I’m pretty excited to be attending the IHRIM conference this week.  This is my first time and I’m really looking forward to it.  If you are unfamiliar with this conference, here is some information right from the conference brochure.

“IHRIM’s annual conference is the leading educational forum for the exchange of ideas and information about HR systems and HR information management. Attendees from around the globe meet at the IHRIM conference to share new ideas and best practices, and to make and strengthen professional relationships and friendships.”

I am a firm believer that HR departments could do a better job of leveraging the technology they already have or implementing new technology that may make their lives a little easier.  In some cases, the HR department can be the one unit in a company severely lacking in this area.  I’m stoked about heading to this conference and experiencing what is new and learning about ways that HR professionals can better leverage all the great systems out there.

So if you can’t join us for the conference, follow the #IHRIM hashtag on Twitter or catch my upcoming blog posts detailing highlights from the event.  Also, feel free to send me any feedback on things you might want me to check out while I’m there.  In the meantime, drop me a note and tell me what’s up with you this week?

Today’s post is a guest post from Erin Palmer.  Erin Palmer is a writer and editor for Bisk Education. She works with Villanova University’s online human resources certification programs. Villanova also offers an online masters in human resources program. For more information please visit http://www.VillanovaU.com. Erin can be reached on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer. 

Remember Sam I Am from Dr. Seuss’ “Green Eggs and Ham” story? He is the epitome of persistence. No matter how many times or ways his friend absolutely refused to try the green eggs and ham – Sam I Am came up with another idea and reason why he should.

When you think about it, job hunting has a very similar feel to this story. Often times prospective employers adamantly tell you “no” without even giving you a second thought. Like Sam I Am, it is vital for you to remain positive and persistent until you get your foot in the door.

How Persistence Helps Job-seekers

In today’s job market it is essential that you do whatever is necessary in order to land a job. With so many people unemployed, you need every advantage you can muster over your competition. One classic advantage that has worked for so many people over the years is to be just a little more persistent than the other job seekers.

The truth is, many companies no longer take the traditional route of advertising job openings. Just a few years ago you could still look in the classifieds or on an online job board, but nowadays many employers hire via word of mouth. This means you can no longer fill out a few applications or send a dozen resumes and sit back and wait for the phone to ring. It means you need to get out there and network yourself, and networking takes determination and a lot of persistence in order to single yourself out from the crowd.

Persistence means going to networking events and actually connecting with people. Don’t stop there, the real work (and also the real payoff) happens in the follow-ups.  You must stay fresh in people’s minds, so send an email stating how nice it was to meet someone as soon as you get home. This one small detail can reap tremendous benefits.

The same applies when connecting directly to a prospective employer. Often job hunters are given an initial interview but never follow up. It’s a good idea to call the potential employer to thank them for their time and consideration. Be friendly and respectful, and craft a compelling reason for the call, in this case adding one more important reason, in hindsight, why you’re a strong candidate for the position they’re looking to fill. Always follow up an interview with a thank you card. You must be a (pleasant) squeaky wheel in your employment search.

If done the right way, these persistent follow ups show that you are very interested in the position and that you have what it takes to follow through on important tasks.

How Persistence Can Help Your Career

When you do finally land that new job, do not put your persistence away in a drawer never to see sunlight again. Now that you have your foot in the door of employment, switch your thinking to long-term career goals. Once they have successfully gained employment, many people do nothing else but show up every day, and this can eventually lead to complacency and career burnout.

Persistence is the key in mapping your career path. Sit down and write what your long term goals are. Where do you want to be 5 years from now? Ten years? Once you have your career destinations figured out, you need to come up with your driving directions to get there in the form of an actionable game plan.

Finally, use your persistence to execute that game plan and reach your goals. Every road trip has bumps and setbacks, and your career journey will be no different. When these disappointments take place, remember to channel Sam I Am, and draw on your strengths, knowing that persistence can be the key in a successful job search and career path.

