Job shadowing questions

I\’ve been working with my local SHRM chapter to set a student program for job shadowing. Questions and ideas are bouncing around in my head, and it\’s going to be a great experience for both the students and the people who volunteer to help. I can still remember what it was like when I was trying to get my first job in HR (link), and I\’d have killed for a chance to follow around a local HR pro for a day to see what it was like. I\’m looking forward to helping them get their job shadowing questions answered!

What I plan to do

I\’m going to take some time first thing to share some of my own tips and ideas for someone getting started in the field. That will set the stage for the rest of the day as a learning experience.

Next I\’ll make sure I have a variety of tasks planned so they get a look at the facets of HR that I deal with-benefits, recruiting, employee relations, communication, etc. Some of those things are pretty routine for me, but for someone who is job shadowing, it would be pretty interesting. A few routine activities I might go with:

  • Answering benefits questions, looking up our summary plan descriptions for details, and making changes to someone\’s insurance/401(k)/compensation
  • Call a candidate to schedule an interview or to do a culture-based interview, work on an offer letter and salary package, or sit in on an interview (phone interview would be easier with this one)
  • Show how our performance management system works and what each person\’s responsibilities are
  • Give them a glimpse into the vendor selection process and how it works
  • Develop an employee communication with a specific management characteristic in mind (how to have tough conversations, for example)

One thing I will definitely not do is plan a party, talk about being a “people person,” or do anything else that HR gets stuck with that isn\’t really our responsibility. We aren\’t party planners, darn it.

Finally I\’ll wrap up the day with another short discussion on what they originally perceived and how it ended up being different. Interesting side note on this—I have someone in my office who is interested in getting into the HR field eventually. I could actually take that person through these exercises as well as a practice run and to give them the insights into the profession that they might not otherwise get. Fun stuff!

I\’ve also kicked around the idea of creating a short document to give them that allows the job shadowing student the opportunity to give feedback and take notes. I\’d personally like to see what they found interesting, because I plan to do it more than once and want to make it better for each person that visits.

Anyone else ever do a similar activity and have ideas to share? Does anyone have any job shadowing questions they\’d like answered? 

My visit to the OFCCP office…

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to visit the Birmingham, AL OFCCP office. It was an eye-opening experience, and I wanted to share some of the (scary!) “big picture” takeaways I learned.

The Quality vs. Quantity Falsehood

During the short seminar, one of the compliance officers with the OFCCP mentioned that they were changing their focus from previous years where they only performed audits at a business if they felt issues were systemic and repetitive, allowing them to move through a higher quantity of audits in a shorter period of time. He said that they are now looking at doing more in-depth audits, turning the focus now to quality of audits.

The part he didn’t explain thoroughly is that since the Obama administration took office, the OFCCP has been hiring more auditors as if they just can’t get enough. Having twice as many auditors means they have the manpower to look at quantity and quality.

Assuming the Worst

Ever heard the phrase “innocent until proven guilty?” Not the way of life with the OFCCP, apparently. During the seminar, the speaker reminded us that having interview notes and other data available could help in the event of an investigation. However, in the next second he casually mentioned, “If you don’t have the data to back up your claims as to why person X was paid differently from person Y and one of them is a minority, we will assume the worst intentions.”

I’ve been around the business world long enough to know that if you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find it. If you assume the worst, you’ll find something to substantiate your claim, no matter how minuscule.

New Compensation Data Tool

A few weeks ago I participated in a teleconference with other companies in conjunction with the OFCCP. They are looking at unveiling a new compensation data collection tool, forcing employers under their purview to provide them with data that they can scrutinize for “unfair pay practices.” As you can imagine, looking at a spreadsheet is very misleading, and some of the callers brought up roadblocks such as: performance history, seniority, unions, Service Contract Act (SCA) and other government-regulated minimum wage requirements, benefits, perks, commissions, bonuses, etc.

All I can say is good luck to my fellow federal contractors out there, because they aren’t going to stop, no matter how costly or difficult the tool is to implement.

Want to know more?

