Here’s the perfect Recruiter Job Posting from a post of mine over at Halogen’s TalentSpace Blog – check out the full description there:
The Perfect Recruiter Job Posting
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It’s My Birthday, Biatch!
Yeah, it’s my birthday, if we were really close friends you would have already known that and sent me something cool like Diet Mt. Dew or a Sprinkles Cupcake. But you didn’t, so I wrote this stupid blog post as a birthday present to myself. That’s what happens when you turn 33, you give yourself a present, like an adult. Actually, I’m 44. I don’t get why people get all upset to talk about their age. I look at it as I’m one year closer to moving in with my kids and making their life miserable, paybacks are bitch boys!
Actually, I’m fairly certain that with the massive amounts of Diet Dew I drink I’m headed on a path to Alzheimer’s, and I don’t say that to make fun, it’s just a fact. You can’t put that many chemicals in your body and not think something will happen. I’m very self aware. I think it’s probably a blessing in disguise to my kids. They can put me in a home, and I won’t know the difference either way. All I ask, remember it’s my birthday, is you put me in a home that has a lake or a pond. I like sitting by the water, even it I won’t know why.
Anyway, my wife asked me what I want. Which is a little like asking ‘what do you want me to allow you to buy yourself’, which I appreciate, because she gets me. If I’m going to have to get something for my birthday, I might as well like it! At 44 there isn’t really anything material I need, so here’s the list of things I would want for my birthday in no particular order:
1. To be left alone in the house with a gin and tonic and an NBA game on. So I can fall asleep without interruption.
2. For someone in my family to take my kids, so my wife and I can have a solid 24 hours together without having to make a meal, do a load of laundry or pick up shoes, coats, backpacks, empty food wrappers, socks, empty cups, etc.
3. For you to listen to this white kid do the rap from TLC’s Waterfalls –
Now you know what a 17 year old Tim Sackett was like.
Happy Birthday to me kiddos!
3 Steps To Make HR Suck Less
Are you working in a HR department that sucks? You know if you are, it’s alright, you can admit it – it’s the first step of changing it.
I bet I talk to over a hundred HR Pros a year that begin the conversation with – “our HR department sucks!” or “my company doesn’t get it when it comes to HR” or “Our HR department is terrible”. It’s not the outlier, it’s the norm. So, many HR Pros working in HR functions where the organization has the feeling that “HR” sucks in our company. If you’re not in one now – great – but chances are you have either been in one before, or eventually you’ll make a “grass is greener” decision and put yourself into this situation.
You know what? We have the power to make HR Suck Less. Yes, you do. Stop it, you do. No really, you do. Alright that’s enough, just play along with me at least!
Here are the 3 steps to making HR Suck Less:
1. Stop doing stuff that Sucks. But Tim! We have to do this stuff. No you don’t – if your HR shop blew up tomorrow – your organization would still go on. Over time you’ve “negotiated” to do all this sucky stuff – thinking it would “help” the organization, or give you “influence”, etc. Stop that. Give it away, push it out to other departments – start doing stuff that doesn’t suck, more than doing stuff that does suck. It’s not easy, but it can be done, little by little.
2. Get rid of people in HR who Suck. Some people get real comfortable with sucking. They wear their suckiness around like a badge of honor. You need to cut the suck out of your department – like cancer!
3. Stop saying that you Suck. We brand ourselves internally with everything we do – and if you say that you suck at something – the organizational will believe you suck at something. If you say we are the best in the industry at recruiting our competitions talent away from them – you’ll be forced to live up to that – and little by little you will live up to that and the organization will begin to believe it as well. Signs and Symbols!
Every single HR Shop who feels they suck – doesn’t have to suck. If you feel you don’t suck, but everyone else tells you that you suck – you suck. You’re just delusional and you keep telling yourself things like “we have to do this stuff”, “it’s the law”, “we don’t have a choice”, etc. This is the first sign you’re comfortable with sucking – you aren’t listening to your organization. No one has to suck – you can decide to do things in a complete different way. Perception is reality in terms of sucking. You need to change perceptions, not reality. You can still accomplish the exact same things, just do it in a way that people think you rock. Start saying “Yes” to everything – not “No”. “No” sucks.
Sucking less is a decision – not a skill. You all have the skills – you just need to make the decision – to stand up and believe – Today we will no longer Suck!
Consistency Is Way Underrated
You know what your organization wants from you?
It’s not to be great. Or an A player. Or high energy. Or Top 10%.
It’s also not to just show up.
The only thing you really need to do is to be consistent. Not consistently great or consistently sucky. Just come in and meet expectations. Every day. Every week. Every year. Consistent. We can count on Tim, he’s consistent.
