Privacy is the New Candidate Red Flag

Posted on by
7

Have you interviewed anyone recently, and haven’t been able to find anything about them online?

No LinkedIn profile. No Facebook. No Twitter. No Instagram. Google even seem to turn up nothing. It was like the person didn’t exist, yet there she was right in front of you, with a resume, work history, and educational transcripts. A living, breathing, walking ghost.

A social ghost, to be sure.

I had this happen a couple of weeks ago. It was disconcerting to say the least.  Of course, I knew this when I asked the person to come in to interview. It was one of the main reasons I asked her to come in.  It was like I found this mythical creature, this interview unicorn. There was no way I was passing this up.

Besides the resume with verified job history, valid driver’s license, address, educational records and a credit history, it was as if this person never existed.

I think the kids call this a “Catfish”, or at least thats what I expected to have come interview with me. This ‘Susan’ would come in and really be a ‘Samuel’! I’ve been in the game a long time, ‘Susan’ wasn’t going to pull one over on me.

I once had a friend who told me he gave up TV.  I didn’t really believe him, either.  Let’s be real, no one gives up TV.  And, as usual, I was right.  He gave away his TV, but he didn’t give away his laptop, his tablet and his smartphone. He was still watching, trying to act like he saved the fucking world by giving away his TV device. Like we don’t know you have twenty other devices in your house to watch shows on.

But, I digress, back to my social ghost, Susan. (of course, Susan isn’t her real name I changed that, I’m a pro, her real name is Jennifer)

I asked Susan the question we would all want to ask in this circumstance: “Susan can you tell me why you hate America?”

She seemed perplexed by this, almost like she didn’t comprehend what I was asking her, but I knew better.  She knew exactly where I was going with my line of questioning.  Why would a person choose to lead a life of anonymity, when a fully functioning narcissistic life is easily within her reach?

I showed her how if you Googled “Tim Sackett” I, soley, was the first 127 pages of the search results, working towards 130. I explained how I ‘socially’ erased another “Tim Sackett”, the Truck Driver Chaplin, almost from existence. Almost like he never stopped at a truck stop along I80 attempting to save lives in the name of Jesus.  It was a life’s work. My life’s work. I could tell she was impressed.

At the point where I had just about cracked her, she softly spoke one word, “privacy”, spilled from her lips like a small newborn logging onto Instagram video for the first time.

Privacy.  I knew there was something about her I didn’t like.

The interview ended.  So, did her chances of ever getting hired by me.

No One Is Waiting To Discover You

Posted on by
2

I’m a recruiter.  I search for talent every day.  Basically, I’m never not on the outlook for talent.  Of course I’m doing this at work, but I also do it while shopping, while eating, while I’m at the movies, while I’m on vacation, etc.

You see, I never know when I’m going to discover a talented person and have the exact right opportunity, with the exact right company and it all fits together.

But, if you’re waiting for me, to discover you, you’ll be waiting forever.

I don’t discover anyone who isn’t working to be discovered.   I’m not knocking on closed doors where it looks like no one is home.  It’s like trick or treating, I’m only going to the houses with the lights on.

I hear from a lot of people who are willing to change jobs, or are open to new opportunities.  Unfortunately, almost all of these people are waiting to be discovered.  They aren’t actively doing anything to show me who they are and why I should be looking for them.

Their argument is they don’t want their current employer to know they’re looking.  My argument back is that isn’t the best way to be discovered anyway!  Hiring managers love passive candidates, people who aren’t looking.  You can be a passively-active candidate without floating your resume all over God’s green earth and changing your LinkedIn headline to “Now Open to New Opportunities!”

Get active in your industry.  Get active in the city and community you want to live.  Let your personal network know you would be open to something great, and by-the-way this is what I think something great would look like.

We are coming into a decade where there will be more jobs than qualified people.  You can have some great options if people are aware of who you are.  Just don’t think there is some magical fairy that will discover you sitting at your desk doing your normal job in the third row, second cube, fifth floor on the seventh building in the office park, the world doesn’t work that way. This isn’t Hollywood, this is main street.

