Helicopter Parents Need to Fly On Outta Here!

Every once in a while I receive an email from a parent forwarding their (adult) child’s resume.  While I can appreciate your wanting to help them, it’s best to just hand over the recruiters’ contact info and have them contact the recruiter directly.  Be sure you have them mention you in their email, especially since you are the one with the relationship with the recruiter.  On second thought, if you don’t have a relationship with that recruiter, WHY are you forwarding their resume in the first place!?

I’m getting ahead of myself.  It’s nice to want to help your children, but there comes a point when they need to help themselves.  Give them the contact info and let it go.  Don’t check in with the recruiter to see if your child followed up.  And certainly don’t try to sell your child to the recruiter.  As much as you love your child, please let HIM/HER introduce themselves!

Making connections and tapping contacts are an important part of growing your business, your sphere of influence, if you will.  By all means, do it.  But don’t do it FOR someone else.  You worked hard for those connections and you learned a lot along the way.  Let your kids put forth the same efforts.  If you don’t, you’re robbing them of some very valuable life lessons.

Is Blogging the new Black?

Blogging seems to go with everything these days!  Like quilting?  Start a blog?  Love a recipe?  Blog about it?  Run the operations side of a search firm?  Blog it, baby!

The problem comes in that you have to keep blogging.  Social media experts aren’t very forgiving when you don’t blog often.  Blog now and blog often.  Check your spelling and grammar, too, though, those can turn people off quicker than wearing white after Thanksgiving.

Be sure to get your sayings straight, too.  Otherwise you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.  We turn to bloggers for expert info, don’t we? 

Blogging goes with everything.  Staying current with your blog makes a huge difference.  Be relevant is important, too.  Maintaining credibility with your audience is critical.  Being true to your self is imperative.

Stay golden, Pony Boy.  Remember, nobody puts Baby in the corner.  

It Just Wasn't a Good Fit (Follow up from yesterday's post)

Following up on the previous blog regarding the candidate who kept saying ‘It wasn’t a good fit’:  After several attempts, days in between conversations, and my sharing with him my concern for him not being able to articulate WHY he left, he finally shared with me his story. 

After he was terminated (previously, he had not answered the question as to whether he was terminated or he quit) he went to HR and asked what went wrong.  He said he had never been terminated before and was quite embarrassed about it.  HR said, ‘We are sorry it didn’t work out, you can simply say it wasn’t a good fit’.  Since he had never been in this situation before, he felt that per the direction of HR, this response would suffice.

Something that he had never thought about was that HR could have been walking a thin line from a legal standpoint if they told him any different.  I explained that HR no longer ‘supported’ him as he is now an ex-employee.  Their loyalty (and legal standing) is with the company, not the former employee, which is what he is now.  Their answer suited their needs, not his.

Once he understood this, he opened up about what happened.  As much as I was looking for a story that could possibly become the next great American Novel, his story was quite simple:  He made a mistake on a report that had consequences.  Interestingly, it sounded like the owner/HR took little to no responsibility in the training process for a relatively new employee, etc., but instead, made a quick decision to terminate the employee.   

While it is a blow to the ego, and goes down in the ‘fired’ category, it’s not the end of the world.  For a company who has a strong training program in place, this would not be viewed as a deal breaker.  It could definitely be looked at as a training opportunity (Do we have measures in place to fully train new employees?  Do we have a check and balance procedure in place for new employees?  Are documents reviewed for accuracy before being distributed?).

Now that we understand the situation, we can work on how we are going to communicate that going forward.  We can form an articulate response to the question, ‘Why did you leave?’.   For the record, flailing arms still scare me.  

Communication, Articulation and Gesticulation

Shortly after reading an article about ‘telling your story’ in an interview, I had the opportunity to meet with a candidate for a high level position. During our conversation I asked why he left his previous position. He smiled and politely replied, ‘It just wasn’t a good fit’. That is such a pat answer, and albeit a safe one, it tells me nothing. What wasn’t a good fit? The responsibilities? The direction of the company? What?! Too many unanswered questions, so I asked a little differently.

