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October 2008

When You Do Layoffs, Don't Keep Clones and Avoid "Homosocial Reproduction"...

Diversity has always been a hot topic in the HR community, and for my money, the best way to get people into the diversity "tent" is to expand the focus of what diversity is.  Say diversity, and most people naturally gravitate to race, gender and national orgin, usually in that order. 

There's a lot of gunpowder in those areas, so my view is the best way to bring people to the table onClones diversity is by focusing not only on those elements, but also the thousands of other ways people are diverse.  Did you grow up rural or metro?  From a one or two parent home?  Did you like Van Halen better with David Lee Roth or Sammy Hagar?  Broaden the focus, get everyone nodding (not nodding off), and pretty soon you can talk about the divisive stuff without everyone getting defensive.

A couple of weeks ago, I riffed that the best brainstorming occurs when you bring the freaks to the table - the outsiders or outliers in your firm to whom you don't talk as much, who don't share your same interests.  That's where the best ideas and thought building as a team occurs - when you bring the odd birds to the table.

Sadly, with the ecomony going the way it is, it's probably time to talk about diversity and layoffs.  Not because you are going to get sued, but rather because, similar to the brainstorming argument, you need diversity to innovate in the future.  If a company goes through layoffs and everyone who stays is like you, it's going to be hard to be innovative.

From Bob Sutton's Work Matters:

"I was also reminded of another lesson about layoffs  from an email exchange I've been having with Bill Burnett, over at Superinnovator. A downturn can be an opportunity to get rid of incompetent people and, of course, destructive a**holes.  But beware of the evils of using layoffs as a reason to expel everyone in your organization who does not act, think, and look like everyone else -- beware that most of us are prone to hold an overly narrow image of a "good employee." 

As I show in Weird Ideas that Work, since we human-beings have powerful and positive emotional reactions to people who are "just like us," and equally powerful negative reactions to people who are "different," the hiring process in most organizations acts to "bring in the clones." Or as Harvard's Rosabeth Moss Kanter famously put it her classic Men and Women of the Corporation, organizations engage in "homosocial reproduction." 

The same psychological forces that cause leaders to bring in the clones during the hiring process can also cause them to (unwittingly)get rid of the people who think differently than everyone else and perhaps are prone to constructive argument.  So a risk of the layoff process in many organizations is that it drives out the variation and diversity so essential to innovation in every organization.  Take a close look at the people you are keeping versus those you are cutting. Are you unwittingly protecting the clones, those people just like your favorite person -- yourself?"

The hardest part in ensuring you don't engage in homosocial reproduction?  Rationalization that someone who's pretty much just like you brings more value than someone you have nothing in common with, but who's more productive.  It's called organizational nearsightedness...


Why I Can't Spend More Than 5 Seconds With Your Resume...

When I read about the sometimes shoddy treatment of candidates (all of us who recruit want to do better, by the way), sometimes I have to sigh.  After all, managing touchpoints on candidiates used to be a lot simpler.  Back before we had this little thing called the Internet.

You know the Internet.  Al Gore invented it, Google perfected it. 

There's a reason why I can't spend more than 5-10 seconds on a glance at a resume when it comes intoHands_in_monitor our shop.  It's because the Internet has made applying for a job such a comodity play for candidates that they can literally apply for 100 jobs a day if they desire.  It's a double edged sword of course - the same technology that allows candidates to spam away has also dropped my cost per hire dramatically.

From Jay Bhatti's Blog at Fast Company:

In 2002 the PEW Internet Project reported that 52 million Americans used the Internet to search for a job, a 60% increase from 2000. By 2007, that number had nearly doubled with approximately 102 million or 51% of American adults using the Internet to look at job postings. Given a new resource to look at online resumes this behavioral trend has benefited HR Personal and Recruiters as well. With a viable new resource, the implications of online job hunting have meant more than just a decrease in newspaper ads and help wanted signs.