But we don’t feel that way, do we? We feel like we need to be more than consistent. Consistent is somehow the new below average.
We strive to be ‘world class’ and create ‘best practices’ and ‘industry leading’. Which leads everyone to believe that just being consistent is like having a disease. In reality, if everyone was consistent in our organizations, we would kick the crap out of our competition.
So, why aren’t we all kicking the crap out of our competition? Because it’s really hard be consistent! It’s why we push so hard for rock star performance. We need those rock stars to make up for the trolls because it’s impossible to get everyone to just meet expectations.
The next time you sit down with an employee who is ‘meeting expectations’, who is consistent. Hug them. Thank them for what they do each day. Tell them if I could only get everyone else to be just like you, we would be great!
We don’t need exceptional performance to be great. We just need everyone to do what they’re suppose to do. Consistent. Let’s put that on a leadership poster and sell it – “Strive to do what you’re suppose to do!”
I Don’t Want To Work With a Gay Person!
Michael Sam’s announcement last week, becoming the first openly gay NFL player, rekindled some hot workplace topics. His acknowledgement has talk shows buzzing about whether NFL players would be comfortable with a gay teammate in the locker room. I think most people concentrated on one area of the locker room, the showers. Would male NFL players be comfortable showering with a teammate who was homosexual? So far, no NFL players have said they would not be.
I wonder what most HR professionals would tell an employee who did come to you and said “I don’t want to work with Tim, he’s gay, and I don’t agree with it.”
I’m assuming 99.9% of HR Pros would come up with something like this:
“You know Mr. Employee, we are an inclusive and diverse company, and that means we support all of our employees and don’t judge them based on things like sexual orientation, religion, etc. If you feel uncomfortable working with Tim, maybe this isn’t the place for you to work.”
Seems about right, right?
Let’s add some real-life to this scenario. What if, in your work environment, employees had to share a community, locker room type shower environment, as part of the job function. Dirty, chemical filled, environment, employees shower after their shift as a normal course of their daily working environment. Now what would you say?
Does it change what you might tell Mr. Employee? You’re lying to yourself if you say it wouldn’t. All of sudden you start trying to make concessions and talking about building individual showers, or asking Tim to shower in a private shower and locker room. You start accommodating, like being ‘Gay’ is a disability.
What if it is your policy for employees of the same sex, when traveling, to share hotel rooms. This is a common practice with many companies. What do you tell Mr. or Mrs. Employee when they feel uncomfortable sharing a hotel room with a gay employee? Do you make an accommodation for that employee to have their own hotel room?
What if your top sales person came to you and said they don’t want to work with a gay employee. The sales person who controls and has your largest client in their back pocket – 60% of your current business. Do you give them the same line above? “Go work someplace else!” I’ll be honest with you, you won’t, because executives would have your job for letting that person walk from your company. Oh, I’m sure you’re reading this saying “No, Tim, I would!” That’s great for you. You have to know most people are unwilling to lose their job over something like this. That’s real life HR in the trenches.
It seems simple. So what, we have employees that are gay, who cares. Until another employee cares. Then HR has issues. Being an inclusive employer doesn’t mean you just look for the gay employee, it means also you value the beliefs of the person who doesn’t agree with the gay lifestyle for what ever reason that might be. That’s really, really hard to except for many of us. I want to tell the gay-hating employee to go take a walk, but if I do that, I cease being ‘Inclusive’ and begin being ‘exclusive’. It’s HRs job to make it ‘all’ work.
So, what would you do with an employee who has a problem working with a gay employee?
I Love to Love
I love to love. I don’t love to be loved in return. That is a very hard concept for most people to comprehend. They’ll say, ‘oh yeah, me to, I just love that person’, but when ‘that’ person doesn’t love them in return, the way they want to be loved, they no longer ‘love’ that person.
The employment relationship is a lot like that.
When you’re an employee you want to love your employer. Also, you want your employer to love you. One without the other seems like a bad mix.
I love to love. If someone I love stops loving me, or doesn’t love me the same as I love them, I like to believe it doesn’t change my love. When all my sons were really little, they loved me in a way that I will never forget. I was the center of their world. As they grow older, I know they still love me, but I also know I’m no longer the center of their world. My love has not changed for them, they are still the center of my world. I don’t think less of them for this. This is growth. It is my hope, I’ve shown them how to love their children, if they are fortunate enough to have them.
Just like we shouldn’t think less of our employees who fall out of love with us. Nor should we fall out of love with them, just because they fall out of love with us. Sometimes there are legitimate reasons for these feelings. I see this all the time. Well, we loved Mary, but for some reason she stopped loving us, so screw her we don’t love her anymore! Would you do that with your children? Your parents? Your spouse? (Wait, don’t answer that!)
