The #1 Employee Recognition Tool of All-Time!

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At the Michigan Recruiter’s Conference last week I got into a side conversation with a TA leader who had her team at the event. She was talking about motivating and recognizing her team, and that it seemed to be more difficult with younger generations versus the Gen Xers she has managed in the past. I told her I wasn’t sure it was generational, but I had a couple of examples of recognition I thought might work for her.

The first example happened when I was working in my first HR manager position.  One of the executives I supported had a good, young, enthusiastic worker, a top-notch kid who had a great work ethic.  I sat down with this executive and the employee to do their annual performance review. Everything went perfect, as it usually does with that type of employee.  It was what happened afterward that blew me away.  The executive asked me to get him the address of this employee’s parents.  We knew he thought highly of his folks, and he mentioned them when we gave the employee praise for his performance.

I went back and found the address, the executive drafted a short letter, handwritten to these employee’s parents.  He didn’t tell the employee he was doing this, he just did it.  The executive basically told the parents you should be extremely proud of your child, our organization is lucky to have them, and our organization wants to thank you for raising such a fine person.  End of letter. Send.

About a week later, I got a call from the front desk. It was the employee’s father, asking the front desk to talk to the executive and telling them they were the father of this employee.  The front desk person called me (HR), believing something bad must have happened, so I took the call.  I spoke with a man in his mid-50’s who had a hard time holding back tears of pride, thanking me (and our executive) for sharing such a wonderful story and how proud they were of their son.

Later, the employee also came into my office to thank me for doing this, believing I must have put the executive up to it (it’s an HR touchy-feely thing).  The employee said that they could never imagine a better place to work.  A 3-minute handwritten letter = powerful recognition and engagement.

The other example I have is of an experience that happened to me a few years ago. I was working as a director in a large health system, and my mom was in town and came to my office to meet me for lunch.  Being a hospital, she came into the building and walked into the HR office.

I introduced her to some of my team and we were walking out when the head of HR came walking in.  I introduced him, and he shook her hand and said: “I want to thank you for sharing Tim with us, he’s an extraordinary individual, and I’m sure you are responsible for that.”  Bam!  My mom talked about that moment all the time!  I felt pride and respect, and most of all, loyalty to my supervisor for such a gesture.

Employee recognition doesn’t have to be hard, or take a long time, or be a part of a process.  It has to be genuine, in the moment and meaningful.  Too many times we forget this on the organizational front.

I Don’t Always Use Recruiters, but When I Do… (I use Tim Sackett!)

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I love those old Dos Equis commercials “The Most Interesting Man in the World” where the most interesting man says, “I don’t always drink beer, but when I do I prefer Dos Equis.” It’s great marketing that doesn’t seem to get old.  It actually ended in 2018, but it’s become part of our vernacular.

It got me to thinking as well. I started my HR career in recruiting working for the company I’m now running, so in a sense, I’ve come full circle. I started recruiting right out of college for HRU Technical Resources, doing technical contracts. It’s a tough recruiting gig but pays very well if you’re good.

When I left my first job, and the third party recruiting industry, to take my first corporate HR job. I left with a chip on my shoulder that armed me with such great recruiting skills that I thought, I would NEVER, I mean NEVER use a recruiting firm to do any of my recruiting. WHY WOULD I?  I mean I had the skills, I had the know-how and I would save my company a ton of money by just doing it on our own.

So, I spent 10 years in corporate HR before returning to HRU in 2009, and you know what? I was young and naïve in my thinking about never using recruiting agencies. It’s not just about having the skills and know-how; it’s much bigger than that. I worked for three different large, enterprise-sized companies, in three different industries in executive recruitment type roles and in each case, I found situations where I was reaching out to some great third-party recruiters for some assistance!

So, why did I change my philosophy on using recruiting agencies?  A few of the reasons I ran into in corporate HR…

1. Having Skill and Know-How only works if you also have the time.  Sometimes in corporate gigs, you just don’t have the capacity to get as deep into the search as you would like with all the hats you have to wear as a corporate HR pro.

2. Corporate HR positions don’t give you the luxury of building a talent pipeline in specific skill sets, the same way that search pros can build over time. As a corporate HR pro, I was responsible for all skill sets in my organization. Niche search pros can outperform most corporate HR pros on most searches, most of the time. It’s a function of time and network.