Among the many upsides of online recruitment are cost and reach. An SHRM study noted that the average cost per hire from an Internet recruiting strategy was $377 opposed to $3,295 from a major metro newspaper. With career and social networking sites such as Monster, Careerfinder, and LinkedIn supplying thousands of resumes in any number of occupations, recruiters now have access to a significantly larger pool of qualified candidates to pull from.

As tradeoffs go, the online job hunting trend we've all experienced as recruiters and HR pros is a pretty good one.  I'll gladly trade the reduction in cost per hire for the flood of resumes, especially since technology exists (the old ATS..) to help you deal with the onslaught.

Still, the HR pro in me wishes there was time to help those who will never hear from you due to the volume.  The best you can do in today's environment is to write a rejection note that displays more compassion than the others the candidate will receive.

That's employment branding in an Internet-driven recruiting world.  Play on...


Love Your Workplace Grinders - "Ed's Doing the Dantley on the Jones Account"

Basketball season is almost here, and that means from time to time I'll be riffing on the connectionDantley2_2 between talent in the workplace and the NBA.  Some of you will love it, some of you will unsubscribe in response to it (don't go! work through it! feel the burn), and at least one guy will comment because of it (Lance from Your HR Guy, a Trailblazers fan..).  I gotta be me, so I'm dancing with the lady that got me this far...

Please stick around.  I promise to always have a talent/HR/workplace connection to my NBA posts.

Today's connection - the "grinders" in your workplace.  The grinders are the folks who, on the surface, aren't as talented, gifted, well-liked, attractive, connected or socially aware as your top talent.  But here's the scoop - they show up every day, work their *** off, and often times, through sheer effort and competitiveness, come close to performing as well as your star, and occasionally outperform the star.

They grind it out.  Mama said knock you out, so they show up with their helmet on, hop in the test crash car you call a company, and take the licking and keep on ticking.

In basketball, the equivalent of a grinder comes in many flavors.  One flavor is the guy/gal who can score, but has to get points from the free throw line because they don't jump well or aren't superquick.  So they drive the ball to the basket, create contact, and go to the free throw line, usually after taking a beating.

In hoops, they call that doing the "Dantley".  That's Adrian Dantley, who knew his role and how to get his.

From the esteemed Basketbawful:

"The Dantley (thuh dant'-lee) noun. Describes those performances in which a player scores aDantley significant number of points and more than half of those points come from the foul line.

Usage example: Kobe Bryant had a Dantley in Game 1 of the Lakers' second round playoff series against the Jazz: 38 points on 8 field goals and 21 (out of 23) freethrows.

Word history: Bob Ryan invented the term (as noted in David Halberstam's Playing for Keeps: Michael Jordan and the World He Made) to describe how Adrian Dantley was able to ignite many of his famous scoring explosions from the foul line. Dantley scored 23177 over his 18-year ABA/NBA career, and 8351 of those points -- roughly 36 percent of them -- came from the charity stripe. He led the NBA in free throws four times (and was the league scoring champion during two of those seasons) and currently ranks sixth all-time in that category. He shares the record (with Wilt Chamberlain) for most free throws made in a regular-season NBA game (28). Dude straight up knew how to draw fouls. It helped that he could bulldoze his way to the basket with his giant ass (see below).

We love to talk about the superstars, the rockstars.  Take the time to say thanks to your grinders this week, and show them some love by dropping the following in a meeting this week - "Ed's doing the Dantley on the Jones account".  Once they figure out the term means that you think they're outworking everyone, they'll wear it like a badge of pride.


Simple Language Doesn't Mean You're Simple...

Catching up on some blog reading over the weekend.  When my Google Reader is flashing "1000"+ and has been for two weeks, you know it's bad.  So, when I make a New Year's resolution and pledge to browse daily, I have to start from scratch, and that means not everyone gets read.

