Care. More.

Posted on October 30, 2017 by Tim Sackett

My wife loves a super funny scene from the moving “Knocked Up”, here’s the scene:

“Care more!” My wife and I laugh at this because this one scene defines most marriages with kids!

I like “care more”. I want those I work with to care more. To care as much as I do. Care more about what we do. Care more about each other. Care more about your own development. Care more about our customers.

Care more!

Here’s the problem with ‘Care More!’ You’re assuming those around you don’t care more. Think about that for a moment. What if it was you being told to ‘care more’?

Feels like an insult, doesn’t it?

As leaders, we constantly feel like we care more about everything than all of those who work for us, but that’s just not true. It feels that way because we are surrounded by people who also care, but we are caring about different things at different times.

I’m surrounded by great people at my company, HRU Technical Resources, who are constantly caring more, but often it’s just not that we are aligned on our caring! I’m caring about something one day, and they also have things they are caring about. Some days we are all caring about the same thing, some days we are caring about different things.

When I first started as a leader in my career I would have high frustration over ‘care more’. I wanted every single person who I worked with to care as much as I did about the exact same things that I did. Let’s be honest, this is a behavior that still crops up for me from time to time!

What I’ve learned, is that almost every person that I have worked with does care more. The key is understanding what they care about, letting them know that I understand what they care about, and also have them know what I care about. I think this alignment lets all of us help each other.

Most employees working for you want to ‘care more’ about something. It’s not my job to judge what they care about, but to support them in caring more for what is important to them, not getting them to only ‘care more’ to what’s important to me.

That’s my key to great leadership and a happy marriage! Understand what others care more about. Help them care more. Don’t judge what someone else is caring more about. Let others know what you care more about so they aren’t assuming or guessing what you care more about.

The people I don’t want in my life are those who don’t want to care more about anything. I have no room for that!

Mailbag Question: Should Our Receptionist Hug Clients?

Posted on October 27, 2017 by Tim Sackett

So, yes, I’m the “World’s Foremost Expert on Workplace Hugging” so it seems appropriate that this week I would get the following question from a reader:

Dear World’s Foremost Expert on Workplace Hugging,

My boss asked me to do something this week and before I did it I wanted to ask an expert, like yourself, and get some other opinions. The situation is our CEO has asked me to ‘tell’ our front desk receptionist that she will now be required to hug each client that comes into our office. Our CEO feels this will create a more welcoming and friendly environment for our clients. What are your thoughts on doing this?

Thinking this doesn’t right in Middle America!

Yes, this was an actual exchange that I had this week! I made up the name, but everything else is as accurate as I can make and still protect the innocent!

So, in 2017, a CEO of an actual, successful company, wants “Mary” the Receptionist to start hugging every client that comes to the office. Wow. Right? Just, Wow!

Here’s my response:

Middle America,

First, being a hugger, I actually understand where your CEO is coming from. When I go into a business and I’m met with a friendly (natural, unforced) hug. I feel very welcome! When I’m down south, I seem to get more hugs than if I’m on either coast or in a big city. So, part of me actually understands the psychology behind this request.

That being said, I have one question for your CEO (and I encourage to ask this question): “If Mary leaves as your receptionist, and you hire “Mark” to replace her, will your CEO still want “Mark” to go and hug every client?” I’ll take make a ‘big’ assumption here and say, no, probably not!

This is a very quick and simple way to point out how harassing this action would be viewed by normal people. If you decide to go down this path of making hugging an actual work requirement, you will end up in a lawsuit at some point!

Okay, I’m a hugger, so let me tell you how you get most of what you want, without the lawsuit! Go hire a natural hugger to man your front desk and never discourage this behavior! You’ll get most of what you want, especially if your CEO and others mirror this hugging behavior to every client they meet in front of this person.

Good Luck,

Tim The World’s Foremost Expert in Workplace Hugging!

I love HR because of this very real, innocent question. You never actually know what the heck you’ll walk into each day, and there is no way of planning for the insane things that happen!

Have a great Friday HR Pros! You deserve it!

