a watermark doth NOT make perfection

The candidate packet stared back at me, it sat on my desk, my very first one to go out. Attached with a perfectly symmetrical white paper clip was my business card - my business card, with my name and other pertinent and necessary details. Beneath the card was my perfectly spaced and typed letter of introduction on bond-paper letterhead. Attached to the perfectly written then printed letter was a detailed job description, benefits package, and specifics about the company. The Managing Director walked in to review and approve.

He held the letter up and looked at the paper with the light of the window. I had already received instructions on how to staple the packet and how to place the bond paper in the printer. The water mark could not be backward or upside down. I watched him and pictured my potential candidate holding that same letter to the light and then deciding, then and there, since the water mark was backward, that he was no longer interested in the job I was pitching, er, I mean presenting. I stifled the smirk that yearned to grace my face, instead it filled my soul. Why not just send a frickin’ email? I mean c’mon.

Recruiting has changed quite a bit since the onset of all things email. And of course, social media has had its way with the industry. A good way, the improvement in communication and speed has been essential. The hard part, I guess, is keeping up. Technology moves faster than a Jamaican Bolt.  But is speed necessary and what do we lose out on with the onslaught of split fee arrangements and twitter-izations? What do we lose? Probably a fee.

I have met so many recruiters over the last several years who have struggled significantly to merely stay in the game and not just fold. It is not an easy or sleazy profession, like many believe. At least, it isn’t if you are good at your job and really care about it and the people/industry/companies you serve. Those you serve, this is a service we provide, “we” are the product.

Has your product expired? Is it out of date? Have you kept it polished?

I doubt a water mark ever made a difference.  Does the extra expense, time, and perception really make a difference?  Or is what you say and how your act more important…
Is doing what you say you will do, following up, and following through the way to get and keep a client or attract and hook a candidate? Somehow, I don’t think a water mark ever closed a recruitment or secured a fee.  And yet, I feared a knuckle bruising should I have failed at its precise placement.

They say it’s the little things that matter. Personally, I think the big things matter more.  You know, the big things like honest and timely presentation, great opportunity, and the perfect fit.

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.  

LabourStart’s Finding on Unions Sharing Information with Technology

Yesterday, I hosted a webinar titled, “Understanding Unions, NLRB, and Social Media.”  The webinar was fantastic and during Jon Hyman and I’s presentation, we discussed data from LabourStart on how unions are using social media and technology to drive information to employees about unions.    During my career in HR, I have worked for companies that were both represented by  labor unions and those that were non-union.  I wanted to share this data with my readers on how labor unions are using social media to organize and communicate to their members, potential members, and others before, during, and after their union campaigns.

The survey data which you will see below is based on obtained from LabourStart who surveyed trade union organizations from across the globe with results from the UK, USA, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland.  They offered two different versions of their survey.  One was offered in English and the other was offered in French.  The results you see below are from the English version.

It’s no secret that HR and senior business leaders are lagging in their adoption and understanding of social media usage by both their employees as well as outside entities and organizations like unions who pose a risk to organizations.  Last year, I wrote about How HR is Using Social Media.  While I’ve seen the adoption among corporate HR grow substantially over the past two years, there is still a huge learning curve.

Mass Social Media Usage on Facebook to Twitter to UnionBook

While HR is slow to adopt and understand social media, unions on the other hand are very open to using this online technology.  In fact, 49% of unions are using Facebook with 23% of them also using Twitter and 13% YouTube.  UnionBook which is mentioned in LabourStart’s survey is a social networking platform for trade union organizations.  I find these results very interesting especially when we look at how job seekers in the US are using social media as part of their job search.  Other sources tell us that in 2011, 36.6 million US job seekers used social media as part of their job search.  This coupled with the use of social media by unions should be enough ammunition in my mind for employers and HR professionals to begin implementing a social media strategy for HR, employment branding, and employee communication.

Union Newsletters: Email Still Strong for Information Sharing

Unions are also using more traditional communication sources like email newsletters to share information.  While apps and tablets have increased in popularity, unions are using more traditional ways to continue to reach interested parties using internet websites and email newsletters.  Survey data tells us that 91.7% of unions have a website while 78.1% are using email newsletters to share information.  

