Co-Managing with an A–hole!

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In the modern work world, we are often tasked as leaders to co-lead, co-manage a team, a function, a location, etc. The challenges to this are many, but none is more difficult when you have to do that and the other person is a complete a-hole!

What I find is that most a-holes have no idea they’re an a-hole, or they know they’re an a-hole but some broke in their brain to make them believe their actually a better person/leader as an a-hole versus a normal person.

What are the jerk, a-hole leader behaviors? Being condescending to the employees they lead. Talking behind the back of those they lead to others on the team that are a peer of that person. Not supporting their co-leader on things that were previously agreed to, etc. You know what I’m talking about!

I’m lucky that I haven’t had this issue for a while but I see it happen all the time in organizations I support, and it’s one of the most talked about issues I hear from friends and peers that work in corporate gigs. Here’s some of my advice for co-managing with an a-hole:

– A–holes hate being put in a box. Put them in a box. Get agreements on things, then get written confirmation of those agreements. I find a-hole leaders will work not to confirm via email or written communication, especially if they don’t really agree with the direction and plan to screw you later!

– Always stay above the line in front of those who report to you and your peers. “Above the line” means you never allow yourself to do or have the same bad behaviors as your co-manager. You take the high road, always. Trust me, in the end, you’ll benefit greatly from this!

– Be brutally honest in your assessment of your a-hole co-manager. I find most a-hole leaders are never told by a peer that they’re being an a-hole with real specific examples. Most if told, will actually try to change those behaviors. Some are truly just a-holes and they won’t change, but it will make you feel better to address it. Also, don’t stop addressing it! Every time it happens, call them out. That is actually an “above the line” behavior by you calling them out!

As a leader dealing with this situation will probably be the most challenging you’ll have in your career, but ignoring it, complaining to your boss, to matching their behavior are all losing propositions that take your career nowhere.

I love killing a-holes with kindness! It doesn’t happen often to them, they are used to getting the opposite reaction from their behavior, so extreme kindness to them really throws them off guard and unsettles them which can be quite funny!

The Conference Swag Everyone Wants! #HRTechConf

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I was on my way out to The HR Technology Conference this week listening to Laurie Ruettimann’s Let’s Fix Work podcast she did with William Tincup (Two close friends of mine that are smart and know the industry at another level).

For a long time, Laurie would go to conferences and she has this weird fascination with conference swag. She would go collect stuff from booths, go back to her room and do a video about what she liked and didn’t like. They were great vids.

So, on this pod, Laurie continues her fascination with swag and asks William what his favorite swag for a conference is and his answer was awesome. William said the best swag is “something you like”. Basically, get stuff you like, because if you have it left over, it’s yours, so get stuff you enjoy.

I love that. Probably because that’s how I buy swag. I have DisruptHR Detroit coming up next week and I’m giving away a Kate Spade bag. My wife loves Kate Spade bags, she probably has a dozen. If she likes them, I know others will, or if they don’t, I just got my wife something she’ll love!

Some of the favorite swag I’ve gotten in the past:

  • JBL Flip 3 Bluetooth speaker from Halogen (now Saba). I still use it today. Fits perfectly in a golf cart drink holder and it’s waterproof, and it sounds amazing.
  • Northface full over jacket from the now-defunct Elevated Careers. Love the jacket and still wear it.
  • Ray-Ban sunglasses from CareerBuilder and Paycor. Great sunglasses, still wear them, my sons steal them (I know it’s great swag when my sons try to steal it!).
  • Beats Headphones by Dre from three different vendors including CareerBuilder (CB always gives the best swag!), and two others that preferred not to be named because they didn’t give the same gift to all the influencers (turns out this is common). All three sons have swag Beats, and I’m a good Dad!
  •  Bottles of Gin – too many vendors to name! Turns out I like good Gin and once the word gets out, it becomes a perfect swag gift!
  • Shinola notebook from Quicken Loans. Shinola is a native Detroit company and QL’s headquarters are in downtown Detroit, and I love the local connection!
  • Herschel Backpack from CareerBuilder. Historically, the CB marketing team has killed swag! They are young, fashionable and want to bring stuff that is currently hot. It costs a bit more, but it gets remembered. (Irina – take note as the new CEO – you’ve got swag goals to live up to!)

