T3 – Technical Interview Technology – @eTeki_Inc

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This week on T3 I take a look at the technical interview technology eTeki. One question I get asked often by TA pros and leaders is around finding a technology that will help them select technical hires better.  There are some ‘test’ type technologies on the market, but those are really difficult to actively select from and the tests are usually super generic.

It’s not a hidden fact that most HR and TA pros/leaders have little functional knowledge when it comes to technical positions. Internal IT groups are stretched thin, so using your own staff as part of the selection process becomes a huge hindrance to most organizations. Still, hiring managers are expecting TA departments to do a better job at filtering out technical candidates who can’t walk the walk.

Along comes eTeki. eTeki is an interviewing platform that uses screened functional IT talent to do live interviews. It’s like ‘Uber’ for selection. Need to interview a developer? eTeki will partner your organization with a developer skilled in the same technology you have, plus skilled in interviewing technical candidates.

What I really like about eTeki:

– eTeki interviewers don’t tell you who to hire or not hire but give you detailed scoring and comments based on the technical skills you want assessed. Since these interviewers have no vested interest in who gets hired, you get more of an unbiased assessment than with your internal team.

– Every eTeki interview is recorded with video, so you and your hiring managers can go through and see the entire thing if you want. Also, the interview platform has a collaborative code editor in 50+ languages so you can see code snippets of the candidates you’re assessing. The platform also has a shared whiteboard function and screen sharing.

– Super simple to use for all three parties, the candidate, the company and the interviewer. A coded personal link is sent to the candidate with a password, face to face video, nothing to download, mobile enabled.

– Crowdsourced interviewer rating system ensures the interviewers who are using can actually do what they say they can do. You can see comments from other organizations who have previously used these interviewers to screen their talent. Currently, they have over 1200 interviewers in their marketplace, 80% are U.S. based. Basically, experienced technology pros looking to supplement their income by doing interviews (where the Uber comparison comes into play).

– The platform gives freedom to the interviewers to dive into skills they see a candidate has, as well, that you might not have asked, but will find valuable based on the role and job description you provided them, on top of assessing all the stuff you asked them to assess as well.

The cost per interview varies on the interviewer who sets the price, but the marketplace usually keeps them in the $40-60 per interview range. That’s a real bargain when you think about how much per hour you pay your own internal technical employees, plus the training and information you get on each candidate.

Another piece of this I like is that if you find an interviewer that you really like and they’ve shown to give you really good information to make your selection decision, you can personally request them for additional screens as well. The platform continues to evolve as more and more organizations use it and have different requests for additions, and eTeki has shown they’ll work to evolve the platform even more in the future.

Well worth a look if you are in need of a great technology screening tool and need to move candidates through the process quicker.

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 HR, 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 – send me a note.

It Sucks Getting Turned Down for a Promotion!

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The hardest part of being a leader is promoting an employee internally when there are more than one viable candidate for the position. The fact of the matter is someone is going to get that job, and one or more are not. That usually ends with one of your really good employees being pissed off.

I’ve read countless articles on how to handle this situation and they’re mostly crap, and I think written by people who have, 1. Never actually dealt with this situation and/or 2. Never be turned down for a promotion they truly felt they deserved!

For some reason the the Dallas Cowboys current quarterback situation reminds me of this issue. Rookie Dax Prescott came in when Tony Romo got hurt. He’s been awesome and the Cowboys are currently one of the best teams in the NFL. Tony Romo, a great quarterback in his own right, is now no longer injured and ready to return. Almost every team in the NFL would love having Tony Romo start for them.

So, it’s a bit different from the promotion scenario, but not really. Tony should be promoted into the role of starting quarterback. He’s proven, he’s good, he used to be the starter, but he’s not going to. In his absence, they found a replacement that is really good as well and you don’t want to screw up that chemistry.

Here’s what I really like about Romo. He came out and became the ‘team’ guy. He’s letting everyone know, including Dax, this isn’t about Tony Romo, this is about the Dallas Cowboys winning the Super Bowl. He’s supporting Dax and the team to keep winning and will do whatever it takes to make that happen, including supporting them on the sidelines and not playing. Oh boy, you know that’s tough for him to say!

