Be Careful What You Incentivize! You Actually Might Get It!

I’m fascinated in how we compensate and incentivize employees. Not the actual process, but the decision-making process behind the what and how we do it. In my experience, how this usually goes is a two-level process:

First Level: Someone has a hunch, or it’s being done this way somewhere else.

Second Level: Someone in compensation searches for data to justify the hunch or data that agrees with what you want to do.

Real scientific, huh!?

Let me give you a real-world example that most of us are familiar with. We have a prison problem in America. We can all agree on this, correct? Prison populations are exploding and continuing to grow at an alarming rate.

Popular ‘theory’ says the reason behind this are based on a few situations. First, the war on drugs has caused the increase in more inmates in prison. Seems fair, we definitely hate those drugs. Second, for-profit private prisons have turned prisons into a business and this keeps prisoners in longer than they need to be. Third, minimum sentences and three-strike policies have people in prison for life for minor crimes and drug offenses.

What if you were to find out none of this is actually true? That in fact, the real reason we have exploded our prison population over the past two decades is because of one simple incentive program. This is probably going to piss you off!  From The New Yorker:

“So what makes for the madness of American incarceration? If it isn’t crazy drug laws or outrageous sentences or profit-seeking prison keepers, what is it? Pfaff has a simple explanation: it’s prosecutors. They are political creatures, who get political rewards for locking people up and almost unlimited power to do it…between 1990 and 2007, while the crime rate began to fall, the number of line prosecutors went up by fifty percent, and the number of prisoners rose with it. That fact may explain the central paradox of mass incarceration: fewer crimes, more criminals; less wrongdoing to imprison people for, more people imprisoned….

Meanwhile, all the rewards for the prosecutor, at any level, are for making more prisoners. Since most prosecutors are elected, they might seem responsive to democratic discipline. In truth, they are so easily reëlected that a common path for a successful prosecutor is toward higher office. And the one thing that can cripple a prosecutor’s political ascent is a reputation, even if based on only a single case, for being too lenient. In short, our system has huge incentives for brutality, and no incentives at all for mercy.”

Go read the full piece in The New Yorker, it’s loaded with statistics to back up these real reasons for prison growth, and it’s an exceptional example of you actually get what you incentivize!

Many times we come up with incentive plans based on a short-term situation we want to change, but then years later those short-term incentive plans are still in place, and driving behaviors we never wanted or intended.

The other stat I loved from the article that we never hear in mainstream media or from our politicians is after the age of 40, most crime just stops. Basically, crime is young person’s game for the most part. If we were to release all prisoners at age 40, we would basically see no increase in the crime rate, but this will never happen. Why?

Because it only takes one. It takes one person getting out and committing another horrific crime and we all go, “See! It doesn’t work!” And, if it was someone I know, or god forbid my family, I’m probably right there with you. So, we lock up 7 Million Americans!

Be careful what behaviors you’re incentivizing, my friends, you actually just might get them!

T3 – @SymphonyTalent_ Are you ready to recruit like a marketer?

This week on T3 I review the end to end TA technology platform Symphony Talent. You may not have heard of Symphony Talent, but I’m sure you will recognize many of the organizations that came together to build this platform.

The dream child of Hodes (one of the top employment ad agencies in the world) who went out and bought a bunch of really good TA tech (SkillCheck, Findly, HRLogix, Innovantage, QUEsocial, and others) put it all under the same ultra-modern UI to create something in talent acquisition no one on the market can claim to have.

Symphony Talent is two talent acquisition platforms in one. M-Cloud, an artificial intelligence-based media buying platform for employers, and X-Cloud, an omni-channel experience platform for candidates, employers, and employees. X-Cloud is the ATS, CRM, branding side of the platform.

So, what the heck does it do? 

I found myself asking what doesn’t it do?! The reality is, it might be the first end to end TA platform that actually can replace almost all of your TA Tech stack, or the closest anyone has come to this point. It’s on a different planet from tech perspective than most enterprise level TA platforms.

