Dawn Burke Notices That VPs of HR Avoid the Local SHRM Meeting – Early and Often

I read an interesting  Forbes article on CEO networking .  It’s asks the question:   Does the boss even really need to network?  The answer :  Yes–and he needs to do it better than anyone else. Interesting, because there’s always been a problem with our local SHRM chapter.  I imagine others around the country have the same problem.   The C-Suite snub.   I’m talking about the  HR C-Suite mind you.  Huh? This never made me mad, it just seemed curious.  And now that I am on a C-Suite, I hate to admit…my local chapter participation has all but dwindled to a lunch or two this entire year.  Double huh? Read the whole post over at HR Insomniac (A FOT Contributor Blog)

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Tags: article, boss, ceo, chapter, Contributor, featured, Forbes, Industry Chat, lunch, participation, result, Shrm, worldwide fot

One Year on from starting ‘The Job’: Interview with Ellison Bloomfield

In October 2010, the lead article in InSight 153 was Adventures of a (linchpin) job seeker. It was the story of Ellison Bloomfield, a frustrated job seeker who decided she was going to try a different approach to finding her dream job. Ellison embarked on a very public campaign to find ‘The Job’ and the outcome of her campaign was a fascinating insight into the options available for job seekers

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One Year on from starting ‘The Job’: Interview with Ellison Bloomfield

Tags: article, campaign, deloitte, dream, ellison, Industry Chat, Insight, job, job-seekers, result, seeker, seekers, social media

Recruitment 101: How to win friends and influence people

In last week’s InSight lead article Play More Beach Volleyball to Bill More Fees, I referred to the research supporting the importance of making genuine connections at work in order to build a more resilient and productive workforce.  Today I will discuss specifically how recruiters can create this connectedness with their colleagues, their candidates and their clients.  Although some of you

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Recruitment 101: How to win friends and influence people

Tags: article, behaviour/communication, colleagues, connectedness, dale carnegie, Industry Chat, result, workforce

Good Recruiters, Bad Recruiters, Jedi Mind Tricks and Influence…

Hiring really should be easier than it is. Company wants to hire, person wants job, sign some paperwork, done. Get the right person with the skills in the role, in the shortest possible time, for the least cost. Simple. But it’s not easy. In some cases, in fact, it’s pretty darn hard. Like most processes, if people weren’t involved, it would be a slam dunk. People add complexity to the process in which a recruiter influences a hiring team and an individual to come to agreement on what is, for all parties, a very big decision, while handling the dynamics of culture, market, internal politics, institutional history, etc. You could go all Jedi on them (“these are not the programmers you are looking for”), but if your Jedi training stinks, you better know how to influence people. Bad recruiters aren’t Jedis, can’t influence anyone and just end up making excuses.  Anti-Jedi.   When I read Dr. Daniel Crosby’s recent article, The Psychology of Influence , on the MonsterThinking blog, I found myself nodding in agreement. Crosby lays out six “weapons of influence,” which serve as a roadmap for recruiters who want to do more than sit around complaining about their “stupid hiring managers.” Go read the article to learn about the weapons, but here’s a snapshot and my take on how a recruiter might use them: Scarcity — Know what talent makes money and drives the business, then use that language when presenting candidates: “Tom, I think you should talk with candidate Bill, because his background in thermodynamics might be a nice complement to your team as you work on the whizzer banger project for 2012.” Reciprocity —Help others, and they will want to help you. “Larry, we won’t hire your son as an intern reporting to you, but I’ll connect him with five recruiters I know in the market to talk to him about potential opportunities.” Social Proof —Show off a little: “Tom, I just spent time with Sally’s group reviewing the business plan for the next 3 quarters, so I have a good feel for what staffing resources they’ll need to hit their goals. Do you have time to meet, so I make sure to resource your needs appropriately? Yep, Tuesday at 9 works fine.” Commitment and Consistency —hiring managers love processes they help create, especially if the initial investment is small. Brainstorm with the hiring manager five questions to ask every candidate. Get her involved in design, and the buy-in will follow. Liking —According to Crosby, “play up similarities and minimize differences when attempting to persuade.” Don’t play the sleazy sales guy “reading the room” when you enter an office, but you need a connection. Find one. Authority —Communicate up well. Let leadership know what road blocks are in front of you. Don’t tattle, but leverage the business leaders to remove barriers to adding great talent. As I have written before, slapping résumés around, pounding out the calls and throwing it against the wall is by itself a very active but totally flawed plan. Great talent pros still make the calls and work the numbers, but then they also find a way to leverage Crosby’s influence weapons to drive the process. They add and refine organizational capability, which is not at all easy, but critical. Editor's Note –  R.J. Morris is a staffing/talent acquisition director for McCarthy Building Companies based out of STL. Like many others in the FOT clan, he's a sports nut who can endlessly draw the parallels between athletes, sports and the talent management game. I know, I know, as if we needed more of that. That aside, he's got two master's degrees and more than a dozen years under his belt as an HR practitioner including as an HRD focused on staffing for McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

