Category Archives: General

I Have a Strategy, No You Don’t (Book Review Video)

I Have a Strategy, No You Don’t by Howell J Malham, Jr.

Recently I received this book to review. Honestly I picked it because of the title–it sounded unique and I was interested in checking it out. Once I got into the book (it’s a quick read), I was sucked into the funny dialogue and unique illustrations of what a strategy looks like.

The book was written because the author realized that we as a society have begun to “strategy” every little thing around us. Everyone has a strategy for everything.

And most of the time, it’s not actually a strategy at all!

With that in mind, check out the video book review below. I enjoyed the book, and if you’re in a role where you are trying to define what a strategy is (or help others with that task) I think you would enjoy it. The book has occasional illustrations, witty dialogue, and a great message to help us all remember what a strategy really is, and more importantly, what it is not.

Subscribers click here to view the video.

Interested in getting the book? Here’s a link to that.

Click here to read other HR book reviews.

Career Readiness Skills, Video Games, and ACT Scores

Video games are not a substitute for career readiness skills. They teach us nothing about hard work. They are not a magic tool to prepare the next generation to take the reigns in workplace leadership roles.

Recently an international speaker, Mike Walsh, came to Huntsville to give a presentation. I didn’t see the presentation, but he was quoted in the local technology magazine discussing career readiness skills.

Walsh said that Parents shouldn’t discourage their children from playing video games because new age executives often recruit the best gamers to come run their companies: “If you can lead a virtual team of dwarves and elves to attack an imaginary castle, it’s possible you can lead new technology into the evolving marketplace.”

Yeah, right.

Video games and career readiness skills

I really enjoyed real time strategy games when I was younger–mainly high school and sometimes during college. But when I had kids and a full time job, I left them behind. I say that to explain that I have no beef with the games themselves. It’s a fun way to pass the time, even if it doesn’t offer any real benefits in the long term.

So let’s look back at his statement.

“If you can lead a virtual team of dwarves and elves to attack an imaginary castle, it’s possible you can lead new technology into the evolving marketplace.”

Being able to play a video game is not going to translate into the workforce very well. You are not learning the meaning and value of hard, difficult work. Game doesn’t work out? Reset button. Start again.

In the long run, how are these young people supposed to be ready for a job that demands time, doesn’t have an easy “off” switch, and requires them to do thinks they sometimes don’t want to do? This is a silly statement catering to people who want to feel like their little boy/girl isn’t wasting an average of an hour a day on games.

I’m not saying to eliminate them completely. I’m just saying that parents don’t need to blindly believe that imaginary mining for imaginary gold to make imaginary weapons is going to help their child learn how to excel in the workplace.

Educational career readiness skills

career readiness skillsWhile we’re talking career readiness skills, a report by ACT, the college test prep administrators, offers a bleak look at the next generation soon to be entering the workforce. Check out the chart.

Fully 28% of all graduates did not meet any of the College Readiness Benchmarks, while 47% met between 1 and 3 Benchmarks. Twenty-five percent of all 2012 ACT-tested high school graduates met all four College Readiness Benchmarks, meaning that 1 in 4 were academically ready for college coursework in all four subject areas.

So that means that approximately the same amount of students were ready for the core classes in college as the amount of students who were ready for none of the core classes.

I know we’re talking education vs. work habits right here, but that’s still a flag in my opinion. I hire for engineers, accountants, and technical writers. You need to understand math, science, reading, and English to be able to do these jobs. There’s no “I’m a quick learner” with these things.

Maybe a little too much time spent helping the dwarves invate the castle and not enough time storming the homework sessions? I can only guess…

What are your thoughts on these two career readiness skills topics? Are they interrelated? Why or why not?

 

How to Lay Off Employees

Last year I had to learn how to lay off employees. I learned the way many of us learn these things. By doing it. how to lay off employeesIt wasn’t fun. It wasn’t exciting. But it got accomplished. Here’s what I learned about how to lay off employees from that experience.

5 tips for how to lay off employees

  1. Care. This starts long before the layoff conversation. They need to know that there is a foundation of concern for them as a person beyond the job function. If you’ve put effort into showing your care and concern for them on previous occasions, it truly makes this conversation easier. They understand and accept it when you tell them that you’ve done all you could to find work for them. The news is hard, but it’s cushioned slightly by the way you treat them with dignity and respect. 
  2. Give all the details that you can. Hiding details doesn’t help the situation. Give them the accurate picture without releasing any proprietary information or something about another employee.
  3. Do it privately. If at all possible, handle it somewhere private where the employee’s reaction will not be seen by others. This is key.
  4. Do it quickly. Don’t delay. Don’t sit on the news. Do tell them as soon as you know. Do give them face time if at all possible.
  5. Have a manager with you for support. It’s a tough conversation, and in 99% of cases they have a relationship with their manager that is deeper than their relationship with you. Give them a familiar face for comfort, even if it doesn’t change the end result.

