I Hate Sumser’s Top 25 Lists

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Let me get something very clear – I really do hate the Top 25 Lists on HR Examiner.  I hate them because I’m not #1 on any of the lists  – ok, let’s be honest – I’m actually not even #25 on any of the lists.  Let’s be more honest, I don’t think I’m in the top 100 – I scored 2!  The top person Dean DaCosta scored 153!  In HR Performance Management speak that is like saying Dean is your “A” player and Tim is the owner’s crackhead son you are force to keep on payroll.   Don’t get me wrong – I don’t know Dean – I’m sure he’s wonderful and knows a ton about recruiting and talent.   Number 2 on the list is Matt Charney – someone I do know and respect.  Matt knows a ton about our industry – he scored 24 out of 25 on recruiting (for the record I scored “0” – as in zero and as in everybody knows more about recruiting than I – even those on the list who actually have never recruited and aren’t in the recruiting industry) – I think even Matt would admit based on his 24 – I should at least have gotten a point or two…or 25.  Matt works for Monster.com, one of the major advertisers on HR Examiner’s website – having him #1 would have sent up red flags – having him #2 makes it totally legitimate.

I consider myself a confident person – especially when it comes to most things HR and Recruiting.  Do I think I’m the best and should be #1?  Well, yes, I do – but for arguments sake, do I know there are better HR and Talent Pros out there than me? – well, yes – I guess, that’s hard to admit, but logically I know it’s true.

It’s true because there are fantastic people around the country that I reach out to on a daily, weekly and monthly basis – and sometimes a few of these people actually show up on one of Sumser’s lists.  Being in the social media/HR/Talent deal for the past 3 years you run into a lot of people.  There are a number of frauds that lurk around this playground.  There are number of frauds who show up on these lists – which is one more reason I hate these lists.  (so now for the record – I hate the lists now because I’m not on them and the frauds)

I hate the lists because so many people read them and comment on them and send out congratulations about them – like it’s a big deal – which it would be if I was #1, but I’m not, so stop trying to make these a big deal!   I hate these lists because people use them to promote themselves for branding purposes on their resumes – “I was voted the #7 most influential Recruiting professional by such and such” – and to many folks are too stupid or lazy to do some real background checking to see how substantial that claim really is.  (So, now for the record I hate the lists because I’m not on them, frauds, too many people pay attention to them, congratulations messages on my social stream and branding)

I hate these lists because there just doesn’t seem to be enough correlation between what they say they are measuring (i.e., Influence in Recruiting) and then a list of actual people who influence recruiting.  Some great pros – no doubt on the list – but for recruiting?  Steve Boese – a friend of mind and fellow FOTer – probably the single best source of HR Technology knowledge in the world – not the US – the world.  Recruiting/Talent/Sourcing/Staffing/Talent Acquisition?  Not the first person I think of in those respects.  I reach out to Steve frequently for stuff – but not usually stuff on recruiting – he’s a genius – should be on a number of lists – but this wouldn’t be the first list I would choose for him.   What about the true recruiting genius’s in our industry: Glenn Cathey, Chris Hoyt, Jim Stroud – how can they not be on this lists? In fact how can they not be in the Top 5 of this list?!  Arguably, these 3 guys know and influence more in recruiting than the Top 25 listed combined.

So, for the record I hate Sumser’s lists because: I’m not one them, frauds, too many people pay attention to them, congratulations, using it to brand yourself, notable missing industry leaders – but mainly because I’m not #1.

 

89 year old Nurse for Hire

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I read a wonderful story last week about the longest serving Nurse in Michigan, Dorthe Canty, who is retiring at the ripe old age of 89!  Having worked in a Health System I can tell you this is no small feat, for one simple reason it’s tough being on your feet for 50+ years taking care of patients.  Can you imagine what pushes someone to work in such a demanding field until the age of 89?  Here’s what Dorthe had to say:

“What am I going to do instead – sit at home?”

I love that!

