Look I get it – I have 3 sons – Snow Days are a big deal…if you’re 10!   So, if you’re an HR Pro, right about this time tomorrow, you’re going to feel like you have an entire organization full of 10 year olds – as we begin to see the first signs of Snowmagedon Part II.   I understand people freaking out, that is, if you live in some place south of the Mason-Dixon line, and you’ve never seen snow before – but I live in Michigan – it snows here – starts around Halloween and ends around Easter.  What I don’t understand is anyone that lives north of, let’s say, Chicago, even blinking an eye at a snow storm coming.  Let it snow, clear your driveway and get your butt to work.

It’s not a difficult concept – no I don’t want you to drive to a client if the roads are dangerous, and no I don’t want you to drive to work if the roads are dangerous, and no I don’t want you to run around the office with scissors and your shoes untied!  But I do expect, we’ll all be adults – looks like there’s going to be a lot of snow tomorrow -ok, how about packing some work to do from home – or just plan on watching Lifetime all day, because I completely understand you missing the 3 days of warning that the snow was coming!

Snow Days are the kind of crap that drives HR and Leadership completely insane!  Why is it, the CEO finds his way into the office, driving his Lexus sedan, but Perry in IT just can’t seem to get his 4X4Chevy Tahoe out of the garage?   If you want a day off that damn bad, take a day off – but don’t insult the intelligence of all those who found a way to come in.   Be sensible, give your local snow plows some time to clear roads, give yourself extra time to get to work – but at the very least give it a shot – then when you get stuck, take a picture with your phone and send it to your boss – they’ll appreciate the effort!

Rudy Karsan, co-founder and CEO of Kenexa, has a new book out which he helped co-author titled: We: How To Increase Performance and Profits Through Full Engagement, which speaks to, obviously from the title, employee engagement and how to get your employees engaged “fully”.  What I like about this book, apart from other HR employee engagement books, is that Karsan and his co-author, Kevin Kruse, look at the engagement from both sides.  From the book:

When unlocking the secret to an engaged workforce, many people assume that an organization owns the single key—that it’s up to leadership to find and turn the key. Many ask, “What can Eva do to better engage the workers at her location?” or, “Acme needs to address their issues around trust and transparency to get their employees better engaged.” Indeed, the role of leaders is essential. But the We approach to full engagement acknowledges equally the critical role of the worker—the individual. Employees’ engagement levels may be limited by the fact that they just don’t fit with the company culture. Or, they may be in the wrong career, or the wrong kind of company. Quality leadership alone isn’t enough to unlock engagement. You need a second key. You hold the second key.

Most HR shops and leadership teams spend so much time focusing on “what can we do, to get our employees engaged”.  I think this is primarily because, this is what the feel they can “control” in that employee/employer “relationship”.  We tend to give up on the other side, feeling that there is nothing we can do about the employee side of this equation.  But there is – give your employees a gift…

“Oh, wait, Tim, we’ve given our employees so many gifts, my executives would freak if I told them we need to give them one more gift!” “What are you talking about anyway – another polo shirt, a portfolio with our logo embossed, a coffee mug, new name badges – what!?”  I’m talking about the gift of choice.  In HR we control the talent level, and in many ways, the engagement level of the talent we bring into organizations.  Many people we have working for us are choosing, not to be engaged.  No matter how hard we try, and how many team building activities, new projects, new technologies and pat-on-the-backs we give, they just don’t feel it’s important enough for their career to be engaged with us as an employer. 

So, we have one last gift to give – choice.  You can choose to be engaged with us, our team, our goals…or you can choose to leave.  It has to be one or the other – a third option is not available.  In the best job market, where the employees and candidates have an edge, I can still find great people, who want to work for my organization and be engaged.  It’s not an option to hold onto individuals who are not willing to try and be engaged, when you and your organization are doing all you can, with the resources you have, to be keep your employees engaged.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a house guest for a week – Mr. Ikemoto. Ikemoto is part of my oldest son’s Japanese exchange program at school. He’s not a student, but one of the chaperons who came to the U.S. with 10 Japanese students.  Ikemoto is an Assistant Principal and former basketball coach, has twin teenagers who are both very athletic, and liked to drink beer with at night watching college basketball – so he fit into the Sackett household right away.  Also, Ikemoto spoke very little English, but I spoke less Japanese, so there was a lot of basic communication going on.

Funny thing happens when you have a total stranger come stay with you (and one that has limited understanding of our language and culture), you do things you probably wouldn’t normally do.  For the most part, the things you do out of the normal are for the benefit of your guest, to make a positive impression.  Like many (most) American families with teenagers, we don’t do a big breakfast – it’s Poptarts, bagel, Diet Mt. Dew for Dad, etc. and out the door to school and work.  As little talking as possible while SportsCenter plays in the background. With Ikemoto, we did things a bit differently – for 6 straight days I got up 45 minutes before everyone and made a hot breakfast and set up a breakfast buffet on the island in the kitchen!  The first morning my kids came down and looked around like somehow they’d been transported into another family from the 1950’s.  My wife would take Ikemoto’s clothes each day after we left and wash them and leave them folded on his bed.  We cooked full dinners (with fresh vegetables and fresh fruit!) and sat down as a family. Let me tell you – it was exhausting being a “normal” family!

This entire experience got me to really think about the facades we put on each and every day in our professional lives in HR and Recruiting.  HR Pros are the best in driving an organizations brand and culture – or should I say the brand and culture that our executives wish we had!  Too many times in HR we bring in great candidates and attempt to show them the culture we are attempting to create – but probably not quite there yet.  We have them meet our most positive hiring managers and peers, we keep them away from our creepy people and zombies.  We talk about every single positive feature we have to offer, and never bring up our struggles.  We take them to the best restaurants for lunch and put them up in great hotels. Does it sound familiar?

Then we are shocked when we land the great candidate, and they don’t work out, or they struggle to fit in.  Your executives talk about how they aren’t one of “our kind” and we need to select “better”.   I’m not telling you to go out and show each candidate everyone of your hickeys, but great HR Pros understand the value to delivering a balanced and realistic picture.  “Hey, Mary, we love you and we want you to come run our department, but you should know we have one executive that isn’t happy with some recent organizational changes, and you might have to go to battle with her right off the bat.  Maybe worth you asking some questions to this person when you get some time with them, about how they feel about this.”  Great HR Pros know the only true “great” candidates aren’t the ones you land, they’re the ones you keep. 

Believe me, you can still make a great impression to candidates without throwing the dog and pony show for every candidate, and your organization will benefit from the transparency.