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September 2020
To all my HR Capitalist friends --
I just onboarded a search for a VP of HR role at Kinetix and wanted to reach out to my network and see who you might know that would have an interest in this role. 
The specs of the position illustrate a lot of opportunities. PE-held company in the automotive industry, 150 locations and around 1300 employees, but on their way to doubling that size through M&A and greenfield growth. Team of 4, but successful candidate has the ability to grow that as the function matures and delivers. Need an equal combination of strategy and getting things done. Leader can be home-based in Atlanta, Birmingham, Mobile, Auburn or Columbus area as long as they're willing to travel as needed.
I've gotten to know the leadership team, and it's a collaborative, low politics group that the right candidate will really enjoy. Base and total Comp is not an issue, what they can provide is both competitive and appropriate.
Sound like anyone you know? Link to the job posting appears below which will give you more details on what the right candidate looks like, and I'm open to any and all referrals and will owe you one if you can take a look at this and provide me 2-3 names you think might be a fit.
Feel free to hit me on LinkedIn or reply (if you're an email subscriber) to this email with anyone that comes to mind. If you forward this email, be sure to tell the people you thought of to reach out and be assertive in addition to simply applying.
Thanks in advance for looking at this for me!
KD
The All-Too Human Condition of Hating a Candidate Due to the Referral Source...
September 28, 2020
Referrals - We love them in the talent world.
Ideally, referrals are made by employees/team members who understand the culture we've created at our company, and only refer the best in their network to us. That's generally true, and even if there's a few referral spammers in your company, we're better off with referrals than without them.
You know what types of referrals we hate and are suspicious of?
THE REFERRAL FROM SOMEONE IN OUR ORGANIZATION WE DON'T LIKE.
If you've got enough experience in the recruiting/team building game, you've been there before. You've got an open spot on your team, and you're doing your normal recruiting game. Then it happens.
Rick, a guy you detest, sends you a referral and vouches for the candidate.
Damn. That's the last thing you needed. But the intensity of your discomfort is directed by the following determination:
--The candidate isn't good. AH HAH! Rick is clueless. Order has been restored to the universe.
--The candidate is really, really good. Whoops! Shit just got complicated.
Why does the candidate being good make it problematic? Well, you hate Rick. That means the following things are in play:
1--If you don't interview a great candidate, you're the problem, not Rick. That's never been a part of the narrative you had related to your relationship with Rick.
2--If you interview the great referral from Rick and don't hire them, it gives Rick an avenue to criticize the selection you do make.
3--If you interview the candidate and hire them, have you just hired someone sympathetic to Rick when he's kind of been your nemesis during your tenure at ACME.com. That seems like it might be problematic.
All of these things go through our mind when we get a referral from someone in our organization we don't like. The blind spot is simply to ignore the referral, because you won't engage with a person you don't respect and trust. But if you do that, you're playing small. You're better than that.
The real talent magnets understand that quality internal referrals from sworn enemies or simply people you don't like are GIFTS. You should absolutely interview them and hire them if they're the best person for the job.
Whether you simply interview or actually hire the quality referral from a known enemy inside your company, you're playing chess - not checkers - with your engagement with this type of candidate.
Mine the candidate for info about Rick. You may learn they don't know Rick as well as you thought they did. But if they do, be sure and drop some details to Rick about your conversation. It's fun to watch Rick be a little bit uncomfortable.
Can you hire this candidate? That really depends how good you are at your job. If you're great at your job, they're going to enjoy being part of your team and Rick's not a threat. Rick may actually end up hating the fact that he gave you a great referral, which is a gift in itself.
Great referrals from sources you hate are an opportunity. Play chess, not checkers.
VIDEO: Future Jobs in HR and Recruiting (and how HR Pros can get ready!)
September 28, 2020
In this video, FOT leaders Kris Dunn and Tim Sackett talk about future jobs in the world of HR, recruiting and talent (from HBR), then discuss how HR Generalists should get ready for the trends by up-skilling through continuing education and development.
(email subscribers click through if you don't see the video below or click here to view)
Capitalist Office Conversation Definitions: "I'm Just A Caveman"
September 25, 2020
It's Friday. Let's do something fun. Definition time!
Beware of people in the workplace who refer to themselves as cavemen. It's a set up most commonly used in the following context:
"Well, I'm just a Caveman. I don't understand a lot of things and what you just said sounds so complex. But what I do know is __________."
The person in front of you isn't trying to make themselves look stupid, they're trying to railroad you into admitting that you're making something too difficult. It might be that a complex explanation is needed, or maybe not. Check yourself on that. But when you hear "I'm just a caveman", it's really code for "I'm not going to do that or agree with you, and my path towards non-compliance is to diminish myself slightly before I try and knock you down a couple of pegs."
