Did Your Employees Ride the Bus to School?

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It’s that time of year when parents and kids make a big decision, to ride or not ride the school bus! From the Project archives.

I read a very funny quote today from a comedian, Jenny Johnson, which she said

“If you rode the school bus as a kid, your parents hated you.”

It made me laugh out loud, for two reasons:

1. I rode the bus or walked or had to arrive at school an hour early because that was when my Dad was leaving and if I wanted a ride that was going to be it.  Nothing like sitting at school talking to the janitor because he was the only other person to arrive an hour before school started.  Luckily for me, he was nice enough to open the doors and not make me stand outside in the cold.  Lucky for my parents he wasn’t a pedophile!

2. My kids now make my wife and I feel like we must be the worst parents in the world in those rare occasions that they have to ride the bus.  I know I’m doing a disservice to my sons by giving them this ride – but I can’t stop it, it’s some American ideal that gets stuck in my head about making my kids life better than my life, and somehow I’ve justified that by giving them a ride to school their life is better than mine!

When I look back it, riding the bus did suck, you usually had to deal with those kids who parents truly did hate them.  Every bully in the world rode the bus. Let’s face it their parents weren’t giving them a ride, so you had to deal with that (me being small and red-headed probably had to deal with it more than most).

You also got to learn most of the life lessons on the bus, you found out about Santa before everyone else, you found out how babies got made before everyone else, you found out about that innocent kid stuff that makes kids, kids before you probably should have.  But let’s face it, the bus kids were tough! You had to get up earlier, stand out in the cold, get home later and take a beating after the ride home, just so you had something to look forward to the next day!

You know as HR Pros we tend also not to let our employees “ride the bus”.   We always look for an easier way for them to do their work, to balance their work and home, to do as little as possible to get the job done.  In a way, too many of us, are turning our organizations and our employees into the kids who had their Mom’s pick them up from school.

I’m not saying go be hard on your employees, but as a profession, we might be better off to be a little less concerned with how comfortable everyone is, and a little more concerned with how well everybody is performing.

Too many HR Pros (and HR shops for that matter) tend to act as “parents” to the employees, not letting them learn from their mistakes, but trying to preempt every mistake before it’s made – either through extensive processes or overly done performance management systems.  We justify this by saying we are just “protecting” our organizations but in the end, we aren’t really making our employees or organizations “tougher” or preparing them to handle the hard times we all must face professionally.  It’ll be alright they might not like it 100%, but in the end, they’ll be better for it.

HR 101: Prepare to be surprised!

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HR 101. If there is one thing I could give a new HR Pro it would be this simple advice. No matter how prepared you think you are, you really only need to prepare yourself, for one thing, being surprised.

You don’t really get judged on your daily stuff.  Let’s face it, 99.9% of the time that goes off without a hitch.  You get judged on how you handle surprises.

Surprises make and break great HR Pro careers.

There’s really the only way to prepare for surprises.  You need to expect that a surprise will always happen. That one employee you can’t lose or the entire project will blow up, be prepared to lose them.  Talk about it, plan for it, and basically come to grips that it will happen.  Then it will happen, and you’ll be the only one not surprised by it.

The best HR Pros I’ve worked with had this one common trait, they were unshakeable when surprised. Almost like they expected it.

Great Candidate Experience for $1

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I like guacamole.  When I order my burrito I’ll gladly pay the $1 extra for guac. That extra dollar raises my burrito experience to another level. 

I can eat the burrito without the guac and I’ll be just fine. I’ll enjoy it. It will taste good. But, I enjoy it that much more with guacamole.

I enjoy that burrito as much or more than I enjoy so many more meals that cost double or triple that amount.   Sure, I could go to a high-end Mexican restaurant and pay $30 bucks for a great dinner, but I wouldn’t enjoy it triple the amount of the burrito I just got for like $8, with guacamole.

All your candidate experience really needs is a little guacamole.

Everyone wants to take their candidate experience to the ‘next’ level when in reality we just need to add a few little extras.  Some simple sides will do the trick if presented in the proper manner.

