#1 Reason People Keep Coming to Work

If someone asked you what the number one most important indicator is for recruiting and retaining top talent, what would you say? Good pay? Great benefits? Time off? Flexible schedules? While these are all contributors to a great overall package, the number one necessary element is actually meaningful work.

At the LinkedIn Talent Connect conference I attended in San Francisco, this was a theme that continued to appear through the course of the three-day event, and I found this concept to be really interesting to explore, so I chose if for my #5 big take away from Talent Connect. You can see my previous Top 3 take always on my blog at www.highgearcareer.blogspot.com

I wanted to write specifically about this topic because I think that meaningful work can happen in a few different ways, and sometimes I think that people can find it challenging to connect their day job (manager’s included) to something that would be meaningful or inspiring. So, below I have listed a couple different ways to be able to create meaningful work regardless of what your day job is.

1.       Create meaningful work by setting specific learning objectives with your job.

Co-founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman, recently authored a talent management strategy he calls The Alliance. In this method he addresses how to keep your employees engaged for periods of time or “tours of duty” by openly discussing their long-term goals, which may not be inclusive of a long-term career with the company. However, in order to keep them engaged in achieving the goals of the company, the manager and employee discuss what professional development goals can be achieved during the designated tour. This is a great tactic because the company wins the loyalty and productive efforts of an employee for a designated period of time, and the employee gets to create new opportunities for themselves by exploring new skill areas: win-win for everyone.

 

2.       Create meaningful work by leveraging your company’s resources to achieve your personal goals.

Matthew Kelly explained how a waste management company effectively used company resources to help employees achieve personal goals in his 2007 book, Dream Manager. After realizing the significant challenges and expenses accrued with the high turn-over rate in his company, the team in his company conducted some research around why people were leaving. When they discovered that the reason people left could easily be remedied with a minimal investment by the company things started changing.

 

It all started with a simple survey and a bus. By alleviating the cost associated with the drive to the plant by providing a bus to shuttle employees in, the leadership learned they could retain workers who were otherwise put out by that expense. First the company providing a bussing service, then financial counseling. Before too long, employees were achieving personal goals like homeownership. How was this possible? The management in this story noticed that through the investment in a full-time employee (the Dream Manager)to help employees achieve their personal goals that retention improved, turnover reduced, and productivity sky-rocketed.

 

While not every company may have a dream manager on their staff, this story has become widespread in talent management circles, and employers are becoming increasingly aware that offering this type of benefit provides massive returns on the investment.

 

What if your company does not offer a dream manager? Well, then it leaves more responsibility on the individual to seek out resources. If your company is not in the habit of offering these types of programs, see if there is an opportunity to mentor underneath a manager who could unofficially provide you with the right guidance to help in a similar way.

 

In my career I have been fortunate enough to connect with some incredible talented professionals, but it has never been as a result of my working for a company with a Dream Manager type of program, but rather it has been as the result of my persistence to learn more and be the best at what I do. People want to help hungry people. It doesn’t matter if you’re hungry for a sandwich or starving for information, people want to help others, and if you reach out, I promise you will find people interested in sharing.

 

3.       Create meaningful work by connecting to your company’s mission.

This is kind of a no-brainer, which is why I saved it for the last point. While, in theory, it’s ideal to only accept jobs in organizations where you share a mission or common vision, let’s be real. Sometimes in life you accept jobs for other reasons: maybe it’s for the money, maybe you are geographically tied to an area.

When I lived in San Diego, I spent some time working for a health clinic, and there were a number of people who worked there who conveyed the importance of the work we did as an attractor for employment. Many long-term employees had been recipients of care at the clinics as children, and several times when people left, they would immediately want to return.

Sharing a mission has the direct benefit of essentially finding joy in your work because you understand that while your role may not be directly deploying the mission of the company, it contributes to that greater work being accomplished.

I hope you’ve been able to find a way to create meaningful work for yourself or your employees. If you found any recommendations useful, please feel free to let me know.