Super smart move from the Hodes side of the business. Organizations spend a ton of money with Hodes to build out an employment brand, advertising campaigns, etc. Only to then take it back to inferior technology and watch all of that money go down the drain. Hodes built a platform that allows organizations to go after candidates like consumers.

What do I like about Symphony Talent: 

– Built in Programmatic Job On-demand Ad buying in an A.I model. This alone would have me loving it, but being built into the ATS and CRM is really a few years ahead of where the competition is in this space. This makes programmatic super simple for TA and it’s tied directly into the posting of your jobs.

– Candidate experience was taken to the next level where candidates can check-in and track their own progress through the apply process, and like a consumer site, they can come and go and the system instantly recognizes them and takes the back to where they left off.

– Predictive analytics shows recruiters how long it will take them to fill a job (based on up to the minute market conditions) as soon as it’s posted.

– The User Interface in the X-Cloud portion of Symphony is unlike any other ATS-like product on the market. Ultra-modern, easy to use, and intuitive.

– Built in CRM functionality is not light by any means. Great candidate personalization for returners built on machine learning that will continue to direct the right content and messaging as the candidate evolves their experience with you.

Symphony Talent is really packed with functionality on the X-Cloud side of the platform, but the media buy side, M-Cloud, is just a game changer! The other side of this is Symphony Talent doesn’t have to be an all or nothing platform. They’ve already integrated with iCims, Taleo, Silkroad, etc. So, you can pick the parts you really like, that you’re current stack is lacking.

Built for Mid to Enterprise-sized organizations, but I can see some real tech-savvy SMB’s with cash that will want to get their hands on this, especially in really tough candidate driven markets. Hodes has strength in healthcare, so I would imagine this would blow almost any TA Tech stack out of the water in that industry for those organizations struggling to hire nurses and other healthcare pros.

A real must see demo if you’re in the market.

T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – 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 T3 – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

T3 – @Ideal – A.I. for Recruiting

This week on T3 I take a look at recruiting artificial intelligence solution Ideal. Ideal uses artificial intelligence to screen resumes, uncover past applicants for new roles and initiate candidate outreach.

All of this is done seamlessly within your existing ATS. So, Ideal is a technology solution that you actually don’t see. It runs in the background and automatically ranks and contacts candidates to begin the screen process with your team doing nothing.

Ideal will automate low-level recruiting tasks, increasing the capacity of your recruiting team to work on more strategic projects. Every single applicant, for every single position, gets analyzed no matter where they come into the recruiting process. Ideal’s artificial intelligence will then quickly move top candidates through the recruiting funnel.

What I like about Ideal? 

– Ideal works with new applicants and automatically will rediscover old applicants within your ATS database and also reach out to those candidates for positions you post where there might be a fit. This will automatically increase the value of your ATS.

– Having A.I. do initial screen, score, and reach out will eliminate a ton of initial selection bias that your own team isn’t even aware they have, which will result in many candidates making to the next level of your process that would never have before.

– Every single applicant is auto-scored from A to D. “A” candidates automatically get contacted and screened by Ideal, while B through D level candidates might get recommended for jobs you have that are a closer fit for their skill set. If the recruiting team needs to go beyond A candidates, they can have Ideal screen next level candidates they select.

– This tech is invisible to your team. No additional sign-on, no additional training, it’s fully integrated into your ATS and works with your current technology and process. There is a system dashboard for the TA leader so you can see the data behind the scenes to ensure it’s working as it should.

I think solutions like Ideal are how most organizations are going to test the A.I. waters in HR and TA technology. If you are doing high volume hiring, Ideal is almost a must try! The cost of the solution is dependent on your candidate volume, but even for enterprise players, it seemed very reasonable.