The little things make a huge difference if you’re doing the basic things well.  But, that’s the trick. Do your basics first. Candidates could care less that you gave them a bottle of water and logo pen on their first

Candidates could care less that you gave them a bottle of water and logo pen on their first interview if you can’t deliver the basic follow up of how they did in the interview. But, if you deliver all the basic communications well, they will remember all the little things you did to make them feel special.

Candidates don’t want or need a $30 dinner. All they really want is some guacamole on their burrito!

We’re Like the Venmo of Recruiting

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So, for the Gen-X and older folks reading this I first probably need to explain what Venmo is. Venmo is a digital payment system, like PayPal (Venmo is actually owned by PayPal) but different. It’s a mobile app that allows you to make payments between friends and socialize the exchange. Out to dinner, want to easily split the check, one person pays, the others “Venmo” them their share and you get this cool friend feed to see what everyone is doing.

I’ve got three GenZ sons and they Venmo. They don’t carry cash anymore, so when they need to exchange funds with friends, it’s all done on their smartphones.

So, we constantly see talent acquisition and HR technology call themselves the “Tinder” of recruitment, or the “Uber of HR”, or some other stupid comparison to make themselves sound way cooler than they really are. I figured no one is saying they’re the “Venmo” of Recruitment, so what the hell, I’m stealing it before anyone else can!

Here’s my Venmo for Recruiting product. It’s a mobile, crowd-sourced app that shows your network where everyone is interviewing and allows you to share information, contacts, questions, reactions, etc. of your interview experience. Candidates can crowd source positions with each other, ask for help in making connections with companies they’re interviewing with, and share how a certain hiring manager might be to work for.

I’m going to start there. Only candidates, no employers, to build traction. Completely free, I’ll live off my angel funding for the first three years on our way to 50 million users. Then, we turn on the employer portion, ala Glassdoor but better, that will allow employers to see what networks are saying about them and their jobs, but not allow any responses or interactions.

You get to see this new voyeuristic kind of experience that is hidden camera in nature to know what candidates truly think about your organization, your hiring managers, your interview experience, your jobs, etc. Then, it’s up to you to make some decisions on how to change what you don’t like, highlight what’s going well, and basically find ways to use the data from our “Venmo of Recruiting” (it’s trademarked!).

If I know anything, I know TA leaders will pay for inside information to what candidates truly think about them. They’ll pay a lot! Also, they’ll continue to pay to see how that data changes with the changes they make. How cool would it be to have this kind of lab environment and be able to test out pieces of your candidate experience and see real-time feedback?

Also, how cool would it be to have a network sharing real information about interviewing, jobs, organizations, etc., on a mobile platform within your trusted network if you’re a candidate? Venmo for Recruiting. I’m calling it “FeedMo.us” – Feedback and More.

Feedmo.us is now taking meetings with angel investors. Just send me a note if you’re interested in being a part of Venmo for Recruiting!

An Abbreviated List of Things I Like

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It’s Wednesday in the summer and no one reads blogs post on a Wednesday during the summer, no one really reads blogs any day in the summer, at least that’s what my Google Analytics say! So, I’ll write something for me, since I’m probably the only one who will read it…

Here’s an abbreviated list of things I like. Why abbreviated? It’s summer and I don’t want to put too much work into this:

1. My wife. On July 25th I celebrated being married 25 years and during that time I’ve found that I like her than anyone else in my life. My kids are her favorite, but I can replace all of them, I always jokingly tell her. I really love my dog, but I think during the day he’s having an affair with my wife. Basically, my wife and I are the same kinds of crazy.

2. Shoes. I have a problem. I could buy a new pair of shoes every day for a year and still have shoes I need! I’ve even thought of doing a series “365 Pairs of Shoes” where I wear a different pair of shoes each day for a year. Requests to Nike, Cole Haan, Keen, etc. to participate as sponsors are still awaiting a response. Stay tuned.