These union organizations are becoming more creative in how they are using the web to communicate. Facebook Fan Pages are popular but many are using secret Facebook Groups and Google Groups to share information. For example, Jimmy John Worker’s Union has a Google Group that doesn’t allow for any of its 361 members to post comments or discuss. The group serves as a community where members can go to receive articles and information with the administrator taking advantage of RSS Feeds to drive the information share.

You may remember the controversy surrounding the Jimmy John’s franchise and the union election last year. February 14th, their trial began in Minnesota where owners from the JJ Franchise allegedly fired employee whistleblowers. The franchise landed in hot water with the NLRB because of this and their use of an anti-union Facebook Group during unionization efforts.

Labor Unions Keeping Ahead on the Social Media Learning Curve

Labor unions are keenly aware of where their webtraffic is coming from and are experimenting with mobile apps, websites, and multimedia content just as most corporate marketing teams are doing the same. Just another case in my mind for HR to partner with Marketing and PR as consumer to candidate continues to overlap for companies that offer business to customer products and services. Learn more about the NLRB and their view on social media by taking a look at my summary of their 2011 Social Media Briefing.

h/t Mike Vandervort

The Magic Kingdom!

When I was a kid, going to Disneyland was an incredibly exciting event.  I loved the Magic Kingdom!  But that was back in the day when each ride required a ticket and Disney tickets were labeled as either A, B, C, D, or E. For example, a climb through the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse? A – Ticket. The Matterhorn, however, was an E-Ticket ride. Twists and turns, ups and downs, and lots of screaming. I know, it sounds more like a bad marriage than a fun ride.

A favorite Disney feature was and is The Electric Light Parade.  With its intoxicating calliope music, it never ceases to turn me in to a a four-year old, all over again. The twinkling lights and the twirling snails, Pete’s Dragon with smoke-fuming nostrils and all.  And every Disney Princess sparkles — a clear message that happiness can be wrapped in some flashing lights and vivid memories, either newly-created or from years gone by. The call of joy fills a jammed parade route.

The call of Disney embraces park attendees and reminds us all what it is like to be a kid once more – where wishing wells exist not only next door to Pixie Hollow, but down the street from Space Mountain. The evidence of an economic crisis is not quite clear at the happiest place on earth. As a matter of fact, excess is distributed around the park, like expensive manure. Young and old, smart and not-so-smart, wealthy and not-so wealthy. I have heard it said that Disney is the great equalizer. Everyone paid the same amount to get in, and everyone will have to eventually leave.

I think the magic Mickey Ears actually heard what the customers wanted, and created a place – other worldly that it is – that removes social or economic status and sets the tone and space for buying – even during times of economic strife.   And buying the consumer does not seem to have a problem with, at least not at Disneyland, “oh great lurers of men.” If you build it, they will come. Creating a fun place to work or vend is essential for the high turnover world in which we live, work, and play.

And no, we can’t all build a Disneyland. But what have you built, what are you building?  Have you established your target audience? Are they hearing and then comprehending what you are saying, what you are delivering?  If not, what will you do about it?  Understand your customer/client – understand their needs. Follow up with them.  Set the hook.  Connect today, stay connected tomorrow. Cross the moat, but do not miss the boat.

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.  

I’ve long been a fan of social media for the purposes of research, information sharing, and relationship building.  It’s also a perfect solution for knowledge sharing. The social intranet or employee social network is defined as an internal platform where all employees can author content and connect easily.  These corporate social networking platforms offer a variety of engagement and productivity benefits from employee brainstorming, increased collaboration, knowledge transfer from older more tenured workers to new employees, as well as comfort for the virtual worker.

This sort of enabling technology can have an effect on employee satisfaction levels, which are surprisingly low and can create a major drag on company performance and the economy as a while.

Corporate Social Networking & the US Economy

Lost employee productivity and employee disengagement costs the US economy $370 billion every year.  Employee disengagement at an organization happens a number of different ways including boredom, job fit, managers, unclear expectations and lack of connection to colleagues and the company itself.  In 2008, Aberdeen Group Research published a report that evaluated blogs, wikis, and other social networking tools as a method to improving employee engagement.    Their findings saw that of researched companies those with internal social networking platforms saw an 18% improvement in employee engagement scores during the course of a year, compared to only a 1% increase for companies without such tools.

