Recruiter Chicks

I am often asked why I’m involved in SHRM-Atlanta and how I find the time to balance family, work and community involvement.  My answer: It’s easy when you have a strong commitment to the community and your own professional growth.  I grew up watching my Mom advise a business fraternity and earn the title of Person of the Year from the Nashville Chamber of Commerce for her countless contributions to the community.  She always talked about how those contributions and the community involvement benefited the community but also helped her grow professionally.

I am writing this post in hopes that more people will take charge of their career and professional growth through involvement in the community.

I work for an amazing executive search firm and I love my job!  After being with the firm for a little over three years, I needed to grow professionally so I started taking on more at work but I still had a desire to give back to the community in a more substantial way.  About five years ago, I initiated meetings with two prominent HR leaders in Atlanta to let them know of my desire to step it up and take on a more significant volunteer leadership role within SHRM-Atlanta for professional growth.  I was looking to supplement the professional development at work and step outside of my comfort zone by stepping up the level at which I was contributing to the HR community.  Our firm’s founder, Tom Darrow frequently speaks to job seekers and one key takeaway is around owning your own career growth and development by investing in yourself.  The world of work has changed and YOU are in charge of YOUR career growth.

Through involvement and countless hours of personal time, I have had the opportunity to lead meaningful initiatives and projects, the most significant of which was co-leading 800 volunteers at the 2012 SHRM Annual Conference.  It was one of the most gratifying, fulfilling, demanding, exhausting, exhilarating, fun and exciting initiatives that I had the privilege of being a part of.  It was a two year volunteer commitment and a way to give back in a grand way with the support of my company.  Most professionals working in small to mid-size organizations would never have this opportunity to stretch themselves in such a significant and visible way.  And that folks is what it’s all about!

The one two punch of a busy and awesome job coupled with volunteer leadership in SHRM-Atlanta have been professionally electrifying.  Thus helping me be a more balanced person to my family, co-workers, colleagues and friends.  I challenge you to take charge of YOUR career growth.  The moment you start taking charge of your own professional growth and development will be the start of some abundantly fulfilling moments in your life.

When our firm’s clients ask us to take on a search, they usually lay out the key qualifications as well as some traits and qualities that fit well within their company culture or the job.  Some of those things are easy to assess and others more difficult.  I have filled several executive searches recently where clients have asked for someone with a mix of strategic and tactical experience and the ability to manage up and down well.

The one quality that many of our firm’s clients are seeking and targeting is someone with “executive presence.”  Executive presence is a vital component to being an effective leader.

How do we create or transform to possess “Executive Presence?”

Let me just start by saying that when I think of executive presence it has nothing to do with a suit and tie or skirt and stockings.  Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s really think about the essential qualities that make up executive presence.

Since this became a recurring theme with our clients, it prompted me to purchase a few e-books that focus on Executive Presence.  Of the books I read, I really liked how one in particular laid out the theory of executive presence, entitled Executive Presence: The Art of Commanding Respect Like a CEO.

In this book, they highlighted many traits and skills that come along with “commanding respect like a CEO.”  Of those, there were five that stood out and were reoccurring themes.

5 Traits of Executive Presence:

1. Listening Skills

2. Relational

3. Introspective

4. Commands Attention

5. Ability to Leverage Resources

Executive Presence is not something that shows up overnight, it is something that has to be molded, shaped and practiced.  We all need coaching in some area or another and working on executive presence is sure to pay hefty returns whether you’re an entrepreneur or work for a company.  Executive Presence is not just based on looks and appearance, it is based on the way your interact and how well you manage up, down and laterally.  Most of all, it’s about impeccable listening skills and treating people like people!

In today’s competitive marketplace, it is becoming increasingly important to companies to craft an employment branding message that differentiates you from the competition.  It is also important for your Recruiting team to provide a consistent message to candidates in the sourcing and interviewing process.  Your employment brand is an integral part of your company’s talent attraction and retention strategies.

For some organizations creating an employment branding message is easy because it ties directly into your company’s overall branding message.  I recently wrote a blog post on Mercedes Benz’ employer brand and they have created a brand message that can be felt, experienced and utilized across the board.  It is important for HR to weigh in on new marketing messages and strategy for the company to ensure that the overall message will represent the organization well to top candidates in the fields in which they recruit and current employees.

I have laid out 10 key question to ask below to assist in the process of identifying and creating your company’s employment branding message.

10 Questions to Ask to Develop Your Employment Branding Message

1.  What is our corporate strategy?

2.  What are our key corporate goals?

3.  What are we known for doing well today?

4.  We want to be known as an employer who?

5.  What cultural elements of our brand are not negotiable?  This is key when developing a global employer brand.

6.  Why do our employees choose us over our competitors?

7.  What is our organization’s long-term strategy?

8.  What 50 words describe our culture?  Narrow those down to the top 10 and focus in on those.

9.  Which employees in our company best exhibit our culture and brand promise today?  How would you describe those employees?  Solicit their involvement in this process.

10.  Who is the right fit for our company based on our overall goals?

Compile the answers to these questions and use them as a foundation for determining your company’s employee value proposition.  Once you have developed the employer brand message, implement a plan that works well for your company to get the word out externally and internally.  Take purposeful and intentional steps to ensure that this message does not die on the cutting room floor.

In conclusion, keep in mind that your employer brand is only as good as an employee’s daily experience of that brand promise.