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Tags: article, complement, daniel, hiring, influence, institutional, people, politics, recruiter, result, Scarcity, social, thermodynamics

Beyond ‘free’ LinkedIn: what your $ buys you

Earlier this year, after LinkedIn stated their intention to become a publicly listed company, I wrote a lead article about LinkedIn’s global aspirations and specifically, their intention to tackle the recruitment agency market. This intention was made explicit when they registered their S-1 Statement with the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in late January. In the S-1

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Beyond ‘free’ LinkedIn: what your $ buys you

Tags: agency, article, Aspirations, commission, exchange, Industry Chat, intention, lead, linkedin, result, securities, states, united

Google Apps Migration for Microsoft Exchange

I’ve just spoken with a friend who is running a mid sized business and has recently switched the Google Apps Migration for Microsoft® Exchange. His stoked with the service and thinks that it beats his old exchange server 10 fold. However, I’m just curious, before I make the leap, what’s the experience of anyone else? Is it a good move? One thing I do like is the search speed. Even when I compare performance to our 10k servers, this seems like a major advantage. What about everyone else?

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Logica

Logica Logica Worldwide | Be Brilliant Together Sustainability Cloud Computing Security Logica Skip to content Worldwide Change Australia Brazil Czech Republic Denmark Estonia Finland France Germany India Netherlands Norway Poland Portugal Slovakia Spain Sweden Switzerland United Kingdom United States Worldwide We do Business Consulting Business Intelligence Enterprise Content Management Future IT and Cloud Innovation Microsoft Oracle Outsourcing SAP Security Service Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Architecture Sustainability We work in Automotive Base Industries Financial Services Food Industry High tech Industry Manufacturing Oil and Gas Pharmaceuticals Public Sector Telecoms and Media Transport and Logistics Utilities We are Logica About Logica Careers Corporate Responsibility Investors Media Centre Every solution begins with a question Speak with a Logica expert in your industry ARTICLE Logica and Banking Technology The SEPA end date debate VIDEO Enjoy a secure space ARTICLE Logica launch IBRA Innovation in Global Regulatory Reporting VIDEO Interview with andy green for SKY news on 29th march 2011 Site Map Find an Office Contact Us Legal We do Business Consulting Business Intelligence Enterprise Content Management Future IT and Cloud Innovation Microsoft Oracle Outsourcing SAP Security Service Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Architecture Sustainability We work in Automotive Base Industries Financial Services Food Industry High tech Industry Manufacturing Oil and Gas Pharmaceuticals Public Sector Telecoms and Media Transport and Logistics Utilities We are Logica About Logica Careers Corporate Responsibility Investors Media Centre

Tags: 29th March, Andy Green, Architecture, article, Automotive, Banking Technology, business, Business Intelligence, careers, centre, Change Australia, cloud, Computing Security, consulting, Consulting Business, content, corporate, Corporate Responsibility, Czech Republic, enterprise, Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Content Management, financial, Food Industry, future, industries, industry, innovation, intelligence, investors, logica, Logistics, management, manufacturing, media, microsoft, Netherlands Norway, Oil And Gas, oracle, oriented, outsourcing, pharmaceuticals, public, responsibility, Sap Security, sector, secure, security, Security Service, Service Oriented Architecture, Sky News, Sustainability, telecoms, transport, united, utilities, video, Video Interview, worldwide, Worldwide Change

