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Archive for Human Resources

The New Candidate Profiles and Their Impact on Your Job Search or Business

November 24th, 2020

How many times have you heard the statement to be careful what you post online? Well, it turns out that companies are exploiting information they can access in the public domain about job candidates, including those posts you wish you had never made. Whether full-time, part-time, contract or temporary worker, a company may wish to know just as much about an entrepreneur contracting with them for a month, as they do about a full-time employee.  While there’s a bevy of software available to scan resumes for keywords, more-and-more, organizations are seeking to create a full-fledged profile on their candidates. Is it creepy and Big Brother-esque? Yes, but an unfortunate reality the Internet has facilitated.

What information are they targeting? Old and new resumes, blogs, and social media profiles, including those posts you so often believe are private (they aren’t), certifications, licensing, professional development, academic histories and degrees, military service, awards, presentations, and papers, just to name a few.

While this offers a broader perspective on a potential new hire, the profile they develop on you can be polar opposite of what you are attempting to convey on your resume and in the interview. Hence, why what you post matters, and why those old YouTube videos of you, particularly the live videos that tend to be less than flattering, need to go. From throwing your computer out the window during a temper tantrum, doing live makeup applications with friends in high school and college, and nearly crippling yourself doing wild skateboard jumps, to smoking pot on camera, all can eliminate you from consideration for a job.  Any job! Not to mention get you featured on the show Ridiculousness. Certainly, you may have been intending to garner this attention at the time – but let it go for the sake of your career!

Ask yourself: should the company believe your resume and interview, or the comprehensive profile they developed containing contradictory information? Make them ask that question and we can guess what will happen. Ultimately, I see this technology impacting any aspect of a career, from job search to promotion, entrepreneurs, and for college admissions.

So, what can we do to stop past poor decisions from haunting us? My advice to clients is to go through their social media and to Google themselves to see what else comes up that they have forgotten about over time. First up – scrape all social media, videos, and blogs and get rid of nasty comments (particularly you fighting with others online, and political and religious insults and articles). Be sure to go back to the beginning and clean up your posts. This isn’t about stating you love a particular political candidate or God, but the negative comments and articles that cause issue. Why should a company hire someone they believe will come and start political arguments or push religion or non-religion on others? Trust me, they won’t! 

Next, get rid of excessive cussing in posts, videos, and blogs, look through your pictures and delete most of those with you drinking alcohol (a little bit is okay, but some people are way too “thirsty” in all their pictures) and definitely all of them where you are doing drugs – I shouldn’t have to say why. The fights you get into on social media with others need to go to, and so do all those personal posts on health issues and family problems.  Then find the “friends and family” that continually do the same and unfriend them. But Karen, you say, I can’t unfriend my Mom, best friend, or anyone to whom I am connected. Actually, you can, and my clients regularly do so with just a small explanation about how it can hurt their job search. If these people truly care about you, they will understand. Find the old profiles that you haven’t deleted, old resumes posted on Monster, CareerBuilder, etc., and delete, delete, delete. 

Blessedly, once something is deleted, it will be increasingly harder to find. My clients have seen a job search or career revitalized after ridding their social media of questionable content, negative political and religious opinions, and old profiles they forgot existed. The impact of having a positive overall profile cannot be underestimated with so many companies doing a “deep dive” on candidates.

I realize the temptation that exists to share this information, but do so privately with friends and family in conversation to avoid having it online where it can come back and hurt you. Lastly, always take 24-hours before responding to an email (those can also get shared out on the Internet), post, video, etc., to ensure you have a calmer viewpoint with more context, which often will make you hit the delete button. Purge the negative from your overall “public” profile, and watch your career grow and your job search reinvigorated!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search, Life Coaching, Personal Branding
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Does Everyone Really Hate HR – Two Perspectives?

July 8th, 2020

Workforce Perspective: Zety, a job search/job seeker targeted publisher, polled 926 American workers regarding HR, and their thoughts on various issues in dealing with HR. You can find the report at https://zety.com/blog/is-hr-human to view the full study. Here are some of the results:

37% of people won’t report being sexually harassed at work.

43% won’t report discrimination. 

84% won’t report a fellow worker not doing their work/putting in the proper hours.

57% won’t report interpersonal issues with boss.

63% won’t report interpersonal challenges with a coworker.

60% won’t report a coworker for stealing from a company.

18% won’t report an issue with their benefits or pay.

69% of those polled do not believe HR advocates for employees.

