of Marketing, Maia  Joshbachvivli:

“The problem is not that companies don’t mean well – many companies have good intentions but are facing challenges when trying to realize their visions. What we’ve seen is that companies often focus on a few targeted strategies, but struggle to incorporate inclusive behavior across the organization in a holistic and lasting way. Greenhouse Inclusion will create a level playing field for candidates of all backgrounds by giving employers the ability to operationalize and measure the behavior change needed to mitigate bias in all aspects of hiring.”

D&I hiring has been a major challenge for all organizations and Greenhouse set out to develop a technological solution that will directly impact inclusive hiring in a measurable way.

What I like about Greenhouse Inclusion: 

– Greenhouse ATS clients can now dig into their recruiting funnel and see exactly where inclusive hiring is an issue within their organization. What Greenhouse found in beta was that many organizations will find this is not a top of funnel issue. Greenhouse Inclusion will show exactly within the funnel where inclusive hiring is failing.

– Greenhouse Inclusion is configurable to blind information on resumes that organizations decide might hinder inclusive hiring. These include the ability to blind name, school, company, etc., based on protocols each organization can determine for themselves.

– Greenhouse Inclusion also discovered that successful inclusive hiring starts with ensuring all individuals follow through with your hiring process, so GH Inclusion places well timed ‘nudges’ to individuals to come back and complete the application process, ensuring you get more of the individuals you desire to increase your inclusive hiring.

Greenhouse Inclusion is currently being marketed as an add-on solution to current Greenhouse ATS customers. I really liked the ability to use your own data to determine where in the recruiting funnel your inclusion hiring was falling down, allowing your organization to make adjustments in real-time to your process to get candidates through your process.

This isn’t a marketing ploy by Greenhouse. Greenhouse partnered with the D&I experts at Paradigm and experts at Stanford and the University of Indiana to ensure they were developing a product that was scientifically based on the best practices of D&I hiring. From an ATS perspective, it’s really impressive what they’ve put together.

The reality is, we all care about D&I hiring. Where we struggle is actually making it happen. Greenhouse has put forth a real product that will actually help organization reach their goals to become more inclusive, and do it in a way where HR and your executive team will feel confident it was done the right way.

Career Confessions of GenZ: Are Dream Jobs a Lie?

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Career Confessions from GenZ is a weekly series authored by Cameron Sackett, a Sophomore at the Univesity of Michigan majoring in Communications and Advertising. Make sure you connect with him on LinkedIn:

In 2014 I (Tim, not Cameron) wrote a post titled, “Dream Jobs are a Lie!”  It’s one of my most read posts of all time. One reason is the title is SEO gold, turns out a lot of people are using the search term “dream jobs”.

When I wrote the post I was basically speaking to the Millennial generation. What I wanted to find out is whether or not GenZ felt like they were also feeling the pressure of finding their “dream job”. So, I went right to my GenZ Expert, Cameron Sackett!

Since we are in Miami on vacation – we decided to go all GenZ and do this post via video –

Let us know what you think in the comments! Do you think the concept of a Dream Job is a lie? Should people be chasing ‘their’ dream job?

 

HR and TA Pros – have a question you would like to ask directly to a GenZ? Ask us in the comments and I’ll have Cameron respond in an upcoming blog post right here on the project. Have some feedback for Cameron? Again, please share in the comments and/or connect with him on LinkedIn.

3 Ways You Can Extend the Work Life-Cycle of Older Employees

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One of the biggest biases we have as leaders is ageism. If you’re 35 years old and running a department and you are looking to fill a position on your team that will be your righthand person, the last thing you’re looking for is a 55-year-old to fill that spot! That’s just me being real for a second.

You and I both know that 35-year-old hiring manager is looking for a 25 – 28 year old to fill that spot

That’s mainly because at 35 your still basically stupid. I was. You were. We think 35ish is the pinnacle of all knowledge, but it’s really when we just start learning for real.

So, we have this core issue to deal with in workplaces right now. Our leaders are mostly Millennial and GenX, and Millennial are increasing into these roles at a rapid rate. Because of the Boomers leaving in large amounts, there aren’t enough talented young workers to replace the knowledge gap that is being left. So, we are left grappling with what we think we want (youth) with what really need (experience!).

A recent study at the University of Minnesota found that employers need to add programs to focus on older workers:

The study argued that programs aimed at training workers won’t be enough to satisfy the state’s need for workers between 2020 and 2030. New policy directives and incentives may be needed, including offering pathways for baby boomers to delay retirement, drawing in workers from other states and supporting immigration from other countries

“There’s all this focus on workforce development, but none of it is guided to older workers,” said Mary Jo Schifsky, whose business, GenSync, advocates for meaningful career pathways for older adults and who helped initiate the study for the Board on Aging with the U’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. “We need career pathways for older workers just as much as we do for younger workers.”
 
