Happy New Year...

...almost, anyway.

December has been an incredibly busy month for me, including a trip home to surprise my parents, which was a lot of fun, but consequently, my poor blog has been a bit neglected. Apologies to all.

It's just about the new year, which means it's time for hiring to ramp back up again (I hope) and we'll all get to see what the new year brings with it. In the meantime, I wanted to talk briefly about social media.

How many of you have a focus on social media within your company? Who looks after your social media presence? Is that a twitter feed, a facebook page, or something different, and what do you do with it?

Me, I think social media is incredibly important for any organization. I have a twitter feed that I update several times a day, and scan for interesting conversations or articles related to the practice of HR. I also have seen several complaints about customer service from various organizations, and you can clearly see who monitors social media sites for mentions of their organization and who does not. The most impressive organizations monitor and respond to queries or concerns regarding their services, and those that resolve issues that they see posted about on social media sites manage to get some devoted converts.

Other organizations who don't monitor or don't have an active presence (and sorry, a facebook page you created but never check or a twitter feed with all of 40 advertising-related tweets over the past two years doesn't really count, and may be worse than nothing) are, in my opinion, falling behind. Not just in terms of brand presence, either- social media, in one form or another, seems to be here to stay, and it is increasingly an effective method for sourcing job candidates.

So basically, if you aren't on there yet- why not?

Change and Complaining

If you've ever been in a position to spearhead or support major changes in your workplace, you'll have listened to a lot of complaints. We all know that change isn't easy, and we all know that change, even welcome change, often inspires comments and concerns. So how do you deal with those? How do you address these complaints?

First off, it is normal to complain about change. It's a truism out there in the business world that people hate change; I'm not convinced that it's true, but it's definitely normal to complain about it. It's also very important that you listen to the complaints.

Here's the thing. A complaint is one of the quickest ways to get feedback on your new changes- if you listen properly. Remember that the complaint is not necessarily telling you that your beloved new program or whatever is bad or wrong- the complaint is telling you about the problems other people are having with your changes. Don't take it personally, and don't think that you have to be right- if your first reaction to the complaint is to say, "yes, but..."make sure you stop yourself there! Look at the complaint again. What is it really about? Don't react as if the intention of the complainer is simply to be negative- he or she is trying to discuss an issue, and you need to take it seriously and react appropriately. Don't be defensive, and make sure you ask if there are any other issues you need to here about- this is the best time to get real, honest feedback about your changes! Once you have the lowdown on the issues, then you can try and come up with a solution, but if you're not listening, it ain't gonna happen.

I've been fortunate enough to see my current employer bring in some large scale changes in the past year. While I firmly believe that the changes are for the better, there has been a lot of resistance overall, and it's important to take that seriously. After all, when head office is implementing a total change in strategy and approach for jobs nobody there actually does, you have to expect that there will be some important messages in the feedback that you get from your staff who are working these positions. So bring it on, and encourage complaining.

The Job Hunt

I once again have to apologize for my lack of recent posts. Life's been fairly busy- for instance, outside of my usual work week, I had four interviews last week. It's been an interesting process. I have come into these interviews with a more critical eye, of course, after having learned so much about interviews and conducting my own. You can learn quite a bit based on the interviewer. I had the opportunity last week to interview with one of my targeted companies. They have an award-winning company culture, and working with the director of HR here in Calgary would be an exceptional opportunity.

Haven't heard back about that one yet. I think it would be a tremendous opportunity for both of us. I would be able to learn from one of the best about building excellent corporate cultures, and I could bring all of my considerable effort and abilities to support and build the success of the HR department and the company. I have a lot of knowledge, and a tremendous amount of eagerness to bring to the right role. I haven't found that right fit yet, and I know that it will be a long haul, because my experience is unconventional. So far I seem to be ending up as a lot of people's second choice, but as of yet, I haven't really missed out on an opportunity that I really wanted. I'm hoping that the best is yet to come, and I need to find that right fit, where I can bring all of my talent and abilities and really sink my teeth into a role.

Ultimately, I feel that the best approach for HR is to act in a customer service capacity. So that's been a focus of mine in my interviews, and I am looking for a role where I can fit in with the culture of HR in that way. There was one interview a while back where the interviewer, in explaining the format of the interview, explained what behavioral interviewing is and asked if I understood. While I was quick to assure the interviewer that I was familiar with the concept, it made me wonder what kind of candidates they've been seeing. Shouldn't anyone with any experience in HR and a moderately recent education be familiar with it?

The biggest problem that I am running into in the job hunt is in the area of experience. Some interviews consider me overqualified based primarily on my history of policy development, where others consider me underqualified because of my lack of experience in an HR department. So, I'm still looking for the right fit, overall. But I have hope that I will find the right fit for me soon.

What side is HR on, anyway?

As an HR professional, where do you place yourself, on the side of the employee or the employer? I know HR is mostly inclined to stay neutral, but that's not always possible. So where do you generally align yourself?

In any company, the job of the employee is to maximize value for the organization. HR is certainly no exception to that rule. However, how you go about generating that value differs. Obviously, circumstances must be judged individually, but on the whole, I would argue that the best way to add value is by generally operating on the side of the employee. I would argue that good HR errs on the side of the employee because that attitude will be perceptible to the employee, and help keep him or her engaged and productive. I would also argue that this is particularly sound policy here in Canada, where labour law as a whole tends to favour the employee anyway. This does not mean flouting policy in favour of every employee or bending the rules, but rather means navigating between the often conflicting demands of the employee and employer, and doing your best to fundamental equitable solution that works for everybody. Good policy should have some flexibility to it anyway, as unforeseen circumstances often arise.

What do you think?

Stress in the Workplace

I think most organizations these days at least pay lip service to the idea that stress at work is bad for productivity, but my question is, does that change anything?

A certain amount of stress at work is probably inevitable- one way or another, you are getting paid to perform, and there is a certain amount of stress involved in that. But what about other stressors, beyond the usual? Does your workplace walk the walk when it comes to stress reduction, and if so, what does that look like?

I've mostly experienced stress in my workplace due to staffing shortages. At one point, our normally eight person team with two managers was down to four and one. The one remaining manager was practically living on ibuprofen and tums, and the rest of us were doggedly trying to cover the basics before we burned out completely. Anyone who was working in Alberta in 2007 likely experienced something similar, but I think the worst part for everyone, and certainly for the manager, was the lack of corporate support. At a time when we were all running as hard as we could to stay in place, we were being told that our numbers were dropping and we needed to up them.

We were stressed, miserable, and being told everything we did wasn't good enough. It did nothing to improve our numbers that's for sure.

What have your experiences with stress been like?

HR And Customer Service

As I mentioned in my last post, computer time is in high demand at the moment, so this post is actually being composed via my Android smartphone's blogger app. Typos and typing speed are both an issue, and I have no idea if coding HTML works at all, so we'll see how things go.

I wanted to talk about HR and customer service. As those of you who follow this blog may know, my background is in retail and customer service. This background combined with my undergraduate work in anthropology concentrated a real interest in people. Of course, any customer service worker can tell you it ain't all it's cracked up to be, but.ultimately I enjoy helping people. It's also really obvious to the average frontline customer service employee that without them, your company goes nowhere. They represent your brand to the public everyday; good or bad, they are your branding in action. HR is as dependent on these frontline staff for our jobs as the salesperson is on his or her clients. Looking at other employees as your customers creates a service mentality on the part of HR is important. As much as the HR department is the representative of your organization's policies, doing your best to create an employee-centric environment, and provide the best service you can will increase employee satisfaction in the same way that good service increases customer satisfaction and contributes to organizational success.
I don't have any research to back this up, particularly while posting from my phone. This is just an opinion, because to me it seems like common sense. Agree? Disagree?

General Musings

First off, an apology for my lack of posting lately. Hubby is fully into his new program at school, and we are discovering the complications that come along with only owning one computer. A new laptop will be joining us shortly, and then I should have a little less competition for computer time, and will hopefully be posting a little more often again.

The job hunt continues for me, though it's been interesting in my current position as of late as well. It seems that the economy is heating back up here, and I'm interested to see what happens with corporate recruiting strategies as a result. The calgary area regional manager had scheduled six interviews for entry-level roles here yesterday, and only one candidate actually showed up to the interview, so it's starting to feel like 2007 all over again. Recessionary recruitment and compensation strategies are not going to cut it anymore, and some rethinking needs to start taking place again, I suspect.

My sister-in-law, who is 22, was talking at dinner the other day about the economy and job hunting. She grew up out here in Alberta, and the past couple of years was apparently a very new experience for her. Until about 2008, she was pretty accustomed to walking in the door with her resume and getting hired on the spot. This past summer, she was unemployed and job-hunting, and really struggled to find work for the first time in her career to date. She starting working part-time at 14, and never had any issues finding the kind of entry-level positions open to students, waitressing, etc. until recently. Apparently it was a bit of a schock to the system.

There's an economic indicator whose source escapes me at the moment that talks about the inverse correlation between the strength of the economy and the hotness of the waitresses in New York City. The Hot Waitress Index is suggested as a leading index of economic strength. Maybe I just don't eat out enough to notice it here in Calgary, but I am aware of one restaurant that uses the legally at best ill-advised hiring practice of requiring headshots from all prospective employees, and another high-end place that apparently makes it a practice of only hiring male waiters in their 30s. If the economy is really heating up here again, can we expect to see this change?

