It’ll be worth the wait

Dear Readers,

Between the holidays and my vacation to Florida last week (hello warm weather!), I’ve been less than stellar (read: I’ve sucked) about making my usual entries. I’m sorry for the delay, but pretty soon I’ll be back to my usual self soon enough. It’ll be worth the wait – I promise.

Thanks for reading! Always looking for feedback, so give me a shout if you have any thoughts about ways to make this better in 2010.

Happy holidays!

Cheers,

The HR Intern

Patience is a virtue

Patience is NOT my strong suit.

I have an obsessive personality. When I do something, I throw myself into it 150%. I can even multitask obessively – and I’m good at doing it. So when I have multiple projects, I am fully committed to all of them and want to race through them and get them complete and out the door so I can move onto the next.

Sometimes, this works to my advantage. Some things like open enrollment require a constant nagging and a sense of impatience: “Do this now or you won’t have benefits. K?” Others require a little bit of pushing to accomplish a final product. I’ve been working on an onboarding site for months now and it’s basically done. In my mind, it took forever. But I spoke with a colleague today who said that it was the first initiative she had actually seen completed since she started here almost 3 years ago.

Talk about an ego boost…

On the other hand, sometimes the whole impateince thing works to my detriment. Just a few hours after my head started to swell out of control, in response to an e-mail in which I was bothering someone about the status of initiatives I’m working on, I was told that I’m pushing too hard and that things don’t work at the pace that I want them to because there are other priorities that need to be addressed.  The e-mail said that while a lot of my interests are important (and the e-mail was very clear about saying that they ARE still important), essentially, I need to chill out. I’m pissing people off and it needs to stop. Whoops.

Luckily, the person who told me this is someone I respect and someone who knows that I’ll accept it as constructive criticism and not a slap on the wrist (even if that’s what it feels like). When I wrote back a sincere e-mail admitting that patience is something I need to work on and that I would back off, the response was this: “I wouldn’t back off, I would just back down…a little “.

The lesson here is to know your limits. If I backed off, my onboarding site might perpetually be in process and my social media guidelines would never get published. But letting things go for more than a week might be slightly more apropos than sending bothersome follow-up e-mails after the 7 days have gone by without reaching a conclusion. The point is this: have a voice and a opinion and do your best to get things taken care, but don’t be blinded by your own enthusiasm to the extent that you think your project is the only thing that matters. As much as you’d like to believe that, it’s not, and the more you believe it, the more you’re going to piss your teammembers off.

Figure out when to push and when not to. Sometimes you’ll need to back off…but just a little.

SoMe Guidelines and You.

As we dive deeper and deeper into the world of social media (FINALLY!), we’ve decided to develop a policy that discusses the purpose of our involvement and what our general expectations are. I’m co-authoring the social media guidelines for my company now, which has been a really fun project for me.

While in the midst of writing, I saw a question on LinkedIn about companies who have written social media guidelines. I threw my own thoughts into the ring and said this:

We’re in the process of creating guidelines now. I wanted to make sure that our policy wasn’t bogged down with legal-ese, was easy to understand and carried a positive “Here’s what you can do” tone instead of a negative “Here’s what you can’t do” attitude. I think it’s really important to encourage employees to get involved, but remind them of key common sense items. These are some of the things we prioritized:

Taking responsibility for what is published

Respecting the audience

Adding value

Observing copyright/fair use laws

Refraining from discussing confidential/financial information

Remembering that employees’ online presences contribute to the organization’s reputation but do not speak for the org/company

Making sure that work comes first and not letting social media interfere with the day-to-day tasks

What I didn’t mention is that the goal of this is really to have your organization come across as a rockstar. People are already involved in social media (example: this blog) so do you want to get behind them and give them some guidance while supporting their enthuaism for the medium or do you want to give them a set of obnoxious rules that they have to follow and essentially stifle their creativity? Duh.

The other important thing to keep in mind is that this will take more time than you think to complete. As with all things related to change at the corporate level, you will meet resistance, so it’s best to prepare for it. Getting these turned out is taking longer than I would like, but it happens. Deal with it.