3. Jackets. Problem #2. I buy too many coats for a normal human being. I give coats to Goodwill that I don’t even think I wore! I live in Michigan so the four seasons and mostly cold weather help me with this obsession.

4. Cookies without nuts or fruit. If I could only choose one dessert for the rest of my life that dessert would be cookies! Cookies with nuts and/or fruit don’t count. Otherwise, all cookies are good. I love sugar cookies with frosting, peanut butter cookies, lemon-clove cookies, any chocolate chip cookies. Years ago there was this place in Omaha where the Pamida HR guys and I would go to lunch. They would put crack cocaine in their cookies, I think, I could eat a dozen of them at one time.

5. Gin. That makes me sound like an alcoholic. I mean I really like margaritas as well! G&T is my go to adult beverage of choice. It’s simple, yet sophisticated. You can dress it up or down. If you spill it, it doesn’t stain. I’ve found the tonic is as important as the gin. Okay, now I really sound like a lush.

6. Blue Diamond Salt’n Vinegar Almonds. I’m addicted to them, you can’t just eat one. You have to like the salt and vinegar flavor, and if you do, do yourself a favor and go get some these!

7. Bargains. I can’t stand not buying a great deal. Not a good deal, a great deal! Nordstrom Rack, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Outlet Malls, Nike.com Clearance events, etc. It makes me happy to get something 70% off. I feel like I’m cheating life! I got a pair of Cole Haan’s this weekend and I was looking behind me when I left in case they thought I actually stole them because I did! Such a deal! I don’t take this that I’m cheap. I’m not. I like nice things. I like nice things even better when I get them for a lot less!

8. A freshly manicured lawn that I cut myself. I’ve paid to have my lawn cut in the past and it was nice. Come home after work to lawn already done, but it was unsatisfying at a level I can’t explain. My sons can cut the grass, but they’re amateurs. I have it down to a science.

9. Diet Mt. Dew. You probably already knew that if you read this blog. I’ll drink at least three a day on a bad day, six to eight on a good day. I don’t have an addictive personality, but this might be my one vice. Do you know they don’t have Diet Dew in Canada? No wonder they aren’t a super power. Australia as well. I’m going to South Africa this year and I figured a case of Diet Dew weighs ten pounds for my suitcase!

So, what are some of your favorite things? Hit me in the comments and tell me something about yourself and I’ll judge you silently!

 

Midwest Recruiter’s Bootcamp! Minneapolis July 31st-Aug 1 (LAST CALL!)

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My good friend and recruiting guru, Paul DeBettignies, is hosting the Midwest Recruiting Bootcamp in Minneapolis next week, and he asked me to come and speak at it. He also asked some of the top recruiting minds in the business as well! The camp is next week July 31st and August 1st in Minneapolis, and you can still register and be apart of this!

Check out this list:

  • Maren Hogan – Create Winning Employer Brand for Knockout Recruitment
  • Jim Durbin – 8 Mistakes You’re Making: The New Rules Of LinkedIn
  • Shannon Pritchett – In OR out? Creative Sourcing Techniques to Find Your Candidates OUTside the box
  • Caroline Karanja – 10 ways to build diversity, practice inclusion and increase engagement within your organization
  • Paul himself – Create and Grow Your Recruiter Brand
  • Nick Roseth – Selling Minnesota: Strategies And Tools to Improve Recruiting To The Region
  • And me – hugging mostly! Okay, not really, I’m going to be sharing the 10 Truths Of Recruiting And Why You Are Failing At Them! And, how you can not fail at them!

When Paul first talked to me about the concept of the Midwest Recruiting Bootcamp I knew instantly it would be a hit and something I wanted to be apart of! Why? This is real Recruiting development for recruiting teams! It’s what I wanted to bring to Michigan with the Michigan Recruiter’s Conference.

National level development and speakers, in our own backyard! 