Starting things off on the right foot?

So it's been an interesting experience of late, what with the job hunt and all. I have been busily trying to find that perfect fit, and am presently waiting to hear on one very good prospect and keeping my eyes open to new opportunities. Finding the right fit is a tricky proposition, but I presently have the advantage of being already employed (even if I am somewhat underemployed) so I can wait for the right fit to come along. Yesterday, I got a call about a job that frankly turned me off completely. The hiring manager left a message for me to call, so I did. Once I got through, the very first question this person asked was what my salary expectations were. When I answered, I got offered an interview, so I guess my numbers were in the right range.

 But here's the thing. Don't get me wrong, salary numbers are important, but by asking that question first, it inevitably gives me the feeling that the only thing important to you is your salary range. Just based on that alone, I'm trying to decide whether to cancel my interview or not. I applied to this company six weeks ago, and the call was to my cell, so I didn't have access to the job description right away. That makes it hard for me to tell you what I expect for salary, especially since even with the job description, you don't always really know what will be expected to you. If this is something that is customarily asked right away, I'm not sure I want to work with your company anyway. And the fact that you instantly offered the interview after that makes me feel like I should have asked for more. So I'm reconsidering this interview altogether.

 What would you do?

The Candidate Experience

So far, since being back in Calgary, I've lined up three different interviews so far, with one coming up tomorrow and a couple last week. While the interviewing process is always kind of stressful, I've also found it interesting to see different people's interviewing processes.

Last week, I had two interviews with the same company for one position. The first interview was with the woman I would have been working directly under, and it went very well. I liked her, and the sounds of the position; it was a breakfast interview, very unstructured, but it gave me a feel for the company and for her, and I was eager to continue. The next stage in the process was to interview with someone else, via Skype, and I was told she would be in touch to set something up.

The breakfast meeting ended about 11:00, and I got an email very quickly after that form the other woman asking when I was available to speak to her. I replied, telling her I was free all day, and to let me know when would be a good time. I think my reply went out maybe an hour after she sent it, but I'm not sure. In any case, when I hadn't heard anything by 1:30, I sent another reply in case there had been some problem with the first email, because it had been sent from my phone, which was new, and I wanted to ensure I got this process going, as I was very excited. An hour later, I got a reply saying that she had gotten the first email as well, and that she would get back to me 'a bit later' with a time for that night.

I then didn't hear back from her until 7:30. At this point, I was already starting to wonder a bit about the job; I had just essentially spent my whole day waiting to hear from this woman, and she was now wanting to put it off until the next day, though she did leave it up to me to decide, and I asked if we could do it that night still, as I wasn't going to be available the next night. At this point, I was feeling like my time didn't really matter to this woman, and hoped that the interview might show me differently.

Based on the earlier interview, and with the knowledge that both of these women are HR pros, I was expecting to see a more structured interview in the second round, or to be asked to participate in some kind of behavioural assessment, but that didn't happen. Instead, the woman spoke mainly about herself and her position in the company, and when asking about me, actually stopped listening partway through and replied to something else on her screen! This was extremely apparent because we were talking via Skype on her laptop, and I saw her eyes move across the screen, and then heard the mic pick up the sound of her typing very loudly, while I was trying to answer a question about my career background.

Needless to say, the second interview did not go well.

I was very disappointed. By the end of the interview, I was strongly reconsidering even accepting the position if it was offered, and was also fairly sure it was not going to be offered to me. I don't know exactly how I came across in the second interview; I know I was very thrown off by the whole experience, and the first, positive interview was definitely overshadowed by the second. Chances are it wasn't my best interview, but I'm still wondering how much she even heard of what I had to say.

Ultimately, I was right; I wasn't offered the job. Frankly, that made things easier all around. While I admire and respect what the company does, I just couldn't get past my interview experience. I don't really want this blog post to come across as bitter, either; I have other options to explore, and I'm not really sure how good a fit I would have been there, anyway. After all, I'm not just trying to find a job, I'm trying to find the right job. So all in all, I don't regret it, I just think it was a good learning experience, and I'll move on to the next one.

My next interview is tomorrow. We'll see how that one goes. After all, the candidate is assessing you as much as you are assessing the candidate.

It's Moving Day!

Well, we're finally here. That means that hopefully I should be back to paying my poor neglected blog a little more attention from now on. Because it is moving day, though, this one's gonna be a pretty short post.

This whole move has been one of those experiences that just goes to show that things never go according to plan. First, our storage unit where our stuff was going to live for two weeks until we could move in was initially supposed to be part of a Uhaul one months' free storage deal. Upon our arrival, we found out that this particular storage place is not actually a part of that promotion, despite being featured as such on the website. This did not impress us much, although the folks at Lo Cost Mini Storage here in Calgary were totally awesome about it, and apologized, and only charged us two weeks storage instead of a month because they wanted to make us happier. I still wasn't impressed with Uhaul, because why list the storage as part of that promo if it isn't? However, what really annoyed us in this moving process was when we realized on the 30th that Uhaul had lost our reservation for a truck to do an in-town move. By this time, of course, there were no trucks available, either. Lo Cost Mini Storage came through for us again, though, and gave us a number to call. Got us a truck and three guys to help move stuff- more expensive that Uhaul would have been, but it got us moved on the right day, so we're gonna class that one as a win, and are again quite happy with Lo Cost for helping us out.

Of course, this morning, the truck got loaded no problem, but then we got to our building and the elevator was out. After an hour, we got it working, but that hour adds considerable extra cost to this whole process, so all in all, I'm glad we like the place we got, because I don't think we can afford to move again for a while!

So, if you need storage in Calgary, we recommend Lo Cost Mini Storage on Burbank Rd. They were very nice, and very helpful. So far the best part of the whole experience.

In Calgary

Well, we have arrived. Posting is likely to still be sporadic for a while though, since we're living out of duffel bags with friends until the 1st, so computer time is limited. Especially with two male gamers in the house.

The move itself went pretty smoothly, considering our rig of uhaul + car was 43 feet long (at least, according to BC Ferries, who charged us $279 one way on that basis.) I didn't drive. I let hubby handle that, and he did it well, though we both concluded that if we ever move back across the mountains in winter, like the first time, we will absolutely not be towing a vehicle ever again. But it is manageable in better weather.

I'm currently back in a sales role at my old location. It's kind of a blast from the past, to be honest, and I'm enjoying being back at it for a little while, though I suspect it will get old pretty fast. Looks like there's been some fairly major staffing issues going on there and they were totally delighted to have me back. I've been applying here and there to jobs, though I want to make sure that when I do move, it's to the right job, so it's been a pretty selective job hunt so far. I've got calls in to a couple of recruiters who were interested in my resume, and now it's a matter of finding the right job, so now the networking truly begins. Fun stuff.

Anyway, the computer is in high demand, so I am off for now. I'm keeping up a little better with Twitter, because I can tweet from my phone, and I look forward to getting back to the blog soon.

Blog Hiatus

Well, the move is upon us.

Technically, it's Tuesday. However, we're heading off to spend the weekend with my folks, as Dad's 60th birthday is on Monday, and we didn't want to miss that. Then it's off to Calgary. We don't get to move into our new place until September 1st, which means that internet access is going to be sporadic until a bit after that, so you probably won't see much of me until then.

Talk to you in September!

Wow! So I am having trouble keeping up to my blogging in the midst of all the chaos that is moving, wrapping up my job, etc. etc.

I managed to get one thing off my plate by hiring my replacement last week. And a brutal process it was, too. We got a lot of applications, which was fabulous; it seems that my redesigned job advertisement proved very effective, because we got just a pile of resumes. We narrowed it down to the top ten or so candidates, and began trying to schedule interviews- and then I got really sick. Some super nasty virus that just took me down for the count, and it was either reschedule 9 interviews with my boss and me, or suck it up and come in to work anyway- while amply supplied with kleenex and anti-bacterial sanitizer. So, I did the latter.

In the end, we conducted nine interviews and did settle on a candidate. She has less experience than me, but wage cost was a consideration, and my boss is willing to train. We'll see how it works out; I wasn't as blown away by her interview as my boss was, but I don't have to work with her on a permanent basis. For the next two weeks I'll be training her before I go, and we'll see what happens.

The structured interview that I set up worked rather well; the structure was set and the rubric was easy to use. Hopefully it works well for the future also.

Interviewing

So I've been settling into the routine of finding my replacement before I leave. I have one day next week with 7 interviews and counting, and it's been an interesting process, for sure. One thing I now know- my redesigned employment ad was quite effective in attracting interest, because the resumes are flooding in! Even in this somewhat questionable job market, I'm getting a lot more responses than anticipated. Many of them are not remotely qualified for the position, and are an easy rejection. A few of them have forgotten to include vital contact information, so they are also obviously a no-go, and a lot of them are reasonably qualified, at least as far as the resume is concerned. Then it is down to the interview process. It's up to me to design the interview. This was going to be a longer-term process, but it's been made considerably more urgent due to my move, so I've been in full-on research mode for a while now. I don't have the time or the resources to invest in a full-on study of interview effectiveness, so we're working with what we have, which is a basic structured interview format. I've updated and revised the questions, and generated a rubric for each interviewer to allow for easier scoring of answers. Each question is given a certain weighting, and at the end, candidates will be scored and avreaged in order to assign each candidate an overall score for the interview. This will hopefully minimize some of the bias issues you run into in an unstructured interview, and allow for easier selection overall. Of course, accuracy remains to be seen, but given the rate at which staff were coming and going before I came here, my hiring decisions (hopefully) can't be worse than what was already going on.

