Guest Article: A Decade In #HR: I Have No Impact by Melissa Fairman

I was updating my LI profile the other night and realized that I have been in HR for over TEN years.  A decade in a profession that can be incredibly rewarding, frustrating and sometimes soul-crushing all in the same day. Over the last decade, I’ve learned some important lessons from observation and personal experience.  That’s what this series […]

Continue reading...

Article source:Melissa Fairman - A Decade In #HR: I Have No Impact»

Check out more of Melissa Fairman's work at HR Remix

Guest Article: A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to My Career by Jay Kuhns, SPHR

I had a very clear plan as an undergraduate. It's almost impossible to say that with a straight face now!

A clear plan.

At 21.

Hahahaha.

Plan A
I went off to undergraduate school with a clear vision of what the next forty years were going to look like.

I almost made it to graduation day...
...then changed plans.

Plan B
I worked for a couple of years to figure everything out and then headed off to graduate school.

I had a clear vision of what the next forty years were going to look like.

I almost made it to graduation day...
...then changed plans.

You Will Never Think Big Enough
I've had the privilege to learn, grow, and serve in senior level positions for amazing organizations.

What have I learned?
- I didn't think big enough early on
- I didn't think big enough once things started moving quickly
- I'm still not thinking big enough (although I'm thinking pretty damn big!)

How About You
Is your career mapped out already? How could that possibly be true in a world filled with endless opportunities?

You can be more...if you want to be. There is nothing holding you back.
Literally. Nothing.

Think bigger every day. Even if you're embarrassed about your vision for your future.

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

pic
Article source:Jay Kuhns, SPHR - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to My Career»

Check out more of Jay Kuhns' work at No Excuses HR

Guest Article: Hall of Fame acceptance speech by John Plummer Jnr by Ross Clennett

Last Thursday I attended the Recruitment International Awards (Australia) in Sydney. The last award for the night was a Hall of Fame award. This year the joint recipients were V. John Plummer (Snr) and John Plummer (Jnr). The latter accepted the award on behalf of himself and his father (you can read about the contribution of the Plummer family to our industry in this blog from nine months ago).
Article source:Ross Clennett - Hall of Fame acceptance speech by John Plummer Jnr»

Check out more of Ross Clennett's work at hisblog

Guest Article: Snapchat, Ghosts & Not Being Old & Lame by Jay Kuhns, SPHR

I've been experimenting with snapchat lately. The tarnished image of the app is gone (yes, it is) and it has now moved to powerhouse status rivaling the other heavy hitters in the social media space.

What has been an unexpected surprise to me is how many long-time social media "experts" (ahem, I hate that word), have come out proclaiming the futility of using snap for recruiting, because they do not see a way forward.

Really?

Brands Love It
The last time I checked, which is daily, major brands around the world are pushing out high quality content on snapchat.

Are they doing this because it is a waste of time?
Are the doing this because "the experts" keen insight is fun to ignore?

Um...

Isn't there a direct link between employer brand and recruitment?

Now before you discount the millions of people using this tool every day, remember they are the workforce of today and tomorrow. 

Still reading? Good, I'm not done.

Ignore the Noise
Is there noise around snapchat? Of course there is. Is the ghost codes craze over begging for hearts annoying? Of course it is. 

Is snapchat's recent major upgrade a sign of massive innovation and change for a platform with unlimited upside?

You bet your closed-mind it is.

For those of you that have decided that snapchat has no future in the talent acquisition space, I caution you to hold your opinion at the risk of sounding like a fool.

"Those proclaiming so early that there is no future using snapchat risk sounding like the grumpy old neighbor yelling at the kids to "get off my lawn."

Don't be that person.

How About You
I wonder if the bright minds in the social media space that adopted facebook, twitter, Pinterest, swarm, and so many others have lost their edge? Has the fire gone out, and it's simply too embarrassing to admit that you haven't figured out snapchat yet? 

Or, do you need an in-your-face blog post to get you all fired up again so you can get back in the game...and lead the way once more?

I'd love to hear from you.

No Excuses.

pic
Article source:Jay Kuhns, SPHR - Snapchat, Ghosts & Not Being Old & Lame»

Check out more of Jay Kuhns' work at No Excuses HR

Guest Article: Should You Celebrate When Employees Leave? by Ben

I was talking with some HR professionals last week, and the conversation of transparency came up. What happens if managers care so much about their employees that they help or prepare them to leave the company to pursue the next step in their careers? Is that a good thing, because you’ve successfully grown someone to the level that they are prepared for that? Or is it a problem, since you’re turning over otherwise solid workers that could be contributing to your bottom line? To frame the discussion, I shared the story below that I received from Allied Talent in one of their marketing emails.

