It’s not personal. It’s just business. Except for when it’s personal…

Repeat after me HR folks, “TERMINATING EMPLOYEES IS PERSONAL.”   I hate it when you guys think otherwise.  If someone no longer works for your company, it has personally affected that person and their family. We sold part of our company last week to another company.  We used to be a mega semi-truck and car dealership.  Now we're focused on cars and buying more car franchises to become a super duper mega car dealership (I don't know if that's the exact industry phrase for a major player). You can't sell people (I think there are laws against that sort of thing), but during this asset sale, the people were all welcome to continue on with the new company, thankfully, and no one lost their job.  This was a welcome change from the situation in 2009 that required me to terminate 80 people in two days, and they had no jobs to go to. But even when people get to keep their jobs, and they just work for a new guy, there is still a certain amount of sadness.  Some of these people had worked for us for over 30 years.  And what's worse is they keep asking, “Why did you sell us?”  Well, again, we didn't sell you, we sold the assets.  But I “get” how they're feeling.  Betrayed.   I want this new company to do well and treat our people the way we treat people.  The right way.  So in order to help them suddenly more than double their size, and because they do not have things like an HR department, I have spent a lot of time giving them whatever information they need. Pay plans?  Check. Benefit plans?  Check. Vacation accruals?  Check. Wonderlic scores?  Check. DISC profiles?  Check. Our employee handbook?  Check. All the new hire forms they need for Ohio?  Check. Information about the best local vendors?  Check. We even went as far as keeping them on our health insurance through December 31st since they had already probably met their annual deductibles.  It was the right thing to do. But that's the whole point; you HAVE to exit people out of your company the right way.  You owe it to those employees and to your reputation.  Take time to write each person a letter explaining what is happening (I personalize the first paragraph to each individual).  Make sure your owner is visible through the process.  And communicate openly with the employees. And this HR-y thinking that you cannot tell people what is happening because they cannot handle the truth… is B.S.   TELL people the truth as you can.  Don't lie.  And address any rumors.  We are all adults. This was the one thing we did wrong.  We didn't address the rumors about the sale.  Word was on the street for two months that we were selling the semi-truck division, and we acted like we didn't know what was going on.  We didn't want anything to leak out and screw up the deal.  Well, duh.  It was already leaked somehow to everyone else in the truck dealership community.  We should have addressed our employees' concerns sooner and at least told them we were considering selling the assets (even if that does come with fear that they'll all quit and go work somewhere else).  So as the economy bounces back, and we start to buy and sell each other's assets, let's try to be more human HR people.  We are supposed to like people.  So let's do our best by them on their way out of our companies and help them feel comfortable with the new company (or help them apply to other companies if they don't like the new company).  How you treat people on their way out is just as important, if not more important, than how you treat them on their way in.  It's what your reputation on an HR practitioner is built upon.  People judge you by how you react under pressure.  So don't clam up.  This isn't the time for you to sit on your hands and ignore people. I should know, I've personally mass exited about 150 employees over the past few years. Editor's Note -  Meredith Soleau is an HR pro out of Toledo. An HR pro for an automobile dealership in Toledo. An HR pro for an automobile dealership in Toledo which happens to have more restaurants and bars per capita than any other city in the United States which makes her an HR pro for an automobile dealership in a town full of foodies and drunks which she counts as her talent pool and employee population. Which really just means that the stories about their holiday parties must be really, really good. But more than likely, the best stories include Meredith herself because  life's one crazy joke …  

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Tags: car, career paths, dealership, employee communications, employee relations, employees, Industry Chat, meredith soleau, outplacement, result, semi, terminating, truck