Last week I had the opportunity to attend the 21st Annual SHRM-Atlanta HR Conference — and it was quite an event!  Attendees were welcomed to opening remarks by SHRM President and CEO Hank Jackson, who also talked about 2012 focus areas– and of course, next year’s national conference being held in our fince city of Atlanta.  There was also the moving and  inspiring key note from Kat Cole, President of Cinnabon — don’t miss Alex Putnam’s post on what Kat’s address meant to him!  There were also a host of sessions across several tracks that made it very hard to choose what to select!

The very first session I attended was on Leadership and Conflict by Sylvia Lafair, PhD, President of CEO – Creative Energy Options, Inc., and author of “Don’t Bring It to Work”.  Sylvia made a simple, yet very profound statement that we have to begin to see separating who we are at work and who we are at home is really just an illusion.  Boom!!  She is so right – who we are and the things we experience at home, does affect us at work.  As such, we really do have to take this into account when dealing with conflict in the work place.  My friend, Dr. Daniel Crosby of Incblot, wrote a very moving and personal post recently that touches on this concept – check it out here.

We all deal with conflict in different ways…as Sylvia pointed out, most of us either Fight, take Flight, or just Freeze, like a deer in headlights.  The problem is we get stuck into patterns in times of conflict and fall back on repetitive reactions that “…keep us stuck in the world of ‘always’ and ‘never’…”.  Understanding common patterns in people — and what affect these patterns can have on the team — is a critical part of dealing with conflicts that can arise due to these patterns.  This is crucial to keeping the people on your team engaged in a productive and trusting work environment.  She outlined many common patterns you do see such as:

• The Super Achiever – must win at all costs.
• The Rebel – can’t accept any authority.
• The Procrastinator – won’t finish anything.
• The Clown – reduces everything to a joke.
• The Persecutor – bullies people into misery.
• The Victim – too scared to take any action.
• The Rescuer – demands to be the big hero.
• The Drama Queen/King – makes emotional scenes.
• The Martyr – does everyone else’s work.
• The Pleaser – say what folks want to hear.
• The Avoider – dodges work and responsibility.
• The Denier – won’t face problems directly.
• The Splitter – secretly sets up conflict.

She acknowledges there are others, but the most important thing is that you do deal with it and outlined some simple steps to handle.  First and foremost is you must

1) Cool down by trying some deep breathing exercises to get your mind right and focused to talk this out.

2) Slow down and identify what buttons were pushed and what ways you think could help move things forward.

3) Play down by ‘owning’ your own pattern of behavior an how this could be contributing to the conflict

4) Sit down, preferably in a quiet, private area to discuss the things identified above – sans blame, judgements, or attacks – in the spirit of open and honesty and a desire  for positive change.  It may help to practice first!

5) …and finally….Touchdown!!  It’s time to celebrate and do whatever necessary to celebrate and reinforce a solution!

Simple steps, but certainly ones we rarely take the time to do – at home or at work.  If you are looking for some advice on the “sitting down” part, Sylvia describes her O-U-T technique in this recent SHRM-Atlanta post, Conflict, Relationships, and Pollution.  Or, of course, check out Sylvia’s book,  as well as the presentation found on the SHRM-Atlanta web site!!

I attended the SHRM-Atlanta conference last week and it was all about community and “Working for a Better Atlanta.  It was quite evident as soon as anyone hit the door that people were there to learn, network and grow as professionals over the two-day conference period.

As with other conferences, there were several sessions tracks from Business Acumen to Total Rewards to Talent Management so an attendee could attend sessions based on their current role, projects or future aspirations.  Most of sessions I attended were along with HR Leveraging Technology and Business Acumen tracks.

One of the best sessions of the conference was led by Cathy Missildine-Martin of Intellectual Capital Consulting.  Her session was titled, “Using Data to Make the Right HR Investments.”  Cathy had a room full and it was clear that HR professionals needed to sit in her session to learn more about HR Analytics, which Cathy so happens to be very passionate about.  Cathy discussed HR Analytics and its importance to the overall business strategy.  She started the session by referencing an Accenture study stating that “89% of CFOs have experienced an increase in their workload and 39% of that was taking over the Human Resources function.”  That was an immediate wake-up call for HR practitioners in the room.  She then asked a question to the audience, “How many metrics is your HR department currently tracking?”  There were blank stares all over the room…few knew the answer to this question.  And, we wonder why CFOs are managing and taking over the HR function!

She went through an HR Analytics model using an example of a company with a call center and she nailed down sales training cost along with rewards and recognition cost and tied those two pieces directly to customer satisfaction, turnover and engagement.  She laid out the cost/benefit analysis for an organization against the cost of training and rewards programs to help make the case for such programs and tie them to the bottom line.

Finally, Cathy ended her session by guiding the audience on how they should share recommendations with organizational leaders.  The key point that she drove home is…do not bring your leadership team pages and pages of data and sit it down for them to read.  She suggested using the “killer slide” concept, keep it simple and astound them with the overview of information not all of the details.  The point…you don’t have to prove to the C-level executives that you’re good at HR and math, just bring the information they need and use the language of the business.  Last but not least, she suggested you tie all recommendations and observations back to the overall business strategy.

To close, Cathy challenged us all to go out and be the HR Rockstars we all are!

This was one great session of many at the SHRM-Atlanta Conference.  You can find Cathy Missildine-Martin at www.intellectual-capital.net.