Yes, Aberdeen’s data and research is a little old and yes, corporate social media networks are not the end all be all solutions.  The year 2008 was a lifetime ago in terms of social media.  And yet forward thinking companies were already adding employee social networks to their corporate intranet structures as a way to build relationships and strengthen employee engagement.  One company, ThoughtFarmer has put together quite the comprehensive white paper cataloguing the benefits of an employee social network.  Their white paper titled, “Social Intranets & Employee Engagement” provides the most comprehensive list of statistics, information, and resources to date.  You can also download a copy and take a look for yourself.

For those of you considering a social intranet or enterprise social networking, the ThoughtFarmer white paper may be a resource you can hand to your senior managers and executives to help make the business case.

NASA & Employee Social Media

Once forward thinking company who has embraced the social intranet is NASA.  They created their corporate social networking tool, Spacebook in June 2009.  The concept was developed by a team of NASA millennial interns as the government agency was struggling with a way to retain the younger Generation Y workers while also sharing knowledge as their more senior engineers were beginning to retire.

I first heard NASA speak about their Spacebook employee social network in November of 2009 at an Information Technology conference.  They were ahead of their time and other companies began following suit and in very conservative industries like AT&T and The Hartford Group.

Social Media Networks & Employee Social Media

Social Media Networks help aid in the sharing of information, learning, and communication by making it easy for any employee to publish content and connect.  All of this is essential to an engaged and productive workforce.  As work goes from more face to face to online, it’s critical that companies have a intuitive and welcoming intranet in which to share that information.  That is exactly where a social intranet can help.

Many HR managers feel under the gun to improve employee engagement, but with very limited tools. A social intranet, if implemented carefully and with full executive support, may support lasting employee engagement in this online, digital age.

Is your organization using an employee social network?  If so, what is it and how is it helping keeping you and your employee peers engaged?

This post is sponsored by ThoughtFarmer.  Follow them on Twitter, @thoughtfarmer and be sure to download their new white paper on Internal Social Networks and Employee Enagement.

Photo Credit. 

 

work or play

Nine-year old Sam once asked his father, “Daddy, how can we make a stuffed animal come to life?” His father pondered…, and decided yep, that’s a good question.  A favorite toy, yet stagnant and non-productive.  The production of play is in the mind and action of Sam, not the stuffed animal itself.  Sam must move the toy where it needs to be and set it into the amusement in order to make the play work.

I remember a favorite teddy bear I named Fluffy.  He didn’t do much, just sat on my bed.  And I recall countless Barbies and paper dolls that required my imagination and other accessories in order to work.  A toy’s job is to play, so play is its occupation.

It is very easy to become stagnant in our jobs. To sit mindlessly at our desks, pounding away at a keyboard or surfing the net, smiling and dialing, or uploading and downloading…, But what is being produced?  How truly labor-intensive or productive do you make your day?

It is, unfortunately, not play that is required to gear up for your day. Do you sometimes wish you had a wind-up key at your base to help you somehow make it to five o’clock before completely winding down?  Rarely does my work day end at 5pm and most often starts before 7am. So if you are like me, barely making it to midnight is about right – which, the older I get, the more arduous a task that becomes.

But like stuffed animals, there are those who require a significant amount of engagement in order to work. Then there are those who are self-winding and self-finding. Their intrinsic motivation is intensive and undeniable.

Where is your intent, where is your purpose? Are you a stuffed animal that your clients or employer wish they could make come to life?  Are you a headless Barbie with no self-direction or a paper doll, flat in purpose?

Intensive Purpose. Purposeful Intent.  Look to these when you need a wind-up key.

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.  

My first time happened in a gray and neon lighted filled room that was my boss’s office.  It was 2001 and I was a recent college grad working in a new role as an HR Manager.  My palms were sweaty as I fidgeted in my chair.  I had spent the last few hours reading, evaluating, and role playing every possible scenario.  It was my first time and I wanted to get it right.

