I’m out in Utah and I’ve discovered the exact reason we can’t return to work! Basically, we’re all stupid, but it’s a longer story than that! Also, I introduce RecruitersRecruitingRecruiters.com and give some career advice to recruiters (well, basically anyone!) who find themselves currently out of a job!
If you are in recruiting and/or HR share your best resources for career development in the comments!
If you want and like working from home, your answer is “Yes!”
If you hate working at home and can’t wait to return to work, your answer is “No!”
The truth?
Some people can be productive anywhere. You could put them on the moon and they would find a way to get done what needs to get done. Many of us, need a great deal of structure and guidance, and proper motivation.
We have this giant Work from Home experiment going on right now and a lot of HR folks are pointing to this and going, “See! I told you it would work!” But, is it really working?
The problem is what most of us are doing right now isn’t truly working at home. If you are trying to do childcare to co-habitat with multiple people in a house all trying to do work, it’s not really what a normal work at home situation would be.
Pre-Covid most studies on Work at Home were done by folks who had a mission to get more people to work at home, so quite frankly, I think most of those studies are crap. They didn’t really set out to see what situation would be better, only that working from home is better.
One of the main issues we see with working from home is that your real workers, those ten percenters who put in the most work, put in even more when working from home which could lead to burnout of your best talent. So, you might see productivity gains, but it’s not equal across the board. Like most work, the vast amount of gains is coming from folks who already probably gave you the most!
I’m not a work from home hater by any means. I think it’s a great way to add some flexibility for those employees who need it and can actually make it work. To be very clear, that is not all of your employees. The vast majority will not be more productive at home. And those who love working at home the most might actually be your least productive.
So, should you allow your employees who can continue to work from home? I think during a pandemic the answer is yes! I think once this is all behind us, we have to look at productivity in a normal work from home environment and make those determinations on our own.
In the small sample size, I have with my own company I know there are folks who would kill it no matter where they were working, and I have some folks who better get ready to return to the office!
The key to working from home isn’t your ability to actually be able to work at home. It’s your ability to be as good or better working at home as you were working from the office, in a normal business environment. We are not in a normal business environment. So, you working at 40% compacity at home doesn’t mean you’ve proven anything.
So, during this great Work from Home experiment, do you think you are more productive, less productive, or about the same? Hit me in the comments and let me know what you think!
In episode 13 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett, and Kris Dunn try to defeat boredom and come together to talk about quarantine listening habits, Airbnb’s hiring practices, unpaid internships, and Netflix doc American Factory. The team discusses their feelings and thoughts on Airbnb’s postponed hiring, unpaid internships and other working experiences, and the documentary American Factory.
Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!
Show Highlights:
2:30 – The team starts out sharing with us their favorite quarantine comfort music playlists full of music. Turns out the group has some different tastes: Tim likes basic Spotify playlists, Jlee likes Nick Jonas, and KD likes grunge. This also features a brief discussion of Post Malone’s tattoos.
8:00 – Onto the rundown for the episode. Airbnb has postponed post-grad hires to 2021 and the crew talks about the investment they have made for their own PR. Tim weighs in on the workforce needs for Airbnb and other tech companies and how they will continue going forward.
11:45 – KD sees through Airbnb’s “publicity stunt” and calls them out for being unfair for postponing post-grad hires until August 2021. Tim discusses some potential writing on the wall that may have led to this decision. Maybe they’re being forward-thinking? KD seems skeptical.
15:00 – Bro trip! KD talks about the last Airbnb he stayed in with Tim in Orlando. The pictures sure weren’t telling the whole truth….
16:20 – Marriott plug from Jlee! #notsponsored
17:00 – Topic change: internships! Lots of internships have been canceled for summer 2020 leaving soon to be grads and recent grads in a bind. Also, Hipster Sackett is the best Tim Sackett
20:30 – Tim discusses the evolution of unpaid internships. He believes young adults need to use unpaid internships to build relationships, have experiences, and find mentors to advocate for them. Do you believe in unpaid internships? Should all interns be paid?
23:15 – Who can afford unpaid internships (especially in this economy)? Jlee discusses the need to look at capabilities and skills rather than experiences for new grads in order to level the playing field.
