E17 – The HR Famous Podcast – Tim Wears Crocs!

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In episode 17 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett come together to discuss Crocs, compensation strategy, Facebook’s new location based salary adjustments, and the return of the MLB. The duo discuss the different compensation adjustment strategies companies have been taking, why companies have been choosing which strategy to implement, and how decisions made during the pandemic may translate to problems when life returns to normalcy.

Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!

2:00 – Haven’t heard about Crocs in awhile? No worries! Tim starts the episode talking about the resurgence of Crocs and talks about his history with the infamous shoe brand.

5:00 – Tim wears his Crocs around the house but KD lives in a strict no-shoe household. Is your house a shoes on or shoes off home?

6:45 – Today’s topic: compensation strategy. Tim discusses the 3 different strategies companies are taking during the pandemic recession.

8:30 – KD wages that the specific compensation strategy chosen by businesses depends on how the economy is looking and how it will be in the future. Some industries will be hit differently at different times.

10:45 – Airbnb recently announced that they’re cutting 25% of their staff. KD discusses the strategy the CEO took for their layoffs and how they went about it.

12:30 – Quick digression: Vegas time! Las Vegas is opening up in June and Tim talks about casinos that are giving away one way tickets for Vegas’s grand reopening.

14:00 – We have seen upper level management and executives cutting a lot from their earnings. KD praises execs for doing a good job of forgoing or cutting salaries during the pandemic.

15:20 – Last compensation cutting strategy: location based pay. Facebook has announced that employees who elect to WFH permanently will have their pay adjusted to their personal cost of living.

19:30 – How to adjust pay becomes a new problem with this compensation strategy. Tim and KD discuss how salary adjustment based on location and cost of living could add to the problem of wages and unfair pay

24:30 – “Stop using forever when you tell people they can work at home.” – Tim Sackett

25:00 – Google is giving their remote workers $1,000 to set their employees up for success in a WFH environment. Tim said he spent $4,000 on his personal home office when he worked remotely. KD seems stunned by the price but Tim reminds him furniture is expensive.

27:40 – KD brings us back to the days of relocation compensation. He thinks that $4,000 seems very high and argues for the side of “bootstrap America”. Bootstrappers don’t need a Herman Miller chair for their home office!

30:20 – Tim discusses the draw of working for highly known brands and how the experience of working for these brands goes away when working from home. Tim says that these companies should have Uber Eats drop off lunch for their WFH employees and KD groans. Okay boomer!

31:50 – One last topic for today: sports! KD and Tim laugh at the potential new plans for social distancing for the 2020 major league baseball season.

34:00 – Want to go visit Spanish beaches? They’re planning on creating beach reservations that adhere to social distancing standards. Tim loves the idea. Who is down for a Spain trip?

Resources:

Jessica Lee on LinkedIn

Tim Sackett on Linkedin

Kris Dunn on LinkedIn

HRU Tech

The Tim Sackett Project

The HR Capitalist

Fistful of Talent

Kinetix

Boss Leadership Training Series

The Single Biggest Factor in Finding Your Dream Job!

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I’ve been given the opportunity to speak to a number of high school and college graduating seniors. The one common question from both groups, I get frequently, is “how can I get my dream job?”  It’s a simple question, with about one million possible answers.  Which makes it a tough question to answer in front of a group.

I think I might have found the perfect answer to this question.  From Penn State football coach, James Franklin, when asked at a conference how does a graduate assistant move up in the college football coaching ranks:

“It comes down to people and opportunities for growth. I always tell people to stay broke for as long as possible.  When you have a car payment and other things like that, it becomes a factor. Keeping money out of it allows you to chase your dreams longer.”

Stay broke as long as possible.

Internet personality, Gary Vaynerchuk (Gary Vee), says basically the same thing when people ask him how they work at something they just love to do. He will tell them you need to then live the lifestyle that affords you the ability to do what you love. If you love to pet puppies all day, you can’t live in a mansion! You’ll probably live in a box.

But, if that’s truly your passion in life, then that’s what you need to do to make it happen. What he finds is people who are willing to lower their lifestyle to do what they love are usually the ones who end up making money doing what they love. The theory being they found a way to live doing what they love, and little by little, they’ll find a way to make money doing what they love. Most people are unwilling to change their lifestyle to do what they love.

I remember back to when I first got out of college and was making $20,000 at my first job.  The reality was, I could have gone almost anywhere and made $20,000.  The money wasn’t the draw of the position, the opportunity was.  If it wasn’t for me, I could go and try something else. I had a crappy car and a $400 per month apartment. I didn’t have life obligations that were going to stop me from chasing a dream.

