I’m often struck by parallels between love and work. Interviewing mirrors dating; accepting a job is like moving in; and resigning or being asked fired is so reminiscent of breaking up!

Recently, Roberta Chinsky Matuson and others warn many employees plan to leave as soon as the market rebounds.

A lover with an inflated sense of security sometimes becomes complacent or lazy, only to be left when least expected. Maybe HR professionals and managers should not get too comfortable, either. Maybe we need to continually wow our employees as we might woo a romantic partner.

Sometimes managers are impatient when employees aren’t perfect on Day Three. They expect a high level of performance with little investment. That is just not reality; it is not how relationships work. Neither our partners nor our employees can read our minds; we cannot assume they share our expectations or goals, much less anything else.

If you quickly and without discussion leave lovers for small differences and imperfections, you will go through a whole lot of partners. Ditto employees. Even the best, most perfect and self-directed employee needs direction, attention, and tools to produce rock star work

Reality will hit soon enough, so let’s not let the economy seduce us into thinking employees are easily replaceable. The market is not an excuse to take employees for granted. Short-sighted shortcuts are likely to lead to being dumped as soon as the grass is greener on the other side of the employment fence.

Go woo, romance, and remind them why they fell in love with you.

This post was written in 10/09 and I’m bringing it back In honor of Valentine’s Day.

photo by anoldent

Because I am an HR nerd, in my daily travels, I often ask people about their jobs. I ask: what’s it like to work here? Do you like what you do? Is it hard to get a job here?

Sorry if this is too much information for the male readers, but today I went for my annual mammogram. Although it felt awkward to be having a conversation given what was transpiring with my bodily parts, I asked the technician about her job. “Do you do mammograms all day long?” I inquired.

She said she usually does, and I followed up  by asking how she enjoys her work.

With a huge smile, she quickly answered, “I love it. I’m in the business of saving lives. You can’t ask for a better job than that.”

Wow. Great answer. She could have responded, “Well, it pays the bills” or  “Oh, it gets really monotonous and tedious doing X Rays all day long,” or “I feel bad causing women physical discomfort.”

But no, she loves her job and she interprets it in a way that allows her the greatest sense of meaning and gratification.

How do you interpret and explain what you do?

photo by strangelibrarian

Here are a few snippets that stood out for me from President Obama’s State of the Union address last week:

“We need to out-innovate the rest of the world.”

“…re-inventing ourselves….”

“An economy driven by new skills and ideas….”

“We can’t win the future with the government of the past.”

As I listened to all this talk about innovation, I kept thinking about this administration’s pro-union stance, such as business-unfriendly  nominations to the National Labor Relations Board during a time that it seems we want to encourage job growth.  One example of many:  the NLRB issuing a proposed rule last month requiring covered employers to post notices informing employees of their rights to seek unionization.

In my opinion, pushing unionization doesn’t feed innovation. In fact, I see the two at odds with each other.  Maybe it’s just me and maybe I’m wrong, but I see unions as tied to the industrial age rather than the information age.  I see them as bureaucratic, old school, leading to unwieldy business operations. It doesn’t appear that the most cutting-edge, lean, progressive companies are unionized. It doesn’t seem that unions encourage  innovation, but that they reward tenure regardless of performance or lack thereof.  If I’m wrong–and my husband can attest it wouldn’t be the first time–please share your exceptions in the comments.

On the other hand….Obama’s 1/27/11 “Your Interview with the President,” where our President went on camera to field questions submitted by YouTube members: now that’s innovation.

More of that. Let’s have more of that.

And less of the former.

The office dishwasher has been broken for two weeks. People seem to have a hard enough time picking up after themselves in regular circumstances, much less now. Despite supplies for hand-washing dishes and even though we have a second dishwasher one flight down, dirty cups, plates, glasses and cutlery pile up in the sink for days.  A couple times a week, I carefully stack the dishes in a salad bowl, schlep them downstairs,  empty the other dishwasher and load it again. It’s not my responsibility, but I can’t stand it anymore. I am not a punitive person, but I joked on Twitter that a kitchen webcam might make a difference.

It reminds me of when my hubby and I moved in together. Of course we talked about how our household would run and of course we disagreed. He said we needed rules, structured routines, chore lists, which I thought silly. We’re adults, I argued; if we see something needs to be done, we should just pitch in and do it.

With the dishwasher fiasco, I am tempted to think my husband is right. Maybe you can’t count on people to do the right thing. Maybe we do need rules and chore rotations.

But then I remember our office vehicles. No matter how structured the expectations, some people consistently ignore them, leaving cars trashed or on “E,” taking vehicles they haven’t reserved, etc.

Between the dishes and the cars, I guess my husband and I are both wrong. Or maybe these issues are just universal. Does your office struggle with people not cleaning up after themselves or failing to do their part? If so, what’s worked? Anything?