Let’s be honest. Nobody ever wants to have that conversation with someone. However, if you must, here’s a short example of how to break the news.

How to lay off employees-a sample conversation

Hey, Bob. Thanks for taking the time to meet with me. There’s no easy way to say this, but we are facing some tight budgets. We have been working to find additional work, but those efforts have not panned out. We are going to have to let some of our people go, and you are on that list. We truly wish it didn’t have to be that way, but we do not have a choice at this time. If you are okay with it, I would be happy to help look over your resume and send that out to a few other recruiters I know in the area. Obviously we’d like to bring you back if we find the work coverage, but I don’t know a timeline on that. Here is how your benefits will work… Here is what to expect… Here is how your last day will go… Here’s how you can file for unemployment if you are interested… Okay, I know it’s sudden and a shock for you, but is there anything I can answer right now for you? I would appreciate it you could keep this to yourself until we have a chance to meet with the rest of the affected people. If you have any questions or anything in the next few days, here’s my card. Feel free to call or email me at any time. Thanks again for your time, Bob. I’ll be in touch soon.

Relatively short, it gets all the pertinent points across, and it makes the other person feel like they matter (because they do, but you’re reminding them of that!). That’s what I’ve learned about how to lay off employees. Do you have any lessons, tips, or ideas to share?

Hiring, Onboarding, Culture, and More on DriveThruHR

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with the great team over at DriveThruHR about some of the things that are “keeping me up at night,” so to speak. We discussed hypergrowth (how to prepare for 50% growth in less than a month), what it means to hire for culture fit, and more. It was a great conversation, and I had a lot of fun discussing the things that make us better HR professionals.

I’d love for you to check it out and let me know what you think! The player is embedded below. Subscribers click here to see the player.

If the player doesn’t work, feel free to use this link to listen to the episode.

I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Whoa! Where I’ll Be This Week

With this blog I normally try to stick to HR content that you can put to good use, but today I’m going to lean back and give a quick update on the things that are going on.

Talking social for HR

Tuesday I am speaking to a local SHRM chapter (Winfield) about social media for HR professionals. Love talking about this topic and I think it’s unique since I don’t 1) try to sell social media as the best thing since sliced bread or 2) act like the legal universe implodes if you use Facebook for recruiting.

It will be a small, informal group, so I hope to have a good bit of Q&A to keep things lively. (Side note-I love speaking to HR professionals! If you have a group you’d like me to connect with, just shoot me an email and we can discuss the details).

NextChat-Employee Rating Systems

Wednesday I will be doing a Twitter chat with the fine folks at SHRM. The #nextchat will focus on rating employees and will be a lot of fun. If you are on Twitter, I’d love to have you join in the conversation! I will be talking all about how organizations can use rating systems for succession planning and talent management, but I’ll also look at how those tools can be ineffective or even damaging to a company if used poorly.

The last NextChat on how to get a job in HR was a lot of fun! We talked about transitioning to an HR career, both from an entry level standpoint and a lateral move from another profession.

More social, more HR

Thursday I will be speaking to the Huntsville NASHRM Mentor University (NMU) group about social media. I’ll be tweaking this one a little from the Tuesday session to talk a little more about using it for professional development, since I’ll be speaking to the younger/less experienced HR crowd.

I’m honored to go back and speak to this group, because I was in the inaugural NMU class and was able to land a phenomenal job due to the networking within the group. It’s a great initiative and I’m looking forward to seeing the group they have put together.

Other items

On the work front, we’re recruiting for over a dozen positions right now, and while I enjoy the recruiting, it’s taking over my life. I had a nightmare the other night that I couldn’t get the right candidate for a highly specialized job. Whew. We’re going to be starting mid-year reviews in about a month, we are changing insurance vendors, and I’m looking at increasing staff at the local office by about 50% within 4 weeks. Yeah, it’s fun to be a one-man HR shop sometimes! :-p

Also, I just confirmed that I will be covering the Alabama SHRM State Conference as a blogger. More details on that in the next few weeks.

What’s up with you guys? I like staying in touch with everyone and learning what is keeping you busy. 