In the U survey, managers ranked baby boomers high on loyalty, professionalism, engagement and their commitment to producing quality work.
Employers need to find ways to extend the Work Life Cycle of the older employees that work for them until the workforce, technology, and retraining programs can catch up to fill the void. Most employers are only focused on programs that are looking at younger workers.
So, what can you do as an employer to extend the life cycle of your older employees?
1.  Have real conversations with older employees about what they want. Most employers shy away from having the ‘retirement’ conversation with older employees because they think it’s embarrassing or illegal. It’s not. It’s a major reality of workforce planning. “Hey, Mary, Happy 55th Birthday, let’s talk about your future!” Oh, you want to work 18 more years! Nice! Let’s talk career path!
I can’t tell you how often I’ve heard a hiring manager say, “I don’t want to hire him because he’s 59 and is going to hire soon.” Well, I spoke to him and he wants to work until he’s 70 (11 years) and our average employee tenure is 4.7 years. I think we’re good!
2. Stop, Stop, Stop, believing that all you can do is hire full and part-time FTEs into roles. If Mary, my 63-year-old financial analyst wants to give me five more years of work, but only wants to work three days per week, in role ‘traditionally’ we’ve only had full time, I’m taking Mary for three days! HR owes it to our organizations and hiring manager to push them out of the box when it comes to schedules and how we have always filled positions. 3 days of Mary is probably worth 3 weeks of an entry-level analyst in the same role!
We do this to ourselves. I hear it constantly from hiring managers, “HR won’t allow me to do that.” Why? Have you asked? No, but HR doesn’t allow us to do anything. We need to come to our hiring managers with solutions and let them see we are open to doing whatever it takes to help the organization meet it’s people needs.
3. Develop programs and benefits specifically designed to retain older employees. I work with a plant manager who developed an entire engineering internship program around having his retired engineers come back and work three days a week with interns and paid them ‘on-call’ wages for the days they weren’t there, so interns could call them with questions at any time. These retired engineers loved it! They could come do some real work, help out, and still have a great balance.
It went so well, he kept some on all year, on-call, and partnered them with younger engineers who needed the same support and assistance from time to time. The on-call rate was pretty inexpensive, the support and knowledge they got in return, was invaluable.
It all comes down to flexibility on our part as employers to extend the life cycle of our older employees. We no longer have this choice where we can just throw our older employees away and think we can easily replace them. We can’t! There physically isn’t anyone there!
This is about using each other’s strengths. Younger leaders will be stretched and we need to help them stretch. We need to help older employees understand their role. In the end, we need to find a way where we can all see each other for the strengths we bring to the table, not the opportunities.
It’s our job as HR professionals to work on how we can extend the life cycle of each of our employees.

The Weekly Dose of HR Tech: @Greenhouse Recruiting Software & ATS

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The week on the Weekly Dose I review the popular applicant tracking system Greenhouse. I first learned about Greenhouse in 2015 and wrote about as a startup SMB ATS, but it was time to update that review and let you know how they’ve grown.

Since my last review Greenhouse has grown considerably (3,000+ customers) and has a number of companies using them with over 25,000 employees, so we can easily place them in the mid to enterprise market in the ATS space. Definitely, if you’re in that 1,000 to 25,000+ world, this is one of the stand-alone recruiting platforms that you must consider.

The “enterprise” HCM suites (from vendors like Oracle, Workday, etc) are generally able to support the complex IT requirements of big companies, but the Talent Acquisition module has been an afterthought and not really designed to support world-class TA functions. Greenhouse does both – handle the global complexities but with a focus on delivering the tools needed for a strategic, high-performing TA function.

What I like about Greenhouse: 

– The only ATS I’ve seen that has a built-in candidate experience survey.  If Candidate Satisfaction is important to your organization Greenhouse customers have a significantly higher rate than others based on Talent Board results.

– Built-in CRM tech allows you to keep pipelines engaged and nurture candidates in your database. Sourcing Quality Report which not only tells you where you hire the most candidates from but how far into the process do candidates get via each source.

– Blinded ‘take home’ assessments that help reduce hiring bias within the organization, combined with interview kits for hiring managers to ensure you improve diversity and inclusion within your organization.

– Predictive analytics that can help show you if you’ll be able to fill the positions you have open at the time needed, allowing you to adjust sourcing as needed to reach goals.

– Recruiter/hiring manager auto-alerts when candidates have been in process for too long, which kills candidate experience.

Greenhouse is the real deal when it comes to ATS technology. I can’t really do justice how much you can do with them, especially on the collaboration side of working through the interview process with everyone involved from approval through hire. If you’re looking to upgrade your talent acquisition technology Greenhouse is a great foundational piece to start with.

Greenhouse is definitely one to add to your demo list if you’re in the process of selecting a new ATS. I’ve yet to speak to a TA Leader who was using Greenhouse and left them because they wanted to find something better. I’ve spoken to many who have left others to go to Greenhouse and seem really satisfied.

You can also check out Greenhouse at their annual conference in New York – OPEN 2018 April 2-4, where Patty McCord (one of my favs!) will be keynoting.  

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

Are you willing to reduce your office cafeteria prices for female employees?

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I read an article a few weeks back in Detroit about a local gym that is offering a reduced gym membership for females. Males pay full price, females pay 30% less because females make less than males. How does that sound?