All of this goes back to William’s point, the stuff I love as swag is stuff I would buy for myself. I wouldn’t buy myself a $1.23 pen. William also said the key to great swag is scarcity. “Oh, I want some of those Beats!” Yeah, well see, those Beats are for buyers, do you want a demo? Bam!

My recommendation with swag? Less is more. Take your $1,000 budget and don’t buy 1,000 pens. Buy 10 of something really great and give away ten great things that will make a buzz on the conference floor. Buy 5 Kate Spade bags and give one away every four hours and you must be present at the booth to win. People will show up, there will be buzz, and you’ll get more than a $1,000 worth of marketing.

I have a theory that you could also giveaway puppies and would always win any show you go to. The problem is it’s hard to travel with a barrel of puppies. It could get messy. But everyone wants a puppy!

What’s the best swag you’ve ever gotten?

(BTW – All Gin swag can be sent to me directly at 3451 Dunckel Rd, Suite 200, Lansing, MI 48911)

The Real Problem In Talent Attraction #HRTechConf

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Well, clearly, Tim, it’s our process sucks! We need to fix our process! Once we fix our process everything will be fine!

Well, clearly, Tim, it’s our technology! Our ATS sucks! SUCKS, I say! Once we get our new ATS everything will be fine!

Well, clearly, Tim, it’s our career site! Have you seen our site, it sucks!? Once we get our new career site everything will be fine!

It’s our recruiters. It’s our brand. It’s our…

It actually might be all of this but the real problem you have with attracting talent is friction.

Friction is every step we put in place between a candidate and that candidate getting hired. Fill out an application – friction point. Answer these screening questions – friction point. Go through five in-person interviews – friction points.

The only thing a TA Leader should be doing is working to eliminate candidate friction. How can I get a candidate to connect with a hiring manager with the least amount of friction?

The best talent will come to work for you, but the better talent the less open they are to adding friction into their life. “Well, if you just let me talk to Mary the manager of that group, I’ll take that call. But if you make me click 8 times to find your job, then make me register to apply, then make me take three calls from your TA team, then make me take a pre-employment assessment, etc. I have no interest in going through that amount of friction!”

I’m out at The HR Technology Conference this week and I’m doing a presentation today with a great friend and super smart lady, Shaunda Zilich. Our talk will be about Real-Life Recruitment Marketing, and one of the big topics we talk about is the concept of friction elimination. How do I connect a candidate with the hiring manager in as few steps as possible?

Shaunda and I share a belief that getting candidates and hiring managers to have conversations is a big key to being great at hiring! See, real high-level stuff, right!? I joke, but think about your own process and how many steps does it take to get a candidate and a hiring manager together?

I put this tweet up a while back:

In a nutshell, this is all bad talent acquisition. We add friction. We make candidates search to find our jobs. Jump through hoops to apply to our jobs. Then jump through more hoops to ‘show’ us they want to come work for us.

Then we tell our CEO we need to spend a million dollars a year on third-party search because “there’s just not any talent available”.

The real problem with talent attraction has everything to do with the amount of friction you add to your recruiting process. In the end, are you making it difficult for candidates to tell you they love you or are you making it really easy?

Talent acquisition is super hard if you don’t make it easy.

Today on The Weekly Dose: The 2018 HR Technology Conf. #HRTechConf

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Today on The Weekly Dose I’m actually out at the Meca of HR Technology at the annual HR Technology Conference in Vegas! So, as you can imagine I’m like a geeky kid in a modern day Radio Shack seeing the latest and greatest on the HR and TA tech market.

Before we get started, can I tell you something that bugs me, and probably only me? Of course, I can because this is my blog and actually that’s all I do here is to you what I want! 😉

I have a problem with the term “HR Tech” because one big aspect of what I love about our space is all the new recruiting technology, which I usually title as “TA Tech”, when in reality all of the tech in our space: HR, recruiting, learning, payroll, benefits, compensation, engagement, rewards, recognition, performance, etc. all are under the “HR Tech” umbrella.