Subtle Signals of Disengagement – The “Out of Office” Email…

Is there anything more self-serving and ridiculous than an “out of office” email reply?  You send a message to someone and within two seconds a message hits your inbox that says something along the lines of… “I am out of the office with limited access to email.  If your message is important please contact May Jo Doesn’tCareAboutYourProblem in the Department of No Action .  I will be back in two days and will respond to your email then (maybe.)” “Limited access to email.”  Really?  (McDonalds has FREE wifi at 11,500 locations.) “If it is important – (I’m too lazy to forward these things automatically so…) you do the work (not me) and resend your email to someone else.” Really? ( link to how to forward emails here .) We Are Connected The research shows we’re a nation of phone users ( over 880 million subscriptions in North America ) and 35 percent of American adults have a smartphone – ¼ of which them use it as their primary access to the internet (I’m making a leap here and saying that includes email as well- but that wasn’t mentioned specifically in the research.) In other words – between cell phone access and McDonalds – there is no “out of office.”  Unless you’re climbing mountains in Machu Picchu or you’re on a 24 hour plane ride you are “in” the office. There is no out of office any more.  There is a “not working during these hours” option – say 11:00 pm until 7:00 am – sleep is still part of the human condition.  But there is no “out of office.” Out of Office=Disengagement To me the “out of office” message is just an acceptable way to say… “I really could care less about my job or the outcomes of the organization so I’m going to find the easiest way to absolve myself from responsibility by using the 21 st century version of the dog ate my homework, and tell you I can’t get email.  Even though I could, with a little effort, I’m not going to, because I don’t really want to solve your problem or do my job for the next few hours/days/weeks.” Yup… out of office message is a mini-vacation from responsibility.  It’s a way of getting out of work without looking like a laggard.  And I firmly believe anyone who uses it is disengaged. Why Out of Office Isn’t Needed Why I think you should abandon out of office messages… It is rare someone will be in a position where email communication matters and not have an email enabled phone.  Rare hell… I’ll bet it is a certainty in today’s world.  Get, and answer, your email on your phone; even if it is a quick message saying you’ll handle it. .  It is rare that someone would be unconnected to a cell phone signal for longer than say – 4 hours. Coast to coast flights are a reality so you may be out of cell range.    But if you have a laptop and are on a plane with an internet connection then bill the access fee to your expense account (you know you expense the headsets to watch cleaned up versions of “The Santa Clause” right?) and get to work checking emails.  Your plane seat is probably as comfortable as your office chair.   If you are out of cell range and you don’t have a laptop or a plane with internet you still don’t get a pass… see #3 below… .  If you really are going to be away from email for an extended period of time then AUTOMATICALLY forward emails to specific people in your office responsible for handling your business while you’re out of the office.  Don’t make me send two emails.  Let the system handle the logic.   If you’re on your honeymoon then get with your team and make sure they know what’s going on and then tell IT (or learn to do it yourself – it ain’t that hard) to set up temp forwarding rules so messages go to specific people.  You can do this with certain keywords or other criteria in the message or from the sender – i.e.:  From BIG CLIENT X – route that to your boss no?  This could be embarrassing if you have a lot of personal stuff routed to your work email – but even then you can probably filter your “special” emails about the little blue pills to go to a personal folder. .  Eliminate “out of office” email responses.  It is a loophole in the system and needs to be shut down.  Every time I get an out of office email I think – “that person really doesn’t care about their job.”  Is it just me – or am I channeling Andy Rooney here?  And oh yeah, GET OFF MY DAMN LAWN! Editor's Note - 

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Tags: employee relations, employees, engagement, hr (& life!) advice, inbox, Industry Chat, Mcdonalds, paul hebert, result, Wifi, work life balance

