3 Things You Can Do To Increase Your Female Engineering Hires

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I run a small technical recruiting company.  We hire mostly engineers and IT professionals.  It’s a good group to go after – they’re educated and higher level wage earners which typically cascades itself into other traits that are nice to work with – career focused, courteous, responsible, etc.  Because the technical demographic we go after – to be fair – it’s mostly men we have to deal with.  As any company who is trying to hire technical professionals can attest it is really difficult to hire minorities and/or females in the technical disciplines. Tough, but not impossible!

The one thing we hear all the time from almost every company we work with is, “Hey, if you ever come across any female or minority engineers let us know – we would be interested.”  Which begs the question – “Do you want me to find you a female or minority engineer?”  Of course they do!  But these good respecting HR Pros we work with will never say that because they think it’s against the law to say that.  Which it isn’t. But they assume it is, because saying the opposite would be!  (I.E., “Please don’t give us any female or minority engineers!”)  I won’t say the name of our client, but one Fortune 500 manufacturer we work with does actually use us for minority hiring and will say very specifically what they want.  Like they’re ordering a pizza!  It doesn’t bother me, because I know what they are trying to do is ‘right’ – they are attempting to have a positive impact on their diversity – I can support that!

I saw this from Etsy recently on how they increased their female engineering hires by 500%! Don’t go crazy – it was 20 hires – but still impressive.  Again, they’re a female dominated company, so as you can imagine that having female engineers was important to them, and you could probably also imagine females would be attracted to a female oriented company. From the article:

“Most technical interviews suck – fundamentally interviewers ask the question, “Quick, prove to me how smart you are!” “Smart” is not optional. “Quick” and “prove to me” are very rarely actually part of the job and you’re interviewing for the wrong thing – which generally sets up women for failure in the process…after two years, female engineers at Etsy are nearly 20% of the team, four and a half times what they numbered at the start of the initiative. When reached for comment, Etsy’s corporate communications would not comment on the current number of female engineering staffers, but told FORBES that the coming months would see the company making women a even bigger priority, particularly in the wake of the media coverage sparked by Elliott-McCrae’s presentation. After all, roughly 80% of the over 800,000 shops on the site are owned and operated by women. At a certain point, they should be represented from within the company’s ranks.”

So, how did Esty do it?  How did they increase their female engineering hires?  I’ll give you 3 things they did:

Step 1   Make it known publicly you want to hire women!  Too many companies decide behind closed doors this is something they want to do in their organization, but then never go the next step and let their staff know, let their industry know, etc.!  And not only that, but let your staff know why this is important!

Step 2  Don’t lower the hiring standard.  The first thing most companies do when an initiative like this becomes hot, is lower the standard. “Oh, you want more women. Ok, you need to allow us to hire entry levels and from ‘B’ level schools!” Don’t do that, you’ll marginalize the entire program and your people and your candidates will know it!

Step 3  Put women in charge of hiring women.  It’s Ok to have different hiring processes if they are both getting you, in the end, what you want as an organization.  You can make two interview decks, one for woman and one for men, that are both still valid and reliable.  It’s just hard, so 99.9% of you won’t do it. Have your female leaders interview your female candidates – they will do a better job at selecting female talent, especially if this is a huge organizational weakness you’re trying to correct!

The more you hire of any kind of person, they more your organization will start to take on those traits.  The more women you hire, the easier it will be to hire more.  It doesn’t happen overnight – but you can do it!

5 Ways Your Boss is Like a Crazy Soccer Mom

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I’ve seen a number of news programs report on crazy sports Dads.  You know the type, the guy who is shown screaming at some 8 year old because he happen to miss a free throw in a recreation game that didn’t keep score.  The Dad who is living out his own failed sports career through over coaching his own kids.  I’m not saying I’m one of those Dads, but let’s just say I’ve been through Sports Dad Rehab!  That being said – I happen to think Sports Moms are just as crazy, if not crazier!  Sports Moms are unique in their own right, and have their own language and actions that rival any of the Sports Dads.