Linkedin is an extremely powerful tool for job seekers.  A robust profile and engagement can make a huge difference in your networking.  A common frustration for both job seekers and recruiters is how to properly connect on Linkedin.  Job seekers who try to connect with recruiters often do it in a way that is not helpful for either party.  Lets play this out.

Job Seeker: After seeing three jobs at the same company he is qualified for he realizes they were all posted by the same recruiter.  Unfortunately, he does not have any connections that can introduce him to her so he decides to send her an invitation to connect.  It can’t hurt right?  He knows better than to send the generic invitation so he sends her this: “I am a sales individual looking for work.  Please take a look at my profile and see if you have anything for me.”  That’s safe right?  It’s not too aggressive.  It invites her to just take a look at his profile and hopefully she’ll see that he is qualified for several jobs.  After sending the invite, she accepts the invitation, but never reaches out again.

Recruiter:  She has several new connection requests on Linkedin and starts to look through them.  Three are from agencies wanting to help her fill her positions, four are from former colleagues wanting her to help them in their job search and five are from job seekers asking her to “look at their profile”.  She accepts them all because they all may make great connections to have at some point, but she really doesn’t have time to go through and look at all these profiles and see how she can help.  Hopefully, if any of these people are qualified for her jobs they will apply so she has their resume.

Another way this could play out from a recruiter perspective is that she does actually look at the  job seeker profile, but is not seeing what she needs in this role.  Something in the profile is not showing her the necessary skills so she moves on.

Here’s the lesson for job seekers.  It is your responsibility to apply for roles you are interested in. Recruiters may or may not look at it and tell you where you should apply, so you should always apply to something you think you are a fit for.Also, I can not stress enough the importance of a robust Linkedin profile.  Recruiters who do take the time to look need to see exactly what they are looking for so make sure your profile highlights your experience to the fullest before ever asking them to look at it.  Also, use the box.net application to upload your resume.

I have some feedback for a recruiter in this situation as well.  I get that many corporate recruiters are inundated with resumes and emails and Linkedin requests and they do not have time to look at profiles at the request of every job seeker (although I would say what if the person really is super qualified and by not looking you passed up your perfect candidate, but that’s just me).  I get it, but I think by just offering a little feedback, we can all make this job search process easier for both sides.  You can create a script for these types of connections that lets the job seeker know that while you are happy to connect, the easiest way to work with you is to look at your job openings and directly apply for one they are interested in.  You can also let them know that in the future, when connecting with recruiters, applying for the job first and then sending the connection request letting you know is probably better.

To make things easier on both parties, I have included a few scripts for you to use as you see fit.  Click here to download.

When I took my first management role, I was 25 years old.  I had so much to learn about managing others.  So very much to learn.  I especially had a lot to learn about how to replace staff and build a team.  I came into a position where all of my support staff were not the right fit.  They were not HR people, but had been put in the roles because they were “good with people”.  The new Director and I had higher standards and so as the opportunity arose to replace each one of them, we raised the bar – a lot.  While talking about replacing a few of the positions one day, my boss said something that has stuck with me ever since.

“Sabrina, I want you to look beyond the job description.  As a leader, you can certainly make sure that you are the smartest, most experienced and best at what you do, but that just means you are going to be doing all the work.  You can pretend you don’t have weaknesses and hire people who have strengths similar to yours, but that just means you will all play nice together, even if good work is not being done.  A true leader looks at their weaknesses and surrounds themselves with brilliance.  Do that and this team will run itself.”

She was so right.  I will write later about how I’ve done that and how easy it actually is, but for today I just want to know what is the best piece of advice you’ve been given about leading others?  Care to share so we can all surround ourselves with brilliance?

One of the coolest parts about helping people in their job search is that I get to stretch their imaginations beyond what they think to be possible.  Specifically, I get to open them up to possibilities outside of what is normal for them.  Accountants will usually tell me they want a job in accounting, even though they are bored to death.  HR people will tell me they want to go back to HR because they are such “people persons” (I know, I know).  I love asking them about their interests and then throwing out a completely unconventional idea about where they might look for their next job.  Like the HR person who really enjoyed baking – REALLY ENJOYED BAKING and I asked her about opening a bakery.  She thought I was nuts at first, HR was her job, baking was her hobby.  After more thought and after seeing a job opening at a local bakery, she applied and got the job.  She is now working towards opening her own int he next few years.

