I’m a three-time attendee of HRevolution, and yesterday’s event exceeded my expectations.

I arrived Friday evening and met up with my roommate, Jessica Miller-Merrell, before heading to the tweet-up.  There amidst 600 decibels of pulsating HR excitement, I met new people and hugged old friends. Then it was out for a late dinner with a bunch of people including Victorio Milian and Lyn Hoyt before calling it a relatively night (in HRevolution terms, anyway).

The next day I arrived late for the keynote by Liz Gottung, CHRO at Kimberly Clark, whose honesty about the fledgling nature of some of KC’s talent management systems was quite refreshing. Then the hard part of the day began: picking sessions. I’ll quickly comment on two.

My first session, which I chose mainly for the facilitators was  If HR is so bad, what are you DOING about it? with Steve Browne and Jason Lauritsen.  We talked about why HR isn’t respected and what we can do about it; and although I appreciated the interactive format, truthfully I felt drained and fatigued by a conversation we’ve had so many times before.   Each participant was charged with coming up with their own action plan, one thing they commit to doing, or doing differently, to make a change. I decided mine is:

I will no longer have this conversation. At least not with these people. I will no longer theorize and commiserate with these people who are essentially the choir that doesn’t need converting. I *will* the conversation with others; for example, the members of a nonprofit association HR group I chair and who tend to be traditional, relatively conservative HR practitioners.

My favorite session was The HR Slam with Mary Ellen Slayter and Charlie Judy. The facilitators divided the audience into groups and we all competed to present the best short- and long-term solutions to a real-life business facing significant obstacles. Although my team didn’t win, it was great, loud, competitive fun, with zingers and witty comments flying constantly.

The HRevolution has been billed as an “unconference”  but this year it felt much more conferencey to me. Or maybe you could call it a hybrid: the outline of the day was quite structured, but each break-out session was extremely interactive, with no handouts, power-points or lectures.  This year, the planners allowed for 15 minutes between sessions, which facilitated talking and relationships. I also loved:

-The Meet Meme trading cards courtesy of Pinstripe. Fun! Interactive. Playful.

-The friendly atmosphere. If you see someone you don’t know, you offer your hand and introduce yourself. It’s part of the culture. Carried away by this bonhomie, I accidentally tried to introduce myself to an attendee of a different conference. As we walked up to the coffee bar, I stuck out my hand and said, “Hi! I’m Krista Francis!”  He ignored my hand, looked at me as though he’d been accosted by a stalker, turned and walked away. I was so struck by the dichotomy of his reality and mine.  (I’ll take the HRevolution version of reality any day.)

-The fun. My organization’s culture happens to value laughter and fun; I can scarcely remember a single meeting, regardless of how weighty, that didn’t include some raucous, laugh-out-loud moments. Although it is easy to dismiss fun as trivial, the truth is that laughing bonds people and fun enhances learning. Laughter releases endorphins, combats stress and enhances one’s feeling of well-being.  Organizations whose cultures embrace laughter are fortunate in my book.

Accordingly, I’ve decided that the HRevolution is a f(un)conference. Kudos to Trish, Ben, Crystal and Steve for a fabulous event.

Two years ago, my organization realized our communications included an overabundance of values and guiding principles–something like 27  different values scattered throughout multiple documents. T

And so, we spent several months working with our employees and Board to distill the dozens of values into a handful of core beliefs that most accurately defines our workplace and culture.

You may have gone through a similar discernment process at your own workplace. The question is: once you’ve successfully honed your list, what do you do with it, besides frame it for your conference room? Here are six ways we use our values in our daily work.

Selection:  I cross-referenced each stage of our hiring process against our core values  to make sure all are addressed at some point during the resume review, phone screen, first and second interview and background check. Most are addressed several times in different ways.

Job descriptions and performance expectations: A summary of our values heads each job description. Our values are also woven into the language used to describe required duties and expected behaviors.

Performance reviews: We ensured our values were included throughout our review questions, sometimes explicitly and others less so.

Problem-solving: When we’re discussing challenges, we refer to our values. “How does this proposed change fit in with our value around respect and human dignity?”

Coaching and counseling: My organization provides services to people with disabilities at dozens of locations on a 24/7/365 environment. Lateness is one of the more frequent complaints against our staff. I encourage the managers to explicitly use our values when addressing tardiness. “When you are late, it’s a problem because you disrespect the client and his time” is a more powerful and direct message than “this is a problem because you broke a rule.”