Check back tomorrow for Take Away #6

LinkedIn Talent Connect Take Away #2: Maximize Recruiting Programs

As a Talent Acquisition Professional (aka “Recruiter”), one of the most frustrating things I face is when a hiring manager brings in a candidate from an agency, and when the candidate shows up for the interview they run into a former co-worker. Of course the hiring manager adores the candidate; they get along well with the team, and pass the assessments with flying colors. The company, now, is then doling out 25% of the candidate’s salary when, instead, we could have paid that an employee a referral fee.
 Now don’t get me wrong, I am stoked to have the new addition to the team, but I always feel a little defeated when we use an agency when we could have acquired the same individual through other means.  

Yesterday I wrote a blog about my #1 Big Take away from the LinkedIn Talent Connect conference, so as promised, here is my second big take away from Talent Connect: Tips to Maximize Recruiting Programs. One of the break-out sessions I attended was called Relationships Matter: Develop a Productive Employee Referral Program. The panel was facilitated by Kara Yarnot of Meritage Talent Solutions and included contributions from Teresa Keeler of Owens Corning, Becky Mohr of SapientNitro, Julie Barker of Appirio and Jennifer Rice of Cisco.

The information provided by this group was very informative, and whether your company is getting started with an Employee Referral Program, or you are hoping to be the introducer of some innovative ways to switch-up your plan, I think the following information is beneficial. Below, in no particular order, were some great ideas I took away, and thought I would share with you.

1.       Use Technology to Connect with Talent by Leveraging Employee Contacts: There are several platforms in existence now (I am posting the list and links below)  that will pick up key words in your job, match them to the LinkedIn profiles of people connected to your employees, and recommend that the employee refer the candidate. Your employees have to opt-in to this, so it is not for everyone, but would certainly be a helpful way to avoid the frustrating situation I explained above.

2.       Non-Employee Referral Programs: People who do business with your company (customers, vendors, and even competitors) all know great people. Vendors typically get to know your company culture very well. What if you incentivized them for making a referral? Great idea, just be sure to check with your finance department first.

3.       Recruiting is Everyone’s Job: While Talent Acquisition teams can do their best to source candidates, identify quality talent, and post jobs on every site imaginable, there are interactions that every hiring manager has on a day-to-day basis with people in the public. I remember when I lived in San Diego and was hiring entry-level talent; I would always keep my eye out to see who was really good at what they were doing. I frequently handed out my business card to counter-people, wait staff, and pretty much everyone who I met who I could see as a potential fit for my company. Was it my job to do guerilla recruiting? Not exactly, but I like to think I’m somewhat of a talent hound, and so anywhere I go I keep my eyes open. Encourage your managers to do the same. Their next customer service or entry-level employee may be someone they are already having interactions with every day, they just have to keep their eyes out.

4.       Open Communication to Referral and Referrer: Many times when I communicate with candidates who have been referred I will circle back with the referrer so they know I made the connection. Even if someone is not a fit for a particular role, but they were referred from an employee I will send them a personal message. Just because they are not qualified for a role doesn’t mean that something else won’t be a fit for them in the future. Communicate openly and build the relationship, so there is an opportunity for future conversations.

5.       Recruiting on the Company Scorecard: While this approach varied by company, the key take away was that managers were informed about new or hard-to-fill positions. By including Talent Acquisition in the manager’s meeting, teams are able to contribute additional ideas for sourcing talent and sharing jobs, and finding the candidate became a collaborative effort.

 

Check back tomorrow for take away #3 from LinkedIn Talent Connect.

For more information on Employee Referral Systems visit:

GooodJob

Choozer

RolePoint

Careerify

Referral Link

Zao

Zalp

EmployeeReferrals.com

Simppler

LinkedIn Talent Connect Takeaway #1

Have you ever been to an industry or professional event, convinced that you were going to network, learn, get inspired, and grow, only to return home after days away feeling like you sat in a week-long sales pitch? I know I have, so when I decided to attend the 2014 LinkedIn Talent Connect, I was both excited, yet skeptical. Since I'd never previously attended a LinkedIn event I wasn't quite sure what to expect, so I thought I would share my experience.

To give you some background information for those who may be unaware, LinkedIn is not only a great social networking tool for maintaining relationships with former co-workers and contacts, but it is also a great place to connect with other professionals in your industry and career field. In my field, Talent Acquisition, LinkedIn is a great partner because I can post jobs, reach out to people interested in new opportunities, and help build my personal and company brand.