Adaps It Recruitment

Adaps It Recruitment Adaps Recruitment HOME JOBS CANDIDATES CLIENTS CONTRACTORS UPDATE RESUME JOB ALERTS CONTACT US About Adaps Work Adaps Adaps Virtual Bench Adaps Care News Job Alerts Adaps Club Application Tips Update Resume Our Policy Payroll Transitioning Terms Conditions Our Guarantee Resources Adaps Club Adaps Events nbsp SEARCH JOBS Location Specialisation Keywords Advanced Seach Jobs ADAPS HOT JOBS Site Auditor Data Voi nbsp Core JAVA Developer Tra nbsp Jnr Business Analyst We nbsp Lead ETL Developer SSIS nbsp Premium IT Recruitment in Melbourne Sydney amp Brisbane Adaps is THE Premium IT Recruitment Agency specialising in Australian IT Contract and Permanent Opportunities and IT Recruitment Solutions to Blue Chip Clients Adaps advantage is created by its people and its unique IT Recruitment Model Focusing exclusively on IT Jobs we operate in three distinct sections IT Sales IT Recruitment and Contractor Care This business model gives Clients Low IT Fees and industry leading money-back Guarantees We are the only IT Recruiter in the industry that is prepared to share the risk and back ourselves to ensure we find you people that deliver.If an Adaps contractor or permanent placement leaves your organisation before the end of the 3 month guarantee period Adaps will refund DOUBLE the fees we have received NEWS FEED nbsp nbsp nbsp Tue29Mar iPad 2 Discounted through Work Life NAB Full Article nbsp Mon28Mar Last Chance 40% off from Sunglass Hut Offer ends 10 April 2010 Full Article Submit Resume &nbsp nbsp nbsp Adaps Events &nbsp Call Melbourne 03 9867 1765 or Sydney 02 9253 4300 or Brisbane 07 3101 9281 if you are interested in Adaps fulfilling your IT Recruiting needs Site by JobAdder

Tags: 10 April, adaps, alerts, Application Tips, April, article, brisbane, business, Business Analyst, Chip Clients, clients, Club Application, contractor, Core Java, deliverif, developer, Distinct Sections, ensure, eventsnbspnbsp, gives, guarantee, Guarantee Period, guarantees, home-jobs, hot-jobs, industry, Ipad, Java Developer, Jnr, jobadder, Last Chance, leading, Leaves, melbourne, model, moneyback, nab, Needs, offer, organisation, people, permanent, placement, premium, prepared, recruiter, recruiting, Recruitment Agencies, Recruitment Agency Specialising, Recruitment Jobs, Recruitment Model, Recruitment Solutions, resume, resumenbspnbsp, sales, share, submit, sydney, update, Virtual Bench

Expertise, Capability, Good Corporate Citizen, New Markets and Profit: The Hays juggernaut rolls on

On 28 October, 2009 in InSight #105, the lead article was The Best Run Recruitment Companies in Australia (part 1): Hays which listed the reasons I believed Hays was so highly regarded by other recruitment industry owners and CEOs. Although no comments were posted to my blog about this article, I received a few emails that suggested I was being naïve or irresponsible in highlighting or endorsing

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Expertise, Capability, Good Corporate Citizen, New Markets and Profit: The Hays juggernaut rolls on

Tags: article, australia, Ceos, companies, hays, industry, Insight, lead, result

Expertise, Capability, Good Corporate Citizen, New Markets and Profit: The Hays juggernaut rolls on

On 28 October, 2009 in InSight #105, the lead article was The Best Run Recruitment Companies in Australia (part 1): Hays which listed the reasons I believed Hays was so highly regarded by other recruitment industry owners and CEOs. Although no comments were posted to my blog about this article, I received a few emails that suggested I was being naïve or irresponsible in highlighting or endorsing

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Expertise, Capability, Good Corporate Citizen, New Markets and Profit: The Hays juggernaut rolls on

Tags: article, australia, Ceos, companies, industry, Industry Chat, Insight, lead, result

Are Recruiters School Snobs?

