Sirona Says

Bad things to say at a job interview by MockTheWeek comedians [video]

I came across this funny video over the weekend. It is from the BBC programme Mock The Week, and I guess could be described as satirical comedy on the edge!
This is a bunch of comedians and their ideas of bad things to say at an interview. Some answers not to be listened to by politically correct HR people :) The 2nd and 4th responses really had me smiling!!

 

What is your favourite?

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Social media privacy goes both ways in the interview process!

 

The thorny subject of social media privacy and online candidate checking raised its head a few weeks ago (again), when I had a discussion (well you can call it that!) with an HR Manager who was niaive at best.

I don't need to go into a lengthy discussion about this, as it is to flaming obvious! I was explaining to this HR Manager some of the advice I give to job seekers when trying to get an advantage in the recruiting process. Nothing overly clever, just some basic stuff like:

• Search for the interviewer on LinkedIn and read their profile
• X-Ray search them if can't access full LinkedIn profile, so they get full background
• Google them (obviously!)
• Do a search on www.pipl.com for more links
• Do a Twitter and Facebook search as well
• Basically, find as much information as you can about the interviewer

Shall we say this HR Manager was not best pleased? I got accused of being a trouble maker and a bad influence on candidates!!!

My answer (direct quote); "Stop being a prat and take your head out from where the sun doesn't shine!"

I continued....."Are you telling me that you don't ever do an online search (of any kind) for candidate either during selection or pre/post an interview?" [loaded question as I already knew the answer was yes! ]

The pregnant pause is always a good close..........

On admittance of their use of social media to 'check people out', I just turned the tables on them; "so If it is good enough for you to do your homework on candidates, why isn't it ok for candidates to do their homework on you (the interviewer) using the same social media channels ?"

Suffice to say, the argument (sorry I meant to say discussion) ended soon after that!!

Many people doing the recruiting and interviewing simply forget or don't even consider that candidates can also search their online profiles. It is in fact a superb way of helping in an interview, if you gone to some length to do your homework on the interviewer. Finding commonality is a great way of positively breaking the ice at an interview.

So whichever side of the interviewing table you sit, just bear in mind that the person opposite you may know more about you than you think!

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Is your HR Manager more Miss Marple or HR 2.0? [Fun infographic]

Is it always right to pick on HR, and make them the butt of jokes and mirth? Well, to be honest, yes on some occasions, because some of them should - quite frankly - be in a different career, like flower arranging or knitting needle design - male and female for that matter!! (Even those in HR will agree with me on that I am sure!)
Many simply haven't moved on from processes and procedures set in place years ago. I know this first hand when trying to explain social recruiting or even career sites (i.e no paper CV's in the post), and the hyperventilation it causes :-)

[Quick caveat here: there are of course some brilliant HR Managers as well!]

So when I saw this image on the truly excellent blog from Mindflash, I knew it would make you smile. It is their take on how an HR Manager 2.0 should be (Miss Marple look alike, or what ! ).

The Mindflash blog can be found at www.mindflash.com/blog/

Now, how many HR Managers do you know that fit the op image and how many the bottom image? Well I guess we can always dream they will go HR 2.0 in the end, can't we? :-)

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HR, Recruitment & Resourcing - should they be separated and aligned with marketing?

 

One of the chapters in a social media in recruitment report I have been commissioned to write, looks at what part HR play in social media recruitment. I recently asked the question in the excellent LinkedIn Group, The HR Professionals Network, and got a very interesting answer from  Isabelle Hung , a strategic talent acquisition & engagement specialist, that I would like to explore with you - I know you will have an opinion on it!

The question I phrased was: What is the role of HR in companies where social media is used as part of their recruitment?
What role do think HR should play? Is it legal policing (ensuring social media searches are documented in the recruitment process)? Is it employee protection (guideline etc)? Is it to use SM to ensure the best talent is recruited? What do you think?

Isabelle's answer surprised me, but got me thinking.....

Interesting debate and one for discussion. Recruitment and Resourcing are now two separate roles, which also opens the debate of is Resourcing more a marketing function than HR and therefore should it be reported in the customer contact data? The more policy there is the less employees are likely to engage at work? Is social media a comms tool, which supports candidate engagement and therefore eventually applications? HR and Resourcing are two different departments.