What I’ve noticed over the last 12 years of coaching kids is that Soccer Moms are a lot like a number of bosses I’ve had.  Here are some of the similarities:

1. They love the gear! Soccer Moms and Bosses all love wearing the team logos!  Want to know which person is a Mom on the sideline – look for the ones wearing the team t-shirt, sweatshirt and sitting in the team logo chair.  Nothing says team support like a hoodie with your kids name on the back!  Your boss is no different.  Your boss wears the work logo jacket every day, work polo on casual Friday and has been carrying the company logo satchel since 1996.

2. They Cheer for Everyone! Just their own a little louder!  If you’ve ever been in a leadership meeting and seen your boss, he’ll give praise to other departments, but when she’s talking about her own department – look out!  Soccer Moms love all the kids – but when they’re own kid does something – the world will hear about it!

3. They HATE the Competition!  Soccer Moms are ruthless!  You’ve never seen hatred until you’ve seen little Johnny get taken out by a member of a rival team. I’ve seen Soccer Moms almost come to blows with each other over an overly aggressive 8 year old pushing too much!  Watching grown women fight over a youth soccer game is one of the little pleasures I have in life. Your boss has that same spirit – it’s one of the reasons they got promoted!  They are passionate about your company and your competition is the Devil!

4. They won’t refer anyone from their own team!  Unless they suck! It’s on unwritten rule in youth sports that if you have a good team, you will fight to all ends of the Earth to keep that team together, at all costs.  Good teams are constantly poached and Soccer Moms know not to refer anyone on their own team.  “How good is little Johnny?” “Oh, he’s alright, he just cries a lot and has a club foot.”  Your boss will not allow you to leave her group, either, if you’re good.  “You have an opening for a Sr. Rep? Do I have anyone?”  “Oh, I wish I could give you someone but most of my group are ex-felons and pedophiles. Sorry!”

5. They’ll Talk Behind Your Back!  Soccer Moms are great when they’re all sharing a Perfect Margarita at Applbee’s after the game, but you better not be the first Mom to leave!  Bosses are really no different.  Let’s face it, we all have opportunity areas and when bosses get together behind closed doors they aren’t talking about how great we all are!  My rule of thumb is it takes about 8 minutes of talking about any individual before they turn into a piece of crap.  You start out talking about how nice they are and what they do well and if you keep talking, around the 8 minute mark, everyone’s scars start to show!

Ok, Soccer Moms and Bosses – tell me I’m wrong!

It’s Time To Change Your Employee Referral Program!

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The really cool thing about superheroes is that they are superheroes for a reason – they have someone who is their equal to compete against them. These competitors are the villains, and in the movies they’re doing bad things – but in real life these “villains” are only the bad guys and girls because they work for the competition.

So, how do you get your competitors talent to come over to your side and put on your company’s cape?  A great employee referral program is the key.

FOT is back at it with the March installment of our monthly webinar series. This month, with the help from the heroes at Zao, HR SuperFriends Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett will be laying down seven strategies that are guaranteed to put your employee referral program on another planet.  Join us Wednesday March 27 at 1pm ET and we’ll hit you with the following:

  • Seven surefire ways to engage your best employees and increase referrals (while ensuring your employees don’t refer SuperDuds!)
  • How to develop an internal communication strategy for your employee referral program.
  • The keys to sustaining your program long-term.
  • How and why trends like gamification can lead to better employee referral results.
  • The top three reasons 99% of employee referral programs fail and how you can make sure your employee referral program is delivering the goods all year long.

Don’t let your employee referral program fall to the Legion of Doom.

Register now for The SuperFriends: 7 Strategies to Get Your Superhero Employees to refer Their Arch Nemesis! 

You Wish You Had Marissa Mayer As Your CEO!

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You know what I’ve learned in 20 years of being in HR?  It’s really hard to find a CEO that is worth a damn! Really hard!

To find a CEO who is willing to make tough calls, difficult changes and push an organization outside it’s comfort zone without caving to the pressure of the previous culture.  A CEO who is unrelenting in their beliefs of what it is going to take to make a difference for the organization they work for.  A CEO that demands better.

