9 Free Resources, Tools, and Ideas For Better HR

9I run across a large number of resources in my day to day work as an HR department of one. I thought it would be fun to snag the resources I accessed at least once during a week’s time and post them here for you to see. In the past week, here are the sites I’ve visited for something related to work…

  1. This is a free leadership development program template. It’s high quality. Dan puts out an amazing wealth of information on leadership, development, etc. and this is the cream of the crop. If you’re considering some sort of leadership development curriculum, this is a great place to start. Link
  2. This white paper by OC Tanner talks about employee recognition and awards. I don’t agree personally with giving awards to people based on how long they’ve hung around the business, but the ideas for how to present in a meaningful way (backed up by statistical data) were enlightening. Link
  3. I’ve used this quick and easy list of HR laws by company size for years. It’s not a massive guide, just a quick, handy resource. Link
  4. I had to look up an idea on onboarding new employees, and I checked out the free eBook that was published here a while back. Great content on engagement, retention, onboarding, and more. Link
  5. I almost wept with joy when I read the tips and advice on writing well in this presentation by iSight. Some of it is overkill, but we can all use a refresher on writing effective reports in our field. Link
  6. For a laugh, I’ve been checking out TribeHR’s funny eCards for HR pros. This one is my favorite so far. Link
  7. I’ve always been a sucker for the resources at Payscale.com. They have some phenomenal tools and the information is always top notch. Here’s their main resource center with free eBooks and more. Link
  8. I have this hanging up in my workspace and have for the past 3 years. This list should be everywhere. 65 things I believe about HR written by Frank Roche, a gentleman and a scholar. Link
  9. This is good for a laugh (or a cry, if you’re practicing any number of these actions). This pretty much defines cruel and unusual punishment for employees. Link

What’s your favorite from this list? Do you have a go-to resource that you’d like to share?

 

 

Realistic Job Previews Make Better Hires

Realistic job previews aren’t new or groundbreaking. (But people still don’t do them.)

Why?

Honestly, I don’t know.

Here’s a little snippet from a recent SHRM article.

“One way to avoid quick quits is to be real in describing what it will be like on days 5, 50 and 150 for that candidate during the interviewing process,” Erker said. “Painting a rosy picture or pulling a bait-and-switch once they're on the job will just mean you'll fill that position again in six to 12 months.”

Realistic job previews in a nutshell

Tell the candidates what the job will be like. In real terms. Every aspect of it that you can quantify.

  • customers
  • teammates
  • managers
  • senior leaders
  • daily tasks
  • big projects
  • and whatever else you can think of

Sugarcoating or hiding any negative aspects of the job is the best way to ensure that the new employee doesn’t stick around for long. Why? Because you’ve lied to them. Yep.

Remember that it is not enough to abstain from lying by word of mouth; for the worst lies are often conveyed by a false look, smile, or act. Abraham Cahan

When you try to avoid telling someone the whole story just because you want to get them started in the job, that’s about as short-sighted as you can possibly be.

Measuring your success with realistic job previews

One of the recruiting metrics that I put a lot of stock in is first year turnover. Some measure of turnover is healthy in an organization over the long haul, but turnover within the first year is a negative thing.

I think there’s a high correlation in first year turnover and a solid realistic job preview during the interview process. Offering full insight into the job with time for both pros and cons lets the person make an informed decision about whether the job and company are truly a fit for them.

Omitting the negative aspects from the interview might get the person to accept a job offer, but you can bet that they won’t be sticking around a year later.

Take the time to give your candidates realistic job previews and you’ll have better hires.

Or you can lie. Fake it. I’m sure that will work out fine, too. </sarcasm font>

HILG (Huntsville Industrial Liaison Group)-Why You Should Care

Last week I went to a meeting at HILG, AKA the Huntsville Industrial Liaison Group. Why should you care? Well, I think small affinity groups like these can help us to be better at what we do on a daily basis. Today I’ll talk a little about the group and then in general about how you can get value from a similar organization.