Growing up, my grandfather ended almost every conversation with his grandkids by saying, “Get good grades–go to college.” In the same way that other people said, “Goodbye,” he would say, “Get a degree.” To him, a college diploma meant an all-access pass to a wide world of career choices he could only dream about. He did not think it mattered what college or which degree–a diploma meant you could do anything. Unfortunately, a recent article, Brown and Cornell are Second Tier says that Gramps was dead wrong. Research from a Northwestern University professor claims that what school you went to is the deciding factor to some recruiters when they vet candidates. Is this you? Are you a school snob that overvalues the name brand of the school a candidate attended? If so, the article refers to some of your peers as “ridiculously narrow-minded people who make hiring decisions,” and notes: What’s surprising isn’t that students from elite universities have a leg up; it’s that students from other colleges don’t have a chance, even if those colleges are what the rest of us might consider elite. You also can’t read this study without getting the feeling that the game is rigged. That obtaining a name-brand diploma matters more than actually learning something. That the gatekeepers at our nation’s most prestigious firms are pathetically shallow, outrageously parochial, and insufferably snobbish. Academic research and empirical evidence come together to prove that some recruiters are lazy and shortsighted. Fantastic. Now, I know that school snobbery is nothing new. There is some manager in every shop who looks at a résumé, sees a “top” school, and automatically prefers that candidate over the state school grad–even if in reality the top tier kid partied his way through the Ivy League like Charlie Sheen on a Vegas bender. When I run into that manager, I frame the discussion by asking, “What data do you have to show that grads from insert school perform better than grads from other schools?” I typically get blank stares and Maurice Jones Drew-esque backpedalling . Faithful FOT readers are not lazy and don’t fall for this nonsense, but in case you have colleagues acting like the ridiculous recruiters quoted in the article, please get some data to help them: Compare first year performance ratings of grads from target schools for the last three years. Look for school correlation among top and bottom performers. What schools show up on your high potential/fast track stars list? Any trends within this group will usually get people’s attention. Analyze your interview results and rookie turnover for the last three years. What schools consistently produced your highest rated interviews or your lowest first year retention rate? If the quality of a candidate’s education is important to your firm, measure it compared to performance , not just the perception of a pedigree. If you can show that a chunk of your high performers came from one or two schools or that a large percentage of grads from other schools struggle within your firm, you just went from snobbery to evidence-based decision making, which would make Gramps proud. In high school, they were just jerks, but in HR departments, snobs are just dangerous. Editor's Note –  R.J. Morris is a staffing/talent acquisition director for McCarthy Building Companies based out of STL. Like many others in the FOT clan, he's a sports nut who can endlessly draw the parallels between athletes, sports and the talent management game. I know, I know, as if we needed more of that. That aside, he's got two master's degrees and more than a dozen years under his belt as an HR practitioner including as an HRD focused on staffing for McCarthy Building Companies, Inc.

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Tags: article, charlie, college, college recruiting, Grandkids, prestigious, research, result, rj morris, Snobbery

Rely on the shop or grow your own?

Last week I read with interest, an article on Recruiter Daily about candidate segmentation. The article details the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tactics recommended by two consultants who work for a recruitment outsource provider on-site at Ernst & Young, one of the ‘Big 4′ accounting firms. The article got my attention as providing an excellent example of how dramatically different

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Rely on the shop or grow your own?

Tags: article, crm, customer, details, Industry Chat, management, profit, recruiter, relationship, result, segmentation, skills-shortage

Time to Get Your "Drink On" at the Office Holiday Party!