25:30 – KD discusses the addiction to doing internships with huge brands. He advocates for looking locally to gain experiences instead of going for the big guys.
26:45 – “Interns have zero value” – Tim Sackett. What is the real point of internships? Recruiting. (Just saying an intern is writing this right now so no value???)
28:00 – Should companies be allowed to advertise unpaid internships? KD says no but thinks that unpaid experiences should be allowed in order to benefit the person looking for a resume booster.
29:45 – Jlee predicts Tim’s Glassdoor ratings will be plummeting.
30:30 – American Factory time! KD challenged Jlee and Tim to watch the 2020 Academy Award-winning documentary about a Chinese company that took over a GM plant in Toledo, Ohio. The team discusses their likes and dislikes.
35:05 – Jlee weighs in on the depiction of Chinese culture in the documentary. Although she came in skeptical, she was pleasantly surprised by the reception of the workers in the movie.
36:10 – Motor City native Tim discusses fat-fingered Americans and the camaraderie and commitment of the Chinese company.
40:00 – The crew ends on their favorite scene. Tim likes the chairman’s frankness about unions and Jlee agrees. She especially likes the interpretation from Chinese to English. KD likes the cut between the Chinese company energy to the Toledo break room.
43:30 – Watch American Factory!
Want great employees? Hire great recruiters, who love your company and love recruiting!
Yeah but Tim we really aren’t hiring anyone right now. I hear you, but let’s take a look at the long view for a second. Right now, you’re running lean. Every single employee you have, and every single new employee you hire, but be really strong, or you are going to be hurting.
During the most recent ten year run of good fortune that most organizations have had, we’ve made some really crappy recruiter hires. Recruiters who don’t really like recruiting and most of them don’t even like working for you. They are miserable. Miserable, but need a job, so they aren’t going anywhere.
Sometimes you need to give someone a gift. If they are miserable working for you as a recruiter, they will recruit other miserable people.
On the opposite side, people who love your organization make the best recruiters even if they have never recruited before. That doesn’t mean run out and make those who love your company recruiters! That might actually make them miserable! It’s the balance of loving your org and loving to recruit which is the secret sauce!
I keep hearing about organizations that are letting go of their recruiters because they don’t have any need for hiring. When I hear that I want to ask the CEO of that organization if 100% of the current employees they have are “A” players, great employees? Of course, she will say, well, no, not 100%.
Then you have some hiring to do. You have some upgrading to do. You need great recruiters. Recruiters who love hunting. Finding the best. Finding noticeably better talent. The best organizations are doing this right now. Average organizations are cutting really strong recruiters.
So, be better!
The time to invest is when you can get the best deal on a commodity. Great talent is devalued at this current moment. HR and TA leaders should be going to their executive teams with a talent plan that says this is how we will become world-class on the backside of this pandemic!
In fact, Heads of TA should be cherry-picking great recruiters at this very moment! You give out a few gifts to those people working for you as recruiters who are miserable and you hire recruiters who love to recruit and happen to be very good at it!
Invest now in who you want to become, it’s never been cheaper. You won’t have this chance again for a very long time. The old adage is it takes money to make money. Well, right now, it takes a lot less money to make money!
Hey gang! I’m out in St. George, UT for a couple of weeks and still bringing you another edition of the popular video series Corona Diaries!
During the Great Recession, we had many business struggles that most of us are going through right now during the pandemic. We did what we thought was right and in hindsight, we learned so much about some things we didn’t do very well.
If you are from St. George or visited, let me know some inside tips! Where’re the best places to eat? What do I need to see for sure? Hit me in the comments!
In episode 12 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Jessica Lee, Tim Sackett, and Kris Dunn come together to talk quarantine watching habits, unemployment insurance coverage, and the Payroll Protection Plan. The team brings up the challenges and nuances individuals might be facing when working through their unemployment insurance and PPP.
Listen below and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (iTunes) and follow (Spotify)!
Show Highlights:
3:30 – The team starts the convo by talking movies and Netflix series. Tim calls out KD on not watching Parasite – Turns out KD was thinking about a whole other movie with Kevin James.
6:00 – Talking about Hulu and Netflix specials – KD even wrote about the Netflix American Factory docu-series.
