Ignoring Sadie will cost your company money

Today is February 29th, Leap Day! There’s all sorts of superstitions, traditions and myths around February 29th and one anachronism hanging around from (take your pick) the 5th, 12th, 19th or early 20th century is a phenomenon that’s come to be known as Sadie Hawkins Day.

For those of you unfamiliar with Sadie, she was alleged to be the homeliest girl in the lilabnerfictional town of Dogpatch but it was determined that on one day of the year (here’s where the legends and myths collide) she was allowed to propose to an eligible bachelor and he couldn’t refuse. It was so successful for Sadie that it was decided that this would become a regular event for all single women in Dogpatch. And I guess to protect the single gents that day was set as February 29th so it would only occur once every four years.

So what’s all this got to do with HR? Well, the way the men in Dogpatch treated Sadie  reminds me of how many eligible corporations today treat candidates. Sadie had a lovely personality, was strong and fast and although she was over a certain age (the ugly word “spinster” was tossed around) she was, I presume, absolutely capable of fulfilling all the necessary requirements of a spouse. Think of all the candidates who have lots of business knowledge, pleasant personalities, loads of experience and are ignored by companies because of their age or some other reason that has nothing to do with the work to be done. And yes, this happens more to women over a certain age than men.

Ageism and sexism run rampant in today’s workplace despite decades of legislation. Too many companies seem to want the newer, younger models. Well, that’s fine if you insist on that. Just be prepared to pay more and fight harder to get and keep them. The Millennials are the largest generation since the Boomers to enter the workforce, but they can’t make up for the number of boomers leaving the workforce and the fact that Gen X fell far short in terms of the number of people in the workforce.

Graying boomers (and soon X’ers) will be staying in the workforce a lot longer by choice or need. Companies ignore them at their peril.

Happy Sadie Hawkins Day.

Updates are available

I got a reminder to update my phone last week. Wouldn’t it be great if we all updated our updates imageresumes as often as we update our phones? Wouldn’t it be great if there was an app to remind us to do this every couple of months, or whenever we complete a new project that warrants inclusion?

We’re all tied to our mobile devices. The need to run the most up-to-date software or version is obvious. So why don’t we make the same effort to keep our resumes in the most up-to-date version. Usually it’s because we don’t think about updating our resume until we need it. It’s the same with our networks. Most of us don’t invest the time into keeping our network of contacts fresh and current until we need them.

And then it’s often too late.

Now I’ve been known to say, “It’s never too late to start doing better.” and that’s the good news. You can start doing a better job at both these critical tasks. The truth is that you always need an updated resume because you never know when you’re going to be the one invited into the conference room or your manager’s office and told that your employment status with the organization has changed, the organization’s going in a different direction, there’s been a restructuring of the internal workforce and we’re going to be eliminating redundancies. However they put it, now you know it’s time to dust off the old resume and start networking.

If you go to your laptop, open the most recent copy of your resume and get a message that it’s in an older version of your word processing software, that’s the first sign that you’ve overlooked keeping the resume up to date. The longer you wait, the harder it is to update the resume. It’s easy to forget projects you’ve completed and the quantifiable results you produced.

Updating your resume is something many people have on their To Do lists and it’s usually the one that falls to the bottom of the queue or right off the page. Here’s your reminder. Update your resume before the end of next weekend. Make a call or two to a network contact you haven’t spoken with in the past month (or six!). Keep your network and your resume current. You never know when you’re going to need them.

Maybe They Cut Too Deep?

Note: This post was written and posted the day before the horrific attack on the Marine Recruiting Center in Chattanooga, TN. It is in no way meant to demean or make light of the terrible suffering of the U.S. Marines or the family, friends and comrades in arms of the fallen.

There was a three-plus hour outage at the New York Stock Exchange last week.

Hackers? Terrorists? No, greed.

In an article in the NY Times today it was reported that one of the first things that the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) did after they bought the NYSE in 2012 was cut hundreds of experienced managers and staff from the New York location. The remaining staff, less experienced and no doubt less expensive,  was wholly unprepared to deal with the crisis. ICE staff from Atlanta was supposed to be able to handle situations like these but clearly were unable to, as traders languished outside the exchange receiving precious little information about what was going on.

trader outside NYSEThis seems to be another example of a distant corporate parent failing to recognize the need for talented people to run the business. Sure it seemed like there were more staff than necessary but to start cutting heads before you fully know how you’ll keep the doors open seems insane. One of the rationalizations for the layoffs was that ICE was to install a new system that would be managed and maintained from Atlanta. However three years later that system is still not fully functional and when the existing system went down they didn’t have the staff or know how in place to quickly bring the system back up.