Recruiting, engaging, and retaining entrepreneurial employees depends in large part on a manager’s ability to discuss and facilitate career development. However, recruiters, managers, and executives are often poorly-equipped to lead these conversations. Toby Murdock, the founder and CEO of Boulder-based content marketing company Kapost, set out to fix that. His goal: to make his company the best place in Colorado to launch and accelerate a career in high tech… Thanks to a compelling employee value proposition around career transformation, Toby has successfully recruited entrepreneurial employees into the company who might have otherwise been out of reach.

Once at your company, those entrepreneurial employees require high-trust 1:1 conversations with their manager. A paradox of The Alliance is that, as a manager, acknowledging that an employee might move to another company someday is a display of honesty that’s necessary in career conversations. It’ll also help you truly understand your employee’s values and aspirations. Building trust through honesty, and having a better handle on what your employee really wants, are key ingredients to improving employee retention — lengthening job tenures.

So, as you can see, there are pros and cons to this decision. On one hand, you need managers that aren’t afraid of losing people. I have worked for managers in the past that were so concerned about keeping me that they didn’t actually have my best interests in mind, which ended up driving me away instead of making me feel appreciated.

On the other hand, I can recall a manager from my past that was phenomenal about finding ways to help me grow and develop. One day she had a frank conversation with me about my future prospects, and she said that I might have to leave one day to get the growth opportunities that she couldn’t provide. That was a somewhat scary prospect for me at the time, because I felt like I had a lot to learn from her and didn’t want to consider leaving.

I’d say she was in the small minority of managers in terms of being able to have those kinds of conversations. Most do not have the capability or the emotional intelligence to be able to openly admit to their limitations and to discuss working at other organizations as potential career steps.

What is interesting is this: if I had left, I would have been a perfect prospect for a boomerang employee somewhere down the line. The kicker is that I would be even more valuable to the company with a larger reservoir of experience and skills to pull from. For clarification: in that specific instance, my boss ended up leaving due to health issues, and I was able to step into her position and continue my career development under the same roof.

So, should we celebrate?

People quit their jobs for a lot of reasons. If we take out the resignations that are due to poor management, culture mismatch, and so on, we are left with those employees that are truly leaving to advance their careers. The question that you need to ask yourself is how you should feel when they move on.

On one hand, this is helpful for your recruiters and others internally to see where the perceived limit is for employees in terms of development. If staff are consistently leaving around the 18-month mark, are they bored? Have they mastered “everything” in terms of their job duties? Are they topped out in terms of compensation? What is driving them to seek other employment?

You have a few ways you can approach this. First, we all know that we’re not going to keep employees forever. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that Baby Boomers changed jobs on average nearly 12 times between age 18 and 48. (So much for the myth that they worked the same place “forever” and Millennials are job-hopping maniacs.) This means we only have a few years with each employee statistically, anyway. The way I saw this when I was in corporate HR was as an opportunity to make as much of an impact as possible in the lives of the employees while they were associated with the company. And if they left, especially to start their own business or for professional growth, I never held it against them.

The other way is to do like Kapost has done and actually brand yourself as the starting block for a great career in your industry. The company could have looked the other way or tried to hide this face of its culture, but instead it celebrates it and uses the collective success of its alumni as a benchmark for the impact it is making on the world. Pretty cool stuff, no?

Those Entrepreneurial Workers

There are tons of articles and experts talking about how companies need to hire entrepreneurial workers. I’ve had a hard time narrowing down the definition, but I think of it as those people who can take measured risks and bring innovative ideas to the table. It’s not a trait seen in every employee, but for those that have it, they can offer incredible value to their employers. I love telling the story about an employee years ago that suggested a new use for an existing product, ultimately driving more than $2 million in sales from that single idea. The person could have downplayed it or avoided sharing the idea, but because they did, they (and the company) benefited greatly.

