Category Archives: General

#DisruptHR HSV 1.0 is in the books!

Last week I did something here on the blog that I haven’t done in a LOOONG time. I didn’t post anything. But it wasn’t because I had nothing to say–it’s because I was neck deep in final preparations for DisruptHRHSV, which happened last Thursday night.

This event was a long time coming and we had participants from as far away as Houston and Atlanta come to join us for the event. With about 150 participants, including 14 speakers and a handful of amazing sponsors, there were plenty of balls to juggle leading up to the session!

Bottom line: it was pretty darn amazing. If you were there, I appreciate your support and your participation. If you weren’t, I hope you can join us next time (more to come on this)! We’ll be posting the videos of the event on the DisruptHR website after they come back from the videographer so you can see how it turned out, but for me it was like getting family together (the kind of family you like!) to talk about something that we’re all passionate about: HR, people, and business.

A quick shout out to our speakers that had the courage to stand up and share their stories/passions–well done!

Additionally, our sponsor partners were amazing and we are so thankful they worked with us to make this event special. I like ’em so much I put their names on the special DisruptHR shirts I had made last week. :-) Thanks again PeopleStrategy, ADP, PassionHR, and Paycor! DisruptHR Shirt

This week I have a lot of great things in store for you. I’m doing some writing around compliance, investigations, and HR metrics that I am looking forward to sharing with you. Additionally, I did an interview with Collette Williamson from Southwest Airlines to uncover some of their expertise around building a great culture that I should be posting this week as well. Stay tuned for good stuff!

What Kind of Content Can You Find at a #DisruptHR Event?

We officially sold out of our first block of 100 tickets late last week for the DisruptHR HSV event coming up on August 16th. However, thanks to a stroke of luck/providence our original space was leased out to someone else so we were bumped to a bigger room, allowing us to sell more tickets. If you’re within driving distance of Huntsville I would LOVE to see you there. We have people coming from Atlanta, Birmingham, etc. so it’s definitely worth the drive!

One of the questions I’ve received about the event is what kind of content they can expect. Well, we’re not going to give you a short list of the laws and regulations surrounding HR. We expect you to know those, and the format really isn’t conducive to that kind of approach. After all, speakers have just five minutes to make their point and get off the stage!

So, with that in mind, what kind of intriguing and thought-provoking content are we planning for this first edition of DisruptHR HSV? Here’s a taste…

  • Recruiters often look just at someone’s qualifications and skills, but they often miss the critical culture fit aspect. Humans are bad at judging this in some cases, but a ton of research shows that culture is critical in hiring. This session will show you why and how to do it better.
  • Innovation is a sought after buzzword in the business space. We need to create opportunities to help people generate new ideas in new environments. Coworking is a powerful way to do this, but some employers aren’t sure of the value or how to make it work. This session will show you how.
  • We’re so used to relying on experience as a measure of employee value, but in an era of absurdly low unemployment rates (more open jobs than unemployed individuals!), many employers are considering dropping experience requirements for some roles. This session will give you insights into how to quantify other important elements like enthusiasm and passion.
  • Have you ever thought about why people come to your city (or not)? We recruit for our companies, but cities also recruit talent and businesses with incentives, tax benefits, and local amenities. We can learn some valuable lessons from economic development professionals on how to better position our companies and regions when we’re pitching candidates to come to the local area.
  • Performance management practices are great and all, but employees and managers hate them. HR often does, too. The approach companies take literally sucks the life from them like some sort of energy vampire. But there is a better, smarter way to do it, and we want to help you get on the right path.

See? Some of this is more “traditional” HR, but with a twist. Other parts are taking a step further and encouraging us to think differently and more holistically than we would otherwise. With a total of 14 speakers, you know we’re going to get into some really interesting territory.

If you’re curious about the event, it’s just $15 to attend. We have phenomenal sponsors lined up to help with the event and they are keeping costs manageable for you to come and enjoy some good food and networking.

A special thank you to PeopleStrategy for being our first top-level sponsor! Also we appreciate our friends at Paycor and PassionHR for supporting the event as well as sponsor partners. We have room for one or two more sponsors, in case anyone else is looking to connect with 100+ HR leaders at the event. For the full list of speakers and topics check out the list below. I hope to see you there!

DisruptHRHSV Speaker Image

 

We’re Only Human 39: Ohio Living Serves 70,000 Clients Annually with Core Values

Do you know the core values of your business? Do your employees? More importantly, do they live them?

In today’s episode, Ben interviews Dana Ullom-Vucelich, Chief Human Resources Officer and Ethics Officer at Ohio Living. Ohio Living provides services to a range of individuals, reaching more than 70,000 clients per year. The company’s 3200 employees are guided not just by policy and procedure, but by a strong sense of ethics and core values that permeate the culture and atmosphere of the firm.

