The vital part that HR professionals play in helping to maintain and improve the brands of their companies is greatly underestimated. Marketing and public relations get most of the credit (or blame!) for managing corporate reputations. Yet HR has a central role in managing a reputation and brand that either attracts or repels job candidates, employees and customers.
Consider the wound to a company’s reputation that is caused when a layoff is handled badly. Those laid off will be upset and may seek legal redress. The attendant negative publicity, spread virally on blogs, Twitter and in other social media, can tarnish the employer’s brand and create embarrassment.
Painful reputational consequences and their associated impacts on the bottom line include:
- EEOC complaints = Litigation, settlement costs
- Disengagement of survivors = Lower productivity, lower rates of retention
- Alienation of customers = Erosion of market share
- Greater difficulty in recruiting key candidates = Higher recruiting costs
- Lengthy reputation recovery period = All of the above plus costs of reputation recovery campaign
Preventing these problems and costs and, more affirmatively, creating a positive employer brand that will create a differential competitive advantage is a real opportunity for HR practitioners to build their company’s reputation while enhancing their own professional credibility. Being able to make a strong business case to senior management is essential and a helpful reference with real world examples is Kevin Jackson’s Building Reputational Capital: Strategies for Integrity and Fair Play that Improve the Bottom Line. Jackson has called a positive reputation, “the most overlooked intangible asset that a business has.”
HR’s Dirty Job: Layoffs
By · CommentsHR’s dirty job has to be laying off employees. Most HR professionals like to think of themselves as “builders” and enjoy laying the foundation for growth and development of their organizations and employees. Layoffs seem more like demolition and are, therefore, not a popular activity.
If you’ve ever watched Dirty Jobs on the Discovery Channel or checked out the companion website 10 High Paying Dirty Jobs, you’ve seen various jobs like crime scene cleaner, gastroenterologist and plumber profiled. You were at once fascinated and repelled by the unpleasant aspects of these jobs, yet never doubted the essential value, importance and social utility of these positions and related tasks.
And so it is with HR’s dirty job, handling layoffs. As an HR professional, you instinctively recognize that layoffs are normal part of the organizational lifecycle. You may also realize that, properly managed, layoffs can set the stage for business renewal and positive evolution. Rather than being repelled, you, your enterprise and employees are better served when you become skillful in carrying out layoffs. The opportunities for constructive contribution in that arena include building the organization’s employment brand and employee engagement.
Fortunately, you don’t have to go it alone. Resources like employment law attorneys, outplacement consultants and blogs like this one offering best practice information are available to help you greatly improve your prospects for success.
While layoffs may appear to be a dirty job, it is an essential activity that can yield beneficial results.
Legal Eye on Layoffs
By · CommentsThink that layoffs are getting easier just because they have become so commonplace in today’s economic environment? Think again! Layoffs present greater risks than ever for HR professionals and their organizations. Tamsen Leachman, who leads the Employment and Labor Law team at the firm of Dunn, Carney, Allen, Higgins and Tongue, makes a strong case. Tamsen’s passion for employment law was ignited by landmark civil rights legislation enacted while she was attending law school. Her focus and enthusiasm is apparent in the effectiveness and zeal with which she represents her clients. Click here for Tamsen’s bio.
Kit: What are the trends regarding complaints of discrimination triggered by layoffs of boomers?
Tamsen: Overall, complaints to the EEOC and state enforcement agencies are up and that includes allegations of employment discrimination on the basis of age. These agencies have stepped up enforcement now that they have more resources and staff available to investigate complaints. This spells higher risk for employers.
Kit: How should you go about selecting which employees to lay off?
Tamsen: Take a careful look at how you are currently structured, where you may be overstaffed. Break out job groups and decide which functions really matter to your business. It’s helpful to develop a matrix structured on the basis of employees’ skills sets, longevity, ability to absorb additional responsibilities and the like. Not only is this an essential tool for use in planning, it establishes your process as rational and based on objective business needs, not bias.
Kit: What’s an example of a key legal risk mitigation responsibility performed by HR during a layoff?
Tamsen: Among the many essential contributions HR professionals make is to assure the quality and integrity of the process. HR should monitor layoff implementation to make sure that it is done in conformance with the plan, that errors are quickly corrected before they rise to the level of serious exposure for the company.
Kit: Why should an employer consult an attorney before a layoff is conducted?
Tamsen: There are many reasons. One that is especially important is the creation of attorney-client privilege. Planning and implementation of RIFs requires open and honest dialog. The attorney is able to confidentially advise the employer based on complete information which the attorney-client privilege protects. Another example is that the attorney is able to alert the employer client of legal and regulatory developments that impact layoffs and how they are conducted. Having access to this information in advance of action by the employer is of great value to achieving a successful outcome. Further areas of assistance include a legal review of documentation needed including forms and releases that must be gathered to establish that layoff procedures are correctly performed.
