Category Archives: General

Process Outsourcing 101

outsourcing is all about freedom

Outsourcing frees you up for other activities

When I sometimes used to read articles talking about outsourcing HR functions, and I was quite puzzled. I can’t imagine the majority of the work I do on a daily basis being handled outside our organization. However, as we continue to grow, we are looking for opportunities to hand off non-critical tasks to outside vendors, brokers, and consultants. So how do you decide what to give away?

The point is to look for areas that can be streamlined, automated, or handled externally without impacting your core competencies. 

If you’re known for great customer service, you wouldn’t outsource your customer service function. If your amazing inventory and shipping team was a differentiator for your business, you wouldn’t suddenly cut that out and have a 3rd party handle it without a good reason.

But how does that apply on the business operations side of things?

A good example in the finance/accounting realm is accounts receivable factoring exchange. Firms offering these types of services will work with companies to buy their invoices for a discount, and then they work with the customer to complete the transaction. For participating as the middleman in the transaction, the invoice factoring firm receives a percentage of the paid invoice value as commission.

Would anyone ever use a service like this? Certainly! For smaller companies with few staff available to chase down payments from customers, this frees up staff and resources to invoice more often and get more money rolling in. The same basic principle is also true within HR/recruiting.

A few examples

  • Benefits: Would you be best served by finding a broker to handle your benefit needs?
  • Recruiting: Maybe finding a contract recruiter would give you the breather you need to catch up on some of the critical HR tasks on your plate.
  • Compliance: It could be that you’re so slammed with the day-to-day activities that you need to bring in a consultant to help you get current on some overdue compliance issues.

And these are just a few of the examples of ways that companies use outsourcing on a daily basis. Another valuable reason to use some of these resources is if the focus area isn’t one your organization focuses on. For instance, if we were suddenly tasked with recruiting blue collar employees, we’d probably have to get an external recruiter to help. We just don’t have the systems, relationships, and infrastructure in place to handle those types of employees at this point. And trying to establish that on the front end would be costly and time consuming.

So, while I originally thought that outsourcing in HR seemed like a strange idea, I’ve now come around and actually look forward to developing vendor partnerships that allow us to save time and resources while still utilizing experts in our field.

Do you use some sort of outsourcing in your department? In what capacity? Has it been worth the investment?

The Little Things and Unemployed HR Pros-Guest Post Blitz #10

What do focusing on the “little” details and social media for unemployed HR pros have in common? They’re two of the guest posts that I’ve written lately!

Please check them out and leave a comment. I know that Charlie and Robin would definitely appreciate it.

  • Nothing bigger than the little things-I look at how the “little” things are what makes a company successful (or not) in the long term. Here’s a sample: Some people will tell you the “little” things like that don\’t matter in the grand scheme of things. I would counter that those “little” things are what great companies are made of. Click here to read the rest of this post
  • Unemployed HR people: take note-In this post I discuss a reader question and offer some advice to those HR/recruiting pros who are unemployed and looking for work. Here’s a taste: I don\’t think social media is the answer to all problems. I think the majority of people using social media could not get a job offer directly through that method. Click here to read the rest of this post

These guest posts went live (fairly recently) elsewhere that you may have missed. Some of them might be a bit different flavor than the usual upstartHR offerings, so be sure to check them out! If you\’re interested in seeing some of my previous escapades, click here for the Guest Post Blitz archive to see other mildly entertaining posts like these. :-)

Job Fair Rules for Employers

Job fairs aren’t for everyone, and they’re not for every company/industry. But if your company happens to participate in them, I wanted to give you a few quick tips to help avoid disaster.

  1. Give a darn about the people who took the time out of their day to come and talk with you about your employer.
  2. And, um… That’s it.

I found out today that I might be participating in a special kind of job fair activity in the coming weeks. We are not in the typical industry for that sort of thing, so I might be a little rusty. I am used to a different flavor of the candidate experience.

However, in my experiences on both sides of the table, if you can handle #1 above, you can stand out among the other employers in the room. I’ve talked before about a major fail in job fair recruiting, but I think companies can still do it well.

A little perspective doesn’t hurt

Job seekers today are (in the best of circumstances) worried about finding a job. At worst they have been out of work for a while and are starting to get noticeably desperate. Have a little compassion. Try treating your candidates like customers.

I used to work with a wonderful, kind lady who did our recruiting at a previous employer. Every single person who walked up to our table ended up walking away feeling better and happier, even if we didn’t have a single job available in their area of expertise. Keep that in mind next time you’re going through the motions at a job fair.