Fast Company had a recent article on the subject of office holiday parties ( Office Parties: Breeding Grounds for Bad Behavior, Flings, and Unemployment ) in which they reported: 40% of workers say they've either embarrassed themselves or know someone who has at a work holiday party. And a shocking 23%–1 in 4!–have been reprimanded for their actions. Pink slips are almost as frequent as red faces. More than 1 in 10 Americans say they know someone who has been fired for their inappropriate behavior at a holiday party. This behavior may include saying something inappropriate to a colleague (7%) or boss (4%), or drinking too much (20%). Which begs the question of you, the HR police: Should you serve alcohol at your office holiday party? It's a question almost every HR Pro has had to ask themselves or has been asked in their career.  At some point, an executive or the party planning committee is going to ask – well – should we? Can we?  Then comes: well how much? for how long? but what about Timmy who's recovering, should we buy him some O'Douls non-alcoholic beer? (Notice the drinkers never want to say “maybe we shouldn't have alcohol out of respect for those in AA, they would rather give them non-alcoholic options!). I look at it this way.  Each company has its own culture – and it depends on your culture and what's considered appropriate for your environment.  I worked for Applebees and they let me “taste” alcoholic drinks while I was working – to ensure product quality, of course.  When we had work functions, there wasn't an “if” we could have alcohol, it was “how” much, “when” does it start and “what” vendor was paying the bill! Heck – with the financial year(s) some companies have had recently – many of you HR Pros might want to look into something stronger than just alcohol at this years holiday party (hello, California Prop 19)! A couple of things I know for sure as you ponder whether to go dry or let the merriment flow: 1. You are not going to make everyone happy – so don't try .  Make the “right” decision for the masses. The worst HR in the world is when you make a decision based on one squeaky wheel. “Well, this year we aren't going to serve alcohol because Mike found religion and doesn't agree with it any longer – but I'm sure the rest of us (435 employees) will be alright with it.” No they won't – they found religion too and their religion lets them drink! 2. Having alcohol at your party might be the worst professional decision you'll ever make . What!? But you just said…  Let's be clear, some very bad things can happen, and you are responsbible – you're the HR Pro – you are advising your executives.  If you gave people an option of having two drinks or a $50 Best Buy card – which would they choose? How much safer is that for your organization?  Don't take this decision lightly! 3. You need to be the chaparone . If you decide to have alcohol, someone has to be the adult, and since you are probably going to be the one leading the investigation after the fact – well, it might as well be you.  So, I'm having alcohol at my office party – not everyone drinks – most do – at least a few might not show up because of that choice.  I'll have fun, the group will have fun, we'll celebrate our successes for 2010 – then I'll go home and I'll cross my fingers and hope everyone makes it home safe and sound. Editor's Note : FOT parties always are a question of “how much” and “what time do the drinks start flowing” – and you can bet that all the stories the next day are about how much Tim Sackett drank and what embarrassing admissions he made this time. Tim Sackett, SPHR is the EVP of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better. He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side – so he gets it from both sides of the desk. Want more?  Um, OK… He has a Masters of HR and….well, he was recently voted #5 best assistant little league coach of his son’s five team league.   

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Tags: article, bad, behavior, breeding, flings, good hr, grounds, holiday, office, parties, result, tim sackett, trench hr, unemployment

More Money Does Equal Happiness… By the Way…

Google recently made public plans to give each and everyone of their 23,000 employees a 10% raise in January.  From the Wall Street Journal article : The pay hike comes as Google ramps up its battle with competitors, especially neighboring Facebook Inc., in a fight to secure talented staff. Roughly 10% of Facebook's employees are Google veterans and other Silicon Valley companies have aggressively poached employees from the Internet giant. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt disclosed the raise in an email to employees, saying the company wants to lift morale. “We want to make sure that you feel rewarded for your hard work,” Mr. Schmidt wrote. “We want to continue to attract the best people to Google.” Mr. Schmidt wrote that company surveys indicate salary is more important to Google employees than any other component of pay, such as bonuses or equity. He added the company was moving a portion of employee's bonuses into their base salaries, so they would receive some of it in every paycheck. So, here's the deal HR Pros – 99.9% of you will disagree with this, because you don't get it – or at least you've been trained not to get it – because for the most part HR people don't get paid very well. So, you buy into this notion that “happiness” in your job has nothing to do with pay – or the amount of pay you get.  I hear you: “It's about my feelings, and how I'm treated and getting to bring my dog to work!” “It's about challenging work, and feeling like I'm valued and just getting a thank you for a job well done!” Yeah, right… I'm excited about what Google is doing – they finally get it – the company that everyone wants to go work for – free food, back rub Wednesdays, teeth whitening Tuesday – I mean is there anything Google hasn't tried to keep their employees happy?! Oh, yeah, wait – just one – MORE MONEY!  Actually taking a stance to be the industry leader on the pay side.  For as much as we like to believe our cultures rock and people won't leave us – it just isn't always true.  What happens if your competitors' culture rocks too?  I know it's hard to imagine that one other company in the world might have a culture similar to, or better than, your own – but it happens. Now, for those who believe money doesn't buy happiness… let's see. How do I say this so I don't hurt any feelings – you're idiots. Plain and simple.  The only time money doesn't buy happiness is on the Hallmark movie of the week.  There is definitely a point where money won't buy – more – happiness, but not having money is not a happy time.  I'll give you the fact that once you get into the large six figures, the happiness meter probably flattens out significantly. What's $600,000 versus $800,000, right? Same difference. There is one thing that Google did wrong though. They gave everyone more money.  Everyone didn't need to receive more money – only the people they wanted to keep needed more money. I'm pretty sure that with 23,000 employees, there were probably a few taking a little too much free food and back rubs, who Google might be better off without!  Giving a 10% raise to everyone is the same as giving a $1 million bonus to all. It makes everyone the same – and your best performers don't want to be treated the same – they want to be treated better. They want $2 million in bonus instead of the $1 million. So, Google. I like the effort – keep working at it. And don't worry… I'm sure you'll get another crack at giving your employees more money to keep them around… ditor's Note : Tim Sackett, SPHR is the EVP of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better. He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side – so he gets it from both sides of the desk. Want more?  Um, OK… He has a Masters of HR and….well, he was recently voted #5 best assistant little league coach of his son’s five team league. 