HILG=The Huntsville Industrial Liaison Group

hilg huntsville industrial liaison groupThis group was designed to help government contractors in our local area. The group focuses mainly on the laws and executive orders that impact employers in our area, so the niche is fairly specific. However, since Huntsville contains a high concentration of government contractors relative to other industries, it’s actually a fairly well-attended group.

The meeting I attended was focused on developing affirmative action plans. As a defense contractor we have to have an AAP in place, and I plan to leverage the resources and contacts available through the Huntsville Industrial Liaison Group for making that happen.

Small group

Small groups do one thing well, and that’s creating engagement. The smaller the group, the harder it is for any one member to tune out and disengage. The larger the group, the less pressure there is to pay attention, digest content, and participate in the discussion.

Targeted focus

When I walk in the door, I know that these meetings will matter on some level. I’m not learning about how nonprofits handle recruiting or how retail stores handle discipline. I’m learning about specific legal requirements that will enable our business to succeed.

Opportunity for similar groups

I talked with my local SHRM chapter several times over the past few years to get them to start an informal meetup to allow members to connect, share ideas, and learn from each other. Last year the Best Practices lunch series was born, and it’s still going strong today.

Anyone can start one of these groups with 4-5 people. Just sit down, talk about some of the things that are keeping you up at night, and ask for input or advice. When others bring up problems, offer your own solutions. It’s not difficult, and it can open you up to greater success.

What do you think? Are you engaged in a small group? What do you think about the experience? 

Winners, Results, and Other Updates

Just a quick post today with various updates. I just got home from my Thursday night men’s meeting and it’s 11:54pm. Whew. Tiring, but totally worth the effort.

Survey and winners

I notified the survey drawing winners on Thursday 2/28 via email. If you didn’t get an email from me, sorry about that. Better luck next time! I still appreciate all the effort, even if you didn’t happen to be in the pool of winners.

Speaking of the survey results, I had 99 responses to the survey. Holy cow. That was an amazing response, and I’ve only been able to read through half the answer so far.

What have I learned?

Well, the responses are all over the map. I need to aggregate and quantify the results, but it was interesting to see that some things (video, for instance) were both loved and hated. Some people really like book reviews, others are not so interested. And some people left the most amazing, kind comments. I am so blessed!

Book club progress

This week I led the second meeting for the NASHRM book club. Our local chapter is running this initiative this year and it was a blast as we moved through the book. We’re swapping to a new book next month, and I expect the group to continue growing and developing over time. If you’re interested in something like this for your chapter, reach out to me and I’d be happy to share some details.

You need this

Smile file. Do you have one? If not, you need one. I’ve been doing it for years, and I recommend it to everybody. Here’s how it works.

So you get an email from someone with a kind word or comment. Create a folder in your email client called “Happy Thoughts” or “Smile File” or “Let’s Do a Happy Dance.” Then when you get another email that makes you smile, drop it in that folder.

On the days that you are having a tough time or feel like things just aren’t going your way (why am I even doing this job, anyway?!?), just open up that smile file and read a few of those kind words. It will remind you of why you do what you do every day. And as HR pros, that is sometimes your only avenue for stress relief!

And that’s all I can think of at this point. Heading in to kiss the girls and then to bed for the rest of the morning. Hope you have a phenomenal Friday!

Rock it,

Ben

How to Know When Someone is Lying in an Interview

Lying in an interview? Say it ain’t so!

I wanted to share a short back-and-forth I had with a friend about how to know when someone is lying in an interview. I’ve shortened where I could to get to the point, but the lying discussion doesn’t happen until the end. I think the discussion is worth reading through nonetheless. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the process as well!

lying in an interview—

Does recruiting for culture fit really work?

I’ve been working to recruit for culture fit, and I’ve been thinking… Where is the culture that the bad attitudes belong?

I think there's a place for everyone, and the “bad attitude” is a misalignment in many cases. Your attitude is awesome when it comes to picking up the phone, serving clients/customers/candidates, etc. If someone tried to turn you into a benefits analyst you'd have a terrible disposition.