Fast forward five years and now I have a new car, a new house, and a new kid.  Chasing a dream would be much more difficult.

You hear it all the time, chasing dreams is for the young. Not because the young necessarily have better dreams or are better equipped at chasing dreams, it’s because the young can ‘afford’ to chase their dreams.  They, usually, have little holding them back, financially.  The older you get, the more responsibilities you have and the larger tax bracket you’re usually in.

Leaving a $20,000 job to chase my dream wasn’t going to be a problem. Leaving a $100,000 job to chase my dream was going to be a problem.

No one really wants to tell you this in their ultra-motivational writings and speakings.  “Go chase your dream! Don’t let anything or anyone stop you!… Just be prepared to have nothing for a while!”

We never get to hear that last part.

Want to be an NFL Referee? It’s a great gig! You just have to put about 15-20 years in at being a referee at every other level where you make peanuts and have to work other jobs to make ends meet. Yes, you can get there.  No, you won’t get rich getting there.

You can definitely go out and work towards getting your dream job.   Being broke will help you with that.  It takes away the fear of failure and losing what you have.  If you have very little, losing it doesn’t seem as bad.  If you have a nice life, giving it all up, seems extremely hard.

Being broke, in a very ironic way, gives you more options, when it comes to a dream job!

The Weekly Dose: @Imperative – Peer to Peer Coaching for Leaders!

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Today on The Weekly Dose I review the peer to peer coaching technology platform Imperative. Imperative is a leadership development platform that uses the power of peers to support each other as they manage remote employees and accelerated change in the workplace.

Two things we all need right now? Help with developing remote employees, especially our leaders, and we all have a bit of change we are facing! Imperative is a technology designed to evaluate your leadership style and connect you with another peer in your organization so you can do peer to peer coaching.

Through a video-based coaching platform, leaders meet in rotating pairs for scripted peer-to-peer coaching conversations that are dynamically designed to adapt as their needs change. I actually used my peer, Kris Dunn, to demo the technology with me, so we got a firsthand view of how well Imperative works.

What I love about Imperative:

  • First, you take a personal leadership inventory that gives you your leadership style and insights. This data is used to assist your peer coach in asking questions and digging in further. The platform also reminds you of your style and tendencies as you are coaching.
  • Kris and I both found the assessment accurate in how we would normally describe our normal leadership behaviors. Plus, we’ve both gone through many kinds of these assessments in our careers, and Imperative was right on the money in discovering what type of leaders we are.
  • The process of peer to peer coaching can be awkward, but Kris and I got on the platform and within minutes were actually moving through the process, and even though we are very close and work together often, we were prompted with questions where we actually learned new things about each other!
  • The technology keeps you on tasks and has each person actually taking notes so each person has something at the end, and gives you information for your next session to follow up on. There is definitely a feel to the coaching around pushing for higher performance and outcomes on both a personal and professional level.
  • I never felt self-conscious about what I was asking or being asked. That is by design, as it can be difficult first starting as a peer coach and the last thing you want to do is make people feel uncomfortable with the process.

Kris and I both did this from our homes and no issues with the technology at all. So, this is simple to use peer to peer coaching tool for your leaders who are working at home, or in different locations altogether on a normal basis.

We are in a new world of trying to figure out how do we develop our employees, and it’s critical right now we continue to develop our leaders. Peer to peer coaching is a great way to do this with an added benefit of it really teaches your leaders how to coach their own teams as well! Imperative is well worth the demo, and if you can just ask them to take a test drive with yourself and another peer!

 

The Fight Club Recruiting Rules!

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Great talent and great hiring are about getting the best candidates to respond to your messaging. It’s our reality as talent acquisition professionals that we have candidates who apply to our jobs, some of whom might be great. We also have to go out and find great talent and find ways to get them to respond to our overtures.

It’s the number one job of every talent acquisition professional. I would argue it might be the only job of talent acquisition. Get great talent to interact with you!

The first rule of Fight Recruiting Club is you need to get candidates to respond!

The second rule of Recruiting Club is you need to keep trying to get talent to respond to you until they actually respond. Wait a second, Tim! You mean we have to reach out to a candidate more than once!? I mean, if they don’t respond to me after my first outreach, that’s their loss! No, it’s your loss! You need that talent!

The third rule of Recruiting Club is you need to interact with candidates in themedium they are most comfortable with. I like it when you text me, most people do. It gets a high response rate. Some folks like email, phone calls, Facebook messenger, handwritten notes, etc. Find all the mediums the candidate likes, not your favorite!