One thing that I love to throw out as an option is the potential of becoming an expat.  I worked in the global space for five years traveling to, building from the ground up and maintaining (from an HR perspective) international locations and I count it as some of my most valuable experience.  The travel experience itself is amazing and then to get to experience work in other countries – it just gives you a different perspective – a larger one. So when I saw this article about Australia making a serious move to encourage workers from the US to apply for certain roles, I knew I had to share.  If you are an electrician, plumber or builder and have ever wondered what it would be like to work in another country, this could be your chance.

Of course, being an expat isn’t for everyone.  There are two crucial areas that an individual should consider before thinking about anything else.  They are:

1. Family.  The single largest reason that expat assignments do not work is because of the strain it places on a family.  There are two kinds of expat assignments, long term, where the family actually moves and short term, where the family stays behind.  Understanding which assignment your family would be comfortable with is essential.  Forget thinking about schools and spouse’s employment until you have even decided if they can handle the move or being away from you for six months.  Thinking about the impact to your family is crucial.  I have seen serial expats not take their dream job because they knew their family would not be happy in the culture of their host country.
2. Flexibility.  By this, I mean your ability to be flexible.  Working in an expat assignment is going to stretch you beyond anything you have ever experienced.  Leaders in other countries do not lead like they do here, policies are different, protocols are not  the same and at the end of the day, they will do it their way, not the American way.  Can you live with this?  Can you get used to something so absolutely different?  When I first opened a call center in Jamaica, the HR manager told me that it was completely acceptable and legal to not hire a pregnant woman because she would need too much time off of work in the beginning.  I was floored.  I couldn’t imagine doing that.  Here it is an immediate lawsuit.  When I interviewed my first pregnant woman there, I was concerned that she was due so soon after we needed her to start and felt like she would be missing too much training.  The HR manager reminded me that her being pregnant was a legal reason not to hire her and I still struggled with it.  Being an expat means letting go of the American way and learning something different.

Of course there is tons of preparation and other things to do before becoming an expat, but if you have any doubts or are uncomfortable with either of the two above, it will never work.  I moved more than a few expats back home because one of the two above was causing problems for them.

If both of the items above are in-line and you are considering becoming an expat, I could not encourage you more to give it a go.  It is such a neat experience and one that I could even consider once my lil one is all grown up ( a long, long time from now:))

I don’t know if it’s just because I work in HR or because I work with job seekers, but I have been bombarded lately with job seekers wanting to transition into HR.  I certainly don’t want to be Debbie Downer and make HR sound like a horrible choice – I love what I do, I guess I just never thought of it as something that people would want to transition into.  Because of this I get this question all the time, “Will companies not take chances anymore?  Will they not hire someone who doesn’t have the exact experience, but has a great work history and is trying to break into the profession?”  Here is how this plays out in real life.

Job Seeker: After spending years in finance, she has been laid off, again.  She has decided that what is important this time is taking a role that she knows she will truly love.  She wants to finally make that transition into HR.  She joins as many on and offline groups as she can and starts rubbing elbows with all the right people.  She highlights HR relevant work on her resume and has a beautifully crafted cover letter which explains why she wants to transition and how her past experience translates into an HR role.  She sends those resumes out to company after company, networks like a crazy woman and still gets no bites.  For a profession that is supposed to be all about the people, she is not feeling very welcome.