This topic isn’t my cup of tea, but if you want to know more about regulations and other things on the horizon, Mike Haberman is the guy to follow for info on that and other legislation that will have an impact on the people side of business. Here’s a recent post he wrote about GINA and how the ubiquitous breast cancer ribbons can cause issues at some companies.

Never underestimate the power of face-to-face interaction

We are a small company, but we have employees scattered around the US. Last Friday, Mike (our CEO) and I headed down to Fort Walton Beach for our quarterly All Hands Briefing. We only have three employees there, but when we showed up, it was so much fun to see how excited they were to have us visiting. Actually, believe it or not, this was the first time either of us had ever met the employees since we took over their contract one year ago today.

Can you imagine going a year without meeting some of the key people in your organization? Me, either. 

We were there for a whirlwind tour and the short All Hands Briefing with our entire company, and it was fun to tell everyone about the great team we have down in Florida. The customer on site actually said, “They are a small team, but they’re a good team.” Tough to get better feedback than that, and it was shared face to face with the customer and the CEO, to boot!

The moral of the story? Get out of your cave and meet your people. Find out what they do. Look for ways to make life easier on them. We took the time to find out their issues and frustrations, and we’re working to solve those already (less than 2 working days since the trip). They know that we care, and they are going to remain strong supporters of us in the future.

My friend Dave has a great post on how he sometimes travels with the sales team to find out how to help them do their jobs better. Brilliant. Read through it and see if you see a parallel that you can draw to your own business/industry.

The bottom line

I can send emails, call people on the phone, and talk all I want. But nothing replaces face to face interaction with your people. I think that’s one big reason HRevolution is such a success–people crave interaction and we just give them a forum to meet and converse with one another.

Why HR people don’t blog (and how to get around it)

One of the sessions at HRevolution Las Vegas a few weeks back focused on blogging, and a great question that was bandied about was why HR people don’t do it more often. Is it because they are afraid to? Maybe they just don’t know how? Or maybe it’s because HR people have been trained to keep quiet about their real thoughts and opinions, because knowledge is power, right? Whatever the excuse, it’s a terrible reason to keep quiet. Today we’re going to look at what it is, combat a few of the general excuses, and share some resources on how to get started.

What is blogging?

A really basic definition of a blog is a journal. It’s updated every so often with new ideas, insights, or lessons learned. People come by from time to time and read some of that wisdom and can comment or share it with others who might find it valuable.

That’s pretty simple, right?

Even with all the bells and whistles (see below for some tutorials and the tools I use), that’s really all a blog is. If you have thoughts, then you can blog. All it takes is writing those thoughts out! Even if you keep a private blog and don’t share it with anyone, you will become a better, more well-rounded professional as a result of taking the time to organize your opinions into coherent thoughts.

Why not blog?

If it really is that simple, then why don’t more HR people blog?

  • They don’t know how to use the tools-Check out the video below. 81 seconds to start a blog? Yep, it’s that easy!
  • They don’t know what to say-Start slow. Talk about what you do. Talk about what you enjoy about the profession. Talk about employee horror stories (within reason and without revealing too many juicy details). Read other blogs. As my manager put it, it’s about reading for the job you want, not the job you have!
  • They don’t have time-If you have thirty minutes per week, you have time. And I know you do, because you spent at least that much time checking Facebook, getting coffee, and watching TV commercials in the past 24 hours! Seriously, it takes very little time if you are just trying to get your thoughts out there. Don’t be one of those people who keeps going “Ready, aim, aim, aim…” Just fire the post off already!
  • They don’t want to upset their employer-My new friend Buzz writes a blog and has for about 6 months now. She doesn’t tell her employer and they don’t ask her about it. It’s quite possible to share helpful, valuable content with the world without telling everyone where you work!
  • Know another excuse? Drop it in the comments section below and I’ll respond to it!

Blogging tools and tips

I cover everything you need to know to get started here on the blogging page, including what domains and hosting are and who to purchase from, how to install WordPress, how to use themes and plugins, and a big Q&A section that runs the gamut! However, if you are interested and rearin’ to go right away, you can start your own blog in less than two minutes.

