The other day, I came across this article in the Sunday Washington Post: Obama’s critics are questioning whether he “deserves a vacation.”  Apparently, if the State of the Union is less than perfect, he should be denied rest until he turns things around.

From what I’ve read and seen, presidents including Obama work ten or twelve hours a day, sometimes much, much more.  And even when they are on vacation, they are never *really* on vacation. They’re always on call.

You can argue politics or question Obama’s decisions–and I’ve been done both–but I can’t see questioning his right to, and his fundamental need for, a break, periodic time off to rest and rejuvenate, have time to himself, reconnect with his family so that he can come back refreshed, better equipped to lead our country.

After all, how would you like it if your vacation leave was contingent on turning your organization or your country around? Are you up for that challenge? Would the challenge make any sense?

From my HR perspective, it would be really interesting if management only extended vacation leave to people who exceeded all stakeholders’ idealized standards of perfect performance. But I hardly think it would be motivating. Or fair. Or worth it. Or anything else.

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So I was checking a reference and I wanted to ask the source about the candidate’s ability to keep written and computerized records.

“Tell me about Maryamu’s documentation skills,” I said.

“Oh, she’s legal!” came the quick reply.

Um, not quite what I meant. But thanks, sort of,  for the thought. I’m sure you meant well.

photo by billaday

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Years ago, I dined with a couple who had two rambunctious toddlers. The boys spent most of the time climbing over the top of our booth and crawling under the table. That is to say, when they weren’t knocking things over or interrupting adult conversation. It was very distracting.

On the drive home, my partner and I turned to each other and declared somewhat pompously and self-righteously: “Our kids would never act like that!”

Fast forward several years when I became a mom and despite my best efforts, my own son was known to be quite distracting and disruptive when we went out to eat.  You know what I learned? Three things. 1.) I really don’t need to be that self-righteous. 2.) The developmental level of most toddlers is not conducive to sitting quietly for hours and hours while adults share good conversation over a leisurely meal and a bottle of wine. 3.) And more to the point: it is not so easy to raise perfect children.

News flash: If it was so easy, everyone would do it.

That story came to mind when I read April Dowling’s recent PseudoHR blog post, Customer service is like, hard and stuff. April, I just have to respectfully disagree.

If customer service was easy, every business would have great customer service.

I would submit that customer service is hard. Customer service is not simple, nor is it something you set up one time, forget and go on. It is an ongoing process, a journey, one that requires vision, planning, systems, training, continuous attention, energy as well as significant and devoted resources.

I wish I could offer flawless customer service in my department, but let me share the reality: every day someone is unhappy with me or my associate. Every day, we fall short in someone’s eyes despite our best efforts.

Somewhat tangentially (and totally unrelated to April, let me assure you), you know what else? The customer isn’t always right. Maybe we should stop oiling the squeaky wheel when the squeaky wheel is disrespectful or crosses over the line or is trying to play us.  Sometimes you need to be prepared set a boundary or say no or kiss a customer good-bye when they bully your employees. Or when the cost of keeping them is more than they are potentially worth.

Do you agree? What do you think?

photo by James Cridland

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But the biggest surprise to me was coming across the gravestone of a former employee, Wendy, who died last year. Wendy was a great part-time counselor who left us amicably about five years ago. I didn’t even know she passed away. It was such an odd coincidence that I would stumble upon her grave during  my random visit.  It especially hit home since she was a year younger than me (which is to say, very young!!). And it had already been an odd day since earlier I’d run into a former HR candidate at PetsMart, followed by someone we’d terminated.

Some people say there are no coincidences; everything has meaning and things happen for a reason. If that is true, why did I find Wendy’s grave? And on the same day I ran into two other past applicants/employees. What was the message?

The message I was left with had to do with connectedness and karma. Walking through so much history, I had a sense of connection to the past as well as our ancestors’ legacies to us here and now. The sense only magnified when I saw Wendy’s stone and realized how interconnected we all are, constantly, and how our decisions and actions follow us and pop up unexpectedly at any time.  I was relieved and happy we’d parted on good terms. I said a brief prayer for her parents, who must be still grieving her loss.

All the more reason to treat people right and try to follow the golden rule, I reflected, so that when ghosts of employees past come to visit, we feel at ease and at peace.

Rather than haunted.

Rest in peace, Wendy.

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Several weeks ago, I wrote about my pledge to improve the experience of job applicants to my organization.

And I’m committed, totally committed,  to doing what I can to making my application process more positive.  At the same time, I can’t help but notice that applicants probably have no idea of some of the challenges I encounter every day with applicant communication.

I want to tell my HR side.

Did you know that:

Approximately 20% of the resumes I call list phone numbers that are either out of service or have voice mail queues that won’t accept additional messages? When sending out your resume, pick your contact number carefully. If you’re contemplating switching cell carriers in the near future, use a land-line as your primary number. Check your messages frequently to keep your message queue low. Advertising your overload of unanswered messages does not bode well for any positions involving follow-up and customer service.