From continual inconsistency in application of the rules to HR employees gossiping to others about what was said in a private conversation, there are a variety of reasons that workers feel this way. Staff not receiving timely answers to inquiries, feeling they may be retaliated against, and in general not wanting to “rock the boat” are also part of the study. While there are many reasons for people feeling uncomfortable talking to HR, basically it comes down to employees believing they won’t be heard, or their issues valued. That dovetails directly with workers thinking that ultimately their expression of some sort of dissatisfaction could lead to them being the next position downsized or eliminated.

Zety’s overall findings:

  • People lack the confidence to report even the most serious issues at work.
  • Very few people would seek advice from HR, only speaking to them when money is at stake.
  • There’s a real lack of faith in HR’s objectivity and trustworthiness.
  • There are some genuinely weird and wonderful workplace issues out there!

Karen’s perspective: HR has a lot of work to do in repairing their relationship with the humans they are supposed to be supporting. However, I caution you not to blame this all on HR. Many a Human Resources professional has wanted to enact change, do something about discrimination or harassment, or put programs and policies in place to negate or reduce many of the issues cited in the study, but C-level/V-level and Board of Directors often stop them. While many want to make a difference, they are often told no, and if they fight it, their job will suddenly disappear. This should offer a different perspective, that the HR staff often has nowhere to go when they have issues and are quickly shut down when trying to address them. If this is the case at your company, don’t blame HR, blame the leadership.  

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Careers, Human Resources, Talent Management
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50 Shades of Privacy

September 20th, 2019
50 Shades of Privacy

Let’s face it, we already knew our online public data was being used for targeted marketing purposes and for public search information (both paid and free). What about data analysis for your company’s use? Are you comfortable with that potential? What if that supposed “free data” was being used to determine if you were going to leave your current company? Well, the fact is, this is currently being done, and the courts are protecting it.

LinkedIn has recently been in a legal tiff with HiQ Labs, a San Francisco-based company that analyzes free data like public LinkedIn profiles to identify the potential of employees to leave a company. Here is what HiQ says about their Keeper technology:

“Keeper is the first HCM tool to offer predictive attrition insights about an organization’s employees based on publicly available data. The solution turns those attrition insights into consumable, easy-to-deploy action plans so HR and business leaders can retain their key talent.

By identifying risk early, addressing potential issues proactively, and deploying remedial actions quickly, Keeper drives immediate business impact across organizations – and provides a built-in feedback loop so you can communicate your retention win to management.”

Both organizations have great points in their arguments presented to the courts. LinkedIn discusses an expectation of privacy for their customers. Essentially, they are stating that their clients shouldn’t have their information harvested that they entrusted to LinkedIn. 

I also, have zero doubt, HiQ’s intention with their Human Resources program is as stated above. It is a great idea to determine if valuable employees might be wanting to leave, and why, then take action to retain them in an organization.  And their argument that they are using data in the public realm only is absolutely correct. 

What is problematic is how Corporate America will really use this technology. Just as companies troll the online world for those using Monster or Indeed for a job search, or mentioning they are unhappy with their current company on Facebook, this is yet another tool to target those that might leave with downsizings, position elimination, and dismissals (often falsified to avoid paying unemployment). Is this the fault of HiQ? No. They are merely providing a service. It does however beg the question, when is enough, enough in protection of our personal data online, public or not?  

There are other issues though that might not have been put forth in this legal tussle. First, how are rankings of employees made? Red, Yellow and Green are nice, but how accurate is the data; does it look at the age of the information or how long since it has been updated? What about inaccurate data online? While HiQ would not want to give away the algorithms that detect retention issues, it is scary to think you might be putting something on your LinkedIn profile or elsewhere online in the public realm that is problematic without knowing it. You could be a person that is in no way unhappy with your current job, but an algorithm could have you targeted for termination in some form. Please do not blame a company for coming up with technology to try to stop employee loss. HiQ does offer the ability to have your data eliminated from their database, which is comforting. Still, could having your info deleted from their system be an “alert” to HR that you might be looking? 

So many questions, which now in the age of AI will be even more impactful regarding privacy. I suppose this article is merely a warning, to again be careful what you communicate online. To remember that nothing you put online is private, no matter what you are told. And now, to keep your information current and without opinion regarding anything job related, lest you become the focus of unwanted attention.  

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Exploration, Career Management, Career Transition, Careers, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search, Opinion
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What Experts Wish Their Bosses Had Known About Talent Management

August 20th, 2017

What Experts Wish Their Bosses Had Known About Talent Management

Recently MarTechExec contacted me about a Talent Management article they were preparing concerning development of leaders in an organization.  Below you will find my answer for the article and a link to it as well with other experts chiming in on their thoughts.