 

T3 – BrandAmper #HRTech

Posted on by
Reply

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 space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on T3 – send me a note.

This week I have the pleasure of reviewing one of the hottest companies in HR Technology, and one that was named 2014 HR Technology Conference Awesome New Startup, Brand Amper by Ajax Workforce Marketing. Brand Amper is the genius behind two of the smartest people in HR Tech, Jason Seiden and Lisa Cervenka.  I’ve known Jason for years, and I personally consider him one of the brightest people I know, thus he makes really cool stuff for HR and Talent Pros! Lisa is the marketing genius behind the brand, and really helped to bring Brand Amper to life.

Brand Amper, at its core, is a branding solution specifically designed to meet the demands of managing and building a brand on social platforms like LinkedIn, where the “voice of the employee” trumps the voice of the company.  By helping employees use the company’s employer brand to look their best on social media, Brand Amper helps companies (1) make their brands stronger and more consistent, (2) identify keyword trends to improve social and career site content, (3) engage employee advocates in sharing authentic content about why people should join—and stay at—the company, (4) improve transparency and accuracy on review sites like Glassdoor, and (5) understand how employees represent the brand in real-time.

Employment branding has exploded onto the HR scene in such a huge way that almost no HR or Talent Pro doesn’t have this on their radar as a major issue/project they’re constantly involved in, in today’s work environment.  The one major problem we all face is how do we share ‘our’ brand, when our employees are going out and sharing something completely different. Brand Amper turns this upside down, and solves the issue from the opposite angle!

5 Things I really like about Brand Amper: 

1. Brand Amper solves your dilemma about “what is our employment brand, really”, issue.  It gives you exactly what your true employment brand is, and helps you to shape it on where you want to take it.

2. Brand Amper helps employees draft their employment story by walking them through some simple steps. Not creative? Doesn’t matter, Brand Amper can help the least creative person in the world come up with their story.

3.  The platform makes it really easy for employees to go out and share their story, making these stories some of the most powerful recruitment marketing you can buy. Except you didn’t have to buy it!

4. Connects with both LinkedIn and Glassdoor to make it super easy to help manage your employment brand on these two giant networks of potential candidates.

5. The entire process, while not designed to be an outcome, will raise your employee engagement.  Jason doesn’t sell this aspect, yet, because he wants the data from current clients to prove this, but I’ll say it, because it’s going to happen.  Employees love to share the good things about their job and their companies. I call this the “Grandma Effect”.  Employees want their grandmas to be proud of the job and company they work for.  Pride, raises engagement.  I’m not a genius, I just have worked in HR for 20 years.

I want to call out another T3 review I did on QueSocial (first time I’ve done this), but if I’m using Brand Amper, I’m following it up by using QueSocial. If I’m already using QueSocial, I think I would strengthen that investment by going back and starting to use Brand Amper!  If I own Brand Amper and Que Social, I’m figuring out a way to blend these two products together – because they would work great together!

Check out Brand Amper your employment brand needs this!

 

There is No Kill Switch On Awesome!

Posted on by
Reply

Happy Monday Friends!

Let’s make this week completely Awesome!

Spring is upon us! (well, some of us)

There is no better time to be alive! Well, I hear the sixties were pretty great, and the fifties, possibly the twenties…anywho…

Remember –

No kill switch

 

What awesome stuff are you going to do this week?

 

Labor Unions are Dinosaurs

Posted on by
1

You already know I’m not a fan of labor unions.  I just don’t see the point to them in today’s society.  They were needed once in our history. They are no longer needed.

Employers, for the most part, in today’s information is everywhere world, can’t afford to treat employees bad.  It doesn’t mean that we can’t find stories of this happening, it does, but employers face major ramifications for going off the rails.

Regardless, the data is even showing us how ineffective labor unions really are. From BusinessInsider:

“The Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its annual figures on the number of employee strikes and employer lockouts for 2014. Only 11 work stoppages, including both strikes and lockouts, involving at least 1,000 workers began in 2014, tied with 2010 for the second lowest number on record.”

labor unions

Employers and employees no longer have an appetite for strikes.  Employers can’t afford them, and employees can’t afford them.  At no other point in the history of the world have employers and employees worked so well together. Both, have too much to lose.