Almost half the time, applicants have the default, sing-song automated message on their voice mail (“You have reached 2-4-0….”), leaving me unsure I’ve reached the correct party. When you’re job hunting, record an outgoing message that includes your name. While you’re at it, take off the bedroom music and anything that is TMI or makes me roll my eyes and crack up in disbelief.

Other times, I leave messages or send emails that are not returned. If you’re no longer interested, give me a courtesy call or e-mail to let me me know. Believe me, it won’t hurt my feelings, but I’ll be glad to close the loop. And you come out looking really good, and who knows, maybe you’ll want to apply for a different position with the company later.

Also, many times, I call someone’s home phone to encounter one of the following. A family member answers and declines to take a message, instructing me to call on Thursday after 1 p.m. A  child–who is old enough to pick up the phone but not old enough to write a message–answers and offers to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Or a family member answers but is so surly and rude that I cut the call short.  Solution: Don’t use a family number as your primary contact number if you can avoid it. If you have to, e.g. your cell phone is down, give strict and detailed instructions–upon pain of death!–to anyone who will be answering the phone.

I’m often recruiting for hourly positions, and a lot of the applications are riddled with typos and formatting errors, such as fonts changing mid-sentence, resumes sent in all caps, and typos that are particularly disastrous.  I am not a perfectionist or a purist by any means. I’ll tolerate a few typos and spelling errors because we’re all human and you know what, I make mistakes, too. But when your application crosses the invisible line and makes me laugh out loud for reasons that don’t advance your career, I have to be honest, I’m not calling you.

Here’s another thing: on a daily basis, several candidates leave messages I can’t return. Either they forgot to leave their name or they forget to leave their number, or I can’t decipher either one. Or I can’t figure out who the heck they are, because they just say, “This is John, returning your call.”   These are probably the same people who later leave a second, irritated message, “This is Mnmful. I left you a message last week, and you STILL haven’t called me back.” (In case you’re wondering, leaving messages like that doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy and it doesn’t light a fire under my butt to run to figure out who Mnmful is.)

Another sizable group are simply unqualified. Let’s be practical:  if you meet none of the qualifications, in this economy, someone else is landing that interview. You’re just one more person I have to catalog and respond to. Think of it this way: if you applied for a job that was a perfect fit for you in every way, would you appreciate less-than-personal attention because I have to spend untold hours responding to  hundreds of applicants who are not qualified?

So as a job seeker, when you’re commiserating with others about the horrible response rate you get from HR and hiring managers, remember that at least some of the time, someone may be trying to reach you. And there are steps you can take to make that just a little easier.

Happy job hunting!

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Today something unprecedented happened.

Over the course of the day, three different people mentioned they’d looked up my blog. For the record, they were a new hire, a potential vendor and a candidate for a position involving technology. And they all said complimentary things, which I must say felt really nice and very affirming, despite any [arguably] mixed motives influencing their praise.

Did I mention this was unprecedented?

Outside of HRevolution–which is heavily attended by HR bloggers–it’s never happened before.

So I don’t mind saying I was feelin’ pretty fly. And justifiably so, wouldn’t you say?

Like I’m a serious Blogger with a capital B.

That was, until I checked out my blog, thinking, who knows, maybe one of these people left me a comment I should answer right away.  And when I looked around my site, I was immediately hit over the head with four different spelling and punctuation errors in a single recent post.

D’oh!

Ouch!

As they say, pride goeth before a fall.

I quickly figured out it was a post I written on my little netbook, which is a slow, tedious, frustrating process at best.  But still, I was mortified.

After all, there are no excuses.

And so my ego has shrunck back to it’s usual paremeters and from now on, I’ll be much mor care full to doublchek my speling.and punctation

Just like I espect of my aplicants! 

photo by iirraa

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For three days this week, I had the pleasure of attending the Side-by-Side Technology conference in Baltimore featuring Therap, an online documentation system for organizations serving people with developmental disabilities;  College of Direct Support, an online training system geared toward professionals in our field; RestAssured, a web-based “telecare” system; and Talintel, an online psychometric tool to pre-screen potential staff.

Obviously, what we do is pretty specialized and I wouldn’t presume to think most readers will be interested in all the details. But our specialized work–and the smaller resources available to small nonprofits and human services providers–is kinda the point of this whole post. Most of our service providers struggle with declining budgets; some are struggling to keep their doors open. It is a challenge for many of us to stay abreast of technology. On the other side of the equation, how can we interest vendors and tech companies in developing software and applications designed for our work?  How do they make it work? As Therap CEO Richard Robbins reminded us, there are a lot of exciting and free (e.g. Google) or low-cost (Droid, i Phone) applications out there that could transform the way we do business–but they aren’t HIPAA-compliant, which means they don’t work for our field.

