The Search for the Magical Solution

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Have you been in that place?  You know the place. That place where you feel the only option you have is to find some ‘magical’ solution to whatever problem or issue you’re facing.

That’s the problem, there is no magical solution.

But we search, and search, and search.  This seems to happen a lot in HR.  We tend to need more magical solutions than most other parts of the organization.

The search only stops when the problem takes care of itself.  And it always does.  Mostly, you just take too long to come up with a magical solution, so time does it for you.  This is usually the worst option, but since you didn’t move on any solution, the only solution presented itself.

We spend so much time and resources searching for magical solutions.

That’s really your sign.  The moment you believe it’s going to take some sort of extraordinary solution to solve your issue is when you should stop looking.  That is the exact time when you start providing ‘lessor’ options.  Well, we aren’t going to land Jack, our number one candidate and the only person in the world that can do this job.  Here are two others that can do about 75% of what we need.  When would you like to talk to them?

Lessor doesn’t mean bad.  It only means that it’s lessor than magical!  Look, we can’t come up with a magical solution, here’s what we have.  The faster you can move forward, away from magical, the sooner you’ll actually solve your problem for real.

I’m pretty damn good at Recruiting and HR stuff, but I’m not magical.

What I can do is move things forward in the best direction we have available to us.  You might not want to hear that, because magical stories are so great to listen to, but this is what we have.  Stop searching for magical solutions and start delivering real solutions.

 

T3 – People Analytics Corp (PAC)

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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 T3 – send me a note.

Today I’m looking at People Analytics Corporation (PAC) which sounds like it would be a talent or HR data analytics play, but in reality they are an Selection Assessment Technology play. The really cool thing about PAC is they didn’t start out as an assessment play, they grew out of the world’s largest career test, Sokanu.  Sokanu is basically a better, bigger version of one of those high school career assessments you took to find out what you would be good at as a career.  From millions of these assessments being taken, Sokanu discovered they had a giant data set that could be transformed into a very strong selection assessment, and PAC was born.

PAC does what great selection assessment companies should do which is help organizations understand what traits and characteristics define their top talent. Then, use this data to help you go out and hire more of that top talent.  The catch!?  They do this part for free!   They’ll come in and assess your entire organization, by department, function, etc., to build selection assessments based on your best talent.  Let’s be clear, to have great data, you can do this with a department of 10.  The reality is, you need anywhere from 50-100 do get statistically relevant data in a role. So, for the most part PAC is an enterprise play.

PAC’s UI is ridiculous easy to use to develop roles, turn those roles into jobs, and have your company specific assessments linked right to your job postings.  As candidates apply and assess, you use the dashboard to see who are the potential best fits for the jobs you are hiring for.  PAC also has a ‘faking’ compenent score within their assessment technology which shows you which candidates are trying to fake their results and look better.  Within the assessment you also get data returned that shows you ‘red flags’ of where candidates are probably going to come up short.

5 Things I really liked about PAC:

1. You are actually for Free going to come in assessment my organization and give me all that data? For Free!?  Yep.  This all by itself should get you to at least want to demo their product!

2. This isn’t just a personality assessment.  Most assessments are based on one component, usually personality.  PAC is based on five including personality, skills, organizational culture fit, needs and context.  It’s the most comprehensive selection assessment I’ve seen that is tailored to your organization, for the price.

3. The system was super easy for a talent or HR pro to use to develop new roles and pick the competencies and important factors needed by just clicking through, and you can add multiple raters within the organization by just selecting from a drop down menu.

4. Really fast and really accurate (the science behind this is awesome).  The average assessment takes about 12 minutes, and provides some really accurate data that has been proven reliable and valid based on millions completed. You can also compare results of a candidate to an existing employee already in position.

5. There is an employee development component that also comes out of this data for hiring managers to continue to develop the employee after hire, but one that can also be used with your internal staff already employed.

