Lying on your resume is bad. Embellishing your bio could be more expensive.

Posted May 12th, 2012 in blog_news, For Employers, For Job Seekers

Yahoo’s new CEO was forced to step down.
He may also have to repay $7 million.

This week, Yahoo’s CEO of just 4 months was asked to leave the company, after an apparently disgruntled shareholder discovered that his official corporate bio wasn’t accurate: Thompson’s bio said that he’d graduated with a degree in accounting and computer science, but in fact his degree was only in accounting.

The ‘degree in accounting and computer science’ line has been following Thompson around for years, at least since his time as President of PayPal.  Did the line get added by a headhunting firm – or by Thompson himself – in order to make him seem more appealing to a high-tech company?  It seems odd that someone who is apparently so successful – think what you will about Yahoo as a going concern, becoming the head of these two high-profile organizations means you’ve done something right – would deliberately lie and continue to lie through any number of vetting meetings and SEC filings that are required for the head of a public company.  Surely he could have cleared up the computer science ‘inaccuracy’ at any point during the vetting process without everyone suddenly deciding he was the wrong guy for the job.

Thompson has tried to pin the blame on a headhunting firm, who he says ‘embellished’ his bio with the computer science information years ago and it simply went undetected for 7 years, but I think this misses the point:  No one is saying that Thompson was incompetent or incapable of doing the job; none of the coverage of the fiasco so far has indicated whether or not he ever took any computer science courses during his time at university.

The problem here for Thompson – other than the disgruntled shareholder, who seems to have made it his mission to get rid of Thompson, for reasons unclear to me – is that Yahoo has a strict code of ethics, which Thompson has breached.  He may be a fantastic CEO, a smart guy, and otherwise completely ethical, but to leave him in place when he’s been so publicly exposed as a ‘liar’ not only leaves Yahoo exposed to shareholders, but also to morale problems with employees who feel it’s unfair to be held to higher standards than the CEO.

The consequences for Thompson may also prove to be financial: Depending on how he and Yahoo decide to handle the departure, he may have to repay the $7 million in upfront compensation he received for leaving PayPal to take on Yahoo.

I just heard a commentator on BBC radio taking a very hard line about Thompson and his lies; I find myself less convinced of his implied inherent lack of morals.  (I have enough credits for a political science degree, for example – even though I ultimately got a degree in English – and if I’d ever been up for a job where those credits would have given me an advantage, I might have highlighted them on a resume or bio, and never worried that I was really doing anything wrong.)  However, the story is a good lesson for everyone:  In these days where biographical information is easy to double-check, we should all err on the side of caution.

 

Managed Solutions: Putting the people piece first

Posted May 2nd, 2012 in blog_news, For Employers

People can be the most complicated part of an insourced managed solution.
But they’re also the most critical.

When companies talk about implementing managed or insourced solutions, they’re often excited because they’re transitioning to a new model, process or technology, and they think that this new technology or process will be the ‘magic bullet’ they’ve been looking for to improve the bottom line, customer service ratings, or performance. I understand this feeling: After all, it can be tempting to think that if we just install a new enterprise technology system, or establish a new set of process directives, all our problems will be solved.

Except that the data shows that more than 75% of the budget and resources of a managed solution is spent on the ‘people’ portion of the equation. And that begs the question: Shouldn’t we be spending more time on people than on the process or technology?

People have the most potential to affect success of a managed solution

We do a lot of work in the IT insourcing/managed solutions space, where the emphasis is often on specific metrics: Speed to Answer, First Call Resolution, Ticket Resolution Time, CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores, number of tickets opened/closed per day/week/month, etc.   It’s easy to get caught up in the data.

But the biggest influencers of that data – and whether a particular model, process or technology actually works – are the people who are involved in the process.  Ensuring that  you have the right people in the right roles, and that their performance is effectively managed will ultimately have the most effect on the success of a managed solution.

Here’s how to make sure that the people component of your managed solution is set up for success:

1.  Choose a model that fits existing resources

When it comes to managed and insourced solutions, one size does not fit all.  Most organizations have existing staff who will be retained regardless of the solution model (because they have unique skills or knowledge, or to provide a seamless bridge from the existing function to the new one), and it’s important to take this into account.

2.  Choose a model that will blend well with existing corporate culture

Not so long ago, ‘outsourcing’ the helpdesk function was considered a hallmark of smart business decisions.  But many organizations found that a pure outsourcing model caused internal backlash, declines in service standards, and decreased morale – all of which contributed to lowered productivity and meant the solutions failed to achieve the desired efficiencies. Managed solutions can bypass these issues – but only if you work with existing corporate culture and expectations.

3.  Recruiting should be as important as it is for the rest of the organization

Attracting, screening and recruiting the right people for a managed solution is just as important for a managed solution as it is for the rest of the organization.  So when you’re choosing a managed solutions partner, ask about their strengths in recruiting, employment brand building, and assessment.