I would definitely demo and speak to the Ideal team about how this solution could impact your hiring and process. I think TA leaders at all sized organizations will find this pretty attractive and want to do some testing with it!

T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – 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 T3 – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

Every Moment Matters! #UltiConnect @UltimateHCM

So, I’m out at the Ultimate Software Conference this week and they had one of the most unique keynotes, Will Smith! Yeah, that Will Smith! Fresh Prince, I Am Legend, Hancock, Men In Black, Bad Boy himself!

At HR Conferences you don’t normally get big time Hollywood. You usually get a dude who’s really good looking, who wrote a book, telling motivational stories. The HR ladies tend to like those types. Well, they really liked Will! I really liked Will!

For starters, Will Smith is an entertainer. He immediately grabbed the audience and didn’t let go. He knows how to control and audience, tell great stories, be funny, and hit on big themes that make you think and leave you feeling motivated. That’s what a great keynote can do.

My favorite story he told was about his father dying. His father was told he had three months to live and he ended up living about six months. Will said after they got to three months every single moment felt like it really could be the last moment.

Because of this, hellos became special, goodbyes tended to linger longer, embraces were more special. It went on like that for another three months, and it made Will realize that all moments with those that you love and care about, should be moments like this because we don’t know if that will be the last moment.

On the last day of his dad’s life, Will was in LA and his dad was back in Philly. Will’s dad called him on Facetime and told him he thought this was it, that this was going to be his last day. Since he was going through this, it wasn’t a shock, but he stayed on the phone with him for a while.

Will said they went about fifteen minutes without saying anything to each other, just staring at each other, just spending this time together in the only way they could at that moment. Will’s sister was with her father in Philly and eventually broke the silence and said, “Well, dad, do you have anything you want to say to Will?”

His response was awesome and it brought down the house in classic Will Smith fashion:

My dad said, “Shit, anything I haven’t told this motherfucker isn’t going to make a difference now!”

He died that night. The crowd laughed. Will laughed. At the story, not at his dad dying!

The crowd laughed. Will laughed. At the story, not at his dad dying!

Most of us won’t be as lucky as Will to know you have that time and also in that time realize the importance of those moments. Our loved ones will die today, tomorrow, next week, and we won’t have any idea that it’s coming. We live with this reality.

We also live with a reality that we don’t have to let these moments go by. We can choose to not let moments go by and let people know how much we value them and care about them. For me, that was the real message Will was sharing.

You’ll have a bunch of moments today with people you care about. Try not to miss them!

T3 – Great Video as Part of Employment Brand and Beyond? @LaunchMediatv

This week on T3 I present an option for doing great video for the majority of us. LaunchMedia.tv is a video production crew that has created a nice niche in the employment space. Employment branding, recruitment, safety and training videos, etc.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock you know video has exploded! Short-range video is consumed so much on all devices some days it seems like that’s all you watch. Especially if you’re in that 18-35 year old demographic. The Google machine even ranks videos higher in SEO than normal written content.

The problem with those highly produced great looking videos you see from the giants who are killing it, like GE (some of my favorite EB videos!), is that most of us have no idea of how to even get started, or believe we just can’t afford it! Sure, you don’t have GE money, but you can afford great video, which is why I wanted to make you aware of LaunchMedia.

What are some of the things you should plan on when deciding on producing employment related videos:

– Use a production company that understand employment branding and what your vision is for this product. Do you need to attract talent? Do you need to build brand awareness? What is the message you want to get out, and what is the audience?

– Plan on 8-12 weeks for a well-managed video project that is fully produced.

– You should be able to get a 2-3 minute really professional EB video for about $10-20,000. Sure, it won’t be the million dollar GE commercial, but it will be something that looks and sounds great, and something you can be proud of to present to candidates.

– Most PR and marketing firms don’t do their own video work and usually shop this out. So when your current firm say, ‘we can do that’, ask for some examples and see if they actually do the work themselves. The great thing about using a firm that specializes in video is they know what will get the most bang for the buck with your budget.