One cat who I always take the time to read in those circumstances (every post) is Steve Roessler of All Things Workplace.  Change management, leadership development, and of course, common sense in the business world.

Here's an example of the gold you'll find at All Things Workplace:

"Vendor We Recommended: "Tell me more about what you want to do with it so I can give youBlah an accurate answer." We did. Then we heard (and saw), "Here's how you would do that. (Demo). What are some other potential reports you might generate?" We described them, he demonstrated how to do it, we watched, and the conversation continued.

Vendor We Nuked: (In a very deep, officious, voice): "Our platform offers configurable functionality. The back-end capability is state-of-the-art and clients have access to data entry. Of course, it is also designed for maximum security so you never have to be concerned that those without the proper passwords can ever access the information."

By the time he was finished I expected to hear, "For English, press 2."

I'm sure that Nuke-boy thought he was impressing us. Actually, he depressed us to the point of boredom. His software could probably do the job. The client didn't want to have a long-term relationship trying to communicate with someone who responded in buzzwords and platitudes. He wanted someone who would work with him to build a system that could be operated and tweaked by anyone.

Thought for Today: Language can communicate or obfuscate. Speak WYSIWYG."

That's one of the reasons blogs work and whitepapers don't.  Talk like a normal person, not like a scientist.  Thanks for the reminder, Steve.

If you haven't subscribed to All Things Workplace, click here for delivery....


Allegations Are Free, and What Happens in Vegas Doesn't Stay in Vegas...

If you're reading this blog, you're probably what I think you are - a business person, an advocate for employees, a champion of pay for performance - need I go on?  You're a talent agent, a HR pro, etc.  I get it, so do you.  You're doing the best you can to match the needs of the business with the needs of the employee. 

Then you get hit with an EEOC/ADA/FMLA suit.  Probably in that order, based on the ease of charge andVegas proving the claim has merit.

That's when the HR pro starts to feel a little jaded.  It's not that you took the charge, it's that there's absolutely no merit to the charge.

Yes, Virgina, those who file charges are often low performers with conduct issues.  Or as I like to say, allegations are free - anyone can make them and file a charge.  That's America...

Here's a good example from Suits in the Workplace:

"A diabetic employee from the City of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, was discharged for dishonesty by calling in sick for two days, when she was actually in Las Vegas having her lips and eyebrows permanently tattooed.  The employee brought an action against the City, its Mayor, its Director of Human Resources and its Business Administrator (no word if the tattoo artist was a named defendant) claiming: (1) that she was terminated because of her gender and disability (Type-II Diabetes); (2) she was unlawfully retaliated against for seeking an accommodation under the ADA, as well as for having reported harassment under Title VII; (3) that the City interfered with her FMLA rights; and (4) she was denied procedural due process under the Fourteenth Amendment in violation of Section 1983 in light of her public employment.

Although the parent in me says that tattling on a co-worker isn't a "nice thing to do,"   somebody saw fit to send an anonymous note to the Mayor stating that the employee was in Las Vegas on vacation rather than on sick leave.  Upon her return, the City asked her about her absences and, according to the opinion, the employee lied - telling the City that she had not been to Las Vegas but rather had been in her sick bed at her boyfriend's house.  In support of this story, she even produced a note, allegedly from her doctor, confirming her illness.  A City investigation ensued and it was determined that the employee lied.  As a result, she was terminated for dishonesty.

The City filed a successful Summary Judgment Motion and the employee appealed to the Third Circuit.  The Court determined that the employee failed to offer any evidence of discrimination or retaliation, noting that the employee "presented no evidence that any male employee of the City improperly took sick leave, lied to the City about the circumstances surrounding the sick leave, and then attempted to cover up his whereabouts to the City Administration [.]"

Like I said, "Allegations are free".  Facts are hard.  If you're the HR pro I know you are, taking a charge like this will make you jaded for a day or two, then you'll decide it's the cost of doing business, and you'll be back to your normal self - businessperson and employee advocate. 

