Twice a month we are featuring HR and Recruiting technology and other product reviews as part of a new HR Tech Review series here at Blogging4Jobs.  If you are interested in learning more about how our review process works, check out this page.  

Obviously, I’m a fan of social media and online engagement whether you are building relationships or establishing a presence with employees, candidates, or potential customers and clients.  It’s no longer enough to tweet or post a blog.  One must use careful strategy, tools, and experience to reach the right people at the right place and at the right time.  That’s exactly what HR Marketer has intended to do with their recent launch of SocialEars.

The tool provides insights into where the conversations are happening and who is having them based on keyword search and complicated algorithms that you or I are not paid to understand.  One of their new features which was released late last week offers up trending and decreasing topics using a tag cloud.  Red words are decreasing in popularity.  Green words are growing in popularity and Gray words are staying the same.  (The tag cloud vaguely reminds me of a holiday card.)

HR vendors can use SocialEars to evaluate bloggers, thought leaders, and social media mavens in which to establish a relationship and learn more about the audiences they serve.

If you are at all familiar with this Shel Silverstein book, then you know about a search. Finding the missing piece. When I first read this book, I thought, what a cute little story about a circle missing a pie-shaped piece. Then as an adult, as a parent reading it to my child, it held a different meaning. Finding independence and being ok with it. Knowing that you can survive on your own. Knowing that one must take care of one’s own happiness and not be dependent upon another to provide it. Figuring out that maybe there isn’t a piece missing, that you are alright just the way you are.

Many years gone now, with middle age setting in and a couple careers later, I see a different story. I see the story of a search – a search for the perfect job, the perfect candidate/applicant, the perfect client/customer, the perfect partner, the perfect you. And, typically, perfection is short-lived. Sometimes, smaller is adequate and sometimes, ”good enough” is just that. 

I am not your missing piece.
I am nobody’s piece,
I am my own piece.
And even if I was somebody’s missing piece,
I don’t think I’d be yours…”

“Hope I haven’t bothered you. Would it be alright if I just sent you an email with some details and perhaps you will think of someone who might have an interest? Thanks for your time.”

The search is what drives some of us, not the finding. Because once the piece is found, our search is done, over, ka-put. I guess it comes down to the age-old question, “Which is more important? the journey or the destination?”  Is finding happiness settling for less?  Once you reach the destination, is the journey over?

So, what is your missing piece? Is it the perfect job?  Is it the perfect applicant?
Maybe it is the perfect client? Or a whole database of clients?
Perhaps it is you that has become your missing piece. Perhaps your search has been for yourself, finding that right you in what you do, who you, ultimately, are?  Will you know it when you find it/you, or will it be too small or too big? Will you make it work or will you move on?

Maybe, just maybe, you can roll on just as you are.

“Have you really tried?”

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

For job seekers or those looking to make their way up the corporate ladder, being qualified or having a degree is no longer enough. A sense of humor is a must.  Maybe job seekers and aspiring professionals should spend more time on their standup than that Powerpoint.

Accountemps just released a survey with nearly 8 out of 10 executives stating that having a great sense of humor is an important part of fitting into a company’s culture.  Job seekers, add the bulleted words “funny man or woman” directly to your list of skills and qualifications stat.

Having a Great Sense of Humor in the Workplace

I find the survey results hilarious (hence the humor) and peculiar at the same time.  Accountemps which provides staffing for the accounting and finance industry surveys executives finding that employees should have a sense of humor in their career bag of tricks and in accounting no less, an industry where workers are not known for their brilliant and humor-filled personalities.

But those employees who are funny at work and casual are fun, well-liked, and more engaged in the workplace,  making them likely candidates for management and career progression. Unless, of course, you follow the Dilbert Principle where leadership is nature’s way of removing morons from the productive flow.  According to this principle, employees who can’t do the job are promoted into corporate leadership positions because they are incompetent, not funny.

I’ve written about this topic before.  These corporate slackers woo the boss, make the right corporate connections, and show up at just the right time shaking hands, kissing babies, and tell a well-placed joke to seal the deal.  They’re perfect corporate management material making the art of corporate politics look easy.