Abercrombie & Fitch – Tough “Situation” – Buh-bye Jersey Shore

A&F gots no love for the “Situation” – or pretty much anyone on the show “Jersey Shore.” FTR – I have never watched – and do not ever plan to watch “Jersey Shore” – unless, of course, it is part of some sort of “A Clockwork Orange” behavioral modification program.  But…I do peruse the interwebs and watch “The Soup” on the E! Channel, so I’m somewhat familiar with the “concept.” According to a Reuters’ article : “The preppy retailer has offered to pay cast members from MTV's popular show 'Jersey Shore' to stop wearing its clothes, it said in a news release late Tuesday. The company is 'deeply concerned' that Michael “The Situation” Sorrentino 'could cause significant damage' to the brand's 'aspirational nature.' ” Ya think? Some speculate it’s a publicity stunt since this is coming from a company that previously sold T-shirts emblazoned with the wording “The Fitchuation.” But, A&F wants to move into Europe, and they are concerned their association with the Jersey crowd could cause problems in that market.  (What does it say about us here in the USA – they weren’t concerned about us where they?) I’m not convinced it’s not a stunt but it did start me thinking about HR.  Weirdness I know. Who’s Your “Situation?” Every company has one – or two or three – people who bring home the bacon, make the donuts – whatever – and have a personality or style that is contrary to the business value and brand.  I’ve been at too many companies that ignore the “situation” and just let things go as long as the money tree is bearing fruit.  Just like A&F – it’s fine as long as it’s making dough (can you tell I’m hungry as I write this?) But it will end.  There will be a day when the amount of fruit harvested can’t make up for the amount of toxins being spewed back into the organization.  Like A&F – there will be a time when the benefits of having someone like the “Situation” connected to your brand are outweighed by the costs and the risks.  So… you can pay for it now or pay for it later.  In A&F’s case – they could have distanced themselves from the cast early on (and risked losing some dough from the association in the US market) – or they can pay them now – to NOT wear the clothes to keep their losses to a minimum in Europe.  In either case, they are paying. From an HR perspective – allowing these kinds of bad folks, toxic behaviors, etc., never plays out well.  The costs are too high.  While at the time you may think the baddies are a revenue positive “situation” – the reality is they will always be profit negative – from toxic sales people bringing in problem clients to horrible managers increasing turnover to poor employees creating bad relationships with vendors.  Wherever these people are – they never, read that again, never add long-term value.  Never. They always take more than they leave behind when they’re gone.  This is one of the reasons people come to HR and say “We have a situation we have to deal with.”   Editor's Note -  Paul Hebert is the Managing Director for  i2i  (an influence consultancy), the brain behind  Incentive Intelligence  and a recognized authority on incentives and performance motivation. Want to know what's going to motivate your people to perform at their best and impact the bottom line? Want to know whether your service award program really means anything at all? And are there psychological principles that drive your employees behavior? Paul's your guy… unless you fervently bow down to Maslow.

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Tags: abercrombie & fitch, bad hr, culture, employee relations, employees, Industry Chat, Jersey Shore, michael sorrentino, paul hebert, performance management

telecommuting

I’ve noticed that heaps of companies are still very, very reluctant to even consider telecommuting! Yet I dont understand why? In Europe and many other countries telecommuting is considered a normal method of engaging an employee, and yet here in Australia, it is still something that is considered a non-preferred engagement model.

Yet we have no problems outsourcing entire call centers and development centers to foreign countries. We have the tools now to provide employees with remote work capability and yet we are slow to take it up. Even the top performing technical companies in Australia refuse to implement it. Why? Does anyone see this changing? What’s the reason?

Tags: australia, centers, companies, considered, Countries, employees, provide, reason, remote, telecommuting

Buckmaster Hawkey

Buckmaster Hawkey Welcome to Buckmaster Hawkey Victoria Property and Real Estate Recruitment Specialists nbsp nbsp nbsp nbsp Buckmaster Hawkey Victoria is a recruitment consultancy that helps real estate and property industry employers source the best available employees for their organisation More about us …We welcome you to use the navigation bar on the left to explore our site nbsp nbsp

Tags: available, buckmaster, consultancy, employees, employers, estate, explore, hawkey, helps, industry, navigation, organisation, property, Recruitment Agencies, source, specialists, victoria, welcome

Icon Recruitment

Icon Recruitment Icon IT Recruitment Australia Canberra Adelaide Melbourne Sydney Brisbane Icon Recruitment Adecco World HomeWebTimeOnline Centre Homejob searchour servicesabout Iconcontact us bckTop,brdCrmb,shrBtn&nbsp Oh no You have JavaScript disabled or blocked on this page Please enable it so you can use the full functionality of the Adecco website job search Keywords Location Classification Work Type Advanced Search job seekers Find a job Improve your resume Contact a career specialist Interview guides jobs in your city Melbourne Sydney Brisbane Gold Coast Adelaide Canberra Perth Darwin Hobart our services Find quality employees Contact a recruitment specialist Learn about our business Our industry expertise office locations Adelaide Brisbane Canberra Melbourne Perth Sydney nbsp nbsp #169 2010 IconAdeccoAjilonGlotelHyphenJonathan WrenJudd FarrisLee Hecht HarrisonTADSitemapPrivacy Statement