You'll sigh when more laws are proposed, because you know you do what it takes to treat people fairly, and most of the charges you take don't have much merit.

Allegations are free, facts are harder to produce.  Play on, HR pro...


How Def Leppard Can Really Screw Up Your Next Company Function...

So, you're brainstorming what band you can get for the next company celebration/outing/shindig.  Here's what you're looking for - you want them to be:

-CoolPyromania1983

-Buzzworthy among your company employees and customers

-Worthy of a little media coverage

-Consistent with your CEO's image if he/she is going to be on stage

-Capable of "Rocking It" in their own unique way

Here's one thing you may want to add to the list - Have they ever actually seen or used your product/service?  If not, you may want to write a product knowledge session into the contract.  Why's this on my mind?

Def Leppard recently showed up at a Detroit Red Wings preseason function to help get the new hockey season launched in the states.  Makes sense - after all, if the new season is upon us, it must be time to "Pour some Sugar" on somebody, or at the very least "Armageddon It". 

Unfortunately, any rocking that occurred was neutralized by the band's complete lack of understanding of hockey and the Stanley Cup.  From Yahoo Sports:

"The Detroit Red Wings may be feeling a twinge of embarrassment after their 3-2 home-opening loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Thursday night, in which the Stanley Cup champions passed the puck like a remedial-level pee-wee team.

That is, until Def Leppard's Joe Elliott redefined the concept of embarrassment during one of their NHL Face-Off Rocks segments at the Fox Theater in Detroit. This is what you get for booking a band from England: Drive on the wrong side of the road, place the holiest of holy hockey grails on a pedestal upside down.

Epic, epic fail. Even Draper's kid had the good sense to poop in the thing right-side up.

This was the proverbial slow-motion car crash; like on "The Price is Right," when a contestant is about to put the $199 price tag on the tube of toothpaste and the crowd simultaneously shrieks "NO! NO!"

Video below, email subscribers click through for the humanity.  Make sure you do the education session with the next band you book.  No sense in getting fired because the boys from Liverpool don't know which way to stand your product up...

Next year, do what any sensible Detroit citizen would do and bring on Kid Rock...


HR Pros and Technology - It's a Hard Knock Life...

So, I'm T minus 7 days and counting - I'm doing a presentation on social media/tech and HR at the state HR conference. 

It's not that I don't know what to cover, or that I'll have a hard time putting it together.  I've presentedSleeping_at_desk on the topic before and already have the slide decks ready to roll.  I'm fine in that regard.

It's that I don't really know if I can make a difference to the HR pros I'm talking to.  I'm a big believer in the power of social media and 2.0/3.0 technologies without question, and believe other HR pros should be as well (if you hate the term 2.0, sorry about that, but it's still the best descriptor out there, especially for those who don't have exposure).  If you're reading this blog, chances are you're an advocate as well -both for HR and technology (hey! we know what blogs are!).

So, I'm an advocate and I'll bring my A-game.  I just don't know if I'll REACH anyone.  My friend Meg Bear probably put it best over at Talented Apps when she recently put HR pros on notice regarding the same topic.  Here's a part of Meg telling it like it is:

"I know I’m hard on you, I honestly don’t mean to be.  I am just really tired of hearing, time and again, that the only way that HR has any influence on the company is when new leadership is brought in to lead.  I just know you can do better.  This is why I have to to put you “on notice” now.   I don’t want you to suggest that I didn’t warn you.  It is time to lead and if you won’t someone else will.

You must take a role in leading an internal social strategy in your organization.  Your company is currently deciding what their strategy is for social media and if you are not in loop now you might never be.  So why is it so critical for HR to be in the loop?  This is not just about the currently available pieces of enterprise 2.0, it is about the changing face of managing human capital and I can tell you with confidence, that if I see it coming it’s not far away."