I don't think this is a perfect selection system, and it could certainly be improved, but time is severely limited, and I think this is the most workable system yet. There will be two of us performing the inital interview, myself and my immediate manager, and then shortlisted candidates will come back to see my manager and her direct reportable for a secondary interview. The final decision is not going to be up to me, which is only reasonable considering I won't be working here with him or her, but it's nice to have some input. And it's yet another thing to add to the ol' resume, so that's a plus.

In moving-related news, I think hubby and I have found our place to live. After dealing with a couple of questionable-seeming places, we found a cute little loft apartment a couple of blocks from the train line and close to downtown. Applications are in and now we wait, but we managed to get in there quickly and be the first to view the place since it came on the market, and got ourselves in right away. It feels a little odd to be trying to get a place neither of us has seen in person, but I trust my mother-in-law's jusdgement and photos, and we know the location well. Hopefully that's one more thing off the to-do list! Now I just need to find a job, although, truthfully, there are a couple of opportunities so far that I've been very excited with. Now I just have to be patient, and wait. Sigh.

The Search Continues... At Work, And At Home

It feels like all I'm doing right now is poring over advertisements. At home, my time is spent alternately between looking at job boards (not as effective as networking, maybe, but networking in another city becomes somewhat more limited before you get there, and you never know, right?) and looking at listings for condos. At work, I'm spending my time trying to find a replacement for me, so there, I'm poring over resumes. It's an interesting experience, being on both ends at once, and I find I've become a bit of a resume snob. (Oh, I would never write a cover letter like that, and just look at that formatting! My goodness.) It's also been an eye-opener in terms of what people actually don't know about resumes and cover-letters, and what I would consider common sense that, evidently, isn't. One lovely candidate called, and told me she had never heard of my company, as she is located in Seattle at present. She had all kinds of questions which could have easily been answered by a quick visit to the company website, which is linked on our ad. Then I wouldn't have had a twenty minute conversation with her about the basics of the company and the job, and would have felt distinctly less annoyed. Google also works wonders, on both sides of the border. While I don't mind answering questions about the job, if you can't even be bothered to look up what products my company sells, don't expecrt me to be too impressed. Another candidate assures me that my interviewing days are over, because she will land this job, and while I admire her determination, I question her assumption, particularly given that she misspelled my company's name. It suggests that her attention to detail is maybe not all it could be. I also truly despise cover letters that are clearly not targeted at all. If you aren't going to target your cover letter for the position you're applying to, why bother including it?

It makes me a bit paranoid about my own applications, as a matter of fact,which is probably all to the good. It also makes me consider the parallels between looking at condo listings and looking at resumes. In both cases, you are trying to determine potential fit, sight unseen; you hope that this next ad will prove to be the perfect candidate; you hope that your perfect candidate falls within your budget, and the next step is an in-person interview. In the case of the condos, though, that in-person interview is presently being deferred to my mother-in-law, since she happens to actually live in Calgary, and I'm very grateful to her for looking, but occasionally question her judgement. Such as when she called to tell us about the two bedroom unit she looked at last night that was, apparently, terribly dirty, smelly,very cramped, and possibly less than safe, and then pronounced it "very cute". I'm hoping that my current supervisor, who will be sitting in on interviews with me, doesn't go the same way, though at least, since I am hiring my own replacement, the hiring decision is more her problem than mine. I just have to find a clean condo, and a stellar employee.

Transparency and Transfers

In my experience, it is always a tricky thing to navigate the waters between leaving one job and starting another. It becomes trickier still when your position is as unusual as mine is.

I've spent a fair bit of my morning on the phone with various people, including my mentor at head office, trying to figure out the best plan for me in Calgary. Some of the news was possibly more encouraging than I had thought, as there may be a management position opening up, but it's not entirely clear yet. Otherwise, though, the only position open is a sales associate position, which is where I started with the company. I would still be able to perform some HR functions, but in a strictly limited capacity. Ultimately, then, this would really only be a temporary solution for me, and it would be taken largely for the consistency of a paycheque coming in and a job to walk into while I looked for something else. Since I have no desire to burn any bridges with this company, I could only accept that kind of a position on the condition that everyone understand that my intentions are only to stay temporarily. If there is a management position available, though, that I would certainly look into taking, as a gateway to a permanent HR management position. So I'm still trying to sort out the possibilities.

The other thing to consider is that I did get a call the other day from a recruiter based in Calgary. She actually was interested in getting me to work for her, as opposed to a job placement. I hadn't considered a career as a recruiter before, but she felt that my sales background combined with my HR experience would make it a good match. I'm certainly not opposed to the idea, but my fiscally conservative little soul is not sure how to feel about being the only income for our household and working on a comission basis. My sales numbers in other positions have always been very good, and I think I would do well as a recruiter, just that the idea of a variable income makes me a touch nervous. Ultimately, since the recruiter was hoping to have someone start before I am available, it may be a moot point. She did. however, also mention that with my combination of skills and experience, that she would be able to place me very easily. Her office does contract positions as well as permanent ones, and they place administrative positions, so I am going to give her a call once we arrive in Calgary and see what's available.

In talking to my mentor today, he once again advised me that my best career move is probably to leave the company for now. There is not going to be an HR management position for at least a couple of years, and I am going to be tied to Calgary for at least that long while my hubby finishes school anyway, so the long term possibilities are still open, but we'll see. As much as I think this company has been wonderful to work for, I am eager to start the next chapter in my life and see what new challenges there are in store for me.

For now, I have an email in to the regional manager in Calgary asking to speak to him, mostly so I can make sure he knows that I would be walking in to a role there only temporarily, unless it is a management position. That way, I have been open and transparent about my intetions (which makes me feel much better) and he is free to decide whether or not that suits his hiring needs as well. And we'll go from there.

Human Resources and Business Objectives

I keep reading a lot about the alignment of human resources with business objectives, and it seems that there is a lot of resistance to the idea that HR metrics have to be able to align themselves with business needs, and I'm finding myself a bit confused. I mean, isn't it obvious that my job as an HR professional is all about aligning with the needs of the business? Isn't my job to find the best candidates for open positions, who will stay with the company longer, perform better, and generate more revenue? Shouldn't I be able to figure out an ROI with costs AND benefits all figured out and laid out on paper? I just really don't understand what the issue is all about. "Alignment of HR with business strategy" generates 1,800,000 hits, so clearly this is a topic people are talking about. Using your HR department for strictly administrative purposes is such a waste. People are one of the biggest costs for most businesses, so why wouldn't you bring HR into your business planning? And if your HR people aren't up to the task, then you need better HR people. HR decides who your workforce is. Better make sure they know what you really need!

Moving feels so much like standing still....

Well, we are now firmly embroiled in the moving process. Looking at places to live, sorting through books, and generally trying to be ready. We've settled on a moving date of mid-August, as it is my father's 60th b-day on the 15th and it would mean a lot to him and my mother if we could be there. It also gives me the opportunity to work out a solid five weeks notice and start organizing the hunt for my replacement.

Targeted job search is going ok, so far, though I had forgotten how much spam you open yourself up to via job boards. I have gotten a couple of calls from recruiters about a couple of openings, so we'll see what materializes out of that, and in the meantime, I see what happens. It would be ideal to walk right into a new position in Calgary and avoid the stress of the job hunting process (at least for the most part- I'm already feeling it a little.)

As a job-hunter, I understand the temptation to just blindly apply to all the jobs out there, but I'm really trying to avoid doing that. I want to find the right job, not just any job. So a lot of my time has been spent trying to decide what that means. So far, I know that I want a new position that is challenging and has a lot of opportunity for further growth. I want to be able to stretch my skillset and learn new things. I'd love a job with a focus on social media- I've spent a lot of time and effort developing a social media presence and there really is a tremendous amount of fabulous stuff out there. I'd like a job that encourages me to network within the HR community and keep up my skills, so anything looking at a CHRP is a plus. I know people have mixed feelings about the value of the designation, but in my opinion the requirement for continuing education is hugely important. HR is ever-changing, ever adapting, and we need to be ready for the changes that will best benefit our respective businesses' needs, because that's what it's all about.

So, we'll see. Right now most of my focus is on a place to live- I've sent off inquiries all over the place and we are presently arranging for my sister in law to see some places on our behalf. If I manage to wrangle interviews anywhere before we leave, I'll fly out myself and look, but for now, the internet is my best friend.

Pay $2,500, Get a Job... Guaranteed??

This article discusses The Ladders' new Signature program, designed to help job seekers land a 6-figure job. As near as I can tell, their program (which looks pretty comprehensive) guarantees a job offer within six months or your money back. I first saw this one on twitter, asking if I would pay $2,500 for a guaranteed offer. Well, I would.