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Tags: article, audacious ideas, Industry Chat, Ramps, result, street, talented, tim sackett

Facebook under attack????

I find it a little strange that only 1.5 months after facebook is announced as the most popular internet site in the world (even receiving more hits than google), that it becomes the center point for a media campaign in which apparent users are infuriated about it’s privacy policies and general lack of security. What I find ironic about this is that nothing has actually changed with facebook, other than it’s amazing ranking.

Is facebook under attack because of it’s incredible success or is it under attack because of the issues the media is farming out as “new found concerns”?

What bothers me about this whole issue is this. Obviously, someone, somewhere with lots and lots of power is pissed with facebook and I can’t help but wonder, is this because they arn’t playing by someone’s rules. So, the next logical conclusion is, if they are under attack for this reason, then those who are not under attack and have managed to remain under the media spotlight, must be doing something that keeps them safe. Whatever that is, I hate to think.

Tags: article, based, decide, Email, facebook, friend, groan, notifications, people, whats

Atlassian32 – the story (and lessons) so far

In August 2009 I blogged about the innovative recruitment campaign of Australian software company, Atlassian. This campaign invited open slather recruitment agency participation … with a catch. The Atlassian32 campaign was launched with the purpose of hiring 32 software engineers for their Sydney head office. After I posted the article on my blog 39 people commented on the article, easily the

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Atlassian32 – the story (and lessons) so far

Tags: article, atlassian, australian, innovative, purpose, Recruitment Agencies, sydney, the-article

Prices Aren’t the Only Thing Dropping At Walmart…

If you're male and employed at Walmart, the prices aren't the only thing dropping – so might your salary! Oh wait, you saw the news about the class action law suit by current and former Walmart female employees claiming they are/were not getting paid the same as men and not getting promotions ( here ) – and you just assumed that Walmart would raise the salaries of female employees – to ensure no disparity was happening, right? Look – you can't keep dropping prices by raising salaries! (Or call marketing and change the ad campaign – “Raising Salaries to Keep Us Out of Lawsuits” just doesn't have the same catching run-on-in-and-buy-cheap-stuff ring to it!)  Wouldn't it be just as easy, and justified, to just drop the salaries of their male employees, rather than raise the salaries of their female employees?  Raising salaries is easy – ask any true compensation professional – they really only have two decisions to make each year – do we raise or do we stay the same – no one ever goes backwards.  It would take a true compensation genius to come to the table and say “Hey, let's get rid of this pesky 'we don't pay women enough' and just start paying the men less, to match the salaries of the women”  – now that would be music to any CFO's ears! I know, I can hear you scoffing – but you're naive if you think that conversation hasn't happened behind many closed conference room doors – but somewhere in there, that lone HR Pro's voice is heard and common sense prevails. From the article: The workers bringing suit also say women make up more than 70% of Wal-Mart's hourly workforce but in the past decade made up less than one-third of its store management. “We do not believe the claims alleged by the six individuals who brought this suit are representative of the experiences of our female associates,” Walmart executive vice president Jeff Gearhart said in a statement Monday. “Walmart is an excellent place for women to work and fosters female leadership among our associates and in the larger business world,” he added. Here's my take on this whole Walmart issue.  I've been around a bit, and I've been around the retail industry, so what Walmart is facing is no different than the industry in general.  The numbers are all about the same, 70% of workforce is female, and only about 30% of management is female.  By the way, the restaurant industry is almost the same as well.  And, by the way, many of the companies in these industries have pay discrepancy issues between males and females. So, is Walmart (and all those companies) breaking the law?  I'll let the courts decide, but let me say a couple of things that the class action attorneys don't want you to know: When finding a pool of candidates for manager in both retail and restaurant industries – in a workforce pool of 70% female, 30% male – in the good old United States of America – a greater percentage of men will show interest in those positions than females. Why? That's a completely other blog post – or series of posts – but suffice it to say that the confrontation that comes with supervisory positions seem to be more attractive to males. When I completed by master's thesis on women in management, from data of a major retailer, I witnessed pay disparity amongst males and females in the same managerial level positions – similar to the Walmart example. But as we dug into the data, we found that overall years of experience and education to be greater on average amongst the males. When we corrected for same experience level, same education – we found no difference in pay.  Again – I'm not saying this is Walmart's issue – I'm saying this is what I personally found, and have seen in my experience as an HR pro. It's easy to call Walmart a bad employer, believe me they've gotten in their own way a time or two to deserve this reputation… but I truly believe there are some talented HR Pros over at Walmart who don't want to see these kinds of things happening.  I've also been around enough to know when employees smell blood in the water and see a quick payday – class action becomes all the rage.  Judge for yourself, but do it with an educated mind that involves facts. Last note? Pay disparity has been around too long unfortunately, and it will take some courageous comp pros to end it and not allow executives to continue these practices. Editor's Note :  Tim Sackett, SPHR is the EVP of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better. He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side – so he gets it from both sides of the desk. Want more?  Um, OK… He has a Masters of HR and….well, he was recently voted #5 best assistant little league coach of his son’s five team league.

