“If anything is worth doing,
do it with all your heart.”

Happy Buddha

A plaque used to hang on my wall that attributed this quote to Buddha. I once ran a quick Google search for clarification and found, indeed, several references to this as a quote by Siddhartha Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism sometime around 500 BC. However, I do not agree with the sentiment nor am I sure it is always possible or plausible to expect that anything (read: everything) worth doing should be pursued wholeheartedly.  Due to my disagreement, the plaque no longer hangs on my wall.

There is much required of each of us; we may not want to always do but we have to because we are responsible adults who contribute to society for its betterment and for the wellness of our families, friends, and loved ones. Is it realistic to say that everything (read: anything) that we do must be practiced with our heart, min,d and soul wholly in unison and be happy about it?

I wish I didn’t disagree but I do.

There are some things in this life that we just have to endure in order to make it through to the other side, to the next day, week, month, pay period. They probably aren’t the easy or preferable tasks but they are necessary.  Should these necessaries be set aside if we aren’t in the proper mindset to give our whole heart to the effort or do we press on, enduring to the end? What is the right course? While attitude is prone to change, going up and down, most duties and responsibilities remain constant. Hoping for or falsely trying to create a better attitude is not always a viable option.

I am of the understanding that getting things done just has to be done and should actually take precedence over “my heart being in it.”  I may be wrong, but I don’t think my kids care if my heart is in their clothes being clean or not, they just would like and need clean P.E. clothes every Monday morning.  I can’t go to my boss and say, “I’m sorry, my heart just isn’t in this project we were scheduled to complete today. Maybe my heart will be in it tomorrow.”

A former boss used to try on a consistent basis to change his attitude and desires by saying, “I get to make dinner tonight” or “I get to do the shopping this week” instead of saying “I have to do this… or that…”  As much, as he tried, I don’t think it really worked because in the back of his mind, he knew those responsibilities weren’t really his desires, and ultimately so did those of us who heard his false declarations.  They were needs that he had to meet for someone else, not himself.  There is anything wrong with having to complete an assignment or needing to do a chore.

Life and work are not always about choice or desire.

Most of it is about duty, honor, and fulfilling a need. And that’s alright.  What is important is whether or not you can distinguish a need from a want and then getting that distinction right.

The truth is…,

If anything is worth doing, do it.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for 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.  

Is Employer Brand Important in Candidate Selection?

As a job seeker, one of the best things you can do is to get in the heads of recruiters, hiring managers and company leaders. If you understand why, how, and who they hire, you’re already steps ahead. This includes understanding an organization’s tools, processes and resources—everything from what happens after you submit your resume to the candidate selection and evaluation process.

However, it’s not just about the process—every company has some sort of strategy around hiring including their brand in the talent market.  Just like companies such as Apple or Coca-Cola spend millions of dollars to sell their products every, they also pour money into selling their jobs.

Definition of Employment Brand

The concept of an employment brand is an important one for companies in this competitive job market with 51% of employers saying they have an employment branding strategy in 2012 according to a recent study by Bernard Hodes.  Nineteen percent of companies surveyed admitted to re-working their current plan and another 24% are working towards one.

What does this mean for you? Employer brand. A company’s employer brand is the perception you, the job seeker, have of what it’s like to work there and the reality of that experience. It’s like walking into a big retail store. You have expectations about the products you’ll find there and the service you’ll receive. If those expectations fall short, it hurt’s that store’s consumer brand, their reputation in the marketplace. You’ll take your spending money elsewhere.

The same can be said for an organization’s employer brand. If you take a job based on the promise of challenging work, certain benefits and growth opportunities, and once you start, that promise isn’t met, it tarnishes the reputation of what it’s like to work for a company.

As a job seeker, understanding a company’s employer brand is essential to both determining if the company is the best fit for you and your success in the application and selection process. An employer brand can provide exceptional insight into an organization and the opportunity.

When companies define and communicate their employer brand, they’re focusing on what matters most to their employees and what they do well.  They connect that to their culture and to employees’ success: who performs the best in the organization and how do they think act and behave.

