Business

Business related things, corporate posts

Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number, YOLO!!

April 25, 2013 in Business, discrimination, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles, SHRM by newresource | No comments

Recently, I had the pleasure of working with a jobseeker on her resume and some interview tips. She’s about 60 years old – but she’s sharp as a tack. She’s up on her social media networks, loves to use paypal (so do I by the way) and understands technology very well. She has an IPhone, IPad and a Kindle Fire. It was a pleasure to work with her because she is a lot more current and savvy than many who are 20 years her junior.

It’s a shame really, how fast you can get outdated. Everyone talks about 40 being the new 30, and 30 being the new 20. Everyone wants to be young and live life screaming “YOLO” – You Only Live Once. I guess YOLO equals wild and careless behavior but you have to take care of business too.

Age discrimination is real and it’s just as ugly as any other form of discrimination. Just because someone has silver hair doesn’t mean that they can’t contribute. Working with that client got me to thinking, how many employers are missing out on good people because of age discrimination? The older generation could be a robust workforce for the right company. Many are simply trying to work and contribute without all the games and office politics. It’s a fact older workers are more loyal than younger workers.

I love James Bond movies – In 2012’s “Skyfall” there’s a great scene where Bond meets his new Quartermaster or “Q” who is younger. They have an exchange that conceptualizes Reverse Mentoring very well, Bond makes a quip about Q’s age, to which Q says, “Age is no guarantee of efficiency” and Bond retorts “And youth is no guarantee of innovation.” BRILLIANT. Both are right, and both agree to learn from one another.

Maybe  recruiters and hiring authorities should stop discriminating based on age (and other non-essential qualities) and make sure the candidate meets all the qualifications needed to perform the essential job duties. I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again, Nepotism and Favoritism is destroying the workforce. Passing out jobs based on friendships and relationships – without being genuinely qualified is far more costly than hiring someone a little older.

Age doesn’t matter – some of the youngest clients I have had are some of the most entitled – they feel that they are owed an opportunity. And some of the older clients just want a chance to show that they still got it. They want to come to work on time, they have had their children and raised their families,  gone on big vacations, and sown their wild oats, now they just want to work quietly and take care of themselves – they don’t play games they understand YOLO and they just want to finish up with respect.

It’s also a great opportunity to explore reverse mentoring, where the younger folks can teach and educate the older folks on something and the older workers can show the younger generation a thing or two. It can work if there’s no judgment involved.

Uhm, so if you missed the point of this article – older workers are better than the younger workers that you covet.

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#Resumes – I Make You Better

April 15, 2013 in Business by newresource | No comments

It’s not sexy but resumes are still necessary. I was on the radio with Jobsite.com blog talk April 5th, here’s a link to it. We discussed resumes dos and don’ts – interview tips – and body odor, yeah B.O. – it was a fun show. I had a few new clients hire me to remake their resumes. I’ve discussed my resume writing services before,  I don’t mind doing it, I like bringing new life to a person’s old resume but I especially like when the clients get new interviews and jobs.

Last week alone I received follow up emails from 5 or 6 clients that had interviews lined up – interviews for jobs that they were not getting prior to working with me. I make you better – I hope that doesn’t sound cocky – it’s not meant to, it’s just the truth, I make your resume better. I can’t promise you a job, but I can tell you my clients get more hits after hiring me. I had 3 other clients contact me to let me know that they have accepted new jobs – all paying them more than their last job.

There is a lot of talk about the death of the resume. With LinkedIN gaining more popularity and functionality for recruiters to search for candidates, many think the paper resume will be a thing of past. I’m not so sure.  There are millions of companies that still want a paper resume, even if they find you on line. Vine resumes, websites and other creative style resumes are fine – but when the dust settles the job market is still a traditional market – suits and ties – business dresses – and resumes still rule.

One of the biggest problems I see with resumes is that no one wants to deal with them unless they have to. It’s like your credit score, you never really look at it until you need to buy something major – then it’s all red alert – top priority. It’s easier to stay ready than to get ready…especially in the job market.

Hundreds! I’ve written hundreds of resumes for various careers and professional levels. I often tell people, you or someone you know needs assistance with their resume. If you are ready, I’m ready. Contact me.

Chris@costofwork.com

And So It Has Begun – #SHRM Conference Season

April 12, 2013 in Business, hr fundamentals, SHRM, Social Media by newresource | No comments

Okshrm

Well it’s on, folks. April 7th in Baton Rouge, LA, the 2013 SHRM Conference season officially kicked off. I couldn’t make it but it looked swell.  Watching the pictures and tweets from the conference got me excited for my 2013 conference debut which is May 8th – 10TH in Norman, OK. It’s the Oklahoma State HR Conference and I am honored to be invited. I won’t belabor and bore you with a bunch of chatter about this and that, I’ll cut to the chase.  I am not excited to go just to be going – I’ve gotten a few invites to conferences and they are all flattering and special, however I like to have a purpose.

That’s right, I party with a purpose. Here’s why I’m excited to go and participate in OKHR #okhr in May.

  1. I want to meet Bryan Wempen – Bryan is the co-founder and co-host of Drive Thru HR, the #1 HR blog talk radio program.  Bryan and William have had me as a guest several times and even a co-host, so I want to meet Bryan – I’ve already met William. Bryan is also part of Social Media team and the OKHR conference.
  2. I want to meet Cat Carlos – Cat put this social media team together and I want to hit a home run for her because I understand how important it is to have a social presence during the State Conferences…TN, I’m looking at you.
  3. I’ve never been to Oklahoma before and I’d like to meet and interact with some of the attendees and talk HR with them.
  4. I am going to enjoying hanging out with the rest of the Social Media team, connecting with them, and getting to know them better.

