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Complacency Kills

May 14, 2012 in HR Advice, hr fundamentals, SHRM, unemployment by newresource | No comments

Complacency can be a killer. Often times when we think of complacency we associate it with laziness. It’s taken on a new definition today, in our elevated sensitivity to the economy. There is a sentiment of unemployment discrimination in this country; many people feel that joblessness is a form of complacency.  I want to examine the question of complacency especially as it relates to those that are in the workforce.

My granny was a caterer; she used to tell me “Son, you work harder for yourself than for someone else.”

I’ll be honest here and admit that in the past I had allowed myself to become complacent. But guess what? I was working at the time. That’s right kids; I was at my most complacent in life when I was working in corporate America. Working was easy. It was like a pair of sweat pants; comfortable and forgiving.

I decided to stop making excuses, honestly examine myself and address my failures and make changes immediately. I was not engaged, involved, active or productive which was not fair to the company or myself.

I understand that you may not like HR and only work in the field to make ends meet. You may go to work every day but privately, you absolutely hate it and wish you were doing something more rewarding. You hate your job, and from time to time you take it for granted. You think that there is no way this company can operate without you and you feel that they are never going to replace your position, so you get comfortable with the status quo.

Never again.

If you really explore it, complacency is quite diabolical. It can cause you to be hateful, resentful and even violent. It’s a dream killer and if you allow it to consume your life without taking responsibility for your actions, you’ll never know what you are capable of.

I’ve seen people come to work in tears because they hate their jobs so much but they can’t leave, because they were trapped by bad decisions and life’s unexpected pitfalls.

Ultimately I don’t see at it as an employed versus unemployed trait; complacency occurs when you are mailing it in, lacking passion and direction in whatever you do or don’t do. No Excuses folks, stop being complacent.  To quote a line from the movie Shawshank Redemption “Get busy living or get busy dying.”

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Are Referrals Bad for Business?

March 26, 2012 in Business, HR Advice, hr fundamentals, HR principles by newresource | No comments

Show of hands; how many of you know someone who got their job through a referral? That’s most of us right? But think about this, how many of those referrals were not qualified? Yeah, most of them.

The referral is one of the easiest and most cost efficient ways to make a hiring selection. Employee A has an outstanding performance record and is one hell of a person, so naturally anyone they refer is going to be the same. That whole birds of a feather thing.  In theory, this is great and it USED to work. But what has happened in this country is that we have relied on the referral too much. It’s all about relationships now-a-days.

The referral is in fact a form of favoritism. And when favoritism and nepotism trumps education, experience and skill, you are creating an unhealthy work place.

Unfortunately, I’ve worked in more bad places than good. So I’ve seen this happen time and time again. Someone from the outside is brought into a position and then it’s learned that they are the relative of another co-worker.  It ticks people off. And its made worse when the referral is not qualified for the job.

Also getting a job through nepotism or favoritism reduces your creditability with the other co-workers. You have to work hard to gain their respect because they think you only got there because of  who you know and not what you know.

As HR people we have to make sure that the referral is qualified to perform the job and that we are not abusing the process. If not the question becomes, “Why should I go to college, spend all that time and money if you’re just going to hire someone based on a relationship?”

Here’s what bothers me the most about hiring a lot of referrals today;  many HR pros and hiring managers are less savvy than ever  (or just lazy). So they hire and promote whoever gets referred, regardless of ability. They do not know how to interview, what to look for, the types of questions to ask, and how to assign metrics to the questions and determine the best candidate.

Using referrals as your primary talent selection tool leads to the deterioration of fair competition.  People don’t mind competing for work if the playing field is level. But let’s be honest, the game is rigged. Especially today in these times, without a network, it’s tougher and tougher to get employment.

Gut feeling is another popular selection method, I understand that sometimes you have to make those types of decisions but be careful, it could lead you to the EEOC investigation table.

The effect on incumbent employees is utterly devastating. Productivity and morale declines. Resentment, hate and fear grows stonger. I’ll quote the great Jedi Yoda “…hate leads to the dark side.”  And the dark side is death to the work place.

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