‘What wasn’t a good fit?’ His response? It just wasn’t a good fit. Now, to put things in perspective, I’m not being nosy or judgmental on whatever happened (unless it was theft, intimidation, violence, or any other illegal act), but communicating with me the ‘why’ can help possibly prevent you ending up in the same/similar position. So, I ask again.

‘Why do YOU think it wasn’t a good fit?’ The response: ‘I liked it there, but it just wasn’t a good fit.’ So, now I am wondering WHAT HAPPENED that you are SO reluctant to discuss with me. My mind is reeling with different scenarios, which is never a good thing. If someone at this level cannot articulate their own thoughts, I have to question their ability to perform at said level. I’m not asking to breech any confidences, betray any trusts or talk bad about your former employer, but instead I’m asking YOU why YOU thought it wasn’t a good fit.

 Telling your story can be a powerful tool. Communication your story gives great insight to the things that are important to you and indicators regarding your strengths and desires in your role. Not being able to articulate your story prevents recruiters/hiring managers from knowing what truly motivates you to succeed. In order to be in a role where you are set up to succeed is a much better place than the alternative.

I love a good story. It really helps me figure out the right environment for you. Share with me who you are and what you are all about. Let me see the real you. But please, don’t go overboard on the gesticulation. Too much animation may scare me.

There is a PS to this story, and it will be in the next blog….

The Counter Offer and Other Acts of Desperation

At one time or another, we’ve all heard stories about that dreaded counter offer. We’ve either worked next to the guy who stayed because he received a hefty pay increase or we’ve had to pick up the slack for the gal who laughed at their attempt to keep her and left for the new, immensely more glamorous, position. Even though these things are supposed to be confidential, word always gets out.

On one hand you have the employees who are beside themselves for not thinking of it first, but on the other, and probably the most detrimental, you have employees who see it for what it is: an act of desperation. Your weakness. You’ve tipped your hand that at the moment, you feel said employee is worth more than the rest, or at least that’s the message you’re sending. Truth? Does it matter? If perception really is reality, then we now have a problem on our hands.

The Counter Offer isn’t the only way companies scream desperation to their employees. The company who throws money at new hires? What’s that all about? If the economy supports a certain pay range for your position and a company throws money at you (in other words, it means hiring you in at a significantly higher salary then you are currently making), be sure to ask yourself the tough questions. Am I really worth this to them? What do I bring to the table that they SO want? Why is this position paying so much higher than my current one? Is this company successful? Why is this position open? And taking it further…..what is going on with this company that they need to pay SO much more for this position? It’s a desperate attempt to hire employees without examining, or revealing the issue or cause for concern.

The stories we hear around this topic can be heartbreaking. I remember one employee who was approached by a competitor and lured with promise of a pay increase of $7/hr. That’s almost a $15k annual increase. She had done nothing to warrant that increase (no further education/masters degree, management role, etc.) and looked it as a lucky break. I encouraged her to dig deeper, make sure the offer was a good one since her current position afforded her husband to stay home with the kids and paid for their medical benefits in their entirety, as well as flexibility and overtime pay. She chose to stay in her current role and three months later she read in the news that the company who tried to hire her was closing up shop and moving their facility to Tennessee. She chose wisely.

When companies honestly communicate their situation and their intentions during the interview or recruiting process, the fallout will be reduced dramatically. More than likely, the companies will end up hiring like minded individuals who just may even be able to help turn things around. I would much rather discuss the position for what it really is and not in a sugar coated, hope-they-don’t-figure-it-out sort of way. When you do the right thing in communicating your intentions, the right results will follow. Your employees, clients, and competitors will see you as a solid entity, and not as someone acting out of desperation.

A great vantage point, if you ask me.

Survivors’ Guilt or Bad Business Decision?