Why is it we push so hard for everyone to retire at 65?  That’s what we do as HR Pros.  As soon as someone starts having those birthdays pop up around 62, 63, 64 we start hinting around those questions – “So, Charlie when are you going to retire?” , “What’s your plan for retirement Sue?”, etc.   It’s really one of those American cultural norms that our government started when they decided Social Security should start at 65 – that was our little reminder that at age 65 you become to broken down to work any longer!  Thank you – but like so much of what our government set up in 1930’s and 1940’s in really no longer relevant.

We now raise our kids to believe that retirement, basically to stop working and start having fun, should be there goal.  I think we should change it.  I don’t think I’ll ever stop working. I have 3 boys to put through college, then I have weddings,  then I hope to have untold numbers of grandchildren that need to learn how to hit a curve ball and master the crossover dribble, then I have another round of college, and, well you know life just keeps coming at you.  The goal shouldn’t be to stop working, the goal, the expectation should be to enjoy your life while you are living it.

I don’t need retirement at 65 for one simple reason – I enjoy what I’m doing – and oh by the way – I get paid to do it!  If or when that stops, I’ll find something else I enjoy and usually if I enjoy something I find a way to make money at it, because I like money – it allows me to give things to my family, which I enjoy most of all.  You see work doesn’t define me at 41ish – the combination of my family, my friends, my work, my life defines me – so retirement doesn’t sound like a goal I want, it sounds quite frankly like an end. I think it was that way for Dorthe as well. She didn’t want to just sit home on the sidelines, she wanted to be in the game, she wanted to participate in life. So do I.

7 Sure Fire Ways to Fail as an HR Leader

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It’s tough being an HR Leader these days!  You have all these boomers retiring and taking their typewriters and knowledge with them, you have all theses X’ers who think they are now the second coming, the GenY’s and the Millennial’s who have been told they are the second coming, and now we have these Generation @’s who think they can work from where ever since they grew up with a smartphone and a iPad in their crib.  On top of all this, somehow in the last 10 years executives decided HR is no longer HR, but now we are these business partners, so on top of having to take care of all these people issues, we now have to be concerned with business issues, teach our leaders how to be leaders, continue to train our workforce to stay current, fight off talent sharks from our competition, make sure the corporate picnic still runs smoothly and oh by the way can you put a nice internal blog post together for the CEO and make it real “peopleish”.

I get it – it’s hard being a leader in HR, that’s why I’m going to help you out and give you some tips of things to stay away from:

1. Think of yourself or your company as “the” industry leader. As soon as you do, someone will knock you off.

2. Identify so strongly with the company that you no longer have a clear boundary between your personal interests  and the corporation’s interests. Yes you should be committed, but don’t be “committed” – to often leaders doing this fail to differentiate their personal agenda and the corporate agenda and start empire building.

3. Have all the answers.  This is tough because it’s common leadership training that we all know – use your people, surround yourself with people better than you, make group decisions, etc.  But until you put your butt in that seat you never realize how many things will come your way, where people want a decision and they are unwilling to make it – so they look to you for the answer. Don’t get sucked into this trap – push back – make them bring you solutions.

4. Hunt down and Kill those who don’t support you. Don’t think this happens! Look at turnover numbers of  departments when a new leader takes over – they are almost always higher than those of the organization as a whole.

5. Become obsessed with the company image.  Your company image is hugely important, but it is not the most important thing you have going on. Make sure your operations match the image you want to create, not the either way around.

6. Underestimate or take obstacles for granted.  As a leader you want to be confident during hard and challenging times, but don’t let yourself get fooled into believing your own confidence will get you through.  Having a clear understanding of the reality you are facing, and being able to communicate that without fear to your team, with a plan of action, is key.

7. Stubbornly rely on what you’ve always done.  “Well, when I was the leader at GE we did it this way…” Look, this isn’t the 80’s and this isn’t GE. Might it work? Sure. But be open to new ways of doing things, while being confident of what you know will work. Don’t put yourself or your organization in jeopardy, but be willing to try new things when time and circumstance allow.

Adapted from The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives in Forbes by Mike Myatt

Why Succession can be Sticky Business

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Did anyone see the announcement by Warren Buffett before the holidays where he named his son, Howie, as his successor to run Birkshire Hathaway when he dies?