All you Yahoo haters – or should I say Marissa Mayer haters – can suck it!

Mayer was criticized publicly by almost everyone for wanting to hire better – from The Star:

Yahoo Inc. chief executive Marissa Mayer was asked at an all-staff meeting several weeks ago whether her rigorous hiring practices had caused the company to miss out on top engineering talent in Silicon Valley’s hyper-competitive job market.

Mayer dismissed the complaint that she had refused good candidates because they did not have degrees from prestigious universities, and instead she challenged her staff to get better at recruiting, according to an employee who was at the meeting.

“Why can’t we just be good at hiring?” Mayer said

Mayer didn’t say – “I only want engineering talent if they come from prestigious universities”, what she said was “I only want great engineering talent AND I want them from prestigious universities”.  She is raising the bar at Yahoo in terms of hires.  Which will raise the bar in performance at Yahoo.

Look, I hear you haters that believe you can find great talent at ‘B’ level schools and even great talent that didn’t even go to college!  I get it – I don’t disagree with you.  But when you’re trying to build a world class organization and culture – you need to draw some lines in the sand.  You need a vision.  You need, at some point, to be ‘exclusive’ – not ‘inclusive’.  To turn around an organizations culture, you need clear marching orders.  This is exactly what Mayer has done.  Which is very similar to other great leaders of our time.  I’m not saying Mayer is a great leader – but she is following a pattern of behavior which follows many great leaders of our generation. Great talent, with a clear vision, will help you get better.

I find it comical that anyone would ever criticize a CEO for sharing a vision of wanting to hire and attract world class talent from some of the best universities in the world. Who truly believes that is a bad plan? While it might not the plan you’ve chosen for your organization – I love the fact that Mayer is willing to come out and publicly state what Yahoo’s recruitment direction will be – it puts the entire organization on notice.  Kudos.

What say you Mayer haters?  Let me have it in the comments.

 

 

Do You Offer Unique Employment Experiences?

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It is said that:

“Experiences are the new Luxury goods.”

Think about what people are paying for –

  • Navy Seal inspired Bootcamp
  • Tough Mudder
  • Marathons
  • Haunted House Vacations
  • Survival Vacations
  • The Death Race
  • To be challenged mentally and physically beyond anything they have ever experienced!

We are spending our free time and our hard earned money, not on relaxation, but on experiences that we will never have or find in our daily life.  Experiences that make us feel good about ourselves – doing things we thought we would never be able to do.

Why?

You could go out and buy yourself a new Rolex for $5,000 or you could backpack across the desert over two weeks in brutal conditions.  Which one would you remember most?  Which one would you talk about more? Which one would make you most proud of yourself?  Experiences are the new Luxury goods.

I’ve thought about this recently in terms to employee engagement and loyalty.   In my company we have had a Sales Retreat a number of times in our history.  We don’t have one each year, but we’ve had a number of them in our history.  It’s part education, part team building, part motivation, part party.  Everyone of them offers a great ’employment’ experience and they are talked about often, months and years later.  During these retreats – no sales happen, no recruiting happens, our normal daily work stops.  Yet, these are the experiences my team remembers most.  Same with the chili cook-offs, the football tailgates, the Friday after-work happy hours.  We laugh, we share, we learn more about each other than we knew before.

My recruiters also get to travel to client sites – some are close, within driving distance – some they have to fly to.  All of them love going to meet with clients at their locations, seeing their operations, meeting the people face-to-face.  Maybe not totally ‘unique’ – but different from their daily tasks for sure.  This doesn’t happen weekly, maybe not even monthly – but they all get to get out from time to time.

I’m wondering how often do you give your employees unique experiences?  It doesn’t have to trips or picnics.  It can be something that fits right into your daily operations and your employees development plans.  These experiences can all be tied right to the betterment of your business.  Think about that up and coming leader who just isn’t that well known.  How hard would it be to have that person co-present at your next department meeting or even at a board meeting!  While that might not ‘challenge’ you – it might challenge the heck out of them!  What about having your HR Director go on a sales call with your VP of Sales?  And not just sit there, but have one portion of the sales presentation they have to answer to!