PAC is a new, young company that almost no one really knows about, but their product is one of the best I’ve seen when it comes to employee selection. They won’t be unknown for long! The average cost per assessment is $12-15 each, but it’s all based on volume, you guys know the game.  That is cheap, when you think about all you get on the front side with the analysis you’ll get of your own organization before you even pay for one assessment.  Plus, the assessments you’ll be giving aren’t just some generic assessment, but ones based on your own organization, own roles.

Check them out. I was really blown away by the demo.

5 Things That Scream You’re Not Getting Paid Enough

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I was reading an article recently, it was one of those “Best Places To Work” type of articles.  Since I run a company, I’m always looking out for good ideas on how to take care of your employees without spending a dime – unfortunately – “Best Places” companies that make these lists usually don’t give you these type 0f ideas!   What you get from “Best Places” articles are all the over the top crap – gourmet cat food for your in cube pet-mate, free liposuction for your spouse and discounted tattoo eyeliner coupons.  I would love for my company to be on the top of every single “Best Places” to work article – but we probably won’t.  I care too much about my employees to make that happen.

What?!?

Yes, you read that right – My greatest weakness is I care too much!

It costs an organization a ton of money to make a “Best Places” list – not in actually applying to make the list (oh yeah, they are chosen randomly – you have to apply – the Top 100 Greatest Places to Work isn’t really the Top 100 Greatest Places to Work – it was the Top of the companies that applied for the award Greatest Places to Work), but in doing all the silly crap they do, so they sound like a great place to work.  Many of the best places to work, will never be on a list, because they are spending their time, money and effort – on their employees!

Here are some things that “Best Places to Work” companies and You Not Getting Paid Enough have in common”

1. If you’re company has unlimited gourmet free breakfast, lunch and dinner provided – you’re not getting paid enough.  Cut that crap out and pay me $10K more per year – I’ll bring in my own Greek Yogurt and granola.

2. If your company pays to have your laundry done and your house clean – you’re not getting paid enough.

3. If your company is taking you on luxury vacations and dinners that cost more than your monthly home mortgage – you’re not getting paid enough.

4. If your company spend more on marketing themselves as a great place to work, than on your employee development – you’re not getting paid enough.

5. If your CEO flies to work on a daily or weekly basis – you’re not getting paid enough.

So, how do I show my employees that I care and that we have a great place to work?  I don’t waste money on things that ultimately become a negative when I need to take them away because we aren’t making the money for our shareholders.  All great places to work, eventually become average or crappy places to work – because sustaining luxury programs that you put in place when your doing well – become negatives to engagement when you tighten your boot straps.

Pay your people fairly. Meet their needs as adults. Treat them professionally and with respect.  That’s a great place to work.

You’re Scared to Make HR Simple

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Have you ever wondered why HR Departments continue to make complex processes?  In reality, all of us, wants things simple.  But, when you look at our organizations they are filled with complexity.  It seems like the more we try to make things simple, the more complex they get.  You know what?  It’s you – it’s not everyone else.  You are making things complex, and you’re doing this, because it makes you feel good.

From Harvard Business Review:

“There are several deep psychological reasons why stopping activities is so hard to do in organizations. First, while people complain about being too busy, they also take a certain amount of satisfaction and pride in being needed at all hours of the day and night. In other words, being busy is a status symbol. In fact a few years ago we asked senior managers in a research organization — all of whom were complaining about being too busy — to voluntarily give up one or two of their committee assignments. Nobody took the bait because being on numerous committees was a source of prestige.

Managers also hesitate to stop things because they don’t want to admit that they are doing low-value or unnecessary work. Particularly at a time of layoffs, high unemployment, and a focus on cost reduction, managers want to believe (and convince others) that what they are doing is absolutely critical and can’t possibly be stopped. So while it’s somewhat easier to identify unnecessary activities that others are doing, it’s risky to volunteer that my own activities aren’t adding value. After all, if I stop doing them, then what would I do?”

That’s the bad news.  You have have deep psychological issues.  Your spouse already knew that about you.