One of the things I’m excited about this year at HR Tech is a new event called the PitchFest! 30 “HR technology” (see paragraph above – it’s tech across the entire HR tech landscape) companies that are new to the space pitching why their product is the most viable for the part of the HR tech landscape they’re trying to support.

The winner gets a ton of free marketing exposure since this is the largest HR Technology conference in the world, plus a big cash prize as well. There are three sessions, ten in each session pitching. I’m a judge of one session and an Emcee of another session. I’ll definitely be letting you know next week, who won, and who impressed me!

Looking for a list of new HR technology to keep your eye and demo? This group of companies would be a fun one to start with based on what type of tech you’re interested in. Here’s a list of the 30 that got chosen to pitch at this event:

 

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

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

6 Surprising Ways Gen Z is Changing the Workforce!

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I’m in love with Gen Z! It might be because I’m raising 3 Gen Zers, two in college, one on the way, but it’s also because I love how each generation is shaped by the period of time in which they are raised, and I think Gen Z, specifically, was raised in one of the most unique periods in history!

We’ve had the Millennial “differences” jammed down our throat now for a decade! When it first started, I was fascinated with the differences, now I’m just bored. I think what we learned with the Millennials was that so much of what each Generation has, is truly just based on time in life. Then we have this much smaller percentage of some stuff that truly makes each generation standout.

Gen Z was raised during the Great Recession. This is a fact, it’s not something we can discount. The generations directly before the Boomers, the Silent Generation, and the Greatest Generation, were raised during the Great Depression, this had a significant impact on how the viewed the world, and how they viewed jobs specifically. Gen Z will have some modern similarities to these generations.

You can not be in your formidable years, have the access to information that Gen Z has always had, and see your family and friends lose jobs, houses, etc. and not then have that come out in your relationship to work in some unique way. There’s been very little out about Gen Z, to this point, but recently there was a fairly substantial study done with over 25,000 Gen Zers. Here’s what it said:

– 97% of Gen Z own a Smartphone, 93% own a Laptop! Gen Z is digital natives. They are the very first digital native generation. They grew up with a smartphone in their hands before they could even communicate what they wanted or needed in a meaningful way. Gen Z will not ever work well in an environment that doesn’t use technology to solve common problems. “We have always done it this way” makes no sense to them. No in a frustrating way, but in a truly perplexed way. Kind of like how someone looks at a Caveman exhibit in a museum.

– Gen Z is very price conscious. Employers will love them because they constantly work to get lower cost of goods and are very adept at doing things on their own when they feel they can produce similar quality for a lower cost. Again, go back to what they saw growing up. They use technology for price comparison, reviews, check availability, etc. Rarely will you be able to sell Gen Z in one meeting, and without competition also being in play.

– Only 1 in 8 Gen Zs gets their information from printed materials. Good job on those printed career fair brochures! You might as well just have a big bomb fire at Corporate HQ because your printed job material is almost worthless with Gen Z. Although, they do consume information through a ton of channels including social media (79.7%) – yeah, that Twitter/IG is just a fad…TV/Video, radio and video streaming services, etc. When we go to recruit Gen Z, we have to be ready to use multiple forms of media to reach them.

– Crazy enough, Gen Z actually loves to read books, not digital.  Again, generationally, Gen Z was raised during the Harry Potter days, etc. Some of the best young adult literature in history was written during their young years, and in hard economic times, a book is a fairly inexpensive entertainment option that takes up a lot of time. No wonder Gen Z is a generation of readers! 77% prefer to read a printed book, rather than digital. So, while we tend to focus employee development on online on-demand types of media, some leaders will find giving a book to Gen Z might be a real connection for them.

– Gen Z demands information. Gen Zers, for the most part, won’t demand to be the boss, but they will demand to be kept in the loop. Why? Because they’ve always been able to find out anything they wanted in seconds, so you playing the power position of keeping information from them will not go over well! When you’ve never not had information, working in a corporate culture that uses information as power, is a stifling environment to be in.

