Pre-Thanksgiving Desk Cleanup: Master Marie Kondo’s Method for a Neat Workspace!

Posted on November 22, 2023 by Tim Sackett

As a dude, staying organized isn’t my strongest suit. But thanks to decades of heavy training from Mrs. Sackett, I’ve managed to steer clear of chaos (mostly!). Once you embrace organization, you can’t help but notice when things aren’t organized!

Lately, the buzz has been all about Marie Kondo and her knack for tidying up. Picture this: it’s the prelude to an epic Thanksgiving break, and all you want is a clutter-free workspace to dive into the holiday spirit. So, I’m sharing a video detailing the Marie Kondo method for desk organization—talk about perfect timing!

Share snaps of your revamped desk post-Kondo method—I’d love to see the transformation!

Have a great holiday extended weekend! See you all back here Monday!

Life’s Tough, But It Evens Out

Posted on November 21, 2023 by Tim Sackett

In the realm of motivational quotes, one has continually stuck with me: “It’s hard, but it’s fair.” An older football coach used it to fire up his players, but it speaks volumes about life today.

The coach’s son, Toler Jr., eloquently defines the meaning of the phrase:

“It’s about sacrifice. It means that if you work hard, at the end of the day, fairness aligns with your efforts. It’s about investing time and readiness for the opportunities.”

We all think our parents are hard on us growing up. I recall stories I tell to my own sons of my Dad waking me up on a Saturday morning at 7am, after I was out to late the night before, and ‘making’ me help him with something, like chopping wood or cleaning the garage out. He didn’t really need my help, he was trying to teach me a lesson about choices. If I chose to stay out late at night, it was going to suck getting up early to go to school. He shared with me stories of his father doing the same thing – one night my Dad had gotten home late, so late, he didn’t even go to bed, just started a pot of coffee and waited for my grandfather to get up, figuring that was easier than getting a couple of hours of sleep and then hearing it from my grandfather the rest of the day.

In my role as an HR professional, I witness this every day in the workforce. There are those who consistently dedicate themselves without expecting special treatment. Others will put in the minimum, then expect a cookie. It’s a tough life lesson for those folks. Often, they depart, perceiving unfair treatment, and move between jobs, slowly learning the importance of effort and time investment. In my three decades in HR, genuine hard workers rarely face injustice. Occasionally, undeserving individuals might receive promotions, but the hard workers usually secure the better end of the deal.

As a parent, I hope I can teach my sons this lesson: Life is inherently challenging, but commitment and hard work pave the path to fairness.

The Role of HR as Coaches

Posted on November 20, 2023 by Tim Sackett

There’s an article by Atul Gawande in The New Yorker discussing the importance of “Coaching.” Gawande, a writer and surgeon, talked about coaches as not just teachers but as observers, judges, and guides. From the article:

The concept of a coach is slippery. Coaches are not teachers, but they teach. They’re not your boss—in professional tennis, golf, and skating, the athlete hires and fires the coach—but they can be bossy. They don’t even have to be good at the sport. The famous Olympic gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi couldn’t do a split if his life depended on it. Mainly, they observe, they judge, and they guide.
Gawande, A. (2011, October 3). Personal Best. The New Yorker.

In my HR role, I’ve always believed that HR can act as coaches across our organizations. But there’s often pushback, like “You can’t coach me in Marketing, Operations, or Accounting.” Exactly—I’m not here to teach you those things; I hired you for that. Building a coaching culture starts with hiring people open to being coached.

Your Weekly Dose of HR Technology: @Workday and AI #HRTechConf

Posted on October 11, 2023 by Tim Sackett

This week on The Weekly Dose, I’m going to discuss some recent announcements from Workday around some AI functionality they’ve launched. Workday might be the biggest brand in HR. You would have had to been completely sleeping through the past twenty years not to understand the giant impact Workday has made in HR Technology. There might not be another single brand in HR Tech that has taken more overall market share in the past couple of decades than Workday.