So we don’t need to worry about threats from far off lands. The greed that exists in the boardrooms of too many corporations is the greatest threat to our economy.

 

Do we want Clones?

I saw a job posting today that I think was a new form of typo or misguided thinking. The heading was for a “Clone of Media Supervisor.” I can only imagine the meeting in the recruiting or manager’s office when they were trying to come up with the requirements of the position to include. Finally, someone, sounding rather exasperated, blurted out, “Can’t we just clone the Media Supervisor we just lost?” And, boom, a new title was born.

Nowhere in the posting did the word “clone” ever appear. What did appear was a vague, generic description of the requirements of the position. Things like, “Become actively involved in projects”, “Serve as the main point of contact for vendors”, “Present recommendations”, “prepare reports, day-to-day administration,” and other terms that conveyed nothing about the true expectations of the position. This same organization will wonder why they’re having trouble filling the position. They’ll likely be swamped with inappropriate resumes. Or they will fill it quickly with a completely unprepared or soon-to-be bewildered applicant.

Too many organizations still think of recruiting as “entry level HR”  and fail to recognize the importance of carefully reviewing every vacancy before trying to fill it.

Do we need to replace this person? How has the position changed? What new skills are required to be successful in the role? These and many other questions must be asked each and every time we have an opportunity to add a new team member. We can’t just clone the previous incumbent because then we doom the organization to “same old, same old.” And the acronym for that is So-So and that’s something no organization can afford to be.

Are you stressed yet?

We’re coming up on Halloween so here’s a scary story for you.

In the past few months I’ve seen numerous articles about the effect of the workplace on worker’s mental health. This is a serious problem that’s spiraling out of control with no end in sight. And it’s costing organizations big bucks. According to the article in HR Magazine, “The indirect cost of untreated mental illness to employers is estimated to be as high as $100 billion a year in the U.S. alone, according to the National Business Group on Health.” In Workforce it’s estimated at over $80 billion. Yet rarely in any of the articles do they talk about the root cause of all the stress and anxiety. The focus was more on how organizations need to address this erupting dilemma.

I think the cause is the ever present strain on workers to produce more with less.

The fear of losing your job, especially for those over 50 years of age. The stress to keep up with every emerging technology, the fear of falling behind even a millimeter.

I’ve seen skilled employees thrust into manager roles with virtually little or no training on how to manage a team.

I’ve seen managers have their staff size cut in half or worse with the expectation that they will continue to produce at the same volume with no drop in quality.

I’ve seen people given manager titles without staff. And these “managers” are told to lead projects with borrowed resources whose allegiance and interests are elsewhere.

I seen recognition programs slashed. Increase budgets frozen. Senior management treating employees with an HTHJ (Happy To Have Job) mentality.

Until management realizes that its workers really are their most valuable assets, the prime differentiator among organizations, and stop treating them like interchangeable parts, the cost and frequency of days lost to mental health issues will surely continue.

So look around. How many of the things I described above have taken place at your office?

Your thought, comments or horror stories are welcome.

 

Would You Do This?

Stepping away from tales of courage for a moment, this falls into another category, I’ll let you decide which.

I saw a story in HRExecutive about people getting tattoos of their company logo. Now I’m not one for tattoos in the first place, but really? In this day and age I question the wisdom of getting any company’s logo permanently etched on my body. Maybe I’ve counseled too many people who’ve been told their positions have been eliminated but haven’t these people heard that the days of lifetime employment are over?

In the article it does say getting the ink is not mandatory or even necessarily encouraged. But there are monetary incentives for doing it at one company. At another the people feel that showing their commitment enhances the likelihood that they’ll be with that company for the long haul.

I can’t say what the managers at those companies are thinking, but I doubt that having the company logo on your body would persuade me to keep you if your performance didn’t merit it.

So please weigh in on what you’d do. Would you consider getting branded with your company’s logo? Is doing this a savvy strategy to keep your job or close to crazy in the current business environment? I’m looking forward to reading your opinion.

Only the best,
Ron

You can also cut and paste this URL into your browser if the link above doesn’t work. http://www.hreonline.com/HRE/view/story.jhtml?id=534357248&ss=Indelible+commitment