I also wanted to refer people to external resources for more info. Mashable has great information about technology and social media in general and Sharlyn Lauby wrote an excellent summary of social media policy must haves. IBM did a great job of hitting key points while maintaining a positive, can-do tone and should definitely be checked out.

Anyone know of any great social media resources? Have any thoughts of your own as you’ve read/written guidelines?

Reunited and it feels so good!

I went to my high school reunion over the Thanksgiving break and, despite my expectations, I had a fantastic time. It was interesting to interact with the same people from years ago now that I’m a lot sassier, a lot more flamboyant and much more outgoing than I was back then (plus it helps that I’m a bit skinnier and I dress a whole lot better). I had an escape route planned with the friend that I went with, but I didn’t need it and was one of the last ones to leave.

Since I’ve done a really poor job of keeping track of everyone, I had to ask the obligatory “What are you doing?” to get the ball rolling. And once they finished, they turned the question right back to me, “How about you? Where are you now?”

Every single person, without exception, defined themselves by where they are in their careers now. Some people have jobs. Some people are still in school. Some people are unfortunately unemployed (and I gave all of them a lot of credit for coming since they had to repeat the ‘I can’t find a job’ or ‘I got laid off’ story over and over again). I’m equally guilty of it. My response to the question was, “I’m still living in DC and I work in the HR office for an architecture firm downtown,” or something along those lines. And that was followed by a little bit of detail about what that means: “I’m a people person” or “I talk to people all day”. There’s not enough time to talk more than that.

I wrote a few weeks ago about what Gen Y is looking for career-wise. This whole reunion showed me where the whole idea of “being fulfilled by a job”, whether load of crap or not, comes from. When we talk about who we are, “career” is an obvious milestone that follows graduating from high school and maybe graduating from college. Since there are only a few classmates that have gotten married or had a child, this is the last milestone that we all have in common. And since milestones are how we, as people, define our lives, it makes sense that we define ourselves (at least for now) based on that career. So is it any wonder that we try to add meaning and purpose to that career to justify our decision?

That may change as family or romance or knowledge aspirations develop. But for where a large majority of Gen Yers are right now in their lives, “career” is the most important part of self.

We’ll see how different things are at my next reunion.

HR Carnival of Giving

In the spirit of Thankgiving, Mike VanDervort over at The Human Race Horses put together an HR Carnival of Giving in which a lot of my favorite bloggers (and yours truly – hey, who doesn’t love a little self-promotion?) contributed posts. Everyone submitted a charity of choice (mine was the Human Rights Campaign) and one lucky charity will be getting a pot of money for the holiday season courtesy of Mike and a few others. Pretty great idea, huh?

You can check out the full carnival here:  http://www.thehumanracehorses.com/2009/11/25/hr-carnival-of-global-giving-is-now-open/.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Tis the season…to make benefit selections!

For those unfamiliar with the process, open enrollment is the period set by your employer during which you can opt to pick up, change or decline benefit coverage. Unless you get married or have a kid, it’s essentially (with a few exceptions) the only time during the year you can change up what medical plan you’re covered by or whether or not you have dental insurance, among other things.

Being the overachiever that I am, I finished making my selections in the first 24 hours (knowing that I could still make changes until the end but that I was marked as “complete” even if I decided not to). Of course I did. But here we are 14 days later (and with less than 36 hours left to go) and my office has a 67% completion rate so far. That means that one out of every three people has decided to wait until the bitter end.

Now, some of those people are legitimately trying to figure things out. One employee comes to mind because he has spent hours pouring over the plan documents for both our plans and those of his wife. Others are calculating how much they should put in their flexible spending accounts. Still others are considering whether it makes sense to stick with vision for the 5th year in a row or if it’s time to opt out.

The skeptic in me wonders why people weren’t thinking about this sooner. After all, everyone has had their benefits since 1/1 of this year. Open enrollment falls at the same time annually. We had presentations on 10/14 and 10/15 to update our employees about the changes to our benefit package. I have e-mails dated 10/19 and 11/3 giving people the heads up for the 11/8 start date.