3. Many corporate executive teams don’t believe their own HR staffs have the ability to outperform professional recruiters, primarily because we (corporate HR pros) have never given them a reason to think differently about this. Thus, we are “forced” to use search pros for searches where executives like to get involved.

4. Most corporations are not willing to invest in the model and tech stack (people, technology and process) that puts themselves on a higher playing field than professional recruiting organizations. I would estimate only 1% of corporations have made this investment currently and more are not rushing out to follow suit.  Again, this comes from corporate HR not having the ability to show the CFO/CEO the ROI on making this change to have the best talent in the industry you compete in. So, the best talent gets sourced by recruiting pros and corporations pay for it.

I didn’t always use recruiting agencies, but when I did I made sure I got talent I couldn’t get on my own in the time and space I was allotted in my given circumstances.  When I talk to corporate HR pros now, and I hear in their voice that “failure” of having to use a recruiting agency and I get it! I get the fact of what they are facing in their own corporate environments.  It’s not failure, it’s life in corporate America and it’s hard to change.

Stay thirsty my friends…

BREAKING NEWS: Symphony Talent Acquires Smashfly! @symphonytalent_ @Smashfly

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Well, the M&A activity in the TA Technology industry doesn’t seem to be slowing down as this morning Symphony Talent announced it has acquired the recruiting CRM technology platform Smashfly. You had a feeling that something was going to happen as you began to see the major recruiting CRMs in the industry align themselves with core ATS or enterprise HCM recruiting modules.

3 Big Questions about the acquisition of Smashfly by Symphony Talent? 

1. Who the heck is Symphony Talent? 

I know some of you are asking that because Symphony Talent is the biggest name in the industry! Symphony Talent is the ATS built by Hodes a few years ago, and the first and only ATS that has built-in Programmatic advertising ability. Maybe a bit ahead of the game, when it was launched I was really impressed with what they had. Their CEO, Roopesh Nair, is a super-smart dude that has major passion around the TA industry.

2. Does this merger of brands make sense for both Smashfly and Symphony Talent?

It does because what I am seeing from organizations that truly care about attracting better talent is you better have an end to end recruitment platform that includes a core ATS at the center and a great recruitment marketing platform on the front-end. With this marriage, you also get the strength of Symphony’s industry-only builtin programmatic engine.

3. Will this integrated platform be able to gain market share in the industry?

That’s really the biggest question. For how advanced Symphony Talent’s technology was in the ATS space, they struggled to sell it, mainly because it probably seemed too advance more most corporate TA leaders.  CRM tech is also very advanced and complex and the reality is Smashfly was probably the best in the industry at selling CRM by making it not seem as complex. So, great tech and great marketing/sales should work for these two brands, in my opinion.

What would I do if I was Roopesh? 

To be fair, I’ve met Roopesh a couple of times and I’ve really enjoyed those conversations and his knowledge of the talent acquisition industry. The reality is Smashfly is a great brand because they’ve been great at marketing, and I would drop the Symphony Talent brand, adopt the Smashfly brand, and built out the integrated platform.

To me, you run with a better-known brand, that has a solid reputation in the industry and use that to sell the full end-to-end recruitment platform. Most enterprise HCM users are stuck with vanilla recruiting modules who can’t buy an ATS but can buy recruitment marketing. It just makes sense for them to buy a recruitment marketing platform that just happens to have an ATS built-in!

This opens up their ability to sell to SAP, Oracle, Workday, Infor, UltiPro, Ceridian TA shops, as well as chip away at the best of breed market currently owned by iCIMS, Greenhouse and SmartRecruiters in the mid-enterprise market.

To be perfectly clear, Roopesh didn’t call me and ask, but he has my number if he needs it! 😉

Good News, Bad News, and Important News. What’s your strategy?

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It’s been a common strategy for corporations and their PR and Communications teams to send out bad news around 4 pm on a Friday. Why? Because it dies almost immediately. No one really pays attention to the news cycle on the weekends and by Monday morning something else happens – we release all of our great news because we want it to run all week!

So, bad news gets released on Friday afternoon, our good news gets released early on Monday, when do you then release your “important” news? The news you need your employees, customers, clients, stakeholders, etc. to pay attention to?