As a result, good employer brands clearly define the most important returns you’ll get from working there.  This includes specific benefits and perks but more importantly, the workplace lifestyle or flexible workplace.  An employer brand can help provide insight into the people, the culture

Big Brand Employment Like Zappos

For some organizations like Southwest and Zappos, this means employees like to have fun at work and embed their personalities into everything they do. For companies like Google or 3M, it’s all about innovation—employees have to have a passion for trying, creating and believing in new things.  Southwest flight attendants often tell jokes or sing songs at the beginning of a flight—this isn’t a fit for everyone. If you take a job and the fit’s not there, you’ll be asked to perform and behave in a way that’s not comfortable to you and ultimately, you won’t be happy. Really understanding a company’s employer brand helps you as a job seeker ensure you’ll fit.

Understanding employer brand also means you have a sense of what the company is looking for. What are the qualities (outside of the skills required for the job) that are an embedded part of the company’s culture? What behaviors are common in successful employees?

Take Marriott International’s employer brand line “Find Your World™.” Marriott’s not looking for passive employees that just want a paycheck.  Find Your World™ sends the message that growth and movement are encouraged among their many locations and brands. If you’re looking for upward mobility and the chance for varied challenges throughout your career, you can share that as part of the process.

Knowing how a company brand’s it’s employment experience can give you an edge up as you look for a job. You can better position yourself as a fit if you understand what matters to a company. The important point here is to make sure you don’t force it. If you have to stretch the truth about yourself or your experiences to sell yourself based on a company’s employer brand, it won’t work for you or the employer.

Job Seeker Education Key in Company Recruiting Process

As you’re learning about a company’s employer brand, keep in mind that not every organization understands the concept or does a good job of defining their own employer brand. Less sophisticated companies focus only on advertising their jobs and the associated tangible benefits that come with them (medical benefits or a flexible work schedule).

These things are important, but as a job seeker you’ll be much more successful in the long term if you think about the entirety of the opportunity—the employer brand. Consider the promise the company is making and ask yourself if that promise really matters to you. Use the brand to evaluate fit—are you the kind of person who wants to act and behave that way on the job?  If you’re in a job and not sure whether to stay, ask yourself if the organization’s employer brand resonates with you? Are they delivering on what they promised? And if so, is that the promise you want?

Understanding employer brand doesn’t have to be complicated. There’s a simple way to think about it. Take a look around your home or your workplace. As a consumer, what products can you really get behind? Where do your loyalties lie? The same goes for your next job. Choose an employer you can really get behind, believe in and support. Their employer brand holds the key to understanding just that.

Photo Credit. 

Susan Strayer is the founder of Exaqueo, a talent and brand consulting firm specializing in strategies for start-up and high-growth companies. She’s spent years recruiting and creating talent and employer brand strategies for companies like Marriott International. The Ritz-Carlton, The Home Depot and Corporate Executive Board. She’s the author of two books including The Right Job, Right Now: The Complete Tool-Kit to Finding Your Perfect Career (St. Martin’s Press). Connect with Susan via @SusanStrayer or at www.exaqueo.com. 

ignorance is not bliss

Just because you can quote statistics or cite a website, article, book, or post about a particular topic doesn’t make you smart or well-versed. It makes you well-read.  I prefer to learn by experience or by listening to really great teachers who have been there, done that, or who have watched very carefully as an industry has grown and changed over the last fifteen to twenty years, either following and/or writing about trends and the trendsetters. I have bruised my bum sitting in endless conferences, blistered my feet trudging the aisles of some of the largest conferences/exhibit halls, and have cramped my hands while frantically taking notes or tweeting tweets.

All for the sake of learning.

We know about preventative medicine or dentistry; it’s too bad that we don’t do more for preventative ignorance.  I, like most of you, work really hard to stay abreast of what is new and what has the potential to change an industry or how we do business.  That doesn’t mean I think I am the smartest or most well- equipped individual (for I know I am not) but it does mean that I understand that we need to be constantly evolving and learning.

Ignorance is not bliss. I do not care what any old adage states. Ignorance is ignorance. Being unaware, staying in the dark, or closing your eyes to potential other truths retards the growth necessary for active brain activity and regeneration.  And sometimes, you just need to speak up, even though you may not be in tune with the message, just to hear your thoughts out loud and recognize that maybe you were a little off course, re-think and re-direct.

“It’s all good.”

It is often taught that when you are trying to learn a song, you must either sing or play out loud and strong, so that you know when you miss the mark.  If you can’t hear the mistake, then you can’t correct it.  I think it was Mark Twain who said, “It is better to be silent and thought a fool, then to speak out and remove all doubt.”  I don’t necessarily agree, for open dialogue is healthy but only if it is open, with rational willingness to hear the other side or in some cases, all sides.