It’s an interesting conundrum: we who arguably have the least resources also have significant roadblocks around technology.

At any rate, I am grateful that the entities at the conference have invested blood, sweat and tears; have aligned themselves with and collaborated with various other organizations or institutions; and have been creative, determined, and down-right dogged in their determination to make something happen despite the odds stacked against them.

My co-workers and I came away incredibly energized and excited about the possibilities available to us. Technology makes such a difference and we look forward to harnessing its power in new and thrilling ways, thanks to our future partners.

photo by aranarth

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Improving the Candidate Experience

It’s not that I’ve done a horrible job with this. Over the years, I’ve employed these kinds of approaches in the hopes that candidates would walk away with a good taste in their mouths.

• Welcome. Our front desk staff are friendly and cordial to interviewees, greeting them and offering something cold or hot to drink. And other employees often stop to say hello and introduce themselves and chat, which sets a very nice tone.
• Respect their time.  I start my interviews promptly–after all, we expect the other party to show up on time! On the rare occasions I run late, I apologize and explain.
• Setting. We meet in my office, not a cold conference room.
• Tone. I keep my interview tone friendly, not adversarial, as I wrote in one of my earlier posts.
• Parting gifts. If my company doesn’t appear to be a good fit for whatever reason,  I often refer people to our sister agencies. I keep a list of other organizations for this purpose and can explain which companies might have day schedules, pay a higher rate without the degree requirement, or be a better match for their transportation situation.

So I’ve done all right in a lot of ways and feel gratified by positive and grateful feedback from candidates about their experiences. But I know from both  job-seeker and HR blog posts and from  Gerry Crispin’s session at the May, 2010 RecruitDC that most of us still have room for  improvement. A whole lot of room, actually. So my Put Up or Shut Up commitment is to do just that.

One area I have particularly struggled with is communication with applicants. It’s  a lot easier–of course– with top talent.   But often, I have fallen short with applicants that are not my quick picks. Knowing that, during the last year I’ve also added these strategies:

• ATS.  We implemented  an Applicant Tracking System. Oh, I know, they get a bad rap sometimes for lots of valid reason. But I’ve been doing nonprofit HR for a minute, and  with all the hats we wear, I know there is no way to  humanly communicate with all these thousands of people  each year without one. I’ve never managed to come anywhere close, in fifteen years, until now.  My ATS is a godsend.
• Own it. I changed the  ATS default so that my what I call  ‘Thanks but no thanks’ letters  [known  to some people as  rejection letters] originate from my real email address, not an @no-reply.
• Own it, part 2. I include my real name and title on my response. It keeps me honest.
• Be real: I attempt to write in natural language and personalize each email just a little.
• Give feedback: Whenever possible, I tell people why they haven’t been selected, whether it was lack of a driver’s license for a job with involving driving or the fact that their minimum salary requirement is three times our stated range.
• If appropriate, I refer them to alternate positions or encourage them to apply for future openings. As before, I refer them elsewhere if I have a genuine lead.

I haven’t been able to provide a “wow” response to every candidate all of the time. Recently I was looking for people with specific training and X amount of experience in my field.  Applicants who had neither qualification received  boilerplate emails–though they did originate from my e-mail address with my signature. I’m sorry I couldn’t do more, but given the amount of time I had for the task, I’d have to say that any response is way  better than no response.  I think it was a decent compromise and the right use of my time.

So I’m focusing on this, improving, and will continue to find additional ways to do better, though I know it will never be perfect. There simply aren’t enough hours in the day.

And what about you? What’s your Put Up or Shut Up? Or if recruiting or hiring are  a part of your job, how do you enhance candidates’ experiences?

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Kudos to Argentina for legalizing same-sex marriage!

I hope other nations will follow suit, including the United States.

photo by laverrue

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I go through different phases with Twitter: I love it, hate it, sing its praises to the uninitiated, don’t have time for it, adore it, neglect it, benefit from it, love it, hate it again.

I’ve built connections there, ones that have extended to FaceBook, Gmail, phone conversations,  business relationships, genuine friendships.

Yet, if I am gone from the Twittersphere/Blogosphere for a day, a week, two weeks–as I have been several times recently–no-one notices. It feels like the social media form of “publish or perish.”  You’re only as good as your last tweet, your last post, your last update. Who can keep that up indefinitely, I wonder?

I’m not logging on to  Twitter as much I used to, especially since many of my HR contacts have been Facebook friends for awhile. My job is fast-paced and I rarely have time to spend on Twitter at work. So my investment in Twitter, which was heavy in the beginning, has been on my own time and as we should all do from time to time, I’m re-evaluating my use of time.

I also find myself thinking, okay, what’s next? What’s the new Twitter?

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