I think it’s important to have a productive conversation around Workday because of how many users use Workday in HR, Learning, and TA on a daily basis. Large HCM technology runs most HR shops across the globe, and while they might be as nimble as HR startups, they do the vast majority of blocking and tackling in HR.

In January, when ChatGPT and Generative AI became the most talked about topic of the year, my feeling then, and now, was that we would really have to wait and see how companies like Workday build out this new AI technology within the systems and processes we use every day. This is truly how most of us will experience AI, so I’m excited to see Workday’s recent announcements because this will really be the future of HR Technology for most of us.

What are the big Workday AI announcements?

“Ask Workday” – one of the major announcements that will feel most familiar to many of us is the Ask Workday feature built on Generative AI. In an everyday sense of how most users use HR Technology, this feature, to me, is how I imagined AI would impact us! Having a hiring manager ask something like, “What is the activity on my open jobs?” Instead of waiting to get a response from a recruiter, the hiring manager can get a real-time data-driven narrative, which is truly a game changer. But it’s more than that because this is also something employees can use to shape their career path, etc.
“Manager Insights Hub” – This is a new feature that truly uses the power of AI and Workday’s data insights. This is a completely integrated Manager portal that lets any manager of people look at employee goals, development plans, feedback, and other information in a single integrated page. This is a feature completely designed to solve one of the major deficits we see in so many organizations – making our leaders better! This feature also helps the manager and employee create a growth plan.
Automatically create Job Descriptions from Workday’s LLM, create policies, how-to guides, etc. This is what so many of us expected from GPT-like AI built into our HR systems, so this wasn’t unexpected, but it’s nice to see how quickly some of this tech has been rolled out and able to be used in real-world everyday HR use cases.

While just a start, it shows how serious Workday is at moving as fast as they can to leverage this new technology and help HR teams become more productive. I’m excited to see the direction they continue to evolve this technology around things like skills measuring, matching of skills to jobs, and the potential for screening both candidates and internal candidates to jobs.

It’s clear from these recent announcements that we should be prepared to see ongoing announcements coming from the large HCM players in our space. AI is transforming all of our functional systems and technology, and Workday is moving fast to take advantage of the productivity gains that can be made, but also how AI can transform your HR practice across the enterprise.

Your Weekly Dose of HR Technology: This week is @JobSync

Posted on October 5, 2023 by Tim Sackett

Okay, it’s been a minute since I’ve been sharing my HR/TA Technology reviews. I’ve been busy finishing Volume 2 of the Talent Fix. Honestly, I’ve missed looking at a lot of tech, so get ready, I’ll probably be talking about more than you want! I’m excited to be writing tech reviews again.

If you’re new to my reviews, let me give you a little insight. None of these reviews are paid for. I just like this stuff, and I find the audience doesn’t know a lot about it, so I share what I know. I also try and focus on what is useful and what I like. Someone might think a piece of technology is junk, and the next person thinks it’s brilliant. If I share it on this page, I think it’s worth you doing a demo and finding out more about it, and you decide if it can work for you. Most likely, I would not be talking about a certain technology if someone hadn’t told me it was working for them!

This week, I revisit a technology that I’ve talked about before, but like most technology in our space, it evolves. Some change completely, some just become more feature-rich (marketing speak for adding more bells and whistles), and some pivot but stay in the space. JobSync didn’t add features or change or pivot, but they did become a little more laser-focused on their messaging, and as their client base will tell you, it just works.

What is JobSync?

JobSync solves a problem that most TA Teams have: getting more candidates to apply for your jobs. Specifically, it works well for enterprise, high-volume hiring. At this low-skill, no-skill candidate level, most candidates are coming from sites like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, etc. They find your open job on one of these sites, and then they get pushed to your site and your mostly vanilla, painful, large recruiting HCM module that asks them to register and jump through hoops.

Most candidates drop off at this moment. Seriously! 95%+ drop off. The conversion is awful.

The solution then becomes how do we get candidates to apply to our job when and where they are at the moment they find your job? This is where JobSync steps in and builds the workflow that gets all the information you need and makes it less painful for the candidate without the candidate even knowing anything is different.