4.  Performance management is more than just data

As we mentioned above, when it comes to IT-related managed solutions, it’s all too easy to get caught up in key metrics and scorecarding. Yes, these are important measures of success – but people perform better when they’re recognized as more than a list of monthly metrics.  Your managed solution will deliver better results over time when performance management also includes ‘soft’ metrics like leadership, innovation, initiative and career growth for top performers.

5.  Make sure the transition process addresses the impact of change on employees

Humans are hardwired for homeostasis: A big organizational change – like moving to a managed solutions model – can cause anxiety even in your best employees. By taking the time to acknowledge the impact of the change on employees affected, and addressing it with communications, training and support, your managed solution initiative will happen more seamlessly and deliver better results, faster.

 

The Remarkable Employee: Nature or Nurture?

Posted March 6th, 2012 in blog_news, For Employers, For Job Seekers

As the world prepared for life under Google’s post-apocalyptic privacy policy, I chose not to spend my last free moments writing to loved ones or reconciling my thoughts on the afterlife.  Waiting for our new Orwellian overlords to inform me that, based on my recent search history, my cholesterol was too high and my first child would be a girl named Prudence, an article on Inc.com caught my eye:  8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees.

The general sentiment of the article seemed to be that truly remarkable employees – those that breathe the rarefied air reserved for captains of industry and thought leaders – are driven by something deeper and more personal than anything that could be put in a job description.  Remarkable employees embrace the spirit of the job rather than the letter of the job, defining success in terms of how well they advance the discipline, not how well their performance compares to what’s listed on their job description.

At the risk of oversimplifying, the 8 qualities lend support to the old adage that fortune favours the bold, in that an inquiring mind and healthy irreverence can not only help an employee achieve greatness in a given role, but also have a positive impact on their co-workers and organizational culture.

The idea that a little eccentricity can add flavour to an otherwise vanilla organization has gained popularity in the past few years, but when we appreciate how delicately these 8 factors must be arranged in order to achieve the desired result, one wonders just how often the dish tastes a little…funky.  There’s a gestalt element that needs to be recognized.  Without a balance, you may find a misguided employee squirting ketchup on the company ice cream.

But let us return to the article.  Are the 8 specified qualities meant to help us identify potentially remarkable employees, or are they the sort of things one can cultivate in order to become remarkable?

Depending on where you fall on the nature/nurture scale, it could be that the unique makeup of The Six Million Dollar Employee cannot be learned – it’s a set of innate traits that’s coded into our DNA.  On the other hand, surely it’s possible to teach employees numbers 4, 5 and 6 (“They publicly praise”, “They privately complain” and “They speak when others won’t”).

The challenge, again, is balance:  It’s funny how ‘eccentrically’ blue hair becomes more palatable when it’s sprouting from the head that just invented your killer app; ‘speaking when others won’t’ isn’t so attractive when the speech is always “It sucks”.

Without all 8 qualities acting in harmony, it’s a short trip from ‘healthy irreverence’ to ‘preening windbag’.  The line between Future CEO and Impatient Malcontent can be easy to cross.

For the record, I’m pretty sure the piece was meant as a field guide, not a how-to guide.  But I’ve always been more interested in minutiae than in general conclusions.  Whether or not it actually delivered sufficient protein, ’8 Qualities of Remarkable Employees’ certainly provided some food for thought.

Guest post by Geoffrey Gilbert, Poly Placements recruiter and aspiring eccentric.

The Happiness Project: Great ideas for work-related happiness, too

Posted January 25th, 2011 in For Job Seekers

Because ‘happiness’ isn’t just for your personal life

If you’re reading this, you’ve probably already know our philosophy:  The ROI of Happiness.  For us that means that ‘happiness’ and ‘the bottom line’ aren’t mutually exclusive.

One of our inspirations for the ROI of Happiness was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  A couple of years ago, Gretchen – a writer and journalist by trade – decided she wanted to be happier, and spent a year trying out all the self-help books, workshops, scientific theories and pop-culture remedies to see which one(s) actually worked.

When most of us think about ‘happiness’ and how to be happier in our day-to-day lives, we tend to think about our personal lives, not our work lives.  We all know that our jobs and careers are a huge factor in overall happiness, but when self-help books or life coaches address the subject, they tend to focus on the big picture (i.e. “Don’t be afraid to quit your job, go back to school, and reinvent yourself in a whole new career!”) rather than smaller, day-to-day changes they recommend  for your personal life.

12 happiness tips for your whole life – including work!

After her year of experimenting, Gretchen came up with ‘12 Personal Commandments’.  Like most guidelines to happiness and fulfillment, at first glance they don’t seem to have much to do with work/jobs/career.  But take another look:  these are great tips for being happy at work and in your personal life.
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Job interviews: Sometimes you gotta fake it til you make it

Posted December 7th, 2010 in For Job Seekers

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:   Job hunting is stressful and ego-bruising, and it’s even more difficult when you’ve been unemployed for a few weeks and are starting to really worry about your finances.  And it’s especially difficult at this time of year, for a whole lot of reasons.

