I work for a government contractor in the defense industry. We have a large number of veterans working for us, so I am always looking for ways to understand them better. Recently I received a review copy of this book, and I was really excited to dig in. As usual, I read with an eye on the corporate culture aspects, and I thought the author, Emily King, did a great job of addressing those. Here are my top 4 “Aha!” moments while reading Field Tested-Recruiting, Managing, and Retaining Veterans.

#1 Put yourself in their shoes

This was the single best explanation for how a veteran must feel when they join the private sector that I’ve ever come across. Basically, the author asks you to imagine that you take a job in a private employer and work there  for twenty years. Then, you retire from that company and go to work for the military. Imagine the chaos and difficulty of trying to navigate the landscape of an entirely different organization and culture. That is how veterans feel when they come to work for us after completing a military career.

#2 Boot camp (you need one)

All military members go through some sort of extensive, uniform training. They learn side-by-side and know that their peers are learning the same skills and abilities. Using a uniform orientation process to introduce culture aspects of the organization is a great way to help new hires feel more comfortable about their role. Click here for more on defining corporate culture for new hires.

#3 The “how” of work matters

The biggest lesson I’ve had to learn as a results-driven person is that, in the civilian world, how you accomplish something is as important as the merit of the accomplishment itself. I went from being an infantry captain in the Marine Corps to being the only male in an all-female HR department… I was bound to make a few mistakes. -Former USMC Officer

I’ve talked before on the “how” of work versus what is being accomplished.

#4 Individualistic vs conformist cultures

The author talks a little about how the military enforces a conformist culture in order to reproduce the same results from its soldiers over and over again. However, in a corporate setting, the opposite is encouraged. Individuals are accepted and encouraged to focus on their strengths, and they also are allowed to use creativity when resolving problems they face. Those are opposite ends of the spectrum, and making the instant switch when someone moves into civilian life is yet another hurdle our veterans face in their day-to-day existence.

If you’re considering recruiting veterans (or you already do), this book is a great resource for those of us with no military experience to draw upon. I already have started thinking in different ways in order to better meet the needs of our employees who are former military service members. Check it out!

I spent some time on the phone with my good friend Trish McFarlane the other day discussing HRevolution 2012. This event is going to be fantastic. Then I heard the phrase “don’t be a fan, be a player” today, and I knew the two topics were related.

You see, HRevolution isn’t your average, ordinary event.

There’s a reason we talk about “participants” when we discuss HRev. Why? Because they are expected to participate. We want people to come and share ideas, ask questions, and walk away with more than they came with.

The differences between this event and the traditional conference are many, but that is one that I keep coming back to as the main sticking point when comparing the two.

Give it a chance

If your employer pays for you to attend conferences during the year, this is one you need to seriously consider. You will walk out the door fired up and ready to take on whatever is thrown at you. Not sure if it’s right for you? Email me and we can discuss your individual position and how it might be applicable (or not) to what you need. The positive side is that it’s not going to cost you a thousand dollars to attend this event. We have done our best to keep costs low so that anyone can attend, no matter what career level they may be.

There’s a reason we have so many people who have attended every single HRevolution event. They believe in it, and you can, too.

Sponsors welcome

If you are a vendor in the HR space and would be interested in sponsoring, please reach out and I can get you the information you’ll need to make it happen.

Sometime last year I ran across Dale Dauten’s website when I found out he was coming to the Alabama SHRM conference to speak. My post on killing the status quo focuses on that session, but he also has created a list of rules for work that I think most people need to learn. It’s titled “The Contribution Ethic.” I’m going to add my own comments behind each main idea to clarify what each means to me. After I share the ten points, I am going to challenge you to pick one to focus on today, so try to figure out which one you need to work on the most.

1. Just help-Make yourself useful. Don’t make someone ask for your help; just do it. It’s one of the single largest ways to differentiate yourself from everyone else at work.
2. A great player is worth less than a great teammate-A great player may not improve the group’s performance, but a great teammate always does. Be careful when hiring “all stars” who don’t play well with others. If you have to spend twice as much time managing that “star’s” attitude, then it wasn’t really that good of a hire, right?
3. Your half is 60 percent-Focusing on “doing your half” and then stopping is no way to go through your working life. Do more than what people expect. Or do the hard part. Or whatever it takes to make it easier on your teammate when you hand the project back to them in an unfinished state.
4. Innovation is a subversive activity-Organizations are built for continuity, not creativity. Don’t let someone tell you the idea isn’t worth trying if you truly believe it has merit. Someone else somewhere believes in that idea, too. Find them and co-opt their influence to help you.
5. Giving time without attention is an empty gift-wrapped box-Managers, I’m looking at you. Don’t make your people wonder, “Am I good enough?”
6. Assume the best-Dale says this best: If you assume that every tenth person in the world is a jerk and that you’re a jerk a tenth of the time, then you can meet the world with a smile… You will run into people that are pretty much terrible human beings. How you react in those situations is what matters most.
7. Being right is overrated-Keep trying. Worry less about who is right and when and more about how you are going to reach the end goal.
8. Being wrong is underrated-I always like to say, “Everything I know how to do well I screwed up the first time.” Being wrong is just one more opportunity to learn something new.
9. Always bring something to read-I am a huge fan of reading, and I think it’s one way to separate good employees from great ones. If you don’t have a corporate library, maybe you need one. This great quote I heard yesterday says it all: I not only wrack my brain when I come to a difficult issue, I wrack the brains of others through reading and discussion. One of my favorite authors also talks about books being our way of learning from our past mistakes so we don’t repeat them. If you aren’t reading, you are missing out. I feel like this point is combating the complaint from many that they “don’t have time.” If you have a book with you at all times, you’ll find little snippets of time throughout the day to read without impacting anything else you have going on. Ten extra minutes per day is an hour a week of reading that you wouldn’t otherwise be doing!
10. Think like a hero; work like an artist-Heroes attack the dragons, save the maidens, and win the day. Artists put relentless passion into their work and refuse to let anyone tell them it’s not worthwhile. Combine the two and you’ll be an unstoppable force.