– Whatever company you use, make sure it’s delivered in a package that is instantly usable by you and your organization. The last thing you want, after spending some good money, is now trying to figure out how to get it on your site, share with your audience, etc.

The last thing you want to do is look cheap. Make sure the production quality matches your message. Also, spend some time around your distribution strategy. Too often, I see organizations spend time and resources to produce a great video, then it just sits in on their career site. Great video needs to be shared. You want it shared. You need to spend time thinking this through!

T3 – Talent Tech Tuesday – 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 T3 – just send me a note – timsackett@comcast.net

Dear Timmy: When Should I Leave My First Job?

Dear Timmy, 

I graduated college a couple of years ago and took a job with a good company. I’m an engineer and I like my job and I like the people I work with, but I’m getting calls from recruiters telling me they can get me a lot more money. My question is, when can I leave my first job so that it doesn’t look like I’m a job hopper? 

Thanks,

I Don’t Want To Look Like A Job Hopper

—————————————————–

Dear Job Hopper, (just kidding!)

Why should you leave?! If you want more money, go ask for more money!

That’s the real issue, right? Instead of having a conversation about your value on the open market, you would rather leave a company and job you like. This makes absolutely no sense, but people do it all the time because they are unwilling to have a conversation that makes them feel uncomfortable!

It’s pretty silly when you think about it. I’m willing to risk a job I like, a company I like, and Coworkers I like for a 10-20% raise. Instead of just going to your boss and saying:

“Hey, Tim, I’ve been getting a ton of calls from recruiters. Each time they are saying they can get me a job making 20% more than I’m making now. You know, or if you don’t you should, I really like working here. I like you as a boss, I like the company, and I like what I’m doing. But, I also would really like 20% more pay! Is there anything you can do to help me?”

Now, it’s critical you do this before you start engaging with recruiters and going out on interviews. Why? Because once you do that, now your loyalty will come into question.

Most organizations are willing to pay you more, but they really only want to pay people more who are 1. Good performers, and 2. Going to stay around. If you’re already interviewing, without giving them a shot to make it right with you, you are basically just showing them you’ll eventually just take off again the next time someone calls offering you a dollar more.

When should I leave my first job? 

That is a very different question than what you are really asking. There’s no reason to leave your first job if all of your career needs are being met. So, you need to ask yourself, about this first job,

  • Am I doing work I like to do? (Not love. Love your family. Don’t love your job. Like your job.)
  • Am I in a position where I’m being developed in a way that will continue to help my career going forward? (Remember, you own your own development. Don’t wait for an organization to ‘put you on a plan’, build your own plan. What you need is an organization that allows you to do this, and supports you to do this.)
  • Do I feel valued by my organization and my boss? (Value comes across in a lot of ways. Don’t discount working with and for people who truly care about you.)
  • Am I being paid at the market for my education, skills, and experience? (Everyone can get paid over the market, but you give up stuff to get that money. Usually, you give up working for good companies and good people.)
  • Does this position, company and location still fit where I want to be personally with my life? (Sometimes your personal life changes where you want to be professionally, and there is not much organizations can do about that in many cases, but sometimes they can.)

So, whey should you leave your first job?

You should leave your first job when the answers to the questions above show you that it’s time to leave. You should not leave your first job because you are unwilling to have a conversation that makes you feel awkward or uncomfortable, in fact, to me that would be the first sign that you’re not ready to leave that first job!

You Don’t Actually Have To Retain Everyone!

In 2017, and beyond, employee retention will become a huge focus. Some could argue that employee retention is always an important issue, but during major recessions, it becomes less of a stress for sure. With shifting employee demographics, retention will be a hot item over the next few years as we see more and more of the baby boom generation leave the workforce, and we do not have enough young skilled workers entering the workforce to replace those leaving.

Here’s a dirty little secret, though:

“You don’t actually have to work to retain every one of your employees!”