When you reach this point in an economic relationship, labor unions cease to have relevance.

Labor unions, now, seem to be more of a burden on employees, the people they represent, than they are to the actual employers.  In the past couple of decades you actually see more employers inviting unions into their shops, not because they love unions, but because they see unions as a way to control employees more effectively.

Contracts work both ways.  When unions are strong, like they were fifty years ago, contracts work to the favor of the employees. When unions are weak, like they are now, contracts work to the benefit of the employer.

Are unions completely dead?  No.  Could they be?  Yes.  The existence of unions, while hugely important to American labor history, no longer have a useful existence in a 21st century employment market. If anything, they are now holding employees back.

 

Kate (Plus 8) Gosselin Can Help You Fix Your Employee Turnover!

Posted on by
1

Remember, Jon and Kate Plus 8, the reality TV show with the lady that had sextuplets, on top of already having twins?  Kate Gosselin was back in the media eye again recently as a participant on Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.  She made the news because no one recognized her! In a good way. From the story on Xfinity:

If you tuned into Celebrity Apprentice this past season and didn’t immediately recognize Kate Gosselin, you weren’t alone.

But the reality-TV star, who first burst into our collective consciousness when Jon & Kate Plus 8 premiered in 2007, has a perfectly reasonable explanation as to why she somehow looks younger now, at 39, than she did when her TLC run was just beginning.

“I think when the world met me I was three days post having sextuplets, so the only place you can get from that point is younger,” she told E! News on the live  Celebrity Apprentice finale red carpet last night when asked about her seeming physical transformation.

“So It was really just eye-trickery, I think,” Gosselin continued. “You guys saw me at my worst first, and then I just kind of reversed in front of your eyes. It was nothing amazing, it was just, when you met me, who was that person?”

What does this have to do with your turnover?

You don’t allow candidates to ever see you at your worse, ever.  Then, you’re shocked when they leave because they couldn’t handle your worse.

Now, I’m not telling you to completely go crazy and show all your dirty laundry to every potential candidate.  Certain companies can really learn something from this. It’s the companies that have absolutely awful turnover, especially compared to your industry norm, and can’t seem to figure out how to fix it.

It’s, also, those companies that seem to try and hide their dirty laundry the most when they’re interviewing potential hires!  I get it.  You have unstoppable turnover, you need more bodies, you have a bad reputation in the market, and you want to show everyone you’re trying to change it.  The problem is, people then have a false hope as compared to the reality you make them step into.

Show them the ugly Kate, and eventually the beautiful Kate might come through, and they’ll love you even more. (see how I brought that full circle?! I’m a pro.)

The only way to fix really bad turnover is to hire people who don’t mind your worst side.  Those people will stay around and actually appreciate your growth to a better environment.  If you try and talk a candidate out of the job because they can’t handle it, and you show them how bad it actually is, and they keep coming back and wanting in, you probably need to give them a shot!

We try and do the opposite. “Let’s hire people who worked at great companies, with great environments, and they’ll help us get to that!”  No they won’t.  They’ll fail.  People who come from great companies, buckle when presented with horrible environments.  You need to find people who like your worst. Those people will make it.

The way to stop turnover is to get fully staffed. Sounds like an oxymoron, but it’s not. Get staffed with people who will stick around. Then work on upgrading, little by little. Quality doesn’t help awful turnover. People willing to get dirty, help awful turnover.

 

Covering Up a Career Hickey

Posted on by
3

I had a person work for me at past job in HR.  She performed the HR cardinal sin of sins, she shared personal, confidential information with an employee outside of HR.  My problem was, this person was a high performer, an outstanding employee, she had a frustrating, weak moment, and did something you just can’t do in a HR position.  This is what we call a Career Hickey. Sometimes you can survive these hickeys and cover them up, and continue to work as normal.  Many time you can’t.

So now, this Hi-Po has a huge Hickey.  Interestingly though, this Hickey can’t be seen when you look at their resume or interview them in person, but it’s a Hickey they can’t get rid of.  So, barring a life-turtleneck how does one cover this puppy up?

