Author Archives: Ben

Safe at home (work safety programs)

I am a firm believer in work safety, but not in the traditional, dry, boring sense. Let’s make things interesting. I want someone to feel just as safe in the workplace as they are at home. But to get people to pay attention to the safety rules and processes, you’re going to need something more than a pamphlet to hand out to everyone. Check out the video below for more.

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Are you stuck on how to make something “fun” at work? Leave a note in the comments and I’ll give you an example or two.

HR Ninja Shirts On Sale

HR Ninja ShirtI know the feeling. You’re doing your best to look like you know what you’re doing with this whole HR thing, but some people just don’t understand your ninja prowess.

Let’s fix that, shall we?

Click here. Snag a shirt for 35% off (through Thursday, 3/24/11) with the coupon code DEALIO. Wear it proudly.

If you click the blue shirt at the link above you’ll see a women’s version on the following page if you’d like to get that style instead. You can also send me a picture when you wear the shirt and I’ll use it in a blog post!

What I’ve been up to lately

I’ve been beating myself up about not posting as frequently here lately, but it’s for good reason(s). Really. Here is the full slate I’ve been working on these days, just in case you are interested. And if I’m slow to respond to an email or a phone call, now you know why!

HRevolution

I’ve been doing some work on HRevolution lately, getting neat stuff posted like speaker interviews and sponsor info. I figure posting here will slow somewhat until May gets here, but I just wanted to set expectations early. :-) By the way, if you want to go there are 8 tickets left at the time this is published. Snag one if you want to attend an event like no other.

The day job

People still ask me about my job that I started back in November. The most common question is, “Do you still like your job?” And my answer is a resounding yes(!). I get to do fun stuff and get paid for it. What kind of fun stuff? Well, lately I’ve been working two big recruiting initiatives to bring in helicopter pilots and survival instructors. How cool is that?

When I’m not working on that kind of effort, I’m developing training for managers, handling our benefits, and creating systems and processes to help us prepare for some growth we are planning for later this year.

I have an amazing manager, the culture is fantastic, and the free Diet Dew in the fridge doesn’t hurt. Plus I get to interact with our CEO, Mike Durant, on a regular basis. Hard to get that kind of access to senior leaders in other companies. One of my friends has this offer to come work for another company locally for about $10k more than what I’m making now. I told him if I ever started hating my job I’d be there in a heartbeat, but it doesn’t look promising. :-)

RocketHR

If you aren’t reading RocketHR, you should! I post there about once a week and most of the time it’s new, unique content. Click here to get it delivered to you. A few recent posts include reasons why you should read blogs, the SHRM blog carnival, and a video about really being ethical.

NASHRM

In my spare spare time, I also am the Social Media Director for my local Society for Human Resources Management chapter. Not only do I write the RocketHR blog, but I’ve made myself available to anyone and everyone locally who is looking for information or advice on getting involved with social media. It’s so much fun helping someone make the leap from “interested” to “practitioner.”

Project Social

If you’ve been following Project:Social for long, you know it’s a social media mentoring program for HR pros. We are in our second round of the program and are looking to get the third one started soon. Some people have asked why Victorio and I haven’t had more people in the program, but as you can see with other things I am working on, it is definitely a challenge to devote time to this and if you don’t have a good experience, then it wasn’t worth it anyway. We are looking at ways to scale the program to have more mentor and mentee pairs working at the same time.

SHRM YP Council

I’m about halfway into my term as the SHRM YP Council Chairman, and it’s been interesting so far. We are creating a guide that will be used to help young professionals get more involved with their local chapters. It also has some great tips and advice for volunteer leaders to help them connect with those individuals. I’m definitely glad that I am in the group!

On the home front

Don’t know that you specifically care, but I thought I’d offer my house up if anyone’s interested in buying. :-) Seriously, we are looking to move now that we’ve outgrown our little place, and if you’ve ever been through the process, you know how much that process takes out of you. We are also having so much fun watching the girls grow up. They are always doing something new and interesting, and I’m doing what I can to keep up! A few pics: Bree (our little puppy), Bree at dinnertime, Bella taking the car for a spin, and both girls first thing in the morning (FYI-Bella on the right, Bree on the left).

And that’s just to get me started. What is everyone else up to these days?

Outsourcing HR Functions-I finally get it

Every time I used to hear “outsourcing” and “HR” in the same sentence, I would cringe. I guess that’s because because I’ve seen it done poorly before and don’t want to let go of the responsibilities I took on when I started in an HR role. Now I’m hitting a wall with what I can do and outsourcing (or automating) is looking like a more viable option.