Of course, I don't qualify for their program either, because I am most certainly not in an experience category that would justify a six-figure paycheque. However, if you're looking at a minimum of $100,0000 a yearn, $2,500 is only 2.5% of your annual income. That, to me, is a no-brainer. I realize it's a guaranteed offer, not a job, but you still get to keep the skills and resume advice, and if you don't get an offer, they'll refund your money. So why not?

And We're Off to the Races, Folks...

Well, folks, the news is here at last. Hubby got accepted to his program at the University of Calgary, so after leaving in 09, we're heading back again!

It's a mixed bag, really. I mean, I hate moving, for one, and my to-do list just had about 50 million items added to it. So, that part is not my favourite. Not to mention, there's the expense of moving, finding a new place to live, etc. On the plus side, we're going back to a city that we both know, seeing friends again, etc. and I'm so happy for my hubby to be getting back into school again. I'm also hoping that it will open some doors for me. While I have been in touch with the Director of Professional Development, there isn't going to be much for opportunities for me. I could go back into a sales associate position, and continue with some HR support, but it would really be a step in the wrong direction for me. I've been there, done that, and got bored of it already- that's what prompted the move into HR in the first place. So, ultimately, I am waiting to hear exactly what they can offer me in Calgary, but since Head Office is in Vancouver, it's unlikely to be what I want. I still feel a tremendous amount of loyalty to the company; you don't often see companies with such an amazing culture, and I would welcome the opportunity to develop an HR management position with them, but it looks like that wouldn't even be a possibility for another couple of years at least, and I frankly cannot imagine languishing in a sales role for that much longer.

So I've been stepping up my job-hunting efforts already, in an effort to see what's out there. There are two routes, really- I could try and capitalize on my healthcare experience and look for a role in that industry, or I could try and break into the oil and gas industry. I think generally the private sector is likelier to give me the kind of experience I want at this stage- fast paced, growing companies, etc. and indeed there are some very interesting companies and opportunities that I have seen to date.

I'm not sure how successful my job hunt will be until I can get to Calgary and get organized. I'm working on my application to the HRIA, but they need a physical copy of my degree and HR certificate. The degree is no problem (it's sitting over my fireplace at the moment) but I never actually received a physical certificate for the HR Management program I completed. I have an email in to the University to see how that works. Otherwise I suppose I could scan and upload the page showing the course requirements are being completed. Once I have that membership settled, I can register for the NKE, because I now know what province I will be living in by October 1st, and I'll have access to more job listings, not to mention more networking opportunities.

I'm fairly confident that I'll be able to find what I want. After all, I have a great deal more experience than I did a couple of years ago, when I was first looking at HR in Calgary, and I have tons more knowledge about recruitment than I did then. References from the Director of Professional Development and the Executive VP don't hurt, either. So right now, I'm feeling excited, overwhelmed and optimistic, all at once.

Pre-Hire Assessment Planning (x 2)

I blogged a little about this topic and my plans on it before, but I found some other good resources,and did some more thinking. Apologies if you read the previous post and find this one to be much the same. Hopefully you at least find the info to be useful. Pre-Employment Assessments are a big thing in the world of HR at the moment. There's a very helpful article from ere.net that gives some good guidelines on how to use these types of programs and ensure success.

One of my goals for my current organization is to implement a pre-hire assessment program. Our present hiring system is out of date, relying upon frontline managers with little training to perform basic interviews. We invest a fair amount of time and money on training, and have a moderately high turnover rate, so anything that increases retention is a plus. Our frontline managers are likely going to continue to have the deciding voice in the hiring process, so step one was to try to add to their abilities to make these kinds of decisions.

To that end, I developed a recruitment and selection manual, and will implement it along with some training sessions to get our managers better prepared for the hiring process. The recruitment and selection manual focuses on the hiring process in very general terms, covering topics such as red flags on resumes, where to look for viable candidates, and how to conduct structured interviews. It also contains guidelines on labour law and discrimination, and is intended as a desk reference for our managers.

I don't know yet whether I will actually be able to implement a pre-hire assessment, but I have outlined a plan to do so.

The pre-hire assessment, ideally, would come before the interview process. All applicants would be directed to the company website, and invited to complete these assessments as a part of their application. Once completed, those scoring above our set limits would be encouraged to forward their resumes on to the appropriate person and proceed from there.

However, our very first step before implementing any kind of assessment has to be to determine what kind of traits we are looking for. Validity is tremendously important in this process; we need to know what we want, and we need to know it will work.

This is where we get back to my undergraduate days in anthropology. Time to study. First of all, we will identify a list of high performers, and a list of average performers. We won't bother with the low performers. Then, we study the high performers, in order to try and determine just what it is that they do differently from the average ones. This will involve shadowing high performers to observe them, and interviewing them to see what they think makes their performance superior. We will also study the average performers, and generate a list of differences based on what we find.

Next, we will generate a survey based on our findings, and it will be sent out to the company as a whole. We won't be able to shadow every single high and average performer company-wide, but we can certainly get everyone to fill out a survey based on our preliminary results, and the results of that can be used to generate a list of traits and behaviours unique to our high performers.

Once we have that list, we're going to separate out behaviours and traits that are teachable from those that are personality-based. This will then be used to further develop our new employee training program. It gives us a basis to ensure that every new employee has some training in how to be a better performer. Those results that are personality-based will be used as a basis for the type of assessments that we use.

The biggest trick will be separating correlation and causation, and that's going to take time and data. It presents a real challenge, but the good news is, I can piggyback on other people's research, because there's lots of it out there. Hopefully once I have some data to gather, I can really dig into it and find something interesting.

I would love to say what kind of assessment I would use, and certainly I have my own ideas of what makes a high performer do better on the job. However, the point of studying the matter is to ensure valid results. We are not our competitors; copying the pre-hire assessments that they use will not necessarily give us the results that we're looking for, and so it is critical that we establish our own profiles first. The point is to get a good ROI, and we need valid results that are genuinely predictive of success first.

The Entitlement Generation

I just re-read my previous post, and it isn't quite as whiny as I was afraid it would be. It's interesting, reading all the articles out there (and there are quite a few) that deal with the issues surrouding Gen Y and the workplace. As a Gen Y, I can tell you that, depending what you're reading, it's not hard to come away from it feeling pretty embarassed of your generation! And some of it is pretty hard to argue with. As a generation, indeed, we are pretty entitled. Not all of us, obviously, but I do know a lot of people who strike me as pretty, well, spoiled. I have an aquaintance who, I think, represents the "average" Gen Y (inasmuch as there is such a thing) pretty well. He has a BA in Political Science, and he graduated almost two years ago with it. He doesn't live at home, but he did get an inheritance from his grandpa's passing that he's used to pay his bills since graduation. His intention is to start a communications business, and he has gone as far as registering the company name and starting a website. Now, he has a job working for a big box retailer. He needed money, and they were hiring. Like so many of us, he graduated at a time when jobs were scarce, and has found himself working a job that pays very little and doesn't utilize that hard-won BA at all. So, when he says he's underemployed, he means it, and he's probably right. On the other hand, the business that he has started is pretty much on hold, because he's finding it difficult to do much work when he has one paying job already.

He finds himself a bit trapped, because he can't quit the job he does have- he needs the money, such as it is, and he feels like he can't find anything he really is qualified for. A common complaint about Gen Y is entitlement- is it really that unreasonable to feel that you should be able to find something better with your BA that you sweated for than your friend who dropped out of high school? But, and it's a big one, just because you feel like you should be able to find something better doesn't mean you don't have to work hard to get there. You want your communications business up and running? Well, then, you'd better be working for it. Start writing- blog. Write book reviews for the newspaper, or just online. Go to your chamber of commerce and volunteer to do some write-ups on locally significant things. Build a portfolio. And guess what? You're going to have to do these things while you work your other job. Or, two years down the road, you'll still be working the same crappy job for the same crappy money, and you'll find yourself no further ahead, because something better isn't just going to magically show up because you deserve it. You get what you work for. And yeah, it'd be nice to go home after work and not have anything else to do but relax and do laundry, but it isn't going to happen. Not if you want something better.

There's a reason I blog, there's a reason I'm on twitter and there's a reason I have my own business cards. None of that is because I'm such an HR nerd, (is there such a thing? Probably,)although I do find HR to be a fascinating field, but because I'm trying to build my reputation, skills and knowledge in order to get the kind of job and the kind of career that I want. It takes time, it takes effort, and you have to be willing to put in the time at the bottom.

Gen Y are not typically known for being willing to put in time at the bottom, but I'd bet that's shifting, if only because the entitlement generation has been facing a crappy job market. Most of the Gen Ys that I know would be quite happy at this point to be able to break into their field at all- bottom or otherwise. I know teachers who work at fast food joints, trying to get onto TOC lists so they can sub once in a while because they know a fulltime position is at least five years away if they can get on the list at all. I know guys with History degrees working minimum wage jobs until they can afford to go back to school again, and I know a lot of folks who live with their parents because they can't afford to move out and still pay off their student loans.

That said, there are always things you can do to make yourself more employable. You may not get paid for them, and they may cut into your free time, but there are always things you can do. So quit whining and get to it!

The Problem With Experience

Alright, so I realize that some of this may come across as entitled Gen Y whining, since I am fully aware of the perception that we come out of the gate wanting to be VP's by 30. But I have a problem with job listings requiring a minimum experience level of, say, 5 years. It's just so arbitrary! Your job really couldn't be done sucessfully with 4 years experience? And doesn't it really matter what you're experienced in?