“The very first thing I tell client companies and executive coaching clientele is that the best ‘doers’ in a given job aren’t necessarily the best managers and leaders for their organization. Many an employee has been promoted to their level of incompetence, creating more problems for organizations and employees, than benefits. Additionally, most managers are promoted, but don’t receive any real training until reaching an executive level on how to do their job effectively.

Therefore, training in management and leadership skills are vital. Early and ongoing instruction should encompass a combination of traditional operational management areas, including the basics of business writing, employment law, reading and understanding company financials, process analysis (metrics/benchmarks/KPI’s), and client relationship management.

Likewise, to grow a leader, assignment of a seasoned mentor should be combined with education in communication and active listening, how to motivate (up and down the chain of the command), dealing with diverse personality types, and the importance of integrity in all business and professional-related interactions. Mastery of these relationship-based skills along with operational excellence is what elevates a manager to a truly great leader. Subpar training and mentorship anywhere during a manager’s career development, in the end, will result in a sub-par executive.”

Link to experts article:  https://martechexec.com/article/talent-management-experts.html#KarenSilins

Categories Career Management, Careers, Human Resources, Talent Management
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The Ghost is not in the Machine, it’s in the Hiring Process!

August 29th, 2016

The Ghost is not in the Machine, it’s in the Hiring Process!

The term Ghosting has become quite popular, and a common term now utilized throughout the dating world.  Even The Business Insider defines it as “the act of cutting off all contact with someone you’re romantically involved with, without offering an explanation.”  Unfortunately, this term is now bandied about in describing the behavior of a company or recruitment firm that interviews a candidate and then never contacts them back about the outcome.

The job of hiring is difficult and takes a great deal of time and energy by those involved, but so does the job search.  Imagine being out of a job for several months, applying to potentially hundreds of jobs, and getting few interviews.  However, you are excited about those interviews you do receive, that is, until there is no follow up, no call, no letter, and ultimately no response of any kind.  How would you feel?

There is never, never, an excuse for ignoring candidates and just leaving them hanging, refusing to call them back.  There is also no excuse for the following:  “if we decide to interview you, we will call you.”  What has happened to civility in the job hunt?  Recruiters, headhunters, HR, hiring managers, or whoever it is doing the hiring or contacting of candidates has a lot of explaining to do.  You simply won’t, or are too lazy, to get back with those you have interviewed.  We aren’t talking about the Applicant Tracking System and the lack of response there (don’t even get me started on that subject), but we are talking about the common courtesy you should show candidates YOU called for phone interviews, or better yet, interviewed in person.

While I understand it can be awkward to tell jobseekers they weren’t selected for a position, you still owe them a call.  They care greatly, and deserve to be notified of the outcome.  However, you choose to leave them hanging, not returning calls, and are, should I say it, rude, if they do happen to catch up to you via phone.  You started this journey – you advertised the job, they spent an hour or more on your system applying for it, you phoned them, you interviewed them, it is your job to get back with them and give them closure!

The Ghost is not in the Machine, it’s in the Hiring Process!

How about we come up with an easy way to give people the unpleasant news?  This doesn’t mean they are going to like being told no, but the candidate will surely appreciate the gesture of a call.  Here is just one example that can leave a very positive impression:

“We really enjoyed getting to know you, and wanted to get back with you as soon as possible.  We had a candidate with more of the particular experience we needed, and while you weren’t selected for this position, you should definitely apply in the future for other positions with our organization.  Thank you so much for your interest in our company.”

Short, sweet, tells them someone else has been hired, encourages them to keep applying.  This person will now go and say nice things about your company, and your follow up skills.

Ghost them instead, and they will most likely no longer apply for any job at your company, and will gladly spread the word about how you treated them.  This is the case with three of my clients within the last month who were promised a call back about the next steps within days (not weeks).  Every one of them had the experience of being called, being brought in for an interview or extensively interviewed over the phone recently, and then nothing, just silence.  Each followed up, and each received no response.  This didn’t happen over a two day period, this is over the last month.

The Ghost is not in the Machine, it’s in the Hiring Process!

I then hear a lot of my recruitment and HR colleagues saying they don’t understand why jobseekers say bad things about their company online.  However, you are making it more difficult for you and your company when the candidates are treated as if they aren’t important enough for a short phone call.

Yes, sometimes the candidate wants to hear why they didn’t get hired in more detail.  Just tell them the other person had more experience and don’t get into the subject of what they can do better unless you are a retained or contingency recruiter advising them for a future, potential position.  Let the jobseeker know again that you are encouraging them to continue to apply for jobs of interest, and wish them great success.