For the last several years, LinkedIn has invited Talent Acquisition professionals across the nation (and now the world) to participate in an inspiring event that educates those of us committed to finding and retaining talent. They bring in leaders in the HR/TA field to share best practices, tell stories of overcoming corporate challenges, and most importantly inspire those of us who work within this practice area.

I found this 3-day event to be engaging, entertaining, educational and informative, but instead of just tweeting "Great event" to Jeff Weiner, I figured I'd break it down to share what I learned in 10 great take-aways. Each day over the next 10 days I will share 1 big take-away from the event to share with you.

 

Takeaway # 1: Rock My Profile

One of the great things about this event is that in addition to the keynotes and breakout sessions, there were resources to help with things like improving your own LinkedIn profile (including a space for new headshots, and a team of LI professionals to show you how to zhoosh up your headlines, summaries, etc).

While I consider myself a pretty robust LinkedIn user, I still wanted to sit down and learn about what I could do to improve.

#1: Headshot- Since I already had a decent headshot this wasn’t an issue for me, but for those of you who think of LinkedIn as more of a social networking site than a professional networking site, you may want to reconsider the pic of yourself in a sombrero, unless of course you work at Chevy’s (or are hoping to be recruited by Chevy's, perhaps).

#2: Headline- This is an area where I needed some help. I used to just write up my job title and call it good. But after reviewing my profile with a LI pro, I realized that it was redundant to have my job title as my headline because it was already listed below. Instead, my pro recommended that I change my headline to inform people of why I would be reaching out to them. Now they know: Connecting with Top Performing Talent! Maybe if you are a job seeker, your headline would be something that highlights your most recent, notable accomplishment in your current role. The headline should concisely capture the attention of someone quickly reviewing your profile, but specific enough that someone looking for your skills would know they've found their match!

#3: Summary– My summary used to be a vague list of skills I used in my job, but now I have it updated and broken into 3 specific parts:

• My Story: This tells people where I came from and how I got to where I am today.
• Present: These are things that I am working on now, and in general really interesting bits about what is happening at my current company. For example, I mentioned that our current VP of Human Resources just got recognized as one of the North Bay Business Journals’ 40 Under 40 Executives.
• My Mission: This section should include your goals, mission, and what you are trying to accomplish. I updated mine to include a link to my blog: www.highgearcareer.blogspot.com and a video about working at my company.

While you may not be able to get tailored advice from simply reading this article, LinkedIn has a robust YouTube channel with not only all the sessions from Talent Connect, but yes, also videos on how you can Rock Your Profile: http://youtu.be/Ep2nq_oRYLI

I thought this particular offering because not only are people like me and you interested in how to present ourselves online, but now I can share this information with you all as well.

Check back tomorrow for my second big takeaway from LinkedIn Talent Connect.

Ditching the Management Trap: Your Best Career Move Yet!

You’ve been there, working hard for your company, waiting for the day your ship will come in, and suddenly the day arrives. The manager of your department decides to move to North Dakota and suddenly there is an opening on your team that will land you a big, fat paycheck. Without haste, you immediately pull up the resume you’ve stored on your personal drive and before you know it, you’ve hit the final “Submit” button on the application. With enthusiasm you begin to wait, thinking that this is your shot to move into management, your shot to finally get into the “big leagues.”

Your interview is a smash, and within days you get the offer, the office, and the title. The first day isn’t too bad, everyone is congratulatory, but then weeks and months in you realize you are spending what used to be your free time on annual reviews. The time you used to spend catching up with colleagues in the break room is now dedicated to coaching your team, managing budgets, tracking reports, and dealing with personnel issues. Time goes on and before you know it, you have less time, the money you thought you were making somehow vanishes, and you have a heap of responsibility weighing you down. What happened? You got managered!

                Since I started my career in Talent Acquisition, I have seen a number of people interview for management jobs who were incredibly talented individual contributors. However, after doing their jobs for a period of time they get complacent and get bored. They want to make more money and see what their manager is doing and think, I can do that job. However, once these individuals assume the coveted management title, they suddenly realize that life at the company isn’t how it was at all when they were a graphic designer, accountant, assistant, coordinator, or specialist. The wonderful freedoms available in those positions are now a distant memory because they let the lure of the almighty dollar pull them in.