Why? Because most of your employees won’t leave. We like to tell ourselves that every employee can leave, and by the law of the land (at least for now under the Trump administration), they actually can, but statistics clearly show that most don’t leave.

The average retention rate across all industries is about 85%, year over year. That means 85 out of 100 employees will probably not leave you. You are really worrying about 10-15% of employees. Ironically, it’s about 10-15% of your top performing employees that make the most difference in your company.

First, we have to solve one problem you have. Your ‘retention’ strategy is flawed and is actually pushing good employees out the door, the ones you want to keep!

Here’s why:

  1. You’re smart and send out a retention survey to find out from all of your employees what they want to be retained. You’re like 99% of organizations.
  2. The results of that survey tell you what the majority of your employees want to be retained. Things like ping pong, hot yoga, 27 smoke breaks a day, free tacos on Tuesday, etc.
  3. You implement a variety of the desired retention ‘fixes’! Yay!!!
  4. Your retention number actually stays the same, or maybe even gets worse.

WTF!?!?!?

Remember what I said above? You shouldn’t be concerned with about 85% of your employees who will never leave. They are not going anywhere! You shouldn’t be surveying all of your employees, you should be surveying only your best employees, those you are desperate at keeping!

What you’ll find is that the 10-15% of high valued employees you want to retain, what they want to be retained is very different from what the hoard wants to be retained! They’ll want a clear career path, performance-based compensation, more talented co-workers, better work tools, etc. They could give a shit about ping pong and Taco Tuesday.

Great HR isn’t working to make everyone equal. Great HR is working to make your organization better than your competition. That happens by having noticeably better talent. You get that kind of talent by listening to those employees who are noticeably better, not those who complain about the color of your new carpet.

What would this create?  It creates a high performing organization that attracts high-performing employees. Most organizations won’t do this because they believe they need to work to retain all of their employees. “We’re all high performing, Tim!” No, you’re not. Once you get that idea out of your head, you can do some really cool, industry changing stuff!

I’m not an “Us” or a “Them”

Politics are ruining my friendships. Look, I don’t really want to know what you care about, because most of us care about crazy shit that others don’t understand, or can’t understand. You getting me to understand your crazy, probably isn’t a good thing!

I have true friends who are pro-life. I love these friends. I don’t understand how they can’t understand my pro-choice stance, but they don’t. They can’t understand how I can be a baby killer. I’m not, but we all have our positions. We’ve been able to have a great friendship in spite of this one difference.

Maybe there should be a difference of belief scoreboard. Only having one difference of belief is fine, we can still be close friends, even two or three. Once you get to four, you begin to be a person I don’t want to hang with. Once you get to six, maybe you turn into a horrible person I would rather see dead. I’m not quite sure at the math, but I’m sure we could come up with a system.

I want to be friends with all kinds of people, but recently it seems like all kinds of people don’t want to be friends with me because I don’t believe in their crazy, to the exact specifications they want me to believe.  I see their points. I respect their points. But, I’m not flying their flag. So, apparently, that makes me part of the evil empire.

I like puppies. I fly that flag, for sure! I love babies. All babies. White, brown, yellow, any color baby is alright with me. I’m definitely pro puppy and pro baby. I like gin and tonics. Marry whomever you please, I support that. Single moms, I was raised by one, that’s the toughest gig on the planet. I’m not a church-goer, but I’m not an Athiest. I like the Spartans, probably too much. I like money. I hate giving money to people who don’t deserve it or appreciate it. I’m definitely, pro-money. I like helping people. I try and do that as much as I can.

I’m not a ‘them’. I’m also not an ‘us’. I’m more of a ‘we’.

Both the Democrats and Republicans are extremely happy we are all going ‘us’ and ‘them’. By doing this we keep both parties in power. The last thing they want is that we become a ‘we’. The establishment has ‘us’ exactly where they like to have us. Against each other. That gives them the most power. If we find a middle ‘we’, you’ll really see some shit happen!