Tags: ACT, adecco, adelaide, australia, bcktopbrdcrmbshrbtnnbsp, brisbane, business, career, coast, contact, darwin, disabled, employees, expertise, farrislee, guides, harrisontadsitemapprivacy, hecht, Hobart, homewebtimeonline, iconadeccoajilonglotelhyphenjonathan, iconcontact, industry, interview, javascript, learn, locations, melbourne, office, perth, quality, Recruitment Agencies, search, searchour, servicesabout, specialist, statement, sydney, world, wrenjudd

SANSEGO: The Job Lottery

What a huge difference loving a job has on one’s psyche! Also yesterday at work, there were several interviews with people for the open position due to the co-worker’s unexpected passing. At lunch, I had asked the human resources lady how many … And the hiring process defied everything I heard people ( job seekers and the government employees at the state employment office) say: December is the worst month to find a job ; its easier to find a job when you have a job ; …

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SANSEGO: The Job Lottery

Tags: employees, employment, hiring, human, Industry Chat, job, lunch, office, open, position, process, Psyche, result, worker

LinkedIn is banned

I’ve just come across a large company that has banned LinkedIn profiles from all it’s staff. I know this is something that has been a long time coming but I was very much surprised when they told me.

Makes sense but is it legal?

Tags: ability, actually, business, companies, company, Company Profiles, details, employees, iphone, Large Company, linkedin, little, Long Time, names, people, power, profile, profiles, projects, staff, terms, thing

Increase Employee Engagement. Give Up Your Office.

Steve Church said it best: “If you help employees fix broken processes, you'll gain employee engagement”. Not only is this quote spot on, but it brings me to my favorite 'HR People Make Me Crazy' rant.  How HR Tries To Increase Engagement: First, they have an ah-ha moment where they realize the key to employee engagement is understanding employees challenges, removing barriers, and fixing broken processes. Second, a survey is created, distributed, and analyzed. New policies are created based on those surveys (which captured 2% of what employees  really wanted to say), and HR sits around wondering why their engagement scores haven't gone up. I/O folks, deep breathing will help clear the anger you're feeling right now. Before you attack my seeming distrust of surveys, just know that I'm actually a huge fan and use engagement surveys often. HOWEVER, that survey can only give me a high level pulse on how my organization is doing. Increasing engagement is more than looking for high level trends throughout the organization and creating policies to fix them. It's about understanding individual teams and divisions. More importantly, it's about finding ways to understand individual employees.   How HR Should Increase Engagement:   Engagement goes up when employees feel they have someone to turn to who can help them fix what is broken in their lives. To increase engagement you need  to be the type of HR person who employees feel comfortable opening up to, the kind of HR person employees want to open up to. If you are serious about increasing employee engagement, there is an easy place to start. Stop thinking that because you're HR, you need to have your own office. Literally, my blood boils when HR people try to defend this need. I'm sure some of you are thinking. “But… “…I have private conversations all the time and need a space where I can close a door”. Does your company have conference rooms? When someone needs to have a private conversation with you, go into one of them. Also, tell me that you never close the door just to block out whatever is going on outside your office. A door (even when it's open) is a barrier that takes a little bit of guts for an employee to walk through. It can even be a little bit scary, like going to the principal's office. Building engagement is about being so easily accessible to employees that you are literally in the path of their frustrations when they need to get it all out. “…if others see us walking into the conference room they'll assume that employee is in trouble.” That means you're the HR person people only see when you're carrying a pink slip in your hand (and I hate that for you). Maybe you need to pull employees into conference rooms more often just to tell them you've heard good things about their work, or simply to ask them what you can do to make their lives easier. If 80% of your private conversations with employees are positive, then when you have to have a negative one, no one on the outside will know the difference. You Don't Really Need That Office I can't stand HR people who think they have to have an office to get their job done, because they are the reason our industry has gotten so far away from the one thing that started our profession in the first place - being a resource for our employees. Some of my most enlightening years in HR happened when I was sitting smack in the middle of a sea of cubicles. I knew when someone hit a milestone, I knew the company gossip, I knew which managers rocked and which ones failed, and most importantly, I knew which processes were broken and I was able to help employees fix them. I will never accept an office again and I will always be the HR person who knows which process to fix. Are you willing to join me? Editor's Note – When it comes to her professional life, Marisa Keegan is passionate about three things; employee engagement, employee advocacy, and corporate culture. Her goal is to help business leaders understand the importance of giving their employees a voice.   Since leaving her position as Culture Maven at Rackspace, she has joined Modea, a digital services agency, and is helping them shape their Talent Management Strategy. Need help understanding what it takes to build a great corporate culture and to truly give your employees a voice? She’s the person you need to talk to.