I didn’t think so.  It was low key as is much of of what Warren does.  Somehow the richest man in America tells us who will be running his company and no one really seems to care that it was his son.  Tough choice, though, picking from anyone in the world, the greatest business minds of our generation where lining up for a chance to run one of America’s greatest companies or his son, the soybean farmer from Nebraska.  You see, Succession isn’t as much a science as it’s an art.

Whatever – he choose his son because, as Warren puts it:

Howard, or “Howie,” as he is known in the family, will serve as a “guardian” of the company’s “values”…Buffett said he worried that “somebody will be in charge of Berkshire that uses it as their own sandbox in some way,” and “having Howie there serves as an extra layer of protection.”

Trust.  In the end, the greatest business mind of our generation, and possibly any generation, didn’t make an analytical decision, he made a decision with his heart.  He choose someone he trusted would carry on his vision – not someone who would be out to turn Birkshire into something he or she would want to make it.  Succession is a funny thing that way, when you leave it up to the current person in charge to decide.

This is truly why most HR based succession plans fail to hit the mark.  CEO/Presidents/Owners don’t want competency models and scorecards to determine who will be next in line – they want to use subjective data that we all steer them away from – “who do I trust?”, “who do I feel will carry on my vision?”, “who do I feel will do most like me?”  Your leaders want to ensure that your organization has a great pipeline of talent, some of which is capable of moving up a level or two – but they also want and need to know those individuals on a very personal level.  A level where they have complete confidence in the decision they are making – this usually isn’t a part of our HR succession plans.

Don’t think this is the case as you move down the ladder and you’re just say replacing your next Director of IT – you would be wrong.  It really works at all levels – the next level or two up want to know that when they place someone in a position, they can trust that person won’t make them look like a fool. The only way you make that happen is if the person in the succession plan has a relationship one and two levels up – not a working relationship, but one that is beyond that.

So, go add that to your succession plan and see what happens!  “What? You want me to take Nick our lead developer to dinner, with our spouses!? Are you serious?” Yes, and we’ll even pay for the dinner and drinks.  Then sit back and enjoy.  Is it subjective? Yes.  Does it work? Yes.

3 Leadership Traits to Lead you into 2012

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I’ve been unplugged for about 12 days and it felt wonderful!  Caught up on a bunch of family time, a bunch of sleep, a bunch of eating and basically forgot about email and work – well for the most part.  One thing I was able to do on vacation, that I don’t get to do regularly, is read the paper – not the online version, but a real get-your-hands-a-bit-dirty paper, I love that!  Just sitting in a quiet house, before everyone is up, just catching up on the world.  I start with the sports section, spend probably 50% of my time there, then the business section, then the front page, and finally the personal journal/back page/health wellness/entertainment section – whatever that thing is called in your hometown.

Much to my surprise I actually found an article that I thought was actually worth blogging about – and more to my surprise – I was unable to find the copy anywhere online – even at the local paper I was reading!  Can you imagine – actual content that has never seen the internet – who knew!?!

The article was actually an interview with Scott Durschslag the current CEO at Expedia, he was also the previous CEO at Skype, so I was intrigued to what he had to say. Mostly they were talking about the future of travel, in regards to online booking, etc., but stuck in the middle was an actual question about Leadership and Management, whereas the reporter asked him why Expedia who prevail over other travel sights and he got into his leadership theory.  Durschslag said he has 3 “management” traits that he focuses on, which are:

1. Define a clear vision and strategy. (I think this is probably two traits – vision and strategy aren’t quite the same – but it’s a good start)

2. Get the required investment. (This one is a bit tricky, for most HR folks I think they immediately go to the finance portion of “investment”, but what he was referring to was the investment you need from your workforce to be successful.  Your people need to be invested in the vision and strategy, if they aren’t, you will fail every single time)

3. Put great people in charge and empower them.  (Yep, get yourself out of the way – a great leadership trait to have, but extremely hard to do for most leaders!)

It just sounds so easy!

The fact is, it’s not – defining a clear vision is a skill most people just don’t have, getting your people to buy into your crazy vision is even harder, and then you want me to just watch someone else put it all together!  Yep.  Stay thirsty my friends.