The reality is, our current government is fine with the other party winning. All that does is give their own party more power for the next four years. Until they come back into power. Then the cycle repeats. Don’t you think if one side had it ‘right’, I mean really ‘right’, they would keep winning each year? But neither do. So, we yo-yo back and forth. Feeling passion one cycle, beat down the next, on top again the next.

Morals matter, well about once every four years, then we go back to forgetting morals matter. Walking by homeless like they’re not there. Laughing a comics tell crude jokes but she’s a woman so it’s okay to say those things. Letting our government drop tens of thousands of drone-bombs on people different from us, killing anyone in our way of a $1.99 gallon of gas.

I know this sounds naive, but I just want my friends back. I want to be able to have a conversation that isn’t filled with hatred and absolutes. I didn’t vote for him because he’s a bad person. I didn’t vote for her because she was an awful liar. I voted for someone I thought was different than the establishment because I truly want a change that benefits us all.

I’m stuck in the middle right now wanting to be a “we”, but surrounded by “us’s” and “them’s”.

 

 

T3 – The HR and TA Technology I Reviewed in 2016!

In 2017, I’ll be starting my 4th year of reviewing HR and TA technology solutions (hat tip to my friend William Tincup for getting me started on this path, and hat tip to the OG of reviewing HR and TA Tech, Steve Boese, okay, Joel Cheeseman will probably say he’s the OG, but you get the point).

I started doing this for my development. The initial plan was to do one, one-hour demo each month. Twelve hours and twelve demos per year to begin to make myself feel a little more tech savvy in the HR space. That quickly turned into doing one per week. In reality, I probably demo about one hundred pieces of new technology each year (most at conferences where I can knock out a ton at once), but I don’t write about many.

My reviews are not meant to be critical reviews. A product I might love, you might think is a piece of crap. That’s because we live in different circumstances. My reviews were meant to educate readers on what’s available out in the market across the HR and TA tech space. From there, you can decide if a demo of that solution is right for you or not.

Most people love this as a self-development idea but hate the fact that they feel if they demo, they’ll be ‘sold’ to by these companies. I don’t have this issue. I tell them upfront, I want a demo, I’m not buying, but I heard some good stuff about you and want to see. Don’t put me in your CRM, or I’ll hate you forever! It works pretty good!

Here are the products and links to the technology solutions I reviewed in 2016:

Modern Survey 

Smashfly

SwitchApp

Beamery

Benevate

Halogen & Jobvite partnership

Universum

Recruitee 

Boon 

ViziRecruiter & GoSizzle

Brilent 

Joberate

Textio 

Whil 

Ratedly

day100

Pilot 

Namely 

WeVue

SocialTalent 

TextRecruit

Health Fair Connections

Handshake

Fitbit

InvestiPro 

eTeki

Slack & Growbot

Envoy (formerly VisaNow)

Lever 

If you would like to be reviewed for T3 in 2017, please reach out to me at timsackett@comcast.net. It’s pretty simple. We set up a demo, I ask questions, I give you some feedback, I write about you (or sometimes I don’t if I think it won’t be helpful to the readers). I think, so far, it’s worked out pretty well for both parties. I’ve gotten great development, and the tech companies get some free publicity!

Notes to HR Vendors #6 – Client Holiday Gift Ideas

I’ve done a few presentations titled something like, “HR Tech Buyers Guide”, “How to Buy HR Tech”, etc. The presentation is designed for HR and TA practitioners to help them become better buyers of HR Tech. To understand the crap that HR and TA Tech vendors do and say to get you to buy stuff you might not need, want, or will use.

The interesting thing about these presentations is that half the audience turns out to be the actual vendors themselves wanting to hear what it is I’m telling the real HR and TA leaders! It’s smart for the vendors. It helps make the better sellers as well. Well, at least some that actually listen!