It's a great call to action by Meg, and hey - I'm ready to jump on the train before it leaves the station.  Of course, I'm a HR person who jumped on blogs in early 2007, so you would expect that from me.  Since you're reading blogs, there's a high likelihood that you're into social media, so you're in the game.

Welcome to the bleeding edge.  We forgot that 90% of the HR world has never read a blog.  Since you and I are daily consumers of this type of content, we're into other aspects of social media as well.  Most HR people aren't, and it's easy to forget that. 

Here's Meg's final call to action - click over for a great list of items Meg defines as illustrative of how the definition of talent is changing, and what it means for HR pros:

"OK, so now you know just how big this shift is going to be.  I suggest you find a way to plant yourself at the center of the solution quickly, or I expect I’ll be hearing another story about how hard it is and how nothing ever gets done.

The game is changing people, how badly do you want to win?"

Good stuff, Meg.  Wish me luck in my ongoing presentations - it's not that I don't know what to say, it's that I'm less than confident I can help get change.  And that stinks.


When an AIG Spa Trip and the Little Things at Your Company Mean The Same Thing...

By now you know that everyone following the financial sector's meltdown is enraged that executives of AIG's main U.S. life insurance subsidiary spent $440,000 on a corporate retreat, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings. White House press secretary Dana Perino called the event "despicable."

Dana - how do your REALLY feel?  I guess the gloves are pretty much off based on the economy...Spa

Quick to rationalize and spin, AIG issued a statement Wednesday saying that the "business event" was planned months before the Sept. 16 bailout and that it was held for top-producing independent life insurance agents, not AIG employees. Of the 100 attendees, only 10 worked for the AIG unit hosting the event, it said.

Hey, AIG spin-miesters, isn't that still a marketing expense that hits your bottom line?  A yes/no answer will be fine; spare me the additonal rationalizations.

So, the Capitalist likes capitalism but dislikes bad PR in the wake of a bailout.  Big deal. But the AIG drama got me thinking - what are the perks and signals in your workplace that tell your rank and file employees that everyone's not created equal?  I started my own list below; hit me in the comments with your additions:

-Reserved Parking Spaces

-Company Cars

-Executive Elevator

-Separate Medical Benefits for Executives

-Security for executive level offices, but none for the rest of the company

-Different email storage capacities based on your position

-Top managers always get the new stuff, never allow their direct report to skip them in technology

-Different business cards for senior executives

Like Bush and Good Charlotte said, it's the little things...

What am I missiing?  I know there are more, and you're just the person to enlighten me.  Hit me in the comments with your AIG-like examples of bloated corporate excess you'd love to blow up as a HR pro responsible for the flock....


MBA Payoff - It Happens Quicker at Small Companies, But You Have to Foot the Bill....

Should you get an executive MBA?  Sure! Why not?

What?  You want to know how it will help you?  If there's payback for you in your career?  You're really a Mba stickler for details, aren't you?

First up, I'm a proponent of HR people opting for a MBA over a Masters in HR, etc.  Be a business person, especially if you're already in HR, and get a MBA.  They'll respect you more than if you get a Masters in HR, and it helps you more on the job as well.

Two other things - you'll apply what you learn in a MBA program quicker in a smaller company - mainly because you'll have the opportunity to apply what you are exposed to, in the program, every day.  Small companies need to help offer greater autonomy - big companies usually have established infrastructure that makes it harder to put your MBA skills on display.

Of course, if you're at a smaller company, you're probably not going to get the MBA paid for via tuition aid.  More on the funky math of MBA ROI from the Wall Street Journal:

"Last week we wrote about The Wall Street Journal’s executive M.B.A survey, which asked 4,060 students at 72 executive M.B.A. programs and 455 companies how well these programs develop the management and leadership skills that companies want and students need. Forty-five of the companies surveyed had fewer than 1,000 employees and many of them were entrepreneurs.

Deep into the throes of running a business, small-business owners and entrepreneurs say they are turning to business schools to learn how to do things better. Some are looking to grow their business or expand their core services.