When The Pro and I started going around bugging people to make their selections, someone asked us if they got a prize for completing it. The Pro sassily responded, “Yes. By making your selections, you get benefits in 2010.”

This is pretty typical for us – we hit a ridiculously low completion percentage and then go around to badger people in person before hitting 100% or close to it (last week I sat at someone’s desk while they clicked every single button – I don’t think they would have done it if I had walked away). But why is it so difficult to make people make their selections? Here are some possible answers:

• They don’t care about their benefits.
• They’re too busy to spend 5 minutes making the same selections as 2009.
• They honestly don’t know what they want to do in 2010.

Obviously the first one is a joke. Even in a good economy, people care that they have medical coverage.

While they care, a large majority of our folks choose the same benefits year after year and even if they’ve been here for 35 years, they refuse to acknowledge that we don’t automatically reenroll them and that they have to actively make those selections. And on top of that, frankly, it’s just not pressing. While I spend my world immersed in the HR realm, benefits are a little bit taken for granted and since we give everyone plenty of time, employees put it in the back of their minds until they absolutely HAVE to do it.

And then there are the ones that are legitimately uncertain. We do have a few employees that watch every medical-related issue they come across and are unsure which plan gives them the best coverage. Their analyses are incredibly thorough and they’re still up in the air about what they want. Sometimes you can think all year and still not be ready.

How do you handle open enrollment? Are you aggressive like me and get it done right away? Do you wait it out? How come?

I’m a walking radio shack.

This past Friday I got on my favorite Northeast Regional Amtrak train for the quite easy two-hour trip from DC to Philly. Of course, this was made easier because I was equipped, as always, with my favorite gadgets: my personal cell phone, my work Blackberry (for e-mails, the Internet and Brickbreaker), my iPod (with hours upon hours of both movies and video entertainment) and my computer (with a multitude of TV episodes and the potential to play The Sims 2 if things really got rough). I love Amtrak for having an outlet at my seat – perish the thought that one of my electronic devices could run out of battery.

A middle-aged man gets on the train at Baltimore carrying only a newspaper and sits down next to me. I continue watching something on my laptop (with headphones in) until he says, “This is my first train ride!”

Needless to say, I’m floored. I think about the juxtaposition and I’m actually stunned.

On the left, we have a 20-something Gen Yer who has taken more train rides than he can remember and has brought every possible electronic device with him to amuse himself to the extent that a rainstorm in the train car would pretty much wipe him out. And then sitting next to him is a 50-something Boomer who has never traveled by train and has brought just today’s Washington Post to occupy him from Baltimore to New York City.

I looked around and watched the other teenagers and 20-somethings with their iPods and iPhones sitting next to sleeping 40- and 50- somethings.

We apparently need a lot more stimulation to be happy. Man are we spoiled…

Gen Y Strikes Back

Ever wondered what’s going on in the mind of that somewhat needy, somewhat demanding Gen Yer? Consider this:

A friend of mine graduated early from college. He took a job in the field that he had planned on entering years before. He got bored at this first place and left to go work somewhere better, somewhere more in line with what he wanted to do, but taking a pay cut to do it. He worked his way up and now, a year and a half later, he has more seniority and slightly more responsibility. He’s back up to where he was on the salary side and, with the bonus structure, he’s probably coming out ahead.

Recently, he got to the point where he is so bored with doing the same thing day in and day out that he needs to make a change. Obviously there’s not a whole lot out there. But he did find something that he was being considered for. I asked him about the salary after his interview and he said that it would be yet another pay cut. When I made a face, he told me that he didn’t care, that it was all about the work and that he was willing to let the money slide.

This is what Gen Y is all about. It’s not about the money. Let me repeat that for emphasis. It’s not about the money. It’s about the responsibility. It’s about the skill set you develop in a job. It’s about career development. It’s about being able to make connections and network. It’s about feeling challenged in a position. It’s about knowing that what you do is actually making a difference. It’s about having a sense of purpose at work. It’s about feeling accomplished at the end of the day.