Leaving people hanging is just impolite.  Help a candidate out and give them a call to tell them yes or no, or keep them updated on the process when it takes longer than expected – it will make you feel better, and help them to move on.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Human Resources, Job Search
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The Beatings will continue until Morale Improves! (Part Two)

July 11th, 2016

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves (Part Two)

In part two of my article series we tackle the following:

–50+ hour workweeks.

–Mandatory overtime.

–24/7 on-call employees via cell phone access.

–Irrational investor and stockholder indebtedness.

–Ludicrous employee engagement initiatives that treat staff like children instead of motivating towards increased performance and the understanding of how their work benefits the client.

Corporate America, you have given yourself a “gimme” on the crass decision to no longer view employees as humans – you have taken the human out of Human Resources.  Human Resources, was in its very essence, created to be a resource to the human not the other way around.  Resource, capital, investment, or whatever you call your employees, lets you feel better about treating them poorly and supposedly absolves you of the responsibility of being a good citizen.

If they aren’t “humans” you can:

–Work staff well over 40 hours week or give them the work of two and three people (or both) and say, we are doing all we can as a company and we need you to give more, and you have to do more with less.   You can also declare Mandatory Overtime.

There have been numerous studies stating working anyone over 50 hours a week makes employees ineffective and is unhealthy – see CNBC’s Long Hours Make You Less Productive  Inc’s Why Working More Than 40 Hours a Week is Useless and Forbes Working More Than 8 Hours a Day Can Kill You and yet, you still make employees feel guilty if they don’t give more.  Quite frankly, unless there is an emergency, why are your employees working more than 40 hours a week.  And if you don’t find this a problem then why did the federal government recently raise the base salary requirements for those receiving overtime?  I certainly understand there will be occasions when big projects are due, you have a new client onboarding and it requires extra time, or a seasonal issue like tax season means a few more hours, but truly you have lost sight of YOUR responsibility as an employer.
The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves (Part Two)The mandatory overtime you frequently require is an abuse of your workforce.  Just because you are too cheap to hire a few more people to help doesn’t excuse your taking employees away from their families and other obligations or overworking them.  If your company is habitually requiring mandatory overtime, then the problem is your management as an executive team!

I hear from my clients nearly daily that they are told “we need you to give more,” “do more with less,” and the “company has given as much as they can.”  Have you really given all you can, or are you as a corporate officer loving that bonus and/or those company stocks you get a little too much.  Remember, to whom much is given, must is expected – and yet, I don’t see most corporate officers giving.  Clients, articles and blogs in mass, complain of the following:

–Executives sitting in their offices all day long, only coming out for an occasional meeting, to eat food lower paid staff have brought (of course the executive didn’t bring anything and never does), to berate the staff, or to chat up their favorites for a few minutes ignoring everyone else and going back in their office.

–Hinting that if the employee(s) don’t start voluntarily working additional hours, they will be forced to – and isn’t voluntary better?

–Boards of Directors having lavish parties or meetings, but won’t buy Jimmy John’s or even McDonald’s for their employees staying until 8:00 PM or 9:00 PM every night.

–Rarely if ever give positive feedback but are the first to complain to their employees.

–Take credit for their employees work.

–Will throw their employees under the bus for any problem that arises so they don’t take the hit.

–Telling employees they can use luxury boxes at local sports stadiums, or a special room at a local restaurant or bar, or tickets for events, UNLESS an executive or board member decides at the last minute they want to go.  Oh, and the employees can’t bring spouses or significant others, but the executives and board members can.

–Awarding raises that are lower than the annual cost of living increase while telling the employees they should feel good about that “great raise.”  Of course the stockholders receive lovely returns.

Oh, and this information doesn’t just come from mid-level management or traditional hourly employees.  I also work with C-level executives, many of them from Fortune 500, Fortune 100 and a couple of Fortune 10 over the years!  They regale me with tales of Boards of Directors and fellow execs relishing layoffs, calling employees whiners because they are being ask to do the jobs of two to three (or more) people, not giving raises for years or such a pittance of a raise because the employees need to “sacrifice” for the company and meanwhile the corporate stock is hitting a new high.  These very smart, very talented clients/executives are leaving your corporate arena and going into smaller organizations that aren’t publicly traded, are in the non-profit arena, or starting their own companies because of what they are seeing.  You know this is happening and you do nothing but collect your check, and revel in the potential of how much your bonus and stock might be worth if you get rid of more employees or let positions sit unfilled!  Operate lean you say.  While I agree that organizations should be lean (we certainly don’t need employees just sitting around) many organizations are operating at skeletal levels.