I love my employees. If I fall out of love with an employee it usually ends rather quickly. If an employee falls out of love with me, it hurts. But I don’t stop loving them. I care about them making good choices. I care that they are healthy and successful. I want the best for them. That might not be with me and my company, but I want it all the same.
I love to love.
Happy Valentines Day!
What would it take to get you to punch an employee?
For most HR Pros, the answer might be – “Not much!” if they were joking behind the locked doors of their HR department!
This came up close and personal this past weekend when a college basketball player from Oklahoma State University, Marcus Smart, fell into the crowd during a play in the game and forcibly shoved a fan that made a comment to him that caused him to react. It’s the first time anyone can really remember a NCAA athlete leaving the field of play and purposely making contact with a fan – in a manner that wasn’t positive. It happened years ago in the NBA with the now infamous, Malice at the Palace, where a fight broke out between professional basketball players and fans that got completely out of control.
I’m not here to say Marcus was wrong or right. If the guy said what Marcus said he said, I think the kid should have done more than just shove it, and I applaud his restraint. If the guy didn’t say what is thought to be said, but some other dumb thing, well Marcus wasn’t living up to his namesake. Either way, Marcus understands that leaving the court of play to shove a fan is wrong, and has said so. Being in HR, we know that at well. There is nothing any employee could say to me that would get me to physically assault them.
Okay, that’s lie! There is all kinds of things that might happen at work that I could justify an employee punching or shoving another employee!
I’ve witnessed employees saying the most outrageous, cruel things to each other. What usually happens? One, or both, get fired. It’s pretty easy from the HR side of things. We can’t have this in our workplace, zero-tolerance, you’re gone. It’s the easiest termination in the HR game. In 20 years I’ve never even had anyone come back and try to fight it. You punch an employee – you get fired. Period.
I actually don’t agree with this, but it’s what happens in HR. I think there are times that an employee is completely justified in hitting another employee – and the one who got hit should lose their job! I had a former employee tell another employee, who was a father that recently had his son die, that ‘he deserved it’, to have his son die. Beyond cruel. The guy deserved to get hit, and the father deserved to react. Legal made me fire him. I fought it as far as I could, almost lost my job. There are times in the workplace that an employee should get punched. Just like there are times in an athletic event where a fan should get hit. There are no absolutes in HR or life.
What would it take to get you to punch one of your coworkers?
Check out this video – even though it’s parents and a school principal – it totally reminds of how employees act when they are in the HR office. Enjoy.
7 Words Mathematically Proven To Get You More Hires!
Wired recently worked with OkCupid and Match.com to find out which words were used on the most popular dating profiles on their sites. Millions of data points were done for this data analysis and they came up with the most popular 1000 words. What they came up with were the exact words to use in your profile descriptions to get the most clicks. I’m going to take this one step further and say if these words attract singles to another single, I’m quite certain they would attract a job seeker to a job. My theory being singles are also job seekers. Okay, I hear you, just because some words might attract one person to another person doesn’t mean those same words will attract a person to a job – but it might.
It is my belief that we can totally re-write Job Descriptions in a way that is a lot less HR’ish, and much more real, which will make more people want to work in the jobs you have. My good friend, Kris Dunn, is a master at this over at Kinetix (click through to see some of KD’s work). Here is another one I put together when I was hiring a Recruiter for my staff. The positive is, it lets us in HR get our ‘creative on’.
Let ‘s give it a shot. I’ll give you 7 categories of words that were mathematically proven to get more dates hires:
1. Active Words: Yoga, Surfing, Surf, hiking, athlete, etc. These words were popular because people want to be associated with things that are good for them. Do you highlight active things you do at your organization in your job descriptions?
2. Pop Culture Words: 30 Rock, The Great Gatsby, Homeland, Arrested Development, The Matrix, The Big Bang Theory, The Hunger Games, etc. People want to work with an organization that has a personality. Pop culture references in your JD give you a personality.
3. Music Words: (FYI – some of these could also be considered Pop Culture) – Radiohead, Nirvana, live music, guitar, instruments, etc .Does your organization have a musical preference? Why not? Maybe you’re a little country, maybe you’re a little rock and roll, either way, it’s alright to let candidates know!
4. Calm Words: Ocean, meditation, beach, trust, respect, enjoy, planning, dedication, openness, etc. Words that project a feeling of safety and security. In today’s employment marketplace, don’t discount the value of your jobs based on how calm and secure the work is. Anxiety is at an all-time high. Having the ability to say “we’ve never laid off in our history!” could pay you huge dividends.