Recruiter:  After posting an entry level HR generalist job he immediately gets 34 resumes from local candidates.  The first one is from a former VP of HR who worked for a very large brand, clearly  overqualified.  The next five are more of the same.  HR professionals who were obviously laid off from their manager level roles and are just trying to get back to work, even if that means taking a job they could do in their sleep.  Of course, the hiring manager won’t want to take a chance on hiring them and having them leave when they find something that is more inline with where they were so they are out.  The next group of resumes appear to be those in transition or new college grads.  These are all ones looking to break into HR.  They could all be trained on the job, but who has time to train.  It would be nice to find one who could hit the ground running.  The last two resume’s the recruiter comes across are individuals with just enough HR experience, but not too much.  They have both been displaced and are immediately available.  He’ll start his call list there.

This could play out for any position.  The bottom line is that the job market is so competitive right now.  Especially in HR, there are a ton of people out of work.  Companies may be willing to take a chance on an individual with little to no experience, if they have too.  Unfortunately for those of you wanting to make the transition, they don’t have too that often.  They get piles of resumes, some of which are overqualified and others of which are trying to break in.  Like Goldilocks, they have to find the one that is just right – and in this tough economy, they do not have to look far.

Please don’t despair however.  If you truly want to make the transition, keep at it.  There are things you can do to help your chances, just realize that you are competing against job seekers who have the skills that you lack.  Remember this and work around it when possible.  Most importantly, make sure your resume, cover letter, Linkedin profile and job search strategy are all 100% working for you.  If you need to get help then please do so.  Transitioning is not impossible, but it takes greater focus due to great competition.

My little one will be staying home with me sick today.  As a solopreneur I really don’t have a paid time off policy so him being home means I just have to figure out other ways to get work done – which probably includes staying up late into the night.  It’s all good though and part of the reason I went out on my own.

This has me thinking about sick time though and policies that either pay for it or don’t.  I recently finished a couple of handbook projects for small business owners and it was very interesting to see each of their different perspectives on sick time.  Here are how their thoughts broke down.

• One gentleman born and raised in an European country (where they are typically more employee centric with this type of stuff) was extremely generous.  He wanted to offer a large amount of sick days that included paid time off when kids were sick.  He also wanted to pay for additional healthcare items that may arise from unexpected illnesses.
• Another business owner felt taken advantage of because she didn’t have a policy and needed some definition around sick time.  She wanted a policy that allowed for a fair amount of sick time keeping sick workers out of their small office, but not so fair that they began to take advantage.
• A third business owner took a more all encompassing approach.  He wanted more of a paid time off policy where he lumped all vacation, personal and sick days into one.  He gave so many days a year.  When you needed to be off, he did not care why, he just knew you were off.  Once your days were gone, they were gone.  He trusted his employees to be off when they needed and manage their days accordingly.

Sick policies are always a tricky thing.  I encourage business owners and leaders not to use them to punish the whole when only a few are abusing.  I often get calls about how to revise a policy because a few are abusing it.  In that case the policy isn’t the issue. I also get asked for a standard policy – one easy to implement policy that fits every business.  Unfortunately, that does not exist.

So on my sick day today, I’m asking you sick policies you have heard of or worked with that were fair and best met the needs of the business.  Any really creative sick policies out there?  As a business leader have you found the best way to balance the need for your employees to take time off when their health demands it while at the same time meeting business demands?  Let me know, maybe I’ll implement one for my business – so I know what to do when B or I get sick:)

When I was in kindergarten, a group of us were having a discussion about super hero’s.  One particular boy who was always giving me trouble dared disagree with me when I said that I was in fact, stronger than Superman.  I got pretty angry for a five year old.  We kept going back and forth with the ever impressive, “am too”, “are not” until he finally said, “prove it.”  And so I did.  I took his middle finger and bent it backwards as hard as I could.  He cried, he told the teacher, I got in trouble, the teach told my mom, I got in trouble again.  The best part however is that he conceded and I had proved my point!

I’m a little ashamed to say that in my adult life I still bend back fingers.  I have a point to make and I go way to far in proving it.  What is it that drives us to prove we are right sometimes?

You see this in the workplace every single day.  Leaders over punishing their employees to prove how big of a mistake they made.  Executives making poor decisions just to prove they are in charge.  Employees ranting about their supervisor on Facebook just to make her look as bad as she possibly can.