From the article:

“Ever wonder why XY>XX? WE DO! The Gym values its male members tremendously but we don’t value them a THIRD more than our female members!” the ad reads

The ad goes on to read that women can join for $20 a month with no initiation fee. The Gym Lake Orion’s ad promoting that women will pay 1/3 less for membership than men. (Photo: Rich Garvin)

The manager and operator of the gym, Rich Garvin, wants to even the playing field for women due to the pay disparity between men and women. “It’s just difficult to observe injustice or unfairness,” said Garvin. “I think it’s important that we don’t sit idly by … if we do, we condone it. And I don’t condone it.”

Garvin also said he’s not raising anyone’s prices. “You can get a $30 a month membership (for $20) … having a discount, encouraging women to come in, in an attempt to make it a little easier for them to do so, I think is a good business practice and just the right thing to do.”

So, first let me call B.S. on this entire thing and say I don’t believe Rich the owner one even little bit!

The type of gym that Garvin runs is more likely frequented by weightlifting dudes. He knows if he can get more women to sign up, even more, weightlifting dudes will show up. This is just good old fashion marketing, wrapped in activism for a hook.

Can you imagine if you actually tried to do something real like this in your workplace!?

Hey, employees!

This year we’ve decided instead of actually fixing pay inequality, we’re just going to reduce the cost of everything females might pay for in our environment! Health insurance is now 30% off! Coffee at the coffee bar is now 30% off and get scones buy 1, get 1! All full priced menu items in the cafeteria will be 30% off for women only.

Male employees don’t get upset, you make more money!

Have a great week!

HR

Yeah, that probably wouldn’t play well! But, is that the ‘right thing to do’?

So, this sounds completely crazy. Of course, you would never charge employees differently for the same access to healthcare and cafeteria food! I mean come on!

But, what do you do when you know you have certain employees making less for doing the same work? Do you automatically do what’s right and adjust their salary to make it equitable?

Giving your female employees a 30% discount on cafeteria food and drinks sounds ridiculous, but so does paying a woman less for doing the same work.

Career Confessions from GenZ: How Does GenZ Want You to Communicate With Them?

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Career Confessions from GenZ is a weekly series authored by Cameron Sackett, a Sophomore at the Univesity of Michigan majoring in Communications and Advertising. Make sure you connect with him on LinkedIn:

One of the things that my generation is most notorious for is our cell phone usage. According to The Washington Post, current teens are spending over 1/3 of the day on their phones. Now, I’m going to be upfront and say that I’m an avid phone and social media user, and I understand the potential dangers of spending too much time on your phone. On the other hand, I don’t foresee my cell phone usage habits or my generation’s changing significantly any time soon.

Due to this, companies are looking at changing how they recruit their candidates. As I am just dipping my toes into the workforce, I am starting to see how the interview process may be changing in the age of cell phones.

The majority of my communication with potential employers for all jobs that I’ve had has been e-mail. This is something that I’m all about. E-mail is like a more formal version of a text, where you don’t have the pressures to respond immediately and you can spend time thinking of a more formulated response.

Personally, I think that e-mail should stay as the main form of communication for communicating with candidates. I’ve heard that some companies are trying to implement texting or text messaging like platforms into their hiring process. Here’s the way I see it: when I text someone, I’m usually typing in an informal way and I typically respond ASAP. Also, a lot of errors occur in texting, like typos or texting the wrong person. These are easily fixed when you’re talking with your friends but not necessarily a potential employer.

I’m totally open to texting in the interview process, but I have my concerns.

Now when it comes to the more direct form of communication, let me dispel a common myth about Gen-Z: we don’t hate talking on the phone, we hate calling people on the phone. There is a HUGE difference between answering a phone call and calling someone and personally, I would much rather answer the phone than call someone. In addition, I think most of my generation does better in a face-to-face style of an interview because it allows for more of a personal connection. This may scare many people, but when a relaxed environment is created in an interview, I think that many of us would come to prefer in-person interviews.

Lastly, I don’t want to see recruiters messaging me on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat or any other social media platform. This isn’t because my social media profiles are inappropriate, thankfully I have some monitors on my profiles to keep them nice and clean (I see you Mom and Dad), but it’s because I see social media as a place that I can use for fun and enjoyment. I don’t want to have to constantly worry about messaging potential employers back on these platforms when I just want to use them to share/follow people and things I like.

Now, I am on the older side of Gen-Z (my 14-year-old brother is in Gen-Z too, how crazy!), so my opinions might not hold for the kids currently in middle and high school. I can say this: I (and most other college students) check our emails just about as much as you do, so that’s a good place to start!

_________________________________________________________________________________

HR and TA Pros – have a question you would like to ask directly to a GenZ? Ask us in the comments and I’ll have Cameron respond in an upcoming blog post right here on the project. Have some feedback for Cameron? Again, please share in the comments and/or connect with him on LinkedIn.

Besides being a Dad with a network, I thought the best way to get my son some ‘real-world’ experience would be to put himself out there as a writer! Let him know what you think and let us hear what you would like to learn about the next big generation entering our workforce!