The First Time & the Role of an HR Manager

First times are hard regardless of the situation.  They are new territory and experiences that make us uncomfortable because of that uncertainty.  My first time happened two months and two weeks after starting my role of HR Manager.  Target, the company where I worked had an involved eight week training program for management.  The training wheels were off, and I was new and alone as Retail HR Manager in my first store.  The situation was simple, but that didn’t make it easy.  I had to fire an employee for his blatant and habitual absenteeism.

Working in the retail or service industries, firing employees for things like absenteeism or no call no shows (NCNS) is common practice. NCNS happens when an employee fails to call in for work and after two consecutive days of this occurring, the employee is generally considered to be quitting voluntarily by job abandonment.  General absenteeism is a bit more complicated.  Employees are late or call in frequently on a consistent basis and over a period of time.  Attendance problems can affect the level of service you are able to provide.  Meaning the less people clocked into work or working at your establishment, the longer the wait times and lines in which to serve your customer.  In the service industry, customers are the heart of business, much like employees are the heart of our role in HR.

Tom was an average employee.  He’d worked for the company during most of high school and into college.  A six year veteran, he was on the extended college plan transferring from our store to another during the school year and summers.  Tom happened to be the son of the county’s judge, and truth be told, he was a little entitled to say the least.

Tom had a habit of strolling into work whenever he felt like, sometimes 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or 2 hours late.  He happened to be a part-time supervisor for cashiers.  He was trained in every aspect of the store and not having him come to work on time was hurting our business.

Involuntary Termination: Firing Employees

Oftentimes that happens in HR. I was tasked to involuntarily terminate an employee.  This is fancy corporate speak for firing employees.  So I led the conversation with just me, Tom, and another male department manager.  I was greener than beyond imagination and nervous beyond compare.

“Tom, as you know you have been late to work repeatedly on the following occasions <insert dates>.  Your boss, Chris, spoke with you on blah, blah, and blah <insert dates>.  And yet Monday, you were late again by 17 minutes.  I’m sorry, but today is your last day.  You are being terminated for excessive attendance.  This means you no longer work for our company,” I said.

As with most involuntary terminations it went pretty much like that.  It was nothing out of the ordinary and yet my hands were shaking the entire time. I was filled with mixed emotions being anxious, nervous, guilty, and frustrated.   Tom knew it was coming and his attendance problem was pretty much black and white.  I asked Tom to sign our company’s termination form and turn in his badge and employee discount card.

My first time firing and employee was going off without a hitch until . . . Tom started asking questions like, “What happens to my unused vacation?” and “Do my health care benefits end today?” and “Can I work at the other store?”  I had no idea how to answer.  I was a newbie less than three months in.  Having been my first time to fire an employee, I had no answer to questions I didn’t expect.

Working with employees in the role of HR manager is never easy.  It’s also the questions that we least expect in our roles that we are responsible to answer and educate the employees as well as managers and leaders we work with.  So as Tom asked those questions, I fumbled the papers on my desk, even grabbed my HR training three ring binder, and had no idea what to say to him.

It seemed like forever, but I finally broke the silence and told Tom I didn’t have the answers.  I felt horrible and nearly threw up.  I had failed as an HR Manager.   But instead of sending him on his way, I promised to follow up with him tomorrow with the answers he needed and deserved to know.

My First Time with Involuntary Termination

One of my favorite answers to questions in my HR career is, “I don’t know but I will get back to you with the answer,” and I do just like I did with Tom that next day.  I called my mentor asking for advice and answers to those questions.  It was a learning moment for me.  First times are often scary moments but they are also learning moments, and my first time firing an employee was one that I’m not quick to forget.  It’s the way we handle first times that really show the individual that we are.  I called Tom and even offered to meet him over coffee.  He declined and I realized that it was his first time too.  He’d never been fired.

In HR just like in life, there are a lot of first times.  They say that practice makes perfect but firing employees is something that will never get easier or less complicated the longer I am in my career.  While first times are never easy, learning how to fire an employee was not one first time I will ever forget.

Photo Credit.