Are Recruiting Layoffs a Sign of an Economic Downturn?

Posted on October 26, 2017 by Tim Sackett

Have you been watching the recruiting news lately?

My good friend Stacy Zapar (who runs The Talent Agency focused on recruiting recruiters!) and I send notes back and forth on stuff we hear in the industry. She’s in California, I’m in Michigan, we swap all the rumors and verified stuff we are hearing to get a better understanding of what’s going on. In the past few weeks – it’s been a bloodbath on the corporate recruiting front!

Snap, Blue Apron, CareerBuilder, Facebook, etc. and those are just the ones that have gone public!

So, the big question is “Are layoffs of recruiters a ‘canary in the coal mine’ indicator of an economic downturn?”

My first reaction is “Oh, hell yes!” Recruiter layoffs happen when you know you won’t be hiring! So, it has to be some kind of indicator about your business. The broader question would be are those layoffs an indicator of overall economic health across the board? I’m not quite as sure of.

There are a number of factors at play here:

Too many organizations across too many geographic areas have announced recruiter layoffs for this too coincidental. So, something is happening. So…
Could it be just another tech bubble bursting, or is it wider than that?
Is this just a normal 4th quarter correction after TA Leaders see their budgets for next year?
Has TA technology, A.I., and Intelligent Automation, finally started making some impact on how we staff our recruiting teams?
Did TA Leaders over hire over the past few years because we came out of the great recession with almost no TA staff, went right-ditch-left-ditch in our correction, and now we are correcting back to the proper staffing levels are teams should be?

I think it’s all of these things.

I don’t see any economist calling for a major downturn. I do see economist calling for things to slow down, but all of that has been expected for a while. Since the Great Recession, almost ten years ago, we’ve been on a cycle of really good growth, almost historic in nature. What we know is that can’t continue. So, there is some slow down happening, and it will hit certain segments harder than others, like every downturn.

I do think TA Tech automation, A.I., etc. has to have an impact on TA Team size moving forward. As TA Leaders, much of the ROI built into your TA Tech purchase is headcount. It’s the only way it works out. Either you’ll lose some of your team, or you’ll be in a position not to add team members, that’s how ROI works!

So, what do you think Recruiters? Are you feeling anything? Hit me in the comments!

Is Talent Acquisition an Actual Profession? @ATAPGlobal

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Tim Sackett

There’s something going on in recruiting. Can you feel it?

About a year and a half ago I got asked to join a forming board of directions for an organization called the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals (ATAP). The easiest way to describe ATAP is it’s the SHRM for Recruiters. The other board members hate when I say that!

ATAP doesn’t want to be SHRM. We want to be something a bit different, and we clearly were not formed for HR professionals. Why I make the comparison is because I’ve been in both worlds, HR and Talent Acquisition. Also, I’m a twenty-year proud SHRM member with my SHRM-SCP.

SHRM sees talent acquisition as part of HR. I think those of us in Talent Acquisition see our profession as a completely different function within the organization. One that no longer has a need to be ‘bundled in’ with HR. It’s time we stand on our own.

SHRM and my SHRM certification gave me credibility and other’s outside of HR looked at me as a ‘professional”. I always had those letters behind my name. I knew how hard it was to study for that exam and pass it. No matter where I went in my career, I had those credentials, and I was viewed as an HR professional.

In my recruiting world, we have never had that.

Don’t get me wrong, there have always been silly programs one could take in recruiting and get letters behind your name. But, if we are honest with each other, no one ever really took those letters very seriously. Those programs weren’t really built on a body of knowledge and standards that were validated by a big giant group of recruiting nerds! Most of those programs were just money grabs.

I love talent acquisition. It’s my profession. I want every function in our businesses to view talent acquisition as the profession we know it is. That’s why I stepped up and accepted the ATAP board seat and do volunteer work every week to help grow ATAP and our profession.