Okay. Even as a minimalist I have to admit that one rule is kind of slim. Anyone else have a suggestion to add to the list? :-)

Asking Questions at Work-Better Questions Equal Better Results

real patriots ask questions carl saganIf you’ve never thought about the impact of asking questions at work in a better way, I’m going to help change that today. Consider the following list of questions you’d hear in the average day:

  • Why do we have to go through this change?
  • Why can’t we find good people?
  • When will that guy do his job right?
  • Why don’t they communicate better?
  • Who messed this up?
  • When is someone going to train me?
  • When are my people going to get their act together?

Any of these questions seem familiar? We’ve all heard a version of them at some point in time. The theme running through these questions is twofold. First, there\’s a definite negative connotation. Second, and most importantly, they are structured to place blame and accountability on someone else.

That’s not a winning plan.

If you’re trying to be successful as a leader, you\’re going to have to hold people accountable. Letting them ask questions like these is a surefire way to ensure that they never learn self accountability.

It doesn’t always fit, but the majority of the time questions that begin with “who, when, and why” are potential problems. In the examples above you’ll see that play out.

The point is to turn the questions around and find ways to hold yourself accountable for the results. Try starting the questions with “how can I…” or “what can I…” and you\’ll see that the responsibility immediately shifts from someone else to you.

You’re the one in charge of making the change at that point.

It’s a radically different mindset to ask questions like these. Why? Because you have to care. And you have to be willing to hold yourself and your people accountable for the results. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

Here is the same set of questions rewritten with accountability in mind:

  • What can I do to make this change easier on others?
  • How can I help us find better people?
  • What can I do to help that guy do his job better?
  • How can I help to strengthen communication?
  • How can I make this right?
  • What can I do to pursue training?
  • How can I help my people be better at their jobs?

Foster a culture of accountability with your people and reap the benefits of stronger individual and team performance.

Finally, here’s a great example of how one company does this on a daily basis.

WD-40 practices the democratic principle of Accountability. To that end we ask every tribe member to own and act passionately on the Maniac Pledge. The pledge states: “I am responsible for taking action, asking questions, getting answers, and making decisions. I won’t wait for someone to tell me. If I need to know, I’m responsible for asking. I have no right to be offended that I didn’t ‘get this sooner.’ If I’m doing something others should know about, I’m responsible for telling them.” Source: WD-40

Challenge: Can you choose a question from the list above and put it into motion today? If so, which one did you pick?

Assume the best

Yesterday I had an interesting incident occur that reminded me just how our worldviews can skew our actions. This has a tie to the business world, so hang with me.

Once upon a time

As is often the case, I was walking out of the grocery store with a ginormous box of diapers (Pampers Baby Dry, if you must know), and a random guy walks up to me, commenting on the size of the box. I let it slip that I have twin girls, and he started a long, well-rehearsed story about how he was a long way from home and trying to get back to his own kids. I could quickly see where the conversation was going, so I told him I didn’t have any cash on me. He responded that he didn’t need cash, just some gas in his vehicle to get home. I told him to meet me across the parking lot at the gas station and I would fill up my gas can for him.

When we got over there I took the can out of my trunk and filled it for him. I walked over to where he was parked and said, “Here, keep the can, too. I hope that helps you get home.” His response will forever be embedded in my brain. He said, “If I had known that all I would get out of talking with you was $3 in gas, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

Now, up until that point I assumed the best about this guy. I assumed he was telling the truth. I assumed he really needed help. I assumed he would accept whatever help I could offer.

At that point I knew that pretty much everything he’d told me so far was probably a lie. He wanted me to fill his tank for him, and I wasn’t willing to do that. Instead of being thankful for what I had offered, he sneered at it.

The business lesson

Some people automatically assume the worst. If I was one of those people, I’d have shut the guy out long before offering to help. However, there was a chance that he really needed some assistance. By assuming the best and offering what I could, I took a chance at helping someone who might have needed it. And the next time I run across someone who needs help, I won’t let this instance change my reaction in the slightest.

Assume the best. Give what you can. If the other person accepts it, great! If the other person does not, walk away (as I did) knowing that you did everything you could to do the right thing.

What about you? Ever worked with someone who was perpetually looking for the worst in people? What was it like?

The Candidate Experience-How Confident are You?

What The Candidate Experience Means to Me

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the candidates for our positions. I do what I can to provide a transparent, high-touch process (click here to listen to me talk more about our hiring process and recruiting philosophy), but sometimes it just gets tough to make sure everyone is in the loop at all steps of the game. I also wonder at times just what the candidates really want from me as their main point of contact during the interview/offer process.