Companies often demand 24/7 availability from employees via their phones, and get upset if employees don’t answer calls or texts right away.  I have had clients with bosses who commanded them to take their phones and be constantly available on bathroom breaks, on vacation, while their spouse was having a baby at the hospital, during family emergencies, and even funerals.

First, your employees don’t need to be available 24/7 – you are getting paid the big bucks.  You do!  Secondly, hire enough staff to do the job, including a couple of people who are there overnight to attend to problems while also performing other tasks.  There, problem solved.

Recently I see a perceived need to move staff around like cattle throughout office space to justify corporate officer’s positions in the company, and that includes constantly changing people’s job responsibilities.  When did moving employees, which by the way is a huge expense per employee each time it is done (relocate desk, computer and peripherals, office cubes, file cabinets, hook computer and peripherals back up, make sure their working, etc.), become a corporate game?  It’s like you have some sort of weird chess board and sit all day plotting where you will move people next.

Employee Chess Board

How about those organizations or senior management promising a promotion or day time hours or a new assignment/position within a given amount of time, if you will just “do this” for us, and then never delivering?  They make their employees take on extra work, an assignment they don’t want or a promotion without the pay, promising they will “make it up” to the employee, but never do.

Can employees complain to HR about any of the above?  Maybe, maybe not?  I have a list of no less than 10 large companies who have gone to a new Human Resources structure where employees have no dedicated HR advocate.  Managers and staff above them have HR advocates, but the employees have to call a supposed “anonymous” 1-800 number to complain and someone will hopefully get back with them.  Who is listening to these calls?  Where is the Human Resources advocacy for the employee?  I have news for these companies – your employees are too afraid to call the 1-800 number for fear of retribution, because you provided management HR protection, but left the employee without any assurances of privacy or real help.  I had a client who called one of these 1-800 HR numbers recently and she has never gotten a call back (she called over a month ago).  She is too fearful to call again to report a boss who is constantly taking credit for her work and hinting she needs to work extra time voluntarily because of a substandard performance, even though he has never met with her to discuss any performance issues and her performance appraisals are stellar.  What is she supposed to do?  Where is her advocate?

Next, we visit the issue of why employee engagement initiatives aren’t working?   Well, it isn’t just the shameful way you treat your staff, it’s the goofy engagement programs you do implement.  From having your employees play silly games to giving everyone two ounces of ice cream in a little cup and telling them “Happy Employee Day” we “celebrate and value” you, the examples are plentiful.  One of my executive clients created an entire set of engagement initiatives for their company that would truly involve the employees, help them see the value of their job to the customer, upgrade everyone’s office area (at a very low expense to the company), and provide additional development opportunities to the employees over time.  The company did go forward with implementation and became one of the top companies to work for in several annual polls.  They have since quit doing these engagement initiatives, and the response from executives as to why, was… but that will cost money and lower our bonuses!  These same executives also don’t understand why they are no longer highly ranked in those top company polls.  Now, why aren’t those engagement initiatives working again?

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves (Part Two)

Lastly, I want to bring up excessive public company groveling to investors.  I am not saying that a company shouldn’t take care of its P&L, but the constant, unnecessary cutting of staff, leaving essential positions unfilled for months or even eliminating them, giving no raises or raises well below the cost of living, and constantly requiring more from employees to produce a better return for investors is beyond outrageous!  You cannot cut your way to profit.  I repeat; you cannot cut your way to profit.  Something always suffers, and that will always be your customer, and then your products and services, and of course, your employees.  If you take care of the employees and customers, the profits will take care of themselves.  You don’t need to hire employees just to put a body in a chair, but you need enough employees to do the job in a normal amount of hours (40 hours weekly) and for goodness sake, stop giving employees the jobs of two and three people and then asking why they are having trouble keeping up.

Is all dark and gloomy?  No it isn’t.  I do have clients who work for organizations that truly care.  They treat their employees like an asset to the organization – better yet, like a customer.  Pay is good, raises come annually, everyone can get a bonus or profit sharing based on total company performance, employees feel appreciated and love their work, employee and client retention is high, executives sit out on the floor with the employees, no one has their own office and that includes the CEO, they follow employment laws, and there is a true open door policy without retribution.  These clients come to me because they want to get a new job in their current organization.  Sometimes my clients have left a past organization that treated them well only to find the craziness described throughout this article, and want to get back into the company they left.  It’s all about the organization’s leadership!

The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves (Part Two)

Yes, I am doing it again, making friends and influencing people in big corporate America, but I feel very strongly somebody has to call out executives and various layers of management for treating employees like sub humans.  In part three we will tackle the following:

–Paying lip service to employee engagement or having staff participate in hangman and tic-tac-toe contests to show how much you “love” them, versus serious engagement programs, which embrace a culture of employee satisfaction and listen to what the employees are telling you in those annual surveys.