I’ll say it again: if my employees left to start their own businesses, I was thrilled for them. Yes, they often left gaps. Think about it–those workers smart and hard-working enough to start and run their own business are probably valuable contributors to your organization in a variety of ways. It’s easy to get frustrated or bothered by this. My former boss, the CEO and founder of the company, was often upset when he would receive this kind of news. I would always cock my head to the side and say, “Yeah, those people that leave their employer to go start their own business and pursue their passion are crazy. Why did you do that again?” :-)

I’m reading a book right now called The 10% Entrepreneur that discusses how to diversify your career by getting involved in other companies, startups, etc. without all of the risk that entrepreneurship brings. It’s very interesting and worth a read if you are looking for a way to breathe some excitement back into your work without leaving your day job behind.

There is also a larger conversation about the future of work that is taking place. With the rise of nontraditional workers and work arrangements, I predict that we will see more of these entrepreneurial workers taking a leap than ever before. Instead of making it difficult on them, companies would be smart to offer them flexible working arrangements and options to stay on part-time while they build their business (assuming it’s in a non-competitive market). Just like it works with older workers, this is an option to continue getting valuable insights and productivity from these workers before they ultimately leave the firm. It also eases the transition and offers a way to get the new workers trained up over time.

So, at the end of the day, whether you celebrate your workers that leave or not, I will share a little tidbit with you: they will leave eventually. Whether they die, retire, resign, or get fired, your employees will not be there forever. Decide how you want to handle their departures and stick with it, because that aspect of your culture is one that employees never forget. If you terminate people immediately that give notice, don’t expect future employees to give notice. If you treat each person kindly and with compassion, despite the fact that they could be leaving you in the lurch, then people will respond in kind.

I’d love to hear your thoughts. What kinds of reactions are common when people are leaving your organization? Do you think you could ever get to the point where you would celebrate those seeking career advancement opportunities? 

Article source:Ben - Should You Celebrate When Employees Leave?»

Check out more of Ben Uebanks' work at Upstart HR

Guest Article: The Rise of A.I. by Melissa Fairman

You, awesome HR professional, probably think that robots are pretty far removed from your day-to-day existence.  You probably think that there is no possible way you could ever be replaced by a robot.  Arnold Schwarzenegger’s role as Terminator probably confirmed for you that robots may be soldiers one day but can never walk a manager […]

Continue reading...

Article source:Melissa Fairman - The Rise of A.I.»

Check out more of Melissa Fairman's work at HR Remix

Guest Article: The Power of Almost Perfect Practice by Jennifer Miller

As the school year wraps up, I reflect on the intersection of learning a new skill and encouragement. My daughter is nearing the end of her first year of playing the trumpet for her middle school band. From my perspective, she’s done remarkably well. To hear her tell it though, you’d form a different conclusion. When she practices her trumpet, she’s prone to moaning and proclaiming, “that was terrible!” whenever she makes the slightest mistake. Then she starts over again. This creates a series of very truncated songs, because she doesn’t ignore the small mistakes and continue playing. Yes, there is a rampant case of perfectionism brewing here.

A few months ago, after about six months of listening to her practice, I realized that my daughter’s perspective of practice isn’t fully formed. Her desire to play a musical piece–start to finish–without a mistake is a laudable goal. It is the ultimate aim of playing music. However, she hadn’t yet learned to see the mastery of a musical instrument as that of a journey, one with many stops along the way to the ultimate destination.

After I made this realization, I decided to shift the way I offered encouragement. I began to praise her when she was “close enough.” It was akin to management author Ken Blanchard’s saying of trying to “catch people doing something right.” Only, I modified it to “almost right.” I tried to help her see that when she gets a note “almost right” she should continue with the song, rather than breaking the flow. Over time, I told her, the notes would smooth out and she would achieve the melodic sound she desired.
Years ago, our family watched the Disney movie “Meet the Robinsons.” The theme of the movie was learning to embrace failure and mistakes as a natural part of the creative process. At the end of the movie, as the credits rolled, this quote appeared from Walt Disney: “Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious…and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” I often think of this movie when my kids are feeling discouraged and likely to give up on an endeavor.

Drawing on both Disney and Edison, I decided to help my daughter shift her perspective: she wasn’t “failing” so much as she was figuring out how not to do something. This approach has paid off: her band teacher recently shared with me that my daughter is doing very well in class. Even more importantly, my daughter enjoys her practice sessions these days. That’s not to say that she doesn’t still get frustrated from time to time, but she’s more likely to “keep moving forward.”

And that is a recipe for successfully mastery of any skill.

Where in your life can you help someone see the value of “almost right?”

 

 

Copyright : Jaromír Chalabala

Article source:Jennifer Miller - The Power of Almost Perfect Practice»