Your conversions of applicants go from 3-5% to 20-50%. You can see your applicant flow 8-10X overnight!

Honestly, it seems too good to be true, and you have to be thinking to yourself, it probably costs an arm and leg. It actually very cost-effective and has a large ROI; when you factor in, you will be reducing a lot of your job ad spend because of your higher conversion. I hate to even say this because it’s just a tech marketing pitch, but it’s one of the few techs in our space that pays for itself almost immediately.

So, why isn’t everyone using JobSync?

Our space is very noisy. It’s hard to get heard, even when you’re good at what you do. Also, they’re selling an invisible solution, so it seems a bit like you’re buying magic! Your CFO and CIO can’t see it, so you have to actually know what you’re talking about to get it through all the decision-makers.

It’s way easier to show them other solutions to fill your top of the funnel that they can see and might be easier for them to comprehend. That’s also another major problem. Most executives have no idea that only 3-5% percent of potential candidates turn into an applicant. Hell, most TA leaders don’t know this! When I ask for a room of C-Suites, they’ll usually land on 60-75%. So, it’s hard for them to comprehend it’s so low and that connecting with candidates where they are can make such a huge difference.

JobSync has a couple of things going for them and their clients. They have one of the smartest teams in our space. I mean people that I listen to and ask questions. Don’t underestimate hiring smart people to solve your problems. They’ve figured out the psychology of high-volume hiring applicants and what it takes to get them to apply, and the data shows it’s really working.

Give them a demo and take a look. They are a technology that is recommended to many of the recruiting consulting clients I work with at the enterprise level.

The Biggest Trends in Recruiting Technology in 2023! #HRTechConf

Posted on October 3, 2023 by Tim Sackett

Next week, my good friend and super smart lady, Madeline Laurano, and I will be leading a session at The HR Technology Conference and Expo in Vegas. We did a short video to give you a sneak preview of what to expect:

The Great Duo in TA Tech History

Also, I’ll be introducing “Tim Sackett’s TA Technology Product of the Year!” sponsored by Aptitude Research! I’m dropping this on Madeline right now – she didn’t even know I was going to do this! You have to come to see who and what it will be!

If you can’t be in Vegas, I’ll announce it right here on the morning of Friday,hr t October 13th! Stay Tuned!

ChatGPT can now see pictures and understand your voice commands!

Posted on September 29, 2023 by Tim Sackett

For those who still believe Generative AI won’t change your job, take a looksie down below!

Use your voice to engage in a back-and-forth conversation with ChatGPT. Speak with it on the go, request a bedtime story, or settle a dinner table debate.

Sound on 🔊 pic.twitter.com/3tuWzX0wtS
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 25, 2023

So, the AI can now see pictures and understand what we ask it!

This means no matter what your job is. You will soon be able to speak to your technology and interact with technology as we have never done before. I’m not just talking about HR or Recruiting. I’m talking about every single function and job that is available.

From highly skilled jobs to no-skill jobs. It’s truly an amazing time to be alive.

This changes the game for learning and development, how we onboard new hires, and how we develop skills for our employees. This changes the game in how we get our everyday work completed.

You no longer need to sit down with a hiring manager and do an intake meeting for the role they want to hire for. Your hiring manager will now speak to your recruiting AI assistant and tell the AI what they would like and the AI will respond with really great questions and challenges based on data and insights that it will have immediately at your disposal. “So, you are telling me you would like X, Y, and Z, but if you couple that with the salary range, you would also like to offer, you will be asking us to pull from the bottom 4% of the available candidates in our market. Do you feel that is acceptable to have a candidate from the bottom 4%?! Or if we change X, Y, and Z, to H, B, and Z, and also adjust the range up one level, we can now get candidates who are in the top 25% of our market. What would you like to do?”

Game. Changer.

Of course, this won’t happen immediately. It will take some time. But I actually demoed some new recruiting tech in Beta this week that has already added in the voice element for intake of job descriptions that will make fairly decent job postings!

Buckle up, kids! We are about to go on a wild ride!

Picking a New Head Coach, err, Leader When the Chips are Down!