There was a lot of buzz last year that women still make significantly less in many professions, on average, than men; here’s just one post by CNNMoney.com. Somehow in all the discussion, I missed this particular aspect: according to author and Carnegie Mellon professor Linda Babcock, far fewer women than men ask for raises, and far fewer female candidates attempt to negotiate a pay offer.  According to this article and others, the differences between the genders in this regard are dramatic. We’re not talking 60%/40%, it’s more like 80%/10% [men ask/women don't]. Women would rather settle for a smaller salary than face the discomfort of negotiation, apparently.

And then here’s yet another wrinkle, a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don’t dilemma: a Harvard IdeaCast suggests women pay a financial cost when they fail to ask for more money, yet they pay a significant social cost when they try to negotiate.   Guest Whitney Johnson, partner and co-founder of the investment firm Rose Park Advisors, suggests women are often socially shunned for making the ask; whereas, while men’s requests are not always honored, they are not made at risk of social capital.

We haven’t touched the issue of many women voluntarily stepping out of the paid workforce for long periods to care for children or ailing relatives. How does that figure in?

I don’t have any magic wands to wave to solve the gender pay issue, but Linda Babcock’s study sure grabbed my attention today. If you have any thoughts, chime in on the comments section.

There is much I admire about my boss, Tim Wiens, the CEO of our organization.  His vision, integrity, discipline and commitment, for example.  Or that he is consistently even-tempered, optimistic and persistent despite the relentless and sometimes punishing challenges of nonprofit life.  Not to mention his commitments around teamwork, inclusion and collaboration; or his ability to build masterful partnerships that are the envy of other organizations.

Those are all important leadership qualities, but today I find myself appreciating something else, something which at first glance might seem insignificant and small:

First he empties the dishwasher. Then he makes coffee. (Does your boss do this?)

Many other staff have successfully dodged putting dishes away for years. Or they intentionally leave a splash of coffee in the pot so someone else has to make the next batch.  But not Tim. He doesn’t complain and he doesn’t have an ego about these things. He just jumps in and does what needs to be done. When you think about it, Tim’s early morning routine is not insignificant or small at all; rather, it is an example of servant leadership and humility, important (yet often underestimated) leadership traits according to many experts.

So tell me: What does your boss do well? What have you learned from her/him? Can you brag on your boss? Or if not your current boss, someone you knew in the past?

HR friends, have you listened to Drive Thru HR on blogtalk radio recently? It’s a 30-minute show, Monday-through-Fridaym 1:00 p.m. Central time.  Each day, hosts Brian Wempen and William Tincup chat with a different HR practitioner. For example, this week already they’ve interviewed Michael Long of Rackspace and Jason Lauristen of Talent Anarchy.

I listened to the Michael Long show today at work. This evening, I listened again while cleaning my kitchen and scrawling notes. And now I’m tuning in for a third time as I write this post; the discussion is that rich. The hosts and Michael start by discussing how we share organizational culture with applicants. They then touch on the greater candidate experience, as well as exploring social networking options, building content to communicate culture, managing employee social media contributions, keeping candidates accountable, using analytics to fine-tune a career page, the issue of transparency and ‘keeping it real’, creative recruitment efforts by Rackspace such as tweet-ups, technologies Rackspace uses for recruitment and talent management, recruiters’ responsibility for retention, education as an engagement tool, strengths-based talent management, Rackspace’s recruiting approach (‘be yourself, as opposed to ‘let me stump you’)…and then after all that, they circle back to the candidate experience again. All that content in less than 30 minutes? Amazing.

I especially appreciated the nuggets Michael shared about their use of analytics. Rackspace found that any culture-related content (such as employee blog posts)  increased candidate engagement, decreased bounce rate, increased time on the site and increased number of page views. Culture fit is the holy grail, Michael says, because it helps you decrease costs by getting the right people in the door.

Although I’ve focused on one daily show, the other editions I’ve heard have proved similarly valuable. I’m blown away by the quality, depth and transparency of  DriveThruHR’s content. A different HR thought leader showcased each workday of the year?  For free?! All I have to do is log into my iGoogle? This is priceless. I’m convinced a daily dose of Drive Thru HR is a perfect complement for my SPHR studies.

And if you’re reading this blog, you’re probably already familiar with another great Blogtalk Radio HR show, the Thursday night HR Happy Hour hosted by HR technology guru Steve Boese and the “HR Minion” Shauna Moerke. If you haven’t heard it yet, check that out also.

So, those are two awesome, free, easily accessible internet resources for HR practitioners. Do you have any resources you’d like to share?

image by Fey Ilayas

It’s that time of year again. The gut-wrenching roller-coaster of open enrollment.

Benefits are not my favorite HR disciplines to begin with, and open enrollment doesn’t help. Each year, our carrier hits us with double digit increases, which we fight–with more or less success (usually less, I have to admit)–or attempt to mitigate by tweaking plan offerings.  It doesn’t make this time of the year much fun, I’ll tell you that.