My goal is to see ATAP be that one organization in the world that leaders can turn to and know if someone is affiliated with ATAP they are in the ‘profession’ of talent acquisition. I want talent acquisition leaders to look at a recruiter’s resume and see “ATAP” and see that recruiter passed an ATAP exam, and know they are hiring a recruiter who ‘gets it’! Who has proven they know how to recruit.

Talent Acquisition is not a profession right now. Any idiot can call themselves a recruiter. It’s one of the main reasons we have such a bad reputation amongst all professions. ATAP is going to change that for talent acquisition pros worldwide. Are you ready to join with me to make this happen!?

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What the heck is ATAP?!? I get asked this question almost daily. ATAP stands for the Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals. Founded in 2016, ATAP’s mission is to develop a body of unified educational, ethical and measurement standards, advocate on issues that impact those in our profession, and build a global community of inspired and informed professionals. I’m a member! You should be one too – Join Here – use my code to get $5 off your first-year “ATAPDISCTS”!

T3 – @Breezy_HR, err ATS!

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Tim Sackett

This week on T3 we get back to the business to talking technology with the recruiting software platform Breezy HR. First off, Breezy HR has nothing to do with HR, and everything to do with Recruiting.

About 2 1/2 years ago, a lifetime in the technology world, I highlighted Breezy right here on T3! I liked them then, and I like them even more now. Back then I called them recruiting technology ‘light’, kind of like BambooHR for HRIS. And, that was probably fairly accurate. At that time they were an entry-level ATS for SMB.

In the last 2 1/2 years (or 30 months if it’s your baby) Breezy has built a full-blown, full functioning end-to-end recruitment platform for the SMB to Mid-size ATS market, that still has a great price point for those just wanting to start out.

Things I like about Breezy HR:

– Breezy just launched a built-in A.I.-assisted messenger, called “Hello” for recruiters. The bot will engage candidates right away on your site, and let recruiters take over at any point to have real-life conversations with candidates. Great functionality for an ATS at any level.

– Intuitive U.I. that uses a very familiar drag and drop functionality to allow recruiters to easy move candidates through the pipeline.

– The candidate ‘profile’ is one of the better-designed profiles among ATS vendors incorporating social profiles, resume, notes, etc. With the ability to one-click action almost anything you would ever do with a candidate from the profile.

– Built-in video assessments and on-demand interview guides let hiring managers easily become a part of the process in a way that makes sense to them.

– Automated reference checking. What!? Again, another function you just don’t see built into most ATSs.

The Recruiting Platform/ATS market has really picked up its game over the past couple of years. You can find so many good options, but if you’re an SMB or Mid-sized organizations the choices are still fairly slim. Breezy is definitely a platform you need to check out, I was surprised at everything it had embedded into it, and it’s super easy to use!

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

You almost never go wrong when hiring pretty people!

Posted on October 23, 2017 by Tim Sackett

What do you think of, in regards to smarts, when I say: “Sexy Blond model type”?

What about: “Strong Athletic Jock?”

What about: “Scrawny nerdy band geek?”

My guess is most people would answer: Dumb, Dumb, Smart – or something to that context.

In HR we call this profiling and make no mistake, profiling is done by almost all of our hiring managers. The problem is everything we might have thought is probably wrong in regards to our expectations of looks and brains. So, why are ugly people smarter?

They’re Not!

Slate published an article that contradicts all of our ugly people are more smart myths and actually shows evidence to the contrary. From the article:

Now there were two findings: First, scientists knew that it was possible to gauge someone’s intelligence just by sizing him up; second, they knew that people tend to assume that beauty and brains go together. So they asked the next question: Could it be that good-looking people really are more intelligent?

Here the data were less clear, but several reviews of the literature have concluded that there is indeed a small, positive relationship between beauty and brains. Most recently, the evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa pulled huge datasets from two sources—the National Child Development Study in the United Kingdom (including 17,000 people born in 1958), and the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health in the United States (including 21,000 people born around 1980)—both of which included ratings of physical attractiveness and scores on standard intelligence tests.

When Kanazawa analyzed the numbers, he found the two were related: In the U.K., for example, attractive children have an additional 12.4 points of IQ, on average. The relationship held even when he controlled for family background, race, and body size.