Performance awards: Our annual employee awards are built around our values.  We recognize and reward employees who embody them.

Has your organization accurately discerned its core beliefs and guiding principles? If so, how effectively does your organization use its values in its work? And what ideas can you offer that I didn’t mention?

photo by Worcester Academy

April Fool’s Day has me thinking about snafus and shenanigans at work. One of my first jobs was a case manager at a nonprofit I’ll call Habilitative Support Services (HSS). We rented space in an old elementary school building and served adults with mental disabilities, such as autism, schizophrenia, Down syndrome, etc.

We worked hard and also had a lot of fun. For example, staff often jumped out the side windows for quick access to the parking lot rather than walking *ALLLLLL* the way around to the front or back exit. After the clients left in the late afternoon, we were known to have water balloon fights in the corridors, which was not a big deal given the concrete block walls and tile floors. Often on Fridays, we’d pool our money and a co-worker J.T. would do a beer run. We’d spend the last hour of the workweek chatting and laughing outside the back door over beers and wine coolers. To their credit, our bosses encouraged the down-time and camaraderie. Yep, I have lots of fond memories of HSS!

A couple of other stories stand out in my mind:

1. Housed in an old school building, we had no air conditioning. Summers in the DC metro area can be brutally hot and swampy, so two guys asked if the dress code could be amended to include shorts. The Director declined their request. The guys said, wait a minute, that’s not fair; the women can wear skirts which are not as hot as dress pants. The Director shrugged and answered: sorry guys; no can do.

In a stroke of genius, on the next sweltering day, the guys came to work wearing–you guessed it–skirts.

It was amazing how quickly that dress code changed.

All these years later, I still think that’s one of the more creative problem-solving approaches I’ve heard of in the workplace.

2. The second story is about my co-worker J.T.*  We appreciated his Friday beer runs and he actually was a nice guy in so many ways, but he was over-the-top flirtatious with leering eyes, wandering hands and suggestive comments. This was in the early nineties not long after the Clarence Thomas hearings, some years before sexual harassment complaints really became mainstream. At any rate, we had no HR department to report to, and honestly,  the predominately female staff  didn’t even understand that we had the right to complain. Each of the women  ignored or rebuffed his advances in her own way, to no avail.

Finally, another case manager and I had a brainwave. We wrote him a behavior plan. What is a behavior plan? Well, it was a written program we’d typically create using behavior modification principles to influence unacceptable or dangerous conduct on the part of our clients. Tongue-in-cheek, we wrote up a short social history, we theorized the function of J.T.’S  behavior, we captured the antecedent (“any time a female is in the immediate vicinity”), we defined the unacceptable behavior; and most importantly, we outlined the consequence: a mallet applied swiftly and with precision directly between his legs.

With good spirits and an attitude of humor, we intrepidly offered him a copy of his program.

And the incidents went way down.

That’s not how I would advocate my employees handling sexual harassment issues in 2011, but I’ll have to say it worked pretty well way back in the day!

I’m still  thankful for the fun we had at HSS, and I’m still in awe of the creativity we exercised to solve problems of every day work life.

photo by Sanne van der Beek

*not his real name or initials

Over a year ago, I wrote a post on top ten resume oops. Number eight was:

8. Gmail is free mail.

“From: Michelle [mailto: hotsexyluv@whatever.com]

My background, experience and knowledge would be a benefit to your orgainzation.”

Michelle, thanks, but I’m actually not so sure your experience and knowledge is a good fit for this job. First, go to Gmail and set up a plain old boring account for MichelleSmith.  Then spell check. Good luck!

Now, obviously, Michelle wasn’t her real name and I had altered both sides of her email address, but you get the idea.

Today, 14 months later, I received this comment on my old post:

My immediate thought was: Ben Eubanks. But then I thought it could be Andrew. Or maybe David. Or my cousin Steve except he doesn’t have much reason to be on my blog.

Then I noticed the prime suspects were all male. Why is that? Are men bigger pranksters or do they just have a better sense of humor all around? What do you think?

About a year ago I wrote about how our third party administrator accidentally terminated my dental coverage, which made for an inconvenient and annoying couple of days since my son was scheduled to have his wisdom teeth removed.

Today, in a similar situation my FSA debit card failed me at a very critical time: when I was trying to make a large deposit on my kid’s braces. Argh!