They don't agree with you. And they're saying you're fully of s##t in code. Good times.
Related word and phrases in the workplace that can do the same thing: "Blonde", "Country Boy" and "I grew up poor".
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Check out this classic video featuring Phil Hartman as Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer from Saturday Night Live for a great example.
Full video below (email subscribers click through for video below or click the link above)
How Buffer Approaches Salary Transparency (It's Kind of Cool)
September 24, 2020
Attention HR geeks who like to dabble in compensation...
Also, attention anyone who is interested in current events, which finds some highly compensated workers moving out of high priced areas (SF, NYC, LA) to work remote. As you're aware, companies have started communicating they'll be adjusting the salaries of some of this high priced talent to reflect the cost of living in their new locations.
For those of us used to formal compensation plans, this move is standard - it's called geographical grading, and most formal compensation plans set ranges for jobs, then adjust them upward or downward based on the area the talent lives in. There are generally 5-6 geographical grades in a compensation plan.
Of course, it's the cancel culture and the "how dare you" culture that's SHOCKED a company would reduce compensation for someone moving from San Francisco to Iowa.
Many of the same people who would rage against the audacity of a company reducing salaries for lower cost locations would also be huge proponents of salary transparency.
And this is the point where we merge both topics - salary transparency and geographical adjustments.
Consider the technology firm BUFFER.
Buffer does a nice job of describing it goals with salary transparency - you can read up on it here.
But what's super interesting about their view on transparency is how they set salaries within a range and how they adjust them up or down. More from Buffer's page that talks about their philosophy and even provides a <freaking> calculator:
This multiplier is still applied by using a teammates’ location to determine one of three geographic bands, based on a high, average, or low cost of living area. We use data from Numbeo to figure out which band applies for each teammate. For high cost of living areas we pay 100% of the San Francisco 50th percentile, average is 85%, and low is 75%.
We figure out each teammate’s geographic band by comparing the cost of living index of a teammate’s location to the cost of living index in San Francisco.
So let's examine that a bit for what we know about formal compensation plans. The fact Buffer provides one salary they pay for each job (they don't adjust for who you are, that's how they keep it consistent and can do transparency) means that they have elected a single point to pay within a salary range recommended by salary surveys from a provider like Numbeo. I'd assume they're likely paying at the midpoint in the range (ranges have minimums, midpoints and maximums) for anyone in the role to keep it real. Then, as stated, they are adjusting through geographical grades or bands in the way described above.
So, if you're moving to Denver, you're taking a 15% cut, which by the way, is super consistent with the numbers reported related to VM Ware and Twitter adjustments (widely reported as 18% for a move from SF to Denver). If you're moving to Ames, Iowa - sad trombone - it's a 25% cut.
Geographical grades and band have been around forever. It's interesting to see a company committed to salary transparency be unapologetic for adjustments for geography.
How can they do it? Simple, when you pay everyone in the same job the same $$, the black box of comp mystery goes away. I'm not saying that's the way to do it, but it's a bit of a case study on how simple it could be, and it automatically addressed equity concerns.
United Airlines Takes a Lawsuit Over Preferential Treatment of Blondes...
September 22, 2020
A recent lawsuit filed versus United Airlines shows how complicated/dangerous staffing decisions involving customer-facing positions can be.
A rundown of the lawsuit appears below. Embedded in all of this is the perception of what customers want, the concept/definition of bias, and the obligation a company has across employment law when staffing decisions for premium assignments are made in a manner inconsistent with established norms.
For years, attractive people (both female and male) have had an advantage in the workplace - that's documented through research. However, there are attractive people across all races and nationalities. Good luck to the organization/company in 2020 that identifies the "right" kind of attractiveness as belonging to young, white blonde females.
The answer to this for United is pretty simple. Work through the lawsuit and work with sports leagues (NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL) to ensure inclusivity. Trust me, those sports leagues don't want anything to do with media attention that suggests they're requesting the stereotype outlined below.
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United Airlines Holdings Inc. packs its charter flights for sports teams with young, blond crews and bars older flight attendants from working the plum routes, according to a new lawsuit.
In so doing, the airline bases the value of workers “entirely on their racial and physical attributes, and stereotypical notions of sexual allure,” according to two veteran flight attendants who sued Friday in California.
The attendants -- a Black woman who has worked for the airline for 28 years and a Jewish woman with 34 years of tenure -- say that they both tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to get assigned to work the charter flights.