Check out this link for a short video on how to set up a free WordPress.com blog in 81 seconds. Less than two minutes. Anyone can get started with that short of a timeline!

Have other questions about blogging? Feel free to email me! I’ve helped several others get their own blogs going, and I would love to help you as well. 

Candidates wanted-Experience not preferred

I’ve been talking about my experience at Hire Minds lately, and there were some amazing quotes I picked up while at the event. One of my favorites was during the Chipotle session when the speaker mentioned their hiring philosophy.

Experience NOT preferred.

Short and sweet, yes, but the gist of the saying is that it’s easier to find someone who is enthusiastic, friendly, and passionate than it is to find an experienced professional and try to train them to fit that bill. Hire for attitude and train for skill is one of my favorite sayings.

I know when we’re looking for entry level people we give culture fit considerable weight. Someone may have great experience and an acceptable salary range, but if they don’t fit the culture, we won’t be considering them for the position. It does no good to fill the position with a poor fit and have to re-recruit for it six months later. We look for people with a hunger for knowledge and a penchant for helping others whenever possible, and it’s been very successful thus far.

Next time you’re getting a job posting ready, consider looking at qualities other than experience and education in order to make your decision. You might be pleasantly surprised with the result.

The corporate library-how (and why) we set one up

Offering a corporate library to employees is a great way to encourage learning and give people low-cost opportunities for growth and development. We have been kicking around the idea of establishing one for a while (especially after my article about how to develop an employee reading program), and in October the right things came together to make it happen.

National Book Month

At Pinnacle, we do a monthly social awareness campaign to give employees some food for thought. October is National Book Month, so I was trying to see if we could get a book for every employee. That was going to be tough to do on our timeline, so instead we decided to pull a few books together and start the Pinnacle Library.

How It’s Set Up

We have a very basic set up since our office is relatively small. Clara, our property whiz, agreed to give me a hand, so she catalogs new books and puts them on the shelf. She also maintains the checkout list in SharePoint, so anyone can see what is checked in or out at any given time. It’s not perfect, but I think it’s a great start!

Zappos.com’s Model

Zappos offers a large stash of books for employees to borrow or keep. They are large enough to afford the purchase of hundreds of books per year, but they tie it into their core values for people to be constantly learning and growing, so people know that it’s expected of them to grab a book and start developing their knowledge. It’s a great way to be, and I hope one day we are large enough to offer free copies as well. You can also do book reviews in newsletters and other company communications to help generate some interest.

Our Books

The books to start were all donated (and most by me) :-) so it’s a random mix, but as we add to our corporate library I have a short wishlist of books that will be more targeted toward our software engineering focus and some of the other programs we have going on. To name a few:

  1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
  2. Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh
  3. Perform Like a Rock Star by Orna Drawas
  4. Be Bodacious: Put Life in Your Leadership by Steven Wood
  5. The 1% Solution for Life and Work by Tom Connelan

Even Easier

If you don’t have the time or resources to have your own in-house corporate library, definitely take advantage of your local one instead. If you have an admin or staff member who you can send to the library once a week, they can take the library cards for your people and check out books for them. That opens up access to a larger body of resources and saves you the time and effort of administrating a corporate library on your own.

If you didn’t check out the post on why you need an employee reading program, I encourage you to do so. It has a fantastic framework for proving the necessity of such a program to your leadership.

Does anyone else use a corporate library? How has it been going for you?

Competitive pay isn’t enough

Think offering competitive pay to candidates is a winning strategy? Think again. Sure, it might get someone in the door, but it won’t keep them for long if you don’t have a work environment that appeals to them on some level (more on what motivates employees from Daniel Pink).

As compensation budgets tighten and perks get cut across the board for many employers, the only differentiator many can turn to is their culture.

Competing on pay is a losing game. Compete on culture.

I’ve heard it said that candidates take the job for the money and stay for the culture. Anyone else think that’s true?