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Prices Aren’t the Only Thing Dropping At Walmart…

Tags: america, article, compensation, confrontation, data, eeo, Executive, industry, leadership, over-at-walmart, reputation, Retail, salary, salary caps

JobsBlog Rewind: Five ways to fail my phone interview

This article was originally posted in January 2009 and continues to be one of our most read pieces. Understanding that every recruiter conducts initial candidate screens differently, I wanted to share some of the themes that come up with candidates I don’t end up moving forward with. JobsBlog has lots of great tips for ways to improve your phone screen , but here are some things to avoid. Be Cognizant of Time – Most phone screens are budgeted for 30-45 minutes, which means there’s an opportunity to cover several topics at a high level or one to two in deep detail. I’ve always felt two minutes should be enough time to give a complete answer about your experience (granted, specific technical problems might take longer to solve). In any case, it makes sense to be aware of how long you take to answer a question. If more depth is needed, a recruiter will not be shy about asking you to expand! Selling vs. Answering – I’m very interested in how your past experiences have prepared you for my open role, however, I ‘m not expecting you have 100 percent of what we’re looking for (in that case, you’d be overqualified). I love candidates who are willing to identify areas where they need development. What I don’t like is having someone steer the conversation in another direction to manage around an area of weakness. Masking a product’s flaws can work in sales, but I’m not looking to be sold, rather to get an accurate view of your experience. Me not We – Teamwork and leadership are very important qualities to us, however it’s critical to differentiate ownership and participation. In a lot of my phone screens, I hear candidates say we more than I. Instead of describing solely what the team accomplished, it’s important to show what you delivered (or led) that helped the group accomplish its goals. Showing ownership helps me figure out if the depth and breadth of your contributions are appropriate for the work we are thinking of having you do. Abstract vs. Concrete – The quickest way to fail a “Tell me about a time when…” question is to give me a “Here’s what I would do in that situation…” answer. When I’m asking for specific examples, it’s best to not answer hypothetically. If being asked to describe a situation you’ve never handled, let me know and I’ll pick a different question! So, How’d I do? – While I’m comfortable sharing feedback about where your skills and experience match up, the truth is I don’t always know if I am moving forward with someone until I write up my notes, reflect more on the job description and discuss with the hiring manager. In any case, I make a point to set expectations with candidates on the timing of next steps. To be honest, I get really bummed when the only question a candidate has for me is “How’d I do?” As I said at the beginning, it’s important to remember that every recruiter has different hot buttons. I just wanted to share a few common mistakes that can derail one of my phone interviews. I’m sure this list will spark some debate and I’d love to hear what you think! -Matt

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JobsBlog Rewind: Five ways to fail my phone interview

Tags: article, complete-answer, contributions, conversation, experience, microsoft, moving-forward, phone, phone-screens, very-interested, work

Why PSAs suck. Compelling reading from Ross Clennett.