If you’d like to download the original PDF of The Contribution Ethic, here’s the link.

Is there an item in this list that you can focus on today in order to better yourself? Which one? 

I love getting questions about what it’s like getting a job in HR. Today I’m giving C a hand with her questions (answering a little late, but better than never!).

As a generalist, what exactly is your job like? What kind of projects do you work on, etc?

Every day is fairly different in my role, though a generalist at a larger company might not be able to say that. For instance, in recent weeks I’ve worked on collecting and analyzing company-wide performance reviews, drafted open enrollment communications describing our changes to benefits and premiums, worked with one of our admins to develop an activity for our executive retreat, and worked with our managers to develop goals for their employees for the coming year. In the coming weeks I’m working to create our affirmative action plan, develop job descriptions for our employees, and evaluate a new benefits vendor. It truly is a little bit of everything!

The thing that intrigues me most about HR is the potential to help people and help turn the work environment and experience in general into something more enjoyable for and considerate of today’s workers. After seeing how HR seems to be transforming due to web-workers and companies like Zappos, it almost seems like HR is the frontline for effecting change in labor relations. 

How much of this is actually true? How much of your job (or any HR position for that matter) actually deals with actual employees or things that directly affect them and in what ways? How much influence do you have on your employees and their work environment as an HR person? 

Great question! Just like Zappos, we do a lot of culture building and sharing, and it’s really helped us to develop a strong, unified workforce. One of the barriers is the level of respect that HR gets in the business, though. In previous employers HR was expected to be a quiet, back corner admin function. And that’s all it was. At my current employer the HR function is involved in planning and strategy meetings at all levels.

In my job, I deal with employees on a daily basis. However, that’s not the norm. As a small company I have the opportunity to have a high-touch relationship with our employees. That means they get more individual value out of me, but it also means that it doesn’t scale. In other words, as we add employees, we’ll have to add more to the HR team or reduce the hands on interaction.

I have a bachelor’s in business administration and most of my experience is in customer service, product support, and some IT roles (about 8 years of customer service experience). In your opinion, how are these skills relevant to the career?

The degree is a good one. It might not give you the deep background an HR degree would, but it does give you better awareness of the other business functions and how HR ties into those.

I would say that customer service experience translates well to an entry t0 mid level HR role. The higher you go the less interaction you have with people directly, but at those lower levels you do more face-to-face interaction with managers and staff. One of the interesting things about the HR profession is that we have people from every conceivable type of background.

If you are working in a company that specializes in IT services, to use your example, being an HR person there would mean you understand what the employees’ jobs are like and how you can best help them to be successful. At my current employer, I had very little experience in the industry, but I obviously like writing, so I was given the Communications hat as well as the HR/recruiting one. It’s a great way they have decided to utilize my skills and interests to make the organization better.

Working off of the last question, should I be focused on completing a certification asap? If so, how should I prepare for the exam considering I don’t have experience in HR?

In order to get certified (PHR/SPHR), you now have to have several years of exempt level HR experience to take the exam. It’s not a huge bump up in terms of marketability as a candidate, even if you could get it, since you don’t really have experience. I’d focus instead on using your general business education to increase the value of the HR function.

I am in the process of starting a family. I have read salary surveys and such but what is the income potential really like in HR?

Honestly, it’s different everywhere. Here in Huntsville (which is one tiny market among thousands in the US and worldwide) an HR assistant can make from $20-30k, HR generalists 30-70k, HR directors/managers from 50-100k+, depending on experience level and industry. It varies wildly and depends on the value you are bringing the business.

A good company will look at how you are increasing their profitability or reducing costs and work hard to compensate you accordingly. Someone who files papers 8 hours a day is going to be less valuable than someone developing and rolling out a new pay for performance compensation strategy.

Are there any resources out there about LGBT representation within the career? I looked around but was pretty unsuccessful in finding anything substantial.

I am actually good friends with a few individuals who fall into that category. I am not sure if they are comfortable with me shouting it from this platform, but they certainly do exist. I would say HR people in general are more tolerant of other beliefs (we see too many not to be!). If you want more information on this specifically I can put you in touch with one of them since I have no personal experience with this issue.