As maddening as this was, I’m glad I experienced it. It’s difficult to admit but as a busy HR person, it’s possible to become complacent so that others’ benefits issues go on a to-do list. Always at the top, but on a list nonetheless, whereas when the problem is my own, a fire gets lit under me in a very different way.

In addition, this situation is a good reminder that we offer benefits for strategic reasons, not just out of the goodness of our hearts, and if the benefits aren’t working, we’re hardly getting the return we expected. Our employees are disappointed and angry and no one wins.

So, FSA debit card, as much as I hate you right now, I also thank you for reminding me of these valuable lessons. Thank you for allowing me to experience just being a regular employee, a consumer. Thanks for helping me be a better and more compassionate HR person.

photo by stuartpilbrow

From the recent Oprah show on happiness, what would you say is the happiest job in the U.S.?

1. Travel Agent
2. Clergy
3. Special Education Teacher
4. Firefighter

What do you think?

Drum roll please….

As it turns out, it’s a trick question. According to happiness expert and author Dan Buettner who appeared on the show,  these professions are ALL among the happiest jobs–an interesting finding since they all generally pay less than $50K/year.

What gives these jobs high potential for happiness? One reason is the amount of interpersonal interaction inherent in these roles. According to extensive Gallup and Healthways research, the happiest people experience eight or more hours of social interaction every day. The jobs listed above help deliver that, apparently.

We all have  about sixteen waking hours available each day. But when you subtract  breakfast, getting ready for work, commuting to work, commuting home, having dinner in whatever form that might take, housework, not to mention any familial responsibilities such as children’s homework/bathtime/bedtime, and any other To-Do items, there’s not much time left. As quickly as our “leisure” hours disappear, we may want to make the very best of any interpersonal connections at work.

Coincidentally, in the last month I’ve been making an effort to have more personal conversations and less e-mail at the office. Although I made this decision for unrelated reasons–to reduce in-box clutter and to get quick answers–I’ve also noticed a side benefit: my relationships at work seem to be improving.

And yes, I think I do feel the ‘happiness benefits’ resulting from increased connection. Since watching this little Oprah clip, I’ll definitely be looking for more ways to expand the conversation.Who doesn’t want to be happier at work and throughout life?

If you’re interested, you can take Oprah’s quiz about happy habits here.

photo by nayrb7

I don’t expect to make any friends with this post, but I’m responding to the April 2011 Readers’ Digest What HR professionals Won’t Tell you About Job Interviews article.

Although I was at first excited to see the article, my enthusiasm was quickly replaced by embarrassment as I read how HR people lie to applicants, do what’s easy rather than what’s right,  and look away rather than confronting unethical management practices.

In this post, I wanted to set the record straight, from my end at least. I can’t speak for other human resources professionals and hiring managers, but here is my own personal response to the Readers Digest “What Your HR Person Won’t Tell You About the Interview.”

Points I Agree With

“Make sure you’re nice to everyone, especially the admin person at the front desk.”

True, true, true. If you as a candidate use honeyed tones with the HR department and hiring manager, then turn around and harangue the front desk folks,  you’ve just shot yourself in the foot. Believe me, we’ll hear about it.

See ya!

Thank you note.

Should you send one? Absolutely?

When? In my book, 2-4 days after the interview.

The article suggests waiting a week. I think that’s too long. But any thank you note is vastly better than none considering that most candidates don’t send one at all.

Follow-up. The article suggest following up several times, then letting it go.

My take? That’s right on the money. Follow-up a couple times at intervals. Then let it go. Anything more becomes stalker behavior.

Points I Disagree With

Some hiring managers and HR folks use tricks to find out if candidates have young children, such as by walking the applicant out to their car to surreptitiously look for car-seats. Another person planted pictures of fictitious children to trap candidates into talking about their own kids.

I don’t do this or anything close.  I don’t condone this behavior and it’s embarrassing to me as a professional.

Is it harder to find a job if you’re overweight?

Unfortunately, studies show it is harder to find a job if you’re heavy.  Although I am always happy to hire  candidates who are who are poster-children for my wellness program, the truth is that a heavy candidate may be just as qualified–or more–and may do a better job than the skinny applicant.

And as far as health goes, just because someone is heavy doesn’t mean they aren’t doing a lot of the right things to take care of themselves.  More to the point, it doesn’t mean that they won’t be amazing at work.