In the discussion, Ullom-Vucelich gives her insights into what it takes to engage employees and get their best. In addition, she gives a variety of business and clinical/healthcare impacts of having engaged employees, going beyond the “pat on the back” to more substantial value that engagement and recognition can bring. If your business is looking for ways to create more engagement and drive better business results, this is the show for you.

Learn more: https://www.ohioliving.org

If you enjoyed this, be sure to check out episode 20: Growing a Business with Your Heart

PHR/SPHR Course Update [Announcement]

If you aren’t studying for the HR certification exam then feel free to ignore this or share it with someone that is studying. Thanks! :-)

Earlier this summer I set a really big goal for myself and the team that’s working on the development of the new PHR/SPHR course. I wanted to have the new course fully up and running by August 1st to coincide with the new HRCI changes. However, this is still in development and it’s looking like we will miss the deadline for rolling out the new course.

With that in mind, I’ve decided to take an intermediary step and adapt the materials we’ve been using and updating for the last 10 years to help test takers to bridge the gap. These changes should be done this week and I’ll post again letting everyone know. The changes HRCI has made are fairly minor and mostly revolve around changing the titles of the sections and moving around some of the content, but as I’ve told students for years it isn’t like HR is suddenly new and different (we just make up different names for some pieces of it on a regular basis to keep things fresh).

That said, we are still pushing the development of the new materials. I am really excited to see where this goes and would love to have a handful of beta testers to try it out for free as we finalize development in August in exchange for feedback. If you’re interested in this please reach out to me!

Using Job Titles Instead of Pay to Compensate Employees

Writing a lot about compensation today! I also have a piece up about 3 ways compensation policies can cause employee turnover as well in case you want to check it out. . 

This past week I was talking with a friend and he explained that his job title had recently been changed from “XYZ specialist” to “XYZ manager.” He laughed and said that, of course, it didn’t come with a pay raise. I know those kinds of “promotions” are common, but I also explained to him that even if a raise didn’t come right away, having a title like that could lead to higher pay down the road.

For starters, even if there is no pay change, the recognition of your hard work with a title change can give you a sense of satisfaction with your work. Dan Pink’s book Drive talks about the three areas we need to hit in order to create an engaged workforce: autonomy, purpose, and mastery. This recognition hits squarely on the mastery piece, especially if the title change is conveyed appropriately. We want to feel like masters of our own domain, and that transition in job title can be one way of realizing that. Continue reading →

Why You Should Always Discriminate in the Workplace

Discrimination isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

I overheard a conversation the other day between two employees at a local restaurant. One of them said:

“I am so sick of our boss. He is always discriminating against me for coming in a few minutes late or not getting my work done as fast as Joe.”

The second employee turned to the first and responded:

“It serves you right. Show up on time. Do better work. It’s not really that hard.”

Because I’m incredibly mature and kindhearted I held my laugh in until I was out of earshot, but it seems like I hear this kind of thing more and more. People feel like all kinds of discrimination are bad/wrong/evil.

Not true.

See, we won’t discriminate against you for your age, gender, etc. Those things are protected (as they well should be). But work performance? I can discriminate against you all day long.

“Discrimination” isn’t a blanket defense for poor work habits. Just an FYI. In the words of the young man who is wise beyond his years: show up on time and do better work. It’s not really that hard.

Share this with a friend or leader that would appreciate it today!

Your Invite to #DisruptHR HSV: Let’s Do This

If you live within driving distance of of Huntsville, Alabama, I’d love to personally invite you to the first ever DisruptHR HSV on August 16th at 5:30pm. If you’re not familiar, DisruptHR is a global movement made up of local grassroots-level events giving HR and business leaders an opportunity to network and discuss how we can change HR for the better.

disrupthr hsv

We just closed the speaker applications and are sorting through submissions (announcing soon!) If you want to sponsor (limited opportunities up for grabs), contact me here. If you want to attend, tickets are very inexpensive. We purposely priced them at such a low rate to make sure we can make attendance attainable for anyone that is interested in HR, training, talent, and/or recruiting.

Kristina Minyard and I are the co-organizers (co-disruptors?) for this event, and we’re honored to have the opportunity to bring this event to Huntsville and help our local HR audience learn and grow through innovative content. There will be food. There will be drinks. There will be content. What more could you ask for?

We have a ton of amazing speakers lined up, including one of Huntsville’s finest and a nationally recognized HR blogging and social media expert, Jazmine Wilkes. Additionally, our fine city will be represented by Erin Koshut, one of the key influencers and leaders at the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce. Look for more speaker info coming out soon on the event page.

If you have questions, feel free to reach out to me. Tickets just opened last week and are already nearly 30% sold out. We fully expect to sell out in advance!