Posted on September 28, 2023 by Tim Sackett

Go Green! If you know me, you know I bleed green, and my Spartans are taking one on the chin with their football head coach recently. I’m not going to get into the Mel Tucker situation specifically; that’s a nightmare, and this is a PG-13 blog!

Tuck Leavin’

I had such high expectations, but if I’m honest with myself, the warning signs were there from the beginning:

He got an amazing running back in Kenneth Walker out of the transfer portal his first year that covered up a lot of ills in the program.
Our defense was awful and getting worse, and he’s a defensive coach.
Attention to detail was non-existent, and that starts at the top.
We got played in giving him a contract that he shouldn’t have gotten because we were not negotiating from a position of strength.

What do you need to turn around a bad situation?

Back to our regularly scheduled programming! The Tuck situation is very similar to any organization that needs to replace a bad leader or a broken turnaround situation. Everything seems bleak.

Here’s what you need:

1. A leader with off-the-charts attention to detail and high rules. Most organizations are broken because people have been allowed to do broken things. That has to stop, immediately, and that only happens with a leader whose attention to detail is off the charts. Annoyingly so!

2. Every single ill and missed step has to be called out and corrected. This is where and when we open our kimonos and let everything show. Organizations don’t get broken in one day. They get broken over time because we allow little things go that turn into big things. That stops today.

3. A leader who can rally people to a vision and one that embraces the bottom. Very few leaders are good at digging out. We love to say it’s hard being a leader on top because it’s hard to keep you there. That’s mostly bullshit. Ask any leader what’s more challenging: a turnaround or staying on top. 100% will tell you it’s a turnaround.

4. A leader who understands how to develop talent. When you’re at the bottom, you are not going to get the best talent. You’re going to get talent that was overlooked. You’re going to get talent that has some hickies. You need to be someone who loves developing talent. That thrives on developing talent.

5. Probably a leader that has something to prove. This can be a new leader or a leader who fell down and is looking to prove they belong back on top, but your chances of success are better if that leader has a chip on their shoulder.

When you take a look at those five attributes, you see why it’s so hard to find leaders capable of turning around a failing organization. Most leaders hired into these roles have a little risk they bring with them. Ailing organizations don’t get first-round leader picks!

The Ball Will Always Find You!

Posted on September 27, 2023 by Tim Sackett

There is a baseball metaphor about the ball finding you. Basically, if you are unprepared or you are scared, that’s precisely when the ball will find you! The moment you least want the ball to come to you is when the ball is hit at you. I’ve heard coaches say this statement my entire life being around baseball.

Life works like this as well.

The one time when you go into the office, and you’re not really prepared for your job or function is the day you’ll be called into an emergency meeting with the CEO! The one question you don’t prepare to be asked will be the one that will be asked.

So, how do you prepare yourself for being unprepared?

1. Acknowledge it when it comes.

So often, we want to try and fake our way through something we weren’t prepared for, but it shows. We aren’t really fooling anyone but ourselves. So, acknowledge it. You know, that’s a great question you asked. I’m not prepared to answer that at this moment, but let me do some research and come back to you with a thorough answer.

2. Redirect the conversation to what you do know.

This isn’t perfect because a savvy executive will come back to the original question, but 60% of the time, it works every time! “That’s a great question. What I focused on were these factors, which, in my estimation, is what we need. I believe…”

3. Answer another question like you’re answering their question.

This is risky, but politicians use this tactic all the time, and it mostly works because the person asking the question is sure you answered their question or not, and they don’t want to sound dumb by asking it again, thinking you answered it! Tim, can you give me some insight into how much we’ll be over budget in TA by the end of the year? “Sure, first, it’s amazing the progress we’ve made. At the beginning of the year, we had no idea we’d be 75% over our planned hiring, and the team has been amazing in reaching that goal. In the second half of the year, we see hiring beginning to slow, and we are anticipating that in Q1 of 2024, we’ll be back up to normal.” Then you just shut up or ask if anyone else has any other questions! Bonus points if you actually go back at them during your answer with some verbal ques like, “You understand, right?” Of course, they’ll be nodding yes! At that point, they will never follow up with another question!