– Gen Z is the most diverse generation in American history. I will tell you my sons are somewhat confused by old people’s obsession with diversity issues. They understand America is far from perfect, but they also have grown up in a generation that is much more accepting than any generation before them, so they find ‘our’ obsession with these topics sometimes overdone. They would prefer to focus on how we are similar, then to how we are different.

By 2020 (2 years away!) Generation Z will be 40% of our workforce. The largest generation in the workforce, with Millennials being a shrinking second place. Gen Zs are not Millennials, just like Millennials are not Gen X, etc. Each is mostly similar, with some differences. Gen Z will take some getting used to for some leaders, but those who embrace their uniqueness will truly get rewarded!

The One Bias We All Agree On!

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At this point, we’ve been educated enough to know we all have biases. The reason for our biases is different for each of us. We’ve gotten to a point in our society where we judge each other’s biases on a scale of “this is a bias, but its not really a bad bias” to “you’re an awful person because of your bias!”

If you won’t hire someone based on the color of their skin,  then well you’re an awful human being with a really awful bias.

If you won’t hire someone based on the fact they went to the University of Michigan, well, then, you’re just smart! 😉 But still a pretty stupid bias!

This continuum of biases game we play is somewhat comical.

Some new research has come out, though, on a bias we can all finally agree on! No matter what skin color you are, black, white, some combination in between, we agree on this. No matter what religion, what socio-economic background you come from, your religion, your political beliefs, whether or not you actually believe Star Wars or Star Trek is better, we all agree that Fat People are bad.

Um, what!?!

Yeah, Americans can’t stand obese people!

We don’t want to hire them, and when we do, we pay them less and give them the worse jobs.

All of which is fairly comical as well, since most Americans are overweight! 74.1% of Americans are overweight! You see the continuum thing again, right?!

“Oh, God, that dude is giant! Yuck! You know he won’t work! I’m just so happy I’m not ‘that’ fat!” Come down, Sparky! It’s not like you’re winning any Crossfit challenges, either!

It’s gotten so bad in America we hate fat people more than smokers! Secondhand smoke actually kills people. Mikey eating his eighth donut of the day is only killing himself!

Okay, I know you think all of this sounds insensitive. I’m not a skinny dude. I’m built like a fire hydrant, and that’s never good. It is, so I can prove a point. A bias is a bias. There shouldn’t be this continuum of what biases are ‘okay’ and what biases are ‘bad’.  The point being if you find yourself or your hiring managers rating biases, you’ve got a problem.

We hate on obese people because we believe it’s a personal choice, not a disease or a condition, something they control. “Yeah, Mikey is just lazy and has no self-control!” The reality is, like drug addicts, food is no different for many, many people. You like cocaine, Mikey likes donuts, you’re both filling a hole.

There are some companies in super-low unemployment markets right now who are actually hiring candidates who test positive for opioids and then paying to put them through treatment and guaranteeing them a job upon completion. Do you think you would do something similar for a candidate that is obese? Hey, Mikey, we’ve got a program, we want to see you healthy before you start work, go through it and we’ll guarantee you a job.

What do you think?

Are Work Friends, Really Friends?

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So, I get pimped on the daily by PR firms to share their stuff with you guys and I rarely do! But, every once in a while a PR firm gets that I only read the headlines and sends me a good one! Like the one above!

So, this is the juice from the study –

“Only 15% of people believe they have a ‘real’ friend at work.” 

Okay, the full breakdown was actually this:

  • 41% are just Coworkers. We work together. We get along. But we never hang.
  • 22% are Strangers. They work in the same place I do, but I have no idea who they are.
  • 20% are Only At Work Friends. We sit at lunch together, we talk about our families, but after work, we have separate lives.
  • 15% are Real Friends. These are my people. We work together, but we also vacation together, go for drinks, play on the same softball team, etc.
  • 2% are Enemies. I spend most of my waking hours searching or ways to ruin their lives.