That’s right HR Pros, pretty people are smarter. I can hear hiring managers and creepy executives that only want “cute” secretaries laughing all over the world!

The premise is solid though! If you go back in our history and culture you see how this type of things evolves:

1. Very smart guy gets a great job or starts great company and makes a ton of money

2. Because of success, “smart guy” now has many choices of very pretty females to pursue as a bride.

3. “Smart guy” and “Pretty bride” start a family which results in Pretty-Smart Children. Did you pay attention to basic genetics in biology class?

4. Pretty-Smart Children grow up with all the opportunities that come to smart beautiful families.

5. The cycle repeats.

Now, first, this is a historical thing thus my example of using a male as our “Smart guy” and not “Smart girl”. I’m sure in today’s world this premise has evolved yet again. But we are talking about how we got to this point, not where are we now. Additionally, we are looking at how your organization can hire better.

So, how do you want to hire better employees? That’s easy! Just hire more pretty people!

Trends and Changes in HR and TA Technology: Notes from #HRTechConf @IBMWatsonTalent

Posted on October 20, 2017 by Tim Sackett

Still unpacking so much great information from the HR Technology Conference. I had a chance to sit down with the IBM Watson Team and ‘talk shop’ at HR Tech on video. There are some really good nuggets of information in here! Check it out:

So, I’ll tell you I wasn’t the only one who sat down with IBM, they got a bunch of really smart folks to sit down and talk:

Sara Brennan – the most underrated HR Tech mind on the planet
Jason Averbook – another just brilliant HR Tech brain
John Sumser – a dude I could sit next to and listen for hours, so smart
Kevin Grossman, Shane Gray, Jessica Miller Merrell, etc.

You check them all out on IBM Watson Talent’s YouTube channel.

Recruiters Make a Difference! @Paycor

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Tim Sackett

So, it’s pretty rare that we ever see anything good said about Recruiters, let alone a national ad campaign by a major HR technology company, but low and behold that’s exactly what was recently launched by Paycor – check it out:

(hat tip to Ben Gotkin, ATAP Executive Director, for finding this video.)

So, before the haters come out and rip on a payroll provider having good talent acquisition software, you should probably know that Paycor actually bought Newton Software. Newton is an ATS that is a best of breed top 10 ATS (in my opinion), which is now integrated across the Paycor suite of products.

So, they can back up a commercial that talks about a talent solution in a big way!

What I love about the ad is the choice of Carrie as the recruiter for this company. I would say “Carrie” matches what most people probably think of when they think of your prototypical HR lady at a company. Middle-aged, white woman. I think if you were to ask Recruiters to draw up a model demographic of an actual recruiter, they would not have cast “Carrie” in this roll.

This is why I actually love this commercial because we’re all idiots. “Carrie” actually is the average recruiter in the world. It’s not some twenty-something out of silicon valley carrying a MacBook Pro and Venti half calf mocha with a twist, wearing skinny jeans and an ironic t-shirt. “Carrie” is recruiting in the real world. “Carrie” is the 90%.

The TA Tech industry, for the most part, forgets about “Carrie”. The HR and TA Tech community combined forget about “Carrie”. They focus on “Jackson’s” and “Olivia’s”, and forget about the “Karen’s” and “Judy’s” and “Steve’s” of the world. The reality is HR and Talent aren’t done by twenty-somethings, it’s mostly done by forty-somethings and fifty-somethings.

So, bravo to Paycor’s marketing team to understanding their real user. In a world that always goes for younger and sexier, I love the realness of this ad, and that a recruiter is getting recognized!

Does Your Annual Review Process Include Terminations?

Posted on October 18, 2017 by Tim Sackett

By now most of you probably have had the chance to read the Telsla article where they terminated 400 employees directly after their annual review process. If not, check out the link. Also, my buddy Kris Dunn did a great write up on Tesla’s ‘unique’ culture as well over at the HR Capitalist.(Go Check it Out!)