And there you have it, C! I hope that helps and that you are still interested after that exposure. Good luck!
If anyone else has questions they’d like to ask, feel free to email me at ben@upstarthr.com. Thanks!

It was true in 2011 and it’s going to be true in 2012 as well. Companies are realizing competitive pay isn’t enough and that they need to compete on culture. That’s why I was drawn to this old CNET post detailing how one company offered these special goodies as a hiring bonus:

A briefcase filled with $11,000 in bacon-wrapped cash. A year’s supply of Dos Equis. An oil painting of yourself. Those are just a few of the hiring lures Los Angeles-based Scopely has bestowed upon “the most interesting engineer in the world.”

While software engineering isn’t in my future, I wouldn’t mind the briefcase. Or the bacon. Or the cash.

Faulty logic

One part of the article seemed to be based on faulty reasoning.

Startups spend lots of time looking for engineers because most of the ones looking for work aren’t the ones startups want.

“If an engineer has submitted a resume, I know it’s no good,” says Adam Pisoni, co-founder and CTO of Yammer, an internal social network for companies.

If someone applies to your company, you ignore them as a candidate? Seriously?

The article goes on to talk about how the company’s recruiters instead try to poach talent from other companies. Honestly, how is looking for a hotshot employee at Company A going to help support and grow the culture of Company B? How is that in any way different from posting jobs for people to apply at your company and sorting through those candidates?

We often look for solid candidates who will fit into and help grow our culture. We don’t exclusively seek out superstars who are so self-consumed that they could easily diverge from the carefully cultivated culture. It’s not just us, either. Looking only for experienced candidates flies in the face of the “candidates wanted: experience not preferred” mentality that companies like Chipotle believe in.

Companies that take the time to focus on how their culture differentiates them from the competition will be able to recruit and retain better talent over the long haul. Now about that money/bacon…

Does your culture suck? Here’s how to fix it…

Can HR learn something from marketing about treating candidates like customers?

When I was at the Hire Minds event this past fall (more Hire Minds Summit coverage), the moderator asked me if I thought the Marketing department should work closely with the HR/Recruiting department at any time. My response was one I’d considered before, and I think it still applies now:

Of course HR/Recruiting should work with the Marketing department if they can. HR is trying to sell ideas internally. Recruiters are trying to “sell” open positions to candidates. Marketing is trying to sell products/services to the public. Why not work together when the opportunity arises?

Since then I’ve started thinking of candidates as customers. Most HR and recruiting pros don’t have a chance to meet customers of the business on a daily basis. They don’t get a chance to make a good impression for the company, provide great service, and do it all with a smile on their face. But they do interact with people looking to get a job with the organization.

What if they started treating those candidates like customers? There would be a little difference in that these customers are not always “right.” They can’t get whatever they want.

But you can offer them a sympathetic ear. You can treat them with respect. You can give them a clear, concise picture of what the hiring process looks like so they are not stuck wondering if their resume disappeared into a black hole.

I’ve learned that even if they are not chosen, candidates sincerely appreciate knowing the disposition of their application. It’s just a small touch that means so much to someone who has been out of work or looking for a meaningful job.

If you’d like to learn more about my philosophy on “high touch” recruiting and what it’s like being the solo recruiter for a small business, click here to hear about small business hiring on my DriveThruHR appearance from HR Florida.

I have a lot of fun digging into the statistics on this blog to find out what everyone enjoys reading about. That, in turn, helps to influence what I write about! I have spent some time looking through the pageview counts and visitor stats, and I have developed a top ten list of most popular posts this year. One point I found interesting was that some of these posts that were viewed the most often were actually written in 2010 or before. If you missed one of them, feel free to check it out. Everyone else is.

1. HR Careers-How to Get a Job in HR - This post focuses on the transition I experienced as I moved into HR for the first time.
2. Onboarding and New Hire Orientation eBook - This collaborative eBook brings together some of the smartest HR pros of the day to share their take on onboarding.
3. I don’t believe in social responsibility, but… - This short post discusses a different type of “social responsibility” in the business world.
4. How to Establish Credibility - I do some Q&A with people I highly respect to find out how they established their own credibility. Great lessons here.
5. How to Ask Questions During an Investigation - If you’re in HR, you will eventually run into an investigation. Here’s how to ask questions to find out what you need to know.
6. How to run a one person HR department - If you’ve ever worked in a small HR department, this one is for you.
7. Policy on working through lunch - Do we need a policy banning working at your desk during lunch? Do we need a policy for anything?
8. Employee Engagement eBook  – This collaborative eBook brings together some of the smartest HR pros of the day to share their take on engagement.
9. The Cost of Disengaged Employees - Looking at how disengaged employees can impact your business and culture (and not for the better).
10. Men in HR-A National Geographic Exclusive - This was a fun post to write, because I am definitely in the minority as a male in the HR field. Good stuff here.

Just wanted to say a quick “Thanks” to everyone who reads the blog. I am so appreciative of it. If you ever want to reach out via email, feel free!