So, basically, in America, we celebrate our independence by grilling hot dogs, drinking beer, blowing stuff up, and buying t-shirts that somehow make us feel more patriotic than we really are. In recent years, the 4th of July t-shirt game has been getting very serious! Here are some of the ones that make me laugh!
Okay, this last one just made me laugh, but it mostly has nothing to do with the 4th of July, mostly…
Happy 4th of July, my friends!
Be safe!
This is HR’s go-to advice for employees who put in their two-week notice, especially if that employee is heading to a competitor:
“Just remember! The grass isn’t always greener!”
HR is mostly right. I’d say here’s the actual breakdown of ‘greenest’:
So, you have about a 10% chance of getting what you think you’re getting. Not good odds, but like I said, most employees way overthink their odds on this and probably believe they have a 70-90% of bettering themselves when they move. Most will just stay the same or get slightly worse.
Why do we believe moving is better?
1. You’re being sold. Sold by a recruiter and a hiring manager that you’ll be moving from a trailer park to Disney World. You really, really want to believe that’s true, so you buy!
2. You over-value that what we don’t know, over what we already have. This happens in so many areas of our life. Relationships. Jobs. A table at a restaurant.
3. You over-value what others have, over what you have. Think about this for a minute. You’re so eager to get out of this job, yet others are so eager to get this job. What does that say? You’re brilliant and everyone else is an idiot? Probably not. The truth is usually somewhere in the middle.
Everyone keeps telling me all these ‘new’ young workers just want to jump from job to job. They don’t have loyalty, etc. The reality is much less about their desire to move, and more about them being more naive to the realities of changing jobs. We all loved changing jobs until it backfires and you leave something good, for something crappy.
Once that happens, you’re less likely to change jobs the rest of your career, even if you’re in a bad job! Don’t underestimate what you currently have. It’s probably way better than you’re making it out to be, and the new gig isn’t as good as it sounds. That’s not sexy, that’s just reality.
I had a friend call me last week. We spoke at the same conference and we both just got our feedback from those gigs. His feedback was mostly fine, but there were also some pretty hurtful statements people made.
I took a look at mine. To be humble, I rocked my session at the conference! So, I anticipated it would be pretty good. It was, mostly. I had 165 responses that were like this (these are actual verbatim responses):
I could go on, but you get the picture! So, there were 161 of these little nuggets of love and affirmation that I’ll carry around in my pocket for a while! There were also 4 nuggets like this:
One big thing conferences don’t want you to do is also sell your products or services. 8% of the audience said I was trying to sell to them! I never once mentioned my own company! I talked about my blogging, which I give away for free. I guess I was trying to sell my ideas…
When I dug into my friend’s comments, what I found was he basically got the same kind of stuff. The majority was really, really positive and thankful, but there was a minority of these people that for whatever reason just didn’t like it the presentation. It could have the content. It could have been the style. It’s probably more the commenter and the day they’re having.
This is what happens when we get feedback as adult learners. We ignore all the positive stuff and we solely focus on the negative stuff, even when the negative stuff is just a minority of the overall message.
“Hey, you are a 4.7 out of 5! Awesome! Wow! Also, could you tighten up your project timelines a bit? That would just be a bonus.” Yeah, so, well, I guess I now suck at getting my projects done on time and my boss was soooo pissed!
I know many speakers who refuse to read their conference speaker feedback comments because they’ve figured out this about themselves. They’ll overly focus on the negative, obsess over it, and basically waste hours of their life overmuch to do about nothing. It was an hour we spent together. I hope you liked it, I’m sorry if you didn’t, I’ll try to better next time.
There is value in the feedback and think it basically boils down to this:
1. Did the majority of people receive my message in a positive way?
2. Did I offend anyone, that in a normal worldly way, should feel offended?
3. If I was going to be speaking on another topic, would most of the audience be interested in hearing me speak on that topic?
I want people to get some value out of hearing me speak. I don’t want anyone to be offended, but I know some people might. I hope that number is extremely low, like one or zero. In the end, I want people to say I like how he presents and I would like to see him speak again if given the chance about another topic.