It’s interesting because I think that probably the best of us have a hickey or two that we would rather not have our current or future employer know about.  Sometimes they’re big-giant-in-the-back-of-a-Chevy-17-year-old-I-will-love-you-forever hickeys and sometimes they’re just oops-I-lingered-a-little-too-long type of hickeys. Either way, I would rather not expose my hickeys and have to worry about how this will impact the rest of my professional life. And here’s where most people drive themselves crazy.

As HR Pros I think it’s important for us to be able to help our organizations determine the relative value of individuals.  This person was a rock star at ABC company, did something wrong, and couldn’t maintain that position any longer with ABC because of said incident, and lost their job. Now we have a chance to pick up a Rock Star (and probably for a discount).

The question you have to ask is not could we live with this person if they did the same thing here?  Because that really isn’t the question, you already have that answer is “No.”  The question is: do we feel this person learned from said wrong doing and is there any risk of them doing it again?  You might come to the conclusion, “yes, they’ve learned, and yes, there is potential they might do it again” (let’s face it, if they did it once, they’ve shown they can do it, so there’s always a risk), but it’s a risk we are willing to take.

So how does someone come back from a transgression at work? The answer is that they have some help.  Eventually, someone is going to ask the question: “why aren’t you with ABC Company anymore?”  They’ll give you the canned answer they’ve been developing since the moment they lost their job. If you’re a good interviewer, you won’t buy the first answer (I mean really – so you decided it was better off not to have a job – is what you’re telling me?!) and you will dig to see the hickey.  Hickeys are funny in that you really can’t take your eyes off of them, but for those who can get by the hickeys, you might just find a great talent who is grateful for the second chance.

But, you also might find someone who just likes being in the back of that Chevy and getting Hickeys. You’re the HR Pro though and that’s really why your company pays your salary – to mitigate risk vs. the quality of talent your organization needs to succeed. So, you have to ask yourself, can you live with a Hickey?

T3 – LeoForce #HRTech

Posted on by
1

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 space and I wanted to educate myself and share what I find.  If you want to be on T3 – send me a note.

This week on T3 I demo’d the recruiting robotics software LeoForce.  LeoForce is basically an ATS add on that takes your sourcing function to the next level.  While most ATS softwares start when you have identified someone as a candidate, LeoForce starts when you start sourcing and integrates with your ATS to make sure you have end to end coverage of your process.

Besides the ATS integration and functionality, LeoForce’s claim to fame is it’s recruiting robot Arya.  Arya uses behavior pattern recognition to identify patterns from your best recruiters/sourcers, automates those behaviors, and repeat success, significantly boosting your ability to mutiply hires. Arya also automates portions of your recruiting process, from initial qualification and applicant collaboration, to finding qualified, interest candidates.

LeoForce also has a VMS tool which is a crawler app that will constantly update your VMS jobs and statuses, and move it into your ATS. This tool also communicates to recruiters with alerts on new jobs and status changes.

5 Things I really like about LeoForce: 

1. Job Booster – In LeoForce you can create and post jobs with virtually one click to your own career site,  job boards, social sites, etc. It takes the task of posting and broadcasting your open positions down to almost nothing.

2. Applicant Collaboration – Maybe the most powerful feature is how LeoForce communicates with potential candidates via email in a way that seems very personalized and non-robotic, automatically.  This automation allows recruiters and sourcers to do other things, while the system does much of your pre-qualifying and screening. In the end the recruiting team is getting warm candidates to work with, not cold candidates.

3. Machine Learning – the system learns what your successes are, and continues to learn over time, to get better.  It’s not a brand new search every time you begin a search. It’s not starting over, it’s continuing to build on prior successes.  Another huge time saver, that moves your process along faster.

4. LeoForce makes your ATS what you wished it was when you bought it. That’s really the crux of the issue. Our ATSs just don’t have the sourcing and recruiting capabilities we need for 2015.  The integration is seamless, pulling your jobs automatically from your ATS, giving you enhance search capabilities of your database and social recruiting functionality you probably never had.