Here’s the scoop

I’m in a small company. We have right at 60 employees right now, so pretty much everything HR is done by me or my manager. Recently I’ve been looking at performance management tools to help reduce our administration and labor costs associated with that process. I was set on a tool, and then a wrinkle was thrown into the process when a benefits broker reached out to take over our benefits administration. And then I found an ATS that I like, because it will help reduce some of my time and labor involved with the recruiting process.

My options

Automate our performance management process-saves the operations staff some of their admin time, saves all the hassle of paper shuffling and storage, and helps us to easily see some of the analytics tied into the process. The downside? I have to train everyone on how to use the tools, and I’m not sure that will go as smoothly as I would like, because half of our managers are out of state.

Outsource our benefits administration-again, saves the operations staff some of the time and effort, but otherwise it doesn’t impact our employees in a meaningful way (other than freeing me up to do things like training, leadership development, etc.). The downside? The cost is actually more than the performance management system. Yikes. So those are the two options I’m wrestling with right now.

Here is how we are going to tackle it as the operations team. We are going to put together a chart with all of the labor hours tied to these items and then see where and how we can automate for the lowest cost but highest value/yield.

Riveting, huh?

If you’ve ever been through this process, I’d like to hear your ideas and thoughts on how it went well, how it went wrong, and what you would do differently next time.

Six reasons to read blogs (like this one)

I often get people who tell me they are too busy to read blogs in the HR/recruiting space. I just shake my head, because as busy as they might be, I am doing that (and more) every single day. Yes, it’s a conscious effort to do something to enhance my own knowledge, but it has been worth it so far and I can only imagine how much it will continue to impact my career and professional development.

Why do I encourage people to read blogs?

  • It’s an amazing way to increase your creativity.
  • Being satisfied never made anyone great. Stay hungry.
  • You’ll be smarter than those who don’t take the time for it.
  • It’s free.
  • You can save money on a consultant. Seriously.
  • It isn’t someone else’s job to train you. You have to own your own growth.

And that’s just scratching the surface. I position my own use of social media as a competitive advantage. If you want to be successful, work to understand it. As the Social Media Director for NASHRM, I’m always available for a quick chat, whether it’s about social media policies or recruiting with social tools.

It’s not rocket science or brain surgery (or rocket surgery). All it takes is a willingness to learn!

Rewards and incentives for nine year olds

Think you can offer incentives or rewards long after the fact and it won’t affect the results? Here’s a story I’ve been watching closely that disputes the idea that timing isn’t a major factor in decision making (even for nine year olds).

My wife is a teacher (and a darn good one). One of the things she has done in her classroom is to offer special lunches to students who hit their reading goals. Those special lunches involve me bringing them something from Chick-Fil-A (a Southern delicacy!) on the Friday immediately after they reach their goal.

But it wasn’t always that way.

For the first half of the school year, the agreement was that if the students read their goal amount, then I would bring food at the end of the grading period. That could take up to nine weeks (if the kid’s a fast reader), and that’s like infinity in a child’s eyes. While she had a few kids read their books, most of them did not.

A new, better way

Then, this half of the school year, we’ve done it differently. Instead of waiting until the grading period is over (up to nine weeks), she gives them the reward less than seven days after they meet their goals. This has had a few effects on the process.

  1. It lets the other kids (in the midst of their own progress) see the tangible reward and encourages them to reach their own goals.
  2. It keeps the process high on everyone’s radar by making a reference every week or so.
  3. The kids who reach their goals and get rewarded? There is a 100% goal completion for kids who met their rewards in previous sessions (in other words, they are repeaters).
  4. There are significantly more students who reach their goal amounts on this new system (more than twice as many, I’d say).

I love the process of continuous improvement and how my wife can see something like this changing how the students are engaged in their reading program. Next year she can tweak it a little more and see if those numbers get even higher, but it’s nice to start off with something you know that works.

What it means for you

Thinking about offering rewards or incentives to your workforce? Make sure you don’t ignore the time element. It can help (or hurt) you in more ways than you might imagine.

SHRM Blog Carnival-Leadership Style

My friend Stephen Harrison from the HR Florida state council is hosting this week’s SHRM Blog Carnival on leadership and engagement. He is an amazing resource and was the first person I talked to before starting the RocketHR blog for NASHRM, because he already had established a popular blog for his own local chapter in Florida.

The SHRM Blog Carnival is a way for the volunteer bloggers writing for SHRM chapters and state councils to share content, build connections, and increase the chapters’ social media footprint.

Check out previous editions of the SHRM Blog Carnival at the links below. Please click through and read some of the posts to support the other volunteers around the country!