The good news is, you can stop it!  How?  Reward people for eliminating worthless work.  Right now we reward people who are working 70 hours per week and always busy and we tell people “Wow! Look at Tim he’s a rock star – always here, always working!”  Then someone in your group goes, “Yeah, but Tim is an idiot, I could do his job in 20 hours per week, if…”  We don’t reward the 20 hour guy, we reward the guy working 70 hours, even if he doesn’t have to.

Somewhere in our society – the ‘working smarter’ analogy got lost or turned into ‘work smarter and longer’.  The reality is most people don’t have the ability to work smarter, so they just work longer and make everything they do look ‘Really’ important!   You just thought of someone in your organization, when you read that, didn’t you!?  We all have them – you can now officially call them ‘psychos’ – since they do actually have a “deep psychological” reasons for doing what they’re doing – Harvard said so!

I love simple.  I love simple HR.  I love simple recruiting.  I hate HR and Talent Pros that make things complex – because I know they have ‘deep psychological’ issues!  Please go make things simple today!

Sackett’s Things To Be Thankful For in HR and Recruiting

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It’s Thanksgiving, you shouldn’t be ready HR blog posts. You’ve got a problem. I can probably recommend someone for you to talk to, but now that you’re here, let me tell you about all the things I’m thankful for in HR and Recruiting.

Sackett’s Things He’s Thankful For in HR and Recruiting:

1. Employees who show up to work on time…and actually work.

2. Those little space heaters you can fit under your desk.  I live in a cold climate, so those little space heaters are like warm puppies wrapped in warm puppies.

3. Candidates who aren’t completed idiots when asked where they see themselves in five years, and don’t say something like “well, probably working at another  company”.

4. An ATS that doesn’t suck. Wait, that’s wishful, not thankful.

5.  A hiring manager who actually appreciates the fact you had to go through 100 crappy candidates to get the one marginal candidate you were able to find her.

6. That finance only asked us to take a 7% cut to our HR budget this year.

7. That our CEO still truly believes that our employees are our greatest asset. Which is exactly what I wrote for him on our internal employee blog, that people still believe he writes.

8. That SHRM finally came up with certification that everyone will respect and honor, unlike that crappy HRCI certification they sold to us for the last 25 years.

9. That the recession is over and our friends in Learning and OD actually can have training classes again. Yay! Soft skills leadership development…

10. That Millennials will soon be the largest demographic in our workforce, and the fact I bought stock in trophy making companies.

Stay hungry my friends.

 

Where Have All The Recruiters Gone?

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Originally posted on Fistful of Talent back in April 2011.   Maureen Sharib reminded me of this on Twitter and I wanted to share. Enjoy.

I don’t get it – I don’t get why somehow over the past 5 years it’s not alright to be called a “Recruiter.”

Okay, let me back up a bit. I’m sick of hearing about “Sourcers”! You know what a Sourcer is?  It’s someone who can’t close a candidate. In the beginning, recruiters had to do it all – put together the JD, come up with a marketing plan (oh, I’m sorry we call that “sourcing plan” now), go out and actually find the candidates (oh, my bad again “go out and source”) and then we had to actually call up the candidate and see if they were someone we had interest in moving forward into the process.

Look, I’ve seen the recruiting desk cut up more ways than a mom trying to be creative with a PB&J in May, after making 180 PB&J’s throughout the year (parents making their kids lunch each day get this reference, others won’t!). I get that it can be more “efficient” to separate out “Sourcing” and “Recruiting.” I read 7 Habits, you didn’t discover something new, companies have been cutting up the recruiting desk for decades. In 1993, I was hired into staffing to be a “Research Assistant”. Guess what that was? Yeah, some idiot who didn’t know how to close (yet) but could go out and find potential interested candidates (by any means necessary) to give to the “real” recruiter who could close them on a position.

So, here’s the rub, right? Who’s better, Sourcers or Recruiters? I’m guessing in most organizations  using this model, they are selling it as if they are equal, which blows all of your efficiency right off the bat. They aren’t equal, one is collecting shells on a beach and one is polishing shells and telling sucker tourists how rare and valuable they are to make a buck and keep the lights on. If the shell picker-upper went away, would the shell polisher/seller go out of business? Hell no, they’d take their butt over to the beach, pick up some shells, take them back to the shop, polish them up and sell them. Would they be as successful? No, but it’s all relative since they also wouldn’t be paying the overhead of Mr. Picker-upper.