Humor at Work: Finding the Perfect Mix

As cynical as I sound, I believe there is a mix.  Employees that receive promotions or are considered for career progression within an organization must be competent, funny, qualified, and be able to lead and motivate a team beyond the standard quirky email or manager imposed deadline.  For managers and those leaders who are on their way moving up the corporate ladder, the employees, the disengaged workforce are not the typical Generation Y that you would expect.  They are workers who range in age from 30 to 65 who cut across Generation Y, Generation X, and the Boomer Generation.  That equates to nearly all of your workforce.

Gallups’s data from their 2011 October Employee Engagement Survey goes beyond just generational topics and your engaged workforce.  The least engaged worker is not that Bachelor’s degree college grad but the highly educated workforce or high school grads that leaders and aspiring managers should be worrying about.

Millennials Being Funny at Work

Except that they aren’t.  Most managers and organizational leaders don’t follow Gallup or even give a damn about your employee survey. They’re busy passing the buck and blaming their team’s staffing and turnover problems on one culprit, the lazy Millennial.  Granted, those Millennials are a challenge.  I know because I am one, and working with someone like me who questions authority, chooses flexibility over boatloads of cash, and uses Facebook at work is a problem.  I’m disengaged, bored, and probably applying for jobs via the company internet.

The secret sauce to being an effective manager and landing that big promotion is working with not against employees including millenials and employees from all ages, backgrounds, and experience levels.  Working with them and developing a employee retention strategy on an individual level instead of across the board.

..., most of the time.

Comfort. Some things in life are more comfortable than others. It can be a bit disconcerting to receive a phone call from a client who expected more from your relationship or be summoned to your superior’s office to hear the dreaded words, “I don’t like anything you have suggested.” Or how about that time when you submitted your resignation and your supervisor looked at you as if to say, “How can you leave me on this sinking ship?”  Been there, regrettably, done that.  We all have to face uncomfortable situations in our work lives.

Human Resource Professionals and Recruiters tend to meet those moments more often than other professionals. The Sign-Off: telling a candidate they aren’t getting invited to the show. The Collection: having to call a client, former or otherwise, to ask for the final installment for a placement you made two, three, or four months ago. The Lost Friend: when a hiring manager comes to you with a confidential recruitment that will replace a friend of yours within the company, and you have to keep it confidential. The HR Function: having to address hirings, firings, lay-offs, complaints, sexual harassment issues, evaluation time, changes in policy, promotions, non-promotions, and demotions.

Understand that Life in HR is not always easy. As a matter of fact, it often is not. And finding your comfort level, as an HR Professional, Corporate Recruiter or Third-Party Recruiter can be a challenge. Some of us are cut out to make cold calls, some of us are not. Some are cut out to stand in an Exhibitor’s Booth all day, some are not. Some of us are cut out to attend conferences and sit in session upon session for two days straight, some are not. Some of us are cut out to tweet about anything and everything, some are not. Some of us are cut out to bring the right placement to the table, in a timely manner – some are not.

The zone to be in is the one that feels right, the one that runs smoothly and efficiently. However, should that zone become too stagnant or too easy, we risk the opportunity for development and growth, for learning new skills, or challenging our own understandings of the job, any job. Finding the right combination of further excelling at what we are already good and getting better at what is necessary but uncomfortable is a formidable task. Formidable, but not impossible.

Cats are good at running away from discomfort. They dart through halls or along fences and under cars, in an effort to dodge everything and anything that isn’t for their own benefit. Dogs will endure an incredible amount of discomfort to simply to please their owners, to get a pat on the head or a treat. Somewhere in between lies another animal, the HR Professional or Recruiter. Knowing that sometimes discomfort comes with the gig, but also a great deal of satisfaction is part of their makeup.

 Gloria Steinem said, “The only thing I can’t stand is discomfort.”

Somehow, I think avoidance and complacency trump discomfort.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for the online recruiting software company, Broadbean Technology.  She is also a proud mother of four, happily engaged to Tom, residing in Laguna Beach, California, and a daily contributor for Blogging4Jobs.  Connect with her on LinkedIn.  

Late last week I read an interesting comment on a fellow HR Blogger, Charlie Judy’s blog.  The comment was this: “HR simply stands for Headcount Reduction.”  The post titled “Deadbeat Employees” and the comment thread that has evolved as of late is quite interesting but that’s not the point of this blog post today.  In short, the commenter is absolutely mistaken.  HR really has no decision making weight in headcount reduction.