–Performance reviews, goals and annual raises done for the benefit of the company and management/executive bonuses, not the employee.

–The new and increasing crisis of anxiety and job-related stress as FMLA and potentially ADA issues.

–Taking away employee vacation or sick time benefits, going to a “combined personal time off” model, or creating a new schedule that actually means more hours and less time off to save a little money.

–Stating you have an open-door policy for employees to express opinions when that really isn’t true.  Then, when an employee comes to your office and says something is wrong with product or service quality, a project, or employee morale, they are soon to be out on the street looking for a new job, or at the very least persona non grata with management.

Until The Beatings will continue until Moral Improves III, adieu.

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Careers, Human Resources
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The New Hiring Paradigm

May 20th, 2016

The New Hiring Paradigm

Karen Silins for Udacity

05/20/16

Hiring hasn’t changed as much as we would like think in the last decade. Yes, we now have Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) and LinkedIn, but the thought process behind HOW we hire needs some reassessment.  The recipe was simple for such a long period of time; graduate from high school and go to college, university, technical school, or get a job and work your way up.  Human Resources and Hiring Managers would evaluate you on aspects of traditional education, work experience and perceived skill-set.

However, traditional education has become cost prohibitive, companies often cut training and development budgets or eliminate that option altogether, and people change jobs frequently sometimes leading to a jack-of-all trades and master of none skill-set.  Even with online degree options, four-month certificate programs and a great deal of free online training available, quality remains an issue and organizations are hesitant to hire without “proof” of ability.

Udacity is filling the void and ensuring verification of student proficiency in the most in-demand tech skills, which means companies must rethink how they hire.  From curriculum’s designed by industry leaders such as Facebook and Google to rigorously reviewed projects, students are vetted for mastery of the skills they will need to excel in tech roles.  The new frontier of education is satisfying a demand for affordability, shorter timelines, and meaningful instruction.   Hiring professionals must reconsider the need for individuals with specific four-year degrees who often lack internships or real-experience, and recognize that candidates are different today.

The non-traditional candidate is now the traditional candidate.  Career changes are the norm, and the days of pursuing a given career path and staying there for 45 years has gone the way of the Dodo.  Most candidates will have more than one career (three to nine typically), various training, and may or may not have a degree (70% of the population lacks a four-year degree according to Census Bureau).  The last point, the degree, should not keep someone from getting a job in the majority of career choices, if they can prove they have the requisite experience.

So, what is a hiring professional to do?  Start assessing real ability through demonstration of skills and demanding portfolios of work (proof of ability) when warranted.  Look at the whole picture, the total career, not just their last job or if they have a four-year degree.  Spend time with interviewees, fully research them ahead of the interview, and ask questions that demand evidence of experience, not just the questions the ATS gives you.  Look for the number one thing you want – a problem solver.  Each employee solves a problem, whether it is better customer service, technical prowess, selling a product, educating others, or improving processes.  Do your due diligence, consider out-of-box candidates, like those from Udacity who are non-traditional, go after problem solvers, and ask great questions, then watch your talent pool flourish.

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Human Resources, Job Search
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Shake It Off

February 11th, 2015

Shake It Off

Bias Wordcloud

About two to three times a year someone writes a “Nasty-Gram” article about how all Career Coaches and Resume Writers are charlatans, and naturally professionals in this industry get very upset.  This is what happened in the most recent case with Matt Charney’s article on Recruiting Daily.  Mind you Matt is “friends” with many of us, including me on some social media outlets, so this was a bit of surprise coming from him.  This is a man who describes himself on Twitter as “snarky and gangsta” and purposely works to get under people’s skin.  Mr. Charney can also be outrageously funny and has a passion for jobseekers being treated well, something I truly appreciate.  The thing about this particular article that really angered our community was his purposeful targeting of colleagues for which Mr. Charney, a very smart guy, didn’t really do his research, but definitely made his suppositions from the limited research as if it were fact.  We need to shake these things off as an industry and continue to do our job well as professionals. Matt is actually, from what colleagues say (I made a couple of calls), a pretty good guy, but I will, as a response from an industry professional that has been in business as a Resume Writer, Career Coach, and Business Coach for 16 years, make a point in this article about the ignorance of blanket categorizations.