It’s all very kindergardenish and the truth is, none of us are as strong as Superman!

While many job postings start with hundreds or even thousands of applicants, recruiters quickly narrow the field down to the top 3-5 that they want to bring in for a face to face interview.  With multiple steps in the interviewing process, the final stage may only allow for the top 2 candidates to be interviewed.  One of the most common frustrations from any in the top 5 is that they never receive any feedback as to why they were not chosen.  Here’s how that plays out in real life.

Job Seeker:  After a lengthy application process and grueling phone screening with the recruiter, he finally gets a face to face.  He is told there will be three rounds.  First with the hiring manager and HR rep, next with the hiring manager and his boss and then finally with a few members of the executive team.  He gets through the interview with the hiring manager and HR rep and is asked back to meet with the hiring manager and his boss.  He knows there is one more round.  He doesn’t hear anything for a few weeks even after following up and then sees that the job has been removed from the job postings.  He calls the recruiter one last time in hopes of getting some feedback as to what happened during that second interview that caused him not to be passed on.  Weeks go by and he never hears from the recruiter again.

Recruiter:  After weeks of stops and starts on this position it finally looks like the hiring group is moving with a sense of urgency.  He has narrowed down the candidates to the top 5 and will be meeting with them all this week with the hiring manager.  After those meetings he and the hiring manager narrow it down to the top 3 who will meet with the hiring manager and his boss next week.  He gets feedback that the hiring manager and his boss have narrowed 3 down to 2 and they will meet with the executive team soon.  In the meantime, the other candidates who have interviewed are blowing up his phone line asking for feedback.  When he asks for feedback from the hiring manager all he gets is, “they just weren’t a good fit for the team like the others”.  He isn’t sure that’s even worth sharing and is afraid that something he says may be misconstrued as has happened before.  Hopefully, they will get the picture when he takes the posting down.

There is some debate about providing feedback in the recruiting space.  Of course, most recruiters say you should do it, but actually doing it is another issue.  Recruiters do have to be careful about what they say for fear of their feedback being misconstrued and legal action taken.  They also don’t necessarily get good feedback from hiring managers to share with candidates.  If I’m being really honest, the feedback may be uncomfortable to share so they avoid it all together – the candidate had body odor for example.  I’m not sure there is anything the candidate can do differently.  One thing I suggest to my clients is to tell the recruiter and/or hiring manager at the end of the interview that you would appreciate any feedback they have for you throughout the process.  This at least lets them know you would be open to hearing even bad news.  It may not change what they do, but it can not hurt.

As a recruiter I often share whatever feedback I get from a client, even if  it is the body odor issue, but I have the luxury of being the middle man – I’m just the messenger.  I did think about feedback differently when I was in a corporate setting and will admit that I probably did not always provide feedback as I could have in an effort to avoid an uncomfortable situation.  I remember one particular candidate fighting with me about the feedback I provided for nearly an hour.  Events like that tend to make you a little gun shy.

In the HR space, I think it’s a training issue.  I think that recruiters need to be trained on how to provide proper feedback, whatever that feedback is.  If hiring managers are not providing adequate feedback then they need to be trained on how to do so.  I’m not one to jump on the candidate experience bandwagon from the start of an application, but I think once they have jumped through a couple of our hoops, we owe them closure.  Job seekers want to know why they weren’t chosen, even if it’s uncomfortable.

So this post has nothing to do with HR or the job search or recruiting.  It’s just a little something from my childhood that I thought I would crowd source an answer too since ya’ll are so smart.

When my mother wanted to instill a sense of urgency in whatever she wanted me to do – which was usually come to her so she could yell at me for whatever I wasn’t supposed to be doing, she would say, “Sabrina Lynn come here right now, immediately, if not sooner!”

Once I was old enough to understand what all those words meant, it would drive me crazy every time she said it.  So here is my question to all you smarties.

What the heck is sooner than immediately?