Category Archives: General

Getting a job in HR (Q&A)

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!

Cash wrapped in bacon (and other recruiting goodies)

baconIt 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…

Employee participation in outside investigations

I was talking with one of our employees recently and was quite surprised to learn that they did not realize the importance of reporting participation in an outside investigation. Many of our staff members are located on customer sites, geographically remote from the corporate office. Therefore, if they don’t notify us of an investigation, we have no way of knowing about it. I can remember two instances of this coming up in the past year or two–once handled poorly and once handled well.

Oh, I forgot…

One day I was speaking with an employee about some minute detail (address changes or something equally innocuous) and they casually mentioned responding to someone’s questions about a fellow coworker. After doing some digging, I realized that the employee had been a witness in an investigation by an outside entity to determine if another person in the workplace had done something illegal/unethical. I asked if they had considered reporting that to corporate or the HR office, and the response was fairly typical.

“Oh, I was going to, but I forgot.” 

Sigh. Oh, well. It is what it is, right? So I told them the following story as a reminder for how to handle it next time.

Let me check…

On another customer site, our staff works side by side with other companies supplying contractors for the customer. One day a contractor in the office blew his top. It was the usual yelling, cursing, and general mayhem that accompanies someone under too much pressure. The employee was sent home for the day, and the following day brought with it an investigatory team to determine what had occurred. Being in the office, our employee was naturally asked about the incident. Before he responded or gave a statement, he dropped the golden phrase:

“Let me check with my HR guys first just to make sure it’s okay.” 

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Now, HR doesn’t need to be consulted every time you have to sneeze (that’s a great way to waste time at work), but for something like this that could affect someone’s employment status, it doesn’t hurt to let us in on what’s going on. If there is a possibility that an angry person could come back and cause some level of workplace violence, then it definitely needs to be on our radar.

Just remember: When in doubt, let HR check it out. 

Ever had an employee participate in an outside investigation and have it backfire on you? I’d like to hear how you handled it. 

Treating your Candidates Like Customers

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.

Ten most popular posts of 2011

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!

HR Internal Audit-Finish the year with a bang

HR Internal Audit Planning

At the end of the year, there’s nothing quite like a rousing HR internal audit to make you love your job, right?
:-)

Okay, now that the insincerity is finished, we can be realistic about the often-discussed (yet rarely used) human resource audit. :-) Let’s get the facts straight:

  • Most HR pros have limited time to complete this sort of task.
  • Doing some sort of HR internal audit is a good way to get a grip on what has been accomplished and what has yet to be completed. Sort of like a quick and dirty SWOT analysis.
  • Something most HR pros don’t HR Internal Audit Planningeven consider is doing a physical “audit” of their workspace as well.

My annual catch up plan

I rarely take much, if any, time off at the end of the year. It’s always been my plan to catch up on the activities that have been piling up and to take care of some of the other activities mentioned below. Yes, I take some time off to be with my family, but I also use the time wisely to catch up with lingering actions that won’t get done when everyone else is at work. It’s the week when you get the least email and work-related requests, so take advantage of that!

What you should cover in an HR internal audit

If you decide to audit your HR department, there are some great resources on what to look into. Again, this can be as in depth as you like, but it’s a good idea to do at least some measure of looking into your current HR/recruiting practices. For a few ideas, here are some starting points for what you should focus on with an audit.

Getting your house in order

Make some time to get your desk, office/cube, and (most importantly) your email inbox in working order. Toss, file, or scan/save those stacks of paper that have been on your desk for the past several months. Get your email inbox cleaned out. Whether you’re a “clean desk, clean mind” kind of person or my kind of “if I move it off my desk, I’ll lose it” person, get things cleaned up however you need to in order to stay focused and get your work accomplished with a minimum of wasted effort.

What’s your plan?

Finally, it’s really a chance to look at what you want to do for the coming year. Last year I was in a panic when the year turned over to 2011. It was the first time I actually had to consider what “big” things I wanted to make happen in the new year. This year I’m being more purposeful about the big picture activities the HR function is going to accomplish.

For instance, I’m going to be selecting (after holding off for a long while) a new performance management tool for us to run our appraisals over the web. I’m looking at ways to streamline the recruiting process to save costs and reduce the number of poor hires (the number’s already low, but it doesn’t hurt to improve!). We are looking at partnering with a benefits broker to negotiate lower rates and bundled services.

But these things will never happen if there isn’t a plan and a set of precise steps in place to reach these goals.

Sit down with a yellow legal pad and a pen and think about what your top 2-3 things will be for the coming year. Put down your ideas and start looking at how you can take incremental steps to achieve those goals by the end of the year. It’s all about being purposeful with your planning and actions!

Those are a few steps you can take for a successful end of year HR internal audit. Do you have audits you perform in your job?

Work anniversary-Is the honeymoon over?

I saw a great post by my good friend Krista Francis recently on honeymoons at work, and it came just as I was crossing my first “work anniversary” at my current employer. If you haven’t read it yet, it will cause you to stop and think when you realize how important the first interactions new hires have with your company (hint: the “honeymoon” stage should last more than one hour!).

I rarely celebrate or dwell on anniversaries at work. I’m one of those people who will work at a place until it’s no longer interesting or challenging and then move on to another employer, so I measure my work in experiences and relationships, not years. Some people care about how many years they’ve been with an employer, but there are plenty who do not.

On a related note, I have never been a fan of seniority-based awards. However, when I was listening to Dave Ramsey the other day I heard him say something interesting. I don’t remember the exact quote, but paraphrasing: We don’t believe in paying people according to how many years they’ve been here. But I realized recently that we are very tough on people to produce results. If you aren’t producing results, you go work somewhere else. If that’s the case across the board, then we really do pay people somewhat according to their seniority level. If you’re still working here you must be doing something right. 

That one idea twisted my head around in a circle. While I still think celebrating years of service just for the sake of it is fairly useless, I do like the idea of recognizing that people who are still engaged in their work and producing solid results after a long term track record has been established. Of course, many companies hold onto poor performers for a number of reasons, but for those with a strong performance appraisal system, it’s an interesting way to look at longevity in a position.

I’ve been with my company for over a year now. People still come up and ask me, “Do you still like your job?”

I must still be in the honeymoon phase, because my response never deviates: I love it.

Ever had a “honeymoon” at work turn sour? Or maybe you still feel like you’re in that stage despite a long tenure? I’d love to hear about it!