Unique experiences challenge people.  They challenge people to sharpen their saw, to get out of their comfort zone and stay engaged with your business.  It’s something money or extra benefits can’t touch.  Unique experiences are priceless.  They don’t cost of anything, yet it’s one of the most valuable things we have to offer.  Great leaders and great HR Pros can make these experiences happen.  It doesn’t have to be a crazy position description or job design, it just has to be different from what the person normally does.  An average day for one of your operations leaders, could be a crazy day for one of your marketing associates, and vice verse.

 

Na-na Na-na Boo Boo, I’m Better Than You!

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Quick question:  Would you rather have $50,000 salary or $100,000 salary?  (Same job – no strings)

$100,000, every single time.

File this under why we are all very stupid – From Fast Company:

A few years ago, students at Harvard University were asked to make a seemingly straightforward choice: Which would they prefer, a job where they made $50,000 a year (option A) or one where they made $100,000 a year (option B)?

Seems like a no-brainer, right? But there was one catch. In option A, the students would get paid twice as much as others, who would only get $25,000. In option B, they would get paid half as much as others, who would get $200,000.

What did the majority of people choose?

Option A. They preferred to do better than others, even if it meant getting less for themselves. They chose the option that was worse in absolute terms but better in relative terms.

We (yes – all of us) are so stupid that we will logically decide to make less money for the simple fact that it would be more than those working with us versus making more but making less that others!?  Compensation Managers take note!   Social Comparison Theory is very real.  If we think we are better off than others, we feel better about ourselves.  If we feel worse off than others, we feel worse.  Even if the reality is that we are better!  We compare our own self by those who are around us, doing similar things.  It’s one reason why your employees get so upset when they feel like they are paid less than someone else doing the same job – even though that other person might have more experience, more education, higher performance, etc.  “I’m going the same job – I should make the same!”

The awesome part of this, is that it’s totally adaptable to HR programs and doing what we do better.  Think about your dying referral program.  You launched it – had a really cool new poster in the break room – spent weeks crafty catchy communications to go along with your very creative theme “Here We Grow Again!” – it was going to solve all of your recruiting problems – 6 weeks later it was dead – no referrals.  One way to engage the concept of social comparison in a work environment is through gamification.  Weather you like it or not, competition within your work environment will deliver more results, almost always in the short-term.  Put up a scoreboard – and people will work to get their name up on it! Or their department, their function, etc.  Individual or team – both work.

If you have a monthly contest on which department refers the most candidates that month – and you’re showing it visually and communicating it often – Accounting will want to be beat Marketing! And, Marketing will want to be Operations, and the end result will be more referrals.  The key to gamification is keeping the game fresh.  Having a new game each week, month, period, etc. is key to giving everyone another shot at winning, and keep them motivated to play the game.  It’s not about the prize – it’s about the friendly competition and having fun with your competitions in your work environment.  It’s also about kicking their peer’s butts!  Sound like a lot of work? It might be to get started – but it’s more work to recruit talent on your own – then creating a great referral program and having your staff do the heavy lifting for you!

 

The Propinquity Effect

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Ok, kids – it’s Readers Digest Word Power time!

I’m constantly trying to get my HR and Talent peers to spend more time with those they serve.  Shared time – face-to-face – lunch, coffee, cigarette breaks, drinks after work, Thursday night bowling league – it doesn’t matter.  The time and space is the important thing.  More time. Closer together.

There’s a name for this, it’s called the Propinquity Effect:

The propinquity effect is the tendency for people to form friendships or romantic relationships with those whom they encounter often, forming a bond between subject and friend. Occupational propinquity based on a person’s career, is also commonly seen as a factor in marriage selection. Workplace interactions are frequent and this frequent interaction is often a key indicator as to why close relationships can readily form in this type of environment.[1] In other words, relationships tend to form between those who have a high propinquity.

It’s hard to get most HR Pros to believe this.  It’s science that has real personal value to your overall HR effectiveness within your organization.  Spend more time, building a relationship with another individual outside of HR in your organization, and you’ve just added to your organizational influence.