Conference feedback is about polar extremes. The people who leave comments either loved you or hated you. The person that just felt like it was ‘just fine’, has no desire or passion to leave a comment, and that would be the actual most valuable feedback a speaker could actually get!
I’ve been given the opportunity to speak to a number of high school and college graduating seniors. The one common question from both groups, I get frequently, is “how can I get my dream job?” It’s a simple question, with about one million possible answers. Which makes it a tough question to answer in front of a group.
I think I might have found the perfect answer to this question. From Penn State football coach, James Franklin, when asked at a conference how does a graduate assistant move up in the college football coaching ranks:
“It comes down to people and opportunities for growth. I always tell people to stay broke for as long as possible. When you have a car payment and other things like that, it becomes a factor. Keeping money out of it allows you to chase your dreams longer.”
Stay broke as long as possible.
Internet personality, Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee), says basically the same thing when people ask him how they work at something they just love to do. He will tell them you need to then live the lifestyle that affords you the ability to do what you love. If you love to pet puppies all day, you can’t live in a mansion! You’ll probably live in a box.
But, if that’s truly your passion in life, then that’s what you need to do to make it happen. What he finds is people who are willing to lower their lifestyle to do what they love are usually the ones who end up making money doing what they love. The theory being they found a way to live doing what they love, and little by little, they’ll find a way to make money doing what they love. Most people are unwilling to change their lifestyle to do what they love.
I remember back to when I first got out of college and was making $20,000 at my first job. The reality was, I could have gone almost anywhere and made $20,000. The money wasn’t the draw of the position, the opportunity was. If it wasn’t for me, I could go and try something else. I had a crappy car and $400 per month apartment. I didn’t have life obligations that were going to stop me from chasing a dream.
Fast forward five years and now I have a new car, a new house, and a new kid. Chasing a dream would be much more difficult.
You hear it all the time, chasing dreams is for the young. Not because the young necessarily have better dreams or are better equipped at chasing dreams, it’s because the young can ‘afford’ to chase their dreams. They, usually, have little holding them back, financially. The older you get, the more responsibilities you have and the larger tax bracket you’re usually in.
Leaving a $20,000 job to chase my dream wasn’t going to be a problem. Leaving $100,000 job to chase my dream was going to be a problem.
No one really wants to tell you this in their ultra-motivational writings and speakings. “Go chase your dream! Don’t let anything or anyone stop you!… Just be prepared to have nothing for a while!”
We never get to hear that last part.
Want to be an NFL Referee? It’s a great gig! You just have to put about 15-20 years in at being a referee at every other level where you make peanuts and have to work other jobs to make ends meet. Yes, you can get there. No, you won’t get rich getting there.
You can definitely go out and work towards getting your dream job. Being broke will help you with that. It takes away the fear of failure and losing what you have. If you have very little, losing it doesn’t seem as bad. If you have a nice life, giving it all up, seems extremely hard.
Being broke, in a very ironic way, gives you more options, when it comes to a dream job!
One of my awesome recruiting managers at HRU (the technical staffing company I run) is in the process of making his first hire! It’s pretty exciting. Do you remember the first hire you ever got to make on your own?
You get nervous! You don’t want to make a mistake, because you know how awful it is to have a bad employee working for you, so the last thing you want to do is make a wrong decision. You want this first hire to be a rock star!
All of our managers who are going through the hiring process for the first time all face the same issues. They are unsure of what to really do. If you’re a parent, the best analogy I can give is when the hospital lets you leave with your newborn! Do you remember that?
You get to the lobby. You have your baby strapped into that car seat like they are about to enter a crash test site! When you reach the doors, they slide open, and you kind of look around. You’re waiting, for just a second, for someone to stop you! You can’t believe anyone would just allow you to walk out of the hospital with a baby! Did you guys even check who I am! I have a hard time throwing my clothes all the way into the hamper, and you’re just letting me leave with a baby!?!
That’s the feeling all of our managers get when they hire for the first time! Wait, you’re letting me choose!? Are you sure you’re okay with this?!