As HR professionals, I think we have a duty to look beyond stereotypes and generalizations. Don’t be so quick to judge.  Stop discriminating.

Hiring manager didn’t hire someone for a position requiring occasional weekend ‘On Call’ duty because the candidate mentioned that going to church was a priority.

What we should be doing is spell out the work schedule and see how the candidate responds. It’s very likely the person could fulfill ‘On Call’ duties responsibly and still attend church.

Weak handshake.  “If you’ve got a weak handshake, I make a note of it.”

In 15 years, I  have never made note of candidates’ handshakes or used that information to make a hiring decision. It’s irrelevant in my book unless directly related to job duties. If the candidate is applying for a sales job or is in consideration for the the Secretary of State position, maybe it’s important. Otherwise, let it go. You might as well use handwriting analysis to pick your next hire.

“Never tell us you were fired from a job.”

This particular HR person advises that HR folks will probably never know the truth anyway, so you should cross your fingers and lie.

I’ll tell you what, I *DO* uncover lots of terminations and other lies in my background checks and discovery process.

If I find out you lied to me, that you were involuntarily terminated and failed to disclose it when asked, there is a 100% chance that you’re not getting the job.  On the other hand, if you admit that you were fired and explain the circumstances, there is a very good chance that I’ll consider you and ultimately make you an offer.

So don’t lie to me.

And HR folks: please don’t coach candidates to lie.

“Sometimes we’ll tell you we ended up hiring someone internally—even if we didn’t—just to get you off our back.”

I will either send you a generic “thanks but no thanks”, or I’ll give you actual feedback.

In defense of HR, giving candidates feedback on their non-selection often feels like a thankless,  lose-lose proposition. Earlier this week, I explained to a candidate that she wasn’t selected because she didn’t have as much X-Y-Z experience as we were looking for. She tried to argue with me, rationalizing why she didn’t stress  X-Y-Z in her interview even though we specifically asked her to elaborate on it more than once.

It was very fatiguing; it reminded my why some HR folks just lie. But we still shouldn’t do it.

(Candidates, if you are so  fortunate as to receive real, actual, genuine feedback, I’d suggest you listen rather than argue.  Accept it graciously. Consider the advice in your jobsearch moving forward. Who knows? It might result in your next job.)

“If your former supervisor hated you… give me the number to HR,” not your supervisor.

In my line of work, regulations mandate checking actual references. You can write down HR contacts all you want, but my associate and I are like bulldogs and we will not rest until we secure actual references….and if we can’t get real references, you won’t be offered a job.

You might be better served to list another manager or other colleague as a reference instead of listing HR. At best, HR can’t speak to your performance in the way that someone else could.

Background checks: “Sometimes we bluff, get you to fill out the form, and don’t even run it.”

Well, yes and no. I might ask a candidate to complete a background form, then not submit it if they don’t advance to the next phase of the selection process. But short of some colossal error, I will never hire someone without a background check. At my organization, the request for a background check is not a bluff; it’s a real requirement.

In addition, have you stopped to consider that candidates will call that bluff, should you choose to gamble? I’ve heard so many candidates assure me that they don’t have a problem completing the form because they have led boring, uneventful, law-abiding lives. When I bring a four page rap sheet to their attention (after following FCRA guidelines, of course), it’s amazing how many people staunchly defend their honor, asserting,  “I don’t know what the mix-up is” and proclaiming, “I am going to go down to the court house and straighten this out first thing tomorrow!”  They say this, and then I never hear from them again. Their bluffing totally eclipses HR’s. Besides the questionable ethics of lying, why try?  Just run the background check.

In summary, I did agree with some of the Readers Digest “What HR Won’t Tell You” article, but there were also a few paragraphs that were very hard to read. HR friends, we have a code of ethics which includes advocating on behalf of ourselves “to build respect, credibility and strategic importance for the HR profession.”  When we discriminate against parents of young children, lie to candidates or encourage them to lie to us, condone wrongdoing or otherwise fail to live up to high moral or professional standards *and* on top of that we share those shortcomings with the world, we’re hardly doing the profession of human resources a service. It hardly seems like a way to secure a seat at that mythical table.

photo by השביעית • the7eye.org.il

Check out this collaborative free Ebook about employee engagement compiled by Ben Eubanks of Upstart HR! Studies show that employees that are “engaged” in their work perform significantly better than those who are not. And organizations with high numbers of engaged employees outperform those with lower numbers.

(And thanks for including my post, Ben.)