Sackadamus returns – 2012 Predictions

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Back when I first started blogging in 2009 – I wrote my first Sackadamus 2010 Predictions over at FOT (check it out – I was right on!). So, for 2012 I thought it was time to give you some new predictions for the upcoming year.  Don’t be frightened, I’m not sure why I have this gift but I do, I promise to only use it for good and HR!

My Top Predictions for 2012:

1. HR blogging reaches it’s pinnacle as the last HR person finally starts the final HR blog called: TheLastSeatAtTheTable.com.  It will be by a GenXer who will talk to much about their philosophy on performance management, why their GenY co-workers suck and how they no longer want to talk about having a seat at the table (very original like most of the content us HR pros put out…).

(It’s scary right!? You get an uneasy feeling, like you can almost feel these predictions coming true as you read them!)

2. Organizations will discover that all this time and money they’ve been putting into Employee Engagement is getting what they hoped for – better performance and higher results.  With one last ditch unfocused effort they’ll work towards the “new” engagement model of just making people Happy at any cost.  This to will fail, but what the heck – we’ll have a subjective rating scale that will ensure it wasn’t our fault that it failed – the measure said people felt more happy!

3. Work Life Balance will jump the shark.  It’s taken us almost 10 years, but HR will finally discover that Work Life Balance doesn’t mean you can come and go whenever you want and put work as the 4th, 5th or 13th priority in your life.  The next generation of “Work Life Balance” will be “Work To Have A Job” – it will be sweeping the country like a Tsunami of actual productivity.

4. SAP and Oracle will merge to create on giant super Dinosaur of an HRIS system that all HR people will be forced to use worldwide, and this new system will still generate reports that our leadership teams won’t believe.

5. LinkedIn will (has) become the 2010ish version of the 2000ish job boards. (Quick Question off subject – How do the HR Pros who taught their workforces to put up profiles on LinkedIn about 3-5 years ago feel about themselves now?  Thank you, by the way – I love easy ways to recruit your employees!) LinkedIn will now become the worlds largest recruiting site of recruiters – which make up 63% of the actual users of LinkedIn.  Hello – Facebook – whomever figures out how to effectively recruit on Facebook wins – Wins big! – I’m guessing on Branchout as of right now – but Facebook really has an opportunity that no one has figured out – Billion dollar plus opportunity just sitting there…

6. HR/Talent Pros will finally get the power of video.  “But Tim, we can have video resumes, interviews, etc. our hiring managers will discriminate!”  Yes, they will.  Deal with that issue, don’t stop technology and one of the best productivity tools that you’ve been given in years!  The hiring managers who will discriminate using video, are the same ones who are discriminating now – the difference being they just wait for the live interview to do it now.  Measure, determine the issue, take action – it’s not difficult to determine discrimination – but it takes a lot of courage to call someone out on it – don’t blame the tools being used.

Have a great 2012 HR/Talent Pros – and thanks for all the support you’ve given me in 2011!

I’m In Love with Old Employees!

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I’ve recently got to spend some time with my Dad – he’s 70.  I use to think 70 was really old, like let me help feed you that oatmeal old.  My Dad doesn’t seem 70, or look 70, I guess it’s somewhat true – 70 is the new 60.  Here’s what is awesome, though, 70 in work years – is still 70!  When you are working in a professional role at 70, pretty much you’re the oldest person sitting at the meeting.  You know where the bodies are buried, who dug the hole and who has been searching for the bodies ever since.  My Dad works in a professional role – they keep paying him to show up, so he keeps showing up – he’s probably pretty damn tired of answering the question – “So, when you going to retire?”

Lately, he’s been sharing some great work stories with me – from the perspective of being 70 and already collecting full social security. This is what is completely AWESOME about being 70 and still working – you don’t give a sh*t about office politics!

When you know that you could retire at any minute, and you’re comfortable with that – a freedom comes over you that most people don’t have in your organization.  When your boss is 40ish – the same age as your kids – and you’ve got 30 years of work war stories and experience on them – you tend to tell it like it is, when no one else will.  When the CEO says he just wants to hear it like it is – to tend to say it like it is – even when your boss and his boss are trying to duck out of the room or kick you under the table – because they don’t want the CEO to know what “it’s” really like.