Students say the smaller the company, the faster they can apply what they have learned in class to their businesses. And according to the survey, 51% of small-business respondents experienced tangible results immediately or within one year.

But the survey reports that smaller companies are less likely to pay for an employee to attend an executive M.B.A. program, leaving students to pay the often six-figure tuition tab themselves. Not to mention the time.."

Two thoughts to close the MBA talk out for today.  First, I love to see candidates straight out of Compton the Ivy League schools, but you don't have to spend 6 digits to reap the benefits of a MBA.  Odds are if you live in a top 100 metro area in the states, you've got a university offering a MBA program locally that can be had for much, much less.  You still get the same value, you just won't have the brand.  Payback probably happens quicker as well, even if the total lifetime return isn't as high.

Finally, you can always do like KD did and work for a Fortune 500, run up the tuition aid tab for a couple of years, then leave for a small company to put the MBA to work.  Only in America will companies let you run up an education tab and then walk out the door.  Only in America... 


@Work - I'm Not Procrastinating, I'm Gaining Momentum...

It's a digital world baby - and my biggest observation of what that means is that the amount of work all of us do has expanded exponentially.  Fueled by the ease of sending an email and systems that generate reams of data to review and be responsible for, isn't everyone's inbox growing?

Most would agree with that, and the key is finding a way to survive it, and eventually thrive.Larry_the_cable_guy

I'm a big believer of getting my email inbox what I call "above the fold", meaning I like to work email, responding to and organizing requests into task and calendar events until my inbox doesn't have a scroll on it (I can see my entire inbox on my screen without scrolling).  Part of my system is fueled by reading David Allen's Getting Things Done (also known as GTD), which I would recommend to anyone.

One of the things that Allen's GTD teaches you is that you have to go through every email, piece of mail, etc. and categorize it in order to effectively deal with the deluge of stuff people expect from you.  Another key is that as you are going through and categorizing and organizing, if a request takes you less than 2 minutes, you do it immediately.

I've always found that doing everything you encounter that takes less than 2 minutes immediately via GTD has a momentum aspect that gets you confident to take on the bigger jobs.  Others are basing their own productivity theories off the science of doing lots of little things to gain momentum.  From the Wall Street Journal:

"The brainchild of Stanford University philosophy professor John Perry, structured procrastination involves doing small, low-priority tasks to build a sense of accomplishment and the energy to tackle more important jobs. Mr. Perry, a chronic procrastinator, suggests followers choose an important task, but defer work on it while tackling others. "Don't be ashamed of self-manipulation," he says.

Too often, Mr. Perry says, people focus on their biggest and most important duties, then waste time on unproductive tasks -- like surfing the Web and watching television. His Web site, structuredprocrastination.com, features a picture of the author "jumping rope with seaweed while work awaits." He suggests procrastinators fill their time with less formidable -- and more useful -- assignments, such as following up with clients, completing expense reports or catching up on industry news. He says the smart procrastinator can earn a reputation for productivity while giving in to the urge to delay.

What about the big jobs? Mr. Perry says either a non-negotiable deadline will force action, or the procrastinator will gather enough information and perspective to make them appear less daunting.

Mr. Perry's theory, based on personal experience rather than rigorous science, comes amid growing research on the psychological roots of procrastination and its economic cost. Psychologists who study procrastination estimate that 80% to 95% of college students procrastinate, and half do so routinely; between 15% and 20% of adults are habitual procrastinators.

Of course, the biggest criticism I've heard of productivity systems like GTD is that it's a gimmick.  The naysayers will tell you that they're just going to "GIT R DONE" (hat tip to Larry the Cable Guy..).  Maybe actually throwing the word "procrastination" into the title of a productivity system will cause the skeptics to give a GTD system a chance as well.

Remember - GIT-R-DONE..... Maybe that's a naming opportunity for a productivity system right there...