United Airlines has contracts to provide air travel for some three dozen teams in the National Football League, Major League Baseball and National Collegiate Athletic Association, according to the lawsuit. Attendants who work those flights earn more and are provided with premium accommodations. They also sometimes get tickets to games, including playoff and Super Bowl tickets, and “extremely valuable” infield passes, according to the lawsuit.
Sharon Tesler and Kim Guillory said they were told by supervisors that they were unable to get work on the charters because they weren’t on “preferred” lists that were based on team preferences, according to the complaint.
They said they later discovered that young, white blond attendants -- with less seniority -- were given the assignments. United Airlines “has adopted and continues to implement procedures that are designed to ensure that young, white, blond/blue-eyed, female employees receive positions with the charter program, while more senior, and Black and Jewish employees such as plaintiffs, do not,” they said in the complaint.
The women are asking for monetary, including punitive, damages.
The case is Guillory v. United Airlines, Inc, 20-civ-03889, in Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo.
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Section 7.A.9 of United’s 2016-2021 Flight Attendant Joint Collective Bargaining Agreement (called JBCA for short) holds:
9 . Charters and Special Purpose Flights
a. Charters, extra sections and scenic flights assigned to a Base will be available for use in line construction or placed in open time, unless a particular Flight Attendant(s) has in open time, unless a particular Flight Attendant(s) has been requested by the charter organization.
Note the text in red. Although United’s flight attendant union (AFA) is strictly seniority-based in almost every respect, United’s collective bargaining agreement leaves open a loophole for charter customers to personally request flight attendants.
That's messy. The notes from Live and Let's Fly goes on to share that they've learned the average age of attendants on United charter flights is 46 years old, and United has a higher percentage of Black flight attendants in its sports team charter program than in its overall flight attendant population. Not sure of the source of that info.
It will be interesting to track this one.
HR Generalists (at all levels) Win By Adding Specialist Learning Paths to their Portfolio...
September 21, 2020
I'm on the record as believing the HR Generalist (CHRO to early career) is the most important component in the HR machine at any company. Of course, I love HR Specialists too. Shout out to the specialists! You're doing what you love and you are important! We love you!
But the HR Generalist is the one who's in the conference room when s*** has gone completely sideways, and they're also the one who business leaders at all levels and functional areas confide in when they have seemingly insurmountable issues on their team or in their business.
What's that? Of course Legal is in the room at some point, but they're the second or third call in times of distress. A trusted HR generalist who has developed a relationship of trust is always the first call.
So here we are - 2020. What a mess of a year. But if you're an HR Generalist, I have good news and bad news. Which do you want first? OK, the good news followed by the bad news:
1--Good News! In a post-COVID world, good to great HR Generalists are worth more and increasing in value versus their specialist peers.
The logic behind this reality is pretty simple. Headcount has shrunk in many HR functions as furloughs and layoffs have occurred, and as a result the market is placing a premium on Generalist skills. CHROs are rebuilding teams around the Generalist skill set. Don't take my word for it, just take a listen to these podcasts I did with long-time HR headhunter Kathy Rapp and HR pros Jessica Lee/Tim Sackett (click on the links if you don't see the podcast players below).
The challenge in this good news is that you're going to be asked to do more with less as a Generalist. Better than not having a job, for sure. But you're going to have to invest and work at developing your skills to stay relevant in the years to come, and to ensure you're making the career progress you'd like. Interestingly enough, a lot of what you'll need to add is specialist-related, because the best way to be a great generalist is to slowly but surely add specialist skills to your portfolio.
This realty brings us to the bad news, aka "the challenge":
2--Bad News! To stay on top as an HR Generalist in a post-COVID world, you need to understand how the world is changing and seek training & development that will make you "critical" to those you work for.
This is pretty simple. It's called being strategic with your own development and also being intellectually curious. You seek development to make yourself more valuable, secure and hopefully, engaged with what you do in the world of HR.
It's always better to be motivated to get better via deep interest in what you do. But if you're not curious about where HR is going, then you have to invest to stay one step ahead of the masses, my friend.
OK - let's assume you agree with me. Where do you start to seek training and development that will make you critical for the future? I always recommend you start with a conversation with the person you work for. Whether that's a C-level, a CHRO or a Director of HR, having a chat about what L&D opportunities they think are important for your future has multiple effects. It cements a connection that you sought their feedback, which creates a perception of investment in you. It also makes them more likely to pay for it. Advantage: You.