Just as in Mr. Charney’s industry, there are people who become a Career Coach or Resume Writer for the wrong reasons, including the hobbyist, the “might get rich” people , the “don’t know anything about the industry” people, the lazy “simple template” people, and the “I think I’m qualified because I offered some career advice or wrote my own resume” people.  When I mentor new resume writers and career coaches I tell them plain and simple – you impact a person’s ability to earn a living, get a job, put food on the table, pay their mortgage, and sometimes self-worth, you had better know your craft, and constantly be educated in it!!!

I also work with recruiters frequently and many of them are good friends and individuals who are incredibly knowledgeable, and I regularly recommend these recruiters to my clients.  Just because there are a few people in recruitment who don’t understand recruitment, HR, applicant tracking systems, the hiring process in general, and only want the potential client commission (the jobseeker be damned), doesn’t mean that is how everyone in the industry operates.

Here’s just a small list of job titles that regularly get complained about in an uninformed manner as if everyone in that profession is problematic:

Recruiters and Headhunters (internal/corporate, contingency and retained)

Web Designers

Human Resources Personnel

Police Officers

Accountants

Doctors

Home Improvement / Construction Personnel

Attorneys

Salespeople

…and any government employee, just to name a few…

So, let’s take a detour about the harm of judging without proper information.  I learned early in my life of the preconceived notions others can have about a profession – my father was a Kansas City, Missouri Police Officer.  No other profession gets the kind of ill treatment and almost gleeful bad press as police officers.  Despite their hard work, he and his colleagues were, and still are, called racists, cruel, stupid, Neo Nazi’s, pigs, and many inappropriate words I can’t put in this article. From being cursed at, yelled at and sometimes nearly killed for giving someone a speeding ticket, to being shot at for trying to stop a crime in process, both the dangers and inane comments are endless.  Yes, some police officers have been awful people, but most civilians know that this is a very small portion of the profession as a whole and don’t spend their time putting ill-informed comments on the Internet saying all policeman are bad.

My father was a true hero in every sense of the word and taught me never to make blanket assertions about a person, their job and industry in general, race, religion or politics, but to look at the whole individual and their true intent.  Here’s a small encapsulation of his career:  Medal of Valor, Police Officer of the Year, Police Officer of the Month, featured on television (multiple interviews), the Kansas City Star, and The Call, numerous commendations, promotion to Detective, promotion to Sergeant, promotion to the head of the Auto Theft Unit, progression to Central Patrol Desk Sergeant in one of the toughest inner city precincts, and Sergeant on the street and Watch Commander (a huge honor), and where he loved to be – helping people directly.  He also passed the torch in both the lives he touched and police officers he mentored.

I know personally he experienced bias and assumptions merely because of the badge he wore, but didn’t allow the ill-informed to keep him from protecting the public. He shook the comments and biases off so he could do his job well.  I am proud to say I am his daughter, I look like him, have his Type A personality, have no fear of speaking in public, am entrepreneurial (he always wanted to own a business), and I don’t judge everyone in stereotypes due to what might have been a bad experience or just ignorance.  Just as my father, we as a profession should not allow an occasional uninformed article to affect our work.

Every single profession, inclusive of entrepreneurs, has the malignant personality, the lazy, the exploiter, the hobbyist, the racist or bigot, the micromanager who trusts no one, and the inept.  To categorize an entire industry negatively makes the person complaining look bad, NOT the industry, as most people reading Mr. Charney’s article will take it for what it is, blathering for attention – sorry Matt, but you are way off base this time (but I still love most of your posts and articles and will continue to share them online – as I am not judging you on just one article).  Some people like to complain about others to make themselves feel better as a person, and some to make people mad.  Shake it off, it’s not worth the anger, worry or emotion.  To quote the Taylor Swift song that I used for the article title, “and the haters gonna hate, hate, hate,” SHAKE IT OFF!

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps her pulse on the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com. 

Categories Opinion, Personal Branding
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Respect the Jobseeker’s Valuable Time

August 23rd, 2013

Respect the Jobseeker's Valuable Time

Hire Me

Whether my clients are discussing their frustrations with the current job search environment, or seminar, workshop and career fair attendees are venting, some complaints remain constant, and one of those complaints is “why are companies wasting my time?”  I know organizations are busier than ever, and employee and management hours have increased, but if you are going to take the time to write a job ad, put that ad on your website, job board, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., or gather referrals from employees, seek out retained recruitment firms, or publicize it in any way that includes collecting resumes – then review the resumes, do interviews and hire someone!!!