A recent study showed that late in the week isn’t the time because you’ll get these results:

  • 34% less social media mentions
  • 23-66% less mentions in articles
  • Up to 51% are likely to never receive the information at all.

The problem is we tend to work all week to make communications perfect and typically release important news late in the week when it’s going to find fewer people. The better idea for important news and information that you need people to pay attention to is to release it first thing on Monday, and then trickle out bits of information about the main message all week to gain more and more viewers of your message.

It takes most people five to seven times of seeing and/or hearing the information you need them to know before it clicks, so you can’t just do one main release and hope that everyone gets it. They won’t and you’ll be frustrated that your message didn’t have the impact you wanted.

Right now, so many organizations are doing their Open Enrollments around their health insurance for next year. Most will spend weeks preparing the communication, but put very little thought into how do we best amplify this message so everyone gets what we need them to get.

The strategy should be one big splash announcement, and then highlight announcements on an ongoing basis over the next 7 days for so. It might look something like this:

Day 1 – Big message!

End of Day 1 – A “USA Today” version of the big message. “What you really need to know about “X”!

Day 2 – 1 really important fact about “X” you have to know, or you might die (or something almost as dramatic!)

Day 3 – “Did you know…The top 3 things that are changing”

Day 4 – Story from the field, the most asked question of “X”

Day 5 – Before you leave for the weekend, Are you sure you and your family will have insurance this weekend?

Day 6 – Probably the next Monday – A message from our CEO on “X”

Day 7 – Last call – the final things you need to know before “X” runs out (aka – At this point, it’s your fault you’re not covered!)

This example is mostly about open enrollment, but it can really be used for any big change you’re trying to make internally or externally within your organization.

The other side of this has to be how and when you release these messages. In corporations we tend to rely on email, but we have to send out more than just email. Leverage text messages, social media messages, signs where you get the most employee traffic, etc. Think about the one thing every employee would do each week and try to wrap your message around that.

The reality is, we all manage performance through compensation!

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There is one compensation list that I love! I’m a big fan of college football and each year the various media outlets will release the top-paid college football coaches. Here’s what it currently looks like:

Okay, let’s do the breakdown and we can see where performance management through compensation is working and not working!

#1 and #2 – Dabo Swinney (Clemson) and Nick Saban (Alabama) – for the past few years have been at the top of college football polls and winning national championships, so it seems like they are positioned pretty well. I don’t think anyone could argue Nick belongs on top, but’s he’s doing just fine!

#3 – Jim Harbaugh (University of Michigan) – he’s won about 70% of his games, but has no Big Ten Championships and no national championships, and can’t be U of M’s biggest rivals on the regular. He would be fired by any company in America because he’s overpaid by so much it’s almost obscene.

#4 Jimbo Fischer (Texas A&M) – He’s really Jim Harbaugh, Jr.

#5-#7 – Georgia, Auburn, Texas – Probably where they should be, for Georgia and Auburn especially. Texas is doing well this year but has had recent struggles, but trending up.

#8 – Jeff Brohm (Purdue) – I’m assuming he’s got pictures or emails of something or someone he shouldn’t because he is way overpaid, maybe worse than Jim Harbaugh! At least U of M gets publicity out of Jim. I wouldn’t know Brohm if he walked past me with a Purdue shirt on that said, “Coach”!

#9 – #11 – Oklahoma, Florida, Penn State – all in line with performance and pay, for the most part. I’m not sure how Penn State came back so quickly from the Sandusky thing, but eventually, we’ll see an ESPN Outside the Lines on how that happened and the second fall.

#12 – Pat Fitzgerald (Northwestern) – I guess if you charge $68K a year for tuition you might as well overpay your head coach by a number of 2345 times what you should.

#13 – Mike Gundy (Oklahoma State) – For the pure entertainment he puts on the field, I would say he’s at where he should be for pay, even though, his team isn’t close to being the 13th best in the country.

#14 – Scott Frost (Nebraska) – FROST Warning! Which means basically nothing. What you see in Nebraska overpaying for a coach is what happens when you go after the young up and comer! “We want the best salesperson from our competitor!” Okay, but it’s going to cost you and they’ll probably have worse results with you.

#15 – Willie Taggert (Florida State) – About where he should based on potential, recruiting, etc. Maybe a bit of an overpayment based on the knee jerk reaction to losing Jimbo Fischer to Texas A&M.

#16 – Charlie Strong (South Florida) – I failed at Texas, but coaching there gave me a giant personal brand and you’re desperate for a big-name coach. Get ready to overpay!

#17 – #19 – TCU, Iowa, and Kentucky – TCU, and Iowa are right in line with pay and performance, Kentucky needed a big name and plays in the best conference in football, so you’re going to overpay a bit to get yourself to average.

#20 – Chris Petersen (Washington) – Underpaid. His teams consistently perform and rank higher than pay rank.

#21 – David Shaw (Stanford) – In line with pay (see Northwestern) – probably needs Jim Harbaugh back to recruit for him because David was awesome when he had Harbaugh recruits!

#22 – Ryan Day (Ohio State) – Get ready for a big raise, big fella! Underpaid, but new, so you get away with it for a little while.

#23 & 24 – Will Muschamp and Mark Dantonio – paid in line with performance. You know I’m a huge Sparty guy, but Coach D is basically paid in line for what’s he’s produced. Some great years, but mostly a 20-25 ranked team, that has Ohio State, Penn State, and Michigan all in their conference each year. South Carolina is basically Michigan State with better weather.

#25 – Paul Chryst (Wisconsin) – Might be the most underpaid coach in Division 1, but they are like, where’s he going to go? Arkansas!?! Nope, so you consistently exceed expectations and we’ll consistently underpay you!

See what I mean!?

Taking a look at how NCAA D1 coaches are paid is just like looking at the compensation of your team. It’s part science, part art form, mostly guessing. Basically, compensation pros are all overpaid, because they truly have no idea what they’re doing and get pushed around too easily by folks with influence in your organization to make dumb decisions and you end up with a list as you see above!

Hit me in the comments on where your coach is on the list and if you think they are paid fairly for the market, or unfairly!

 

 

 

Let’s Play Two!

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Baseball great Ernie Banks coined the phrase, “Let’s play two!” When a doubleheader was coming up he would say something like, “It’s a great day for a ballgame, let’s play two!”

Ernie obviously loved playing the game of baseball.

It’s a great attitude to have with anything you do in life as well. It’s all about attitude, right? I mean, how often do you think about something you have to do in life and you want to double it, as your first thought!?!

“Oh boy, a file audit, let’s do it twice!”

“Teeth cleaning!? You bet, let’s clean them twice!”

“Mowing the lawn? Love it! I’m cutting that baby two times today!”

For me, it’s a great measure of whether you actually love what you’re doing. You can silently look at any aspect of your day, your job, etc. and think, not, ‘do I want to do this twice”, but “I get to do this twice, yes!”

I love recruiting, but do I want to recruit for the same position twice!?! Well, depends on why I’m recruiting for the position twice. If I lost a candidate who was supposed to fill it, that never feels great, but if it’s to fill a second position, then heck yeah!

This is all about the attitude you take to your craft. Ernie loved what he did so much, he thought it was a good idea to “play two”. Of course, Ernie was playing a game, but we know plenty of folks who play a game for money, who end up hating to play that game. We know plenty of people who work and love their jobs, and plenty who work and hate their jobs. Same jobs. Very different attitudes.

Often the real difference between a great performer and a weak performer is simply their attitude towards the work they have chosen to do.

Is Someone In Your Organization Hoarding Top Talent?

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#3 of HR’s Biggest Lies – Mr. Smith in our West Region is hoarding talent and won’t allow them to move to other regions/departments/etc.   Why is this the #3 biggest lie?  Because I haven’t come up with the other ones yet and three seemed like a good middle number to start with.  I could have also called it HR’s biggest excuse for not doing their job, but lie seems more appropriate because that’s really what it is.

Here’s why saying your leaders are hoarding talent is a lie, because it’s not their job to workforce plan for the organization, it’s yours!

I’ve met some great leaders, who were great at one of two things, either: 1. selecting great talent or 2. developing great talent.  I’ve never met a great leader who was good at giving up great talent.  I’ve also never sat in front of a leader in any of the companies I’ve worked for and had a leader look me in the eye and say, “No, you can’t have that person.” Wait! I take that back I have had that happen, once.

Here’s how that conversation went:

Mr. Leader: “Hi Tim, nice to see you again. Something must be wrong for HR to come all the way out here to see me!”