Not sure if that's culture-specific or industry/job specific. We hire for people who fit our core values. Some of them are a little more “open and honest” than others, and what they say is often construed as rude or condescending. But that's who they are and why we hired them in the first place.

Shoving me into a job that requires filing and organization will turn me into a monster. Letting me play all day with different areas of HR makes me just about the happiest person in the building.

Your turn.

Beyond culture to personal job fit

good spin. but don’t some people have JUST a bad attitude? How can we as HR rockstars help people identify what they excel at that makes them happy and grow in that area so they can work in that area??

A permanent case of attitude issues? Yeah, they are the perpetually underemployed/unemployed, if I had to guess.

Part of the problem is bringing people on to do a job when it is not really their passion. At some point the pain of doing something like that will overwhelm them and they leave to find another job. I think that's why many people are perpetually changing jobs every 1-2 years. They are looking for a J-O-B to solve their problems, when they really haven't taken the time to determine what they truly love and want to do. Just because it pays the bills doesn't make it a good career choice long term. This describes the majority of people in a nutshell:

Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure… than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt

Do what's expected. Do what's comfortable. Do what you know. Do what your parents did.

All are recipes for failure.

When people take charge, look inward at what they love, and then pursue jobs and companies that align with those values and interests, the world of HR becomes much simpler.

What if the people are lying in an interview?

I feel like the answers could still be faked- if you’re interviewing me and I know what your culture is and how important it is in making a hiring decision I pretty much know what kind of answer you’re digging for.

So if someone does that much research and fakes it well enough to get in, it will eventually show somewhere that they were being false in the interview. We can't screen for 100% fit but it still weeds out the 90% I would say.

You're in a tough spot, but it's also an amazing opportunity if you can get your current organization to truly focus on their culture.

Be sure they understand that leveraging culture isn't confined to recruiting. The vendor management guidelines video I did was a very real example of how we use culture externally to help us achieve our goals. Training. Development. Promotion. Termination. Every area is another opportunity to reinforce the core values and culture they want to enforce. Bringing them in on the front end is the beginning of a long and tough, yet very rewarding, process.

How do you determine if someone is lying in an interview? 

New Job Orientation for Remote Employees

While we have plenty of resources for how to onboard new hires, there isn’t much info with regard to new job orientation for remote employees. How do you handle off site employee orientation? What do you say? How do you communicate?

Today we’ll look at all that, plus I’ll share a few ideas on how to make it especially valuable for the employee. New job orientation isn’t easy, and it’s even harder when you’re off site! Here’s the message from a reader that got my brain fixed on the topic:

Just read your article about Onboarding. Some really useful stuff there but I was wondering if you have ever written about trying to onboard a new employee in a remote location where there is no team in place yet. I am currently doing this and came across your article in my desperate search for some help. — I'm located in our office and the new employee is located in the remote office which has the awesome advantage of being in a different time zone. We do have employees in the office there but nobody who will be doing anything like his specific job. This is also my first employee ever so I'm having a minor meltdown as you can imagine. There are so many things like taking them to lunch etc that I can't do so I'm trying to figure out ways to substitute these kind of team bonding activities. We are going to be hiring a few more people in the next few weeks but I want to try and get it at least partially right with this first one so that he doesn't run screaming from the building. Any advice would be most gratefully received.

Here’s what I had to say.

Very neat! I definitely agree that you have a challenge on your hands. I would make it a point to use video chat if you have that capability. That’s the most personal, and personable, interaction you can have with someone who’s thousands of miles away. Another neat idea might be to do a quick video tour of your local office, show them who else works for the organization, and let each person wish them a quick “welcome” message. That would take ten minutes to walk around, record, and upload/send, but it would be very valuable for creating a connection among the staff.

If you have the capability, you might also put together a short writeup on your culture, what it’s like working there, and the things your leaders believe in. I’ve attached the one I recently put together as a sample. If there are no standing meetings in place, this is a great opportunity to create one and allow each location to kick in a few ideas about what they are working on, any issues they are facing, etc. over a group conference call.