So, what do you think?

1. Should recruitment and HR be separate? (Yes in my opinion)
2. Should you then split recruitment and resourcing? (Uhmmm...)
3. Then should you align resourcing to marketing rather than HR? (I am a no on this one!)
4. Will too much social media policy (restrictions) inhibit engagement? (IMO - definitely)

Isabelle certainly takes a different stance on this - do you agree?

This makes for the start of an interesting discussion.....

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Generation Y - Who, What, How

Today, I delivered a presentation to a room full of HR and Recruitment Directors from the Hotel industry, for the hosts, Caterer.com . The subject was generation Y in the workplace - their characteristics and how to engage them as employees. The hotel and leisure industry has a very high level of gen Y employees, and they are experiencing their fair share of recruitment and retention issues. There now seems to be a desire to address some of the issues - hence the presentation!

The presentation was well received, and as promised (to all the delegates) here are a copy of the slides this morning.

Generation Y Who, What, How

View more presentations from Andy Headworth.

And for all of you today that didn't know what a blog was......... you do now - you have just been reading one:)

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My guest post on top USA HR blog, Punk Rock HR

 

Punk Rock HR is one of the top HR blogs in the USA, written by my good friend Laurie Ruettimann. Some of you may have had the pleasure of meeting her when she attended TRU London earlier this year.

Laurie kindly allowed me to write a guest post on her blog regarding my upcoming 'adventure'.

The post is entitled, "Can motivation really drive you over the edge?"  <<<Read it here.

Thanks Laurie for the chance to spread the word further.

Rant time: Some HR home truths!

[If you are an HR person or Recruiter of a paranoid disposition, then don't read further!]

I have just read an 'interesting' post from the the man of mystery - the anonymous @TheHRD, on the excellent blog My Hell is Other People. On his blog today the subject is candidate testing, personality profiling, assessments etc. The flavour of the post is very simply, forget all that mumbo jumbo and just trust your instincts when it comes to recruiting new employees.
He concludes the post with..... "....the answer is to stop thinking and start to rely on your intuition, “Feel, don’t think. Use your instincts.”  That, my friends is the path to being a true HR Jedi."

While I have already commented on the actual blog, I just wanted to further my answer here!

Now, I am not an advocate of all the different types of tests in the marketplace as I think they are over used and relied on too much as a decision maker. There are two exceptions a) assessment style tests for bulk recruitment, and b) and for senior level roles where they can help as a useful selection tool (and only a tool, not a decision making device) to aid the recruitment process.
What I have a problem with, is this whole "use your instincts - become a Jedi HR warrior" jibe  as it is (in my opinion) mis-guided coming from an experienced HR Director - I am assuming that this mysterious person is experienced?

Any senior level HR person will, over their careers, have worked with/employed/fired (take your pick) many HR staff over that time that have recruitment responsibilities. Exactly how many of them either knew (or even cared) anything about recruitment, understood what it is all about and could actually do it properly, is unfortunately a minority figure.
Are you still using just the one hand to count the number you know?

I can honestly say that in 20+ years in the recruitment sector, I can't get to double figures! I am sorry if that upsets some of the HR people that read this blog, but that has been my experience. Many just hate the whole concept of recruitment and what it stands for. They either palm it off to more junior colleagues, do a half-hearted job themselves or just abdicate responsibility completely by outsourcing it completely to an RPO organisation.
So is it any wonder that these people turn to all the variety of tests available to help them make a decision? They do it because they are not skilled enough to be able to recruit the right employees effectively, themselves!

Now, before @TheHRD counters with the state of the recruitment industry, I would like to say that my industry is equally not that great - there are way too many over-rated, under-delivering and quite frankly crap 'consultants' out there in the industry, that leave everyone (both the HR and Recruitment industry) embarrassed by what is delivered as 'a recruitment service'.

The recession has helped here by flushing a good number of the crap out of the industry and into other sectors - and I hope they never return!!

No, the recruitment industry is not perfect, but neither is the HR industry either!

So Mr HRD, stop bleating on about your industry being HR Jedi's when it comes to recruitment, when in reality most wouldn't even make it out of the Starfleet Training Academy! If you want them to graduate, then give them the skills - not inneffective tools -  to do the job right in the first place!