                I find it interesting that when I interview people for management positions (in a promotion situation) and ask where they would like to be 10 years from now, many responders admitted they would like to continue doing what they are presently doing. In my imaginary mind, I stop and wondered, why are we even having this conversation? Why had these individuals taken the time to apply for a job they really didn’t want? After digging a little deeper in my follow up questions, I typically discover that the motivation for the move is to retire at a higher income bracket to ensure security for their families. While I find this to be a noble response, I have to speculate that perhaps the reason people think they need to move into management is because they don’t understand the ways they can grow exactly where they are right now.

                Believe me, I understand wanting to drive your career into high gear. I know what it’s like to want to work so hard that you will do whatever it takes to get what you want, what you need, or what satisfies your goals. But, I also understand the significant sacrifices that are made the higher up the chain you reach. Before anyone assumes that I am simply unsympathetic and am a dream-killer, I want to stop for a moment and talk about two things.

1.       Do you absolutely love what you are doing now?

2.       Will becoming a manager/supervisor/higher level officer bring more joy to your overall life?

If you answered positively to the first question, and you love what you do, then do not deprive the world of your gift. Make a voice for that passion, and share it! If it is anything from mopping floors, to singing, to analyzing data, to reviewing credit reports, if what you are doing everyday brings you joy, then you should absolutely pursue doing more of what you love. If being a manager will enable you to do more of that, then follow that path. If you love what you do, and you are passionate about teaching others how to do it, and you coincidentally also enjoy things like adhering to and creating budgets and would like to help others create a career path around that talent, then being on the management path works for you.

                However, if you move into a management position with the assumption that you are simply going to make more money, then there will come a time when the money will not be worth the significant personal sacrifices. So, what should you do instead? You should take your passion for the thing you do and become an expert. Here me out here. If you’ve read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, then you know this already, but if you haven’t then here’s some news for you: it takes 10,000 hours to really gain mastery of a skill. If you are spending a minimum of 40 hours per week doing your job, and the typical work year is 2,080 hours, then by the time you’ve been doing your job for 4.81 years, you already have the experience necessary to achieve expert status. If you’ve been doing your job less than 4.81 years, then start investing in yourself in your free time: read books about people who are successful in your career, attend networking events to grow your circle, get hungry for success, find out what other people have done to be successful in your field, listen to every podcast on the topic, and start taking action. No matter what field you are in, there are experiences you have had that you can share with others that can help make them better at their jobs, too. If you become an expert, here are some opportunities that you will have available to you:

·         Get recruited by a competitor or vendor: Believe it or not, there are very few people in this world who bring true passion to what they do. If you are in a company that values that passion, then by all means stay, but if you are in a situation where you are demonstrating excellence in what you do, believe me, other people will start to notice.

·         Create an info product to teach other people what you know: People love success stories, and they love learning how to get to where you are. If you create an info-product, an e-book, online videos and tutorials, then you will further separate yourself from the average Joe or Jane. If your product is good, people will buy it, and you’ve just created a new opportunity to make more money.

·         Speaking opportunities within your field of practice: Speaking is not only a great opportunity to establish yourself as an expert, but it is a great way for you to grow personally and learn more about the thing you love. Start with professional associations, but be open to opportunities where you can meet new people and give back.

·         Start a side consulting business: If you are serious about creating more revenue for yourself, then doing consulting work will make you more money, and fast-track your knowledge. When you consult, you are going to have significantly more exposure to case studies and different scenarios, and you will find you become exceptionally effective at solving specific problems. Create a system around how you solve those problems, and package it for more than you make in your current role, and sell it.  Side note: Just double check your standards of conduct first to make sure you don’t have a conflict of interest in your present company.

·         Mentorship opportunities to teach junior employees, interns or even high school students: The best career advice I’ve ever received came from my old coach, Robert Schantz who always said, “Come from a place of contribution.” Don’t expect anything in return, just help others and your life will improve.

What I want to express more than anything is that you have options available to you. If you are passionate about what you do, then get ahead by investing in yourself. As you develop yourself in time that would have otherwise been spent on your department budgeting report, you will find you can start to have a vision of possibilities. Out of that vision, you can create opportunity, set and achieve goals, and drive your future exactly where you want to go. When you have that clear vision, then you will see that anything standing in the way of you reaching that goal is simply not worth your time.