Truthfully, a high potential job candidate should learn the skills you need faster than someone of average potential. So, you may be eliminating highly qualified candidates who might just knock your socks off, simply because they learned the skills you needed faster than Joe Schmoe who took five years to do it.

I entirely understand why hiring managers do this. They are trying to discourage woefully unqualified candidates from applying for these positions, and that's a necessary thing. I'm also not trying to say that I personally should qualify for every single one of these positions- but it's certainly not uncommon for me to come across a job listing and think, yeah, this job is an awesome match for my skills! Policy development? Check! Flexible and creative? Check! Developing recruitment and retention strategies? Check! Working well with all levels of management? Check! Generating executive buy-in? Check! Primary HR person for the company? Totally! 5 years experience in an HR capacity... Nope.

Now, maybe there is a specific reason that five years' experience is required. But if everything described in your job listing fits me to a tee, (and I can back it up with references from senior management, it ain't just my opinion) and your company culture sounds like a place I'd love to be, I'm going to apply anyway. And then I'm probably going to hit your ATS system and get eliminated because I don't have enough years of experience. That drives me nuts.

If this post comes across as whiny, I'm sorry. That's really not my intention. I might be a bit frustrated, but most of that stems from the fact that my particular career path has been a bit... unusual. If I had gotten a HR job off the bat, even one doing scheduling tasks for frontline employees or something, my resume would work a little better for some of these applications. On the other hand, if I hadn't started with a company without an HR department, I would be highly unlikely to have achieved the kinds of things that I have, and the experience that I have is very important to me. I love HR, and I know I have a lot to offer. I know I've got a ton of potential, and I'm itching to get out there and let it loose. That said, I don't feel entitled. I know it's my job to prove to you that I have what it takes, and that you don't owe me a thing.

Now I just have to make it to Calgary, and start doing my networking thing. Cause that's just how it is, folks.

The Problem with ATS Systems

ATS, or applicant tracking systems, are becoming ever-more common. I'm sure any of the job hunters among us have run into these systems at least once, and probably more often than that. These systems are used as an automated way of tracking and sorting the hundreds of resumes that tend to be recieved for any job listing these days. They are designed to simplify the hiring manager's job, because the task of sorting through hundreds of resumes to sort out the exactly perfect one is incredibly time-consuming, and there is often simply not enough time to actually do it all. So, set up the computer to do it for you. Set a minimum level for education and years of experience, and the computer can filter out the dross for you, leaving you a much smaller pile of qualified candidates. These types of systems vary from quite simple to quite complex, but don't expect them to go away any time soon. On the surface of it, they are a practical way to filter through the incredible numbers of unqualified candidates who apply to your online job postings.

Any hiring manager will tell you that these systems aren't perfect. The computer can't truly think for you, and so it is likely going to include some resumes for candidates who don't really have the right kind of experience, and exclude others who do. The more specific you make your filtering, the more possibly-qualified candidates you are going to miss- but in today's job market, where there are so many applicants for every position, this may be a necessary evil.

For any of you in the job-hunting category (and I'm falling more and more into that category myself), I would never advise that you stop applying to online job listings. After all, your resume might make it through their ATS system, and land you an interview. But it is a common truism floating around the interwebs that most jobs are found through networking efforts rather than through job listings. After all, if I were the hiring manager, and I knew that someone I know and (presumably) trust thought they knew someone else who would be a good fit for the job, that would automatically make that one particular resume stand out in my mind. And a goodly percentage of the job hunt process is won if you can make your resume in particular stand out to the person doing the hiring. At the very least, it's one hell of a good way to land an interview, which is really what most of us want. Just that chance to shine, and show 'em what you've got!

Again, there's nothing wrong with ATS systems. They are most probably a necessary evil for most job listings. I personally am a bit inclined against them, because my own resume doesn't tend to do so well going through that grinder. After all, my job title is "associate", same as my 21 year old coworker from the office down the way who makes $10.50 an hour selling eyeglasses. That may be where I started, but it isn't where I am now. Don't get me wrong, the value she brings to the company is immense; after all, we exist because of eyeglass sales, making her primary function arguably the most important one in the entire company. However, I don't want to sell eyeglasses. I want to work in HR. I have experience working in an HR capacity, I have trained staff, interviewed and hired, developed policies ranging from interviewing and selection processes to social media policies, to discipline and termination. But if your ATS system is looking for "3-5 years experience in a human resources capacity" it may overlook me, depending how its filtration system is set up.

So for me, it's all about the networking. I suggest you all give it a try sometime.

It's Official!

Well, the job hunt has finally begun. Over the past couple of days, I started applying for HR jobs in Calgary. I'm not honestly sure what my chances are of finding something right away off a job board, but I certainly won't get anything if I don't apply, and I did see a couple of very interesting possibilities.

If possible, it would be super wonderful to line something up job-wise before we move, so that I can just step right into a job when we get there. I am prepared to fly out ahead and leave my poor hubby to pack us up if need be. He'd be packing, I'd be (hopefully) interviewing or starting work, and of course, looking for a place to live. We are fortunate enough to have friends there who have kindly agreed to let one or both of us crash with them until we find something of our own.

I'm getting my personal branding stuff ready- networking cards and thank you notes, resume, website, twitter feed, and of course, blog, and am presently just waiting for my mentor to come back from holidays so I can let him know what's up. Seems like my leaving merits a phone conversation rather than a quick email, don't you think?

I have mixed feelings about all this. Hubby is from Alberta, and of course, we spent six years in Calgary all through school, so we're both familiar with the city, have friends there, etc. And I am, of course, excited about some of the opportunities that I see there- Calgary in general has a much faster pace to it than Victoria does, and I'm hoping for something to give me more of a challenge than I've had lately. But I will miss this company, and I will miss the relationships and the culture here. My mentor has been fabulous to me, and even gently suggested that I might want to look elsewhere for a suitable challenge because he thinks I have outgrown what they can offer me. It's been a rewarding experience. Now, onto the challenge of the future!

I look forward to whatever the future holds for me. I hope it will be wonderful.

Pre-Hire Assessments

Before I leave my current position, I am trying to finish a proposal for a five-year plan designed to reduce turnover and increase the bottom line by $1 million per year. It's unlikely I will have the opportunity to see how it turns out, and I won't be able to do everything that I had originally planned to oversee. Consequently, I'm having to flesh out my proposal with operational details, specifying particular people to oversee various aspects of it, what qualifications different positions might require, etc. It's fascinating, and I'm really enjoying the work, but boy, I wish I knew I'd be able to see it through!

Basically, the proposal suggests implementing a new training system and a pre-hire assessment. It should be a one-two punch that really allows us to recruit smarter and train better. There are some tremendous companies out there that produce really wonderful pre-hire assessments, however, it is not financially or culturally appropriate for us to look at one of these, so we will be developing our own. Understandably, this comes along with its own hurdles and pitfalls, because we need to ensure we have the data to back up our hiring choices as appropriate.

This project is one of the first times that my BA in Anthropology has come in really handy. My experience with data gathering and statistical analysis and my research background means I can come up with some valid data gathering techniques, and I know better than to assume the outcome.

Essentially, we need more high performers. I have a benchmark sales number x annual salary calculation, and what amounts to a customer satisfaction/errors index to use to identify my high performers. The same calculation will be used to identify my average performers, and they will be used essentially as a control group, and for comparison purposes. We are going to ignore the low performers; they should be gone anyway, as they cost us money.

Once we have our group identified, I will be personally interviewing a number of them. The purpose of the interview is to identify some areas to look at that generate higher performance and better sales numbers. I will personally interview as many high performers as it is feasible, and based on their answers, we will generate some characteristics that the high performers themselves think differentiates their performance from that of others. Average performers will be interviewed similarly. Ideally, I would love to interview everyone, but as a company that is geographically spread over most of the company, this is impractical. So the answers of the interviewed group will be used to generate a survey to be administered to all employees.

At this point, the survey cannot be anonymous, because we need to be able to identify the answers of high performers as compared to those of average performers, so employees will be identified by their employee number and no further information. This is intended to minimize decision-making based on pre-concieved notions about race, gender, or any other protected category that might be identifiable by name. We will also need to reassure staff that the survey will have no impact on their performance appraisals, etc. in order to try and encourage honesty.

This isn't a perfect system; not everyone will be honest, for one thing, and for another, we are necessarily operating under the assumption that our high performers can identify what it is that they do differently from everyone else. But it should give us some interesting data to work with.

I'm going to leave things at that for now; so that this blog post doesn't turn into a novel.

The Resume

Given my current position as would-be, might-be jobseeker, I've been spending the last little while thinking about things from the perspective of the jobseeker, something I haven't done now in about four years. Time to get out the ol' resume and polish it up a bit, in preparation for the job-hunting that may be to come.

Except that I haven't really done it like that at all.