The fourth rule of Recruiting Club is it’s not about you. It’s about them! “I’ve got a great career opportunity for you!” How do you know what I want? Stop assuming you know what I want when you don’t. How about you first to get to know me a little. I mean, you don’t ask someone to marry you on the first date!

The fifth rule of Recruiting Club is….(there are ten in total, click through to the rest of my post over on Saba’s Blog)

E16 – The HR Famous Podcast – Return to Work from the Trenches of HR!

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In episode 16 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leader Kris Dunn speaks with the Head of HR for Mikron Ed Baldwin for a continuation discussion about return to work plans. Kris and Ed discuss Mikron’s early decision to start working remotely, what changes they have made in their manufacturing plants, and what tactics allowed them to be on top of the pandemic.

Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!

Show Highlights:

2:00 – KD starts off the episode by asking Ed about his position and what Mikron does and their unique position that helped them to be better prepared for the Coronavirus pandemic.

5:15 – KD and Ed establish the timeline of the WFH and circumstances that Mikron faced.

6:00 – Ed outlines the plan and decision Mikron made for remote working, why they made that decision, and how they implemented that plan.

9:30 – KD asks Ed what he attributes Mikron s early call to have employees work from home to. Ed says that WFH wasn’t as dispurtive as they had thought and frequent leadership team meetings helped their quick and effective response as well as their decision to make remote work a permanent fixture where they could.

11:50 -Ed and KD discuss work/employee density as a driving force in COVID response for a manufacturing company.

13:00 – Ed explains a few things that Mikron has done to keep their workers still working on site safe, like modifying work schedules, increased hygiene and cleaning services, and open doors where possible among other changes.

17:30 – KD asks Ed on how his midwestern upbringing in Iowa has prepared him for his work at Micron and his decision making during this pandemic. Don’t forget where you come from!

19:45 – Check out Ed Baldwin’s profile on LinkedIn and his writing on Fistful of Talent!

The Weekly Dose: @Fountain_Inc – Hourly Recruiting Reimagined

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Today on The Weekly Dose I take a look at the hourly recruiting technology, Fountain. Fountain is a technology designed to make high volume hourly hiring more efficient, easier, with higher quality.

The reality is most HCM-based Applicant Tracking Systems are not designed for high volume hourly. They are designed mostly to process requisitions for a salaried workforce. Candidates who will sit at a desktop and be willing to jump through hoops and take a bunch of time following each step.

Hourly workers, the vast majority who will only access the internet via their mobile device, will not jump through a bunch of hoops and have the patients to follow a long process. Thus, most organizations that have a high volume hourly hiring component tend to find a workaround to their ATS or go out and find technology, like Fountain, that can fix their hourly hiring inefficiencies while still getting the data they need into their HCM for onboarding and payroll.

What I like about Fountain:

  • A mobile-based hiring process that makes it super easy and quick for an hourly candidate to apply and show interest. We don’t want a system that eliminates or discourages candidates to apply, we want them all to apply, and then let the technology screen and sort the best ones for us, which is what Fountain does.
  • Built-in programmatic like functionality that allows you the TA team to boost specific jobs that aren’t having the candidate flow they need to meet your recruiting plan goals.
  • Candidate communication via email and SMS, ability to communicate with groups of candidates at once through the entire process right from the platform.
  • Fountain can automatically begin video screening candidates as they match certain criteria you need for each position, reducing time to fill dramatically.
  • Simple Collaboration between applicant and hiring managers as many organizations with multi-locations have on-the-ground managers who do their own hourly hiring. So, great for franchise-type environments as well.
  • Fully integrates with your HRIS and Payroll for easy onboarding of hourly hires all within the same recruiting process flow.

Why do I need a system just for hiring hourly workers? 

That’s the big question, right? Quite frankly, you wouldn’t if the ATS you had was designed to actually be a benefit to you for high volume hourly hiring, but most are not. While they will say they are mobile-optimized, they are not built mobile-first. They were not built to have someone apply in a minute or less, verse twenty to thirty minutes.

Hourly workers have shown they are unwilling to “register” with your ATS before applying, and then click from screen to screen in what seems to be an endless maze of a process. They want to pick up their phone, show you they are interested, and almost instantly see if you have an interest or not. If you don’t have that, they’ll go apply to someone else that will. Speed, in mass-volume hourly hiring, is critical!