Not getting a promotion at your job, feels exactly what Tony Romo is feeling. Don’t kid yourself about the money. He would play for free this year if he could win a Super Bowl. You really, really wanted that promotion, but someone else got it. Probably, someone you feel you’re as good as, or maybe even a bit better, but the ‘team’ choose to pick someone else for that role.

You have a choice to make:

  1. Be disgruntled and pissed off, believing you got screwed, probably leave the company, eventually.
  2. Be that ‘team’ player. Keep being the high performing employee that got you in a position to be considered for promotion, and support your peers, waiting for your next opportunity.

Most people will choose number one.

In almost every single situation in a corporate environment where I’ve been a part of these decisions, no matter how hard we tried to let the other person know how valued they are and what are our plan was to get them to that level they desired, they still choice to go the route of number one. It takes a really strong person to go the route of number two and be Tony Romo.

In the end, choosing to go the path of number two actually says more about you as a leader, than your actual performance as an employee.

Do Your Leaders Need to be Technocrats to be Successful?

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With the U.S. Presidential elections behind us, we’ll continue to see fallout for some time.  Hillary Clinton was considered by many in Silicon Valley to be a “Technocrat“. What’s a technocrat you ask?

A technocrat is someone who’s an advocate or proponent of a Technocracy, and part of the technology skilled elite. A technocracy is a theoretical organized structure of governance where the leaders are actually selected based on their technological knowledge. Like most things, though, the media has used the term to describe an individual who is pro-technology, for the most part.

On the flip side, President-elect Trump (boy that was odd writing!) is not considered to be a technocrat.

One of the reasons millennials voted for Clinton in such huge numbers was she was considered to be more technology savvy than Trump and advocated for technology more than her opponent. The reality is both are 70-year-old baby boomers, who probably couldn’t set up their own email on an iPhone, but one had a better marketing team than the other!

Regardless of actual technological skill, I still believe it comes back the mindset, not age, that you’re either pro-technology (technology is good and will help us be better), or you see technology as fine, but it’s not life-changing (yeah, I can see what you’re saying, but the old way works as well). So few are now anti-technology that it’s not even worth talking about.

It begs the question, though, that if a younger workforce has shown they prefer leaders who are Technocrats, should you be looking for that trait when you go and select leaders?

I believe we should be selecting leaders who are Technocrats and here are some reasons why:

1. A younger workforce is more likely to follow a leader who is pro-technology.

2. We need our leaders pushing our organizations forward and one of the best ways is through technology advances.

3. Having a technocrat mindset is more akin to having a strategic mindset. If you’re constantly thinking about how technology can advance your business, you’re being strategic, as compared to just running your operations the same way they always have been.

The hard part of selecting technocrats is almost anyone in today’s work world under the age of sixty will tell you, “of course, I’m pro-technology!” When in fact, most have no idea what that even means. Saying you’re pro-technology and being pro-technology are two very different things.

Yeah, I use Netflix. No, I have no idea how my kids set it up. Just because you watch Netflix doesn’t make you pro-technology. Liking technology and taking a keen interest in how it works to make your life better are two different things. Technocrats want to know more. They might not be able to write code, but they dig in beyond just the surface.

The key to selecting technocrat leaders is to have them give you specific examples around how they’ve used technology to push their organization or department forward? What was their role in the selection process? Why did they select one technology over another? Technocrats will love these questions and will really take you into the weeds with their answers.

Just being a technocrat won’t make a leader candidate a good leader. We all know all of the other leader traits we are looking for in selecting our next leaders. It’s my belief, though, that as we move forward, our leaders need to be technology savvy if they truly want to connect and lead a younger workforce.

 

Notes to HR Tech Vendors #7 – Stop It Already With All These Titles!

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I’ve done a few presentations titled something like, “HR Tech Buyers Guide”, “How to Buy HR Tech”, etc. The presentation is designed for HR and TA practitioners to help them become better buyers of HR Tech. To understand the crap that HR and TA Tech vendors do and say to get you to buy stuff you might not need, want, or will use.

The interesting thing about these presentations is that half the audience turns out to be the actual vendors themselves wanting to hear what it is I’m telling the real HR and TA leaders! It’s smart for the vendors. It helps make the better sellers as well. Well, at least some that actually listen!