To help our new managers I put together the Top 7 Rookie Hiring Mistakes for managers to avoid. Here they are:
1. You wait for HR and/or Talent Acquisition to control the process. This is your hire, that you’ll have to manage, live with, and fire if they suck! Get involved! Immediately!
2. You fall into the trap of wanting to hire someone who is perfect. You’re not perfect. Your CEO is not perfect. No one is perfect. Hire someone who can succeed in your job, your organization, under your leadership. Don’t hire perfect.
3. You try and hire someone who is just like you! You were successful in the job, which is why you are now the leader. So, it makes sense that someone just like you will also be successful. This tactic fails more times then it succeeds because we actually suck at managing ourselves! Find someone who compliments your weaknesses, and has the skills to do the job and you’ll have a better chance to find success. You’ll also add more diversity to your team!
4. You don’t move fast enough. If you interview a very talented person, there is a good chance someone else is also interviewing this very talented person. Pull the trigger and get them before someone else steals them from you!
5. You wait too long to fire a miss-hire. First-time leaders are the worse with this. They feel like they can make anyone work! Plus, they feel more ownership since it was their first time. Stop it! This won’t be the last time you make a bad hire. Give yourself the best leadership gift ever and fire a bad hire quickly!
6. You don’t believe it’s your job to recruit and source talent. Guess what, champ? The organization gave you the keys to run a department. They believe in you. If I’m given the keys to run anything, I’m running the whole thing! It’s my department, which means I own the talent, which means I’m going to help find the right talent for my team. I know what is needed better than anyone! TA can help me, that’s great! But I own this!
7. You believe that leadership will judge you based on this hire. Leadership won’t judge you based on one hire. Leadership will judge you based on a pattern of hiring success, or lack thereof. One hire will not define you. Many hires will. R.E.L.A.X.
So, what do you think, HR and Talent Pros? What are the biggest mistakes you see Rookie managers making when it comes to hiring? Hit me in the comments!
Today on the Weekly Dose I review the technical interview platform Filtered. Filtered is not the first technical interview platform on the market, but they might be the most advanced interviewing platform for IT talent that I’ve seen on the market.
Filtered was built by engineers who turned into Recruiters, but decided to turn back into engineers because the tech interview world was so broken they felt compelled to do something about it! What they did was build an IT interview platform that stops all of the cheating that is currently going on in the industry!
If you hire IT talent and you use some kind of coding test, etc., you already know how the game is played and won. There are massive corruption and cheating going on in IT hiring, because the current interview platforms allow for one person to log on and take an interview for another, pass it, and then the person who can’t do the work shows up, or shows up at a much higher pay rate then they should because they tested higher then what they are really capable of.
Filtered puts a stop to this in a number of ways using technology that constantly scans works, takes facial snapshots every few seconds, and utilizes machine learning to raise red flags of potential cheaters in progress of assessment.
What do I like about Filtered?
– Filtered security is groundbreaking when it comes to stopping the cheating that is going on with your IT hiring. Filtered doesn’t allow cutting and pasting of code, it doesn’t allow the person who starts the test to get up and someone else to sit in and finish, it shows you exact GPS data of where a person is taking the test.
Why is this important? When Filtered ran a recent test for a client they were able to show one IT Contingent company the client was working with had 20+ IT assessments take place for 20+ different candidates from the exact same house in New Jersey! Cheating is going on, you are either ignoring it or don’t care!
– The Filtered team works with your IT team to create the right assessments and challenges that are needed to not just find qualified candidates but to actually find candidates that are the best that are applying.
– Recorded video interviews explaining why they did an assessment or challenge in the way they completed the task.
– Real-time data ranking so corporations can see which recruiters or which contingent firms are providing the best talent for your organization.
– Filtered shows verified skills being assessed, but also allows candidates to show other skills they might have as well, which can be verified within the system.
I love interview technology that helps organizations make better selections. One problem we’ve found out within the industry is that if people can cheat, they’ll find a way to cheat, so the technology has to stay out in front of the cheaters! Filtered is at the forefront of stopping the corruption that is taking place in the contingent IT industry.