It’s Awesome to be Old and be at Work!

To often leadership tends to discount older workers in the twilight of their career – “Oh, that’s just crazy old Guss – don’t pay attention to him – he still thinks we can get great customer service by talking to people face-to-face!”  (the group all laughs loudly, while checking their smart phones for the latest customer service numbers of the electronic dashboard)  We believe that their “sage old advice” has no merit.  In reality we hate the fact that the older worker tends to cut through our political B.S. and tell us what we really don’t want to hear – the painful truth of why we are failing.

Sure many of our older workers could deliver their feedback in a better way, coat it with a little sugar, make it easier to go down.  But, most of the time they don’t.  They just throw it on the table, like a grenade, and watch the fallout as executives start tripping over their spreadsheets trying to explain why they’ve had declining sales for 12 straight quarters, but how they should still be eligible for their performance bonuses.

Look, the next time you hear one of your old workers start to speak – stop – listen – don’t judge.  They aren’t trying to get a promotion, or a raise – realize they probably don’t even need to show up any longer.  What they are saying comes from the heart, comes from years of experience, comes from the fact they have reached a point in their life where they only want to leave a legacy of something they can be proud of.  Your organization can truly benefit from it – but only if you open yourself up to hear it.

A Recipe For Success

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I was reminded last night that success doesn’t just come to you, and it might not necessarily be about hard work and attitude – like your Dad would always say.  To often we (the collective lot of us!) want to believe success is like the lotto – at least to often we hope to get success that way – one day you don’t have success, then the next day success somehow miraculously finds you!

Sorry. Doesn’t usually work that way.

But one thing we over look is how important success is to finding success.  Here’s what I mean:

Directions for Being Successful –

Step 1: Find a little success

Step 2: Find another little success

Step 3: Find another little success

Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 each day

Step 5: You are successful

I know, directions are hard to follow for some people, so let me give you an example.  You feel like a failure at everything – job is going well (or you don’t have one), relationships suck, you’re a little soft around the middle (i.e., fat) – basically you feel like a failure, nothing is going in the right direction.  Guess what? When you wake up tomorrow you won’t magically be successful – no matter how hard you wish it, pray it, want it.  You have to find some sort of success, no matter how small.  Maybe that success is eating one less Twinkie than you did the day before – yesterday I ate 8 Twinkies – today I only ate 7!  Don’t let someone tell you that’s not a success, because tomorrow I’m only going to eat 6 and before you know it I’m going to kick this Twinkie habit!

I works with everything.  Not recruiting enough candidates for your organization, can’t get anyone to pick up the phone and talk to you – today make one more call than you did yesterday – only 1 – that is a success, because tomorrow you’re going to do that again, 1 more than the day before – small success steps until you’re just one big giant bag full of success!

People who are successful and throw it in your face suck!  They suck because they act like they’ve always been successful, but they haven’t.  It came to them a little at a time, until they could no longer feel what failure felt like.  You see success is like a drug – you need a little to want another hit, it’s addictive.  That’s why you need to feed your mind a little everyday – we can all find those little successes each day – the key is to find them every single day – don’t miss.

The Only Employee Engagement Tool that is Sustainable

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I wrote a post last week that some people had some issues with about employee engagement and decline effect – the basic premise being the more you do “stuff” to increase employee engagement, the less effect it will ultimately have, and in fact eventually the engagement will start to decline over time.  Not earth shattering stuff, but for those folks in the heat of fighting the employee engagement battle right now, they don’t really want to hear that kind of stuff.

So, I thought about it and asked myself this one simple question:

What thing (or things) could you do to increase employee engagement  – that wouldn’t be impacted (or impacted less) by the decline effect?