If you haven’t read Ross Clennett’s latest blog post titled ” Why PSAs Suck ” then you should.   As anyone who has sent us a tender document will know, I share Ross’s view when it comes to software tenders for most of the same reasons. Here is a snippet Like 40% of marriages, manyother PSAs start out the same way – full of promise, high spirits and hugeexpectations and sadly, end up the same way as those marriages – desperatelydisappointing, sometimes humiliating and always costly. Click here to read the article

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Why PSAs suck. Compelling reading from Ross Clennett.

Tags: article, clennett, high-spirits, industry news, psas, start-out, tender-document, the-same, tips and tricks, will-know

Would You Work With Tiger Woods?

There has been so much media attention around Tiger coming back to professional golf to play in the Master's this week.  Most of the attention is on whether or not his wife will be there, how Tiger will handle the pressure of media crush, or what the reaction from the fans will be like…  What I have found most interesting though was a small article from Comcast Sports, Finding the 2 Players in Tiger's group at Augusta that delved into those other professional golfers who must now play side-by-side with Tiger in his first tournament since his scandal. From the article: How will they decide who plays with Woods? “With great care,'' said Colin Montgomerie, who is not eligible for the Masters this year. “You'd almost have to ask for volunteers. There's a number of players that will be looking at the draw sheet – I believe it comes out on Tuesday afternoon – and will be delighted if they are not playing with Tiger on this occasion.'' So who gets him? Perhaps the better question is who wants him? “I would say it would be a tough pairing, to tell you the truth,'' said 49-year-old Kenny Perry, who lost in a playoff last year. “I'm old enough to maybe handle that. Maybe you need some hillbilly like me to do that. But it will be different, because I'm sure the players will be focused on Augusta, yet focused on what's going on with him and paying attention to what he's doing out there.'' This begs an interesting question: Would You Want to Work side-by-side with a Tiger Woods?  Not the Tiger Woods you loved 6 months ago and would have paid big to play a round of golf with, but the Tiger Woods right now in all of this glory misery.  I personally know guys who have waited hours standing around a golf green at a tournament just to get a chance to see Tiger take a putt.  But now they would be ridiculed to do the same thing.  Did Tiger get worse at golf?  Did grown men really view Tiger as their hero?  I personally like American sports heroes best when they are down – after testing positive for drugs, on the way to jail after being arrested for hitting their spouse, after being pulled over with 400 pounds of pot in the trunk of their car.  This is when we really get to see our heroes in real life – the ESPN interview and Barbara Walters specials don't tell us anything we didn't know – I want to know the athlete when they're face down on the hood of the car getting cuffed, or ducking to miss getting hit by his wife swinging a 7-iron at his head. That's real life – and that's the Tiger I want to know. And what about in your work environment?  It's happened – Ted in Accounting has an affair with Mary in Marketing, and can you believe it – Ted's wife was pregnant at the time, and Mary's son is disabled – and how could they do this!?!?  Organizationally, Ted is a superstar and Mary has 2-times next level potential and pedigree – they're in their own right, bonafide company rock stars.  Two consenting adults, didn't work in the same department, wasn't a supervisory relationship, really had nothing to do with business – except it has everything to do with business now – because everyone knows and no one wants to work or interact with either of them. So, what's a HR pro to do? Unfortunately, it's sticky, but it's also too common in our organizations.  If it's not infidelity, it's DUI's, or bankruptcy, or other domestic issues, and HR is the one that has to get everyone to play well with each other the day after.  These are the challenging moments that will test your resolve and many times your character and values as a HR Pro.  There is no perfect answer on how to handle these issues because each one is issue specific, organizational specific and talent specific (don't kid yourself – it's much harder to cut a rock star than a bottom-feeder – and I'll bet if you can say you would treat everyone the same – you haven't faced this type of issue yet – because Executives don't view all your employees the same!). Regardless of how you solve this issue – promise me one thing – don't take the easy way out and hand them the EAP card!   Your organization expects more than that. Editor's Note :  Tim Sackett, SPHR is the EVP of HRU Technical Resources in Lansing, MI. Tim loves everything talent acquisition and believes every corporate recruitment department in America can and must get better. He has 15+ years of human resource leadership experience, across multiple industries, on both the corporate and agency side – so he gets it from both sides of the desk. Want more?  Um, OK… He has a Masters of HR and….well, he was recently voted #5 best assistant little league coach of his son’s five team league.

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Would You Work With Tiger Woods?

Tags: accounting, america, article, athlete, attention, barbara-walters, employee relations, Executive, organizations, sports, tiger, wife, work