Kit: What is the importance of the exit interview in the layoff process?
Tamsen: The exit interview can contribute a lot of useful information to the employer. Employees who are laid off offer information about perceptions of the layoff itself and the organizational climate that can have a significant bearing on how future events should be handled and many other aspects of the employment relationship. Questions posed to those departing the company should be open ended in order to get the best responses.
Kit: Thanks, Tamsen for providing members of our blog community with this essential information about a very risky HR activity.
Up In The Air
By · CommentsEveryone enjoys a good movie starring great actors. So it was that I went to Up In The Air wanting to be entertained. But I also had a special motive. As an outplacement/career transition professional, I was eager to see how the layoff and career transition process would be portrayed. The main character, played by George Clooney, travels the country firing employees of companies who are downsizing. “We are not swans. We’re sharks” he says. He lives out of a suitcase, savors collecting frequent flyer miles, rental car and hotel upgrades while plying his trade.
The nature of his work, travel schedule and barren personal life give new meaning to the term road warrior. Clooney’s representation of this work is extravagantly exaggerated and inaccurate. With reality in suspension, you might say it’s “up in the air”. Wilder still is a scheme by Cooney’s own employer to fire by remote, using web conferencing to streamline and save money on layoff notifications.
Reality doesn’t intrude on this film:
- Reality#1: Outplacement/career transition professionals don’t fire people, rather they meet with those laid off after notification. The goal is to to provide support, help them cope with a major career event and move on to the next chapter in their lives.
- Reality #2: The initial meeting with the client, though very important, is only a small part of the story. Even more significant is working with those temporarily displaced to develop and implement effective job search campaigns and go forward to new jobs or careers.
These are absent from the movie. In fairness, Up In The Air doesn’t claim to be a documentary. In fact, it’s called a comedy. As long as its grim humor, gross inaccuracies and ironic dialog are kept in perspective, it succeeds as entertainment.
Boomers Losing Confidence in the Workplace
By · Comments
A report by The Conference Board that boomer job satisfaction is at an all time low will come as no surprise to enlightened HR managers, but it should serve as a wake-up call to employers who haven’t been paying sufficient attention. Plummeting levels of job satisfaction were documented in the newly released report on the survey which found that only 46 percent of Boomers were satisfied with their jobs. This compares with 60 percent reported in 1987.
Why this is important - Employers rely on the knowledge and skills of boomers to stay competitive and even survive. They depend on boomers’ proven leadership qualities and demonstrated ability to mentor and transfer knowledge to other members of the multi-generational workforce.
Boomers’ loss of confidence in the workplace is negatively impacting employee engagement which will predictably lead to a loss in productivity just as companies struggle to emerge from a serious recession.
Restoring the confidence of boomers in the workplace through the creation of “boomer-friendly” policies and practices is not just the concern of HR, it is an imperative that should command the attention of all of executive management. Business success depends on it!
Contacts are the lifeblood of networking for job search. The business card is the venerable medium for exchanging contact information often gets misplaced or dog-eared. The answer would seem to be entering the data into your smartphone’s address book, but this is not always convenient when you’re on the run or have a large number of cards to enter. If your smartphone is the iPhone, there’s a solution that quickly solves the problem. It’s the Business Card Reader application. This app turns a tedious task into a simple, automated process.
Business Card Reader has an easy to use interface supports a simple and effective data capture process. You take a photo of the business card, the app “scans” the image and converts this into text which is added to the correct fields in the iPhone’s address book.
I tested the app on a large collection of business cards and achieved a 90% success rate. When scanning errors do occur, Business Card Reader provides you with the ability to edit the information.
A useful added feature allows you to do a lookup of your new contacts in LinkedIn and invite them to be connections. Talk about productivity! Business Card Reader really delivers.
At $5.99, the price is right and the payback is almost immediate. I highly recommend this job search tool.
5 Tips for Helping Recruiters Help You
By · CommentsRecruiters account for between 15% and 20% of the job placements that are made. The more you know about how to work with them, the more success you’ll have. Here are 5 tips for helping them help you.
Tip #1 – Understand that recruiters are not career counselors. It’s amazing to me that many job seekers seem to believe that a recruiter will help them prepare a resume and find them a job. Remember these words: “Follow the money.” Recruiters work for employers, not you, and only get paid when the right candidate is found. That right candidate may or may not be you. If you are fortunate to be on a recruiter’s short list of finalists, she or he is likely to help you prepare for the interview with the hiring manager.