It’s like when the cord of an appliance gets wrapped up and twisted so tightly that you cannot untangle it and the appliance is no longer useful because the cord has actually choked it.  Beating into submission, into compliance doesn’t breed followers, it creates contempt and rebellion.  Watch Star Wars or read Atlas Shrugged.  Squashing creativity and openness will only deepen the desire to create and be willful.

“That which you call your soul or spirit is your consciousness, and that which you call ‘free will’ is your mind’s freedom to think or not, the only will you have, your only freedom, the choice that controls all the choices you make and determines your life and your character.” ~Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for 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.  

Can You Be Fired for Being Gay?

I usually am proud to live in the state of Oklahoma.  It’s a friendly place filled with great football and wonderful towns and history.  It’s a place I’ve called my home for the last seven years.  It’s a state that I feel safe outside of severe weather and tornados, but today I am ashamed.  Ashamed to be an Oklahoman.  Ashamed because Oklahoma Representative James Lankford said in an interview (video shown above) that being gay shouldn’t be protected against workplace discrimination because being gay is a choice.

This choice Lankford describes is like deciding on your favorite flavor of ice cream, your decision to be religious, or the decision you might make as an adult to have sex and with whom.  These all are all choices that we, as individuals make in this great country and are free to.  They are our right, and these choices are protected.  These are choices that are protected as part of workplace discrimination.

A bi-partisan effort is taken place in the Senate for what they are calling the Employment Non-Discrimination Act which would make discrimination against gays in the workplace as well as restriction from clubs and activities illegal.  48% of employees who are gay, aren’t out in the workplace likely out of fear of being fired, reprimanded, or retaliated against.

We All Make Choices but Being Gay is Not One of Them

• Your choice to eat ice cream.  It is a choice and this choice is sometimes reflected in a medical diagnosis for those who are diagnosed as Type II Diabetic.  As an employer, the law keeps me from terminating you as a result of this diagnosis which sometimes starts with a choice, but sometimes genetics wins over your choice to eat healthy, exercise each day, or avoid sugary foods.  It’s still a choice with far reaching consequences and effects.

• Your choice to practice religion.  Title VII provides employees with the opportunity to be free from religious discrimination at work while also having the opportunity to take time off work to practice our religion.  This choice is a decision not genetic but a right for employees throughout the US.

• Your choice to have sex.    As a law abiding citizen you have this right to make this decision.  A decision that for me and my husband led to the birth of our daughter.  While pregnant, I am protected against workplace discrimination and entitled to time off work as a new mother according to the FMLA.  It is against the law for me to be fired or disciplined because of that simple fact.

Being Gay at Work Should Be a Protected Class

Recently, the EEOC announced that transgender employees are protected from discrimination at work.  But according to Representative Lankford, a choice like this should not be protected.  Because it is in fact a choice.  I don’t often sit on my soapbox much here on Blogging4Jobs, but if you have followed the blog over the last several years you would know my family’s story.  Everyone deserves to feel comfortable, safe, and happy at work free from worry about being judged or treated different when all they want is to earn a living and do their work which is why I believe that employees who are gay should be protected from idiots like Lankford if only at work.

I whole-heartedly support the Employment Non-Discrimination Act.  Don’t employees deserve a workplace free of distraction, discrimination, and retaliation regardless of their sexual preferences just like religion?  I’m making a choice to support making discrimination against gays illegal in the workplace.  What’s your stance?

Photo Credit.  

I grew up in a large family

A little sister, four brothers, and at various times, a couple of foster kids graced the halls of our five bedroom house.  My parents were happy to share their home with anyone who needed a meal or a bed, at any time. My mom worked very hard and regularly served balance meals.  There was always fruit served with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, whether it was a bowl of strawberries or sliced apples. My favorite fruit side dish was peeled orange sections topped with wonderful powdered sugar in a big bowl. It was like heaven to this nine-year old girl.

My mom served this rarely, usually oranges were sliced with peel left on. I always knew oranges were a delicacy, for my mom made sure we understood that during the Depression, oranges were scarce and expensive. There was always an orange in the toe of our Christmas stockings and I continue this tradition with my own children.

It wasn’t until years later when I grew to truly appreciate the oranges and powdered sugar joy. My mother revealed to me, a young adult, that she didn’t like to peel oranges. Not just disliked it but hated it with a passion. It was all she could do to peel one orange, let alone the six to eight oranges she would have to prepare to make my favorite fruit side. She hated it, but did it because we loved it. I have thought a lot about this over the years as I have prepared meals for my own children or done endless loads of laundry.