There’s a great chance your contingent providers of IT talent are cheating your system. It’s rampant coast to coast. The most common is having someone else take the assessment, which gives you the belief you’re getting senior talent and paying for senior talent, and in reality, a junior/entry level IT person shows up to work.
I would encourage you all to demo Filtered and compare them to other technical interview platforms you are using. Filtered also has built a Data Science specific assessment as well, which is the only one I’ve seen in the industry. In a growing field like data science, it’s easy to make bad hires, so this is one more reason to look at the platform!
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.
I’m returning from London today and there was something I noticed on my trip that we don’t really have in America. In fact, in the past year, I’ve visited Australia, South Africa, and now the UK, and in each visit to these countries I’ve noticed they have a very strong after-work pub culture.
When I talk to my grandparents it seemed like at one time in America we also had this after-work pub culture. We would go to work, do our job, and afterward we would meet our workmates and friends from, old and new, for a drink or two before heading home.
I love the after-work pub culture!
It’s not really about drinking, although a lot of that happens, it about true connection. The one thing you instantly realize about the pub culture is that no, absolutely no one, is looking at their phone! It’s so strange because you realize how much we are on our phones in America when you see this!
It’s adults, sharing a pint, having conversations. Laughing. Hugging. Just sharing their daily frustrations and joys. Then they head home and finish their day.
Somewhere in our history we stopped heading to the pub after work and started heading directly home. Why?
Part of the pub culture is a city culture as well. When you don’t get into a car, by yourself, but you walk to the train, or bus, or ferry, or to where you live directly, you put yourself in a position to stop along the way for a drink with a friend, or to meet up with some friends. As we moved out of our cities, we moved away from the after-work pub culture.
We became addicted to busy. Around the world parents have their kids play sports and do activities, but, in America, we’ve become completely insane in over-scheduling our kids. It’s not enough to have them play little league on the weekend or take piano lessons, they have to be on travel teams, or prepare for concerts, etc.
We stopped having real relationships and we started having social relationships. I’ve found other countries place a higher importance on having a real face to face interactions to consider someone a friend. They want to break bread and share a drink and really get to know the person that is you. For many Americans, we’ve grown uncomfortable with real relationships!
I think there is a balance. I’m not sure I want my Dad or Mom showing up a 7 pm each night because they’ve been at the pub, but I think it’s okay if they do this a day or two a week. I think it’s healthy for adults to have adult relationships.
I like the concept of the neighborhood pub where you can go and you know the staff and the patrons. I think an after-work pub culture acts sort of like adult therapy in so many cases. I’m wondering if the Millennials and GenZ will turn the tide and re-create the after-work pub culture in America, as we see more and more young people move back into our cities? I hope so!
Hit me in the comments on your thoughts about an after-work pub culture. Are you for it or against it, and why?
I think we try and deliver a message to organizations that all employees need and want to be developed.
This is a lie.
Many of our employees do want development. Some don’t need it, they’re better than you. Some don’t want it, just give me my check. Too many of our leaders truly believe they can develop and make their employees better than they already are. This is a lot tougher than it sounds, and something most leaders actually fail at moving the needle on.
Here are some things I like to share with my leaders in developing their employees:
1. “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time” -Maya Angelou. I see too many leaders trying to change adult employees. Adult behaviors are basically locked. If they show you they don’t want to work. They don’t want to work. Part of developing a strong relationship is spending time with people who are not a waste of time.
2. People only change behavior they want to change, and even then, sometimes they’re not capable of it. See above. When I was young in my career, I was very ‘passionate’. That’s what I liked calling it – passionate. I think the leaders I worked with called it, “career derailer”. It took a lot for me to understand what I thought was a strength, was really a major weakness. Some people never will gain this insight. They’ll continue to believe they’re just passionate when in reality they’re just really an asshole.
