I was reminded of something recently – getting out of the box – isn’t comfortable.

Now – I know what some of your are thinking – “But, Tim, you need to get out of the box to challenge yourself, to push the limits, to get you and your organization better!”

Really?

Or have we been sold this by this eras snake oil salesmen and women (leadership trainers, life coaches, every motivation and leadership book written in the last 20 years)?

I’m not sure.

Here’s what I know:

1. People perform better when they know their boundaries. (their box)

2. There is comfort in knowing what to expect, with comfort comes sustained performance long-term.

3. In reality, a very small percentage of your employees will actually perform above their average performance being “out of the box”.

We as HR Pros tend to a little overboard sometimes, in the attempt to “help out” the cause within our organization – that can be both good and bad.  Things are going as well as they could be, so we push to get everyone out of their box and reinvent themselves, in hopes that this will lead to better performance and higher organizational results.  When in fact, many times, it will lead to the exact opposite.  Not everyone is wired to get “out of the box” – in fact probably at a minimum 80% of workforce should stay in their box, and keep plugging along with their solid performance that they are already giving you.

The trick to great HR in getting great performance – is to find those race horses who you can push out of the box, and they show you a whole other level of performance that you and they didn’t know existed.  But if you keep pushing plow horses out on to the track in hopes of turning them into a race horse – you and they will fail.  So, don’t drink the Kool-aid and believe everyone can and wants to be out of the box thinkers and performers – not everyone does – and you limit yourself by thinking in such general terms.

Business Week asked this question recently and had Dan Finnigan, CEO of Jobvite (one of my favorite CEO’s and very cool product as well – even if he never sent me the iPad from my HR Tech Conference interview – let’s face it I work cheap, but not free!) and Daniel Kite, President of Sun Street (I don’t know him, so I don’t care) debate over the topic: Should employers stop waiting for the economy to strengthen further and start hiring right now. Dan went Pro, and Daniel went Con – from the article (Dan Finnigan’s Take):

Such industries as technology and health care are accustomed to competing for scarce talent—even throughout the downturn. The technology sector has seen fierce competition for talent with employee poaching, out-sized compensation, packages, and retention battles. This trend will grow only more widespread. By 2015, 60 percent of newly created jobs will require skills held by only 20 percent of the population, according to the American Society for Training and Development.

And the severity of the recession only exacerbates this shortage. The downturn shocked everyone into a new reality: that no job is really safe. As a result, many Americans have kept their heads down at their current jobs but are keeping their eyes peeled for a better one. Jobvite’s nationwide survey, Job Seeker Nation, found that 53 percent of those employed feel open to a new job—and are doing more than just hoping for it. Instead of waiting for the economy to improve their prospects, they are developing their skills, building connections, and cultivating new job opportunities via outlets such as social networks.

Smart employers recognize this and are not sitting still. Companies are now more concerned about their hiring pipelines, because they can’t count on a ready supply of applicants. “The economic recovery means we have to build relationships with a pool of promising talent because we no longer have that quick turnaround in the hiring cycle,” says Sarah Widner, who heads up human resources for Total Attorneys, a Chicago firm that delivers professional services to law practices.

Daniel Kite goes on about common sense and why would any business ever hire talent just for the simple fact that it’s available, yadda, yadda.

My take?

You staff for the business you want – not the business you have.  Think about that for a minute – because most HR Pros do the exact opposite – they only staff for the business they have – and that’s not very strategic mindset – that’s a conservative mindset and one that keeps your butt out of hot water.  Which might be your goal – I know a ton of HR Pros (all good people – well some aren’t so good) that spend most of their time just trying not to screw up.  I also know some very dynamic HR Pros who completely lead their organizations to bigger and better things – and they learn how to leverage risk.

When you hire in these times – there’s risk.  As an HR Pro, it’s our job to make sure we take calculated risk by hiring people so great, they can’t help but to make our organizations better.  If you do that – in my opinion – that’s common sense.  Hire great people, in the right positions, get out of their way – and watch your business grow.

Dan – send me my iPad.

Seems like everyone today is building a brand, just the other day I started www.timsackett.com and you can’t believe how it’s changed my life – now I have to work on the weekends!   I think we in HR tend to have a lot to do with this employee-personal-branding thingy we have going on over the past couple of years.  In fact, I really think much of this got started when we started down this path of succession planning and performance management and began labeling employees things like “A Player”, “Key Contributer”, “Rock Star”, etc.   Before all these cute little labels came out (well, I guess their cute if you’re on the top side of those labels, I’m not sure you think their cute if your company has labeled you “Bottom Feeder” or “No-Po”) it was usually a conversation about meeting or exceeding performance, or needs improvement, etc.   Nobody was out building their brand under “Exceeds Performance”.