After four years, and my education in HR, my old resume looks rather pathetic. Now I look at it and wonder why anyone bothered to call me at all after looking at the pathetic little document that it is. I remember the struggle to make sure it was kept to one page, the obsessing over whether or not to include my references, or whether that would take up space more valuably used elsewhere, and the relentless checking for typos. To be sure, there are things that I did right on my resume; I was always good about typos, I always included up to date contact information, and I tailored each application to the job in question. There are also a number of things that I did wrong, or at least, that I could have done better, so now it's time to go back and rip the thing apart and start over. For starters, I need to take out my objective. Seriously, all that obsessing about fitting one page, and I thought it was critical that I tell people I was looking for full time employment in a relevant field? Really?

Basically, I am now going to be tearing my resume apart and rebuilding it. It will be the Six Million Dollar Resume, everything from specific listing of accomplishments instead of job duties, to a more impressive font. Frankly, I think worrying too much about the font of your resume is a bit dumb; it's the content that matters, no doubt about it. But Times New Roman? How boring! I can do better. So I shall. Just in case. And hopefully, sometime in the next couple of weeks, we hear from some schools and can finally start making some plans!!

The Candidate Experience

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about what it is to be a job candidate, and the experience from that end. Part of that is because I will likely be a job candidate myself sometime within the next couple of months, and partly I think it is because there is more buzz about the job seeker's experience out there in the HR sphere because the economy is getting better. I know here in BC the last report I saw showed 6.2% unemployment, which is pretty darn low, especially in comparison to many of the states. We are heading back towards pre-2008 levels, and people are starting to think about it again.

Anyway, it made me think about the process where I am. Certainly, when I applied, it was pretty straightforward; I wanted a position as a sales associate at one of the locations, so I came in on my lunch break one day, all dressed up, and dropped off a resume. Then I got a call about an interview, set it up, and went to it. This was in 2007, in Calgary, and things were booming; I was able to hold out for an extra dollar an hour, and get it no problem. At an entry-level sales position, that's pretty much unheard of right now.

All in all, I would classify my candidate experience as entirely unremarkable. I think entry-level retail type jobs remain one of the few where it is still more common for people to hand in resumes personally than to recieve electronic ones; it was a big deal when my boss put her first job listing ad onto Craigslist. Now that's passe. I think we were a little behind the curve on that, anyway, but whatever.

Recently I developed a recruitment and selection manual for the company. The idea was to provide a guide for the frontline managers who do much of the hiring, and to try and give them some training on what to look for and how to go about it. In the recruitment section, one of the things I did was develop a template for a job advertisement, and I remember it struck me as quite funny when I got some feedback from my mentor about it, because he suggested I revise it as he didn't think print ads were really the way to go anymore. It made me laugh because I had honestly never even considered the fact that someone might look at it as a print advertisement; I hadn't even considered it! Then I went back and added a paragraph or two to specifically reference web adverstising as the way to go. To me, it seemed obvious. Evidently, it wasn't.

Anyway, the candidate experience. Back to that.

I have discussed using pre-hire assessments in previous posts, and I really do think that they are the way to go. Evidence suggests that, when used properly, these assessments truly can improve quality of hire and cultural fit to a significant degree. At the same time, on the candidate end, if someone were to present me with a 150 question assessment, I'm a lot more likely to reconsider applying. Don't make me sit at the computer for an hour just to apply! So I think the real trick is to hit that balance between ensuring a good quality fit before interviewing, and making it easy to apply.

This article discusses the importance of the candidate experience, and describes the ideal experience as "point, click, upload and go". Well, that may be ideal, but it doesn't mesh well with pre-hire assessments. Part of the appeal to management of the assessments are that the screening occurs prior to a person ever seeing the resume. Time spent screening resumes increases salary costs, and can be a real time sink, after all. Ultimately, I think it is important to find that balance, and to try to keep things reasonable on each end; I personally never minded doing an asessment as a candidate, provided that it took no longer than about fifteen minutes, because one of the things that an assessment gives you is an idea of the job and the culture, and those are always nice to have.

Why I Blog

I was watching my twitter feed fill up with conversations about blogging today, tweeps discussing their blogs and how to raise traffic, where most of their referrals come from, and in some cases, how their blogs have led to careers in social media. It got me thinking about blogging, and why people do it. Most of the people on my twitter feed blog as a part of their careers, in one way or another. Most of the blogs that I follow are HR-related, so that has something to do with. I also know a few people with personal blogs. A few blog for a living.

For me, I blog at least in part because it gives me an outlet for some of my thoughts and strategies. It's certainly related to career development for me, but not in the same way as most of the bloggers I know. I blog to get my thoughts out and organized, and as a tool to use when I start looking for another HR job. This blog is a forum for my thoughts and strategies, and would give potential employers a fuller look at who I am and what I do, should they be inclined to read it. The link to this blog appears on my LinkedIn profile as well as on my twitter bio and about.me page, and will be on my networking cards, once I know where my hubby and I will end up. That said, I make very little attempts to attract readers, at least in part because I'm not comfortable with that. Blogging is not something I want to do as a business, and I will continue to blog whether anyone reads it or not, at least for as long as it doesn't feel like a chore to do so. This blog has a fairly narrow scope, and I just can't believe that it would be that interesting to the world at large, but it will hopefully be a decent tool to showcase what I can do to a prospective employer, and that's really why I blog. Why do you blog?

Frustration...

It's getting difficult to still be on hold in terms of where we are going. It's tremendously stressful for my husband, who still doesn't know whether he's gotten in to law school or not, and it's stressful for me, who hates to be without some kind of plan. Most days I manage ok, but every once in a while something comes along that makes it hard not to grit my teeth.

On Monday, I met with my mentor to discuss my latest project and how to proceed. During the course of the conversation, we settled some stuff, and moved things along nicely. (Finished product on the CEO's desk- yay me!) And then he asked me what it would take to keep me with the company.

Now, I don't know about any of you superstars out there, but I don't often get asked by senior management what it would take to keep me. I really don't. These things don't happen all that often! And I had to say, 'I don't know.' Not the answer I'd hoped to give, either.

Of course, I went on to explain that first, I need to know where I'm going to be by September. Then I got to go ahead and name my price. So to speak. So I told him that first of all, I recognize that there may not be a budget to create a full time HR role for me at the moment, and that I would be willing to wait a year or two for it. The caveat to that is that I am not willing to continue doing the same thing I'm doing now. That's been boring for at least a couple of years already; that's why I started taking on the HR projects in the first place. Then he asked me if I'd be happy with a management role, and I said yes. I think further management experience would be a good thing for me, and can be a proper challenge. It would also continue to allow me to develop further HR projects for the company and really make my mark. So that's possible. Certainly if we stay here in Victoria, there are a couple of managerial positions likely to open up in the next little while, and my mentor was kind enough to say that he would love to see what I could do with one position in particular. The problem, of course, is that I can't commit to anything yet!!

So, things proceed apace. I go from thinking the future there looks pretty good, to being told there probably isn't anything there for me, to being asked what it would take to keep me there, and not being able to answer.

Progress

I recently came across an article on the hbr.org website, that talks about innovation in the workplace and what drives it. It's an interesting read, and can be found here. The gist of it, for those not inclined to click through, is that innovation and motivation in the workplace are driven by a sense of progress.

This makes good sense to me. Nothing has ever made me as motivated to be at work and kick ass at my job quite like progress. After I've accomplished something big or little, that sense of moving forward really puts me on the top of my game for a while. It's more motivating than a raise, for sure. Sometimes a promotion has the same effect, but I don't think that's because of the pay increase; I think that's because of that same feeling of accomplishment or progress. Not to say raises aren't motivating, too, but I don't think that buzz lasts as long.

I think the converse is also true. Feeling stuck, like you're at a dead end and will never make any progress is incredibly demoralizing and demotivating. After all, if you won't be making progress no matter what you do, then what's the point in trying?

This principle holds true no matter what job level we're talking about, and progress doesn't necessarily even have to mean career progression. Just progress towards a goal. I don't think a job is ever just a job, it's not just about showing up for the paycheque, unless something completely demoralizing has already happened.

I don't know. Maybe some of the managers in the crowd out there would be surprised to hear this; I know it's a pretty common perception among managers and employees both that it's all about the paycheque. But I really believe that a feeling of accomplishment is hands-down the best motivator there is in the workplace. Who's with me?

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Have you ever been asked that one in an interview? It's a classic. I think most of us have come across this little gem more than once. The question then is, how do you answer it?

I think, first of all, it depends on the nature of the job. I remember being asked it when, as a starving student, I applied to a part-time retail sales position while still a student. I replied that in five years time, I hoped to have graduated and moved into a professional role. The interviewer seemed to think this was a terrible answer. I had to wonder if she would have liked it better had I lied and told her I couldn't imagine doing anything other than working for her company, maybe work my way up to full-time sales associate? I'm not good at dishonesty. And my ambitions, even then, went way beyond store manager at a mall retail outlet. Still do, as a matter of fact.

It's not the easiest question to answer. First of all, what is the person asking it looking for? Generally, I think it's safe to say that the questioner wants some idea if you intend to stick around, because turnover is expensive. This question is often looking to see how ambitious you are. I once answered that question by saying I wanted the job of the person asking it, which is a terrible answer, and I don't recommend it, but it worked in that particular case. That was a little different though because it wasn't during a job interview, but during a conversation with my mentor, and I knew him well enough to think he would think it was funny and admire my chutzpah, which he did. Thankfully, I was right, though there was some desperation involved during that momentary pause after I said it. I found myself thinking, 'dear god, please laugh. Please laugh now.' Actually, that smart-ass response might have been what cemented our relationship, but it was a risky move.