The Gallup friend research from two decades ago showed us that one critical component of having an engaging work-life is if you have a “Best Friend” at work. In hindsight, I’m guessing Gallup was probably talking about this ‘real friend’ category. Someone you actually have a relationship with outside of work, someone you look forward to seeing when you go to work, etc.

For me, this really brings up the entire concept of Friendship. I’m a middle-aged dude. I’ve got a wife and kids and a dog. Middle-aged dudes and friendships are weird. I’ve got people I would consider super close friends that I’ll go weeks without communicating to. Some of my closest friends I only see a few times a year in person. So, when you ask me if I have a ‘real friend’ at work I need some defining traits about what that really looks like.

For me a ‘real friend’ probably has one or more of these characteristics:

– I’m willing to share personal stuff with them and know they won’t break my confidence.

– They’ll come and help me move to a new house/apartment/etc. Let’s face it that’s a real friend!

– We spend time together outside of work on stuff not associated with work because we enjoy being around each other.

– The friendship is two-way, meaning, we both think about and do stuff that is important to each other.

– The friendship would not go away if you stop working with each other.

That last one is the real defining characteristic of a real friend vs. a friend at work, right? We have so many people that we actually enjoy working with and we would introduce them as ‘friends’ but if we stopped working with them each day, we would probably just become Facebook friends and maybe never see them again!

So, I’ll ask you to think about all those people you work with right now and determine do you have a real friend at work? The study says 85% of us don’t! What do you say?

 

Recruiters – How are you celebrating #GlobalTADay?

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Today is a big day in Talent Acquisition! The Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals (ATAP) is launching Global TA Day to celebrate all the talent acquisition professionals that are working hard every day to ensure their organizations have the talent they need to thrive!

ATAP launched the site ilovetalentacquisition.com, in conjunction with our founding sponsor KRT Marketing and you can follow the action that is happening across the country as events are taking place in major cities throughout the day. On the site, you’ll find some great downloads to help you and your team celebrate!

I’ll be in downtown Detroit today and on Facebook live around 1pm EST, as I’ll be celebrating #GlobalTADay with the over 100 TA Pros on the team at Quicken Loans as they are using today as their annual TA Summit where the team will have development and strategy sessions throughout the day, and some fun and celebration as well!

To check out the Facebook Live feed today just go to the Global TA Day Facebook Page!

So, I’m guessing most of you were caught off guard by this! Like, what is Global, what!?! I get it, but it’s not too late to find ways to celebrate today. Here’s how I would celebrate if I was in the office today:

  1. I would follow along on the Twitter hashtag #GlobalTADay and connect with other TA Pros from around the world!
  2. I would ask another TA Pro on my team to get lunch or go get a drink after work, or I might go buy some sweet treats to share around the office!
  3. I would watch some of the celebrations taking place around the world today on the Facebook Live feed.
  4. I would take some time to reflect on while our profession is extremely difficult, especially right now, I’m so grateful for having found a job and industry that I love working in!
  5. I would go signup to be a member of the only professional association the supports my interests ATAP Global! Today only you get an annual membership for $85! (a $10 discount). TODAY ONLY! By the way, I’m the next President of ATAP, so come help me build something great!
  6. I would go on Amazon and buy the best TA Book on the Planet and #1 Best Seller and 5 Star rated – The Talent Fix! (just kidding, no really I would!)!

So, have fun with Global TA Day! You deserve it!

Your Weekly Dose of HR Tech: @Oleeo_ – Talent Intelligence to Unleash Your Recruiting Potential

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Today on The Weekly Dose I review the newly rebranded Applicant Tracking System, Oleeo. Oleeo is the former WCN ATS product and they have a long and successful history mostly working with European customers.

Oleeo is a global ATS designed for high volume hiring and has built-in event management which makes it an incredible ATS choice for those organizations that do a ton of campus hiring, or other types of high volume-type hiring events.