Or had to make follow-up calls I didn’t want to or had to fulfill specific hated job duties. Or had to put together references or case studies or put out several job postings or rank dozens of résumés. Or rewrite a job description or refurbish the on-boarding process. Throughout the course of a work day, there are parts of any  job that are less desirable than others, there may even be parts which are hated.

When “learning to love it” is impossible,
it may be easier to remember the big picture.

Understand that each part of your job description makes up the whole.  The whole is what employers, partners, and clients/customers appreciate, it’s why calls are returned, why partners share more details, why referrals are plentiful and why, ultimately, you are happy and satisfied with your own performance, your big picture.

They weren’t the easiest nor the most fun to prepare,
but those oranges were the best part of the meal.

Mom also hates to wrap presents, but that’s another story.

Rayanne Thorn, @ray_anne is the Marketing Director for 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.  

Business Networking Rules of Engagement

There is a no lack of networking advice or tips out there in the blogsphere today. Additionally, you can buy any number of great books by authors such at Keith Ferrazzi and Harvey Mckay. But I have been networking for a long time as well, plus I have read all this material too. So for those of you who are trying to find a job, change jobs or increase your business here are Five Rules to Make You an Effective Business Networker.  

Rule #1: Business Networking

Never start a conversation or relationship with someone by asking for something. Yes, I realize that the purpose of networking is to “get’ something, such as a referral or a name, but relationships start better if you are offering something. However, you cannot offer something unless you know the person at least a little bit. So I recommend you start off with this kind of approach.

“Hello Bob, my name is Mike H. Joe S. (the mutual friend) told me you are someone I need to know. I was wondering if I might be able to schedule a brief meeting (or call) in order to see if indeed we can be of mutual benefit to each other?”

Prior to the meeting use social media or search to find out whatever you can about the person you are meeting with. Determine if there is something in their background that might act as a target for some way you can help them with. At the meeting pay attention to what is said, who is talked about, what their background is, where they went to school or any other information that comes from the meeting. Then try to be a resource of information or contacts for that individual.

You will probably shock the person big time by not asking for a name or referral right off the bat. It will be even more memorable if you can offer the person something of value as a result of that first meeting.

Rule #2:  Target Your Networking 

Be focused and targeted in your networking. The shotgun approach of calling everyone and contacting everyone with no seeming purpose just makes you look desperate. Now you may be desperate, but you do not want to come across that way. Understand what you are trying to learn from each individual and why you are contacting them.

Rule #3:  Social Networks are Not Business Networking

Realize that networking is NOT adding someone on LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ or Facebook. Networking is best conducted person to person, or at least voice to voice. The tools help your research and they facilitate the introduction but that is not networking.

Rule #4:  Your Networking Success is Your Responsibility 

No one is going to take responsibility for you finding a job or finding a new piece of business. You have to take that. So when you are done with meeting someone their memory will fade very fast. Set up a schedule of contact with them and follow up. Watch for information that they will find of value and send it to them. Set up a Google alert or search on key words to notify you of things that your contact may find valuable. You don’t have to do that for everyone, but the very important ones need to get things from you to remind them of your existence.

Rule #5:  Be Realistic Yet Effective Business Networking 

Be confident but be realistic. Another writer cautioned against trying to reach too high in order to make a contact. It is unlikely that you will be able to connect with Bill Gates, or Donald Trump, or Richard Branson or other mega personalities but that doesn’t mean you should give up hope of reaching someone that has title of President or Vice President. Who knows, perhaps you would eventually be able to reach a superstar if your network gets you there but start more realistically.

There is a ton of networking articles out there, some written for women, some written for shy people, some written for sales people, some written for consultants, etc. Just do a search and do some learning to get started on effective business networking.

Photo Credit. 

 Michael (Mike) D. Haberman, SPHR is a consultant, writer, speaker, teacher and co-founder of Omega HR Solutions, Inc.  He has been in the field of HR for 30 years as both practitioner and consultant. He specializes in compliance issues for his small business clients. He is the author of the blog HR Observations which can be found at www.omegahrsolutions.com and he has been writing blog posts on a full spectrum of HR topics for almost seven years. He is an active user of Twitter and can be found at @mikehaberman or @HRComplianceGuy. He has been an instructor in HR for 14 years and has helped many people achieve their PHR or SPHR during that time.