Headcount decisions, layoffs, corporate resizing, and downsizing are things that in most cases middle management human resources really has no involvement in.  These budgetary decisions are made in a board room full of executives like your CEO, COO, CFO, and hopefully your CHRO.  That HR generalist or partner who briefs you on benefit changes for the upcoming year, investigates employee complaints, and pushes paperwork has nothing to do with the decision to layoff you, the employee.

Human Resources Roles

Companies with more than 20,000 employees – and depending on their number of locations – have many layers to their HR organization.  This means that your human resources representative at your office likely reports to someone else working in human resources who reports to another HR Senior Director who reports to the Regional HR who reports to the Chief Human Resource Officer who reports to the CEO.  Your office HR rep  is pretty low on the corporate food chain, but that doesn’t make their job any less important.  Their focus is you, the employee and the managers in the facilities they serve and represent their company in the best possible way.

Oftentimes in field HR roles, we are alerted to the fact before the general employee population that a reduction, RIF, or company change is happening.  Sometimes we are tasked to run reports or gather data that helps in making the final reduction decision.  Because when a reduction is being considered, organizational leaders look at things like employee performance, date of hire, or an employee’s age or protected class.

Sometimes Working in Human Resources Means Bringing Bad News

Yes, we are often times the one who delivers the message.  Similar to the corporate PR rep to the press, we must serve as the point of contact for the employee who is being transitioned out of the organization.  We represent the company and want to paint them in the best possible light.  We make sure the exiting employee receive COBRA and benefit information, answer questions, help with career transition services, and make sure you understand the company’s severance package.

Oftentimes, we in HR do this full well knowing that a day may come when we are on the receiving end as the company works to reorganize, re-evaluate, and cut the corporate fat.  So HR doesn’t stand for headcount reduction.  Quality HR, that is. Human resource professionals are tasked during a reduction in force with helping exiting employees make the transition smoothly and with dignity while ensuring that their company is removed from as much legal liability as humanly possible.

Headcount Reduction & Human Resources

No, HR doesn’t stand for headcount reduction.  It stands for human resources and a good HR professional balances both their responsibility to the employee while also the organization.  So quit your bitching and get an understanding of what your actual HR representative actually does before making assumptions and jumping to conclusions. 

The blogging industry is a fun, exciting, and fickle thing.  Technorati Tells us in their July 2011 State of the Blogosphere Report there are reported to be 164 million bloggers.  The Human Capital Management blogosphere is just a small drop in that 164 million blogger pan, but that doesn’t make us less important.  In fact, I think we are extremely important because much of what we do is misunderstood by senior leaders as well as employees.  These folks have a lot to learn about what it is exactly that we (HR and recruiters) do.  There’s also a lot of mystery, spam, and secrecy surrounding how to make money and get paid blogging.  Add the misinformation of HR coupled with the mystery of blogging, and it makes things quite the challenge.

Over the last 6 months, I’ve had quite a few emails from fellow bloggers in the industry where I hang my hat.  Some of them are new and some of them are seasoned looking for information, insights, and advice into pricing when approached by advertisers, sponsors, or when traveling to an event as a member of the press.  While I’m no expert, I have been doing this for a while and I’m happy to help wherever I can.  I’ve also been transparent about my pricing since I started offering sponsorships and advertising on Blogging4Jobs.  And even still I receive no less than 30 guest post requests and spammy link exchanges a week.

We  (HR Bloggers) have a huge opportunity as influencers and content distributors in our marketplace.  I also want to make sure that we get compensated appropriately for our hard work and efforts because blogging isn’t easy.  We are our own online publication and content distribution business whether as a hobby or full time.  I’ve often talked about how mommy bloggers cheapen the blogging marketplace and I think it’s time we think about organizing our own HR niche.    I’m not saying we organize ourselves out of the market.  I think it’s time for HR bloggers to ban together to be open about pricing norms, helping, strategies, and to set a standard level of expectation while we’re still early in the game.

I am thankful for the opportunity to do what it is I do every single day.  But I believe that together we can help create some consistency, control, and level of expectation and learning with other bloggers as well as those vendors that provide service to the HCM practitioner population.

Am I wrong?  Am I crazy?  I move that we discuss organizing the HR Blogger.

Photo Credit.