Oleeo has some great relationships within the banking and finance industry, and that speaks to how well the software works when it comes to working in industries where it’s critical to do well when competitively hiring on campus. I would foresee health systems and tech companies that do a bunch of hiring on campus would also have a high interest in looking at this ATS. Oleeo also has high-volume retail users as well that are finding success with the system.

Organizations that need to process a lot of potential candidates quickly, now have a system that helps filter the best to the top, and makes it a personal candidate experience. Oleeo delivers really well on all those factors.

What I like about Oleeo:

  • Oleeo is built for hiring events first and foremost. While most ATSs are weak at this, thus most organizations have to have a separate college hiring system, Oleeo delivers a top-notch experience for both candidates and recruiters in planning and executing career fairs.
  • Candidate self-service is a big piece of Oleeo allowing candidates to pre-register for events, schedule their interview time, etc.
  • Oleeo has a built-in CRM tool that allows recruiting teams to build out candidate campaigns by a number of criteria, track key information around these groups, and built automated actions based on the response.
  • Predictive screening technology is also built into Oleeo based on 120 different attributes Oleeo allows you to put an unlimited number of candidates through pre-hire screening, delivering the highest rated candidates immediately to your recruiters to continue on in the workflow.
  • Interview management is also another strength of Oleeo that allows you to customize an interview workflow based on if/then to automate much of the process and again allow candidates to manage some of this process on their own.

Oleeo is basically a new ATS to the U.S. market, but not new when it comes to its ability to know and understand all the complexities of global high-volume hiring, as WCN has been doing this since the mid-90’s outside the U.S.

I like Oleeo brings an enterprise level ATS feel to a marketplace that has been long dominated by an under-powered Taleo, primarily. While the CRM is still light on functionality, and SMS is only push at this time, the Oleeo team has shown it has the experience and knowledge to build out an end-to-end recruitment platform for the global market.

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

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

Fortnite, not athletics, is Our Saving Grace for Team Building at Work!

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Remember when it was super cool to go out and hire ex-college athletes into various roles in your company? Enterprise Rent-A-Car basically made their entire brand out of it! Pretty much every mortgage banking firm, sales office, etc. followed with the shared understanding that college athletes make great hires.

Why? It’s tough to go to school and fit in athletics. Athletes are normally self-motivated individuals who care about winning. Most are coachable. They actually like working in a ‘team’ environment.

Then came along gaming, and currently, Fortnite is the vain of every parent’s existence!

Don’t know what Fortnite is? Have you been living under a rock for the past year? Basically, Fortnite is a shooter game that has over 50 million active users. Originally it was designed where 100 people get dropped into a small online world all at the same time and you play until you’re the last one to survive. The world gets smaller and smaller every so many minutes, so that the games don’t take forever. The game forces you to move and fight. It’s super addicting. Just ask any parent with teens.

Fortnite found that the kids playing these games actually liked playing with friends so you could invite people you know to join you and try to kill each other. Then, it was duals and teams, where you get your friends together and play against other teams, or pairs. All the while the kids are all talking to each other on headsets, sometimes states and countries apart from each other.

Okay, if you don’t game, I get how all of this sounds ridiculous. The thing you’re missing is the interactions and strategy that takes place in the game.

If you stop for a few minutes and listen to these kids play, after you get through the language being used, you see real strategy and communication taking place. You see kids talking to each other, helping each other, sacrificing themselves for the good of the team, working through extreme time-sensitive decisions in the attempt to win.

Some of this stuff would make military generals super proud! But it would also make executives pretty impressed as well. Fortnite is getting kids to communicate who would previously never talk to anyone! Getting them to work together. Getting them to make tough decisions. Getting them to play 24 hours straight!

Find something you love to do and you’ll never work a day in your life. I’m not saying that Fortnite and shooter games are what you should love. I think it’s way beyond the ‘game’. The kids actually really like the communication, the strategy, and decision making that has ‘real’ implications in their current world.

We spend so many resources in our current work world to get our adults to learn how to interact well in teams. We have an entire generation entering the workforce in Gen Z, that are already demonstrating they have some pretty good skills in this area, and they didn’t even have to know how to throw a ball to show this skill set!