I actually like the Sourcing and Recruiting dual model in shops that have that kind of volume, it makes sense. Someone who is exceptional at sourcing combined with someone who is fantastic at recruiting will place more great talent than 3 people all doing it on their own. But let’s not start handing out trophies to the Sourcer.  I can train anyone to source. I’ve failed many times at training someone to close. One of those skills is transactional. One is transformational.

There are a number of companies right now in India that for pennies on the dollar will source candidates for you, and they’ll do it better than Steve who is sitting on Facebook right now “building his Talent Community”. It’s transactional. It’s a process.  it can be outsourced without a slightest blip to your recruiting function.

And okay, haters, before you go all crazy in the comments, let me say this, I think the sourcing technology, tools, etc. are all great. I love reading and trying out the techniques that are shared constantly by FOT’s own Kelly Dingee, or others like Glen Cathey, Amybeth Hale, Maureen Sharib, Jim Stroud, etc. (it’s amazing industry changing stuff). I don’t hate sourcing. In the right organization it makes perfect sense, but be careful. What I find is that many organizations want to move their best sourcers to recruiting and they fail because it’s two different skill sets. Don’t make that mistake.

So, where did all the recruiters go? The fakers – the ones who don’t want to pick up a phone – want to call themselves Sourcers. Why? Because the accountability of finding someone vs. closing someone – is on two different levels. I can find who is the top developer at a company, but it’s a different story in talking that developer into why they need to join my organization. The recruiters are still there – just look for the ones with the phone to their ear.

T3 – Entelo

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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 T3 – send me a note.

Talent Acquisition and Sourcing pros are always on the outlook for tools that will get them great talent fast.  Entelo is a software that helps you find that talent.  They are probably best lumped into the genre of “People Aggregators” within the recruiting and sourcing space, although all the people aggregators hate being called people aggregators.  What Entelo, and other people aggregators like them (OpenWeb, TalentBin, HiringSolved,etc.) primarily do is to build profiles of potential candidates based on their social exhaust they leave all over the web.

Think of yourself for a moment. You probably have a LinkedIn profile, a Facebook profile, a twitter account. You might also get involved with industry specific groups who active boards. Software developers use sites like Github and StackOverflow, etc.  All these places on the web you are leaving little pieces of who you are (social exhaust).  Entelo’s software gathers all of this and puts together a profile similar to an online resume of sorts.  Unlike many of the people aggregators on the market, Entelo found some really cool ways to differentiate themselves within the market.

Tools like Entelo can be very powerful in your sourcing efforts.  But make no mistake, it’s a tool that you still have work and mine, do get the most of out of them.  I’ve seen way too many corporate talent acquisition pros invest into this technology, only to let it sit there and do nothing. That isn’t a failure of the tool, it’s a failure of the person using the tool.  Sourcing and mining candidates can be a arduous task, there is nothing easy about it.  The tool will give you almost unlimited potential candidates at your finger tips, now you have the real work in front of you to find who’s right for your organization and openings.

Entelo separates themselves with their predictive analytics.  When you go to source, the last thing you want to do is spend time and resources on candidates that are highly unlikely to want to move into a new position.  This is a huge issue in sourcing.  Entelo solves this using a predictive analytics model within their software ‘creatively’ called “More Likely To Move”. Which can predict individuals who are more willing to move into a new position based on their history and social makeup.  Does it work? Yes. 30% of the folks Entelo flags as “more likely to move”, actually move within 90 days!  That is crazy awesome.

5 Things I like about Entelo:

1. “More Likely To Move” is easily the best thing I liked.  When you use a people aggregator you get a ton of data to shift through. Being able to screen based on those individuals who are probably at a point to be ready to move, just makes my job way easier as a Talent Acquisition Pro!