9:20 – Tim brings up the elephant in the room, Unemployment, and the broken system of unemployment insurance. What are other countries doing that the US isn’t? He also brings up PPP – the US Payroll Protection Program.
12:15 – Jlee and Tim talk about the differences between states on the unemployment savings account weekly payouts.
15:25 – Is unemployment a forced savings plan? KD talks about loving it on the broad level brochure, compares the plan to social security and it’s struggles + the start of the new recession-era.
21:00 – Tim talks about worker bias. If you’re going to work, and someone else is unemployed and getting benefits – are we jealous? Paying into a system for something we aren’t receiving can be discouraging.
23:15 – Jlee says Tim is sounding like Andrew Yang with the concept of universal income. Regardless, this era will be challenging future changes in the UBI realm.
28:45 – How people should handle receiving the PPP through the CARE Act – are some of your employees making more on unemployment?
31:00 – KD brings up that using the PPP doesn’t always make the most sense. With restaurants and service base industries how does bringing back workers work when there’s no business?
33:05 – Tim talks about the tax, health insurance and other complications with folks choosing unemployment vs. being rehired
35:15 – The team talks about how fast everything has been moving, even for the federal government – but with speed comes some issues and misses.
39:30 – Closing it out by touching back on the more lighthearted Netflix watches.
Resources:
Not many of us are actually doing a ton of hiring right now. How do I know? There are 25 million people who applied for unemployment! That means there’s probably another 75 million that are currently under-employed or utilized.
This means that when we all get back to the ‘new normal’ of working, a bunch of stuff is going to change! How we attract, select, onboard, etc. can not be the same as what we did only sixty to ninety days ago.
Hourly hiring has always been a very “hands-on” endeavor and we must change that! My good friend and Recruiting Expert, Madeline Laurano has done a major research project looking specifically at hourly hiring. I’ve been spending time interviewing TA and HR leaders on the changes they are planning moving forward, and we are going to share with you all of those ideas and strategies!
Join us for a free Webinar on Tuesday, May 12th at 1pm EST: The New Normal for Hourly Hiring: 5 Strategies TA Leaders Must Consider Moving Forward!
I’m so excited to have this conversation and share the information that Madeline and I have found! It’s always a great time just talking shop with her, and this is a topic we are both passionate about.
Thank you to the great folks over at Get.Fountain.com for sponsoring this and allowing us to present this information. Fountain is an easy to use Hiring Software trusted by the world’s leading companies. Source, screen, and onboard your hourly workers, giving them a great experience without all of the physical high-touch!
Your Hosts with the Most!
How many internships have been canceled for the summer of 2020? 1 million, 2 million, let’s just say, most have been canceled, which leaves college undergrads and so many 2020 graduates in a very hard predicament.
How to get experience when almost every organization is telling you they no longer have a budget for summer interns! Let’s talk about a very unpopular topic in this edition of the Corona Diaries:
What do you think, my friends? Would you be willing to bring on an unpaid intern this summer and give them some valuable experience? Let me know in the comments.
You may be sitting at home right now, asking yourself this very question! I wonder what my CEO prefers I do in my role. It’s a valid question, and one I find that great HR leaders already know the answer to, because they ask the question, often!
When I wrote my SHRM published book, The Talent Fix, part of the research I did was to interview hundreds of c-suite executives. CEOs, COOs, CHROs, CIOs, etc. I wanted to find out what made a world-class HR and Talent leader versus an average leader. From that research came some definite DNA traits.
It’s fascinating to have these conversations, and one thing I did was pull them away from just talking about their current HR and TA leaders. All that would turn into is a performance review, and they were giving it to me, not the person who needed and wanted it! We delved into the concept of if you could choose the ‘perfect’ leader to run your HR and TA functions, what would that person look like? What would they do differently than all before them?
Here is what your CEO wishes we would do in our role as HR and TA leaders:
1. Provide Data-Driven Solutions.
So often what we provide our solutions based on gut and feel. Solutions that are generated to be CYA and eliminate HR work, while increasing work on our employees. Data-driven solutions are desired by the c-suite because it shows you understand the goals and outcomes of the overall business and you are designing a function that will help meet those outcomes. Old HR used subjective measures of success because those were easy to meet. New HR, better HR, uses the same measures of business success that our c-suite uses to measure actual success.