The potential solution

So, with that in mind, I’m considering putting together a short, two question survey to send to all candidates we interviewed after the final selection has been made. It would ask these questions:

  1. On a scale of 1-5 what did you think of our recruiting process with regard to ease of scheduling interviews, timely communication, follow up, etc.?
  2. What could we have done to make the experience better for you?

If you recall, it’s very close to the set of questions suggested by the author of 101 Strategies for Recruiting Success. As with all surveys, we are sure to get some varying responses. I’d expect everything from “you should have picked me” to “I would have liked phone updates more than emails.” But the end result, I’m hoping, would be an idea or two to incorporate into the process to help make it more user-friendly on the candidate side of things.

To save some time and effort, I would only send it to the people we interview. Those who apply get the automatic email response when they apply, and I try to make sure and send the blanket “the position’s been filled” email after we hire someone. In my mind we don’t owe those people anything more, because honestly it would become a full-time job responding to each individual person. While I think it’s important to treat candidates like customers, I’m also realistic enough to know that we can’t offer personalized service to the 50+ people applying to some positions.

There’s an award for that

Just as I was finishing this post, I saw a friend mention The Candidate Experience Awards. I’m going to talk with our people and see if we want to participate, because it looks like an interesting process. I already know we do a good job with how to be a best place to work, but are we doing the best on the front end before the candidate ever joins the team? I think it would be neat to find out.

Anyone else do a survey like this with their candidates? Anyone think they might like to participate in the Candidate Experience Awards? I’d be interested in hearing your perspective. 

Grow Young Professional Employees Who Create a Calm Company Culture

As a manager, it\’s important to create an environment in which all of your employees can thrive. You should strive to develop employees that are positive and proactive—from day one. For your young professionals, the most coddled generation in our nation\’s history, it can often be tricky to dance in the uncomfortable and very necessary space between walking on egg shells to avoid uncomfortable situations and instigating unnecessary conflict.

Here are a few ways you can work with your youngest employees to help them adopt and sustain a possibility-centered mindset so that they—and the rest of your employees—can do their best work.

Reframe Conflict

Let your young professionals know first and foremost that conflict is normal and that when it emerges, it\’s important to address it quickly. For the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors we usually associate with conflict often occur more when we are thinking about the possibility of conflict than when we are actually acknowledging and moving through it. Show your young professionals how to separate fact from fiction in the stories they create about the situations they find themselves in. Help them to give other people the necessary space to speak their perspective without getting defensive. And most importantly, help them develop the skills to focus on how to move forward with others in mutually-beneficial ways rather than rehashing old grievances.

Bring in Some Old-fashioned Forgiveness

When conflict occurs, it\’s important to keep your young professionals moving forward. The only way to do this is if they forgive all parties involved in previous problems—most of all themselves. Encourage them to see forgiveness as the act of unhooking from the story they created about themselves and the other people involved in the problem. Forgiveness is as much a choice as a practice. In addition to letting young professionals see the many health and performance benefits of letting go and moving on, help them to stay in the forgiveness zone by focusing on how they want to feel when they have forgiven…once and for all. Encourage them to recreate this feeling in their bodies until it eventually sticks and their dress rehearsal becomes their final performance.

Kill Fear Mongering

No employees work well when they live in fear. While you may think it\’s benign or perhaps even a good thing for a young professional to believe that a missed deadline could be grounds for termination, fear is a lousy motivator and it makes a really great performance killer. If young professionals direct focus toward speed at the expense of turning out a high-quality product, you might be training them to make underperformance acceptable and habitual. Let them know that you are there for them when they are having issues with an assignment, and encourage proactive, transparent conversations so that you can co-create solutions.

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Alexia Vernon is an author, speaker, International Coach Federation (ICF) certified coach, trainer, and media personality who specializes in helping organizations recruit, retain, educate, and grow their young professional workforce. In her book 90 Days 90 Ways: Onboard Young Professionals to Peak Performance, Alexia demonstrates how to achieve the goal of getting new employees oriented, integrated and trained within 90 days of their employment. As a member of Gen Y and with her unique approach to talent development, Alexia has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including CNN, NBC, Wall Street Journal, CBS MoneyWatch, FOX Business News, Forbes.com, ABCNews.com, TheGlassDoor.com, and Mint.com.  To learn more visit www.AlexiaVernon.com and connect with Alexia on Twitter @AlexiaVernon.