That was so 2005 – now every HR shop has to have their own creative labels  – and in the end all this has created is a bunch of employees who beginning to believe all this hype we keep piling on top to them.  Jeff Schmidt at Business Week had an article recently on the 12 signs you’ve started to buy into your press clippings as an employee. They are:

1. You Dismiss Questions (“Take My Word for it…” – you know that guy in the meeting – he doesn’t need to show you proof, he’s an “A” player)

2. You feel there’s no need for change. (A yeah, I created this beast – it doesn’t get any better!)

3. You quit asking questions. (Remember when you started out and you asked questions constantly – well, yeah, now you know everything, so you don’t need to do that.)

4. You dont’ reach out. (I mean what’s the point – so I can listen to someone elses lame ideas.)

5. You fall into a routine. (Look the executives know I’ll deliver, and they know I don’t work on Friday afternoons)

6. You look down at your peers. (Once you’re here – you might as well pack it in – and become a consultant.)

7. You lack self-awareness. (Like right now, while reading this, you don’t realize this is you! Some very talented high performing employees have this as their biggest career derailer.)

8. You quit pushing yourself. (I mean like what’s the use, these trolls I work with do half a what I do on their best day.)

9. You grow sloppy. (When small errors or mistakes start to creep into your work, and you deflect, you’re losing your focus.)

10.  You focus more on producing hype, then producing. (When you start to worry about who is going to see this project, instead of how this project will impact our organizaiton – you’re in trouble.)

11. You fixate on status. (Remember what use to keep you up at night, now it’s how to knock down someone else to get into that corner office.)

12. You become dismayed when something’s amiss. (When something goes wrong you can’t believe it, you’re speechless, you dont know what to do – the old you would have had an answer.)

Building brand is one thing – but once that brand is only a brand without substance, well you’ve reached a point of no return.  In the end performers will always prevail over the perso

I ran into something last week – a Staffing firm – calling a current client we do business with – offering to do what we do for half the cost.

“Sounds great! Half price recruiting services – sign me up!”

At least, that’s what I told our client.  I told them to go for it, do it – how could you turn down such a great “Recruitpon” – you have to buy!

The client was “ahh, Tim, you want us to go and use another firm?”  and I was like “ahh, no – but if you can get what I’m giving you for half price, don’t you from a business standpoint, have to do it!”  and the client was like “well, I was just hoping we could keep you guys, but get it cheaper.”  So, I was like “sure we can do it cheaper, which parts do you want me to cut out?” 

You see where this is going.

We aren’t the highest price recruiting company around and we aren’t the cheapest – I feel you get what you pay for.  When you hire HRU – you get me (and a bunch of talented pros that get it, that I have the pleasure of having on my team).  I’m a lot of things – but I’m not normally half off. 

I bet that would work though – a “Recruitpon” – let’s face it 97% of the recruiting companies out there will do just about anything to get a shot at your business.  Maybe your first question should be: Why?  Don’t you wonder as a corporate HR Pro – why does this company want to work with us – I mean really?  Why?  They’ll be able to tell you why “you” should work with “them” – but I bet they’ll stumble a bit at telling you “why we want to work with you” – and don’t let them off the hook on how they are the “solution” to all of your problems – really – all of my problems? Great  – come rub my feet…

It’s the single hardest thing I have to get across to my team – there are many companies we don’t want to work with – and only a few that we really want to work with.  I want to work with companies where I like and respect the people we have to work with – I will enjoy making those calls, having those meetings, etc.  If I don’t like working with you – that’s a misearable relationship – at any price – or even with a Recruitpon.

BTW – don’t run out and try to buy www.Recruitpon.com it’s already gone – it’s hard to stay ahead of a headhunter…

Last week I got the opportunity to speak at the 2011 HR Metrics Summit in Chicago.  Interesting group of HR folks that attend Metrics seminars – combination of HRIS, large shop analytics folks, some talent pros, etc. – all with one common denominator – they like numbers, gathering numbers, reporting numbers, talking about numbers – mostly I sat in the corner, quietly and watched.  One theme, that came up time and time again, was the concept of manager self-service – since building dashboards and integrating self service modules tend to go hand-in-hand with metrics – if you want the mangers to do stuff on their own – you better give them the data, right?