2. Diversity Filters.  Entelo actually lets you search by various diversity filters (female, African American, Hispanic, veteran, etc.).  This is almost a 1A in likeability in my book! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve either been asked directly, or ‘hinted’ at heavily on the ‘type’ of candidate a hiring manager or organization was really looking for.  Great HR and Talent Acquisition Pros know they need to balance diversity and inclusion within their organization, and sometimes that means having to find a certain demographic.

3. Entelo Button.  Entelo has a Chrome plugin which is a nice feature to have as you are mining sites like LinkedIn.  The plugin allows you to view the Entelo profile of an candidate you are viewing in Linkedin with one click, to see what else might be out there on this person.

4. Entelo profile emails. Like most folks, I’m inherently lazy.  If I don’t have to do extra searches to come up with contact information, that just made my life easier. Entelo profiles have a very high percentage of contact emails attached to each potential candidate, many times more than one.

5. ATS Integration already built out. This is a must if you use a people aggregator because you want a ‘one click’ easy way to get those potential candidates into your ATS.

Entelo has a very familiar feeling UI. If you use LinkedIn, you can use Entelo.  Like most sourcing tools, the entry level price point is around $10K, that is pretty typical, and goes up with increased users, etc.  From an ROI standpoint, that’s pretty easy to justify.  One saved headhunter placement, and Entelo paid for itself.  If you actually use this tool, you’ll make more than one placement from it!  If you have to do diversity recruiting and sourcing, this is really a no brainer of a purchase.

 

HR TV Shows I Really Want to See

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I sure not too many folks have seen the Top Recruiter Internet based TV show.  It’s going after an extremely narrow audience to be sure.  But it looks and feels like a real live, reality TV based show, except you watch it on your computer and not on a specific TV channel. Chris Lavoie, the producer and originator of the show, does a great job. He gets what sells, which is mainly sexy people in conflict with each other.  It’s the basic formula for every successful reality based show.

Top Recruiter is in it’s third season, I’ve watched 5 minutes of one episode in the first season.  I personally know some of the folks who have been on it, they seem to have fun with it. That’s what life is about.  And Chris has found a market of HR technology companies that want to pay for content, and he’s paying his bills! That’s what also counts.  Here’s a marketing shot:

Top Recruiter

 

See what I mean? Sexy. Chris is up front, he’s a nice dude, regardless of how it looks all douchey. That’s marketing, you have to sell it.

I have a few more HR related TV show ideas for Chris (even though he hasn’t asked me) that I think the HR community would eat up!  Check these out and let me know what you think:

Frumpy HR Manager

 

Or, if that one doesn’t seem ‘sexy’ enough. How about this one:

Top Personnel Dept

 

I just really think these shows would connect with the HR world!  What do you think, hit me in the comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Will ‘Facebook at Work’ be a LinkedIn Killer?

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At this point you’ve seen the announcement, Facebook has decided to go after some of that ‘professional’ networking money, with a product called Facebook at Work. A space currently owned by the LinkedIn empire.  Who does social networking better than anyone?  Most would argue Facebook. The kids might say Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.  But the numbers don’t lie.

LinkedIn owns the ‘professional’ networking space, as they’ve decided to title it.  The job board crowd now sees LinkedIn as Job Board 2.0, and have been working to see how they can get some of the billions flowing LinkedIn’s way.

Facebook is like that big giant kid in high school who was super friendly, and everyone called him a “big teddy bear’, until one day the wrong kid pushed the ‘teddy bear’ too much and everyone got to find out how strong the ‘teddy bear’ actually was.  LinkedIn is about to get ‘bear’ hugged!

The reality is Facebook had the capability all along to put LinkedIn out of business if they wanted, but they were raking in their own piles of cash, and didn’t see the LinkedIn money as a priority.  It was just a matter of time.  LinkedIn’s core weakness is two-fold:

1. They don’t go deep enough with the position you actually need to hire for.  Great you have technology candidates (who are running away from LinkedIn in droves), you have sales candidates and you have recruiters. That’s really about it. Have you searched on LinkedIn lately?