Paul let me know today he still has some space open for any recruiter’s or recruiting managers who want to join us. We’ll be onsite at the University of Minnesota. It’s two days that are packed with great material. If you can’t make both days – come one day, then send someone else on your team the other day! Or just come one day – you’ll still get a ton out of it!

REGISTER FOR MIDWEST RECRUITING BOOTCAMP! 

This might be the biggest bang for the buck in recruiter training budget history!

Here’s Paul telling us a little more:

The 7 Forgotten Tools of Recruiting

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Join me on Wednesday, July 26, 11 am PT / 2 pm ET to talk Forgotten Recruiting Tools! 

These days, recruiting moves so fast and is filled with so much technology that it can be difficult to remember what works best and what’s a passing shiny object.
In this free webinar, I’ll dig into some tried and true ways that have been forgotten by most organizations when it comes to attracting and recruiting great talent, and some newer techniques that people will probably want to go back and take a second look at!
  • Simple ways to discover untapped talent pools
  • Connect with more candidates 100% of the time
  • The single most valuable tool in recruiting that you already have, but probably aren’t using!
  • Along with some new tools to add to your toolbox

 

Plus, much, much more!

 

Old school, new school, just plain old good school, my hope is you’ll leave this webinar with some new ideas on using some old tools you already have at your disposal but just stop using and never really used, to begin with. This webinar is a great presentation for recruiting leaders and recruiting pros alike.

 

This webinar is sponsored by the great folks over at Jobvite, but all the content is 100% my own! Also, I’m leaving some time at the end for some open Q & A – so bring all those questions you’ve been dying to ask! See you on Wednesday!

 

REGISTER TODAY! 

3 Ways You Can Make HR Better

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If you’re sitting in your HR office right now reading this, about to create some new HR stuff, stop, you’re wasting our time (and by “our” I mean all of us employees in the organization).  “Wow, look who woke up on the wrong side of the bed!”, you’re probably thinking!

It’s not that I don’t think being creative is important. It is, it’s Hugely important.  Being creative in HR just isn’t important.  I know you think it is, that’s because you want to be creative, so you make yourself believe that’s important.  But the reality is, anything you can do, I can do better.  No, not because I’m better than you.  I mean I probably am, but that isn’t the point.  I can do it better because all I’m going to do is take what you’ve already

I know you think it is, that’s because you want to be creative, so you make yourself believe that’s important.  But the reality is, anything you can do, I can do better.  No, not because I’m better than you.  I mean I probably am, but that isn’t the point.  I can do it better because all I’m going to do is take what you’ve already done and make it better.

In fact, I’ll do a few more things while working on improving your thing:

1. I’ll make it cheaper

2. I’ll make it more simple to use

3. I’ll make it fun to do

See! Stop being creative, and just start making other people’s things better.

From an article in Fast Company:

The line between becoming a pioneer and a “me-too” flop can be unclear when you’re in the weeds of development. Uncertainty is an easier destination to arrive at than confidence, especially when the truth is, there’s no such thing as making anything that’s really new. Everything is an evolution of something else. But you can make something better. When in doubt, ask yourself if you’d use your new product instead of the market leaders. If the answer is yes, keep going. If it’s no, then stop and rethink.

This obviously talks about products, but services and what we offer in HR are very similar.  Is that program you’re developing in HR better than what your competition is developing in HR?  If yes, carry on. If no, make it better.  It isn’t hard. It will take some hard work, but it’s not mentally challenging.  When I see people unwilling to make their HR Shops better, I know one of two things are at play:

When I see people unwilling to make their HR Shops better, I know one of two things are at play:

1. They’ve given up on the organization, and they need to go, or;

2. They are fundamentally lazy and need to go.

It’s a painful truth most leaders just don’t want to realize.

Just make it better.

Should You Measure Candidate Desire by Response Time?

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I have expectations as a leader in my organizations for other employees who are in a leadership position in my company. One of those expectations is, if I call or text you on off hours, weekends, vacations, etc., for something that is urgent to the business, I expect a reply in a rather short time frame.

Some people would not like that. I don’t care. You’re a leader, the business needs you, there’s no time clock for that.