Everyone will tell you financial compensation type things have little impact employee engagement – which is one of HR’s biggest lies by the way – they do impact engagement, but they are hardly sustainable long term.  You will always find someone willing to spend more than you, buy better benefits than you and do more “stuff” than you to help increase the engagement of their workers.  (And yes – I get the difference between satisfaction and engagement!  But for the HR Mgr working in the trenches – Employee Satisfaction and Employee Engagement run parallel 99.9% of the time – that’s the real world folks)

Autonomy and flexibility are huge drivers for engagement – but again very difficult for most organizations to sustain long term.  You begin with the best intentions, then business imperatives shift quickly – and your once great driver of positive engagement, becomes a huge drag on employee engagement.   Once you give Mary every Friday off and the world is great – asking Mary to begin working every Friday again will not work out well from an engagement standpoint.

Communication, transparency, hard skill development, charitable causes, etc. are all great things to help in driving positive employee engagement – but all hard to sustain over and extended period of time, especially as leadership teams evolve and change.

So, what is it?

FEEDBACK!

  • Timely
  • Frequent
  • In the moment
  • Formal
  • Informal
  • Individualized
  • Group
  • Positive
  • Constructive

FEEDBACK!

Feedback is the one thing organizations can commit to, long term, that will have a driving, lasting impact to employee engagement.  Our worlds are always all rosy and happy – sometimes we have professional messages that suck.  It’s easy to drive high employee engagement when the organization is high profitable and hiring and throwing Friday afternoon BBQ’s each week.  It’s really freaking tough to sustain high engagement when the real world hits your organization in the face.  But creating a culture that is going to deliver consistent feeback in good and bad times – where employees know exactly where they stand (good or bad) and can engage in the feedback process – will always ensure you have the highest engagement possible for your organization.

Not big implementation plan. Printing up and hanging of posters. Bi-Annual surveys. Just good old straight in your grill feedback.  It’s all we really wanted to begin with.

It’s also the hardest thing to do in your organization!  That’s why we try everything else first…

 

The One Thing HR Wants For Christmas

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Ok, before we get started, stop it – I could have titled this “The One Thing HR Wants for the Holidays” or “The One Thing HR Wants for Chanukah”, etc., but I didn’t the majority of people celebrate Christmas, so I used Christmas – breath in HR people. (for the record we celebrate both Chanukah and Santa in my house – my kids are equal gift getters!).

So, what would it be? If you could have one thing in HR for Christmas, what would you ask for?

And don’t be lame – “Oh Tim, I would just ask for world peace and that Snapple brought back Compassion Berry” No you wouldn’t – not if it was real, I mean really real!

I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for a new HRIS System. I mean that’s what we do during the holidays, we want the biggest baddest fastest new electronic device that will make our lives easier and make us look 10 pounds thinner!   Maybe just an add-on system like Jobvite or Sonar 6 or Rypple – they are all cool and hip!  Who wouldn’t like one of those!?

I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for the ability to Hire more employees!  What a gift that would be.  Not only for the people getting hired, but for your overwork staff and hiring managers who have worked double and triple duty during the recession.  It would be so nice to be back to those days when we fretted over our days-to-fill because we couldn’t find talent (so few have this issue right now).

I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for a new Employment Brand!  Oh to be as sexy as Google, Zappos or Sodexo – wouldn’t that be a wonderful environment to work in HR.  Life just seems easier when you work for a sexy brand.  It isn’t actually – but that what great branding does, it makes some idiot like me think it must be easy to work in a great place like that – they should hire me!

I’m sure a bunch of HR Pros would ask for better Talent for their organizations (which is technically way more than one gift – but let’s face it, some of us HR Pros don’t follow directions well!).   This is the freaking holy grail, right!  If we only had the top talent (instead of saying we only hire top talent – then hire those who respond to our posts) our lives would be so much easier!

There are so many things we could ask for in HR, but this is why I love HR – for all those gifts I listed above, and for so many more you and I could come up with, we work in a profession where we have the ability to deliver each and everyone of those to our organizations.  With enough time, patience, influence, strategy and luck – not one of those things I couldn’t give my organization.  Maybe that’s the best gift of all.

For the record – Visionary Leader – that’s my one gift – the one I would ask for.  Those are rare, those are hard to find.  Not many of us get the opportunity to work with a true visionary. Great managers, strong leaders, charismatic personalities – yes; But a Visionary Leader, that is something few get the opportunity to experience.

What would be your One gift you want for HR this holiday season?