Based on these interactions I decided to build a series of what has come out of interactions with the vendors themselves, aptly named “Notes to HR Tech Vendors”. Look I don’t alway have to be creative! Enjoy!

Notes to HR Tech Vendors #7 – Stop It Already With All These Titles!

I went to an HR Tech vendor website the other day. I wanted to get a demo. You see, I’m in the market for a new ATS. Something specifically designed for staffing firms, but that also has some really modern CRM functionality (let the emails pitches begin!).

The crazy part was that this vendor had nowhere on their site where I could schedule a demo, or have someone contact me for a demo! I could see a 3-minute video demo and I could try their product for free for two weeks, but not just schedule a demo.

So, being a headhunter by trade, I go searching for a Sales Pro from this vendor. They had about 100 employees on LinkedIn and crazy enough, I couldn’t find a sales pro listed! But, here’s a list of titles I find:

Customer Success

Program Managers

Product Managers

Strategic Account Mgrs

Pre-Sales Solutions Consultant

Renewals Mgr

Engineers

Marketing

Enterprise Sales Leader

Account Executive

Implementation Consultant

Partner Manager

Lead Renewals Mgr.

Product Development

Sales Engineer

Commercial Sales VP

Now, I’ve been around the game for a while, so I figured this organization was using “Account Executive” instead of some other way to identify who the heck was actually selling. To confuse matters, they also had people with the title “Commercial Sales” and “Enterprise Sales”. I’m not sure what the difference was! I also couldn’t figure out what the hell a ‘Renewals’ person was vs. a ‘Lead Renewals’ person.

I didn’t even write down all the titles I found, but out of 100 employees, there had to be at least 50 different titles! I’m wondering if this is that millennial trophy thing I’ve been hearing about?! Let’s throw out titles to the crew like a rapper making it rain at a strip club!

The only thing you really need to do in selling HR software is let people know how to go about buying your software!

What “titles” would I prefer? How about:

  • Sales Rep
  • Solution Sales Rep
  • Call Me to Buy Our Crap

99.9% of organizations aren’t going to just sign up for the free version of a major HR/TA software. It’s great that you’ll let me use it for free, but I don’t have time to hassle around with that. I want a demo. Then, I might play in your free sandbox a little. I’ll compare against others. Then, I’ll make a decision.

So, we all think this one example of this poor company is funny, right? The problem is, it’s most HR Technology companies and many of the companies that I love! Can we stop it already with these freaking titles!?

Talent Acquisition Is Dead!

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So, I wrote this little eBook called, “Talent Acquisition is Dead: Talent Attraction Takes Root“, just click through to read the entire book. It’s built on the concept that for decades, truly the entire history of hiring employees to work for companies, we’ve only ever worried about acquiring talent.

When you think about acquiring something, like assets (“Employee are our most valuable asset!”), the process you go through to acquire something is very different than the process you go through ‘attracting’ something. I believe we are entering a new era in human resources where we no longer look to acquire, we now look to attract!

The concept of acquiring talent is one-sided. I want to acquire something, I go out and acquire it. Hiring people for your organization is not a one-sided affair, but we’ve treated it like that for the history of talent acquisition. The best talent does not like to be acquired. They want to be attracted!

So, how do you attract talent?

Well, that’s what the entire eBook is about, the ideas and technology used in today’s most innovative companies to attract talent.

What we have learned over the past decade is just doing what everyone else does, does not attract great talent. If everyone has ping pong tables and beer on tap, that is no longer an attraction, and many would argue it was never an attraction, to begin with!

How do you attract someone you would eventually like to marry?  You do many things. You might change your outward appearance. That might help attract, but it might not help retain. A true attraction between two people usually happens when their visions of life are comparable. I like you, you like me, we like living on the coast and want a puppy, one child, we hate mean people, and love the environment. We should spend out lives together!

That’s tricky when it comes to hiring, but that’s exactly what talent attraction is all about. How do we share our stories and find out if we are compatible? In the eBook, I lay out five detailed ideas that will help you attract talent into your organization.