Let me know how it goes!

How to approach new job orientation for remote employees

Here’s a short video where I discuss this topic.

Additional resources

What about you? How do you handle new job orientation for remote employees?

Human Resources Blogs (Why We Do It)

So maybe you read half a dozen human resources blogs, or maybe this is the only one you follow. Why do people write human resources blogs? What’s the point?

Well, I can’t speak for everyone, but I can give you some insight into why I write (and read) blogs about human resources every week.

Human resources blogs and my career

human resources blogsWhy in the heck would someone start an HR blog?

Good question.

I started writing this blog four years ago as a way to help others just getting into HR. I wanted to share what I was learning, offer advice to common problems, and get some accountability for myself beyond the four walls of my employer.

And boy have those come true.

The blog has helped me immensely. It was a factor in getting my current job to some degree. It wasn’t a golden ticket or anything, but it also wasn’t completely ignored in the hiring process. I can still remember the president of the company sitting there at his desk and scrolling through my blog while I was being interviewed.

It has opened up doors to partner with great companies and people in so many ways. It has broken down barriers that would have prevented me from connecting and networking with peers around the world. It helped to launch one of the first HR unconference events. It’s just been amazing, frankly.

But that only covers the past four years. What does the future hold? I have no idea, but I’m incredibly excited.

The purpose of human resources blogs

I think the people who take the time and effort to write HR blogs are doing a great service to the profession. For too long “personnel” was seen as a barrier to getting things done. HR pros taking the time to share unique and interesting ideas are helping to shape the future of our profession. Here are two key ways that’s happening:

  • Transparency-HR as a profession has long been sequestered from the rest of the organization. In those circumstances, it’s no surprise that business leaders, line management, and staff workers don’t have much faith in HR. They don’t know what HR does! Sure, they know we help to recruit people and help with terminating the bad ones. But the gap between hiring and firing, the employee lifecycle, is where HR can truly shine. The blogs out there that are sharing what HR truly does on a daily basis are the ones that are the most popular. No surprise there.
  • Insights-A corollary to the previous point is the insight that we can provide. We talk about what we are doing, because we’ve been influenced by others doing the same thing. If you stop for a second, you can probably think of an HR person somewhere (maybe a friend or just an acquaintance) who is doing something that you’d like to be doing. They have an innovative program. They have a unique process. They have something that you’d like to learn how to do. Or maybe you just want to make existing processes better–there’s no shame in that. But we share what we share because we want others to benefit from our success. We are also a little selfish in that we want to get the same thing out of it. We want to find new, unique ideas that help us with our own jobs. And that’s okay, too. I’ve yet to meet the person who has it all figured out and needs no help, insight, or encouragement from others. 

Those two points can’t possibly encapsulate the entire spectrum of HR blogs, but it’s a good place to start.

Human resources blogs and you

So now you know a little more of the “why” behind human resources blogs. So how can you use them?

This post I wrote a year ago about human resource challenges is a great example of how you can take what you’re reading and put it into effect in your own life and career. I also included a similar challenge in the entry level HR course for those new to the profession. I wanted them to understand that HR blogs are not just for entertainment–they’re also for learning new concepts and forcing our brains to think differently about the problems we’re faced with.

I talk with readers via email every single week. They are trying to implement ideas they learned about on this blog, and I’m all too happy to converse with them about how to customize the topics to their unique situations. They are the ones who are truly benefiting from the HR blogs out there.

I know that 99+% of you are not interested in starting an HR blog. And that’s just fine. I talked about why HR people don’t blog previously, and I still believe those reasons are true today.

So those are a few of my thoughts on human resources blogs. What are yours? How have they helped you?

A piece of news: I am still working to notify award winners from last week’s contest/survey. I expect to be able to announce each one sometime this week. Thanks to everyone who helped me by taking the survey last week! I truly appreciate it.