My take is a bit different from Kris’s. Sure Tesla is a unique culture that has been ultra successful, but I’m wondering from an employee performance point of view, is firing employees during your annual process something that drives a sustainable culture?

Tesla is ultra cool, everyone wants “Tesla” on their resume or in their client list. Does that continue to be the case if you treat employees like this? I’m all for firing bad, underperforming employees, we all need to do this more and quicker. I think we all agree on that.

The question is, do you fire employees during your annual review process?

I’m wondering what the day or week before annual review time looks like at Tesla? Probably a lot of going away lunches and after hour drinks, but for everyone since no one really knows who will get ‘cut’ this time. Can you imagine those lunches!?

“Hey, team, everyone is invited to lunch next Thursday, just because, well, you know, it’s annual review time and we just want to say ‘thanks’ (“Thanks” now meaning “Goodbye” in Tesla speak) for all of your hard work, and, well, again, you just never know when one of us might want to do something else, and, oh gosh, we just never spend enough time together, so let’s break some bread!”

I’m also guessing the Friday after Tesla Annual Performance Review week is one big giant after-party!

Let’s face it, firing anyone during performance evaluation time is an awful way to run that process. You wait around for once a year to do most of your terminations, you’re not doing employee performance well at all!

If you have performance issues, high-performance companies address those issues immediately, work to correct, and if that doesn’t happen, they move to terminate as soon as it’s clear performance will not improve. Or you can wait around for f’ing ‘Death Day’ once a year and add a million times more stress to the process than is ever needed.

But what do I know, I mean it’s Tesla and Tesla knows all. Can’t wait to meet the ‘unicorn’ HR leader from Tesla at next conference I go to explain how brilliant they are for coming up with this nightmare.

HR on my friends.

Everyone Has An Organizational Expiration Date

Posted on October 16, 2017 by Tim Sackett

I was out at the HR Technology Conference last week and I was reminded of a post I ran a few years back. I ran into a ton of friends and colleagues, many that I’ve known for about ten years. These are good, smart people who are successful in the HR and TA industry.

Regardless, many of these folks are working at new companies, or even looking for work. I’m confident all will find what they are looking for, but it also points out a phenomenon that happens all the time which is many of us have organizational expiration dates.

There are a number of other reason people should have expiration dates with organizations, these include:

Chronic Average: This is for the people who just never really do anything, they just exist in your organization. After a while, they need to just go exist at another organization.
Convicted Idiot: This is the person who makes a certain bad decision, so bad, that their expiration with your organization must come up. Think, hitting on the bosses wife at the holiday party, or worse! Probably can’t legally terminate them, but they need to go someplace else.
1997 Top Salesman/woman: This happens way to much, yeah, you were top salesperson a decade ago, either get the trophy back or go give another organization your attitude! We tend to keep them around because we are hoping they’ll regain their top form, but they don’t. We need to just let them expire.
My Boss Is Dummer than Me: An organization can take only so many of these, for only so long. Ok, you win, go be smarter than us someplace else.
No Admins Left To Sleep With: I’m hoping the title of this one explains it as well, otherwise, you might have reached your HR expiration date at your organization!

But, what I’ve learned over the past couple of decades is that there are also some positive reasons of why people have organizational expiration dates:

New CEO is running the show. One day you’re minding your own business, the next day the new CEO fast-forwards your expiration date so she can bring in her own you.
We All Need Some New Magic. Many of us have a limited number of magic tricks. It might be amazing magic, but eventually, even our biggest fans get tired of our magic. But, the great thing is a new organization will love our magic! (Editors note: you can replace ‘magic’ with ‘bullshit’ and this works just the same)
You Stopped Growing. I’ve met some folks who took their organization to some great places, but eventually they reached a point where they stopped growing. Going to a new organization is really the only hope.

Probably the best thing we can hope for professionally is that we will know when our organizational expiration date is up before others know. How do we do that? Work hard on having the best self-insight you can. It might just extend your expiration date.

The Tim Sackett Project

TA & HR Expert, Dad, Backup Point Guard on my over 40 men's team