Think about that when you’re dealing with the Gen Yer at the next desk or at the cubicle outside your office.

Rock on Gen Y.

Truth be told.

A reader posed this question to me:

I’m applying for a job at an environmental non-profit. They liked my resume and sent me a questionnaire to fill out. One of the questions is, “Please name one issue that you are following closely in the news and tell us why that issue is of interest to you. (up to 3 sentences only)”

Which would be better: telling about the issue I’ve been keeping a closest eye on, i.e. same-sex marriage legislation, or saying I’ve been watching the climate bill even though I’ve barely paid attention to it until I read up on some of it today?

The same-sex marriage one I can easily explain why it’s of interest to me. The climate bill would be possible but more difficult.

Ideas/advice/help?

You should never mislead or lie on an application. And I’m not gonna get on my soapbox and tell you why lying is bad. From a job seeking perspective, it’s because if for some reason it comes up in your interview, hiring managers are going to see right through it. You HAVEN’T been following up on this climate change issue and they’re going to know. On the other hand, since you do know so much about same-sex marriage legislation, if they ask you to go into more detail, you’ll be able to expand on it and explain why you’re so interested in it.

While saying what you think they want to hear may get you the interview, the people you’ll be meeting with will expect an environmentalist in person. Since it’s not really who you are, you’re not going to present that when you’re face to face.

I think honesty is your best bet here. If there’s any way of putting something down in a comments section, I might write something like this: “I’ve been following same-sex marriage legislation closely for years because it has personal importance to me, but I am very concerned with the environment,  the impact that I have on it and learning more about sustainable practices.” At least that’s the truth.

Ever had a dilemma like this related to an application or an interview? What’d you decide? How did it pan out? Let me know in the comments.

Keep moving forward!

One of my readers referred me to an article in Time Magazine entitled How Skype is Changing the Job Interview with this comment:

“Saw this and got freaked out. What are your thoughts on this practice?“

I have to give a special thanks to this reader for bringing this to my attention – even though he may not be so thrilled that I am totally behind this.

The title gives it away: the article is all about how Skype is seeing a lot more action in the interviewing process for organizations. After all, it’s free to use (so long as both parties have it) and it simulates an actual face-to-face meeting. Seems like a logical step, right?

Video conferencing is becoming more and more prevalent in businesses for internal communication, especially now with companies seeking to reduce their overhead costs. High-profile, mega-companies like Deloitte have gone to great lengths to get video conferencing in place in its offices. I read an article from the New York Times last year that talks about how much video conferencing has come to replace airplane travel – again, in an effort to cut costs.

So why should interviewing be any different? Let’s be practical here. A company can’t afford to fly you out somewhere. You’re suffering from the recession economy just like everyone else is. If you’re a recent college grad, like several of the people in the article, you have no money and no savings. Since the company won’t bring you to them and you can’t get yourself there, your choices are:

1. Correspond by e-mail.
2. Talk to HR/a hiring manager by phone.
3. Employ video conferencing, which, despite its imperfections, will actually give the people you’re speaking to an opportunity to see you in action and will allow you to use gestures, facial expressions and body language to assist you as you speak and listen.

Yeah, like that’s a tough choice. I’ll take #3.

Consider the work of Albert Mehrabian who identified the three elements of communication: word, tone of voice and body language. He posited that if a person is communicating with us, our opinion of them (i.e. whether we like them or not) is based on these three elements in a set ratio: 7% based on the actual words, 38% based on tone of voice and 55% based on body language.

Now, keep in mind that this theory (which has seen wide distribution and is frequently misrepresented) is only meant to be applied when people are talking about their feelings or attitudes (since that’s what Mehrabian’s research was about). Still, while the numbers may change, the message is clear: the actual words don’t account for NEARLY as much as the nonverbal cues that are sent out. Since it’s hard to really get a feel for someone based on their words alone (e-mail) or just their words and tone of voice (phone), that really means that you want as much face time as possible.

So download Skype and start practicing how to interview over a video connection. Welcome to the future.

And P.S. – 10 points to anyone who caught the Meet the Robsinons reference in the title.