That expectation is set for someone at a leadership level in my organization. They know this expectation before taking the job. Also, I’m not an idiot about it. I can probably count on one hand the number of times in the past five years I’ve reached out to someone on weekends or vacations expecting and needing a response.

But, what if you measured candidate quality in the same manner? Seems unreasonable, doesn’t it!?

Well, check this out:

Nardini is the CEO of the sports and men’s lifestyle site Barstool Sports. In a recent New York Times interview, she detailed her process for vetting job candidates. After saying she was a “horrible interviewer” because of her impatience, she explained a unique process for gauging potential hires’ interest in the job.

“Here’s something I do,” she said. “If you’re in the process of interviewing with us, I’ll text you about something at 9 p.m. or 11 a.m. on a Sunday just to see how fast you’ll respond.”

The maximum response time she’ll allow: three hours.

So, Erika believes if a candidate doesn’t reply back to her on a Sunday at 9 pm within three hours, they are not interested in a job.

This is why recruiting is hard.

You have moron leaders who come up with stupid ideas of what they think is ‘important’ and then they make you live by these dumb rules. This rule is ridiculous. Erika’s assessment of why this works is ridiculous. But, she’ll get a pass.

Why?

She’s a she. If some dumb white dude came up with the same rule the New York Times would write an expose on how this guy is a complete tyrant and out of touch with today’s world, and how crappy this candidate experience is, and how bad leadership this is, etc. But, no one will. She’s just leaning in and doing what the guys do!

Yes, she is. She’s being an idiot.

Now, I’ll say I actually agree with her on her assessment on response time, assuming the roles she is expecting a reply from in three hours are time critical roles. She runs a media site with breaking stories. Twitter has these things up in seconds, media sites need replies to what is happening within minutes and hours. So, there could be some legitimacy to something as arbitrary as measuring candidate desire by response time.

It’s fraught with issues, to be sure, but for certain roles, it might find you some good talent. Should it be a golden rule of hiring for your organization? No, that’s just dumb.

If you really want a silver bullet I ask every candidate if they’re a dog person or cat person. Works every time!

Disrupt HR Detroit! September 27th – Tickets On Sale Now!

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DisruptHR is coming to Detroit!!!  

I’m pretty excited about it and I’m part of the great team that’s putting this event together. The date is September 27th with registration starting 5:30 pm and the event starting at 6 pm at the Garden Theater in midtown Detroit. The tickets are only $25! We should be done around 8 pm. Food and drinks. A ton of networking and laughs! REGISTER HERE! (we do anticipate this will sell out – we have limited seating)

What’s DisruptHR Detroit? 

It’s fun and fast 5-minute presentations/talks by HR and Talent pros. Powerpoint presentations of twenty slides where the slides automatically change every 15 seconds. It’s done in a TEDx-style format and the speakers are there to challenge how we think about HR and Talent, or maybe to just to poke some fun at the profession we all grind at every day.

Want to speak at DisruptHR Detroit?

Our goal is to have 12 speakers for this first event. We already have some folks who have applied and we welcome everyone who has the interest to apply to speak. It’s super simple! Follow this link and submit your idea! The DisruptHR Detroit team will pick 12 great ideas and save the others for our next Disrupt!

Why should I come to DisruptHR Detroit?

First, I’ll be there as the Emcee! I mean who doesn’t want more Sackett in their life!?!

Second, if you are passionate about our profession of HR and Talent Acquisition, this is the one place on the planet you should be to be around like mind professionals and leaders within SE Michigan!

Third, there’s a great chance you’ll take back to your organization some great ideas from the speakers and from the conversations everyone will be having about the topics!

What does a DisruptHR talk look like? 

Here’s me doing one so you can get a flavor:

Failure Is The New Black | Tim Sackett | DisruptHR Talks from DisruptHR on Vimeo.

So, what are you waiting for? Sign Up! 

See you there! This is going to be so great! The first 200 people who sign up get a personal hug from me!!!