Of course, you can't just walk into that meeting without some prep, right? Here are a couple of big ideas on the best way to map specialist skills to add to your generalist portfolio:
--Look for trends that your company/industry/boss feels are important for the future. I wrote a few weeks ago on 21 Future HR Jobs (click link to review), and as it turns out, I'm not sure any of them are standalone jobs in the next decade. But I'm 100% sure many of the trends covered will be important for high-end, high achieving HR Generalists. You likely could develop a short list of 3-4 of these to guide your path.
--Then match those trends and look at resources like SHRM which is actively creating high-end continuing education for HR pros. For best results using SHRM as you seek to build out your Generalist knowledge and portfolio, do this:
--Flip through SHRM's Fall catalog to find your 2020 program fit(s) and map your future.
--Take a 6-question quiz to receive a curated list of recommended programs, based on your interests, learning style, and expertise.
HR Generalists are in the driver's seat in a post-COVID world. But any high performing HR pro knows they have to stay current and continually add to their portfolio to stay on top and get the career results they desire.
Map it out, invest and go make it happen, my friends!
Google Gives Up and Moves to Unhip Annual Performance Reviews (The HR Famous Podcast)
September 17, 2020
Got a good one for you this week on The HR Famous Podcast! We cover news of Google giving up and moving to an Annual Review Cycle schedule, how their employees participate in writing their own reviews and are concerned they have to wait a year for a salary increase (sound familiar?). Included in the discussion is the fact they call their performance process a "perf", which is too close to other words for our comfort.
Bonus - we break down the CHRO move of the week, with IBM changing out their HR leadership. Please subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!
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In episode 31 of The HR Famous Podcast, long-time HR leaders (and friends) Tim Sackett, Kris Dunn and Jessica Lee discuss Google's move to a very uncool/unhip annual performance review cycle (called a "perf" which is dangerously close to bad stuff), David Blaine’s recent dangerous endeavor, and the latest CHRO move of the week involving IBM's new HR leader.
Listen (click this link if you don’t see the player) and be sure to subscribe, rate, and review (Apple Podcasts) and follow (Spotify)!
SHOW HIGHLIGHTS
1:30 - Did you watch David Blaine’s balloon descension excursion? Tim doesn’t think that he’s human.
4:30 - Do you ever dress up at home just to feel better? JLee dressed up today because she’s sick of athleisure.
5:30 - Time for the CHRO Move of the Week! IBM Senior Vice President of HR and CHRO Diane Gherson announced her successor, Nickle LaMoreaux, this week as she has decided to retire. JLee commends IBM for this classy move of publicly passing the gauntlet onto their next CHRO.
9:00 - KD points out LaMoreaux's former positions at IBM and how that helped her get into the top HR spot at the company.
12:00 - KD talks about how IBM was one of the first to move people to remote work and also the first to take it away, and why it had a number of lawsuits around age discrimination based on allegations of a strategy, to bring in younger people, that would cost less.
14:20 - The HR Famous crew doesn’t know what IBM does anymore! Does this mean that they’re on the outs?
15:00 - Who remembers the old adage “No one ever got fired for buying IBM”? JLee has never heard it, but Tim and KD remember those days.
17:00 - Next topic of the day: Business Insider published an article about Google’s performance reviews being resumed and how some employees are concerned that the new 12 month cycle will hurt their chances for promotions.
18:00 - Internally, Google’s performance reviews are known as “perf”... That’s something the HR Famous crew has never seen! Tim sees this as a sign of Google growing up. The gang also has fun with the word "perf" which borders on the worst corporate slang ever.
21:30 - A lot of companies either had to or chose to pause performance reviews during the beginning of the pandemic. KD thinks it was a good move to pause performance reviews for the first months of the pandemic to allow employees to focus on other worries.
24:30 - JLee and Tim comment on their frustration with the fact that Google employees are so worried about their pay increases when so much else is going on in the world. KD reminds everyone that there are a lot of people in the company who aren’t complaining about their lack of a raise.
27:45 - One of the things that Google is doing to make performance reviews more simple is having employees list up to 5 of their biggest accomplishments/achievements, but they must say less than 160 words for each item. KD notes the fact that via this strategy, managers at Google are like everyone else - they'd prefer you write your own review!!
28:30 - Reach out to Tim Sackett if you need help writing your perf!
30:30 - Tim laughs at the fact that the pandemic has forced HR to go back in time to once a year performance reviews, when research for years has shown that more frequent performance reviews are more effective.
32:00 - JLee brings up the fact that those with children they are taking care of at home may be negatively affected by performance reviews right now. Tim thinks that people are going to be judged by their performance during the pandemic anyway and there’s not much you can do to change that.