Offer Solutions, Not Comments

I don’t have cable. My life is a wee bit busy and I know that access and availability would mean more wasted time in front of the TV. But I will confess that I really like watching Justified and one other show online. The other night I was watching Justified and one line stuck in my head. The mob is trying to find out where their target is located, and the tension is heating up. Here’s a quick replay of the exchange as I remember it:

Mob Guy: We have to find him before someone else does. We want this guy bad.

Local Guy: He is not at the location I thought he was.

Mob Guy: That’s a comment, not a solution.

solutions light bulbI loved that response, and I’ve kept it with me for the past few days as a reminder to keep my mouth shut if I don’t have something valuable to contribute to the discussion. I’ve held my tongue one or two times more than I usually would, so I’m going to count it as a success in that regard!

As long as we’re searching for answers, I’d like to point you to two other resources for keeping the focus on solutions.

Stop offering problems

It's time to be proactive. Start looking for ways you can cut costs, streamline your functions, save time for managers, etc. Look for some solutions to age-old problems, not just new ones. Not sure where to start? Ask some of your managers what their biggest pain points are with regard to the HR or recruiting processes. Ask your senior leaders what their biggest concerns are at a corporate level. Then take that information and use it.

Want to know the fastest, easiest way to prove the value of the HR department? Solve a problem that plagues the management team. Yes, it seems simple, but it is often overlooked because HR tends to exist in its own little “bubble” and never takes the time to actually find out what the business needs are from the HR function.

Then take the time to communicate what you've found in the way of solutions to current problems. (Source)

Talk about how we can, not why we can’t

I absolutely love that quote (and the idea behind it). Instead of focusing on excuses or reasons you can't make something happen, keep searching for ways to do it. Look for opportunities, not limitations. There are already enough people in the world who are ready and willing to tell you how something can't be accomplished. Let's work on cultivating more people that look for ways you can be successful. (Source)

Next time you have a meeting with a person or group of people, take a minute to think before you speak. Are you merely offering meaningless comments, or are you offering actual solutions to the problems at hand? Will your comments make the situation better, improve the outcome, or make someone’s life better, or is it all just talk?

The Tipping Point: When do Coaching Sessions Stop and Policies Start?

If you’ve hung around here for very long, you know I’m not a big fan of policies. We don’t have a massive handbook for new hires that they have to sign on the first day claiming that they’ve read and understood the entire thing. I don’t look for opportunities to create new policies. I don’t let managers talk me into creating new policies.

tipping point swingSo I’ve set the stage, right? I am very un-policy relative to my companions in the HR profession.

The policy alternative

What I do instead is offer coaching for managers and employees on how to handle issues.

Have an employee who’s consistently coming in late? That’s not against any rules. How’s her performance? Oh, that’s suffering? Then let’s have a talk with her about that, not the time she’s coming in to work.

Every time something comes up that we don’t currently have a policy for, I push for coaching and communication. And I might sound like a broken record, but I have managers who now laugh when they start telling me a problem, because they know that the answer is not going to be a shiny new policy or a rule.

But I do understand that this isn’t a permanent solution. We do have some policies on key things (timekeeping, paid time off, etc.) that people can check out on the intranet.

What I really want to know is where the tipping point is.

When do policies make sense?

When are we large enough for a policy to make sense? The thing that I keep thinking of is that a few isolated incidents are coaching issues. Here is the internal checklist I use to determine when a policy might be the answer:

  • Is this a major legal risk if we don’t have this policy in place? Be realistic!
  • Is this going to impact our customers negatively if we don’t have a policy in place?
  • Is it going to disrupt operations internally if we don’t have a policy? (Note: additional coaching time for HR/managers is not enough to warrant this.)
  • Are we distributed enough that we are no longer comfortable with local managers making these decisions? Is it a problem with our managers?

That’s not the entire list, but it’s the first initial steps I take when trying to determine if a policy is worth creating.

Advice on keeping your policies manageable

Tim Gardner, another HR blogger and friend, has some great advice.

To your question: Create a policy when existing policies and practices are either in conflict with the businesses needs, or inadequate for the potential of a situation that is likely to re-occur. And think about a policies like clothes in a full closet. If something comes in, is there something you aren't likely to wear again that you can get rid of?

My two biggest rules for policy creation were outlined in a post from 3 years ago, and they still ring true for me today.

  • Don’t create a policy for the sake of having one
  • Don’t create policies for outliers

And finally, if you have never read my Open Letter to HR on Policies and Training, then you should stop and take two minutes to do that now. It was a semi-rant that I wrote a while back to address the crazy trend of employers trying to use policies instead of common sense.

I’d love to hear from some of you with a similar mindset of policy minimalism. When do you decide to put a new policy in place? Why? What’s your criteria? Do you ever revisit “old” ones to update or eliminate?Â