5. Food Words: Chocolate, cooking, foodie, pizza, sushi, breakfast, etc. Food is a gathering and sharing point in most cultures. If you do food related things in your work environment it brings all of your people together. Everyone eats. Not everyone will do Yoga or want to watch movies. Chili cook-offs, company happy hours, Donut Fridays, etc.
6. Descriptive Words: Creative, motivated, confident, driven, passion, awareness, etc. Most HR pros see JDs as a means to an end. They’re a legal necessity. We should be looking at them as mini-commercials for our jobs. I would love to see a company go full video JD – nothing written, just watch our Job Description. 60 seconds of someone telling you what this job is.
7. Spontaneous Words: Tattoos, F*ck, wasted, kissing, puppies, sucking, lucky, etc. Words that most people would never expect to see in a JD. This word has absolutely no usefulness in a JD – that’s exactly why we put it in there. It might not attract an older conservative candidate, but it might be just what a newer generation is looking for.
I’ve never met a senior executive that had a problem with any job description I wanted to write – not matter how bland or how crazy. That being the case, why do we continue to write JDs that put people to sleep?
2 Ways to Tell If You’re An Essential Employee
I’ve had many conversations in my career with employees who “essentially” felt they were probably more important to the business than they really were. You know who I’m talking about! The ones who at some point let it slip: “This place would shut down if I wasn’t here” or “Let’s see how you do if I leave” or “I made this company what it is today”. It’s usually a sales person, or technical person who have had big roles, no doubt, but they begin to get a little to big for their own britches (as my grandmother would say). Over time I’ve developed a good two point test to determine if someone is Essential or Non-essential to your business:
1. In a snow storm, is this person required to make it into the office/facility no matter what? (think large storm – more than one day)
Example: I worked in a large Health System – Doctors & Nurses had to get in – we actually had plans on how to get them to work in an emergency. I on the other hand, being in HR – didn’t have anyone coming to pick me up in a 4 wheel drive SUV.
2. Does the person in question spend way too much of their time trying to convince you of how important they are to your operation?
Examples: “Without me are largest client wouldn’t be here.” ; “Our department (a non-revenue generating department) saved the organization over $500K last year.” – on a budget of $3.7M…
You know what is really interesting about looking at the life of an organization – when they start out, in their infancy, there is only Essential employees. We make widgets, all you need is someone to get widget material, someone to make widgets and someone to sell widgets and someone to collect the cash and pay the bills. Pretty basic. No HR, No Marketing or Finance, No customer service – it’s a very straight line organization. Most companies don’t even add an HR element to their organizations until they get over 100 employees – usually an office manager/payroll/accounting person or the owner takes on this responsibility.
I always like to remind myself of who is “really” essential in my organization. It’s important. It’s important that as a “client” to those people, I make sure I focus what I’m doing on things that will help them do what they are doing. That only happens when I actually talk to them, face-to-face, and ask them – “What can I do, to help you do what you do?” Doesn’t seem overly complicated – but somehow we try and make it harder than that. You see, that’s what non-essentials do – we convince you that what we do is really important!
I like to look at organizations the same way you pick a team on the playground. If you had the most essential person in your company begin picking a team – where would you get picked? First, 10th, last? It’s a good exercise to go through. What you’ll see is your most essential person will pick individuals who will/can help them get the job done – without hassle, without issues, without extra work.
Are you Essential to your organization?
It’s not you, It’s me!
I don’t necessarily agree with this, but it’s part of corporate culture, almost everywhere. You do a really great at a job, and because you do really great, you get promoted. Eventually, through great performance, you’ll be promoted to a position of leadership. That’s when ‘it’ happens…
“You’ve changed!”
“You aren’t the same person any longer!”
“You never would have done that when you were one of ‘us’!”
Doesn’t matter what organization, large, medium, small, public, private, government, profit or non-profit, people who know you best are going to treat you differently when you rise to a position of leadership.
They’ll say it’s you. The problem is, it won’t feel like you. It’ll feel like them.
You’re right, it is them.
People will make you feel like you’ve changed, when in reality it’s how they look at you that has really changed. Before you were ‘just’ one of them. In the trenches everyday working it. Now you’re you, the leader. Their new perception of you, thus their reality, is that you can now do something for them. Before you couldn’t. Now you can. But you don’t. You keep being you. That’s not what they want. They want you to be the new you. The ‘you’ that can get them something. Maybe it’s a better job. Maybe it’s more money. Maybe it’s getting out an hour early on Friday, who the hell knows.
What I know is that it’s not you. It’s them. But you’ll say it’s you, because you’re the leader.