2. Increase your Executive Presence to become that Executive Mentor.
It’s really lonely at the top! I know, I know, cry me a river for the CEO and her new Mercedes SUV, right!? But seriously, think about the role of CEO. As a CEO you can’t really just go to a direct report and say, “Hey, I need some help, I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing!” That will never happen! But as an HR leader, we have this ability to be that confidant and executive coach for our c-suite, but only if we actually put ourselves into that role! That takes executive presence. The greatest HR leaders I’ve been around in my life, all played this role for their c-suite!
3. Be a Futurist.
Our CEOs believe we are firefighters, first responders at our best. While we love our real-world first responders, being viewed as that by your leader in HR isn’t a good thing. Having to fight fires all day, every day means we can’t figure out how to get ourselves out of the firefight and begin building a better state of being. Our c-suite also believes we do not have the level of technical savvy to even choose our own tech stack, so they choose it for us like we are children. Becoming a futurist, pulling ourselves above the fires, and building a strong understanding of how technology can help every aspect of HR, will put you on another level of HR and TA leadership.
Becoming great at anything isn’t easy. Don’t allow yourself to be told by anyone that it is. It’s something you’ll work towards the rest of your career. I find that super exciting, as lifelong learning and development is what keeps HR and TA new and interesting to me every single day!
I’m an SHRM-SCP. I’ve been certified in HR for over 20 years! I’m proud of the certification and the continual learning I’ve done to increase my skill sets. I recommend you take a look at SHRM Education Spring 2020 Catalog and pay close attention to these programs and e-learning modules:
Use the code “HRRocks” when registering for a Spring or Summer SHRM Educational Program and receive $200 off until May 15th! (excludes SHRM specialty credentials and SHRM SCP/CP prep courses)
My local news station is doing just positive news for one of their half-hour shows on Thursday early evenings. I’m a cynic, I suspect it’s a play to grab ratings on a low ratings time, but you know what? We could all use some good news!
So, I sat down to think about all the Happy things that are going on that I could share. It’s not easy! There’s so much negative, I can’t even with the news anymore, but here goes:
Have you heard about this? A bunch of celebrities are auctioning off stuff and they’ve tried to make it inexpensive so everyone can have a chance, not just rich folks. So, you can be in Kevin Hart’s next movie and get the chance for $10 to put your name in the hat! Or Justin Beiber will come to your house and sing a song! You can play in the NBA Celebrity All-star game, etc. The entry fee for each is just $10 with all proceeds going to provide food for those affected by the pandemic. I’m obsessed with this, I want to do half of the stuff!
Hourly Workers Getting their Do!
To be honest, I’m not a giant fan of everyone calling themselves heroes. I like to save the “H” word for those who really put their lives on the line for my freedom and safety on a regular basis. All that said, hourly workers usually just get dumped on with crappy pay and crappy jobs, and right now many of those folks are holding this country together. I was in a gas station today and the lady in front of me was running a laundry mat and she said, “I’m an essential worker! I’m needed right now!” Yes, you are my dear! Get all the feels you need right now!
Family Tik Tok Videos!
They are corny. Some funny. Some not. All of them are families doing stuff together and I quite frankly think it’s awesome. Even those where they are just having their Mom or Dad hold the camera. At least you are finally doing something with your teenage kids! Family Tik Toks and Puppy Tik Toks, keep them coming. If you haven’t downloaded Tik Tok, it’s 99.9% stupid short videos and every once in a while some pure gold.
Conversations at the Dinner Table!
Yep, we are all sick of each other by this point, but in a couple of months, I have had more real conversation at my dinner table than the combined past two years! That is awesome and makes me smile! My wife and I are actually getting tired of cleaning up after dinner because it’s happening every single night! I have boys so you usually don’t get a lot of conversation anyway, but it turns out if you actually sit down every night, they start talking.
The Return of Civility!
Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like everyone is a nicer right now. I mean I guess any of us could kick the bucket at any moment so we tend to just be a little nicer to each other. Of course, early on we were all fighting each other for toilet paper, but once we got settled in I think people are truly caring about their neighbors and community. Even in my work interactions, everyone seems to be really concerned for each other’s safety.
I like thinking Happy Thoughts. I’m reminded of a great quote by Viktor Frankl:
