Guerilla HR

So HR IS the Police after all???

2011-04-26T20:09:00.000-04:00

So after YEARS of me trying to convince the world that HR's value lies in being a partner to help the business do what it needs to do, people really just want us to be the office police force and handle all those unpleasant conversations about personal scent, food aroma's, lecherous behavior and the proper position for toilet seats in co-ed restrooms.

But seriously, it turns out that if we play the role of the "Good Cop", they will like us after all!
Read the whole diatribe at The real job of HR

Hijacking a tragedy is a travesty

2011-03-27T20:26:00.003-04:00

Just 100 years ago this week, the worst industrial loss of life in American History occurred; The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. This tragic fire took the lives of 146 workers, almost all of whom died because of a series of horribly bad and dangerous decisions about how that facility should be run. In it's wake, the labor movement of the day rallied for safer facilities and many more protections for workers.

Now, a century later, the labor movement of the day is trying to convince workers that we still need THEM to protect us in the workplace. Yes, labor played a big role in getting workplace safety laws implemented, but they are now the law of the land. No less than 5 governmental agencies oversee the safety of workers (OSHA, NLRB, State Fire Marshals, Municipal Fire & Safety Inspectors, and State labor standards officials), yet Unions would have you believe that if not for their interaction, tragedies like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire would be commonplace.

We can all appreciate the role unions played in establishing the laws, but let's be clear here - ALL employees benefit from these protections WITH or WITHOUT being members of a union. Dont let a union organizer try to claim your workplace safety as the sole domain of a union.

Unionizing the TSA???

2011-02-14T20:48:00.000-05:00

File this under the heading of "nothing good can come of this!" So since the TSA cant seem to steer clear of trouble and have a horrendous track record with talent, now POTUS wants to let TSA workers unionize.

Let's see... our track record with allowing critical transit safety folks has gotten us such memorable moments as the Air Traffic Controllers strike debacle. Who are we kidding with this move? These people don't need a union to protect them, they need decent management, supervision and training. In a Presidency which is heavily beholden to organized labor, this is just another move aimed to placate the Unions who counted on Obama to ring in a new era of Union power, when union membership is fading. I guess his stacking the deck at the NLRB with pro-labor appointees wasn't enough to satisfy them when they could not get the hallucinogenically named "Employee Free Choice Act past even the super majority honeymoon of the first part of his administration.

I could (and have already) climb up my stump and vent for hours about this, but let's take a more pragmatic, historical perspective - because "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it"

Let's look at how well most "big union" industries have done so far:

Big Steel - rusted and barely breathing
Automotive - saved only be massive concessions and billions of our tax dollars
Textiles - crushed by cheaper imports....

The list goes on and on. I am NOT anti-union, but I am pro-business and when you don't have a truly compelling reason to bring a union in to protect workers and ensure a reasonable wage, you are just adding complication and cost to the equation. Leave the TSA off the labor unions menu and let them get on with their jobs!

Does your resume stink?

2011-02-04T15:58:00.007-05:00

Perhaps I should start off with a different question like "when is the last time you even looked at your resume?"

I look at resumes ... way too many....every day, and I just have to ask, what are people thinking???

Your resume is your professional introduction to the world, it's the herald that announces you. You want to have it scream "capable, experienced professional", not "out of touch, illiterate egotist"

I could go on for DAYS with a list of things you should / should not put in your resume, but here are a couple of quick pointers:

1. Only put in things you have actually done. If you lie, we will find out, then your name is MUD.

2. Put relevant things in your resume; if you are going for a job as an astronaut, it's not a good idea to talk about your time as a lion tamer...

3. Put measures and metrics in your resume; Don't just say "improved sales results" , say "improved sales results by x%"

4. Put specific stuff in your resume; following from the prior point, say how you improved sales results - what specific actions you took (eg, "by following up on all sales calls with points to address identified customer needs")

5. Make sure your resume and / or cover letter (YES, you DO need one of those), specifically illustrates how your qualifications match the requirements of the role.

Now those are just five quick pointers that will help... for a deeper look, I will now turn you over to an older, but ever-so-relevant post by the wizards over at Manager-Tools which gives this topic a much deeper look. Note that I don't buy into Mark's views on the one-page resume, but you should consider the following rule-of-thumb; the number of DECADES of experience you have is the maximum number of pages your resume should contain.

Happy hunting!

Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes

2009-01-28T19:37:00.006-05:00

Jimmy Buffett's song tells the story pretty danged well. I took a long break from blogging and even took some time off from work to get a little sun and a new job. It's amazing how white sand, blue water and a lot of rum under a palm tree can really change your frame of mind.

Now the tan has faded, the hangover is gone and I've traded the warmth of the sun for the snow and cold of New York. I guess it really is time to get back to work, in every way.

The recent change in job has me all sorts of jazzed because I'm getting to practice the best kind of HR - talent management. Simply put, my job is to help my company assess it's business needs, look at the talent we have in the business and figure out how to fill the skill gaps that will bring the best possible business results. It may sound fancy, but it all boils down to good management skills - and THAT'S what this little circus of a blog is all about.

Enough about my triumphant return ( I could swear I heard trumpets and cannons). This blog is about being a good manager - how did you do while I was away? Did you slip back into the kind of bad management that sparked this rant-tastic blog back on post #1? Slacker time is OVER troops! I'm gonna get blogging and get you to shed some of those flabby, bad manager behaviors and turn you into lean, mean managing machines! Drop and give me 20 good performance reviews!

Next time - Getting 2009 performance management off to a great start!

The Carnival comes back to Guerilla-ville! (Better late than never)

2008-09-01T20:36:00.009-04:00

Ladies and Gentlemen..... Step right up and see the Carnival of HR. Nope, no bearded ladies here, but we do have a bearded blogger and whole kettle of interesting posts this time.

First up is a great post from our friend Wayne (the Cranky one) over at Management issues to help spell out the pleasures and perils of the working from home. I'm afraid GOOF is all too often used to describe me, but not for the right reasons!

Susanna at Recruitment 2.0 ponders a question for the ages; why do all HR Systems all seem to be rubbish? Just a guess here, but maybe because most of us HR-types cant seem to make a compelling business case to force the vendors to deliver something better??!

While Susanna's post title is a little provakative , Etienne at the Happy Employee wins the award for the most shocking post title - "Employees are a necessary evil" . Love the title, but let's keep this little thought just amongst friends in the HR field - if the villagers ever figured out that this is true, they'd be heading to your door with pitchforks and torches!

The Team Doc has a new and no-nonsense approach for us on squelching team member gossip. We seem to be on a very anti-employee thread here - while Etienne says we can do without employees, Denise has offered us a great excuse to clean house by canning folks for gossiping... ooooh, hear me purr!

Alison at Ask A Manager has some good advice on how to find out if you new boss is one to avoid - gotta say I will be taking this advice if I ever change jobs again.

Wally Bock over at Three Star Leadership knows that most managers don't spend near enough time managing their people, and in this post, he explains three reasons why they are not getting this done. Let's all just remember that "reason" does not equate to "legit excuse".

Jon Ingham at Strategic HCM offers a thought provoking (if not a bit depressing) summary and opinion on studies that about the majority of organizational initiatives that fail for lack of a "sense of urgency". Jon is dead on that all the "urgency" in the world will not move the mules unless they have the heart to move... it's all about heart at the end of the day.

And finally - if all the rest were not scary enough - Michael Moore (no... not THAT one), from the Pennsylvania Employment Law blog relates the scary tale about how the American's with Disabilities Act is being applied not just to a businesses physical properties, but to their on-line spaces as well! Wow... kinda makes being a Luddite a bit more attractive, doesn't it?

Well folks, there you have it... the belated September 3rd Carnival!

How'd you like a kick in the butt?

2008-09-01T06:55:00.015-04:00

Have you ever noticed how when something is stuck, whether it be a stubborn door or a machine that wont run, we tend to try the "magic foot lever" (aka a simple kick) to get it moving?

I've lately become addicted to an old sitcom titled That 70's Show, in which the curmudgeonly father figure presumes that most people are dumb-asses and would benefit from a friendly visit of his foot on their ass to promote improved performance. Who knew that Red Foreman could be such a wise man??? Out of the mouths of babes... and screenwriters.....

But seriously, there has to be something to this whole kick in the butt phenomena, right? Examples of this are all around us:

That really tough English teacher who just hated you. She made you struggle and strain to finish that book and write that essay. She kicked you in the ass... and look at you now! You can read and string words together to form a cogent stream of thought. Looks like that kick worked out ok.
How about that maniac coach you had? He made you run laps till you decorated the track with your lunch. But when it came time to run at the track competition, you had the stamina to keep going. Another Kick success story.
Finally, what about your first tough boss. You know, the one who made you do it over till you got it right and kept handing you more challenging projects all the time. Now you are managing people ( or well on your way if that's your choice) and more capable than most because of all the foot-traffic your boss left on the seat of your pants.

When you look back on these things, you really did need that kick. While you might not have been a total dumbass at the time, there was a lesson you needed to learn and that kick was just what you needed to get you moving towards learning it.

So, it seems that kicks aren't just for stuck doors - they are to help people like us get un-stuck from the cycle we are in and launch forward for something better.

YOUR MISSION:

Remember those who gave you those kicks and consider if someone on your team could benefit from the same care and concern, albeit not necessarily in the form of your foot in their butt - after all, I'm an HR weasel and I don't want you to kick someone literally then say you did so because I told you to.

So this is freedom?

2008-08-22T09:54:00.008-04:00

Folks who read this blog will know that I generally try to stay middle-of-the-road on political issues, but occasionally something comes up that is so genuinely repugnant that I just have to take it to task.

Buckle in kids, this is going to be a long and bumpy ride!

So much for the American concept of freedom. If the Unions have their way, a critical part of the protection from forced unionization will be taken from employees. A bill deceptively titled The Employee Free Choice Act would change the playing field for Unions and make it much easier for them to coerce folks into joining union against their will.

The current law governing how unions are established in a company have been around for years and are clearly arranged to protect an employee's right to freely choose to elect a union to represent them, or not. The law today provides a very solid balance to allow employees to freely seek to elect or reject a union without fear of reprisals from either the employer or the Union. See this very brief summary of the Employee's Rights under the National Labor Relations Act.

Like most laws, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) is a pretty long and complicated tome that spells out things in detail. The key elements of the law related to if and how a union gets elected to represent employees are;

Employee / Union rights to organize and;
The election process which includes a secret ballot.

Simply put, Unions have the right to solicit, market, advertise and otherwise communicate to employees why they need a union to represent them. Likewise, employees cannot be prohibited from, or punished for pursuing union representation. The law very clearly protects these rights and the unions know it. Employers who violate these employee rights are penalized and if such violations in any way impeded a union's attempt to get in, the union election process gets the equivalent of a "do-over". Conversely, employers are prohibited from actions that could be construed as being coercive or retaliatory towards employees who support the union.

Typically a union will attempt to organize workers by holding off-site / off-hours meetings, passing out pamphlets or using other marketing methods. Make no mistake on this point - unions are a business and they invest BIG money into marketing and "selling" their value. They hire full-time organizers whose sole job is to get more dues-paying members into the union. This goal of the unions is to get at least 30% of the targeted employees (referred to as the Bargaining Unit) to sign cards saying that they are interested in possibly making the union their representative. They are NOT signing cards to say, "Yes, I want this union to have full authority to negotiate every term and condition of my employment", but if this bill passes, that is EXACTLY what the cards will mean.

In a world where the Employee Free Choice Act gets enacted, there is basically nothing to prevent union thugs ....er, Organizers.... from accosting you and pressuring you to sign away your right to negotiate terms of your employment to them. You'll also be signing on to allow them to take dues from you which may be used to drive union political agendas, to fund illegal activities or even to personally enrich union leaders!

So why is this a bad thing? After all, isn't the union just moving to the logical conclusion a bit faster? Besides, the unions claim, thousands of employees are discriminated against because they support unions. This is simply a clear case of misdirection. Where employees have been mistreated by ill-informed employers for their union supporting actions, the very cases the unions cite as the reason we need the Employee Free Choice Act, are themselves testimony as to how the current law works. The cases they cite are cases in which employers were sanctioned for coercive or retaliatory acts. The unions want this because it would allow them to unionize a work-force virtually overnight for far less cost and effort than allowing the current process in which both sides can educate the audience and allow for a peaceful, thoughtful and FEDERALLY SUPERVISED election process.

The fact is that if this bill passes, the employees will lose the right to vote in secret and be subjected to the "parking lot politics" of having peers and union organizers directly pressure them to sign a card on the spot or be subject to ridicule or harassment. How on earth is this better? IT'S NOT!!! Simply put, if this bill passes, the very employees it proposes to protect will lose a basic protection and American right of electing representation by secret ballot.

YOUR MISSION:

Contact your elected representatives and let them know that the so called "Employee Free Choice Act" is anything but, and that you demand your right to avoid coercion or pressure from anyone through the time tested American standard of the secret ballot.

Gen -"W" as in What the hell?

2008-08-09T20:20:00.004-04:00

You've heard all the generational labels being kicked around the past few years - Boomers (the folks old enough to remember when ...), Gen-X (the folks young and hip enough to bring us the internet), and Gen-Y.

Each generation has it's gifts, talents and traits that make them valuable.... up to a point. It seems that many in Gen-Y (and even the odd-Gen-X'er) have taken to the belief that the rules of their parents simply do not apply to them. I have chosen to stop referring to them as Gen-Y; I now call them Gen-W, where the "W" stands for "what the hell are you thinking?". I am seeing alarming numbers of these folks seeking employment and demonstrating behaviors I have NEVER seen in 18 years in the HR trenches. Worse yet, many of my Sales and Technology Manager friends tell me that they see the same traits:

Resumes that look like one step better than a third-grade student could do with a red crayon with more typos than you can get out of a band of drunken monkies using broken keyboards.
Cover letters (when present) that mis-represent their skills, over-reach for roles they are clearly not qualified for and demanding salaries and perks which they can't reasonably believe they merit.
A general failure to take even cursory steps to learn about the company and role they are applying for - here's a hint - if you don't at least know what we make or sell, you are not going to get the job; period!
Being completely unprepared for interviews; some of these folks have not even read their own resume to explain their experience!

The list goes on and on....

If you are among this select group - THIS is your wake up call!
If you don't shape up and get your act together, you will not get the job.

YOUR MISSION
** This is aimed just for those of you who got offended by this post -

Please, before you contact a company seeking employment, take a step back and review the goofs listed above. Take the time to prepare yourself and take a good, hard look in the mirror and be honest about whether or not you just might be as mortal as the rest of us.

Effective management is a "contact sport"!

2008-08-02T07:06:00.005-04:00

No, I don't mean "contact" in the sense of how you'd pound on someone in Rugby or American Football... I'm referring to "contact" as in having a deep, personal understanding of, and connection with things like:

Your industry; know what it takes for your company to succeed and stay on top of industry events.
Your business. Learn all you can about your business; each function and department.
Your leaders; what are their goals and aspirations for the company and what you can do to help them achieve success for the company.
Your people – personally and professionally to help them grow and contribute to company success.
Your strengths – know them and employ them to achieve the better results.
Your weaknesses – understand your shortcomings and take an active hand in developing them; maybe you cannot overcome them, but you can improve them.
Your competitors: learn who their key players are and who is driving their success in sales, product management, design, etc.

YOUR MISSION:
Stop thinking about your role in the business as the silo of just doing your part, and start really analyzing how you (and your team) interact and contribute to the larger picture of your entire business and industry - get in contact with all of it.

I'm just a Recruiter.... and maybe you should be too!

2008-05-18T14:33:00.009-04:00

I'm just a recruiter. I wasn't born one, never really wanted be one, but here I am... just a recruiter. Given the choice, I'd probably have become an Astronaut, Firefighter or may be a Hot Dog vendor (you know -the little silver cart with the blue & yellow umbrella - yummy!), but I never dreamed I'd become a recruiter. Why? Because recruiters have the unenviable role of living in a business equivalent of the life of Tantalus - trapped between HR and the business. I'm not really HR; I don't warn, threaten or fire people. I'm not really in the business; I don't have a revenue target, I don't make a product and I have little ability to drive business policy... I'm stuck being just a recruiter.

But, I am a good recruiter (yes, they do exist, and especially in the corporate environment, we really do want to help the business succeed). We try really hard to understand your business and what it takes to find the right kind of people to make your business wildly successful. The challenge is that for you, the business managers, the secret formula that make a candidate great seems a second nature. You shrug off the recruiters when we nag you for more info about what a qualified candidate looks like, then bash us because we don't find you the left-handed, purple astrophysicist you wanted a week after you first raised the need.

I'm not writing this post to invoke a pity-party although it feels that way. I'm trying to set the mood here to lend more relevance and emphasis on this article from Fast Company that calls out how important the business manager's role in recruiting the next great player is. Quotes from the article really sound off clearly that the managers need to get into the recruiting process fast and deep: "make clear that hiring great people is not the responsibility of HR. It's the responsibility of every single manager." , "no one outside your group -- no human-resources specialist -- can understand the kind of superstar who will make a difference in your work. Only you can understand that."

You business managers hold the keys to solve your most critical needs, and you don't even recognize it; you need to be recruiters too!

YOUR MISSION

If you are a business manager (or want to be one), start taking stock of what "A Players" in your field look like. Start this exercise before you need to hire someone rather than when the need arises - that's about as effective as closing the barn door after the animals have fled.

Want an easy way to do this? How about turning it into a team project and get everyone to help create the police-artist style description of the type of person you need for each role on your team? That way you will not only have all the answers to give to your recruiter, you will have a profile against which you can start building your own pipeline of talented folks.

Watch what you say

2008-05-14T16:37:00.006-04:00

Internet job board, The Ladders ran a survey recently to find out what office-etiquette goofs could get you into hot water, and the top vote getter was.... Bad Language! In fact 38.4% of the managers surveyed cited this as a reason for firing someone. Obviously, they have never worked with me! By the time I get done with an average day in my little HR-domain I've cussed enough to make a Sailor blush.

My guess is that if you read this blog, you suffer from the same "potty mouth syndrome".

Since this blog is about managing our careers better, I figure we should explore a way to improve on this. One interesting resource I found is the Cuss Control Academy. In my little web-dive to find more on this topic, I found it really amusing that there are lots of articles out there about profanity in the office that call out the behavior as being a detraction to how the work world views you, with even more articles from the academic world that explain how cussing can get you expelled. Seems to me that maybe the same gravitas should apply in the workplace as in the school, but then I'm in HR and that's just how I am wired.

YOUR MISSION
Take a quick pulse-check of your vocabulary. Are you dropping the F-bomb every time someone hands you a task? Have you cussed out your computer before 10 a.m.? Does your "pet name" for the boss begin with the letter "A" and end in hole?

If so, try the following:
- Replace the "F" word with "Monkey" - it'll still be inappropriate to blurt out, but at least it wont get you canned!

Take the test - I double-dog DARE ya!

2008-04-03T18:24:00.008-04:00

I'm not one for on-line tests - they tend to be too general, statistically unreliable and don't reflect reality (not to mention the fact that I usually fail them). I recently saw this quiz and figured it would be harmless to give it a go - guess again my friends.....

The quiz, which you can apply to yourself, a "friend" or even a whole group is about bullying behaviors and if you answer yes to more than 5 of the 25 questions, you've got a big red flag flying. When I first looked at the questions, I thought "oh, that's silly, no one in the office is really unethical, are they?" ,but after a bit more thought, yes.... some really are. As I scrolled down this list of 25 preposterous behaviors, I was alarmed that I have actually seen more than half in my business - some of which even I have been guilty of.

The scary part is not the shame at our behavior, it's the risk we place upon our organizations. Simple workplace bully behavior doesn't make the top-10 list of most HR leader's greatest fears and THAT is what makes it so dangerous; it's insidious and endemic in the organization. People know the behaviors go on, but don't address them because it's not stopping the flow of revenue and no one is threatening to sue, yet...

The fact is that by ignoring or allowing the behaviors, the company is actually making a statement that the behaviors are ok. THAT is the real problem - how can you defend your company from a discrimination or harassment suit when the very behaviors that prompted the claim are accepted by your management every day?

YOUR MISSION:
Create a culture that does not tolerate uncivil behavior. Take a stand for decency no matter who the offender is - if it's your CEO or top grossing sales person - nip it in the bud! The payoff for doing so extends well beyond the obvious risk reduction; you'll see better morale, better results and lower turnover - and those things are NEVER bad!

Managing "Whack-a-Mole" Goals

2008-02-08T08:06:00.000-05:00

Wow, has it really been 2 whole months since my last post?? Yikes! Sorry about that folks - but it does highlight the conditions that drive this post, so maybe it's not so bad after all.We've probably all seen or played the arcade game "Whack-a-Mole". It's an annoyingly addictive game. If you've never played it, go here, then come read this post - it'll make a whole lot more sense that way. Really,..... go ahead...... I'll wait.

Now that you've got a sense of the game - lets go on.

The theme here is that the moles keep popping up out of different holes, and at an increasingly fast tempo; the faster you knock the little buggers down, the faster they pop back up. There's no pattern or order to they way they pop up and if you miss enough of them, you lose the game.

Does this sound familiar? It seems to me that business planning is becoming more like this every day. The pace of change continually increases, the markets & opportunities swing at a break-neck pace and the price of missing a business opportunity is potentially devastating..... just like game.

For good, or bad, we have to accept that this is the way things are and that they are not likely to ever go back to the comfortable old way of establishing annual or long range plans and then living by them. Our reality is that things do and will continue to change VERY fast, and our goals will change with market conditions. Those of us who don't keep pace will have a very rough time of it.

Now, apply this theme to goal-setting for yourself and your team. This means that you should consider setting goals with the inevitability of change in mind. This also means that you've got to keep "whacking " your goals continually {read that as reviewing with your business and your team}.

This agile approach will help you ensure you are whacking the right moles at the right time with the right mallet.

YOUR MISSION:
As you set goals for yourself and your team (which I just know you are doing because your are a good manager) make a very clear point that these goals are subject to change and get everyone prepared to review and revise goals often to ensure that your goals are always aligned with the goals of the company.

Carry on!

When a union comes knocking - part 2

2007-12-09T18:36:00.000-05:00

Having already said that Unions are not necessarily all good or all bad, I am going to continue this topic on the premise that you do not feel that a Union is in the best interests of your company (if that's not the case for you, please tune out now)

There are so many things you can do when a Union tries to organize your workforce that we cannot explore them all - so I want to focus on a list of Do's and Dont's to help you understand what might work best for your company.

DO:

Openly acknowledge the presence of Union Organizers with your staff - both those the Union is trying to organize, and everyone else as well. They won't make their presence a secret and you will only look silly if you try to pretend they are not making a play.
Provide an open and retaliation free forum for employees to discuss their feelings and ask questions of management relating to the Union.
Be honest! Even if it hurts. If you have a track record of not being good (define that as you will) to your employees, own up to it. Acknowledge management mistakes and any sore issues that may be leveraged by the Union to sway the vote.
Hold open forum meetings on company time for ALL employees (not just those being approached by the Union) to explain pertinent information about both your business and the Union. Tell your people the facts about your business. Tell your people the facts about the Union. Most Unions will tell your people about how much your top Execs make (because it's normally on your official filings and is easy to find on the web), but the wont tell your people how much their leaders make! You can find out loads about any Union on sites like UnionFacts.
Make sure that your people understand that Unions can PROMISE anything, but that they can GUARANTEE nothing! If you want to get your employees to see how the Union really operates, suggest that your employees ask the union to guarantee the results they promise. Trust me, they wont!
Have your people ask what the employees who started the campaign are getting for supporting the union. Usually, the ring-leaders of a union campaign are granted special perks like union office or super-seniority (a guarantee that they will be the last union members laid off). Just like in any good spy movie, if you want to know what really motivates people, follow the money!
Get outside employment law advice to ensure you don't violate any laws!

DON'T:

Make threats of any kind, to anyone. Saying something like"If the union gets in, we'll have to lay some folks off" is a sure-fire way to ensure that the union will indeed get in!
Intimidate - don't make people feel pressured or frightened about how they will vote. Let them make up their own mind based on the facts alone.
Make promises. The union will sell that as you trying to buy the employees off cheap.
Spy on the union organization efforts. Your people have a right to meet privately with the union and go through whatever process they need to do come to the best decision for them. Spying on the organizing activity will erode all trust between you and your folks, and once that is gone, a union will be the only logical next step for them.

Finally, no matter how the campaign turns out, remember that you only have to do what is right for your people AND the business.

A good, quick primer on how to keep Unions from getting their foot in the door in the first place. Most of this is just common sense, but we know how uncommon that can be.

I'd love to hear your war stories on this - comments anyone??

Here's to a wonderful 2008!!!

What to do when a Union comes knocking at your door - Part 1

2007-11-29T08:30:00.001-05:00

What to do when a Union Comes knocking - Part 1: Employee beware

In the spirit of my good pal, the Evil HR Lady, I am writing this post in response to questions I've been getting about Unions approaching employees in union-free companies.

Let's start out with a few very basic facts here; Unions can and often do serve a valuable role. Historically, Unions have helped shape the current state of the employment landscape. They have played a key role in the development of many important labor-friendly laws that have eliminated workplace hazards, provided excellent benefits and generally made the world a nicer place to work in.

Even though all of the above is true Unions are not perfect either. Unions survive on the dues that they extract from their members and some have a pretty bad reputation for not being good stewards of those funds. Further, some Unions have a great track record of forcing their way into companies where employees dont really want them through scare tactics and outright threats.

The first thing YOU need to do as an employee or manager is GET THE FACTS before you sign anything. Unions will almost invariably try to get you to sign a card, form or petition saying you want them to represent you. What most people miss out on here is the fact that electing a Union means that you are effectively making them your agent; you are turning over your power to negotiate your terms of employment to them. This is like signing a power of attorney. Imagine if some lawyer confronted you in the parking lot of your company and said "Hey, sign this form and I will get you a better deal" - would you sign it, just like that? Well, that's what the union is asking for when they come to organize.

The first time somebody swindled you out of your peanut butter and jelly sandwich for tuna fish on rye in third grade, you learned two valuable lessons - First, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And second, the grass is NOT greener on the other side (although that tuna fish probably was - yeech!) - That lesson will serve you well when a union comes to town.

Is your "secret sauce" in jeopardy?

2007-11-16T18:48:00.000-05:00

Have you ever thought about the risk to your company from the practice known as poaching. This is the practice where firms effectively raid their competitors to hire away their top talent, you know, the folks on your team who know how to make the "secret sauce". The competitive advantage gained by doing so comes from the double-whammy of your company gaining a top notch player, while simultaneously removing a key player from the competition.

There are very distinct concerns and considerations to this as highlighted in John Sullivan's Inc article on poaching.

I want to focus on poaching as a competitive threat to your company for a moment. You have to understand how poaching works and develop a strategy to recognize it and defend against it if you want to be successful in a competitive industry.

First off, all you really need to know about poaching is this: Unless you work in an industry where NO ONE competes with you, it IS a threat to your very livelihood. Every enterprise, from your local motorcycle repair shop to your local school district poaches at some point. Maybe it's the tight labor market; maybe it's the sadistic vein in the CEO.... whatever the reason, it is real and headed your way eventually.

Now, as to how to head it off; You need to understand that no solution is perfect for all situations and you are not likely to avoid losing staff this way. Knowing how the law on this point works (remember folks, I am NOT a Lawyer - this is solely based on my opinion and experience).

Employees in the U.S. are bound by a common-law duty not to compete with their company. This means that while they are under your employ, they are not permitted to solicit your customers, influence your staff to leave, or take any action to steal your intellectual property. You can use this common-law as an educational point to your staff - having them understand their obligations may help them avoid the temptation in the first place.

Many employers try to protect their secret sauce by having key staff (Executives / Officers, top sales people, strategists, programmers, etc....) sign a non-compete / non - disclosure / non - solicit agreement in which the employee promises not to directly compete, disclosed confidential information to, or lure other staff to work in a competing company. This is not a bad approach and it can be VERY effective in the short run. These agreements have a couple of major drawbacks though; First, you have to get the employee to sign them in recognition of something of value you provide to them - usually a bonus payment . Second, they have to be specific and reasonable. I wont bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that the limits have to be short in duration (generally less than 12 months), specific to known and named competitors in specific geographies and reasonably not preclude the employee from working in your industry in some non-competing way. Not a perfect fit, eh??

In my opinion, these methods are mere adjunct tools in a larger strategy which is much more basic and incorporates all the "little things" that make you a great employer, make your employees loyal to the cause and forms the basis of the real "secret sauce".

YOUR MISSION
Take a look at your exposure to poaching. Resolve all the obvious details like pay equity (internal and market based), truly open lines of communication, fair and consistent performance evaluations, constant and constructive feedback and most important of all - show the troops that you really care. If you get all of this right, you are doing more to protect your business than ANY non-compete agreement can do.

Carnival of HR

2007-11-13T20:20:00.000-05:00

It’s carnival time in HR-land and those ~~fools~~ – er, kindred souls in the Village have entrusted me with hosting it this time. Cue up the Calliope and summon the clowns.

And speaking of Clowns…. I’ve been following the continuing saga of Mr. Alex Rodriguez, and his now infamous demand of a $350 Million Dollar offer just to begin negotiations with the Yankees…. Who does he think he is, Robert Nardelli? How’s that for chutzpah??

Our friend over at Ask A Manager has some good advice that could have saved Home Depot and the Yankees a lot of trouble by managing the performance of people like these two “stars” upfront and properly.

And why is it that sports (and other) stars always put management in difficult positions by being the spoiled people that they are? Kris at the Human Capitalist has some pretty good insights on managing such stars without killing your business.

Maybe we could be better at influencing the behaviors and performance of our stars by having a results-tied compensation plan. Ann from Compensation Force may have the answers in her brilliant post on Incentive Principles.

It’s a pretty good bet that if the Yankees had a decent performance assessment process and a candid Talent Assessment plan they might have headed off the blow-up with A-Rod. Gautam Ghosh came up with a thought provoker about Assessing Potential – how it can be done well, and how we all tend to stumble through it usually.

Peggy at Career Encouragement raised a seemingly unrelated topic, till you look below the surface. She refers to a post on how employees feel about being referred to EAP. Now I’m not making any accusations here, but A-Rod demands $350 Million at the same time Peggy brings up an EAP article…. Coincidence! You decide!

Lisa at HR Thoughts raises a real value perception question that relates nicely as well. So you’ve got a Hero on the team and you reward him for his clinch hit in the bottom of the 9^th to win the game – but do you ever hold him accountable for striking out in the first 8 innings and getting the team into a clinch in the first place??

Maybe the problem isn’t all with A-Rod alone. Maybe a better leader could have inspired and engaged him to play well for less cash – at least that’s a theory that fits Anna’s post from the Engaging Brand. Besides – I cannot deal with the Image of Steinbrenner reading anybody’s palm – yech!

Wally over at Three Star Leadership has a great viewpoint on selecting and developing leaders that touches our theme here as well. Maybe George Steinbrenner should have read this last year??

This topic really had me steamed and I was starting to rail against these smug little sports brats. Wayne Turmel (the host of the Cranky Middle Manager show and President of Greatwebmeetings.com.) pointed out that maybe this generation of spoiled brats isn’t really so bad after all – maybe the kids are alright after all.

And finally (ironic, since she was the first to my door with her post – well done!) Carmen over at Race in the Workplace reminds us that as we move on post this drama and trauma and begin our search for a new bat-wielding hero to propel the Yankees back to the playoffs, we have to acknowledge that talent comes in all form, sizes and colors. We do ourselves and our team a grave injustice when we claim not to notice the color of our teammates.

Phew! – an entire carnival all tied (however loosely) to a topic that I don’t even really care about! Perhaps I have uncovered a hidden talent in myself – maybe I’m a free-style Rapper trapped in an HR geek’s body? NAH!!!

So how much do you think YOU are worth?

2007-11-04T18:20:00.000-05:00

I've been struggling to find a topic that gets my blood hot enough to blog about while still being related to all the management voodoo we cover here. Thank you Mr. Rodriguez!

I read this little bit of insanity in today's New York Post while waiting in the oil change place yesterday. Everyone there from the baseball junkie to the suburban soccer-mom had something to say about the unmitigated gall of A-Rod to seek such a kings ransom despite having been in a virtual coma for the playoffs. While it's an extreme example, it gave me the jolt I needed to bring up a topic we've not covered before - compensation.

As an HR geek, I have seen more than my share of self professed super-star employees come in with some pretty outrageous salary demands and it always gets to me to the point where those otherwise silent voices in my head scream out, "what the heck is she thinking?". Honestly folks, we have all done or at least seen it before. For some reason, you get it in your head that you are not being adequately paid for what you do. Maybe you have had an increase in responsibility or maybe you still do the same job, but have heard about someone else making more, or seen a salary survey indicating that people who do what you think you do make more money for doing it.

I'm not going to suggest that you are (or are not) properly compensated for you job, but I will challenge you to think about your pay this way;

- Are you really underpaid? If you think so, how do you define it?

Being paid less than you feel you need to live on is not the same as being underpaid. I know lots of outstanding burger flippers at McDonalds and some of them seem to be struggling to make ends meet. They are great at what they do, but despite their personal financial challenges, Burger Flippers make $7.25 per hour, period.
Being paid less than others who do the same job you do, with the same quality results and without any difference in seniority (if that applies in your world), IS something you should speak with the boss about.
Comparing your pay to "survey" data is a complex game and you should be careful how you go about it:

Does the survey job you are comparing yourself to really match your job?
Are you doing all the components of the survey job?
Is the survey data from your area, or is it from a national or regional average?
How current is the survey data ?
And most important of all, does your company even care about survey data???

The fact is that we are living in a great job market. Companies are finding it harder to find the talent they need to get the results they need and there is already stiff competition for the best players. If you really feel you are underpaid, why not look around the job market to see how much other companies are willing to pay for your expertise? I know that sounds a bit militant, but hey, you are in the Guerrilla HR page!

YOUR MISSION:
If you feel that you are underpaid, talk to the boss about it. If the company isn't willing to be open and up front with you about your compensation, it may be time to brush up that old resume and float it out to a few companies to see what the rest of the world will pay you for your expertise.

Welcome to the team!

2007-10-07T06:42:00.000-04:00

Think back to your first day on the job. It's funnythat even though that “first day” may have been years ago, you can probably remember it quite vividly. It’s an important day and one that can set the tone for your tenure with the company.

There are loads of studies that show that a good orientation plan is critical to getting new employees productive and keeping them on the team. Some real world examples:

· Texas Instrument determined that employees who completed an orientation were fully productive two months faster than those who did not.

· Corning Glass determined that 69 percent more employees stayed in the company after three years if they completed their orientation program.

The unfortunate fact is that most employers don’t handle this first day, or the process of orientation very well. I find that the reasons for this are lack of understanding of the importance, confusion about whose responsibility it is, and a lack of accountability for the results.

Let’s take this one reason (or excuse) at a time:

Understanding the importance: We all know how costly and painful it is to have to recruit new or replacement staff. Even when they are hired, they take a while to get up to speed. No matter where you are in the organization, the lower productivity of new staff is a real business issue that you need to address.

Confusion about who is responsible for orientation:

No matter how large, complex and well staffed your HR team is, they are only a small part of the solution to orientation. As a manager, you should view orientation as your responsibility, because the most important things a person needs to know about working on your team, are not things HR will know or understand. Whether your HR folks prescribe some form of orientation program or not, you need to have a plan that ensures your new staff have a way to learn from your existing staff, and from you. This will make the new person feel valued, and give them a chance to become assimilated to your ways of getting things done quickly. This can also be a way to show your current staff how much you trust and value their experience.

Accountability for business results:

This one is simple - you are the manager; the buck stops with you!

A good orientation process will make your new staff productive faster and make them feel welcomed, valued and important. All of those things will help you develop and keep a productive team. It’s not hard to do and there are loads of good examples on the net of how simple it can be to arrange a good orientation experience.

In my next post, we’ll talk about one particularly simple, but effective tool – The Buddy.

YOUR MISSION:

Talk to your team about this at your next team meeting (you are having weekly team meetings with your direct reports, right?). Ask each of them to think about what went right with their orientation, and what could have been done better. Then have them draft a simple plan to make sure that every person you hire has a great orientation experience

The first step is admitting that you have a problem!

2007-09-09T17:50:00.000-04:00

Time for the Guerrilla to take a lesson as well as passing it along. Work is to workaholism as a beer is to alcoholism. It can be hard to tell when you have crossed the line between a healthy work-life balance and working just too damn much.

Oddly enough, this family-wrecking, hair greying, blood pressure raising addiction is actually referred to in some cultures as an honorable addiction! There is nothing honorable about working yourself to collapse. There's a great quote from Confucius to help reorient you on this point: To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.

Your mission -
Take this quiz and be honest with yourself. If you fail you really need to take a long hard look at yourself and figure out where your priorities really lie.

The truth will set you free, if you can get past the campaigns

2007-09-03T12:58:00.001-04:00

Ok, chalk this one up in the category of "they have GOT to be kidding, right?"

The ongoing Union vs Non-Union battle is fun to watch, but THIS video was posted as part of a Union campaign to defeat a move in the Indianapolis legislature to allow employees to chose whether they want to support a union or not.... It's basically an argument with no reasonable defense, but the Unions and their "spokespeople" (read lobbyists) chose to strike as many nerves as they could to distract from the real question.

Take a look at this little gem - it's a great example of how a special interest can distract you from the truth to keep get you to vote for their plan, no matter what the facts may say.

Now if you are done crying for poor little Maggie, let's consider the facts the Unions left out... yep, Maggie's got a fair chance of making less than her peers in non-right to work states, but those states have cost of living factors WAY higher than Indiana. They also left out the bit about Right To Work States having much higher job growth, higher median incomes and let's not forget the ever popular right not to pay dues to a union that is funneling your dues to political campaigns without your consent!

I'm not out to bash Unions here, but I just HAD to call them out on this blatant line of B.S.

YOUR MISSION:

No matter the topic of debate, get beyond the hype and drama to get to the facts and make your decision based on the facts alone!

How will the troops perform after you have left?

2007-08-26T15:02:00.000-04:00

It's a common bit of wisdom in the military that the best time to judge a commander is not when he's in front of his troops, but by watching how his troops perform after he has left.

Let's put that to the test. Let's assume you are a good manager (and the fact that you are reading says that you probably are). Your team is known for getting the job done well and everyone thinks you area solid leader for it. Now let's suppose that you are taken out of the picture - maybe you get promoted, maybe you hit the lottery, whatever... you are gone. What is your successor going to find?

Was your team's success due to you taking control, or because you let your team manage themselves effectively? Did they succeed because you coached and trained them well, or because you plugged the gaps they left behind. Did you have a competent, intelligent and resourceful team capable of handling exceptions, or did you shield them from change and just keep them focused on their silos? All the truth behind the performance will come shining through when a new boss takes the helm - this is why the military changes unit commanders so frequently (and maybe your company should too?)

The truth is that the best managers build great teams of fully capable and confident people who really don't need their manager on-hand to deliver success - they could basically do it without the boss in tow. Now that's not saying that the boss has no play. The fact is that the best bosses use the "free time" they get from not having to ride shotgun all day to continually refine process, preempt emergencies and constantly invest in the development of their people.

If that seems painfully simple - it is! Now, you ask if it is so simple, why don't more bosses "get it"? Answer that and the Harvard Business School will let you teach a course on it!

YOUR MISSION:

Review this post with your team and make this pact with them: "If you will help me be a better manager, I will make you the most effective and successful team in our business." This partnership is your first step towards becoming an outstanding leader of an exceptional team.

CARRY ON!

"C" words form the backbone of great recruiting

2007-08-19T08:13:00.000-04:00

I'm a former Army guy - I have to keep stuff really simple. Quick check-lists help me remember steps and key parts of a process. Here's a little list I developed to ensure that I have the proper focus on my role as a recruiter - oddly enough, this list could also be applied to many management roles!

Client Focus: View every interaction as though you were dealing with a client. No matter if you are speaking to a hiring manager (clearly your client), or a candidate (who could be a client) always focus on their needs as part of whatever outcome you are trying to achieve.

Communication: Communication with every audience - internal, external, up the chain or down must be concise and accurate as well as specifically tailored to the needs of the audience. You simply cannot over-communicate!

Coach: The hiring manager knows the needs of the business better than you do, but you know the strategies that yield results. The best coaches ASK more than they ANSWER. Ask questions to get the manager to draw their own conclusion and they will normally land on the right answer.

Consideration: You are asking managers to consider the needs of the role and of the candidate. You are asking the candidate to consider the opportunity. All this consideration needs to play out along with some real personal consideration for all involved. Don't forget that at the heart of the process they are all still people with needs.

Consistency: Aside from all the compliance risks in not being consistent, lack of consistency means you will never be able to replicate the magic when you finally get the recruitment process nailed down. Consistency with candidates, managers and even your team is foundational to being able to grow and consistently deliver great results.

Compelling: You HAVE to be able to tell a compelling story about your business, the opportunity, and even the candidate. Your offers must be compelling to the candidate to effectively convey the desire to have them join and the importance your company places on the role - note that "compelling" does not have to mean heaps of money - if you have followed the points above, you will know what is important to the candidate and THAT's the compelling part!

Candor: Honesty is ALWAYS the best policy - sure you can soften up the feedback, but if the hiring manager is a dolt who does not understand the basics of the business or managing people, SOMEONE has to tell them. Just continuing down the recruiting path with someone like this just means you will have to do it over, and over and over and .....etc! The same holds true with candidates. If Johnny shows up to interview for a VP of Sales job, but has the personality of a librarian.... you REALLY have to tell him. Just using the standard Recruiter's dodge of "it's not the right fit" serves no one. You get off cheap and he doesn't learn why he's not qualified... big missed opportunity there. In practice, I find that candidates really like being told the truth - wouldn't you??

And Finally...CLOSE!! Time is money, so get to the point and close the deal. Force managers and candidates alike to act with a sense of urgency. You have invested time and money going through endless assessments and interviews, now it is time to remind everyone that this process is about business results! If you are not going to hire them, tell them AS SOON AS YOU KNOW. If you are, make the offer NOW! Too many searches go belly-up because we lose candidates to competing offers that came in while we pondered.

Ok, enough for today... I could go on for hours, but then I'd have nothing for future posts.

YOUR MISSION:

Hold this little diatribe up as a measure of your practices on recruiting (or managing in general). See any opportunities??? If so, act on them. If not - write a book and I will buy it!!!

The missing ingredient in business plans? TALENT!

2007-08-12T22:11:00.000-04:00

The lack of the right talent at the right time can hamstring even the best laid business plans, so why is it left out of so many of them? Let's look at a hypothetical case to illustrate the point.

Imagine you are running a business and your business plan calls for a shift from your normal product line of industrial widgets - now you want to get into the widget customization business. The key to success is your ability to crank out a new and better series of widgets that can be adapted to meet your customers varied widget needs. So you ramp up your business plan - You build out your factory to handle the variations and increased production. You get your suppliers on-board to ensure you always have inventory to produce widgets. Heck, you even got yourself a slick custom widget ad-campaign! Now all you need are some super talented, consultative widget subject matter experts / consultants / salespeople.

And that's when it hits you - you never determined if that kind of talent even exists in your market! Turns out that you didn't know that there are very few people who can really sell customized widget solutions, and they all work for your competitor! Wow - don't YOU feel silly?? All ramped up and no one to sell it! Try explaining that little oversight to the shareholders.

The key to your widget “secret sauce” was people with the specific talents you need to get the job done, and you forgot to include them in your business plan. Living proof that if we fail to plan we’re actually planning to fail!

YOUR MISSION:

Take a look at your business planning process. If PEOPLE are not accounted for early on in the process, change your process. The best ideas, technology and products are all useless unless you have the right people working on them.

Surviving organizational change

2007-08-10T10:23:00.000-04:00

Organizational change - whether it be an internal reorganization or a change in ownership, can be a good thing, but if it is not properly managed, it can become a major distraction to the work at hand.

Think about the last major change you faced at work. I'll bet that while it generated a lot of buzz, it did little to drive progress to results. Faced with change and uncertainty, people tend to pull back into their shells a bit. Rather than pushing that big project ahead, folks begin to "circle the wagons" in an effort to protect their jobs.

The sad news is that while keeping one's head down is viewed as a way to survive change - in great organizations, it's a great way to highlight the value you are not bringing to the table! Career Journal takes one particular spin on this which I think is spot on. You have to focus on the opportunity to show the value you bring to the company rather than hiding under your desk to avoid detection - you might not be seen, but your name shows up on payroll reports!

While the Career Journal article seems pointed for upper level muckity-mucks, those of us a bit lower on the corporate food chain should also take heed. Educational / Tech blogger Doug Johnson has some really practical advice - note in particular point 2 - It's all about doing something meaningful and valuable rather than just relying on your title.

YOUR MISSION

No matter the source of the change, your best chance at succeeding is to establish a credible reputation as one of those go-getters that your company just cant do without, rather than being known as "that guy with the bad suit in accounting"! So, start making yourself indispensable TODAY!

Life lessons from a young Marine

2007-07-29T19:51:00.000-04:00

I normally don't let too much of my personal life bleed into this blog, but this is a different case. My family is mourning the loss of my nephew, Corporal James Mazza Jr. Jimmy was a great kid who grew up to be an outstanding young man and a proud Marine. In his passing, I have come to realize some of the great lessons I can learn from him.

Don't cry because it's over, smile because is happened - Jimmy loved that line, and I can now understand how well it truly fits. Life is way to short to spend it in regret. Enjoy the gift you have today fully - consume all the adventure and joy around you....
If you are going to do something, do it all the way. Jimmy took every new challenge as an opportunity to kick it up a notch. He applied this in sport, study and service - every day. That is a view most of the best and brightest share and it is what makes them so successful.
The bonds we form with those who share our struggle and adversity are stronger than any challenge. While Jimmy served only a few years with his unit, his Marine buddies were as close a family as the one he left at home. His buddies all came up here for his funeral and, as hard as it is for a former Army guy to say, these were some of the finest young men I have ever had the privilege to meet.
The seeds we sow can bring a huge return, IF we sow and tend them well. Jimmy was a great person and he truly had a positive impact on just about every life he touched. His Dad is a Police Officer and his Mom is a Teacher. Together, the three of them have touched and saved or improved countless lives. When Jimmy died, the community responded in a way that can best be described as heroic. Sort of like the folks of Bedford Falls all chipping in to help George Bailey, the community delivered a crop of compassion from the seeds of service they planted.
Organizations are only as strong as the devotion they show to their people. The Marines are an extraordinarily tough organization and they draw all the dirtiest and most dangerous missions, yet they are still viewed as elite and membership in their ranks is considered to be an privilege - hard to earn and with you for life if you get it. In seeing the respect, dignity and compassion with which they treat their fallen comrades and the families they leave behind, I now understand how the bonds of this fraternity are formed and the loyalty they share amongst themselves is a reward in itself.

So, with these lessons added to our arsenal and a long road of healing ahead, let's salute this exceptional Marine and try to continue the good fight.

Semper Fi

A good old fashioned rant!

2007-07-16T23:15:00.000-04:00

Frequent readers will know that I normally grouse about bad management practices and then whip out a little bit of advice to overcome the bad behavior.... well today is going to be a bit off that track. Today I am going to take a few pot-shots at Job Seekers!

We've all been job seekers before, but there are some ALARMING new trends I see among those who want to work for my company, and many of my fellow HR trolls tell similar tales around the cauldron, so I figured it was time to act.

First, if you want to get a job selling widgets at my company, you better know a lot about my company; exactly what type of widgets we sell, to whom we sell them to and why our widgets are better than the competition's. Honestly, this doesn't require a lot of work on your part - just read our flipping website and you can articulate all that pretty well - even if you don't really understand it. As simple as this sounds I am appalled at the number of candidates who don't even know what our widgets do! Kind of like me applying for a job running a cruise ship and not knowing it's name, size or even where it sails!

Second - I am the HR geek trying to help the Manager identify, qualify, assess and potentially hire you - treating me like a bellhop ain't such a good idea. If you treat me like crud I might imagine you'd treat colleagues and {gasp} even customers that way! There's NO quicker way to earn the dreaded "Thanks, but....NO thanks" letter from me.

Third - Be realistic. You'd be blown away by some of the unrealistic expectations candidates can have. YES - we do want to woo you, but we are NOT going to give you the keys to the castle on the first date. For example, remember that we are in business to make money - demanding half the profits from a new product is not realistic and will set you apart in a VERY BAD WAY! A corollary to that is, if this is your first or second job, please dont expect to make as much as that 20 year vet sitting next to you - we are not paying for longevity, we are paying for experience, not attitude.

Yes, this was a grand old rant, but it's needed!

YOUR MISSION:

As and when you start interviewing - remember these basics:

Be prepared - Know all you can know about the company
Treat everyone you deal with in the process as you'd like to be treated. Remember, the HR person you crap on in the interview process may well handle your payroll record some day!
Be realistic about the company, the role and yourself - you may be good, but you are NOT the only person who can do the job - understand that no matter how sexy that job looks, somebody has to do the dirty work..... you will likely get your share of that along the way.

Who can you trust?

2007-07-08T20:55:00.000-04:00

I recently blogged about how non-HR folks can be greatly effective recruiters IF you company has a well designed and executed Employee Referral plan. Wally Bock of Three Star Leadership commented on that post about how he hears that folks feel there are not getting the truth from recruiters. Let me get this straight - is Wally saying that recruiters might actually lie? You betcha they do! Especially those for whom there is a payday hanging on your decision to take on that new role.

Let's be clear here - I AM a recruiter and I know how the game is played - we convince ourselves that we are not lying.... maybe we call it "optimistic view-shaping", or "tactical fact withholding" or some other euphemistic term - all of those variants are lying in my book. And while I confess to having done such things at points in my past, I have long since realized the benefits of just being candid, so as a reformed recruiter, I have earned the right to this soap box.

Put aside for a moment the basic fact that such behavior is possibly illegal, is surely unethical, immoral and probably going to cost them some Karma points... beyond all that - It's just plain STUPID!

Your reputation is a critical asset to manage and protect. If you, as a recruiter, treat people well, honor your word and commitments and generally look out for your candidates and prospects, you will gain much more than the momentary rush (and potential payday) of the quick win. If that "win" is achieved by selling the candidate a bill of goods, they will figure it out, quit the job and your name will become three levels lower than pond scum! No candidate with talking to will be willing to speak with you or anyone at your company if the word gets out that you mislead candidates.

Great candidates are in short supply, so it's extremely important to be honest with them. Treat them as you would want to be treated and they will respect you AND your organization. No, you probably wont enjoy such a stellar batting average and some great talent will go for other opportunities, but the folks you do hire will be happier in the near and long term because you will not have held back on them and they will know exactly what they are getting into from the word go! Your personal and organizational reputation will be enhanced and the folks you hire will tell folks about the refreshingly honest approach you have afforded them.

YOUR MISSION:

Do you know what your HR friends are telling your candidates? What are YOU telling your candidates. If you are being any less than open with them, shame on you. Bad Manager! No Donut for you! Now... sin no more and go tell the truth!

The best recruiter in your company DOESN'T work in HR

2007-06-24T11:09:00.000-04:00

Boy - is THAT gonna get me shipped off to the HR dungeon! But it is true - I"m a recruiter and I humbly admit it. Now let me clarify - I'm not talking about someone whose full time profession is talent acquisition - I am talking about people in your company with other jobs. Salespeople, Accountants, Technicians, Admin Assistants and Widget Producers - all of these people can be (or already are), pound-for-pound, better than most recruiters at finding great talent to fill your company's needs!

With a properly designed and managed Employee Referral Program, these folks will understand the importance of their role in helping the company find and engage the most talented people they know. While some will argue that Employee Referral Programs are not the best solution, I say that they are one of a few critical weapons in your arsenal and will pay back many times the investment you make in them - IF they are properly oriented and managed - this article gives some great insight into what I mean. Just look at the success that some companies are getting with Referral Programs and you will agree that there's something good to work with here.

The items linked from here offer great advice, but the first move on this is up to you! Of all the weapons in the guerilla arsenal, this is probably one of the best to roll out because of it's relative low cost and it's potential to drive morale and hiring fast!

YOUR MISSION:

Consider your organization's stand on Employee Referral programs and see if what you are doing works. If it is working well (as referenced in the links above), keep reminding management and HR to help it evolve - if it's not working - refer your HR Geeks to this post and we'll get them on track!

CARRY ON!

Lions and Tigers and Acquisitions... oh MY!

2007-06-17T16:47:00.000-04:00

MAN!!! I just cannot seem to catch a break. Just 6 months after my company was wholly acquired by Dow Jones, now News Corp has made a bid for Dow Jones.... and the "big fish eats smaller fish" theory applies again.

So while I'm honestly a bit weary of the operational tempo associated with this I am neither worried or disheartened by it. In fact, if this sort of activity doesn't get you worked up just a bit, you should really check your pulse! It's natural for this type of thing to be polarizing, exasperating and more than a little exciting (like being chased by a pack of rabid wolves maybe?). I actually find this a great opportunity - let me explain...

The good guerilla knows that effectively managing in a time of change can open new doors. As I blogged in an earlier post about managing within the vortex of M&A you can either lead the process and show the company your value, or you can shrink from the challenge and demonstrate what you don't have to offer. Given the choice, it's ALWAYS better to lead! Don't leave your fate in the hands of others who may not know your talents and desires. Step up, speak up and let everyone around you know what you can do, as well as what you want to do in the new world order.

Now, some of the more timid in the crowd will think this approach a bit brazen, but the battle is usually one by those who take it by the horns - Like the top guns of the British SAS say - Who Dares Wins!

YOUR MISSION:
Take a look at the competitive space your company is operating in. Are you on the market to acquire, or be acquired? Don't wait for the news to tell you about a deal in the works.... start planning out now - what will you do if you are being bought? Plan your next steps and ensure you have everything ready when the storm hits - because you won't have time after the news breaks to make up for missed opportunities along the way.

Measuring your candidates - ask the right question to get the right answer

2007-06-03T16:31:00.000-04:00

Interviewing is the topic today, and for good cause - it seems that most of us basically stink at it. Not having the right process and questions is a sure-fire recipe for disaster. But fear not intrepid reader - for you are in guerrilla-ville and we have a cure for this too.

The first key step in measuring your candidates is to decide what's important and ask questions that really gauge how well they can do it. There are loads of methods out there, but we are Guerrillas and we like to keep things simple. I found this great and amazingly simple article which explains how to do this. A much more thorough peek behind the curtains on this topic is here. Either way, I'm sure you will find this really helpful the next time you have to hire someone.

YOUR MISSION
Don't wait for that key role on your team to open up - start developing an interview process for the role now - heck you can even help the person in the role develop by having them help you write the interview questions because they probably already know exactly what it takes to be successful in the job.

CARRY ON!

NEWSFLASH - Publishing smarter job ads gets you smarter candidates!

2007-06-03T15:15:00.001-04:00

As a recruiter, I often find myself arguing (strike that... "persuading") my hiring managers to be very realistic when specifying the educational and experience requirements for a job they want to fill. You have no idea how many job posting requests I shoot down because they want a person to have an MBA and 15 years experience to take on an entry level sales role.... ?!?!! Ugh!

What we all need to think about is what are the experiences and education that are really necessary for someone to perform the job well. Doing so we can avoid the legal risk associated with posting for 15 years experience with an MBA, then finding our perfect candidate with only 5 years and a BA, or just plain looking stupid to our candidates for not knowing what it really takes to do the job. We need to get up to speed on this fast because the days when you could get talented folks to respond to a poorly constructed job ad are over - talented people are smart and can smell a line of bullcrap a mile away. They want to know more about the job and less about the price of entry.

Setting clear and defensible minimum qualifications up front will allow your candidates to self-select out if they don't measure up while not unnecessarily limiting your candidate pool. Remember, this isn't just a convenience issue - it's a potential legal problem. The US Department of Labor takes a VERY dim view of employers who post one standard, then allow someone below that standard to get the job. It's especially bad if someone in a protected class takes offense at being on the short end of that deal.

YOUR MISSION:

Take a long hard look at the job postings you are putting up. Are they a realistic statement of what it really takes to do the job, or are they some dream sheet? Get down to the basics of what job REALLY requires, then sell the finer things about the role, your team and your company to the candidates to ensure that smart, properly qualified candidates fill your pipeline!

DRIVE ON!!

Winning the War for Talent: Part Two - Grow your own!

2007-05-27T07:29:00.000-04:00

Having explored how to make your company an effective "talent magnet" through building a talent scout mindset and leveraging your brand, we are ready to move on to part two of this series - growing your own talent.

Everything in life takes balance, and talent management is no different. There are always going to be times when you need to fill role and you recognize that the skills, knowledge and abilities required for success just don't exist in your organization - in most of these cases, you will opt to bring in fresh talent. This is particularly important when a fresh perspective is needed. This is an accepted practice, but it can be risky if you overuse it.

The "buy it" option's biggest risk is that the existing workforce will become stagnant and not see the trickle-up impact of promotions and cross-functional assignments. While many employees are not ready to take a promotional, or cross-functional assignment today, you can ensure that you have a ready pool of deployable talent by developing them today for the future. While the main benefit of the "build it" or "grow it" option is to ensure you have the next generation of leaders on deck, there is an equally important ancillary benefit - RETENTION! When your staff sees that you are serious about helping them develop themselves to make ready for new opportunities within the company, they are likely to be more engaged. In organizations where such talent assessment, development and succession planning is not evident, there is a huge competitive risk that some of the best players on your team will be willing to answer the siren call of the recruiter trying to steal them away!

While I normally try to give you simple things that you can immediately act on to better your situation, this one is a much more involved process. Developing the organizational intelligence to know when to buy vs build is not easy, and developing methods to assess your team to understand your succession picture and what's needed to develop folks to meet that mission is a major undertaking - requiring a virtually religious zealot approach. But, as a I said in my very first post, the journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step....

YOUR MISSION
Start the conversation with your leadership about ways to assess your folks, plan for succession and begin developing those in-house destined to become successors, or begin building relationships with folks outside your company who you think would be great successors if no internal folks are, or can be made ready.

Winning the War for Talent: Part one - Building the better mouse trap

2007-05-06T16:55:00.000-04:00

Editorial Note: So much for the "next posts will come out faster" comment! It's been a month, but I am back, so strap in and let's roll

Your company relies a constant inflow of talented folks to help drive the business. So how do you ensure that you are getting enough of the right talent? The answer is the same as that tired old joke about how to get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice! The practice you need to do is actually some simple stuff though, and I can spell it out in just a few bullet points:

Be a CONSTANT TALENT SCOUT. Always be on the lookout for folks who have the kind of talent you need for your team. Whether at a trade show, seminar or at your mates backyard BBQ.... talent is ALWAYS around - you just have to keep looking.
Demand that your company develop an excellent EMPLOYEE REFERRAL PROGRAM. But make it measurable and meaningful! Use it to get your team to be on the lookout for great folks to refer to your company. But not just when a job is posted... they should be referring folks who impress them all the time.... it's hard enough to find talent, waiting till you actually need it on hand is only adding troubles.
Make hiring good people who become successful on your team a goal. Make sure your recruitment effort and spend was worth it by measuring how long those new folks stay, how successful they are in 90, 180 and 365 days. See how they are doing against goals and track their path to promotions. Replicate the efforts that worked and ditch the ones that bore no fruit.
Become an EMPLOYER OF CHOICE. It's hard enough to get candidates to answer the phone when you have a good name, but if you are not recognized as a great place to work, it's a whole lot harder. Being a recognized great place to work (and there are LOTS of ways to get there) will give you something to crow about when pitching your opportunities to prospects. Heck, even if your company isn't a top rated company - you can make your team the most desirable place to work within that company... and that leads me to our next section.... developing internal talent to meet your needs. But that'll have to wait till next time....

YOUR MISSION:
Get cracking on these pointers and start up a "bar napkin list" of the 10 people who most impress you in terms of how they could help your team be more successful and START CALLING THEM! Just call to say "Hi, John... I was reading a geeky HR blog about finding talent, and you came to the top of my mind. Let's talk about where you are with your career and where you'd like to go... I just might be able to help you out... " and let that conversation flow to become the first step in a long and prosperous relationship with your next best employee!

The war for talent - Win, or GO HOME!

2007-04-15T07:43:00.000-04:00

We've all heard about the terrible War for Talent we're facing. Predictions are that in many locales, there won't be enough available workers to fill the jobs. I say the problem is actually much worse than the predictions.... and it's already here. Before we ever get to the problem of not having enough people to fill the jobs, we are already deep into the problem of not having enough TALENTED people to fill key roles.

Now I'm no seer, but in my interview with the Cranky Middle Manager quite a while ago, I brought up the idea that it's not enough to have flow of candidates for your company's jobs... you need the best and brightest candidates if you want to be competitive, but do the math; not enough people to fill the roles in general AND hot competition fueling the hunt for the scarce "Fabulous 15%" equals a recruitment and business execution nightmare.

What can you do when faced with this situation? Well, you cannot change the environment, but you CAN change how you address it.

Having the talent your company needs to succeed requires a two-part strategy. Part one is based on ensuring that your company attracts it's fair share of REALLY TALENTED people. Even in a world where you are competing with companies like Google for great talent, there are ways to differentiate yourself to find, attract and engage talented people. The "buy it" approach to talent.

Part two focuses on finding and developing great talent within your walls by identifying internal talent through assessment, development and deployment techniques. The "build it" approach to talent.

I will remind you again (and again and again!) in this series, that neither talent acquisition (recruitment) or internal talent development alone alone will win the war, but in the right proportions - they can be a devastatingly effective weapon.

I normally blog once a week, but for this series, I will probably roll things out a WHOLE LOT faster..... stay tuned intrepid warrior....

Time to go; When turnover isn't really a bad thing

2007-04-08T20:01:00.000-04:00

All of you card carrying HR trolls in the audience, plug your ears for this one.

Turnover is NOT a bad thing!

There, I said it, and my HR training tells me I should go wash my mouth out with soap for spewing such treason. After all, page 96 of the HR Secret Code Book clearly states that turnover is an indicator of problems and brings huge costs to the company - right??? BUNK!

Sure, turnover is a critical stat for any organization to watch, and I fully acknowledge that the cost of turnover can be something like 150% to 250% of a person's salary, and some will argue that these costs make higher levels of turnover unsustainable. But while these are basically true, they sort of lead you to believe that lower turnover is better always better - and that's not always the case either. There are some general rules that apply; Too much turnover, for too long can be a bad thing because it causes instability, poor moral and prevents the development of individual expertise and organizational culture. Too little turnover can denote stagnation, complacency and a weak performance culture.

Let's look at an example of where a short burst of high turnover can be just what the medicine man ordered.

You run a sales organization with 50 salespeople, each of whom is paid a base salary of $100,000 has a $1 million annual target. If they are on average only hitting 50% of goal, you are only realizing $25 million in revenues against a $50 million goal. How long can you sustain that??

The truth is that while turning over half of your sales force at 250% of their annual salary will cost you over $6 million in turnover costs, you are just cutting your losses.... the costs in lost sales from that group is over $12 million! I'm no math major, but that sounds like a pretty good start. And if you follow our prior lessons about hiring talented people, you might actually have a shot at them actually making their sales goal and turning a profit along the way. And if most of those who leave do so after having been counseled about their poor results, coached on how to improve them and still not getting it done, you get the bonus prize of having established a performance baseline so EVERYONE knows it's time to put up, or move out. Combined with the potential for better hires due to turnover, you've now got the makings of a very solid and performance focused workforce.

Yes, it all sounds pretty cut-throat, and we all know I am a proponent of the "try to develop rather than replace" approach, but let's face it; not everyone is in the right place to grow and perform at a given moment, so the "manage them up or manage them out" approach fits best sometimes.

YOUR MISSION:
Get your HR folks to help you dissect your turnover. Compare your turnover against performance results. How is your turnover spread across groups (job, tenure, age, gender, ethnicity, supervisors, locations, etc). You are looking for evidence that you are holding on to your top performers and exiting your worst. If that's not the case, get HR to help you dig deeper and find ways to make it so.

Who needs to know about the Family Leave Act? YOU!!

2007-03-29T15:42:00.000-04:00

Just when you thought I'd dropped off the face of the planet... here I come, rebounding back into the blogosphere.

As the post title hints, this little rant is about a topic that may make some of you roll your eyes, but take this as firsthand testimony... you need to get a grip on this subject. I found a pretty solid and concise site on this matter that I think will give you some bearings on it, but the basic premise for those of you too impatient to follow that link is this - if your company employs 50 or more people, you have to permit employee who qualify with a job protected leave of absence to care for themselves or a qualified family member, for a period of up to 12 weeks.

Even if your company does not have the legal obligation to comply, it's a good idea to consider it because as the talent pool gets tighter, the folks you don't offer this to are going to find it more attractive to go work for your competitors who do.

I'm an HR geek, so you'd naturally expect me to raise this issue somewhere along the line, but I am writing about it now because I am currently on such a leave. I can tell you that I have arranged hundreds of these Leaves for employees in my career, but never appreciated exactly how important they could be till I experienced it for myself.

YOUR MISSION:
Take a look at your team - who has ailing parents, kids or spouses? Who is ill? Who is having a child? Even better - consider who MIGHT fit any of those descriptions? What will you do when they come to you and say "I need time off to take care of my critically ill child"?
Scary prospect, I know, but you'd better prepare for it now because I can assure you - this situation is going to come your way!

The secret sauce of building your team - PART 3

2007-03-10T22:42:00.000-05:00

Part 3 in the series on how to build your team focuses on three areas; establishing your hunting ground, choosing your weapons, and defining your tactics.

1. Defining your hunting ground -
In this step you define where you want to hunt for your talent - this "hunting ground" is going the place(s) where you think you are most likely to find the talent you need. For example, if in setting you laser focus on the target, you determine that an advanced degree in widgetology was the key requirement, you'd probably want to hunt in the schools that teach widgetology, or the national association of widgetologists. You should also define where you don't want to hunt - are there competitors, clients or partners you should not annoy by poaching their talent away?? Consider whether the types of folks you want belongs to a professional association, are alum of certain schools, or are bloggers. All these vehicles can be prime

2. Choosing your weapons -
No - I am not talking about guns (thought it would be fun to muse on that). I am referring to which of the various recruitment weapons you would like to employ; Networking, Employee Referral, job board search, niche advertising, diversity recruiting, research recruiting, contingent or retained search... or some combination of these or others. Knowing which weapon to use, as well as how and when to use it is more art than science, and this is one of those places where I have to refer to the counsel of your resident HR person. If, however you don't have one of those, remember this - Of all the weapons to use, Internal Transfers (Promotional or developmental assignments), Employee Referral and network hires tend to have the highest success rates, longest tenures... and are VERY inexpensive ways to go - you should always try to exhaust these two methods before moving on to the others.

3. Defining your tactics -
This is the simplest part of the equation, and the one we most frequently get wrong! The tactics I refer to are how you will actually attack the search. Key decisions like who will be involved in the interview process, how many interviews will be required, how long you let candidates wait, who communicates with them, how and how often.... all the key decisions on how you manage the candidates you search for.... I know that many of those points seem self-evident or perhaps a bit too nitty to focus on , but I can assure you - the tactics you employ in dealing with candidates can derail the best search process and leave you with no talent, no pipeline of candidates, and a bad organizational reputation to boot!

The Secret Sauce of building your team - Part 2

2007-03-04T08:46:00.000-05:00

Part 2 - Setting a laser focus on your target

Now that we have defined that we need to fill the position and the results we need this position to achieve, we can start setting our focus on the target of our recruitment efforts. Again, we're going to operate guerrilla -style here so we have to focus on working smart with the resources we have.

STEP 2 - Defining your target

With a clear understanding of the results we need this position to achieve, look within the organization to see if anyone has accomplished such results - and think a little more broadly here; If we need someone to sell 50,000 widgets this quarter, and no one else in our company has sold that many widgets before, consider:

Do we have someone who has sold an outstanding amount of a similar product?
Do we have an expert on widget marketing who has sales skills?

If we find someone who appears to be a good model, let's dissect them to see why they were successful. Exactly what is it that sets them apart from the crowd?

Is there something about their training, background or development that helped them get where they are? If so, can we find others with similar talent by looking in the places where this person "grew up"?
Do they belong to professional associations for widget sellers?
Did they attend a college or other educational program that focuses on the widget sales profession?

Recognizing that our world is imperfect, we have to plan for the fact that we may not find what we are looking for in our company. In fact, they could be working for our major widget competitor. We're not going to dig in deep on this point here, but competitive hiring (aka raiding the competition) is a real tactic and you better be aware of in terms of both your talent hunt, and protecting your valuable talent from being poached.
With this clear picture of the DNA of a person who can do what you need done, do a sanity check on your view - get other managers and leaders to review your model. Do they find it accurate, reasonable and feasible? Do they have any ideas to add?
Knowing the results you need and where folks capable of such results might come from, it's time to start staking out our hunting ground, our weapons and our tactics... and those points are what we will focus on next time.

The secret sauce of building your team - part 1

2007-02-25T19:44:00.000-05:00

While I normally try to keep these posts short, I am moving into a topic that will take a bit longer to cover. I promise it will be worth it.

Having a successful team starts with finding the right people. The problem is that most organizations don’t get this process right – and they pay dearly in terms of turnover and the lost productivity that comes from this sort of misguided “ready, FIRE, aim” approach. This is a big dilemma, and we are going to solve it - Guerilla-style

Step 1 - Gather your Intel:

Intelligence gathering is what keeps the guerilla warrior alive. If you are going to get invest the time, energy and money to recruit someone, you better have your facts straight! Your intel sources include your boss, your customers, your team, your finance person and of course, your HR person. Before you even think about kicking off a recruitment effort, you need to ask and answer some questions:

a. Do you really need to fill this role? I know this sounds like blasphemy – of course you need to fill this role – your team is too short staffed to get it all done – but do you really need this role, right now? Is this an opportunity to re-shuffle the deck – maybe replace the role with something more in tune with your current and future needs? Perhaps to bring in new talent of a different stripe to help fill your talent bench? This is actually a whole topic in itself for another day….

b. EXACTLY what are you looking for? Define exactly what your ideal candidate will be able to do for the team…. Focus on the results first, not on the “requirements” … the results wild define the requirements for you.

c. Once you know exactly what you need from this role, consider if there is anyone inside the organization who can achieve the results you need. Notice that I’m not asking if there is anyone who could “do the job”…. Don’t let people divert you from the focus is on results.

d. Now that we know what the role is supposed to achieve, we can move on to figuring out what the right candidate will look like - and we’ll pick that up in our next post!!

NEXT TIME - The laser focus on your target.

Do you YouTube?

2007-02-18T18:24:00.000-05:00

Technology - the great enabler, right?? Well, maybe not. I am going to go off on more of a rant than usual because this is an issue that really bugs me.

Everybody with an Internet connection has heard about You Tube. I admit that I visit You Tube pretty regularly and have a lot of fun watching some of the clips. The problem is that at it's base, this is a pretty benign thing... then some whack-job has screw it up!

Case in point - there's a clip (actually a number of them) which depict teachers wigging out in the classroom. In these cases students conspired not only to annoy a teacher enough to provoke a response, but to capture and post it.... It's not bad enough that these little charmers chose to abuse someone who is there to help them grow and learn...no, these model citizens decided to publicly humiliate their teacher on a global basis... nice.

We wont get into the philosophical debate about whether these kids violated laws, or were just exercising their constitutional rights, but I defy you to show me any link between this behavior and any intent by the framers of our constitution which would permit this. In fact, I posit that had the Continental Congress seen such behavior they would have turned these kids over a knee and let them have it!

The point to my rant is that this disrespectful behavior has enjoyed a type of audience and celebrity never before imaginable at a time when restrictions on our society seem to show us abdicating our ability to "parent" our kids and ourselves to the electronic babysitter and public opinion. The perfect storm of ubiquitous technology, a sense of entitlement and a public apathy around demanding proper behavior and accountability is having unforeseen and troubling results.

YOUR MISSION

Take a stand - In whatever venue you find this type of techno-misbehavior, demand that those infringing the rights of others stop doing so. If you agree to let your staff record your rant and post it on the Web, so be it... but if they do so without explicit permission - demand they take it down.

The game is social media "tag" - I'm it!

2007-02-11T14:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, admit it. You have, at some point engaged in an e-mail chain. You know the type.... "send this to 10 people in 66 seconds or 20 starving children will perish"... or the ever popular " if you believe in God, send this to 10 people in 2 minutes - if not you will burn in the fires of hell". C'mon, you know you have done it at least once.

I get you to confess to this up front because I am about to (very ashamedly) cow to the peer pressure and engage in such nonsense myself. I do this not so much because I fear the blindness and eternal damnation I will suffer for breaking the chain, but because as Anna Farmery of the Engaging Brand podcast says; if you are going to connect with people, you need to give a bit of yourself first.

I have been "tagged" by a whole list of people, beginning with Wayne Turmel of Cranky Middle Manager fame. He fell victim to leadership coaching guru Rosa Say. I cant say where this began, but the basic concept of the game is simple - Someone tags you and you have to blog 5 things most folks don't know about you. I would normally pass this sort of thing up like a bad stomach virus, but this exercise intrigues me. I have followed the game back a few generations and am impressed with the candor of those who have been tagged - never wanting to be seen as shying away from a challenge.... here I go

5 Things most folks don't know about me:

While I give big clues about my military service, most folks presume I was some sort of gun-toting warrior... actually, I was a "band-aid commando". I worked with a medical unit in the 50th Armored Division - yeah, I carried a gun (imagine the fun if I still did!), but my work was all about healing, not killing.
I didn't come out of the black cauldron of conception wanting to be an HR drone. I actually went to college with plans of becoming a Biology Teacher! How I came to be in HR is a long sordid tale best recounted over several pints at the local pub..... if you are buying, I will tell all!
In college I was so broke that I actually signed up for a psychology school study to measure the affect of alcohol on congnitive skills - not for the science, but because I thought it would be REALLY cool to get paid just for getting drunk!
Back in my Army days, I taught Army Medics how to start IV's. To got them over the fear of doing it, I had them practice on me - really... I have the scars to prove it.
In my impetuous youth I enjoyed rock climbing and rappelling - I haven't done it in years, but I used to rappel off of bridges and pretty much anything that was high and would stand still....I even spent some of your hard earned tax dollars rappelling out of helicopters in Fort Bragg... big fun! Eventually the medications kicked in and I got over that little bug!

Now for the second part of the game - This is the part where I am supposed to single out 5 bloggers and have them publish their 5 unknowns - the problem is that I got tagged before the holidays and by now everyone out there with a blog (or a pulse) has probably already been tagged - so.....

YOUR MISSION
Whether you blog or not - find your "target audience" in your team, peers, neighbors - whatever, and give them a little deeper glimpse into who you are by telling them those five things that they don't already know about you and ask the same of them in return.

Pay for performance, yeah -right!

2007-02-07T20:52:00.000-05:00

Pay for Performance! The words carry such hope for the managers and HR drones among us. Even the "little guy" gets a glimmer of hope that under such a meritocracy, even they have a chance to cash in..... and then reality slams you in the face like a two-by-four when you read about the case of the Home Depot CEO who managed to cut a deal for himself that ensures he gets paid over $200 Million USD, no matter how badly he screwed the pooch! Gee, maybe I ought to ditch this HR gig of mine and take on that job - after all, I have probably spent enough there in the past few years to cover whatever salary I want.

I don't raise the issue to boil your blood (though that's probably happening now too), but I want to use it as an object lesson to get you to lead up. You cant directly control what wacky pay practice your Board will employ for your next CEO, but you can ensure that you apply a pay for performance process on your people.

The payoff for a real, honest and objective pay for performance plan will pay dividend well beyond the initial sweat investment needed to implement it - but only if you do it right. Now, the secret here is that doing it right isn't really all that hard. All you have to do is understand what good performance looks like, gain agreement from all concerned on that point, communicate the hell out of of it - then make everyone live or die by that standard.

See - now wasn't that simple? Maybe I should bottle this stuff up in a consulting package and sell it to the Board over at Home Depot.

YOUR MISSION:
If you don't have a pay for performance plan, talk with your leadership or HR about how your organization can benefit from one. If you have one, USE IT to differentiate rewards.

Regaining your motivation

2007-01-31T21:37:00.000-05:00

Greetings intrepid (and long ignored) reader!

I've humbly returned to my post after too long an absence. I love to blog, but lately have fallen victim to the triple whammy of the dreaded corporate year end shuffle and a long run of household "opportunities" to improve !

Besides all that crazy stuff getting between me and the blog, I have to admit that I was really just not motivated to write anything. Not that there isn't always plenty to write about, but I just wasn't motivated to do so. Realizing that brought out a topic worthy of writing about - how to regain your motivation!

So, you find yourself in the dumps and unmotivated to do something you would normally be doing - writing, reading, going to the gym...whatever. How do you get yourself back in the swing? Well, you could find an interesting article on getting your motivation back,
or you could look for inspiration from trusty sources like The Cranky Middle Manager show!

The key to regaining your motivation is to find something you can get yourself all worked up over - passion is the potion! Yeah, I know.... passion is dangerous ground for an HR geek to tread upon, so I will rely on you to keep this above gutter...

YOUR MISSION:

Figure out what gets your blood pumping and DO IT! It doesn't matter if it is bowling, basket-weaving or brain surgery... get back in the saddle and RIDE!

Carry on!

Another Christmas in the trenches

2007-01-21T18:02:00.000-05:00

Hello, fellow bloggernauts. Sorry I have dropped off the face of the earth for the past few weeks. No, I have not been abducted by aliens or sent to the dungeon by the evil overlords....just been busier than a one legged man at a butt kicking contest with the day job.

In prior posts, I mentioned that my company had been acquired and that has turned my 50 hour weeks into 60 and more.... but that is the worthy price of progress and I am actually having some fun and learning quite a bit in the process.

During my absence from blogging, I got "tagged" 4 or 5 times.... seems that in the blog world, just like meetings - if you are not there to say no, you get all the tasks! I'll be back to the table on that shortly. Needless to say, i can easily dig 5 skeletons out of my closet, but I will be hard pressed to name 5 new victims in the game.... stay tuned for my Tag Revenge!

A little humor goes a long way these days

2006-12-17T19:28:00.000-05:00

Just in time for the holiday rush, some kindly (and clearly good humored) HR person passed this clip along to me. She didn't warn me that I should be mindful of who might be within earshot when I played it..... too late!

While I could just use this little post to kick my profession in the shins (again!), I have chosen to use it as an illustrative point for the budding egotists in our midst. The lesson is that being able to poke fun at yourself or your profession is actually a pretty healthy thing. Self-deprecation can be a pretty disarming skill and can help you take away some of the tension between you and those on the other side of the table. I'm not suggesting you eviscerate yourself or profession as a habit, but you should consider the "lighter" side of just who you are and what you do.

Just as the triumphant Roman Generals did, we all need someone to constantly remind us who we are - "Remember, thou art mortal".....

YOUR MISSION:

Take a long and merciless look into the mirror (figuratively at least) and see if there are any opportunities to bring to light some of the "areas of opportunity" or chinks in your armor - professionally or personally. Consider if those things can be more than a weakness by acknowledging and owning them through a healthy sense of humor... and hold others to same standard - who knows - we might just realize that we are all indeed quite mortal after all.

CARRY ON!

Employee Blogs - As dangerous as you let them be

2006-12-03T17:37:00.002-05:00

This post focuses on two things I have ranted about before - Employee Blogs and The Karma principal in HR and Management - If you treat people well, you have a much lower chance of being hung in blog-effigy or being a poster child on F*%^ed Company or Internal Memos.

My company has taken a pretty enlightened approach to blogs and we are pretty proud of this position. We believe that our people are experts and professionals. Since it is bad form to hide your light under a basket, we feel it perfectly appropriate for our folks to blog - many of them do. Some do it like I do - to vent and educate on matters from managing people to managing your scrabble club. Both are legit uses of blogs, but when you are fortunate enough to have folks in your company who are smart and passionate enough about what they do at work to blog about it, you are entering sacred ground!

I am amazed by the technical prowess and passion of a number of my co-workers. I point out two of theme here because they have taken their passion far beyond that of mortal bloggers - they have blown it out to the point where the line between the blogosphere and the real world gets a little blurry.

Daniella Barbosa and Glenn Fannick are great examples of what can happen when bright, passionate people get behind a cause that is along the lines of helping your company or industry. Hats off to them for being shining examples of how to make this blog thing work.... but there is a darker side- what happens when employee blogs are your enemy. It can and does happen.

Once upon a time in a hypothetical company, an employee who was struggling to keep up with her work was terminated. She felt she had done nothing to deserve termination, but her boss felt there was enough grounds to end this unsuccessful and draining relationship. The HR weasels concurred, and off the employee went - banished to bogey-land! Did employee get the feedback and counsel she needed along the way to know she had skated onto career "thin ice" ? Maybe not. Was her termination handled in a clear, fair and compassionate way so she had no doubt about why her performance was the reason for the termination? Maybe not. Was she left to devise her own truth about what went on? You betcha!

Well, it turns out that the now former employee was a blogger. She, being so betrayed, decided to tell the world about her plight. "I was wronged by them" she ranted. "They fired me without cause and gave me no chance to succeed", "They conspired against me and beset me with evil spells and incantations which turned me in to newt.... I got better.....". Wow - sound familiar? I will bet this sort of thing has happened to most of us at some point, but till now it was just a tongue-lashing at the watercooler of her new office. With the advent of "social media", it becomes fodder for the whole world to chew on, and it can have a worse impact on revenue than a faulty product or a larcenous CEO!

Now I am not saying that this would NOT happen if you managed performance and terminated the person flawlessly (is there such a thing?). She might still blog badly about you, but it is far less likely for someone to toss a blog-grenade at you if you have dealt with them fairly and compassionately. Heck, if you take good care of them, give them feedback and help them grow professionally by giving them the responsibility of challenging assignments and opportunities to strut their stuff, you just might find you have a Daniella or Glenn working for you.

YOUR MISSION:
Start the conversation with your management about a blogging policy and the tack you will take with employee blogs. Consider the great exposure you can get by allowing your best and brightest to be featured in a product or industry focused blog - imagine the boost to your company's image and the pride, development and stature they might gain from the experience.

Then set up a way to track what is being said about your company on blogs. You can invest in some very cool tools like the one's my company, Factiva does, or you can just set up a Google Alert that searches for mention of your company name in blogs - WARNING - if your company name is as common in the press as the word "dude" on a California beach, you better study up on constructing custom search terms!

CARRY ON!!!

More weapons in the Guerilla HR War!

2006-12-03T16:24:00.000-05:00

I have to admit that sometimes I feel like I am all alone in this little quest of mine against bad management. That was till this week. In my usual meanderings through blogville, I stumbled across a blog name that caught my eye - the Evil HR Lady blog. Like a gawker drawn to a train wreck, I could not help but investigate.

This is another great addition to your toolbox, o' weary warrior! The Evil HR Lady dispenses her wisdom through a simple Q&A style. Go ahead - ask her anything! She's ready. I highly recommend her blog for Managers, Line Troops and even the novice HR trolls among you. My hat is off to you Evil HR Lady - your advice to staff and managers does a lot to prevent and quell the firestorms that follow bad decisions - every solid answer you give is another potentially another lawsuit saved.

Another interesting HR blog is HR Lori. This blog is written by a plucky and very down to earth HR person in California and she gets on some pretty good rants about trying to manage HR in the "People's Republic of California" which has more HR related legislation than any American state should be allowed - Shame on you Arnold!

Lori's radar picks up all the down to earth matters that trip up HR, Managers and business in general in a way that even a newbie Manager or HR troll can understand. Rock on Lori!

One last blog of note in this post is Jay Shepard's "Gruntled" Employees blog. I just love the title as it answers the age-old question... if folks you mistreat can be dis gruntled than the folks who don't want to see your skull on a pike must be gruntled??!! This is an excellent blog - a two cup of coffee minimum read though, as Jay has a sharp, sometimes dry sense of humor.
Don't let the fact that Jay is a Lawyer scare you (- they cant ALL be bad, can they?). This one is a MUST READ for all you HR munchkins in the crowd.... even you out of touch HR VPs might want to have a read. Jay, we simply have to meet some day.... the stories we could share.....oh my!!

YOUR MISSION:
I've just given you a resource to use, no matter what your role or level. Best informed = best armed, so take up the weapon of intelligence and get out there! Fight the morons with FACTS and you cant be wrong.

Finally, a topic worth blogging about!

2006-11-26T18:33:00.000-05:00

As I mentioned in a previous post, my company is deep in the work necessary to complete the transaction where one of our two joint venture parents is buying the other out.... "fun" it ain't!!!

But all this work, coupled in with the usual year-end rush of all that HR minutia is really eating into my reading and blogging time. I completely missed posting last week, but not entirely because I was too busy. It was equally as much because there has been nothing that inspired me to write.... tired minds are not very creative and I refuse to post for the sake of posting. So here I sat, as mute as a stone till....... BANG! Inspiration hit me. No, not the noble kind - I was inspired by something so INCREDIBLY STUPID!

You all know that just the mere act of blogging about anything HR'ish is enough to get my secret HR Decoder ring taken away , so this one ought to REALLY get me in deep kimchi with the grand HR Poobah.

My inspiration for this little diatribe of mine is a recently published study by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM). I don't think I'm giving away a secret here by telling you that SHRM is viewed as the professional standard bearer for HR pros in America. They are effectively the embodiment of all the good stuff HR is supposed to stand for... till now.... Strap in kids, you are about to hear a good old fashioned rant that would make my Cranky Middle Manager mentor proud!

It seems that these grand champions of the HR profession felt it necessary to conduct a study on a very tricky and emotionally charged topic; no, not ethics reform, benefits cost containment, or even how to help people affected by layoffs - these geniuses decided it was more important to focus on a REALLY vexing question - Is it OK to have weapons in the workplace?! Honest to goodness - they actually decided that this topic needed a formal study capped off by a slick 32 page report on it! This Society strives to make HR a relevant and important part of the business and the most relevant and helpful topic they can study is weapons in the workplace - dear God! My 8 year old niece knows that weapons anyplace near work or school is a major Bozo no-no!

Holy Hopping Snot - what is wrong with these imbeciles? And they wonder why HR can't get a "seat at the table". Duh! How about we devote our time and talent to solving real problems in the workplace that help people and management get the job done well in a pleasant environment with decent pay and benefits. While I am sure that this topic is important and I don't mean to diminish the tragedies that have occurred when folks bring weapons to work, the answer doesn't require a study and a report - it's much simpler than that; If you treat people decently, fairly and manage performance and layoffs with compassion and help for those impacted, you wont need to worry about them bringing a weapon to bear against you.

YOUR MISSION:

Looking beyond the insanity of this post, consider if there are risk factors in your organization that might increase the possibility of the "disgruntled" worker coming in with his fire stick to exact a little revenge. Know your people and their pain points and look for ways to defuse the problem before the shots ring out.

A timeless lesson, perfectly timed!

2006-11-12T18:33:00.000-05:00

As I have mentioned in a recent post, my company is in the process of being acquired by one of the two parents in the Joint Venture that formed the company. Needless to say, it's a very busy and anxious time. Most of us are anxious about getting all the work done to facilitate closing the deal on schedule, some are anxious about job security, others are anxious about how we are going to operate post acquisition. I could blog about all three of those topics; the work involved in getting through the "deal" in a merger or acquisition is a long post all to itself - so I will leave that for another day. We'll just focus on how to get along in the new world post acquisition.

I found a great article in Fast Company that explains how WebTv and Microsoft managed the integration when WebTv was devoured my the Empire of Gates. Now don't get me wrong, this is not about how to cave into the new corporate culture - this is all about ensuring that you are doing the right things for the company AND the people. Making the right choices based on the core principles of the companies involved - examining and embracing the best things that both have to offer. True, in most acquisitions there are the "acquiring" and those being "acquired", but that does not have to equate to "winners and losers"! There is a lot to learn from each other and the best opportunity for personal and organizational success is to put aside pride and ego and dig deep into the knowledge and talent of your new found colleagues.

YOUR MISSION:

Start planning now for what you will do if your company acquires or is acquired. How will you showcase what your company has accomplished? How will you tell your story and help people see the value of the experiences, processes and people in your company.

Integrity

2006-11-05T20:02:00.000-05:00

You will probably recall the recent sentencing of the former Enron criminal (er... executive) Jeff Skilling. For his greedy and dishonest acts, he's been sent to take a nice long vacation in the land of the orange jumpsuits. While I am thrilled to see him get a long run in prison, I am equally disturbed at the damage that creeps like him have done to the the cause of good management everywhere.

Skilling, and countless jerks like him violate an important trust. Our people have to believe that we are honest and accountable to the truth in all our dealings. How on earth can we ask our people to put themselves on the line for our company, their team or even for us if they don't trust us.

We managers are in important and responsible positions. We have access to information our troops don't get to know about, and we use this knowledge to make decisions that impact them. I found a great quote that I hope puts this into perspective for you; " Integrity without knowledge is weak and useless, and knowledge without integrity is dangerous and dreadful." - Samuel Johnson.

While Jeff Skilling demonstrates the second part of that quote perfectly. I submit to you that the first half of that quote is more often the problem than the second. While most of us are guilty in this regard, it just isn't newsworthy. You're a good boss and you always try to take care of your troops, but how often have you let the value of your integrity be diminished by not backing it up with the knowledge to make it count? Wanting to do the right thing is pretty easy - gathering the information to make sure that that you are doing the right thing effectively, or even ensuring that what you are doing IS the right thing is harder.

YOUR MISSION
Hold on to your integrity and make an "integrity check" part of every decision you make. And before you get to the point of having to make that integrity based decision, get ALL information on the matter. Become smart enough on the topic to know what the "right" decision looks like - then check your gut and charge ahead!

Carry on!

If your boss demands loyalty, give him integrity.
If your boss demands integrity, give him loyalty.

Boo! Scary stuff just in time for Halloween

2006-10-26T06:08:00.000-04:00

Halloween. Time for demons, ghosts and things that "go bump in the night"...and scariest of all - Acquisitions! Mergers, acquisitions, layoffs, etc..... all can be just as scary as all the usual terrifying things we associate with Halloween, but unlike the hordes of zombies that chase us in our nightmares, we CAN control our situation and the outcome of business changes.

This post takes a more personal approach than most because my company is in now in transition. I work for a Joint Venture between two parent companies, and one parent is buying the other out. From a business perspective, it makes sense and creates a whole slew of new opportunities for the business, but this comes at the price of change. Many times such acquisitions force people to change the way the work, where they work, or even IF they work. This is scarier than Freddie Kruger on his worst day!

The trick here is to overcome fear with fact, hysteria with reason and panic with patience and understanding. While most people fear such changes with good reason, the fact is that you can impact the outcome, or at least how well you manage it.

As individual players, we can control how we respond to such changes - the best respected players don't trade in rumor, slander or fear-mongering - they just step up and get it done! Stay focused on the job you do, and look for opportunities to help in the transition. If you just pull into your shell you will miss opportunities to show the organization all the value you can deliver.

As leaders (yes, every one of us can be a leader) we can impact the outcome of the acquisition by stepping up and addressing issues head-on. Communicate the FACTS, squash the rumors, talk with your team and peers to help them see how they can positively influence the outcome.

Be clear, even if you are the ideal team play in this, you may end up out of a job, but would you rather be a victor or a victim?

YOUR MISSION:
Look across your network - do you know anyone who is undergoing such transition? If so, pass this post along to them. Otherwise just e-mail this post to yourself for a rainy day.

Picking winners for your winning team

2006-10-15T20:21:00.000-04:00

From your earliest childhood memories, you can always recall wanting to be on the winning team. When you were standing in the crowd waiting to be picked for whichever side of the kickball game, you longed to be picked by that team with all the cool kids / best kickballers, etc... You dreaded being picked by the weaker side as strongly as you desired joining the good side.

On the other side of the equation, when you were the one doing the picking, you tried your best to pick the best players for your team - deciding your next pick based on who could kick the farthest, or run the fastest, or who was so wiry they never got tagged out.

It's funny how the best teams in business seem to do the same thing. The best managers among us don't just open up a staffing requisition and leave it in the hands of the HR weasels... oh no, the best managers take a very active role in finding the best players for their team - they hire folks they know can get the job done. They hire someone that either they or their other players know and can vouch for. In HR speak - this is an employee referral.

The concept of employee referrals is not new, but it is getting a lot more attention because the statistics about the relative costs and effectiveness of employee referrals make it appear to be a very attractive way to go. My company has taken a very proactive approach to employee referral. We have an employee referral program called "Star Search" and we've gotten over 20% of our new hires YTD through this program - that's a 6.something percent increase over prior years! We're pretty proud of that accomplishment and are driving for an ultimate number of 35% in 3 years because we believe all the statistics are right and so far, our employee referral hires are performing at least as well as most of the high cost agency hires.

Now while I firmly believe that the "kickball" analogy above is the way the world is - I found an interesting perspective in the blog of a Microsoft employee and while the HR Geek in me loves his devotion (however motivated), I have to worry that Don Dodge has taken this to a new high (or low depending on your view).

Now matter how far some take it, I believe that you will get better results with less cost and effort by hiring those great players that you and your team already know.

YOUR MISSION:
Sit down with your team and have a very open discussion about the kind of players you believe you need to help your team win. Brainstorm with your team to paint a mental picture of the type of player you want - then get your team out there in the world to talk to the colleagues, friends and even the competitors they think have the right stuff - even if you don't have a job to fill today you need to start identifying and building a better relationship with these folks.
Happy Hunting!

Technology - the great enabler?

2006-10-10T21:33:00.000-04:00

If you are reading this post, you are the intended audience for this post. My guess about you is that you pride yourself on your relative command of all things technical. You probably have a 1 (or more) mobile phones, blackberry, etc.... Now let me ask you a question - does all the tech at your command really make you any more productive?

This article while a little dated, shines a light just how bad our situation is becomming. We become so connected to our devices that we forget to connect to PEOPLE. Honestly, how many of you can honestly say that our ubiquitous technology has not diverted your attention away at times. Heck, I confess here that part of this blog was authored during a meeting! C'mon, admit it - you have done this sort of thing too. You probably sat in at least one meeting today fiddling with your crackberry, texting someone or reading e-mail on some other device. Worse yet, many of you probably did these things at home and instead of connecting withyour family, you connected to everything else.... that is really sad.

The way we are living isn't living at all. Yes, I know that the pace of work is what presses us to be so connected, but perhaps this is more the case of us failing to manage expectations than failing to manage our work. What if we all just stopped being connected all the time. What if we turned off the crackberry, the cell phone and the pc and actually listened to the people around us for a change?

YOUR MISSION:

Disconnect from all of your devices during every meeting today. Dont check e-mail, dont answer your phone, dont do anything but listen and actively participate in whatever meetings you have today. You'll get more out of the meeting, and so will those you meet with!

They love me, they love me not.......

2006-10-01T20:36:00.000-04:00

Do you remember that little time-waster we used to do when we were kids. We'd think of the person who we fancied, pick a daisy and pluck out the petals one by one, reciting "(s)he loves me" with the first petal and "(s)he loves me not" with the next... this would go on till the last petal and we'd have our answer - unless it was the wrong answer, in which case we'd keep picking daises till we got it right. That way, we knew how the object of our affection felt about us. Too bad we don't have any daises to tell us how that job you have applied for feels about us!

The unfortunate thing is that most recruiters get it wrong when it comes to candidate feedback. We all use the same excuses - too many candidates, too little time to get back to all of them. But we all need to wake up - this ain't the heady 1990's! Candidates are becoming all to scarce and if we don't start treating them better, they are going to take their talents and go find someplace else to play -like our competitors. I found a really great post on the Recruiting Animal blog which spells this all out pretty clearly but I will give you my own prescription on how to cure this problem: COMMUNICATE with EVERY CANDIDATE! With the state of Technology today, there is no reason we cannot migrate from that ancient response of "we will only contact candidates of interest" to an automated e-mail reply that tells a candidate that "love them" or "love them not". Even smaller organizations can now afford automated Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS). Systems to track applicants used to cost zillions, now you can get one on an ASP basis for under 15k. My company recently launched a great system from HRMDirect. While no system is a cure for all your recruitment sins, one can give you a great start toward getting better at communicating with your candidates. Trust me on this one, you cannot afford to risk letting talent slip through your fingers.

YOUR MISSION:
Talk to your HR department about how you manage candidates and insist that prompt and candid feedback to EVERY applicant become the norm.

Don't fear the reaper

2006-09-24T09:20:00.000-04:00

DISCLAIMER - You all know that I work in HR for a company - this post has NOTHING to do with my job or company. It is written in response to the recent news of enormous layoffs in some of Americas largest and most respected companies.

Whether you call it a "downsizing", a "rightsizing" a "redundancy" or a good old-fashioned "layoff" - it still means the same thing - people losing jobs. This topic is about as scary to most of us as DEATH or TAXES. The loss of a job is traumatic, and I don't mean to trivialize it here. No matter how frightening the topic, you need to consider the possibility as you plan out your career. Here are some key points to consider from someone who has been on both sides of the issue.

Lifetime employment is a thing of the past - the average worker today will have 6 or more employers through their career so you cannot bank on having your Father's "20 year and a gold watch" career. Whether it is done at your choice or that of your employer(s), you will change jobs before too long so don't set your heart on being there till you retire.
Like the Godfather said; It's not personal, it's business. No matter how it may appear, the reasons behind layoffs are rooted in a business need. You may disagree with the need or the logic applied, but you have to understand that it's not done to target you personally. Sure there are cases where it is, but you have a better shot at being killed by lightening while holding a winning lottery ticket, standing on a pot of gold than being truly "targeted" in a layoff, and an even smaller chance of proving it... so just go on as if it's not personal.
Only the fittest will survive. Generally the folks who survive a layoff process are those who are best prepared. Being fit in this context has less to do with physical fitness and more to do with career fitness. The exercises that keep you fit in this regard are; keeping your resume up to date, building and maintaining your network, pursuing career and personal development opportunities and continually assessing the environment both in you company and in your field (especially with regard to who is hiring). The best and most prepared among us don't really "survive" a layoff because we are gone before it can touch us!
What does not kill me makes me stronger. As stated earlier, losing a job is traumatic. Your income, lifestyle and pride are all in jeopardy, but if you keep these points in mind, you can survive and prosper. Losing a job through firing or layoff has been the catalyst that launched some of the most impressive careers in history - you can use this forced change to help you jump into a new future - something you may have feared doing up till now.
Victim or Victor - the choice is yours. Given that this can happen to almost anyone at any time, your ability to avoid being laid off at some point in your career is slim and you can have very little control over whether or not it will happen to you. The only thing you can completely control is how you respond to it. Many go into "victim" mode - they grieve, rage, fume and harbor resentment... none of these actions will get you a new job. You have to make a conscious decision to beat your circumstances by applying a rational, reasoned and disciplined approach to moving on and accelerating your career beyond this hurdle. The choice to be a victim or victor is completely up to you.

YOUR MISSION
Start preparing yourself now. Don't wait for the handwriting to appear on the wall. Keep your resume up to date, keep growing and developing yourself and your network and always keep up with your industry for opportunities.

Back to school for the kids - what about you?

2006-09-18T11:02:00.000-04:00

Summer is over. The kids have all returned to school. New bookbags, sharp pencils and a whole new world of learning in front of them. What about you? When is the last time you cracked open a book, studied a new topic or read anything besides the directions on bag of microwave popcorn?

Normally, I use this little pulpit of mine to preach about business learning, career management and all things HR'ish - today's rant is of a much more personal nature. Today we beyond professional development and focus on personal development.

I'm taking a cue from my kids and am starting some studies of my own this fall, and am devoting some time to a more academic pursuit beyond the development I am continually doing to further my career; I'm studying history. Now as you my have guessed by the theme of this little blog'o mine, I have spent some time in the military and have quite an affinity for all things green and explosive, so my history studies will focus on military history - ancient military history.

Now that I have shared a bit of my inner nerd, what is your passion? Do we have any closet-poets in the crowd? Perhaps a budding ornithologist in our midst. It doesn't matter what your non-work pursuit is as long as you have one. Such non-work stuff is widely accepted as a vacation for the mind, and let's face it... couldn't we all us a vacation now and then?

YOUR MISSION:

Find some area you are passionate about and invest some study in it. Whether it is history or world economics, you will surely gain insights that will benefit you along the way.

Carry on!

It's my career, stupid!

2006-08-27T16:31:00.000-04:00

Who remembers that snippy little political bumper-sticker "It's the economy, stupid!"? Well, I have a renewed version of that little quip for 2006 - "It's my career, stupid!"

Regular readers of my blog will know that I totally believe that every person's career, development and work-life balance is up to them. It is my view that no one else can manage your career like you can. You should ask for, and take all the developmental opportunities, career options you desire. If you don't claim what you want, than shame on you for not trying. But for those of us who do actively look for opportunities only to have them fall by the wayside of the boss's goals, shame on the boss!

This interesting article in Workforce Management is a pretty good wake-up call for those among us who have to lead and manage others. I still hold to my beliefs that you alone bear responsibility for managing your career, but the boss who fails to provide you with training, tools and opportunities is a problem too. And according to this study, it is clear that fewer of us are willing to tolerate having our careers used to grease the skids for the the boss' ambitions alone.

To the bosses among our ranks, the message is clear - your people are yours to win, or to lose. Either you help them win, or you better start getting your recruitment strategy ready, because you WILL lose them - and when word gets around about why these talented people are leaving, you better start packing your bags too because good companies wont allow poor managers to cost them talent for long.

YOUR MISSION:

Take a check of your team. Who has development needs that you can help with? Who would benefit by being put on, or in charge of that next project? Have you even had an "aspirations and desires" discussion with them? Start investing in your team today by asking these questions and revisit them frequently. Always put your team's needs in the equation when deciding what to do. If you follow this advice and act in their best interests, the worst thing that can happen is that they'll see that you care, and the best outcome is that they wont leave, will continue to grow and add real value every day.

The clock is running down on summer 2006 - have you had your Picnic yet?

2006-08-20T21:06:00.000-04:00

Ok, so it's only summer in the Northern half of the world - I promise I will re-post this in December for all those living South of the Equator.

But seriously, the general themes of summer - pool parties, picnics, bar-b-ques, etc all seem to put people in a pretty happy place. The kind of happy feelings that are associated with these activities could never be mixed with any kind of business meeting ----- or could they?

I read a fun article in careerjournal that tells about how some companies are leveraging their annual corporate picnic to get a mix of business and pleasure. This article came complete with some good ideas and even a pretty cool recipe for Ranch Beans!

Now I am not suggesting that you try to whip up a big corporate cook-out, but you might find it a valuable investment of your time and a small amount of money to arrange a simple covered-dish type picnic with your team, or just taking your team out for ice cream at ColdStone.

YOUR MISSION

See if you can find a way to couple some sort of picnic with doling out some much deserved pats-on-the-back. Maybe you could even invent a few new team awards - gag awards, or serious ones to point out the best in your people and to celeberate successes. Who knows, you might start a new company tradition. Go for whatever type of shindig you dig, but do something that your team will be comfortable with and enjoy before the summer is gone and we head off to that crazy time called the 4th Quarter!

Carry on!

Harassment by any other name...

2006-08-13T20:08:00.000-04:00

Pop - Quiz!!

Your best employee, Liz has just told you that Tom is harassing her. What do you do?

Well, if you are like most managers, the second thing you do is hit the panic button (the first is to pick yourself up off the floor!). This is a tough situation and requires you to be at the top of your game. Now I'm about to say something that might get my HR-witch doctors license revoked, but you can manage this situation. HR should be involved, but not every company has a real HR function - so just like the Boy Scouts say, you've got to "Be Prepared".

I stumbled across a pretty good article in Forbes that spells out a good plan of action and some key "do" and "do not" advice. This is good stuff for the average manager. You are at the point of decision and you are the key to action so knowing how to keep your cool and process the information effectively and promptly could mean the difference between being stood up at the Company's Annual meeting and being cited as the "Boss of the Year", or being stood up in front of a jury to explain yourself - the former is ALAWAYS preferable to the latter!

Let me give you one more little tid-bit on point from my Secret HR Voo-Doo book - ALWAYS err on the side of caution to protect your people. Keep the matter as low key as possible - you are not hiding it, ignoring it or avoiding it, but you cannot make it look like a matter to panic over. Guage your response to the level of the threat to your staff and balance your response between keeping everyone safe and maintaining a calm envrionment.

YOUR MISSION
Take a moment during your next team meeting and discuss the topic of harassment with your team - your message has two parts and is VERY concise -
1. We dont tolerate harassment in any form, from anybody here. Full stop!
2. If you feel you are being harassed by anyone - speak to me or (some other competent company authority) and we will deal with the situation promptly, confidentially and ensure that any wrongdoing is halted - full stop!

If you spend 5 minutes covering this in your next team meeting (oh, you do have those - dont you?), and document it in your minutes (oh, you do record minutes of your meetings, dont you???), you can greatly improve your chances of heading off and surviving a harassment incident.

Carry on!

Work Life Balance ? Confucius says YES!

2006-07-31T16:09:00.000-04:00

In this never-ending pressure cooker we call business, it is a commonly held belief that we have to be committed and running at 110% of capacity to stay in the game. In fact, a number of studies support this by pointing out that we don't even take all of our vacation, or that if we do take vacation, we still stay connected. What kind of vacation is that???

Some say that the best ideas have all already been had, and in this matter, I believe Confucius has cornered the market! He said "To go too far is as bad as to fall short. While I dont claim to be a Confucian scholor (or any kind of scholar for that matter) this little gem really stands out. He's telling us that running at full speed will keep us from achieving all we can, but the WSJ.Com article by Hunkar Ozyasar tells a much more compelling tale. While we are all so busy running full-throttle just to keep up, we are missing key messages, opportuniteis and our lives! Letting up on the throttle, just a little bit will give you the time to THINK! Stopping just long enough to check your compass may be all the break you need to see how far off course you have run and take corrective action.

YOUR MISSION
STOP!!!! Take a little time to assess just how much time and energy you are expending each day and examine if or how this exertion is helping you meet your goals. If it's not... it's time to make a course correction to a pure focus on YOUR GOALS! I'll bet keeping this focus will help you find the time you need for your family and your sanity.

Better meetings - the Cranky Middle Manager way

2006-07-30T18:21:00.000-04:00

Think about the last meeting you attended. Was it a meaningful and productive use of your time, or did you sit in a room with a lot of other "victims" and try do drown out the discussion by immersing yourself in your crackberry?

It's a sad but very plain fact that most meetings are horrible! The unfortunate part is that while we all see this, very few try to actually do anything to help. Thankfully, there is a new voice on this topic. You may know Wayne Turmel from his Cranky Middle Manager Podcast.

I have know Wayne for a while now and he's one of the rare breed of middle managers who "gets it". He has a very informal and engaging style to get his message across. Judging by the size and loyalty of his audience, I'd say that they think he's onto something - I surely do!

Wayne has recently published an e-book titled "Meet like you mean it - The Cranky Middle Manager's Guide to Painless and Productive Meetings". I have had the opportunity to read this and I dare say that Wayne has nailed it. Sure, this book may not sit well with the starched collars at IBM or Accenture, but for the rest of us living in the trench-warfare we call work, it's a great read. I know more than a few organizations for which this should be required reading!

YOUR MISSION:
Take Wayne's book, or any other on the topic of running effective meetings
and read it - then pass the knowledge on to every meeting-calling knuckle dragger you know. Stand up for your rights and demand that if you have to have meetings - do it like you mean it!

Summertime and the livin is... CRAZY!

2006-07-23T15:41:00.000-04:00

Ok, now I'm on two weeks with no posts... I don't even know where the time has gone. Like most folks, I am trying to fit in as much work/life balance as I can, but as much as I love blogging, work/life balance doesnt leave a lot of room for blogging in the summertime.

But in this situation, just like almost everything else in guerilla world, there is a lesson to be learned: Balancing is harder than it looks!

I love to blog but I also love to do other things like camping, floating in the pool and enjoying meals, drinks occasionally, hangovers with my friends. Summertime is much more conducive to the beaches, beer, binges and ballgames than blogging, so it is easy for blogging to get lost. Warm weather, cold pools and good friends are WAAAYYY more fun than sitting at a keyboard!

But, I claimed to have a lesson here - and that is that it is ok to NOT get it all done! Some things, no matter how important they may feel, are not as important as others. Sure, I am passionate about my little blog here, but I am sure that I wont really regret missing a few posts along the way as much as I might regret not having spent some quality time with my family and friends.

YOUR MISSION:
STOP! Take a deep breath. Now take stock of the important things in your life. Are you spending enough time on them. Can / should you steal some of your life back from work/school, or whatever else is taking you away from these important things? Imagine that today is your last day - will you face that day with regrets? If so, you need to re-evaluate and get back to the balance you know you need.

Where does the time go???

2006-06-28T20:45:00.000-04:00

Wow! I just realized I have not posted in over a week. Seems odd that someone who professes the virtues of self-development should forget to invest the time in his own development.....

But it's a topic worth talking about; we all know we need to work on our development, but we allow things to get in the way. Vacations, work schedules, even the World Cup will easliy invade our precious time in a way to make development take a back seat. So let me ask you - when is the last time you invested a little time in your own development? If you are like most of us, you cannot remember!

One technique that I've heard of to stay on track with your own development is to schedule time in your calendar for it. Simply block out a recurring meeting for an hour a week, or two or whatever works for you and devote that time to "sharpening the saw". You can decide what type of development activity best suits you, your goals and your timeslot, but make a clear commitment on your calender not just to take the time, but also about what you intend to accomplish - reading Jack Welche's newest book, listening to The Cranky Middle Manager Podcast or refreshing yourself on the corporate mission, vision, values and goals... all can be worthwhile development actions.

YOUR MISSION
Crack open your diary, Outlook or whatever you use and block a recurring meeting RIGHT NOW! Dont let anything short of a fire alarm keep you from this appointment and then TELL YOUR BOSS and YOUR TEAM what you are doing.... "I'm going to my development appointment" will send a message that you care about development and are using it to become a better player.

What do Footie, the MLB and jewelery sales have to do with the business?

2006-06-12T19:06:00.000-04:00

Could I have picked more obscure topics - probably not! So what do those things (and a million other random items) have to do with each other and your business? They can all be great ways to connect people in the workplace to one another, and that can be a great differentaitor in how people feel connected to the workplace.

Football (in either flavor- American or European) is a major passtime - even the most buttoned down person you know will chat to you about exploits of their favorite team. Same holds true for Baseball and just about any other prefix to -ball! Jewelery and Avon enthusiasts aboud in most offices too. These are all great opportunities for people with like interests to connect and bond.

Since the folks in our office already share the common bond of working together, some of us presume that's enough for them to be sociable about. But the truth is that just sharing (or surviving in) the same office space does not help us grow to understand and appreciate each other. Adding in common threads of human pursuit - be it ice hockey or air hockey - gives a common non-work connection for people. This can foster interactions that transcend the co-worker and help us understand and appreciate the PERSON!

Honestly, how many of us have blown-off a request from a co-worker? Dont lie - it's sooo unflattering - we've ALL done it! On the other hand we are far less likely to deny a request from someone we know, care about and may even call "friend". Call it friendship, comradarie or anything else - emotions that transcend the workplace are far more valuable and rewarding for all concerned.

YOUR MISSION
Identify one common thread with 3 other employees in your company - could be on your team or not, it doesnt matter - then engage them in that common thread. Talk about World Cup news, Basketball playoffs, summer fashions... whatever! Just open a non-work door for communication and shared interests and see what blooms.

Growth through giving

2006-06-04T21:33:00.000-04:00

Charity begins at home, but shouldn’t end there. – Scottish Proverb

The best leaders among us are recognized by many traits. We often describe leaders as; smart, brave, loyal, strong, dedicated, fearless, etc... Odd how when you ask most folks for words to describe great leaders, they leave out words like generous, self-less, charitable and compassionate. I submit that if you really want to describe the greatest leaders of our time, these words must be included.

Charity takes on many forms – you can be charitable to your staff, to your company or even to your competitors, but the truest forms of charity have less to do with business for they will be seen as a tactic in the business world. The most telling examples of charity that set great leaders apart from the pack are those done with a sincere intent to help, and to lead and encourage others to join in the cause.

I’ve had the privilege of working for some great leaders along they way and they helped me find the courage to commit to charitable works that give me an opportunity to give something back to the world. While I know in my mind that I am putting myself in a “good light” by doing these charitable things, my heart drives me into the work with no consideration for any benefit I might derive – giving is my reward alone.

Ok, so here’s the shameless plug – I am volunteering in an American Cancer Society program named “Relay for Life”. It’s a 24 hour relay event where members of my team will be walking on a track for 24 hours straight to raise funds, awareness and even the spirits of cancer survivors. I have lots of personal reasons to do this. I figure that many of you have the same reasons to engage in some charitable cause. I would, of course appreciate any support you would care to lend. If you would like to know more about this event or to see how you can help, please visit my Relay For Life site – you can see all sorts of information about this event, how you can help or just leave a message of encouragement to our team or the survivors we support.

YOUR MISSION
Find some charitable work to engage in. There are hundreds of ways you can give back to the world – Disease prevention and cure groups, religious groups, youth services, domestic and substance abuse… the list goes on and on. You can surely find a way to help by contributing your time, talents or resources – whatever the cause, you can find a way to contribute. You’ll be glad you did!

"New Media" - the next development wave

2006-05-21T20:39:00.000-04:00

The fact that you are reading this post says a lot about you. It shows that you are tech saavy enough to find (or at least stumble across) a blog and that you are actually concerned enough about your own development to actually read this. You are already taking part in the next big thing in personal / professional development - New Media. The laymans terms version of new media is this whole mess of blogs, wickis, portals, podcasts, etc. - all new and exciting avenues to get our message out into the public domain and strike up a conversation.

If you scan over to the right border of this page, you can see a short list of some of my favorite blogs, pages and podacasts. Some I listen to for fun, but many are helping me take charge of my personal and professional development. I do this because the realities of time, work and a long commute make it difficult for me to engage in some of the more traditional development activities like reading, taking courses to pursue my next degree or engaging in certification courses. Just because I lack the time or resources to pursue my development the old fashioned way does not mean I cannot continue to learn and grow every day.

All it takes to successfully take advantage of all the education out there is a computer, an mp3 player (note that I didnt cop-out to apple and say I-pod) and a little investigation to find podcasts that cover the topics you want to develop your skills on. You can download and listen to podcasts almost anywhere and there are thousands of them on almost any topic you can imagine. Beyond the podcasts, you can get short snippets of information from any blog, wiki or portal that has an RSS feed and have those "headlines" show up in your email or even as a little pop-up window on your PC.

A simple HR-weasle like me cannot hope to understand it all, let alone explain it very well, but I can tell you that I get a lot smarter every day because of all of this voodoo.

YOUR MISSION:
Stop by any one of the links to the right of this post (in the upper right hand part). Just use them as an example and lauchning pad for your own trip into the world of new media and self-directed development. Once you get comfortable in this new world, share the wealth and give your direct reports an assignment to do the same thing for their own development!

Bon chance, mon ami!

And you thought all the managment stuff was just for "business"

2006-05-15T20:12:00.000-04:00

You have to admit it. You thought that all my rantings were focused on business only. It probably never entered your mind that the stuff we discuss here can have equal play in almost any walk of life.

Beyond my "day job" as a Human Resources weasle, I have a part-time volunteer gig as a Firefighter - that's right.... one of those nuts who drives the big red truck and runs into burning buildings against the tide of smarter people running out of them. I raise this not to introduce you to my odd vocation, but to bring to light how even the Fire Service adopts the concepts we cover here to improve how they work. Let's face it - if you think managing a bunch of customer service reps at "Widgets-R-Us" is tough, imagine leading a bunch of rough-edged Firefighters in a real fire!

Chief Alan Brunacini of the Phoenix, Arizona Fire Department is one of the most down-to-earth leaders I have ever encountered - this guy "gets it" and has dedicated a lot of his career to helping grow better leaders for his organization. Probably the most impactful thing I've read from the Chief is his Boss Power Process . This simple little document explains loads about how management concepts transcend industry, region and language - great leaders all follow the same path.

YOUR MISSION:
Look for new and inspiring examples of leadership and leaders / teams who live the values you aspire to, then copy what they do! Immitation is indeed a great form of flattery.

Feedback - the breakfast of champions

2006-05-07T21:39:00.000-04:00

Feedback - the very word can strike fear into the hearts of most of us. I'm willing to bet it brings you to a cold-sweat just the way it does for me. It's an unfortunate thing because correctly timed and delivered feedback is one of the best performance enhancers around (Sorry Barry Bonds, you should have tried this before experimenting!)

The reason so many of us dread feedback is that it is too often done wrong and almost always focused on something we didn't do well. There is another side to feedback - positive - though many managers seen to have forgetten that it exists. Positive feedback should be seen as part of the reward for doing something right. I don't want to oversimplify and bring in the Pavlov's dogs example, but when we get rewarded for behaviors, we are much more likely to repeat those successful behaviors.... seems like such a simple concept - too bad we seem to ignore it.

Even the downside of feedback is good stuff for us if timed and delivered properly. One of the best examples of how to deliver feedback comes from one of my favorite podcasts; Manager Tools. The guys who run this podcast really "get it". They have a simple and very effective approach to giving feedback that works for positive as well as negative feedback. The real beauty of this model is that if you follow it with your team as part of the normal course of business, you will find that they accept, and even seek feedback to ensure they are on track and delivering great results.

YOUR MISSION
Go check out "Mananger Tools" and listen to their podcasts on feedback then start using their techniques today. It may not be comfortable at first, but neither climbing a mountain - it's tough work and it's often not pretty, but the benefits you'll reap will make it all worthwhile. Carry on!

Sharpening the saw

2006-04-30T20:56:00.000-04:00

I’m back after taking a week off to “sharpen the saw”. I didn’t actually do the whole Steven Covey thing. I’m talking about something much simpler here. My well isn’t deep enough to get into all the spiritual and holistic things Covey recommends, so I, like all good guerilla fighters, stayed with the more pragmatic and tactical things.

I’m an HR person and I work with a team of HR people who are stationed in North America, Europe and Asia. This past week we all got together in sunny New Jersey for a week long team meeting. Now, contrary to popular belief, a room full of HR people does not break out into spontaneous songs and group hugs! We actually do have fun, but during our team meeting we are all focused on learning new skills and sharpening old ones. We worked on how to identify the best people to hire to help our company, how to develop the people we have on hand to perform their best and how to become more aligned with and supportive of the business.

We surveyed our team by asking the following two part question:

1. When did you learn the most in your career?
2. When were you most engaged?

Ask yourself those questions – then read on…..

Not surprisingly enough, our results mirrored the results of numerous studies – We all found that we learned more and were more engaged when we were involved assignments which pushed us beyond the limits we thought we had. We had to think, learn, grow and be responsible for our results. No one in our group really believed that they learned or grew from courses they took or seminars they attended.

This is the tactical “saw sharpening” we all need to engage in. We need to take charge of our development and seek out opportunities to learn, grow and do great things. We might fail at the assignment but you cannot fail in the goal to learn and grow.

YOUR MISSION:

Take charge of your personal and professional development TODAY! Start looking for opportunities to sharpen your saw by taking on new assignments that will stretch you and force you to learn new skills.

We keep score by the numbers, don't we?

2006-04-18T21:05:00.000-04:00

We keep score by the numbers. A simple concept, right. How many touchdowns, homeruns, goals, etc… is the way we gauge how well our “team” is doing. It’s all measurable and simple to understand and the livelihood of the team and management hang in the balance.

Isn’t odd then that while we find it perfectly acceptable to track the performance of our favorite sports teams by number, we seem to have such a hard time doing it for ourselves? Seriously, unless you work in Finance or Sales, using numbers to track team performance is somewhat of a black art. Sure, most of us can speak about attainment against revenue targets, but do any of us get below the easy stuff and look at the more strategic things?

When is the last time you looked beyond your revenue numbers and checked on other important “scores”? Turnover rate, time to hire, alignment of performance scores to company results, employee satisfaction / engagement? None of these is quite as exciting as hitting that big sale home run, but believe me, if you are not paying attention to these other measures, the likelihood of long term success for your business is pretty darn bleak. There are too many studies to link to (not to mention a mountain of common sense) to support the supposition that an engaged workforce are the best resource to achieve business success…. They succeed better, stay longer and become an absolute “talent pump” brining in new referrals and building new skills. It is alarming that such a commonly understood cause and effect relationship between these things and organizational success should go largely ignored by front line managers.

YOUR MISSION:
Get your HR people to tell you about the turnover stats, time to hire metrics and employee engagement measures of your staff. Understand these numbers and what they are telling you, then ACT on the information to improve!

Blogging - Friend or Foe

2006-04-03T21:10:00.000-04:00

The fact that you are reading this post tells me that you know a thing or two about blogging. It's among the latest tech inspired trends and pretty much anyone with an agenda or a desire to share has at least given blogging a try. At their best, blogs provide people with a way to engage in the exchange of ideas, at their worst, they can cause career meltdown.

In this little blog 'o mine I try to share ideas, info and techniques to help you manage your staff and your career. I, like most of you, can get pretty passionate about the things I blog about. The trick is to find a way to let your passion out without getting yourself into a whole passle of trouble. As an HR geek, it stands to reason that I have a whole box full of the comany's dirty laundry, but to expose it would be stupid, rude and career suicide.... so I leave out the details and keep myself active on the payroll for another day.

While a quick Google of the web will bring up lots of examples of people claiming they got fired for blogging, the truth is that people dont get fired for blogging; they get fired for what they blog! Now, let me put my HR Wizard hat on - If your company has a policy about blogging, follow it! I know that sounds terribly HRish of me, but believe me - even if the blogging policy is a rag and infringes on your first ammendment rights, you are better off to swallow hard and live with it, because while the ACLU might defend you if you get canned, they won't pay your rent while you are between jobs! In fact, I'll stake my HR secret decoder ring that you won't be fired for blogging about your hobbies (PG-13 or better), your cat, or even something as potentially tricky as management IF you leave out questionable, objectionable, or confidential information. But if you go off on a blog-rant about what an idiot your boss is, the ingredients for your company's new "secret sauce", or how you and the VP of Sales are shaggging..... you will end up on the bad end of the situation - start practicing this pharse in prep for your next job - "Would you like fries with that?"

Used for good rather than evil, blogs are a powerful weapon in our war against bad management, but just like any weapon, you have to weild it wisely or risk putting your own eye out!

Your Mission
Lace up your boots and march boldly into the blogosphere! Use blogs as a tool to learn and refer your boss and subordinates to blogs that you find helpful in your career. The extra credit exercise - IF you have a passion to do so, and have something important to say - try your hand a blogging. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!

HR takes one on the chin... again!

2006-03-26T19:45:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it's not news to many of you, but last summer's bombshell diatribe by Keith Hammond "Why we hate HR" sent shockwaves through the inner sanctum of HR and the business world all jumped on this HR hate-fest. As a card carrying member of the HR collective, I too was stunned and a bit put off. Who was this Fast Company nerd (c'mon kids - have you seen his picture?) to fire such a shot across the heretofore invincible HR machine? Doesn't he know who we are??? Then, as soon as he started the firestorm, he went underground - some sort of sabbatical, which I took as code-word for "hiding under a rock like Salman Rushdie"!

Well, time heals all things (at least for those of us with short memories or attention spans). Last week I was innocently listening to a podast from one of my favorite sources - Landed.FM and was surprised to hear the host interviewing the culprit of the aforementioned attack on HR. I was riveted - expecting the host who is a real HRish kind of guy tangle with his prey. To my surprise, the interview went in a whole different direction.

The short version is, after hearing Hammond's well moderated explanation (well done Peter!) I had to admit, this guy was actually right - HR has put itself in a position to be hated! We keep saying we're a "strategic partner" and demanding our "place at the table", but we are not delivering to earn that. Hate is a pretty strong word, but in business emotions are just that simple and BOY, have we earned this!

Ok, so why expose you to this raw nerve for HR... Simple! You need to have talented people - HR is supposed to deliver candidates with talent AND help you devlelop your staff to have the right skills to compete for business!

Your mission is to get nose to nose with your HR people and tell them you need them to deliver. Hold their feet to the fire to help you acquire, develop, deploy and retain great talent.

This is just one more important part of being a Guerilla - they take on every enemy that gets in their way, and they try to convert even their enemies to be their allies.

Carry on troops!

Mentoring - The guerilla's secret weapon

2006-03-19T11:06:00.000-05:00

Mentoring – The toughest job you’ll ever love.

Ok, how many of you remember the Peace Corps recruiting slogan – “The toughest job you’ll ever love”? It speaks of a higher calling to serve the commuinity, where the rewards far outweigh the effort you put forth. Wow… talk about an altruistic focus!

As guerilla warriors, you too have a good and noble cause - to rid the world of bad management. Ok, so it’s not so noble a cause as curing world hunger, but one has to choose one’s battles and while both are daunting challenges, you can make a big impact on our cause with little steps today.

According to the soon to be published Guerilla Manifesto, we always look for simple tools and techniques to make the biggest impact - leveraging small efforts into huge results - in that view, mentoring could be considered the guerilla's secret weapon. Mentoring is the relationship where a more experienced person provides a structured and focused learning opportunity to a lesser experienced person. We’re going to focus on your role as the Mentor today.

It would seem at this point that mentorships are a one-way street with the mentee getting all the benefit, but I can assure you that you the as the mentor, you will be getting an even greater benefit. In being a proper mentor, you will need to brush up on parts of your game where you may not be at the top of your form. You will need to listen, coach, collaborate and leverage your knowledge and contacts to provide your mentee with the best resources to develop in the areas you have agreed to work on. It’s like the old US Army training doctrine – if you want someone to develop expertise on a subject, have them prepare for and deliver a training session to their peers on it; they invariably end up much smarter on the topic than they were before. The same will hold true for you in your mentoring engagement.

So, your task is to get in touch with your HR folks, Staff Development, or even your boss, colleagues and friends and seek out an opportunity to give someone with less experience the opportunity to benefit from what you know. If you do it right, you’ll come out with far more than the thanks of the mentee; you will surely learn and improve your standing in the process. You will achieve true win-win! Even better, by providing a great mentoring experience to your mentee, you can invest them with our mindset and gain another ally in our battle - expanding our reach and influence over all the bad management around us - And that’s how guerilla’s get it done.

So what have you done for me lately?

2006-03-06T22:50:00.000-05:00

Doesn’t that phrase absolutely grate on your nerves? It surely has caused me a few grey hairs over the years, but it doesn’t have to have a totally negative connotation. Over time, I have gained a different perspective on that phrase and see a valuable business use for it.

Since we are all about being better managers, and better managing those above us on the corporate food chain, let’s see how this little phrase can be incorporated into our Guerilla arsenal.

“What have you done for me lately” is something we should all be asking every day – directed at those we work with and to ourselves. No, I’m not saying you should put up a whiny front with your co-workers, just use it as a catch-phrase to keep your mind focused on constant improvement.

Directed at your subordinates, the phrase should be geared towards driving their focus on the things they are responsible to deliver to the organization; revenue, tasks, widget production… whatever. It can help guide your conversations to check on their progress and open an opportunity for them to ask you the same question of you – how are you supporting their drive to success.

That question has the same 360۫ application between you and your boss with the same potential benefits and results. If you are daring, you can even take this question a few steps further - ask it of yourself with reference to how well your are balancing work & life, progressing against fitness goals, or to gauge how you are doing in almost any other endeavor designed to benefit YOU! That’s probably the most valuable application of all.

A vacation for the HR Guerilla? Nah!

2006-03-06T22:39:00.000-05:00

Even the HR weasels among us can cash in on a good time now and then. My wife’s job just sent her to a user conference for the software system they use in the office, and through a nefarious web of deals, I managed to get myself some time off and fly to the conference with her. Now before you go imagining how much of a geek I must be to do so, let me clue you in on the cold, hard facts – We live in New Jersey and the conference is in Phoenix, it's March and there is snow and ice in NJ.... you do the math! As an added bonus, some friends of our were also going on this trip as well.

So, what does this have to do with the topic of this blog (aside from me bragging a bit)? Plenty! We HR weasels never really take a day off. I got to provide some side-line coaching to my bride and her colleague on how to address the concerns they had with the vendor. While the relationship between vendor and customer isn’t really the same as that between manager and staff, there are enough similarities to note. First, in both cases, someone is responsible for making someone else happy. Next, in both cases, someone has to deliver a product in order to get paid. Finally, in both cases, each party needs to get something out of the relationship for it to be successful. So, I guess the topics aren’t that far apart after all.

The key message here is that I found an opportunity to practice a very important Guerilla skill – helping others help themselves to prepare for and win their own Guerilla battles. The cool part was that I got to do it in a warm and beautiful environment. Better still is the end result that my bride got what she wanted out of the trip and we’ve both been enjoying her significantly lower stress levels ever since. Pretty amazing what some sunshine and a few “Prickly Pear Margaritas” can do for a person!

Now, it’s your turn. Go out into your life and find someone – a colleague, a friend, maybe even a spouse who could use some insight on how to deal with a customer, boss or colleague and help them think through their strategy. This informal coaching will help you gain comfort in listening, coaching and influencing – all noble skills for a Guerilla to keep sharp.

Cheers from sunny Sedona!

A new ally in the war

2006-02-25T21:57:00.000-05:00

In our little war against bad management, we need all the help we can get. I have found a very interesting fellow who’s been on this crusade for a long time already, and he’s got a pretty cool podcast as the key weapon in his arsenal. Wayne Turmel is our new ally.

Wayne is a Canadian born Manager working in the US who puts out a very plucky podcast that is hosted by an Australian podcast site and is enjoyed by a truly global audience. If you manage people or are interested in learning how to do it, and have a good time doing it, I highly recommend The Cranky Middle Manager Show.

I was recently a guest on Wayne’s show. The topic of our discussion was how real people are dealing with the talent challenge – that scary demographic and business trend that indicates that there are going to be fewer great people to fill those roles critical for your company to thrive. During my interview with Wayne we talked about some of the things that my company and others are doing (or planning) to help figure out the correct, balance between bringing in external talent to ensure a good flow of new and innovative ideas, and investing in the development of your existing staff to ensure you’ve got the best team to help you compete.

Now I’ll grant you that this topic and the information I run through in the interview seem more like a big strategic battle plan than the Guerilla tactics we normally subscribe to, but the methods discussed here are just scalable enough to let you start doing them as tactical parts of your job every day and they will achieve the same tactical wins you want. The bonus is that these tactical wins are building blocks for a bigger strategy.

People dont quit jobs - they quit bosses

2006-02-21T21:28:00.000-05:00

In a recent article I saw the Top 10 Reasons why people quit. The sad news is that all 10 of those reasons are linked to poor management behaviors. It’s an odd paradox, that within the trenches, most people think that money drives this, but compensation wasn’t even on the list. Now we all know that comp plays some role – even the most altruistic among us longs for that shiny, red BMW 325i convertible (ooops… letting too much of ME leak into the blog again!) , but the core reasons we look for a new job usually have less to do with the money and more to do with the way we feel about the job we have. If we were perfectly sated in the job we have, we wouldn’t be looking about, now would we?

Ok Troops – why have I called your attention to this little pearl of wisdom? Because I want you to take action of course! Your mission is to go out into your workplace and get 2 other managers to join you as you look over the reasons cited on the link and figure out if these behaviors are possibly impacting your teams – and if so – tell them to discuss the topic with their people. Imagine the powerful message that conversation will send.

The extra-credit assignment – consider if your boss is reflected in the list and have them take a look at the list…. “Fortune favors the brave”, but if it doesn’t, springtime might be nice time to take some time off to search for your next job.

Painless Performance

2006-02-07T21:53:00.000-05:00

Painless Performance Management – Myth or Reality – YOU decide

Ok, with an intro like that even the cynics in the crowd have to be at least a little intrigued, right?  Well, it can be true if you are willing to make the investments necessary.  I caveat here – painless does not equate to easy.

Performance Management has gotten a bad rap in the business world – kind of like the way all Sharks take the heat for the misdeeds of a few ill-advised and ill-fated sharks who choose to snack from the beachfront buffet in August – it’s got the grain of truth to it, but under objective review, it is far less worrisome than it’s rumored to be.

Performance Management should be a welcome part of our career cycle, but too many of us view the process with fear.  Whether giving or receiving – we dread it at some level.  Maybe it’s post-traumatic stress from mistreatment at the hands of  a bad boss, maybe it’s dread of the emotions that surface at the time…. Whatever the reason – it can be debilitating and that makes us not do it.  That’s the start of a cycle of bad habits.

Let’s break it down into simple little steps you can start doing today

Step 1 – Talk to your people!  Not just idyll water cooler chats, but meaningful conversations about them.  Who they are, what they want out of life, what’s important to them.
Step 2 – Discuss their goals and progress against them openly and often.  Ask not just how much progress they are making, but why.  Do they have the information, resources, etc.. to get the job done?  Find out how they can leverage this experience to prepare them for the next assignment or promotion.
Step 3 –  Give them fair, candid feedback on their progress and results.  Do this often.  Congratulate them on their successes – make a big fuss about their big wins.  Counsel them on the things they need to improve on with a focus on making them a success – it’s not about what they did wrong, it’s about helping them do it better next time.  Make them understand that you want them to succeed (which had better be true)

Yes, I know…. Sounds simple and not realistic in this light, right… but try to do it and you’ll see why I said “painless”,  not “easy”.  If it was easy, the company could hire a chimp to do it and you’d be on the street….and that is where the “painless” part of our story ends.

The most wonderful time of the year ! ????

2005-12-17T20:18:00.000-05:00

Yes, it's that time of year again! Performance Review Time!!! Yippee!......

What - you're not excited about this? We'll you're in pretty good company. It’s generally accepted as an immutable law of the universe that most managers HATE this process and consider it among the least enjoyable tasks they carry out - one step above firing people and two steps above getting sacked. In fact, most of your employees hate it every bit as much as you do. But it doesn’t have to be this way – and it SHOULDN’T!

I found a really great website which provides tools and podcasts to help managers do a better job of managing people - http://www.manager-tools.com/ .

The two gents who run this show are really quite good at what they do, in that they don’t just pontificate on what you should be doing – they give you specific steps on how to do it.

I won't go into all the details about the site, but suffice to say that I’m the Guerilla HR warfare guy and I think it’s great - If you have gotten anything out of my blog, you will surely get a LOT of Manager Tools.

Before you even think about doing performance reveiws on your team this year, I strongly recommend that you visit http://www.manager-tools.com/ and hear what these guys have to say. You wont be disappointed.

Next time – taking the pain out of performance management.

When good people do bad things

2005-12-17T19:31:00.000-05:00

Greetings gang - I'm back after an unexpected break. I got caught up in all the fun that HR people have to deal with when someone shakes the idiot tree really hard.

That brings us to our topic du jour - how to handle the situation when good people do bad things.

Face the cold hard truth; sometimes even the best person you know will something bad that may hurt you, your relationship or even you business. It's tough to make the distinction between a good person and the bad behavior they have just carried out.

The trick to these situations is to separate the person from the behavior and focus appropriately on both! Tell the person how you feel about them and use that to be the basis for why the behavior is so unacceptable. Let's play out a little example - your best employee, John, has just failed to deliver on an important assignment - here's an example of what you might say:

"John, you are one of the best employees here. That is why I'm so surprised and disappointed that you did not complete your assignment. People recognize what a good worker you are and and many look up to you - this is a bad example for them and reflects poorly on you. We both know that you are capable of doing much better. Now please go complete the assignment....."

You may want to restate the task, conditions and standard to ensure that John understands it. Then turn John loose and watch him go. It's never a sure thing, but odds are that John will go forth and sin no more.

To thine own self (and team) be Candid!

2005-11-20T18:20:00.000-05:00

Did you ever stop to wonder about those old standards they taught us when we were kids…. "Honesty is the best policy", "do unto others"…, and my all time favorite, “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all”?

There is a common and growing school of thought that we learned all the important stuff when we were in kindergarten. I believe that is absolutely true.

Let’s take one of these little gems as an example and I’ll prove my point…..

Honesty is the best policy. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? It’s a simple statement - Don’t lie! Anyone should be able to comply with that one, but in the context of adults conducting business it seems we just can’t keep it that simple.

While we muse about it being a "kindergarten rule", we can see outstanding cases where people who practice it and demand it of those around them have excelled. Take a look around you – see the best and brightest people you know. I’ll bet you can associate a number of words with them; dedicated, driven, diligent, smart and somewhere in that list will be honest. Let’s face it, there are those among us who are successful but not honest – just watch and you'll see where those people end up over the years. The folks who keep faith with the truth always achieve better success in the long run. Whether you view Jack Welsh as a great or terrible leader, you have to appreciate the benefits his drive for candor has netted for GE.

Yes, I know the objections – it’s a “Dilbert” world out there full of pointy haired imbecilic, bureaucrat bosses who would rather eat a dirt-sandwich than hear the truth…. BUT in the end, the truth will outlast bureaucracy, poor management and even stupidity.

So how do you take this little bit of wisdom into your world – simple… Be Candid! Tell people what you think. But remember that candor and politeness are not mutually exclusive – you can (and should) tell the truth in a way that is not a reproach, not condemning and not “holier than thou”. Nobody likes that stuff.

Candor in the workplace starts with simple things. It starts between you and your people – your team. Being candid with them builds trust, improves communication and sets an example that cannot be denied. The double –whammy is that in being candid, you demonstrate a behavior you want them to emulate and they feel more obliged to emulate it because you have shown them your honest conviction to being candid! Wow… talk about a case of leading by example!

Note that I didn’t say that you should run out and be honest with the boss about that terrible toupee…. that is a lesson for another day. However, you can start to provide candid feedback up and down your org-chart today by sharing your views in a polite and respectful way. People may not agree with you, but if you deliver your candid feedback properly, at least they wont hate you and at best, they will respect you for being sticking you candid with them.

I can say with absolute honesty, it has been my pleasure to post this and I look forward to your candid feedback to help me improve this blog to make it a more useful point of reference on your management journey.

The journey of 1000 miles begins with the first step

2005-11-11T20:08:00.000-05:00

Welcome back, fearless reader. The fact that you've come back says a lot about you. I read it to mean that you have some interest in being a better boss, or better managing your boss.... in either case - you are in the right place.

Let me set a couple of ground-rules. First - everything you read here is covered under the "Dragnet disclaimer" about the story being true but the names being changed to protect the innocent (or the guilty, stupid, etc...). Second, with all the bad management going on out there, I cant pretend to guess what is important to you, so I ask for comments, questions, opinions, rants.... whatever.
Third, all the good ideas, tips, tools and useful stuff you may find here is the work of other smart people - I may have re-worded, re-packaged or re-spun it, but it is not mine. On the other hand, if it is unclear, not useful or in any way offensive, then it must be my own intellectual property. Fourth and finally, any opinions I state are mine alone, so dont try to blame or sue anybody else for what I post. Wow... what a load of HR-sounding stuff that was!!!

Now, we get down to business. The first topic for us to cover is probably the most elusive of all - What does good management look like? I guess the best answer there is the same as the definition of pornography - you cant explain what it is, but you sure do know it when you see it. Maybe we cant describe it easily because we dont see it enough. If you dig deep in your memory, I'll bet you can recall a manager who treated you right. They gave you opportunities and challenges that let you stretch and grow. They stated the task, conditions and standards for success clearly, offered resources to help you succeed, held you accountable for your results and followed through with the reward when you succeeded. Gee, when I explain it that way, it sounds so simple. But if it is so simple, why do so many managers fail to do it? That is a question for Oracles to ponder.

Let's take a deeper look at how a good manager assigns a task. First, they clearly lay out what the task is so that we'll know exactly what we should be doing. They explain the conditions under which the task is to be done - what tools, resources, etc are needed, and they make sure we have those things. Next, they give us a clear picture of what a successful result should look like (how many, what color and by when). Wrapped around these parts is a clear understanding that they are delegating both the task AND the accountability for getting it done. This means that the task is now ours and we will carry the benefits of success and the burden of failure.

Good managers know this and practice it every day... the rest of us knew it, forgot it and resorted to doing the task oursleves or slamming it into the inbox of a suborinate with none of the steps above - both are probably and unfortunately more familiar to you than the good example. That's a shame! Because in the way we're probably doing things today, we are cheating ourselves of the ability to focus on other tasks more in line with our resonsibilities, and cheating our staff of opportunities to learn and grow. That's the path to organizational and professional obsolesence.

So, now that you know what one facet of good management looks like, what are you going to do? Just reading this Blog isn't going to help you be a better manager... you have to take action to improve. I challenge you to take the first step in our Gureilla war against bad management practices - commit yourself to delegate JUST ONE task exactly as outlined above. When it is complete, ask the person who did it how they feel about it. Odds are that if you have followed the steps above, they will have been successful and will feel pretty good about it. That's the Guerilla way - you have just taken one seemingly simple step that will get the job done AND win the hearts and minds of your people along the way!

Guerilla HR - Because it's war out there!

2005-11-10T21:42:00.000-05:00

Welcome to Guerilla HR.... a blog built to help you, the business people, better manage your teams and careers by providing information that will help you achieve the results you need by capitalizing on a better relationship with Human Resources, Personnel Management, Human Capital Management, or whatever it is called in your world.

My name is Patrick Williams and I have been in HR management for a whole lot longer than I care to admit. In all that time, I have always marveled at the ability of people in HR to completely transform what we do into such a black art that the mere mention of HR causes even the most seasoned business manager to shiver, sweat or slip into a catatonic state.

Ok, so why the oddball name? Why not some touchy-feely HR'ish label? Two simple reasons:

1. I wanted something off the beaten path to lure in the adventurous types... looks like it worked at least for you!

2. I wanted a name that represented this hapless little quest I have engaged on - Guerilla warfare against bad management. Let's face it - there's a lot of really bad management going on around us, and it starts with the basic interaction between managers and those being managed. This is an unofficial, "layman's terms" resource designed to arm a world of non-HR folks with the tools and tips they need to be outstanding managers, and to give all of us who are managed by someone else some good tools to help us manage up and prosper.

Now, before we take one more step down this path, let me reassure you that I'm not out to convert anybody and I'm not selling anything. This whole rant is about getting people to take advantage of some proven tactics that simply work- there is no magic snake-oil to be had here - just sound people-management advice.

I expect that's probably all the HR blather you can take in one sitting, but I'll be back soon with our first topic. Strap on your helmets - things might get bumpy from here out.....