I’m thankful for Appcast in giving me the platform to write this, and the help on the editing and design side. Check out the eBook, “Talent Acquisition is Dead: Talent Attraction Takes Root” and let me know what you think!

Maybe Facebook Taking on LinkedIn is the end of Facebook!

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I’ve always been a huge proponent that Facebook could end LinkedIn at any point they decided. Facebook has more active users, more data, it’s a platform everyone is comfortable with, and companies love it as well.

So, when Facebook opened up a company’s ability to now create a job posting on your company Facebook page recently, and have candidates can apply right on that page, stuff just got real for LinkedIn!

It seems like the logical conclusion that Facebook can do what LinkedIn is doing better. But, should it be the logical conclusion?

It seems like all of these social media companies constantly stumble over themselves, primarily because they are constantly breaking new ground with each turn. You try stuff, it doesn’t work, you try more stuff, eventually, you find the secret sauce.

LinkedIn has gone through this pain, multiple times. They had one of the greatest things going ever when they were flat out a professional network and professionals flocked to LI to network, share ideas, etc. It was a modern day equivalent to the old school Rolodex. LinkedIn made professional networking popular.

Then they broke it. Let’s be fair, they broke it because eventually, we all need to get paid, LI was no different. But opening up LI to recruiting nation killed the desire for people to want to be on LinkedIn and get constantly pimped. But, at the same time they actually created a pretty cool job board 2.0, when everyone thought those were going to die.

So, now Facebook wants to come into the playground, push LinkedIn down and take their milk money.

The problem is, Facebook hasn’t really ever broken their platform before and had to recreate it into something new. The Facebook I use today is virtually the same Facebook I started using nine years ago. LinkedIn today, is not LinkedIn of five to seven years ago, it’s very different. Some people will say worse, some people will pay $26.2 billion for it!

I’m wondering if Facebook goes all full blown LinkedIn with their platform, what happens to Facebook?  Is it still a place where you’ll want to hang out four or five times a day? Do you want to share cookie recipes with your Nana and talk financial strategy with coworkers all in the same place?

It’s arrogant to think you can just come in do something better than someone who has lived the pain of creating something. LinkedIn’s history of development gives them an advantage. Can Facebook come in and do it better? Maybe, but I don’t think you’ll see it happen overnight.

I’m a huge advocate for ‘one-life’. I don’t want to live multiple lives. I don’t want to be one person on Facebook, and another person on LinkedIn, but I’m in the vast minority when it comes to that view. Most people do not want to mix their personal and professional lives. They want to be freaks in the sheets and a lady on the streets, err, LinkedIn.

Should be interesting to watch these two powerhouses fight it out. What do you think TA pros and leaders? Are you ready to do all of your recruiting on Facebook?

How focused Are Your Leaders In Making Your Organization Successful?

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We all like to think we have a leader or two that is freaking dialed in at a level far superior to everyone else. They’re freaks. In early, usually, one of the first ones, out late, if not last. They seem to know what’s going on in every part of the organization before you do.

Our top leaders are ultra-focused on making their organizations great. Nothing seems to distract them and throw them off their game. So much so they probably have very questionable work-life balance, if they have any at all.

Want a real-life example of one of these freaks!? Let’s take a look at Alabama head football coach, Nick Saban:

Nick Saban said he wasn’t aware that millions of Americans went to the polls on Tuesday to vote for the next president of the United States.

“It was so important to me that I didn’t even know it was happening,” Alabama‘s head football coach told reporters in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday evening. “We’re focused on other things here.”

To be fair, news media isn’t part of Saban’s routine.

The 65-year-old coach typically wakes up every morning, has a Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pie and a cup of coffee and watches about 10 minutes of The Weather Channel, which promised no political coverage on Election Day…

Nick Saban wasn’t aware there was a Presidential election going on! Brother! That’s focus!

I’m not sure I buy into the fact he had no idea. Most leaders, especially leaders of 18-22-year-old young men, would have made a very specific point to encourage those men to be a part of the American process. To show their leadership within the community by voting. But, Nick is a freak!

Nick Saban is not like most leaders, he’s an outlier in every definition of the term, which makes him extremely good and extremely successful at what he does.