5. It’s Inexpensive!  I love the fact it only cost $100 per user per month. In my world $1200 a year is super cheap as compared to the tools you just handed a recruiter/sourcer that is using LeoForce.

Most companies fall into this trap. Our ATS just isn’t good enough for what we need in recruiting automation.  Then we make the decision we better start looking at a new ATS that can do this.  At a minimum that is a $100,000 to $150,000 spend over five years for small and medium sized business. Upwards of millions for enterprise organizations.

LeoForce is something you need to look at and demo if you believe your ATS just doesn’t have the recruiting capabilities you need, before you scrap your ATS for good.  Or, if you’re just in the market for great recruiting automation, this is a tool you need to see. Check them out, it will be worth your time.

How To Get a Great Job in 2015

Posted on by
2

Last week I got a call from an old work friend. He wanted to have lunch.  He just left a position and was in transition.  Not a bad or negative job loss, just parted ways.  When you get to a certain executive point in your career, it’s rare that bad terminations take place. It’s usually, “hey, we like you, but we really want to go another direction, and we know you don’t want to go that direction, so let’s just shake hands and call it a day, here’s a big fat check.”

Executives get this.  For the most part there isn’t hard feelings, like when you were young and lost a job. I usually find that the organization the person is leaving from are super complementary, and usually takes the blame for the change.  Executives in corporate America are like NFL coaches. You get hired with the understanding that one day you’ll be fired.  It’s not that you know less, or aren’t going to be successful in your career, it’s just that the organization needs change, and you’re part of that change.

Welcome to the show, kid.

My friend decided that he was going to find his next position not through posting for positions online, or trolling corporate career pages, he was going to have lunches.  About two per week, with past work friends. Let’s connect, no pressure, we already know each other and I want to catch up.

You see, in 2015 you don’t find great jobs by filling out applications in ATSs and uploading resumes. You get great jobs because of the relationships and personal capital you’ve built up over your career.  Having lunch and reconnecting turn on a relationship machine. I believe that people, innately, want to help other people. When a friend comes to you with a situation, and you have something to offer or help, you will do that.

The problem is most people who are looking for great jobs don’t do this. They lock themselves in their home office and apply to a thousand jobs online and get upset when nothing happens. Great jobs aren’t filled by ATSs and corporate recruiters.  Great jobs are fill through relationships. Every single one of them.

Want to find a great job in 2015?

Go out to lunch.

One Surefire Way To Get The Job You Love

Posted on by
2

Everyone wants a job they love.  Everyone. The priorities might change from person to person, but if you asked someone, do you want a job you love, or a job you hate, 100% of people will give you the ‘Love’ answer.

There are some caveats. I might want a job that I love, but I also need a job that provides adequate pay and benefits.  I’d love to a professional puppy petter, but I just don’t see anyone putting a high value on that job.  I might want a job I love, but I also want to be close to my friends and family. While I would love working with injured dolphins on a remote island in the pacific, without my friends and family, that job would get old quick.

The one surefire way you get a job that you love is to want ‘that’ job for the right reasons.

Not because this ‘new’ job is better pay or benefits. Not because it’s in a warmer climate, or that my girlfriend lives nearby.  That is not how you get a job you love.  You’re just getting a job that fits some of your life criteria.

To get a job you love, you have to want it because that’s what you’ve always wanted to do your entire life.  You have a path that shows you’ve wanted it your entire life. You’ve been working towards this job. If you walk the path, you have a much better chance of getting to the end.

I would love to coach the Los Angles Lakers.  But, let’s face it, while I’ve wanted this most of my entire adult life, I’ve never put the work into pursuing this love job.  I didn’t bust my butt coming up the coaching ranks. I wasn’t willing to travel around the world pursuing this passion. I wasn’t willing to make peanuts for years as I got experience.

The problem is people just want a job they love without the path.  It doesn’t work that way.  99.9% of people don’t fall into jobs they love.  They might start a job not knowing if they’ll love it, and go on the path, and find out that they actually do love it.

Want a job you love?  Work for it. Show people that’s what you want through your actions and efforts.  That’s the surefire way to get a job you love.