I recently witnessed an hourly worker apply, get screened, and have an offer of employment in 18 minutes! This hourly candidate had a job in 18 minutes! Why do you need a stand-alone hourly hiring platform? Because your competition is getting the best talent before you even see them.

Fountain is definitely worth a demo. It’s amazing to see how fast a recruiting process can work when you have the right technology in place. It’s all about getting high quality, fast, and Fountain delivers.

Is Love Greater Than Fear?

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The most famous quote from Machiavelli’s book “The Prince” is:

“Better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

Uh, oh, Tim is quoting Machiavelli, this blog has jumped the shark!

I heard this quote recently in a virtual HR event. HR speakers seem to come in two types:

1. Love is greater than fear. This is popular and most fall into this camp. It’s a feel-good play. The first rule of HR speaking, it’s always better to make the audience feel good, than to give them something they actually need.

2. Machiavelli’s assessment, It’s better to be feared. Less popular take, but I do hear it in the form of stuff like, “I’m not here to be your friend, I’m here to get results!”

I also have smart friends who pull Machiavelli’s name out anytime they want me to feel like I’m on the wrong side of something, “How ‘Machiavellian’ of you, Tim!” Okay, I get it, you’re smarter than me, how ‘Machiavellian’ for you!

The normal breakdown of leadership goes like this. You would rather be a beloved leader than a feared leader. Those leaders who are loved will be more successful than those who are feared. You have to be one or the other. Or do you?

I think all leaders deep down in places we don’t talk about at parties (A Few Good Men reference!) want to be loved, or at the very least, well-liked. It’s human nature. No one really wants to be hated. It’s stressful, people don’t want to be around you, it makes for uncomfortable hugs, etc.

On the love side, love can make you do some crazy things, but so can fear. I would drive all night to help my wife or kids with something if I thought they really needed me, even if they or I could probably find another alternative. I would also probably work all night if I thought I might lose my job and I need to pay my mortgage. Love and fear are powerful in getting us to act.

I think fear is bigger when it comes to crunch time scenarios. I might ‘love’ my boss a ton, but when the project is on the line and the company might lose a major project and cost us hundreds of jobs, fear is driving the truck, not love. Love won’t bring those jobs back, fear might just win those jobs back.

As leaders, this our dilemma. I want my team to love me, but I also need a touch of fear on the edge. It’s an imperfect balance.

What I know is love isn’t the only answer, no matter how many memes you make or posters you put it on. I don’t know if Love is bigger, it’s definitely more popular, for obvious reasons, but great leaders have used both. I want you to love me, I need you to fear me a bit, in the end, I’ll probably use both to get the job done.

4 Tips for Hiring Candidates with Grit!

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In our ever-constant struggle to find the secret sauce of finding the best talent, many organizations are looking to hire candidates who have grit. What the heck is grit? Candidates who have grit tend to have better resolve, tenacity, and endurance.

Ultimately, executives are looking for employees who will get after it and get stuff done. Employees who aren’t waiting around to be told what to do, but those who will find out what it is we should be doing and go make it happen. Grit.

In tough economic times, our organizations need more employees with grit!

It seems so easy until you sit down in front of a candidate and try and figure out if the person actually has grit or not! You take a look at that guy from 127 Hours, the one who cut his own arm off to save his life. That’s easy, he has grit! Susy, the gal sitting across from you, who went to a great state school, and worked at a Fortune 500 company for five years, it’s hard to tell if she has grit or not!

I haven’t found a grit test on the market, so we get back to being really good at questioning and interviewing to raise our odds we’ll make the right choices of those with grit over those who tell us they have grit but really don’t!

When questioning candidates about their grit, focus on these four things:

  1. Passion. People with grit are passionate about something. I always feel that if someone has passion it’s way easier to get them to be passionate about my business and my industry. If they don’t have a true passion for anything, it’s hard to get them passionate about my organization.
  1. Doer. When they tell you what they’re passionate about, are they backing it up by actually doing something with it? I can’t tell you how many times I’ll ask someone what their passion is and then ask them how they’re pursuing their passion and they’ve done nothing!
  1. What matters to them. Different from a passion that you need to find out what matters to these people in a work setting. Candidates with grit will answer this precisely and quickly. Others will search for an answer and feel you out for what you’re looking for. I want a workplace that allows me to… the rest doesn’t matter, they know, many have no idea.
  1. Hope. To have grit, to be able to keep going when the going gets tough, you must have hope that things will work out. The glass might be half full or half empty, it doesn’t matter, because if I have a glass, I’ll find something to put in it!

I’ve said this often, but I believe individuals can acquire grit by going through bad work situations. We tend to want to hire perfect unscarred candidates from the best brands who haven’t had to show if they have grit or not.