I’m not saying you have to become close friends and go on vacation with each other.  What I’m saying is you need to find value in building personal relationships at work – if – and this is a big ‘if’ – you have a goal to be more effective in HR.  That might sound slightly facetious – but it’s not.  Some of you are fine with where your role in HR is in your organization.  Others of you are not satisfied with how your role is seen in HR.   Propinquity is easiest way to change that.

 

Have A Poor Performer, Call Their Parents!

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It’s a different world we live. 30 is the new 20, which makes 20 the new 10, which makes me, still old.  I’ve mentioned this before, and people always felt like it was always tongue in cheek, but I think it’s time as HR pros and leaders we start having parents in on our performance conversations. I’m serious!  I have a great real-life example from the world of the NBA. Klay Thompson, a member of the Golden State Warriors, was involved in a fight recently and fined $35,000. No big deal, right? Typical NBA pro sports behavior. But, wait! His dad, former NBA player Mychal Thompson, keeps his son’s finances and “grounded” him from his weekly allowance! From the Bleacher Report:

“The 23-year-old doesn’t have access to his money, all cheques are paid to Mychal and Julie who take care of his accounts for him to make sure Klay’s financial situation is set up for his post NBA career. So, naturally, Papa Thompson’s going to teach Klay a lesson of his own by fining him personally also, however Klay will find out the old fashioned way.

“He will [find out he’s been fined by us] when he sees that cash envelope show up a little short this week,” he said.”

23 years old.  How many young 20’s do you have working in your office?  How many of those young 20’s and late 20’s and possibly 30’s – could use a little wake up call from Mom and/or Dad!?

If HR has taught me anything, it’s most leaders are terrible at holding their employees accountable and managing performance.  It’s not getting better, it’s gotten worse over the past 5 years.  Most organizations eliminated or reduced leadership training during the recession, so our leaders haven’t gotten better, they’ve gotten worse.  We can start spending a ton of resources to train them and get them up to speed – or – we could just hand them Billy’s Mom’s number and have her come by the office one day.  Kind of like a conference at school!

“Mrs. Sackett, we are glad you could take time out of your busy day to talk about Timmie.  You see, Timmie is a little…well, let’s say Tim’s performance isn’t where it should be for someone of his age, experience and education. I was hoping you might be able to help me get Tim back on track.  Here are some examples of what Tim’s been doing…”

Can you imagine how 99% of those poor performers involved in this conversation would change!?  We laugh because it seems absurd that we would have to call in someone’s parents to adjust their performance, but I truly think in the right circumstance, it could really work.  I’ve seen it work well with good performance.  I’ve had a past boss speak to my mother about my good performance and she lite up like a Christmas tree, made me feel proud.  After that happen to me, I did it with some employees who worked for me, with the same result.  If it works so well on the positive side – why should we dismiss it wouldn’t work on the correction side?

Before you let go of your next poor performer – do me one favor – make one more call – one last ditch effort – call Mom and Dad in for a meeting.

Who’s In Your Circle of Trust?

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I have a small “Circle of Trust” – it’s probably an outcome of being in HR for 20 years.  Too many times I’ve shared things with people I thought would ‘know’ better, only to later find out some stuff was shared, that shouldn’t have been shared.  Ultimately, I blame myself – and the circle grows smaller.  Circles of trust work professionally and personally – some of us will have overlaps – or you might have two completely different circles.   Your circles will change as you change organizations and positions – your lunch pal Ted was in the circle of trust, then he got promoted to a new position – alas, Ted is now out of the circle.

The cool thing about a Circle of Trust is that you don’t have actually tell someone you’re in the circle, or that they are out of the circle.  You can – but it isn’t necessary.  When someone’s in the circle the thing that is important is that ‘you’ can trust them with information.  Others might not find them trustworthy, but you do, so they make your circle.  The individuals within your circle don’t even have to know each other, or know each of them are in the circle.  It’s yours – you decide, you undecide – keep it to yourself.