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Increase Employee Engagement. Give Up Your Office.

Tags: audacious ideas, church, culture, employee relations, employees, frustrations, industry, lives, marisa keegan, organization, people, person, professional, work

Another Freelance Marketplace Bites the Dust — Elance Work View …

If Elance wants to guarantee payments and monitor work, then they should be operating as an employment agency where workers are their employees and they handle fee collection and payouts. ….. I don’t really care what types of jobs other people take. What makes me “judge” someone is more when they either do something that is going affect me and other freelancers or even worse when they try to thrust lousy information on new freelancers who don’t yet know they’re full of …

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Another Freelance Marketplace Bites the Dust — Elance Work View …

Tags: employees, fee-collection, freelancers, going-affect, new-freelancers, other-people, people, thrust-lousy

If They Don’t Fit – Get Rid of Them

Here's what kills me: When a person manages to get a job in an area where they are technically capable but socially inept. Let me explain. For the past several months, a family member of mine has been sick, and we have had almost daily visits to the doctor's office.

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If They Don’t Fit – Get Rid of Them

Tags: culture, customers, employees, interviewing, marisa keegan, person, personalities, position, professional, robert-francis, theory, time, work

Blog post: How engaged are your employees?

How many organisations’ employees are so engaged that they would give everything into every single transaction they perform? How many managers would still provide a stand ovation to their employees for a fantastic job, even if there were a few hiccups along the way?

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Blog post: How engaged are your employees?

Tags: along-the-way, employees, fantastic-job, few-hiccups, single-transaction, stand-ovation, their-employees

Flexible work practices – implemented, but not promoted

Almost nine in ten employers in Australia and New Zealand have established flexible work practices, but many admit their employees are unaware of the benefits – and less than half are using them to attract new candidates, a Rubicor survey has found.

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Flexible work practices – implemented, but not promoted

Tags: attract-new, australia, benefits, employees, flexible-work, rubicor, ten-employers, the-benefits

Buntika Social Media Policy

So, you’ve realised that your employees are among the best resources to manage your online reputation but also potentially can damage your brand reputation if not guided correctly. What to do? Worry not, by answering twelve simple questions in sequence here at Policy Tool, http://socialmedia.policytool.net/ you will have a full and legally sound, company social media policy to circulate to employees in a matter of moments. Yay! Whats more, I got to make up a name for my make-believe company – Buntika – sounds like a fun place to work. Nice article at mashable on why your company should have a social media policy.

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Buntika Social Media Policy

Tags: among-the-best, drnf, employees, legally-sound, media-policy, online, policy-tool, sinead bunting, social media, your-employees

Blog post: On Defense and diamonds

Watch for the employees who attempt to or are able to respond with a level head to retorts by defensive employees. Watch for the ones who see through the bluster and who do not get into the muck. Take a look at those who take the high road…

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Blog post: On Defense and diamonds

Tags: bluster, employees, level-head, muck, see-through, take-the-high, the-bluster