Mr. Tim: “Mr. Lead, nothing’s wrong at all. I even left Grim Reaper cape and scythe at home this trip!”

Mr. Leader: “So, what is our pleasure of having you visit?”

Mr. Tim: “Mr. Lead, we need to talk, Ms. Lead back East is in need of a regional director and you have a regional manager who is ranked #1 in the company and I want to offer them the east regional director job.”

Mr. Lead: “Tim, that can’t happen. That manager has family here, says he’ll never leave, just found out his dog has cancer, his wife is prego and he has a rare disease that won’t allow him to travel past the Mississippi!”

Mr. Tim: “Wow, I had no idea that YOU were holding him back so much!”

Mr. Lead: “Sackett (now he’s getting serious) I don’t have anyone who can take his spot!”  BOOM! Now we are getting somewhere, this is really what holds back any leader from wanting to give up talent.

Now as an HR Pro there are exactly two ways you can take this conversation from here, yes, only two. if you still want to get your person:

#1 – Trust – If you have a relationship with the person (which you should) then you have to get them to trust that you will not leave them on an island with no talent and you will “personally” make your life’s goal to find the replacement that is better than who they had before.  And, you better make it happen.  I prefer this option.

#2 – Muscle – This will work with a relationship or not, but it goes a little something like this, “Mr. Lead, I have a meeting when I return to corporate with Mrs. COO and we are going to talk about our regional leaders and who is producing talent for the organization.  As you know Mrs. COO values those leaders who are adding talent to the organization and is critical of those leaders who are always taking talent.  This would put you in a very good light, don’t you think?”  Done. The message was sent, you’ll get your person and Mr. Lead won’t feel good about it, but you gave him away to spin this to his organization as a positive to the company.

HR TIP ALERT: When you get back to corporate have Mrs. COO call Mr. Lead and thank him. You’ll be amazed at how far that will take you the next time you need to have that conversation.

Thank me later, folks!

“My” Company vs. “Our” Company

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I was listening to some of my recruiters talk to candidates the other day. I like to do that from time to time. You learn a lot about your team, your jobs, your hiring managers, your engagement levels.

One of the things I overheard was something like, “I’m going to tell you about the benefits that “MY” company offers”. There was another conversation where someone used “our”, “I’m going to tell you about the benefits that “OUR” company offers”.

It seems like a small difference, right? Both positive, for sure.

I will tell you, as a leader, “my company” brings me to tears. The one thing I consistently hear from senior executives is “I can get my team to care about this company the same way I do”. It’s a very common issue that comes up all the time. How do we get employees to take ownership when they don’t have ‘real’ ownership?

It’s a cop-out and too easy to say, “oh, just give them some real ownership”! Having an employee-owned company isn’t simple or easy, it’s very complex.

Using “My company,”, says to me that this employee is 100% in. Onboard. Wearing the logo! Reppin the gear! It’s not that saying, “our company” doesn’t say that, but “my company” definitely says that!

It’s similar to when you hire a new employee from a competitor and it takes some time to get them away from “we” vs. “them” vs. “you guys”, etc. “So, I know ‘you guys’ do it this way…” Oh, you mean, “us guys”, right!? You’re now on the team. You’re not a ‘them’, you are a ‘we’!

Sometimes some of the biggest changes we make to culture are simple changes in our own language, and what those changes end up meaning to all those stakeholders in an organization.

Who are the best companies to work for? And why?

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I don’t put much stock into “Best Company to Work For” lists. That said, the data provided by Universum in there World’s Most Attractive Employer Report is pretty cool and gives you some insight on how you can help move your organization in the right direction.

What’s wrong with the best places to work lists?

  1. It only measures those employers who actually do the work to be considered for the list.
  2. It’s based on data that someone, other than yourself, decided was criteria for being a great place to work. And that might not align with what your org considers to be a great place to work, or the talent you market to, etc.

All that being said, I find that organizations, every single one who tries out for these lists, probably care about their employee and candidate experience at a pretty high level. Are they really the ‘best’ place to work? I don’t know, but they’re trying and that’s more than most of us can say!

So, who are they?

So, you can already see the bias, right? Tech, Business services, big brands. There isn’t one company on the list you haven’t heard of. Doesn’t that seem strange? You mean in the top 50 companies in the WORLD, there isn’t one company we haven’t heard of who is just great? Well, it’s the “World’s 50 Most Attractive”, so the one thing about being “attractive” is you’re probably known, when it comes to lists like these.