A question I like to ask Leaders and Executives is who is in your Circle of Trust?  Not names – but give me function and level – I.E., a VP in Finance, Operations Director, etc.  I’m looking for one ingredient in the answer – do they have someone in HR in their circle?  You would be shocked at how often a non-HR leader does not have someone from HR in their circle.  I like to think of myself and my peers in HR is being the ‘ultimate’ circle of trust partners!  If there was a Circle of Trust draft – HR should always have first round selections.  Simple – we are the keepers of the secrets. So, why don’t leaders have HR in their circle?

Let’s answer that by looking at our own Circle membership.  Most of us come into contact with the same folks on a daily basis.  Most of those folks are within our direct functional area, and those closest to us in proximity. If I’m in Marketing – my circle will probably have marketing folks in it, maybe a finance person, maybe even a marketing vendor that is critical to our business, etc.  Unless HR is sitting next to me, or across the hall, and I don’t have daily dealings with them – why would they make my circle?  The reason HR isn’t in enough leaders Circles of Trust in your organization is because HR isn’t making this happen.

That being said, I tell leaders constantly, you ‘Must Have HR In Your Circle of Trust“.  Leaders hate being told this.  “Oh, Tim, they just muck everything up and tell me ‘No’!”  Yep – that’s what they do – because you don’t have a relationship with them – so they go all CYA.  Leaders need to reach out and create a strong relationship with HR – so strong that when the Circle of Trust gets pulled together – someone from HR is there closing the circle with them.  Don’t get me wrong – if you’re an HR pro and you can’t count a number of Circles you are a part of with Leaders outside of HR – you’re probably thought of us worthless.  Sorry, but it’s true.  Get out and build relationships – and when given a chance to join a Circle of Trust – don’t blow it – don’t break the trust – the eventual success of your HR career demands this.

 

Do you allow smoke breaks?

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Let’s break down the anatomy of a Smoke Break:

Step 1: Gathering of smoke related materials to go on break (20-30 seconds)

Step 2: Decision to go on break commando, or alert smoke friend you’re going on break (10-45 seconds)

Step 3: Travel time to proper Smoke Break destination (1-2 minutes)

Step 4: Consuming cancer stick (3-4 minutes) – which includes conversation with cancer buddies

Step 5: Travel time back to work area (1-2 minutes)

Step 6: Settling back in to get on task (1 -2 minutes)

Total estimated Smoke Break time: 10 minutes

Multiply Smoke Break time by 6 = 1 hour per day for Smoking, that you’re paying for. 5 hours per week. Let’s say 49 weeks per year.  Average wage $20/hr = $4,900 you are paying someone in your environment to Smoke.  (FYI – this does not include the cost of your insurance going up as well for poor health)

Just so we are clear – I add this into our Total Compensation Statements for our Smokers!   It’s a great benefit – I list it under “Recess”.

So, not to make my non-smoking employees upset by this total disregard for company resources – I let each non-smoking employee have an hour of ‘recess’ each day!  What is ‘recess’ – it’s when you see Janie over by someones cube talking about Dancing with Stars for 20 minutes – that’s 20 minutes of ‘recess’!  Now, if Janie is a smoker – and she’s taking ‘recess’ on top of her smoking break – Janie gets fired.  Janie is using her ‘recess’ to smoke – she doesn’t get additional ‘recess’.

Sounds crazy right?

Here’s what I know – every single one of your non-smoking employees – looks at this situation, exactly like I describe it above – but maybe in less colorful terms.  “Why does Janie get to take an hour of her day off to smoke, and get paid, while I continue to sit here an work?”  Why do we as leaders and HR Pros allow this to happen?  We don’t legally have to allow people to take a smoking break – heck – we can fire them for taking a smoking break. Would you allow an employee to take an hour out of their day to play with a loaded gun in the parking lot?  Why not?  What’s the difference?

As a leader and HR Pro I know smoking is bad.  I know it costs me the health of my employees, increases in health insurances and that my non-smoking employees hate that I allow this.  So, why do I allow it?  You’re going to love this answer!  Because – ‘we always have’.  That’s why.  And it’s stupid.

So, do you allow Smoke Breaks? Why? (and please don’t comment about ‘life choices’)