I intend to check out some sessions being presented by people that I may not know too well, because it’s all about learning new things. I will also make time to meet Jessica Miller Merrell, she’s kinduva big deal.

Will there be pictures? Will there be socializing? Will there be networking? And will there be other shenanigans, who knows – could be or could be not. I’m not coming to party, I’m coming to learn, contribute, and I’m coming to help change any incorrect perceptions of SHRM conferences. It’s a lot of work, it’s a sacrifice but it’s rewarding.

I hope to see you there. (May 8th-10 th Norman, OK – Oklahoma State Conference -#okhr)

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Words of Wisdom and Life Lessons from Jay-Z

March 27, 2013 in Business, discrimination, Diversity, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles by newresource | No comments

One day, I noticed my oldest niece was crying, so I asked what was the matter? She said “Nothing, I’m just going through a lot of stuff right now.” My first thought was, “So what, join the club kid.” Then I thought, what could she possibly be going through as a teenager that I wouldn’t understand? So I sat her down for a little talk.

I asked her, “What do you plant flowers in?”

She replied, “Dirt.”

“Right, dirt! What else can you use instead of dirt?”

“I don’t know, soil?”

“Good. And what makes good soil?”

“Hmm, manure?”

“Exactly – manure! And what is manure?”

She laughed…

I told her “In life, you’re going go through some shit. And whatever it is, it’s only going to make you stronger and better, if you learn from it.”

Then I told her, “It’s just getting started!” And she will go through a lot more dirt and manure as she continues on but if she just keeps pushing and fighting, she will learn so much about herself – her strengths – her abilities and she will come out smelling just like a rose.

Ironically, I was reminded of this conversation when I heard Jay-Z say during an interview, “There are no lessons learned from success.” I thought to myself, genius! He’s right. You learn the most from failure. When you go through trials and tribulations you are experiencing life’s greatest lessons. Just about any successful person I’ve known or read about had to go through a storm.

Watch out, here comes a sports analogy!

Michael Jordan’s Nike commercial is legendary where he talks about all the shots he’s missed in his career. We all know about the shots he’s hit and titles he’s won but did you watch him and his Bulls teammates lose to the Detroit Pistons for years? Took him 7 years to win a title, 7 failed attempts, but each time he learned a little more about what it took to be a champ.

There’s a million clichés and examples but the bottom line is this, you are going to have some tough times and difficult situations. It’s called adversity – and it can kill you – if you let it.  But that’s only if you let it. You have to learn how to deal with the issues and work through the hard times.  One thing that we all love about the human experience is a comeback. We love to see someone get knocked down and then lifted back up.

Watch out, here comes more sports analogies!

Think Kobe Bryant, Lebron James and most notably and recently Tiger Woods. he’s number 1 in golf again.

Jay-Z went on to say “that excellence is sustainability” which means the ability to maintain success and relevancy. All of these sports figures worked hard through adversity and even harder once they gained a small amount of success. They never stopped. As hard as it is to be successful, that’s the easy part – staying successful is the hard part. You can get a job, but can you keep it? You can get a house, but … well you get it.

Going through the storms of life, learning tough lessons and working just as hard (if not harder) to maintain your success – who knew Jay-Z was so insightful –sounds like he’s learned a lot from life lessons.

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Take Your Frickin’ HR Hat Off!

March 20, 2013 in Business, Diversity, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles, SHRM by newresource | No comments

Tell me this hasn’t happened to you before, you’re out with friends and new acquaintances and everything is going great, then of course the conversation veers into work or the office dealings. Someone tells a great story about an inappropriate relationship, a rigged promotion and all of a sudden your HR brain kicks in. Here’s an unofficial stat (F.M.A. (from my a**)) – there are over 1.2 million HR blog posts that are inspired by a social experience or interaction.

So you ask probing questions; try to explain why the company took action or educate them on what actions should have been taken. Then you realize you’re doing it again. That HR hat has popped on and now you are in full on geek HR mode.

I have this one friend, I love her dearly, she tells me “Chris, I love talking to you but I hate when you put that effing HR hat on!!

Oh I’m the only one right!? No we are a bunch of geeks – a motley crew if there ever was one.

My friends are reluctant to talk to me about work related things (they only want HR when they need HR) because they say that human resources are focused on all the wrong things and they take the fun out of everything. They are right you know. We do focus on the wrong things. We are so focused ourselves and our workload that we rarely take time to focus on those that need us the most – the people.

That’s not totally our fault though – see we are trained and educated to protect the company against liability at all costs. We are tasked with forecasting problems, developing strategies to fix problems often times before they happen. We’re forced to cleanup messes, and fix things as if we’re Olivia Pope – you know the character on ABC’s “Scandal”, she’s a professional fixer. She can spin anything!  We do all this under the umbrellas of compliance and corporate policy.

Don’t get me wrong people need structure. Have you heard of some of the foolishness that some people try to get away with? It’s incredible. You name it, its happening; sex, drugs, and videotape – sure! And that’s not all.

The news is the worst! I mean you can’t turn on the tube or the net without seeing something crazy at work; a CEO accused of misconduct, employee theft, violence in the workplace, or my current favorite revoking ROWE (work from home…okay technically it means Results Oriented Work Environment) benefits.

We’re so used to fixing stuff and applying HR principles that we can’t always control it. Sometimes we even miss it. So when we’re sittin’ around shootin’ the breeze it just happens – work creeps in and that HR hat slide on. Just sitting there – hanging out and checking the scene.

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