Based on these interactions I decided to build a series of what has come out of interactions with the vendors themselves, aptly named “Notes to HR Tech Vendors”. Look I don’t alway have to be creative! Enjoy!

Notes to HR Vendors #6 – Client Holiday Gift Ideas

There two ways this post can go, 1. A post about the gifts you actually give that are awful, 2. A post about gifts you could give that people would actually enjoy. I haven’t figured out which way this one will end up, so here we go…

About this time every year I start receiving gifts in the mail from HR and TA tech vendors. Ironically enough most of the HR and TA companies I’ve highlighted on my widely popular and over-shared weekly tech review, T3, rarely send me anything, even though they share with me constantly how many sales they’ve actually made because someone read about them on this blog. But, I’m not bitter, I did it for me, not you.

The gifts I start receiving are from the vendors I’m actually paying. Makes sense. They want to keep getting paid and figure if they send me of their ‘popular’ desk calendars I’ll for sure sign up again next year to use their product or service!

It’s fashionable in the HR and TA blogging community to post pictures of the gifts we receive from vendors, thanking them for being so nice. This isn’t the real reason we post these pics. The real reason is to shove it in the nose of the other bloggers who didn’t receive the gift in a petty one-ups-manship of who’s someone better because they got a logo mug filled with stale candy and you didn’t.

I personally hate this game, but I didn’t create it, I’m just a player. Hate the game, not the player!

So, what are the best gifts you could give? It really depends on the margin business you’re in. If you’re selling background check services, you’re probably not spending much on client gifts. If you’re selling annual HRIS enterprise level software, you might be handing out Mini-Coopers for all I know.

If I was in charge of gift giving to your clients, here’s what I would suggest:

Free Consulting Service and/or Product. Here’s the thing, you know what your clients suck at, probably better than they do. Help them fix something, something they would usually pay for, but you have the expertise to solve it with little effort.

Something Personal to your Main Client Contact. I have a client who loves chocolate. I send her chocolate. I don’t send everyone chocolate, because Ted, another client, doesn’t like chocolate, but he loves craft beer. It takes a little more effort, but it means more. (Side note for HR Vendor Executives – this is also a good test to find out if your sales folks have been building relationships! If they have no clue, they have no clue!)

Development Opportunity for the individual or their team. I once had a vendor ask me to do a half-day workshop with a corporate recruiting team. It was the vendor’s gift to the client for being a great client. I had this happen with another vendor who had me come and have breakfast with a TA team and share ideas and thoughts on how they could improve. I’ve also had vendors invite me to a leadership conference on their dime.

Anything sweet that can be shared. No fruit isn’t sweet! I’m talking candy, cookies, etc. That stuff is magical, it disappears almost instantly in an office setting! Fruit get’s thrown away in about two weeks.

A great bottle of wine or spirits. If your client is a drinker, they’ll appreciate this more than you know! Most of that appreciation will come around 7pm on a Friday night, and they’ll remember you! I can tell you CareerBuilder sent me a great bottle of wine once. Many vendors have sent me bottles of Gin from all over the country. I appreciate those vendors the most!

A Note to their Boss. What!? It’s simple and cheap. A handwritten note to the executive they report to, or even above them all the way to the CEO, saying how great it is to work with a smart and caring partner, someone who is constantly trying to make your organization better, and I thought you should know.  Explain what makes them better than other peers in their field. That gift will give back in many ways!

Something they wouldn’t normally buy themselves. High-end Sunglasses, Wireless Beats, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, etc. For a hundred bucks you get a “Wow! OMG! Thanks!” You get remembered. I personally had a vendor give me a Northface jacket with their logo on it. I wear it often!

There you go from free to a few thousand dollars, all will make a statement, all will make people remember you when it comes time to budget more money for your product and services. If you want to know what won’t work, hit me up after the holidays and I’ll tell you the worst gifts I got!