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Funny Dilbert videos on Evil HR, Job interviews and employee downsizing

Post election we all need a little amusement, so here are a few of Dilbert classic short cartoons, with some (accurate, I think!) points being made with regards to HR, a job interview and employee downsizing strategy.

Enjoy....

1. Dilbert: Soul-O-Meter and Catbert, Evil H.R. Director video 

2. Dilbert: Job Interview and Employee downsizing "strategy" video

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Have you ever used one of these excuses to justify upsetting people at work?

Wow!! You can be rude to a colleague and co-worker ........well, sort of, as long as you can justify it to yourself!
I am sure I don't need to be the one to tell you, it is fairly easy to p*** off your fellow work colleagues or co-workers - whether it be not making the coffee on your round, relying on others to produce your documents for you or just by being an arrogant, self-opinionated prat!

I was reading a post on the blog Workengagement.com, where they discussed three self justifying rationales for being rude at work. It got me a little intrigued, I have to say. Working in the recruitment sector, you could say I have worked with 'more than a few' people, who seem to have gone out of their way to p*** off everyone around them......just to get to their next placement (ring any bells with you?).
Have you knowingly gone out of your way to upset someone at work? I know I have - I know you won't believe that of me, the shy unassuming person that I am, fearful of giving an opinion .....not!

So, let's assume for a minute you have upset someone at work, and caused a bad working environment, did you justify it to yourself with one of these three excuses?

1. “Sorry for the way I behaved; I was just so stressed.”
   You shout or insult someone because you are under great pressure (real or just perceived) at work. Due to tight deadlines or grueling schedules, people become anxious,irritable and very short-tempered. (Don't look at me - well,ok, occasionally!)
   These types of statements express one person’s tension. They also dump some of that tension onto others. After acting in this way, people tend to acknowledge that they were not on their best behavior. They may even apologise for saying rude things to others, saying, “Sorry for the way I behaved; I was just so stressed.” The implication and the hope is that this was uncharacteristic behavior that won’t happen again, but we know different, don't we, recruiters!
   
2. "Don't you know what you are doing? Am I the only one that can do this job?"
   You choose the pushy and aggressive route, rather than just being assertive. You believe that as a leader you have to drive people hard, to get a good day's work out if them, and believe (arrogantly) that you are doing them a favour - they are learning from you after all!
   The boundary between assertive and pushy is thin. Looking after yourself and your task in hand - project deadline or client presentation maybe -  can result in stepping on everyone else. Assertiveness is a powerful tool that can slide into aggression when charged with extra emotion.
   In leadership positions, it can be tempting to take a tough approach: focus on results and take no prisoners. But in doing so, there is an ever-present danger of showing disrespect to others. What employees perceive as disrespect, you perceive as mentoring. Recruiters call it tough love.
   
3. "Sorry, I was only joking.......I was ...honestly"
   This is probably going to have the majority of you nodding your head as you read this. You believe others are being too sensitive and don't take too kindly to the "joke" or comment you made at their expense. So you justify it by saying that they  take offense too easily and that they lack a sense of humor. You actually then take the thinking a stage further by saying that they are too 'soft and delicate' to be working in your team.
   This attitude provides the comfort of entirely denying one’s bad behavior. You put any fault would be with the person taking offense who lacks humor or a feel for the group’s "lively and straightforward culture."

Sorry to say, I have been guilty of all of these in my time and I bet you have as well at some stage. But the hardest part is to actually recognise it and learn from it next time. I did.

Are there other good self justifying reasons, for any specific actions that have happened in your workplace? 

Go on, share them with me, you know you want to. Just change the names of the individuals!

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TRULondon 2 and Unconferences - what they are all about (video blog)

TruLondon 2 kicks off in a few weeks time, and I wanted to share my thoughts on what an Unconference is all about, and the upcoming event in a few weeks time - TRUlondon 2.

So in the spirit of unconferences, I have forsaken the keyboard and recorded this short video blog instead:

Ifyou are having problems viewing, here is the direct YouTube link http://bit.ly/837ZuK

For more information on all the speakers how to attend TRULondon 2 click here.

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