So when you finally get a chance to speak with a recruiter or potential employer in real time – either on the phone or in person – and you’re talking about your career, it can be tempting to vent your frustrations, worries and resentment:  ”I’ve been sending out resumes for weeks now and no one ever gets back to me and I keep leaving voicemails but I never hear anything and I see other people getting jobs but no one wants me…”

Would you want to spend 40 hours a week with Debbie Downer?
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Wait a sec – what did that interview question REALLY mean?

Posted November 17th, 2010 in blog_news, For Job Seekers

You know what they say:  Being good at taking tests is a good indicator of how good you are at taking tests, not necessarily how well you’ll do in later life.

In many ways, the same is true about interviewing skills:  Doing well (or poorly) in interviews is not always a good predictor of how well you’ll perform in a particular job in the long term.

interview skills

Reading this list of Top 25 OddBall Interview Questions reminded me that the best interviews aren’t so much Q&A sessions as they are conversations. They’re like a first date.

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Got sucked into being on an ‘interview committee’? Here’s how to make it work.

Posted November 10th, 2010 in blog_news, For Employers

‘Interview by committee’ can be tough, especially if most of the panel members aren’t experienced interviewers.  Establishing guidelines in advance can make a big difference.

Part of our ROI of Happiness mandate involves using our specialized knowledge and experience  to ‘give back’ to the community, and one of the ways we do this is by helping non-profit organizations recruit, interview and hire staff.

One of the biggest challenges non-profits face is interviewing for senior-level positions:  In many non-profits, candidates for senior roles must be interviewed by a committee (typically the Board of Directors).  Panel-format interviews can be tricky even for experienced interviewers who conduct them on a regular basis; they can be particularly problematic when the committee is comprised of volunteers (most of whom come from other professions and don’t do a lot of interviewing in their ‘real’ jobs) who only convene as an interview panel once every couple of years.

Here’s how to make ‘Interview by Committee’ work better:

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Wedding planning in the workplace: Avoiding backlash

Posted September 28th, 2010 in For Job Seekers

Yeah, getting married is a big deal and supposedly only happens once.  But it’s important to remember your co-workers aren’t as invested in your life plans as you and your mother are.

We may roll our eyes at bridezillas who spend $20,000 (or more) on wedding planners, but consider this:  When your company held a 1-day retreat for 100 employees last year, they probably assigned an experienced project manager and two coordinators who spent upwards of 500 hours pulling together the venue, catering, decor, speakers, materials, and all the other moving parts.

So it’s not surprising that as the big day approaches, you (as the imminent bride) are finding that 99% of your available brain space has been annexed by wedding details, and that it’s taking two hours a day just to appease various relatives, who have apparently forgotten that it’s your wedding and you’ve decided not to go with that seafoam-green colour scheme they’re so passionate about.

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What’s in a name? 33% fewer interviews.

Posted September 12th, 2010 in blog_news, For Employers

Last week we discussed diversity in the workplace and how important it is to be pro-active, both within the recruiting department and across the rest of the organization.

That’s great, but before you can have a diverse workforce, you have to hire diverse candidates.  the problem is that discrimination often begins long before the interview process.

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Is your office lobby costing you A-list candidates?

Posted September 9th, 2010 in blog_news

“You never get a second chance to make  a first impression.”

There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that we all make decisions about people based on appearances and a few short minutes of interaction, and that many hiring managers make hiring decisions within the first 5 minutes of the in-person interview.

Your office lobby is the first place candidates ‘meet’ your company in person.  What kind of first impression is it making?

The minute they walk in the door, they’re imagining themselves in the job

Interviews go both ways:  The employer is thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to have this person working here every day…”, while the candidate is thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to come to work here every day…”

So the minute a candidate walks through your door, they’re looking around thinking, “Would I like to come here to work every day?  Is the prospect of spending 40+ hours a week in this environment appealing?  Would I ‘fit in’ here?  Do I really want to pursue this opportunity, or does the thought of walking into this lobby every day fill me with despair?”

What message is your lobby sending to potential employees?

Here’s the lobby of Google Zurich:

This lobby says:  ”We’re creative, non-traditional, and interesting – and we’re successful enough to be able to spend money in our surroundings.  Sure, you’ll probably end up spending a lot of time here – we work a lot – but you won’t mind, because it’s so much fun and we’re all so invested in our work!”

Now let’s look at random clinic office:

This lobby says:  ”We’re serious.  We’re so serious that we don’t believe in having a personality of any kind between 9am and 5pm.  We think that spending a lot of money,time or energy on our surroundings is frivolous.  Hey – this is a workplace, not a funhouse!  We believe competency is more important than innovation.”

If you were an A-list candidate with 2 job offers, which one would you choose?

We’ve picked 2 extreme examples here, of course:  Hardly any lobbies or offices are as consistently appealing as Google’s, and it’s entirely possible that the photo of the ‘boring’ office was taken just after they’d repainted, and they hadn’t yet had time to replace the signage and decor.

But it’s worth thinking about.  Go take a look at your lobby, and try to imagine it through the eyes of someone who’s never seen it before.  Is it an accurate reflection of your organizational culture?  Your brand?  Is it likely to be appealing to your ideal new employee?

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