Do you think you have a leader in your organization that is so focused on making you successful that they didn’t even realize there was a Presidential election going on?  I doubt most of us have one of these folks in our organizations, but if you do, you need to pay attention to that person! I’m not saying it’s healthy, all I’m saying is success is hard, and sometimes you have to have unhealthy habits to get it and maintain it. We all face that balance

We all face that balance. Don’t judge Saban for his choices, they’re his to make. He’s addicted to success, even if it means not knowing what’s going on in the world around him.

Vets, We Love You, but We Still Aren’t Hiring You!

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One of the most politically correct lies that employers spout off constantly is how desperate they are to hire Veterans! There’s a reason for this. In America, we love to honor our Vets! There’s nothing better than propping your brand up against that American flag with a soldier standing right next to it.

The reality is, most Vets are still struggling to find solid careers. Sure, everyone wants to offer them a $15/hr bust-your-ass-job, but Vets are looking for salaried positions with great benefits, in jobs they can work the rest of their career, that won’t destroy their body. Not many employers are offering Vets those jobs!

I’ve been writing about this problem for the past five years and I get a healthy stream of Vets who write me behind the scenes and share their stories and struggles to find solid career level positions. I just recently had an individual who came out of his service with a degree in HR, service of constant promotion, supervised upwards of one hundred soldiers at a time. In that role, he had constant performance management, training, process improvement, etc.

He was applying for an entry-level HR Generalist role. He got turned down because he didn’t have enough experience!

So, why are companies still struggling when it comes to hiring Vets into higher level roles? Here’s what they don’t tell you:

  1. Less than 1% of Americans have ever served in any branch of the military. We fear what we don’t know, and we definitely don’t hire what we don’t know! We only see pictures of Vets holding guns and in combat, but that’s a small part of their every day activities.
  2. Movies have given us a warped sense of what professionals in the military actually do. Today’s modern military is rarely portrayed as it actually is in the movies because it wouldn’t be very exciting. It’s the same reason you don’t see movies about the day to day happenings of a large company. It’s mostly boring! What most military pros do on a daily basis, away from battle zones, is mostly the same stuff you do on a daily basis. It’s HR, logistics, accounting, administration, training, development, etc.
  3. We overvalue work experience within an industry. If someone worked at your competitor for 3 months, you would value that more highly than a military professional doing the same job for 3 years. We so overvalue industry experience it’s not even funny! I’ve worked in four different industries and each time had people tell me, “Oh, Tim, this is the craziest industry you’ll ever be in”, ever time! Guess what? It wasn’t. It’s all the same! Get over yourself!

I recently hired a Vet into my own company. We mostly hire new recruiters and train them up, but it’s definitely a career job. Great recruiters can find work anywhere for the rest of their life, in every industry. It’s mostly a desk job. Recruiting companies love to hire former college athletes. What I’ve found is Vets come with the same motivations and skills, but their work ethic might be a bit stronger!

I constantly have CEOs tell me they just want people who want to work. Yet, when it gets down to their hiring managers, there’s a mental block happening. If these military folks were minority or women we would call this discrimination, but for some reason, we don’t say that with Vets. But, that’s mostly what’s happening.

We love to hide behind the fact we found someone with more ‘industry’ experience, or someone who has done the same job, etc. It’s all excuses. You don’t hire Vets because you don’t think they can handle your jobs. The fact is, they can, they just need you to give them a shot!

Do yourself a favor this Veteran’s Day. Take a chance and hire a Vet into a job you’ve never tried before. Sure, they’ll need some training, but they’ll bring the rest, and you might just find your organizations next great talent pool!

Notes to HR Tech Vendors #8 – If You Buy Today!

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I’ve done a few presentations titled something like, “HR Tech Buyers Guide”, “How to Buy HR Tech”, etc. The presentation is designed for HR and TA practitioners to help them become better buyers of HR Tech. To understand the crap that HR and TA Tech vendors do and say to get you to buy stuff you might not need, want, or will use.

The interesting thing about these presentations is that half the audience turns out to be the actual vendors themselves wanting to hear what it is I’m telling the real HR and TA leaders! It’s smart for the vendors. It helps make the better sellers as well. Well, at least some that actually listen!