HR folks I’ve met via social media rarely talk about benefits or insurance or health care reform, I’ve noticed, even when, as is the case today, health care  is in the news. This morning, Paul Smith tweeted a CNN article about the 236-181 House vote to repeal health care reform. Although the House effort is largely a symbolic gesture because the Senate and the President won’t cooperate, still, this is significant human resources news few other HR professionals are talking about.

Why is that, I wonder?  Although benefits are not my favorite topic, they are a part of my job; I am a generalist and we have a two-person office, so I can’t escape them even if I would like to. Here are some theories as to why HR folks don’t talk about PPACA and unsustainable health-care premium increases:

1. Benefits are boring.
2. Benefits are transactional, whereas I’m strategic!
3. Benefits are for bean counters.
4. My organization is so profitable we don’t have to worry about the spiraling cost of health care.
5. Healthcare costs are increasing? I guess I should look at that.
6. We don’t offer health care benefits so this is all N/A.
7. It’s too hard. I don’t want to talk about it.
8. We can’t control it so why discuss it?
9. I was never that good at math. That’s why I work with people.
10. I don’t have a clue how to solve the health-care issue so I’m not going to open this particular Pandora’s box.
11. The HR consultants aren’t talking about this so I don’t need to.
12. This is all political. I stay away from politics.
13. I’m too busy talking about leadership, recruitment and talent management.
14. Benefits aren’t really HR. They are payroll.
15. Health insurance isn’t sexy.

I personally think it’s a whole lot of #15 combined with aspects of most of of the rest of the list. What do you think? I’d love to hear.

It’s January 1. That time of the year when magazine covers shout “Six Weeks to a New You!”  The time when we all decide that we are going to join the gym, lose 25 pounds, quit smoking, start using the $2500 exercise machine we bought last year, be nice to our mother-in-law, pay off our debts, go back to school and achieve world peace.

By Valentine’s Day, what has happened?  For most of us, we haven’t begun to lose our holiday weight, much less the rest of it;  the gym is a distant memory; we stocked up on a couple cartons of cigarettes while traveling down I-95; we haven’t contacted any schools; and we’re still avoiding the in-laws. The only resolution we can successfully claim credit for is “use the exercise machine.” Yes, we’re using it: it conveniently stores racks of freshly laundered items.

That’s most of us, I believe. Then there are a small percentage of people who use New Year’s as an opportunity to assess their lives, who decide on a few meaningful goals or intentions and faithfully attend to them throughout the year.

What’s the difference? As someone who has no other qualifications other than I can say that over the years, I have formed resolutions I kept and ones I didn’t, as well as un-resolutions and New Years intentions–or none of the above, in certain years–these are my thoughts:

• When we don’t meet goals or keep resolutions, we don’t feel great about ourselves. So pick your goals and resolutions with care.
• Don’t use the new year as an excuse to try to co-opt yourself into doing something you know in your heart you don’t want to do. You’ll just fail and feel bad.
• Know yourself. For example, I enjoy going to the gym occasionally. I don’t enjoy going often enough to justify a membership. A New Year’s resolution to sign up at the gym would end in self-recrimination whenever I passed Bally’s without stopping or whenever I click on my bank statement to see another $60 disappear down the drain. I need an alternate way to meet my fitness objectives.
• Less is more. Who can keep track of 15 resolutions? Ok, maybe you can, and my friend Alicia Arenas apparently had 30 last year.  She can handle that, but I can’t.
• Make it broad. Yes, this goes against all conventional wisdom about SMART goals (specific, measurable, etc.)  Sometimes when I’ve had broad intentions, such as to live life more simply, I’ve been more successful than when I’ve come up with narrowly scripted results.
• Pick things related to your dreams and passions, not things you *should* do, or outcomes you *should* want.
• Wait til February to decide. Take January to consider what you want the rest of your year to be, instead of rushing in and committing to resolutions on January 1.

So, with all that said, will I have New Year’s Resolutions, un-resolutions, or intentions this year? I have two intentions or themes.

Take stock: After years of denial, I am forced to acknowledge that I am well into my mid-life, usually described as the years from 35-50. My intention is to spend the coming months soul-searching and reflecting on what I want this stage in my life to mean, as well as starting to consider and build a deeper foundation for the last third of my life.

Intentional friendships. The other day my husband and I breakfasted with  Rev. Jim, the minister who married us. I watched in amazement as my husband morphed into someone else. In the presence of his mentor, he became the best and highest version of himself. This little incident was a beautiful little reminder of the importance of surrounding ourselves with high quality people who help us meet our goals, people who cause us to be our best selves. I love all my friends and don’t plan to discard any, but I do plan to spend more time with certain especially gifted/enlightened friends and mentors.

How about you? What can you commit to this year?

photo by E. Bartholomew