3. Don’t invest more in a person than they are willing to invest in themselves. I want you to be great. I want you to be the best employee we have ever had work here. You need to be a part of that. I’m willing to invest an immense amount of time and resources to help you reach your goals, but you have to meet me halfway, at least. Don’t think this means a class costs $2,000, so you should be willing to pay half. It doesn’t. Financial investment is easier for organizations to put in than for employees, but if you pay for the class and it’s on a Saturday and the employee turns their nose up to it, they’re not willing to ‘invest’ their share.
4. It’s usually never the situation that’s pissing you off, it’s the mindset behind the situation that’s pissing you off. Rarely do I get upset over a certain situation. Frequently, I get upset over how someone has decided to handle that situation. Getting your employees to understand your level of importance in a situation is key to getting you both on the same page towards a solution. Failure to do this goes down a really disastrous path.
5, Endeavor to look at disappointment with broader strokes. It’s all going to work out in the end. It’s hard for leaders to act disappointed. We are supposed to be strong and not show our disappointment. This often makes our employees feel like we aren’t human. The best leaders I’ve ever had showed disappoint, but with this great level of resolve that I admired. This sucks. We are all going to make it through this and be better. Disappointment might be the strongest developmental opportunity you’ll ever get as a leader, with your people.
HR Mind Games is a quick hitting, 20-30 minute hangout hosted by my great friend, Kris Dunn, founder of FOT and the HR Capitalist and sponsored by Caliper, the leading provider of Assessments for Selection, Talent Management, and Leadership Development.
In each episode of HR Mind Games, we’ll cover how general behavioral assessment geekiness/expertise helps HR and Recruiting Pros make better hires as well as maximize performance once that talent is in the door!
Episode #1 is going to be a doozy – How to Hire Sales Pros Who Are “Hunters”, not “Farmers”. We have a LOT of opinions on this people, and the scars (and behavioral science) to prove it
If you love to geek out on the assessment side – CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THIS EPISODE OF HR MIND GAMES!!!
In our first episode, we’re going long on how to use assessments to figure out who the true “hunters” are across sales candidates. Join us and we’ll share what we’ve learned and what to focus on from a behavioral perspective to ensure sales hires are “optimized” to bring home the bacon!! We’ll even give you a great template to compare sales candidates to as you hit the recruiting trail!
Even if you’re unsure if you can make it or not, sign up to make sure you get the templates for future sales searches!
Future episodes: How to spot and deal with Narcissistic Managers, How to Use Assessments for Good, Not Evil…. good times in this series…
I’m on the road this week at SHRM National and at The Sourcing Summit UK. Two very different groups. The SHRMies will be more traditional HR and Recruiter types that wear a lot of hats. The SOSUites will be very specialized in sourcing.
I get asked a lot about what’s really the difference between Recruiting and Sourcing? Or, where does Sourcing end and Recruiting begin? Or something similar to these questions.
The answer is it doesn’t matter.
The organization has a need for talent.
The organization has to find or grow talent.
You and others in the organization need to figure this out.
So, figure it out!
Everyone is going to design and process this differently. Some will have Sourcers take it all the way until the candidate is screened, then the Recruiter will come into finish the process. Some will have the Sourcers just find the talent, then have the Recruiter work to contact, screen, etc.
It doesn’t matter how you design it if it works for your organization, and, this is key, it’s replicable no matter who you have in the role.
Stop. Think. Let that process for a second.
One of the biggest mistakes I see really good organizations make is they build and design process around the talent they have right now. One piece of that talent changes and all of a sudden it no longer works.
“Well, Tim, did all the sourcing and just handed me great talent!” Great, Tim quit because he was doing most of the work and you took all the credit. How is that process working now?
Talent Acquisition is really hard when you have to make it up new each time you have an opening! Talent Acquisition becomes sustainable when you can plug in skill sets you need and the machine keeps spitting out talent no matter who it is.
Is it Sourcing? Is it Recruiting? It doesn’t freaking matter. Make it work for your organization.
What I find with the most innovative TA shops on the planet is they didn’t look at what everyone else was doing. They looked at what their organization needed and they solved for that problem. Many times the solution was doing something no one else was doing.