Would you like to know why jobseekers call and “bother” you about your job openings?  It’s rarely the common assumption of desperation or anxiety issues – it’s because they receive no answers and would like to know something… anything.  This is both a lack of decision-making and a disregard for jobseeker time and energy by the organizations that put these ads out there and then don’t follow through.  I literally just received a call from one of my clients about a local organization which put an ad on their site for a specific job months ago.  This particular job is a great fit for my clients’ experience, but they can’t even get a group of employees together to review resumes to set interviews.  My client is careful about NOT bugging them, only calling every few weeks to check on the progress, but this client also needs to change their focus on this organization if the job is filled or the interview process has already started.  And let’s not even get started on companies refusing to let jobseekers know by a simple email if a job has been filled for which they applied.

Hiring Managers, HR Managers and Recruiters tell me that they are annoyed by jobseekers calling to check on whether jobs are filled – well right back at you ladies and gentlemen.  Having pointedly called you out, please don’t think I am unsympathetic to your plight.  As anyone who reads my blog, LinkedIn profile, Twitter, Google+ and Facebook posts, goes to my seminars, etc., knows, I’m a former HR Director.  Our company never put an ad out that didn’t include evaluation of resumes (and this was pre-ATS or Applicant Tracking System, for the company), interviews and then hiring someone within a reasonable amount of time (weeks, not months)!  Furthermore, I am still involved in HR, advising organizations to facilitate their job search process, including interview and selection of candidates, so I am keenly aware of the issues around job search, the ATS systems, and time limitations. You’re crazy busy, I understand, but you’re contributing to the very issue you complain about consistently.  Processes must be established to help eliminate this problem, making your job easier and offering the due respect that jobseekers deserve.

If a jobseeker spends what can be an hour or more to fill out all of your ATS system requirements, and expend time and energy to personalize their resume and cover letter, shouldn’t you offer them the respect of completing the job search process in a realistic time period.  Shouldn’t you follow up and let them know the outcome with a “Dear John” email if they aren’t selected for interview.  Every company I have assisted in the job search process knows up front that this will be how their process will progress – no stalling, no excuses, no posting of fake jobs or jobs for which you don’t have permission to hire yet, no complaining about jobseekers checking on interview and hiring status, and… a follow up email will go to all candidates who applied regardless of receiving an interview.  I will even help the company craft a simple email template that can be sent to all candidates not selected for the available position (interview or no interview).

This isn’t rocket science and the disrespect shown is costing you good candidates.   Applicants talk to other potential applicants and do tell them how shabbily they were treated.  The ill-treatment of jobseekers reflects on your company poorly, and this information gets passed around to others, and many of those jobseekers may choose not to apply to your company.  I hear candidates talking about this at career fairs all the time, and the other jobseekers often say they won’t consider that organization anymore because it is most likely symptomatic of the overall treatment of employees. While you grumble that you cannot find qualified applicants, some of those qualified jobseekers have decided your company isn’t worth the time for an application – as their time will be wasted with a litany of excuses, you will simply ignore them, or won’t treat them appropriately as employees.  Despite the fact most jobseekers worry a great deal about finding a position, people will only put up with so much before they don’t apply to your job postings any longer or never apply in the first place.

So, why not make your life a bit less problematic as an employer, and treat the jobseekers with the respect they deserve:

–Don’t put out any ad for an employee without a plan for reviewing of resumes, holding interviews and making a hiring decision within a realistic period of time – meaning one to three months at the most.

–Do make your ATS system user friendly and stop asking so many questions that tell you very little to nothing.  Instead, ask three or four specific questions that will give you real information about candidate qualifications for the actual job along with having them attach a resume AND cover letter.

–Do send candidates who don’t make the interview cut and those that do but aren’t your chosen hire a simple email or letter stating that you have “gone in another direction,” decided on another candidate with more experience,” etc.

–Answer the phone or call back those that contact you when you are slow to interview and hire.  All you have to say is you will send them an email or letter if they aren’t selected and call them directly if they are chosen to interview.

Simplify the hiring process by following the above suggestions.  My corporate clients do, and there are zero complaints.  Candidates have even sent them thank you letters or left thank you phone messages for actually responding so their job search time can be spent wisely.  Ultimately the respect you show a potential employee will pay huge dividends far beyond that individual’s experience and your time spent ensuring a quality outcome.

Categories Job Search
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Unemployment Discrimination

October 3rd, 2012

Unemployment Discrimination

Unemployment

Too many articles are currently talking about the talent shortage, but the sad thing is many of these companies that say they have difficulty finding good candidates are discriminating against the unemployed, sometimes those with as little as one month of unemployment. I highly encourage organizations to take a hard look at their system if they are taking the unemployed out of consideration, regardless of whether it is one month or one year of unemployment. These are often highly skilled workers who would be valuable, diligent and loyal employees, if someone would give them a chance.

Categories Job Search
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