38:30 - Who else has become a cycler in the pandemic? JLee and Tim are now fans!
Attempting to Build Consensus or Get Change? Watch this Helpful Seinfeld Video...
September 15, 2020
The older I get, the more I know absolutes rarely work.
The HR Leader/Generalist motto is true - the clear path always lies somewhere in the middle. Case in point - 2020! What a year, and it's only going to get better! An election coming up in a less than 2 months! #freakshow
Examples from 2020 that the truth is always somewhere in the middle (listing the extremes on each side below, and all of these things impact the workplace, which is why they're being discussed here):
-People who can work from home are never coming back to the office/WFH and isolation is crushing people
--We need to go on lockdown until Covid cases are at zero/The economy is the most important thing
--Masks and face shields are mandatory at all times/I should never be forced to wear a mask
--Big Ten Football/SEC Football (gotcha!)
This list goes on, plus it includes all the issues our country has dealt with in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd.
2020 is hard. For everyone seeking to build consensus, get change and generally make things better, I present a group you'll need called "the middle":
The middle is an interesting group. They're watching and listening and agree with most or all of what you say, but many in this group are wary of extremes. The more your position is framed as non-negotiable and you refuse to include them in the dialog, the more they fade away. You'll never even know they're gone.
Conversation is key. For my visual friends, I offer up the following classic from Seinfeld called "The Ribbon Bully" (click on the link if you don't see the video below, it's a keeper). Let's stay together, have conversations, get meaningful change and figure this out. And for all my friends in the middle, when someone surprises you and wants to have dialog, it's non-negotiable to engage and try to listen more than you talk.
Cost of Living Pay Cuts for Twitter Employees Moving from Bay Area: Valid or BS?
September 14, 2020
By now, you're aware that hundreds or thousands of companies have announced that their white-collar jobs won't be returning to the office until 2021, and perhaps until a vaccine is approved, deployed and effective.
That means people working for those companies can work anywhere. Add that the densely populated cities were the first hotbeds of COVID infection, and you've got a recipe for a talent migration - individuals determining that this is a good time to leave coastal areas like NYC, the Bay Area and Los Angeles (click link for one of hundreds of reports).
But as every HR pro knows, salaries offered via compensation plans get adjusted based on how much it costs to live in specific geographical areas. To no HR pro's surprise, that means companies at some point are going to adjust the compensation of people leaving areas like San Francisco for more remote areas where a 3-bedroom home doesn't cost 2-3 million.
Surprise! The process has started even at the most tech friendly (fair to say progressive) companies. Last week, Twitter and VM Ware announced the plan to adjust salaries of those fleeing the Bay area was formally being rolled out. Here are some of the details via Bloomberg:
--VMware (NYSE:VMW) offered to let employees work from home permanently, but those who opt in and move out of the Bay Area will receive pay cuts. .
--The salary reductions depend on where the employee relocates. Denver, for example, would come with an 18% annual pay cut (San Diego, 8%), according to Bloomberg sources.
--Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) is using a similar strategy with its newly permanent employees, and Facebook is mulling adopting the compensation scheme.
--Twitter employees who move and lose pay will get a $3,000 one-time allowance
--VMware tells Bloomberg it adjusts pay depending on the "cost of labor" for the region and notes that employees moving to more expensive areas could receive raises.
Is this fair? The talent pros who have been around the block will undoubtedly say yes. After all, if you open up a software developer shop in Denver as a means of relieving recruiting pressure in SF, and your compensation plan tells you the cost of a developer is 98k instead of 120K, that guidance would drive the recruiting plan related to what you wanted to pay. You might use the range based on what you find in the market, but that guidance is there for a reason, and most of the delta is cost of living guidance.
As expected, the Twitter mob is losing its mind. It's unfair, another example of the man attempting to screw the little guy, etc.
It's actually just data and math, folks. And for the most part, it's 100% legit.
Having said that, booming markets where a bunch of California people flee to in order to escape oppressive state taxes (and whatever else they're fleeing from) can lag a bit related to what the best compensation surveys might show. Denver and Idaho are red hot, but 18% still seems in range if you're trying to escape San Francisco. Austin is another hot location, which begs the question of state taxes (0% in Texas) being included in the calculus.
Of course, what's normal and customary is also an opportunity. Tech companies looking to grab talent could take the market position of "we're not reducing salaries for those who move!", and use it as a recruiting advantage.
But that would cause compression and resentment for those that remain, which is kind of what the whole geographic thing related to compensation was designed to handle in the first place.
Good luck with the move, Twitter people! May your W-2 remain robust and in conjunction with your locale...