Thinking on it more, 'where do you see yourself in five years?' is a very tricky question. I mean, there's where I want to be in five years, and there's where I think I will actually be in five years, and it's two different things. I want to be a human resources manager (or director, that would be ok too!) in five years. Preferably with my current employers, but odds are low of that happening. I want to have my CHRP long done by then. I want to be managing people, implementing recruitment and retention strategies, and I want to be making a difference to my organization. I want to be on my way to the C-suite. I want to have a voice. I want to matter. I want to love what I do, love my job, love my organization.

I don't know how much any of those answers matter. Really, maybe you'd be better off asking me what I can bring to your organization, what value I can be. Because really, who doesn't want to love their job?

At least, I have learned not to tell you I want your job. Even if it's true.

The Lattice Approach

In catching up with some of my HR rading after the long weekend, I came across this article on ere.net about career development. In case you aren't familiar with it, ere.net is an online community aimed at recruiters, and has a number of articles, blogs, and webinars that can be very informative. This particular article talks about the career lattice, as opposed to the career ladder, and I found it very interesting from my own, job-seeking, career-building perspective. Basically, the article says that recruiters should encourage candidates to look beyond the traditional career development ladder, and instead look at their skills, and move up by moving over to adjacent, related positions. So, look at your career and see what themes emerge. For me, one of the biggest themes I see in my career to date is people. I have extensive experience in customer service; I have managed teams of up to fourteen people; HR is all about people. My transition from customer service to HR already touches on this lattice concept; customer service skills translate well to HR.

I don't think there is any question that this approach makes sense. The traditional career ladder is very limiting, and especially in today's fluid work environment, is too rigid. This concept of a lattice works a little better, because it encourages recruiters (and job-seekers, both!) to look at experience in terms of the skills it provides and how those might apply regardless of job title. It simply makes sense, and is something I have always encouraged people to do. Don't be too narrowly focused on industry or job title- skills often transfer.

The Wannabe HR Guru....

If you are at all familiar with me, you will have seen that title before. I am the Wannabe HR Guru on LinkedIn, and on Quora, and I believe I'm listed that way in my Twitter bio as well. I recently got a message on Quora telling me to change it. (I had originally written that someone "suggested" I change it, but that was really too mild a word for the way this message was phrased.) According to the sender, labeling myself as a "wannabe" showed weakness and a lack of confidence, and I should find something else to call myself, or I would never make it far with that attitude.

I have to say, that message came as a bit of a shock. For one, I had no idea who the sender was, never heard of the guy, and had certainly never communicated directly with him in any way. For another, the wording of the message was quite aggressive, and I didn't much care for it. I had also never considered that I might look weak!

I thought about it for a while, and in the end, I decided to keep my "wannabe" right where it is. I wrote back to the gentleman in question, telling him that I felt it was appropriate, rather than being another "ninja" or "rockstar" on the basis that, while I have some education and a web presence in HR, I have little practical experience in the field outside of my present employer and the particular issues I have dealt with there. I feel it would be pretentious and misleading of me to claim "guru" status without the "wannabe" modifier; I know a lot about HR, but I certainly don't know everything. Furthermore, I certainly don't lack confidence; I know I'm good at what I do, and so do the people I work for, or I wouldn't be here in the first place. But there are a lot of situations I haven't yet experienced, and I have the wisdom to realize just how much I don't know. Give me five, ten, fifteen years, and by then I might be able to call myself an HR guru. But by then, I probably won't have to. You'll all know it. Right?

Customer Service

To date in my career, I have worked mostly in the customer-service field, primarily as a frontline worker and manager. I've worked for organizations that are great at trying to build a more personal relationship with their customers, and I've worked for organizations that focus on getting as many people in and out as possible.

In my personal experience, I strongly prefer the former. I like being able to talk to people and form a bit of a rapport with them. I enjoy finding out exactly what my customer's needs are and formulating a solution that will serve them best, and I have very high rates of customer satisfaction as a result. It means a lot to me and it means a lot to my organization to have customers come back just to tell me how happy they are with my service. It doesn't happen every day, but it does happen.

My current employer is very focused on the customer experience. We are a high-end retailer, dealing with custom product, and this is the only approach that really makes sense. If you don't make any attempt to stand out from the crowd, people will likely make their decision on where to buy based on price. Well, competing on price alone is pretty tough. Sooner or later, some other retailer comes along with prices you can't beat. In our case, it's pretty common; it isn't that our product is more expensive than anyone else selling the comparable thing, it's just that we don't sell generic or lower-quality versions of our products, and other places do. We focus on the top-quality end of the market, and once you're doing that anyway, you had better provide good service to back it up! And if you want to build your business, you had better provide great service to back it up.

This article talks about creating a customer-centered organization. I think particularly in a market that has abundant competition, choosing to stand out on the basis of your customer service is a tremendous idea, and, if done right, is a great strategy. If you go into your day thinking of ways to serve your customer better, that will show.

This does not mean that the customer is always right. There are many cases
where the customer is definitely wrong, but the approach you take makes all the difference. How you resolve the issue can have a tremendous impact on the customer; I've made customers for life on the basis of how I handled an issue, and not necessarily because I gave them everything they wanted, but because I showed them I was willing to go to bat for them, and give them everything I could do.

I personally try to approach HR with the same spirit in mind. My job is not to quote policy at people and tell them why they can't; my job is to try and serve them better. Good HR comes from the realization that my job isn't to support the company. My job is to support the employee, because supporting the employee is in the best interests of the company. Happy employees work harder. Happy employees stay longer, and recommend their company to others. Happy employees don't start lawsuits. And so on. Granted, I can't always give employees what they want, just like the customer is not always right. But if I go into my day trying to understand my employees' needs and give them the best solution I can, then I've done my job right.

Bad, bad me...

Well, folks, it's now been a week since I posted, which is strictly a result of life getting busier than I had planned. Funny how that happens. I don't even have anything in particular to blog about today, I just feel somewhat obligated to go ahead and do it.

Life is still stuck in neutral at the moment, and I'm feeling a bit disheartened. I'm just tired of waiting. Right now, I can't even really go job hunting because I still don't know what city to do it in, and I'm still waiting on anything from my head office. I should send a quick follow-up email to remind them that I'm out here, waiting, but I sometimes can't help but feel like a pest. Still, it's been a couple of weeks since anything moved from them, which means it isn't unreasonable to send off a note looking for feedback.

Like so many in the C-suite, these are busy people. I can't sit here waiting for them to remember me, because then I might make it on to the to-do list sometime in the next decade, especially since I am working remotely. It's not like they'll run into me in the hallways at head office, either. So, I have to push a little more. Maybe I'll go do that now and come back when I have something to really blog about.

See ya!

Whassup, Tweeps?

Do you tweet? I do now. I only started a couple of months ago, at the beginning of the year, which makes me a bit of a late adopter as these things do. I'd been aware of twitter for a number of years already; I spend a fair amount of time online, and I have a techie geek of a husband who's usually pretty up on the latest and greatest new thing.

I wasn't on twitter until recently because I've never been much for posting facebook status updates, and I figured, what was the point of twitter then? I thought it would be one of those things where you sign up, tweet a couple of things, and then completely lose interest.

Instead, I'm now addicted. I tweet mostly about HR stuff, and I found there was an awful lot of it on twitter. Access to articles and blogs that I would never have stumbled upon on my own, online chats, HR-themed internet radio broadcasts; it was a whole new world. And I jumped right in.

To date, I've tweeted about 250 times, I think; I try to tweet a few times a day, and retweet anything that I find particularly interesting. I've amassed a few hundred followers, which makes me happy, and have been included by a few people on lists of who to follow, which makes me even happier. One tweep (that's Twitter Peep, for all you folks out there who may not have a clue what I'm talking about) made my week when he listed me as a part of his "people who know what they're talking about" list. I still feel pumped just thinking about that.

Now I feel like I need to check twitter, and find out what's going on! I'd better get back to it.

Basically, I do think twitter is a fabulous resource. There are some great people on there, and some great blogs. It can be a great way to promote your blogging as well, although I can't say as I've really taken advantage of that. I'm not yet comfortable enough with my blogging abilities to go on to twitter and promote myself.

You should try it!

Management... The Good, The Bad, and The Rest

If you haven't checked out Ask A Manager yet, you should. You really, really should. Alison is amazing. Her blogs are always informative, insightful and interesting, and they really make it clear that there are some absolutely awful managers out there. While she also has good advice for jobseekers on there, some of her most hilarious postings come from the questions people send to her. If she considers it a dumb question, you'll likely get a somewhat snarky response, but that's part of the fun, too. I check it often and read avidly.

If there's anything that the wide array of information available online about management can tell you, it's that a lot of people simply don't have a clue. In my experience, a lot of managers who aren't any good at management simply have no clue that they suck, and some might know but refuse to admit it. Perhaps that's simply because I have mostly worked entry-level jobs, where frontline managers seem as a rule to be given little or no training in how to manage people.