What makes you an “Attractive” employer? 

1. The ability to have high future earnings (you can make a lot of money) – 49.1%

2. You’ll get professional training and development – 43.8%

3. The job is secure (you won’t get laid off) – 39.1%

4. Working for this brand will help your career in the future – 38.8%

5. You have the ability to be creative – 38.7%

6. The company is successful within the market they compete in – 38.5%

7. The company encourages you to go home once in a while – 38.2%

8. You like the people you work with – 38.2%

9. You have leaders who support and they know how to develop talent – 38%

10. Competitive base salary – 37.6%

Anything pop out at you from the list?

What about #1 and #10? Oh, so, really base salary doesn’t mean anything, as long as I make a lot of money from what I’m doing!?! Turns out we release research and data for a reason. If you’re trying to sell employer branding software, it’s important for employers to understand it’s not about how much you pay because at that point you don’t need a brand, you need to pay the most.

But, it’s not what this data says. Like all modern research around this topic, what you make, is significantly more important than things like ‘being developed” and having “challenging work”. The person has to know and understand that financially this will work out very well for me, and then, all the other stuff becomes important once that question is satisfied.

You can not act like the most important thing on the list (#1 – High Future Earnings) is really that different than the last thing on the list (#10- competitive base salary). Those things are married at the hip if we have any inkling about basic compensation theory on where someone starts their career in base salary vs. the impact that has on future earnings, in the millions of dollars, going forward.

Let’s face it, as an employer you want to be able to deliver each of the ten things on the list in a really good way. If you do, you will not have trouble attracting talent or keeping your best talent.

What Sesame Street Character are You in Your Organization?

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Sesame Street begins its 50th season on November 9th and it really got me thinking about the lessons and characters I grew up with watching this iconic show.  As I thought about it, I began to connect people in my own organization and how Sesame Street is really just a snapshot of our own professional lives.

So, here’s my Sesame Street view of Corporate America:

CEO = Big Bird – this was actually a tough one to select because Big Bird isn’t the leader we think of when we think of iconic leaders, but in the end, Big Bird is Sesame Street, just like Steve Jobs is Apple.

COO = Bert – He was always the conservative one, who was trying to get things done, while Ernie was trying to have a good time.

CFO = Count von Count – the Count was probably the easiest choice of all!

CHRO = Ernie – this was by far the most controversial selection. I could have gone with Oscar (boy my operation partners would agree with that! But, to me Ernie was the perfect partner for Bert (our COO). So to make the perfect marriage with Operations and HR, I decided on Ernie.  Influence goes a long way with a CHRO, and Ernie has tons of influence with Bert!

CSO (Chief Strategy Officer) = Aloysius Snuffleupagus (Snuffy) Think about it, who did Big Bird always go to for advice? Oscar was also a potential for this one.

VP of Sales = Cookie Monster – You need someone who is internally motivated, and my boy Cookie is a self-directed monster when it comes to getting cookies. I’m sure he’ll be the same way in bringing in sales!

Executive Admin to CEO = Oscar the Grouch – I really don’t blame them for being grouchy, they have a tough job. So many people want a piece of the CEO’s time, and it is their job to control the crowd but they are still grouchy! (secondary choice? Head of Payroll!)

Head of Legal = Telly – Ok, for those who can’t remember, Telly the Monster is the one who was always worrying.  So this fits.

And it gets tougher! I still have two Iconic Sesame Street Characters to decide on, Elmo and Grover…

CIO = Grover – Shy, but confident. Grover went about doing his business kind of in the background.  No need to be noticed, just getting things done and sometimes making a mess of things, just as we are getting comfortable, and that’s how I like my IT people as well!

Ah, Elmo, what can we do with our little carefree, energetic, naïve red monster?

Head of R&D = Elmo – He is probably the most inquisitive of all the Sesame Street characters and is always trying to learn.  So, tickle me silly, Elmo is leading our R&D department (Mr. Noodle was also in the running, but he’s a real person so I passed).

Throughout 50 years, Sesame Street has brought us a ton of characters, so I’m sure I missed a few. Send a comment if I missed one of your favorites or got one wrong in your mind.