I love those candidates with battle wounds and scars from companies that were falling apart, but didn’t. I know those people had to have grit to make it out alive!  I want those employees by my side when we go to battle.

 

If You Don’t Stretch, You’ll Never Know Where The Edges Are…

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Did you know the N95 mask that is critical PPE for healthcare workers right now was invented by a woman at 3M in the late 1950s?

The title of the post is a quote from Sara Little Turnball, she was a designer who started consulting for 3M in 1958. She was super sharp and made a name for herself prior to 3M, and then 3M came calling. They didn’t know what to do with her (it was 1958 women aren’t supposed to know more than men, right!?! ;), so they started her in the gift wrapping section, because you know she’s a woman!

She decided she needed to do something and created a famous product presentation called “Why?” where she presented one hundred ideas to 3M executives for various products that actual people would use. She told them there were so many uses for this moldable, woven textile they had created.

So, they hired her to make a molded bra cup. Of course, they did! But, she persisted and let them know she was also using the design and material to make a better type of surgical mask. Her first attempt failed, but eventually what she started turned into basically the N95 mask that 3M started producing in mass in 1961.

“If you don’t stretch, you’ll never know where the edges are.” 

You guys know I’m not a “failure porn” person. Just fail more. Fail faster. Etc. Sara Little Turnball was a designer and inventor and it her world you needed to fail. She estimated about 90% of her work was failure.

The world takes both types. Creatives will fail way more than they succeed to reach their genius. Producers can’t fail as often, and shouldn’t. We need all types in this crazy gumball factory we live in.

We need people willing to stretch themselves to find the edges. Today, as we take off for a long holiday weekend, I’m grateful for this lady who was willing to find the edges and I’m betting so are millions of healthcare workers who are fighting for our lives.

 

E15 – The HR Famous Podcast – Is Your Company Ready for RTW!?

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In episode 15 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee and Kris Dunn come together to discuss Tim’s extravagant Southern Utah adventure, return to work plans, Twitter’s WFH forever proclamation, and Microsoft Teams. The team discusses the different return to work plans and ideas, new office norms, and a potential boom in the workplace real estate market.

Listen below (email subscribers click through if you don’t see the player) or click here for a direct link. Be sure to and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review via iTunes, Spotify and Google Play.

Show Highlights:

1:00 – No Tim on this episode! Are we sad or happy? Stay tuned to find out 😉

2:00 – Is JLee still a kid? Sound off in the comments

3:30 – Tim Sackett is a jerk!!!! His Instagram is making the HR Famous crew jealous with his Southern Utah golfing, jeep trips, and luxurious escapades. Safe travels Timmy!

4:30 – Today’s topic: return to work! Some companies have their plans ready to go but all companies are going to have to get ready for “the new normal”. What is that going to look like? Are you ready?

7:00 – RTW = return to work

7:30 – Jlee sounds off on the differences of work returns there can be and the potential anxiety employees could bring with them. Will there be a major fear from workers?

8:45 – KD is taking the approach of surveying his employees on how they want to return to work. Who wants to stay home? Who wants to return to the office? Who is unsure and has concerns?

9:40 – One size fits all? Not for RTW plans.

11:15 – KD fills us in on how Kinetix is facing RTW: Branded face masks: check! How do you feel about the decorative/branded face masks?

13:15 – Sexy brand check! Jack Dorsey has announced that all Twitter employees can work remote forever. What really is forever? Jlee thinks it’s a cool idea but may be too early to make this call. Only a diamond is forever 😉

16:00 – Will there be an increased need for real estate for workspace? Due to physical distancing needs, there may need more space needed to ensure employee safety.

18:00 – Have you ever had an employee sit on the floor in your office during a meeting? Jlee hasn’t but she thinks that cramped small office meetings are on the way out and virtual meetings are here to stay.

20:30 – KD and Jlee are turning this into a Microsoft ad! Microsoft Teams chat is the new norm for Jlee but may be NSFW because of their raunchy gifs.

22:30 – KD thinks that Eric Schmitt’s perception of a workspace real estate boom is a little tone deaf. With more WFH employees and financial troubles, there may not be a real estate boom especially in spaces made for small to mid-sized businesses.

24:00 – Should we be celebrating companies and CEOs who pledge not to lay off employees? The crew thinks it’s unrealistic to raise the expectation that companies should not lay off some workers in this pandemic, especially in service industries.

26:10 – “Up your sunscreen game” – KD to Tim Sackett.