Based on these interactions I decided to build a series of what has come out of interactions with the vendors themselves, aptly named “Notes to HR Tech Vendors”. Look I don’t alway have to be creative! Enjoy!

Notes to HR Tech Vendors #8 – If You Buy Today! 

“If you buy today we can ensure you’ll be a part of the beta product for free, but if you wait, we’re going to be charging future buyers for that product.” 

“If you buy today, we can wave the implementation fees.” 

“If you buy today, I can give you the rest of this quarter for free. That’s two free months!” 

“If you buy today, it’s $79 per user. I can only give you that today, next week it’ll be $99 per user.”

Look, Sparky. If I don’t buy today, and I buy next Wednesday I better still get the beta, and the two months, and the stupid t-shirt and any other crap you’re waving around to try and close me!

If you sell HR Tech like this, you suck! And not the cute, “Come on guys, you suck! #Winkyface”. It’s the “You Suck!” and hopefully bad things happen to you and everyone you know because you’re an awful person, suck!

I actually had this happen to me recently. Very good product and I definitely wanted to give it a try. The salesperson knows she has me very close to signing the deal, and then it happened. “Well, Tim, if you sign today, I’ll give you the last two weeks of the month for free!”

I said, “Thank you. I’ll let you know”, and hung up. She’s been trying to reach me almost daily since not understanding why I won’t return her messages, we were so close! Except then you did the worse sales pitch known to man, and now I hate you.

HR tech vendors stop doing this. If you’re willing to give a buyer two weeks for free, just tell them you’ll give them two weeks for free. If they buy tomorrow, or if they buy next Tuesday or next month! Also, we get your prices change, but if you are currently talking to me about $79 per user, that price better be good for a reasonable amount of time, like a minimum of 30 days at least.

HR tech buyers, if you feel like you’re being ‘forced’ to buy today! End the call. End the relationship. The company you’re dealing with is not a good company because good companies don’t sell this way. They don’t treat you like an idiot. They respect you and understand that you usually aren’t in a position to “Buy today”.

No one in HR Tech needs to be hard closing HR Pros. People’s careers are on the line for these buying decisions. It’s not something to hard sell them into. If they make a bad choice for their organization it could cost them their job. Ease up Boiler Room.

 

Okay, Your Candidate Won, Don’t Be An Asshole!

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I’m writing this before the election, because either way it turns out, I would feel the same way!

Congratulations! Your candidate won! It’s like when OJ was acquitted of murdering his wife and Ron Goldman. A bunch of people ran around so freaking ecstatic that he ‘won’. Chris Rock famously said,”We won, we wonnnnn!” “What the fuck did we win? Every day i look in the mail for my OJ prize and it ain’t there.”

I’m waking up today, knowing 100% I won’t be getting a Hillary check or a Trump check! In fact, regardless of who won, there’s a great chance I’ll be getting an invoice!

When Michigan State plays the University of Michigan and MSU wins. I’m going to be an asshole to a lot of UofM fans. Why? Because mostly their douchebags and that’s kind of how fandom works in college athletics. If you beat your rival, you can be an asshole until they beat you, then you know it’s your turn to take it for a year, or whenever you beat them the next time.

Politics are not college athletics.

Voting for President isn’t about winning or losing. We’re all on the same team! The team is called America.

That’s the hard part. America has turned into this giant multi-national organization. Within that organization you have mergers that have taken place, we’ve tried some spinoffs, we’re constantly trying to launch startups, we have our main product line that is a cash cow but every new hire thinks it sucks, etc.

America just got a new CEO. Regardless of who that CEO is, some employees aren’t going to like it. A few will actually leave the company, but it’s mostly employees blowing smoke. Leaving takes real work, most people say they’ll leave and then have selective amnesia when the topic comes up after the fact.

So, I’m in HR. It’s now my job to get as many people as possible to follow the new CEO. That’s how a company stays successful and/or turns itself around. Develop a vision, get behind it and see how good we can make it. Americans for the most part, have always been fairly decent employees. We’ll voice our opinion, but when stuff gets real, we support each other.

So, today, when you walk by that co-worker who voted for the other person and lost, don’t be an asshole. Be sympathetic. They want, what you want, to be the best country we can be for those here now and for those who will be here in the future.