I spoke with your applicant this weekend.

Your job posting said, "immediate need." He wrote a cover letter. He has a powerful resume. He completed the application. It has been four weeks. Crickets-- not even an acknowledgment of receipt.

He accepted another job this weekend. Yes, this weekend. The recruiter made herself available for him. She wanted to be sure he had answers to his questions. He applied for the job he accepted after he applied to yours. They really did have an "immediate need."

He received acknowledgment that his application was there. Within 30 hours, he heard from a recruiter. He exchanged pleasantries and times to chat. He received a video about the company, then one about the job. The communication was consistent and friendly (one of their values). There was one interview with the recruiter and one with the manager. Twelve hours later, after some emails of thanks and another video clip to watch, he received the offer letter. He received an envelope with goodies and a handwritten card from his manager.

Your applicant is no longer available. You may never even know that. He is an employee. He is an excited employee. He feels valued.

#job #jobsearch #jobposting #employeeengagement #communication #recruiter #employeeexperience #talentacquistion

I spoke with your employee today. 

He feels you are pressuring him on budget. You aren't listening. You are telling him what to do. He said, "Why doesn't he just do it then-why does he need me?" Your employee wants to do a good job. He takes time to build relationships- and he has some strong ones. He is reading business books since the training budget was cut - and well, you told him, "You can go if you get everything else done." He hired me to help him. He wanted guidance, support- someone on his side. 

You see, this is your manager. You haven't trained him to be a supervisor; he is figuring it out. His employees love working for him and with him. He is the reason they feel valued by the organization. He is the reason they are engaged. They respect him. They don't know that you treat your manager as your assistant to clean up messes, and do what you don't want to do. They don't know that you flood his email box on Sunday night so he feels behind as he starts the week. You ask him questions about items he has already informed you about. You weren't listening. He was your top technical person, and you threw him into a supervisor job. He is doing so well, despite you. Others have noticed: another firm's leaders who met him at professional meetings. Those meetings which he attended and you never even asked about the topic or who he met. Do you even know he went or are you too busy? He was offered another position with that firm- without an interview. They know him, his values and his work. He knows them through these meetings. They grew professionally- together. They broke bread together. They laughed together. He knows they already value him. They already have a relationship. 

He will give notice this week. He said, "The sad thing is that they won't really care because I just did the work. They wil notice when I bring over my employees." You see, you are losing a good technical person, an emerging supervisor and some of your good employees because who you work for -matters.  

People want to work with people they know, like and trust. It isn't just one of those - it is all three. His employees will follow him. 

You will be surprised that he resigns. Think about your reaction and learn from it. And think about it when members of his team leave. The surprise is because you didn't pay attention to him, or his needs. You didn't acknowledge his value. You didn't support his growth. 

What you can do is learn from him. Don't cry to HR that is is due to more money. The conversation never starts there with a candidate. It is a relationship first-- always. Your lack of one created the opportunity. Good people aren't mercenaries - they want to contribute. 

#hr #leadership #recruitment #work #opportunity #jobsearch #coaching

Employees are choosing to work from home. 

Do you know why? #HR friends, look at the data. Do you have more minorities staying away from the office? Do you know why? Are more women choosing to work from home, especially from certain offices? Is there a situation in the office that employees no longer want to deal with and working from home helps it? It could be jokes, the face time politics, lonely lunches, or bullying. The reason could be your employee just wishes to work from home. Don’t assume you know the reason. Assumptions are not data. Look at the data. Have conversations. If there is an issue, it won’t go away with #WFH. It will pop up with the next promotion, project assignment, or evaluation.  

#workplaceculture  #employeerelations #data#disparateimpact

I spoke with your employee today.  

He has been chosen for the role he has waited for -for decades. He is thrilled but puzzled. He interviewed early in the process; then you proceeded to interview others. This went on for months. Do the other candidates who were interviewed feel cheated? Were you always going to choose the internal candidate? Did you deem it a role for diversity or not? Did those candidates have a chance or was it window dressing? Now, clearly, he has the most applicable experience, so what stopped you from offering him the role—months ago? If you wanted him, why did he go through the delay, and suffer the internalized questions of whether he was right for the role? Were you teasing him, so he felt grateful to get the job? If you had doubts, why? Did you prepare him as the successor? If not, why not? You had time. How can your employee, the “winner”, the internal candidate feel good about this process?

Yes, I took liberties with this story of this long public interview process for Jeopardy host replacement for Alex Trebek. Jeopardy Executive Producer Mike Richards has reportedly been selected. Perhaps the delay is to provide more time and space after the death of the beloved host. Perhaps we will learn and perhaps we won’t. 

This story is not unique to this interview process. What pain do you inflict on your internal candidates? Are they good enough, unless you find someone else? If they aren’t prepared, why haven’t you helped develop them? Every recruitment process is a chance to be better.  

Do better; value your employees—always in all ways.  

#HR #talentacquisition#workplaceculture #employeeexperience #leadership #interviewing

So we are moving to new language. 

We said "search for," now we say "Google it." We are using "hybrid workforce" regularly. 

We went from flexible hours to flexitime to a shortened word of flextime. Many organizations established core hours of 9am to 3pm. A trend was a move to core hours of 10am to 2pm.  

Will we soon see recruitment ads with flexplace- meaning the job can be done wherever you wish? Will there be core places? Maybe core places with core time? Should you establish a cool co-working environment or several around the geographic area --places for your employees to gather and work- multiple "watercoolers" to encourage chatter and meetups? Imagine the conversations and innovations depending on who is in the space that day. You can do more than plain old offices or cube farms to "reserve and report to." 

This is such a great time to show your culture and encourage interaction in a new way. Don't just shuffle the deck chairs - Seize this Opportunity! What do you think? #WFH #postcovidworkplace #HR #trust #leadership#liveyourvalues #futureofwork #employeeengagement #culture

The right person at the right place

• Published on June 13, 2017
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It is about the right person in the right job at the right time for the right place. You've heard me or read about my belief in hiring for values. Values are those like-minded items we share. They bind us together in an organization. They are our gut, and can't be taught.

It is all about the culture

• Published on April 11, 2017

• It is about the culture. Operational efficiency must be the value at United. 

Uber failed at understanding culture and workplace environment. Wells Fargo got what was rewarded. 

Values are not a slogan. They aren't created for marketing. Values are about understanding how a diverse group of people with like minded values can progress a service or product. This doesn't mean everyone thinks the same way. It means that they believe in a set of core values. It means there is a North Star that guides decisions. 

Solid values mean fewer policies. It means knowing what is important. United chose to handle this situation this way. They felt that getting the four employees to Louisville for the operations of the business was more important than the paying customers. 

They didn't feel that options for transport from other airlines or other crews for the Louisville plane were a better option. or maybe there weren't other options. They didn't offer the maximum for cash out to customers. That was still a choice. 

The removal of four people was probably cheaper than the grounding of a flight in Louisville. That means operational efficiency trumps the customer relations. Nothing wrong with that if those are your values. If you don't define them; your practices define them for you. 

This doesn't mean to be all "touchy feeling" kind of values. Guiding principles-simply communicated- mean something. There were ten on tablets that communicated pretty well. #valuebasedleadership #culture #workplace #hr