As I was listening to a presentation of one major Fortune 500 HR Pro who was going through a case study of how they were going through the process of moving to Manager Self Service for HR administration (think your normal daily HR admin stuff – new hire paperwork, address changes, compensation data, benefits info, etc.).  On there manager self service dashboard, this HR Shop decided to not give the HR Generalists access to the same information that the managers had.  The theory behind this was, if HR still has access, the managers will continue to call and get the information, rather than look it up themselves through the dashboard.  The HR Generalists were trained, as well as the managers, on how to find the information, so if a manager was struggling to find something, the HR Generalist could walk them through it.  This process probably sounds similar in many ways to many HR folks who have gone through this – minus the HR folks not having access.

Here’s what was really interesting about the case study to me – even after they went forward 100% with the self service dashboard, the managers still called HR.  The HR Generalist, being savvy, discovered if the manager would give them their user-name and password, could go in and do what the manager needed, faster than just telling them how to do it (kind of goes against the concept of “Teach a man to fish…”) – but again not unlike probably what many HR folks have seen in their careers.  It got so bad, they actually ended up setting up a “HR Call Center” for managers to call into for these types of needs. Overall result? HR Administrative work, in HR, was reduced by 40%. Really!  Hey, sounds great right?! 

Wrong! Here’s the deal.  The HR Shop reduced it’s “admin” work by 40% – but it didn’t decrease the Orgs “admin” work by 40% – it just moved it around.  Also, the concept of  “Manager/Employee Self Service” is built on an assumption, a huge assumption, managers want to do this stuff themselves, rather than call HR to have it done.  While that may be the case for many managers and employees – it might not be the case for many others, and in many cases the majority of others.  Manager/Employee Self Service dashboards/portals are a favorite project for HR Shops – big and small – because we get to use technology and the hope is it will take mundane admin work out of HR, and let us do the real cool strategic stuff.  But that is a dream sold to you by the software shops selling you the “solution”.  One problem – what about the managers and employees who don’t want Self Service?

You know – I’ve been in a lot of HR Shops – and no one has ever brought up that question when we were all running down the Self Service path. Not one.  So, you want to be a business partner and be more strategic?  Maybe, just maybe, stop thinking about how something helps you, and start thinking about how the changes you make, impact the groups you support.  Self Service can be great for many managers and employees who want it – but it’s not a 100% solution.  So, people, maybe some very high performers in your organization, want you to help them – they want and need to focus on their operation and making it better, and guess what – performing their own new hire paperwork, isn’t helping.

From one of the Sackett Nation followers (thx Mom!) –

Tim:

I’m a young HR Pro with some great experience and education – 1 company for 8 years – but recently I’ve been contacted by our main competition about a position that would be a step up.  Better title, more money – but I would feel like a total sell-out if I went over there.  What should I do?

Loyal Beyond My Years

***************************************************************

Dear Loyal,

Here’s what I know –

1. Those who stay with one company – make more money over the long run – assuming you stay the professional route and don’t go all consultant on me.

2. Going to the competition doesn’t make you evil, it makes you human – but don’t assume you will like it more.

3. I’ve left really good companies, with really good people – for better position and money – and it didn’t improve the quality of my life.

4. Within an industry, having perspective of multiple players (i.e., working at the competition, or two) makes you more valuable.

First, consider the fact, if one company is interested in you, maybe there are others. Why do you really want to leave your current position? If your current position matched pay and title, would you stay? If it’s about growth, what are the next 2-3 moves after this one, at the new company?  I know this will surprise some people but I’m super conservative when it comes to career advice to others – especially so, when someone tells me they really like their current position and company (but are attracted to more money and title).

So, what should you do?  I’d go through the process if you feel it’s a company you would like to work for, and if it’s not the right company, I’d go speak to your boss and tell them the competition contacted me about a job and I turned them down.  I turned them down because I really like my job here and the company – I also would like more money and a better title!  I understand you might not be able to give me all that, so I’ll settle for the money part.  Then shut up and make your boss say the next words.

Two things might happen: 1. You’re good – you’ll get some more money (maybe not as much as if you’d made a move) and maybe a “Sr.” prefix to your title.  2. You’re not that good – you won’t get anything, and maybe shown the door.  That’s why I don’t like giving people advice of what I would do – I have had both scenarios happen to me – they are very real outcomes.

Good Luck!

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.