Many of these companies seem to feel that teaching management skills is not a good investment. Strategic HR begs to differ! Anyone who has worked under one of these first-level frontline retail managers has likely seen someone way out of his or her depth. Some of them figure things out eventually, and some of them don't, but during the time that this process is happening, there's a loss of productivity for the manager, likely a loss of revenue for the store, and generally an increased turnover rate due to incompetent management. Why would you only train someone by the time that he or she is obviously failing? And I've seen this a lot; a new manager is hired/promoted/transferred, and not given any assistance during that process. Instead, he or she is left all alone until the numbers start coming back ugly or angry phone calls hit the regional manager's voicemail. All of a sudden, the regional is on site! being the training guru when it's probably too late because the entire staff hate the manager and the manager is this close to having a breakdown. Allocating more resources to training from the beginning should help to ensure a smoother transition from one manager to another, and reduce the amount of panic encountered by the new manager who is out of his or her depth and knows it. The store will run smoother, and sales will be higher. Management turnover would probably even go down!

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation. The company doesn't want to invest much money on training its managers, because they don't tend to stick around for long, but the less they invest in their managers, the quicker the managers leave the company. Not to mention the rest of the staff who are tired of working in a dysfunctional environment. I've been there, done that, and believe me, it isn't fun. At the same time, even the crappiest McJob can be made a whole lot better by a halfways competent manager. I've seen that too. Not every manager you invest money in is going to be great at it, but they'll all be better than if you don't invest a thing, and how can you tell the difference between a bad manager and a badly trained one unless you give them the training?

Bore, Boring, Bored, Bored...est?

Today I find myself not entirely sure what to do with myself. I've recently drafted a couple of projects for my employer, including a social media policy and my recruitment and selection manual. It's great to have those done, and I had a total sense of accomplishment once I did so, but now I find myself really wondering what to do next. Right now, both of those projects are in the hands of senior management at Head Office. They've been written and revised, and now I wait.

I'm not good at waiting. I know there are other projects in the pipeline that need doing, but I don't as of yet have enough information on them or the go-ahead, so I'm sitting metaphorically twiddling my thumbs. I say metaphorically, because it isn't like I don't have any work to do; I'm still doing my regular 9-5 job. All of these were extra projects that I either initiated myself or eagerly took on outside of my regular job duties. But I don't quite know what to do with myself without them.

For one thing, I'm not used to having as much free time as I do. I worked fulltime throughout most of my university career, and certainly throughout my HR program. I finished my HR program and jumped straight into these extra projects. So for the first time in a number of years, my commitments are only to my regular working week. It's very strange.

The other issue is that I don't get nearly as engaged by my regular job duties. While I always strive to perform to the top of my abilities, and am classed as a high-performer according to the company standards, I'm not that interested in my regular duties. I've outgrown this role, and everyone knows it. When I have other things to do as well, then the day-to-day doesn't seem too bad, but it gets harder once I've got nothing else going on. I've always been a bit prone to getting bored once I've learned the ins and outs, and I've hit the wall. This job really doesn't have anything more to learn or to offer; there's no challenge anymore.

Right now, I'm waiting. Waiting for head office to give me something else to do; waiting to find out if they have the budget to transition me to another role. I've never been good at waiting. There are some things that I can be very patient about, but I'm not good at bored. That is, after all, what prompted me to go ahead and start some of these projects; it's also why this blog exists. And I love twitter; the microblogging format is perfect for me. When I have a quiet minute, I can check in and see what's up in the world of HR, because that's pretty much all I do on twitter, is HR stuff. Because it's fascinating. And there's new stuff pretty much everyday, and I'm finally in a position to be able to apply the things I learn to my job. And that's just awesome.

Common Sense... Isn't.

Does anyone out there have pride in your common sense? I do. I tend to think of myself as pretty practical by nature. I try to cut through to the center of the problem and find the simplest way out. Obviously, it doesn't always work out that way, but I try.

Common sense, though, just isn't that common. There's an ability there to frame the question in a particular way, to be able to see through to the simplest solution, that eludes some people. And those who do it well generally can't tell you how they do it, either; they just do. And it seems almost incomprehensible to those who do have a solution as to why someone else might not get it.

Nobody gets every problem, every time; I certainly don't. I'm not the Rainman of problem solving. But I do enjoy a good thought puzzle every once in a while. Aside from the unhappy-customers part, I always really enjoyed it when a customer came in with some kind of unusual issue with his or her glasses- it meant I had to figure out what the problem was and how to fix it. And yet, at the same time, I worked with people who couldn't figure out how to straighten a crooked frame. (You go opposite to the problem- if the frame is too high on the left-hand side, because the patient has an ear that's higher, raise the temple on the other side to compensate.)

A lot of things that should be common sense aren't simply because people don't really understand the concept. For example, paying off your credit card in full. Many people don't seem to understand the way compound interest works, so don't really understand how much more they end up paying by making only the minimum payments. I don't know that this is so much a lack of common sense as it is a lack of education, but whatever.

This posting mostly stems from a seminar I attended on the weekend.
It was great - very interesting, and the sponsors were kind enough to supply some very nice wine at each table. They also had put together a number of gift baskets as door prizes. One of them was a selection of teas. When the girl drawing the ticket was announcing this particular prize, she mentioned having gone around town to various tea shops in order to put together the gift basket. And then she said, "I tried to get English teas, but no matter where I went, all the teas were grown in India or Sri Lanka."

I laughed. Nobody else did. I thought she was joking. She wasn't joking.

First of all, I thought it was pretty common knowledge that tea doesn't grow in the UK. I also would have thought there would be some awareness of history in terms of the tea and spice trade, and the British Colonies around the world, especially considering we ARE a former British Colony. However, that's ignorance, not necessarily a lack of common sense. What really struck me in all this as a lack of common sense was the fact that she went all over town, to several tea shops looking for tea from England, and it never once occurred to her to ask the shop staff??

Passion in the Workplace

One of the corporate values espoused by my current employer is passion. Passion about quality, about what we do, about service.

I think corporate values are one of those things that a lot of people tend to tune out, as mere corporate buzzspeak. In some organizations, this may be true. In the smart organizations, it goes rather beyond all that, and, whether it is explicitly laid out as one of your values or not, I think passion is hugely important.

Have you ever worked a job you didn't much care for or about? How motivated were you to do well? And how easy was it to get up every morning and head into work? I know for me, once I found a job that I could get excited about, it made everything easier. It has always been important to me to do well at any job, starting with my first one working in the local grocery store deli. I take pride in my ability to perform well, even in a job that really isn't that intellectually stimulating. (Slicing lunchmeat barely requires an IQ, especially with scales that do all the work for you. I remember being so excited when I got a job that allowed me to handle cash- it seemed like such a step up.) At the same time, though, my jobs felt so much easier when I was working for a company I wanted to be working for, and doing a job I wanted to do. That extra little bit of effort that makes the difference between a good performer and a great one has a lot to do with passion.

I started out as a salesperson. First, it was shoes, then lingerie, then glasses. The shoe retailer I worked for sold low-end shoes, and were very much focused on price. Their products didn't typically last too long, and were quite inexpensive. It drove me nuts when someone would come in and try to haggle down the price of a pair of shoes that were already marked down to $5. First off, in case anyone didn't know, the clerk you're dealing with in a chain store very rarely has any ability at all to lower the prices on anything. Second off, if the shoe is marked down to $5 from an original price of $29.99, chances are that's as good as it's ever gonna get for you. This wasn't a job I was particularly fond of, but it paid the bills for a year or so in university. I still did my best, but it was hard to get up and go to work in the mornings, especially when I ended up with a boss I couldn't stand. Ultimately, when I moved on, I ended up in a company that focused on quality instead of price, and where the goal wasn't to sell at all costs, but to ensure that it was a good sale, a product that suited the customer's needs. It was a job where I was encouraged to refuse to sell a poor-fitting pair of eyeglasses, because we knew the customer in the end wouldn't be happy with them, and one where the price was what it was, and we made no apologies for costing more than some of our competitors- we sold high-end product. Suddenly, my sales shot up. Suddenly, I didn't have to feel like a salesperson, pushing extras on customers who just wanted a pair of shoes for a low price. Suddenly, I could find out what the customer actually needed, and reccommend a good product on that basis. Suddenly, I was passionate.

I've never looked back. For me, quality is hugely important, and I want to work for a company that feels the same way. Knowing that their values aligned with mine meant that I went to work happier, and talked to customers more, and sold more. I'm not a salesperson; I still don't think of myself that way, even though I was one of the most successful in the Western half of the company. Instead, I think of myself as an educator in a sales role. My job is to find out what my customer needs, and teach you about your options. Based on that education, my customer and I come to a conclusion, and purchased accordingly. I had very high levels of customer satisfaction, as well as high sales, and a reasonably devoted customer base.

That said, I don't particularly intend to pursue a career in sales. I am also passionate about HR. It grabs me in a way that sales really doesn't, and while that job was a wonderful role for me while it lasted, I also think I have outgrown it. But now I understand a little better why the company's philosophy matters to me as an employee. I have great respect for anyone who turns down business on the basis of a poor values fit. Understanding that not all business is good business is a valuable lesson to learn, and it has made that company quite successful in their market. You need to walk the walk, not just talk the talk, and that was the first (though hopefully not the last) company I ever worked for that was truly aligned with its values.

See this article for more on passion.