Tip #2 - Lay a solid foundation before you launch your job search. This means creating a keyword rich resume, getting visibility in search engines and in social media/social networks. I discuss this in some detail in my blog posting, Your 6-Month Digital Makeover, Part 1 and Part 2. Increasingly, recruiters Google you and check LinkedIn. If you have no presence in online media, or worse, they find negative information about you, you won’t make the short list. Also, line up your references. Better yet, secure recommendations on LinkedIn from people who know your work.
Tip #3 – Be open to considering contract, contingent and project assignments. I realize that your goal is to get a so-called regular or ”permanent” position but one of the trends emerging in the new world of work and the recession is the growth in the number of jobs that are on-demand arrangements. With the stakes raised for every hiring decision, many employers are inclined to manage their risk through contract, contingent or project staffing. If things don’t work out with the new hire, a business downturn occurs or a project ends, it’s easier for the employer to disengage. Remember, too, that contract, contingent or project assignments can help you audition for opportunities to become part of a regular workforce. Your flexibility and willingness to consider these assignments will expand number of number of employment opportunities available to you and make you more appealing to recruiters and employers alike.
Tip #4 - Be timely in responding to requests for additional information. If a recruiter wants more data about your qualifications or expected salary, etc., respond immediately. Understand that she or he is trying to quickly match you to a job or jobs and a delay in providing necessary information could keep you off the short list.
Tip #5 - Increase your visibility in professional groups. Recruiters are always on the prowl for promising candidates (and connections with employers). They join groups and attend their meetings. For example, if you’re a project manager, join PMI (Project Management Institute). If you’re an HR professional, manager or executive, join SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management). Become active in your local chapter. In doing so, you’ll give a boost to your visibility send a clear message that you are professionally engaged and a potentially attractive candidate.
These 5 tips for helping recruiters help you should increase your job search effectiveness. Following them will pay dividends beyond immediate employment opportunities and contribute to your career’s sustainability.
Your 6-Month Digital Makeover, Part 1
By · CommentsIn my last post, I promised to provide you with a roadmap for accomplishing a major renovation to your digital reputation in six months. You may be asking yourself: “Why does it take six months?” My response: ”It takes about that amount of time to be solidly established in social networks and social media and, further, to have these achieve prominence in search engines Google, bing and Yahoo!, etc. You only get positive results, in depth, by doing the right things, in the right order and progressively monitoring and measuring your performance. It takes time and effort, but the rewards are worth it! Here’s the task list and recommended approach for part 1 of your digital makeover:
1. Search for and clean-up digital dirt – “Digital dirt” is made up of false, misleading or inaccurate information that can potentially damage your reputation online. This is best detected through Google searches or by setting up Google Alerts. Often, you’ll find that the online debris consists of inaccurate information automatically gathered up by various social media sites. The solution is to update the information from these sites by accessing your existing accounts or, if you don’t have accounts, get them (more about this in “4″ below).
If your search reveals defamatory information about you, you may want to consider taking legal action. Let me also suggest an affirmative approach to cleaning up negative information about you. It involves creating a strong online presence with positive profiles, recommendations from bosses, colleagues, customers, blog articles establishing your professional knowledge and the like. No one controls the web and eliminating all the unfavorable information is a futile quest. You’ll get further ahead on your goal of gaining a measure of control over what appears about you by focusing your energy on accentuating your positives online. As the volume builds, you’ll find that his will outrank the negative entries in search engines.
2. Secure your personal domain name - You personal domain name (for example: tomsimpson.com) is the key to branding yourself online. You can claim your’ at GoDaddy for less than $10 a year. There are many other ICANN accredited registrars that can also provide this service. I mention GoDaddy because of its convenience and reasonable cost. Use GoDaddy’s convenient search tool to see if your name is available. If not, you can look for derivative names and register the one that you believe will brand you best.
3. Get a personal website – With your domain name secured, the next step is to do something with it. GoDaddy can help you set up a low cost website will allow you to provide a profile and links to your other social media sites. Another excellent solution is Nombray which offers Basic, Pro and Executive level offerings.
4. Get LinkedIn, Plaxo, Facebook and additional accounts in social networks – LinkedIn, Plaxo, and Facebook are just a few of the social media/social networking sites you’ll need to be on to establish your online identity and reputation. Once you have accounts, utilize their onboard tools to identify colleagues you can invite to join your network and build the critical mass you need to develop your personal brand.
A digital makeover is all about creating “cred” or credibility which the Urban Dictionary defines as “an ability to inspire belief in others.” It’s an essential of smart job search and active career management. Need help with your own digital makeover? Read more…
Next: Your 6-Month Digital Makeover, Part 2