4. Bluff.

Answer the question, even though you don’t really know the answer, and hope and pray they also don’t know the answer! I’ve seen way too many people in my career try and look like a fool. I find that very few executives ask a question they don’t have some semblance of an answer to already. They are just checking to see if you’re on your game and have the answer. So, I do not recommend bluffing. This is usually a low-performer behavior that is probably getting fired soon anyway, and they’re desperate!

5. Open the conversation up to the broader audience or the person who asked the question.

This strategy works really well if you have a strong relationship and trust with the person or people you’re speaking with. In this tactic, you basically acknowledge you don’t know but come back and see if anyone knows or has a strong opinion. You are still driving the conversation and asking questions, which puts you in an authority position, so you don’t look weak by not knowing the answer to the question being asked. “That’s a great question. I actually don’t know the answer, but I’m wondering if anyone else in the room does. Or does anyone have a feeling on what this might look like?” At this point, you could offer up an educated guess as to what you believe it to be if no one else has anything and agree to come back with some more specific information.

Professionally, the ball is going to find you whether you are ready for it or not. We all hope that we will be prepared and ready, but that’s not always the case. Your next reaction is critical to how others will end up viewing you. The more confident you are in your ability and performance, the easier it is to say you just don’t know. Unfortunately, so many times throughout our careers, we get caught off guard, and it might be during a time when our confidence isn’t super high, and that opens us up to trying to make something up on the fly and opening ourselves up to being viewed as a fool.

Don’t take away Hybrid! Just fire low performers!

Posted on September 26, 2023 by Tim Sackett

Return to work (RTO) mandates – FYI – only in HR would we make an acronym for something as benign as returning to the office after a pandemic – continue to blow up in corporation’s faces. Turns out, if you’re paying people to work at home or work from anywhere they want, coming back to an office, for many, feels like punishment.

For the most part, executives have figured out it’s probably going to be some sort of hybrid approach for almost everyone. The ones where this gets really bad is when the “hybrid” approach is you come to the office most of the time, and we’ll think about giving you some flexibility. Or those work environments that had some fully remote workers who are now being asked to grace us with their presence every so often, and they are losing their shit over that.

The problem is RTO. Executives really could care less and don’t buy into the idea that this is all a commercial real estate problem. The only thing your company cares about is performance and making money. If putting you on the moon made them more successful, pack your bags and a space suit, honey, and get ready to blast off! Your company would rather pay for an empty building and have exceptional performance than have you return to the office and be flat.

Where HR and Leadership are failing with RTO aren’t the mandates. It’s that they never should have talked about RTO to begin with. All they had to do was start firing low performers. This isn’t a remote vs. in-office debate. This is because we think you suck working at home and you’re not performing, so we want to see your butt in a cube and see if you’re actually working. That is broken.

I tell my team, and I will continue to tell my team, I don’t care where you are or how many hours you work. If you perform and meet goals, we are good. Once you decide not to meet goals, then it’s my job to figure out how to help you meet those goals, which might mean we need to find an environment where you can do your best work. If we can not find an environment where you can be successful, you probably aren’t right for this role.

This isn’t hard, but we are trying to make it hard because we are soft, non-confrontational weenies.

If there isn’t a real reason that an employee needs to be at a certain location, why make them? Well, because we are making others. Why? Well, because we aren’t performing as a company. That’s a performance issue, not a location issue. But it might be a location issue for some people who are not performing. Your job as a leader and executive is to figure that out.

You don’t have an issue with your highest-performing employees having flexibility and freedom. You have an issue that your lowest-performing employees seem to love “working” at home or having extra flexibility, but they are failing.

I think we are all tired of talking about RTO. This has nothing to do with where and when we work. It has everything to do with performing at a high level. The most competitive companies won’t offer remote, hybrid, or on-prem. They’ll offer crystal clear performance objectives and a mandate that you meet those objectives the best way you can!

This is about returning to work. This is about getting back to work and doing the work you’re getting paid for.

The Tim Sackett Project

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