2. Users of LinkedIn rarely go to their LinkedIn profile and rarely respond to LinkedIn messages.

The two weaknesses of LinkedIn are actually strengths of Facebook.  Facebook has everyone, from skilled trades folks, to truck drivers, to teachers, to doctors, and lawyers, and bakers, and candlestick makers, mall Santas, you name it, they’re on Facebook.  Secondly, people use Facebook a lot, all day, every day.  Exponentially, more than they ever use LinkedIn.

Facebook has made it very clear they’ll keep professional and personal profiles separated, but make it easy to go between and share stuff in between. This takes away the one major fear many have at integrating their Facebook life and their LinkedIn life (although I argue this fear is also going away quickly).

For those of us who have found ways to recruit talent off Facebook, we understand the potential of the sleeping giant, err, teddy bear. I like LinkedIn and use it daily.  I wish LinkedIn met my needs for a greater number of positions.  I believe Facebook has the user base, and data, to be all things professional if it’s done in the right way.

It’s going to be interesting to see these two fight it out.

Sackett’s Office Holiday Party Rules

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It’s fast becoming that time of year when you’ll be invited to office holiday parties across the world!  This is one of my favorite times of the year.  Let’s face it, I’m married and 40sih, the office holiday parties are one of the few times a year I have a get out of jail free card.  “What!? You want to do shots? Well, I shouldn’t, but I want to be a ‘team’ player. You know me!”  My wife mildly puts up with me, for one night, so I can act like one of those millennials who works with me.  Usually, I’m yawning at 11pm, and wondering what I’m missing on the local news.

The HRU holiday parties are awesome. Basically, because I’m in charge of two things: 1. Ordering the food and 2. Paying the bar tab.  Which means we have plenty of variety of great things to eat, and we have an open bar.  The ‘kids’ like an open bar. It always goes over well.  I don’t have any rules.  I used to be one of those ‘bosses’ that was like, “you better show up”, which led to about 2 or 3 people being at the party that didn’t want to be. But I’ve matured, and now I’m like “don’t come if you don’t want to have fun!”

I do think some HR Pros need rules for their employees, and as usual I’m here to help you.  So, here are Sackett’s Office Holiday Party Rules:

Rule No. 1 – If you drink too much and throw up at your office holiday party, never go back to work at that job. Ever!

Rule No. 2 – If you bring a date that looks like a stripper, you’ll be forever known as the employee who brought a stripper to the office holiday party. Dress appropriately, strippers.

Rule No. 3 – There are these things called Smartphones which take pictures.  Always remember this, or you’ll be reminded of it the next morning on Facebook.

Rule No. 4 –  If you have a date that is anti-social, you might want to rethink that plan.  No one wants to deal with ‘creepy’ at an office holiday party.

Rule No. 5 – It’s okay to dance at your office holiday party. It is not okay to dance alone at your office holiday party.

Rule No. 6 – You don’t have to ask if your employer will let you expense a cab or Uber ride home. They will, 100% of the time. Be safe.

Rule No. 7 – Don’t flirt with your office crush at the office holiday party. You have 364 days a year you can do that and not look completely desperate.

Rule No. 8 – Getting your boss drunk, and making an idiot of her, isn’t funny, it’s career limiting. Be a good ‘wing-person’.

Rule No. 9 – Don’t get all religious at an office holiday party. Yes, I’m sure, Jesus is the reason for the season, but not the office holiday party season.  Jesus isn’t into that season.

Rule No. 10 – Don’t talk work.  Talk cars, or sports, or kids, or video games, or movies, or books, anything but work.  Get to know your co-workers as people.

 I’m different than most HR Pros in that I actually like holiday parties, and company picnics, and every other time we can get together as an organization that isn’t work.  We spend more time with our co-workers than our families, on a normal week.  Our co-workers become our close friends and extended family.  It’s wonderful to break bread with them and just have fun.  Learn who they are outside of work, and meet others in their life that our special to them.

So, go have fun. Don’t be stupid.  An order something expensive that you normally wouldn’t do when you’re paying the bill!