SCENARIO: You own a business and are doing fairly well. Your friends know you are doing well, since you regularly pick up the tab when you all go out for drinks after work. One of these friends has had trouble getting a job and comes to you asking for one. You hire your friend for a sales position, knowing that there is one glaring reason that you shouldn’t have. Survivors’ guilt or bad business decision? Read on….

BACKGROUND: On the surface it seems that hiring friends might be the issue, but it’s not. There is much more to the story and as an employer, it’s up to us to do our due diligence and make sure our hiring is done with ethics and integrity in mind. The back story to this hypothetical situation is this: your friend has two DUI’s and has actually spent time in jail for these offenses. Fortunately no one was injured, but the offenses are still pretty serious. And, your friend lost their license, so you now have a sales person, in a position where they must drive to locations, driving with no valid license, AND YOU KNOW ABOUT IT.

So the question is, is it survivors’ guilt, since you have a position, and have the ability to hire your friend, or is an act of arrogance and a really bad business decision? I’m not a lawyer, nor to do I play one on TV, but I would think that there is some sort of liability as an employer, having an employee with no valid license (in a position where they have to drive) due to two DUI’s, AND YOU KNOW ABOUT IT. So, you have knowingly put someone in a position of further trouble, and have probably taken on some risk as well.

What about the clients you are sending this person to? What happens when they find out? Does that damage your reputation or increase your sense of compassion in their eyes? Will they see it as survivors’ guilt or a really bad business decision?

Regardless of friendship, I would think doing the right thing would take precedence. And by doing the right thing, I mean obeying certain laws and protocols. Hiring someone for a position which they are unable to perform FOR LEGAL REASONS seems a bit like arrogance to me. Unless they take the bus to appointments. THAT would be legal. Good thing this is a hypothetical scenario. I’d hate to be the employer in this situation.

You decide…Survivors guilt or really bad business decision?

Too much is really too much

A friend was recently telling me how cumbersome it was to apply to some positions on bigger companies’ online portals. There is so much information you have to enter over and over again, the same information in so many different places, etc. It is really time consuming, and that’s just for one position! If there is more than one of interest in that company, you have to enter the information all over again!

Really? Was it really that bad? So, I took a look. I went to a really large company headquartered here in Southfield (many of us have had to deal with their customer service department at one time or another) to look at their submittal process. First things first, I set out to find a position that would interest me.

Narrowing down the selection started off my conundrum. There are a couple of local offices, which one do I want? More than one? Does that increase my chances of being hired? OK, let’s search under all of the local offices…..

Next, which category? Hmmm, most of my background is in HR/Operations, but to not limit my options, let’s just go with all. Wouldn’t that be easier than trying to figure out which is the right category? So many companies have differing titles for the same position, I don’t know which way to go here. I’ll just do all of them.

Excellent. Narrowed it down to 35 openings. Wow, that’s a lot. More than I thought there would be! Scrolling…..don’t understand what those first two titles even mean, so scrolling…..scrolling….oh, there’s one that looks like it might be HR! Nope, some sort of legal compliance and I’m not an attorney, so scrolling.…scrolling…..

Another one that looks like it might be HR. I pull up the job description and read through. Well, at least as much as I can. Honestly, I don’t understand much of what they are asking me. I am not sure if I have that experience, since I don’t really know what it is. Bummer. Maybe I don’t have the experience I thought I did. Wow, that’s really a bummer. All these years in staffing and I don’t know what that stuff means. How disheartening.

So, back to scrolling……faster this time, since I’m pretty sure I won’t understand what those other openings are either.

Done. How disappointing. Out of 35 positions, I don’t think I’m qualified for one of them. And I didn’t even get to the submittal part! How frustrating. There is a small amount of relief that I already have a job, and one that I love, but still. What if I didn’t? What if my unemployment was running out and I had to go through this every day? Tough, tough gig at this point.

My reaction will definitely be different when someone says they have been applying on line for positions. My sympathies, for sure. Fingers crossed, you have all the key words you need in your resume if you do understand the job description. Oh dear, the resume………