Duchenne (Genuine) Smile

My blog is called aliveHR because I am passionate about people who are engaged. Not ‘engaged to be married’ (although that’s nice too) but engaged in life, immersed in one’s craft, lost in activities that are somehow greater than oneself, that bring intrinsic joy and gratification when done well. I love to watch people “in the flow,” using strengths in service of an activity they love, whether those people are musicians, children, athletes, acrobats, HR professionals or employees.

Of course, as an HR person, I also love observing engagement at work. I work at a nonprofit that serves people with disabilities. The necessary evening and weekend hours are grueling to our staff; the pay is not lucrative and the duties are not highly valued by society. In addition, our counselors work in remote locations with infrequent face-time with supervisors. Recruiting, onboarding, training and supervising in such an environment are challenging activities at best. As you can imagine, having engaged staff is critical to the completion of our mission.  While high employee engagement is a strategic competitive advantage at any time, it’s especially important during these lean economic times when margins are tighter for most businesses, especially nonprofits. Here are some ways we have approached engagement at our organization:

1. Select engaged people. Chances are you won’t turn a sullen, bored candidate into a rock star employee. In my interviews, candidates have a number of opportunities to talk about what’s important to them. If their faces don’t light up at least once during our conversation—and truly light up with a real smile, not a fake one—it’s unlikely they’ll come to work for us. This is not a test of how outgoing or extroverted they are; it’s an indication of their passion for life and their chosen vocation.

2. Encourage connections. Applicants often comment on our friendly environment; you can feel it when you walk in the door. Although we work hard and some of the issues we handle are life or death, the air is not tense or stressed, but rather friendly and convivial. Because of the potentially isolating nature of our employees’ work, we have worked intentionally to build and nurture community, including work teams whose purpose expressly includes the emotional and social support to its members.

3. Meaningful work. Most people want to know that their 8+/- hours of effort aren’t in vain, that their day results in a product or service they can believe in and feel proud of. If you work in social services, as I do, create a compelling vision, and not just any vision, but the highest vision of the difference employees make together in the lives of others. Or if your factory makes widgets, help your employees see how the widgets save consumers effort, bring families together, prevents injuries or otherwise enhances lives.

4. Values. We use our values to select, orient, train, and evaluate our employees, as well as to help us solve ethical dilemmas and real-life issues. Values, if accurately identified and broadly accepted, can also be a great way to define an identity and provide a common source of pride and meaning in shared work.

5. Quality. Our little nonprofit has an excellent reputation locally and regionally; we’ve even garnered some national attention for some innovative projects. I believe most achievers prefer to work for a high quality organization that does exciting things. This branding makes it easier to attract, engage and retain talent; which in turn helps ensure you’ll continue to operate at a high standard of excellence

6. Organizational participation. In addition to teams events, we hold monthly meetings where we gather our employees together, share news and updates, introduce new people and bond over a meal. We have used these meetings to brainstorm about organizational challenges, such as budget cuts or the rising cost of health-care. Twice a year we hold day-long retreats. The Fall retreat is a feel-good event with a motivational speaker; it culminates in some very touching awards to employees who’ve provided excellent service while exemplifying our our values. At the Spring meeting, our employees help set the next year’s short-term goals; every three years, they participate in planning the strategic plan along with other stakeholders.

7. Use strengths. “Gary” organized exercise classes out of his passion for health and fitness, “Martin” shoots videos for us because he loves making documentaries, and “Maya” facilitates a self-advocacy group because she loves the social aspects. None of these duties are on job descriptions, but it’s a win-win to encourage employees to exercise these gifts at work.

This above list is not exhaustive. It doesn’t cover every aspect of engagement, such as setting expectations and giving continuous feedback. But I hope it shows that an organization doesn’t have to be big/have a large budget to find creative ways to provide an atmosphere conducive to engagement.

For us, some pay-offs related to employee engagement have been a waiting list of families interested in our services; turnover less than half our industry average over a span of 10+ years; positive licensing reviews; positive customer surveys; staff that routinely promote us in the community; and employees who help us continue our legacy of high quality and innovative services. In addition, I can’t prove how much of this can be attributed to employee engagement, but while many of our competitors are contracting, laying people off, freezing positions and salaries, we are actually expanding, building programs, maintaining and adding positions and operating in the black.

I hope some of these ideas are useful and of course I always want to hear yours as well.

photo by UggBoy