jessica lee writes.

Social Media for Personal Branding - The Outline...

just thinking things through in this post for next friday, my chat for internfest... i think i'm thrown off a little because i can't use a slide deck. not that i talk from slides or rely on them when i speak - it's just that i usually pull my thoughts together and come up with the flow of a talk by pulling together my deck first. so this time? i'm starting with just an outline of thoughts. here's the shell and then i'll add the meat in over the next week to flush out my thoughts:

• What’s my story? Recruiter for global PR firm… side interests in social media as an HR blogger.
• What does having a personal brand mean? Why is it important now in this climate in our industry?
  
• How do you define your personal brand, especially as a new professional?
• What are the most essential social media tools to use for personal branding?
• How does using social media for personal branding tie into your job search?
• True stories about candidates and social media - the good + the bad.
• Protecting your online brand.

back to me though - ha! i think i'm a little worried about not using a slide deck. i mean, i know i can hold my own but so much of what i usually focus on in any talk i give is developing a really, really good deck as a backdrop... but without one, it means they'll focus more on me. and i have to really know what i'm talking about! yikes! i'll be fine - i know i'll be fine... but i'll probably just obsess over this during the next week. thanks for bearing with me during that process, lol.

Come & Get It - Using Twitter to Hire Presentation.

yesterday afternoon, i had the honor of spending a little bit of time chatting about using twitter to hire at the Cool Twitter Conference. and i was in good company considering you had folks from the Washington Post and CNN Politics sharing how they use twitter... and also there was Mark Stelzner of Inflexion Advisors and Job Angels. what a good line up! i was flattered to be playing with the big boys.

the slides and (fuzzy) video from my session are below. i had 15 minutes to talk it up... and it was mostly to non-recruiting, non-HR folks i was addressing so you'll see that i didn't go super in-depth during the chat on sourcing... it was a pretty high level overview of how to use twitter to recruit. and the slide deck? well, i think i pulled together something kinda lovely. every slide had 140 characters or less of text, in the spirit of twitter. you'll get it as you click through. enjoy - and if you have any questions or need to borrow content, let me know.

(email subscribers or mobile web viewers, slides + video may not be visible! click through to ze bloggy to view them in their entirety.)

View more OpenOffice presentations from surbee.

cool twitter conference - jessica lee - using twitter to hire. from fistful of talent on Vimeo.

On Twitter for Employment Branding - Get Back to Basics.

so... back to this idea of using twitter to recruit and hire. there's that whole thing about finding candidates... but the other part of using twitter for recruiting, maybe even the bigger part of it, is focused on employment branding. but what does that really mean - employment branding? time to put our marketing hats on.
 
first, some employment branding definitions. if we look to the reverent Dr. John Sullivan, here's his take:

"Employment branding is unique in that it is the only long-term recruiting strategy. The viral-based perception management program designed to attract top-quality applicants is based on the premise that the organization is well-managed in the eyes of the target candidate population. It has many critical elements, only one of which pertains to getting the message out through awards programs, editorial content in target publications, presentations at conferences, and through viral marketing driven via the employee referral program. It is not the same as recruitment marketing, although recruitment marketing should be aligned with the employment branding effort."

that's a mouthful - much more than 140 characters, that's for sure. and for this twitter conference on thursday that i'm chatting at, it's likely going to be non-recruiting and non-HR folks that i'll be speaking to... so when i think about the notion of organizations using twitter for employment branding - whether a mom-and-pop shop or a fortune 500 - really what this boils down to at a basic level is simply projecting and marketing your organization as being a great place to work so that would-be candidates seek you out. simple enough.

first, the big disclaimer! you've gotta have the goods to sell when it comes to why your employer is a great place to work. maybe that goes without saying. but, if the culture is toxic and the environment is crap at your organization, then employment branding whether done old school or new school with web 2.0 methods like twitter will not save your recruiting life. you've gotta stop reading this and go back and fix the issues. maybe a little later you can then think about employment branding.

for more traditional employment branding, pre web 2.0, there are lists upon lists of great places to work - Fortune magazine has a list. local magazines have lists. coincidentally, my pal Kris Dunn's organization, DAXKO, where he's the VP of People, just received accolades from Fortune Magazine as being one of seven great small businesses to work for - another list from Fortune focused more on small companies though. that's a totally cool recognition for them to be able to sport. but... what if you can't make one of these lists? what if you don't have the marketing or PR folks to help get you on the list? or what if your employee program budgets are dwindling and you're more boot strap but you know you're still a great place to work?

talent management and recruiting thought leaders cite tactics like... workplace rankings and awards. world-class employee referral program. editorial placements. benchmark studies. having a WOW website. being written up in academic case studies. all really good stuff... but a lot of that can fall to the way-side as an HR or recruiting pro if you've got all that day-to-day stuff you've gotta execute. companies who do all of that stuff well likely have strong marketing and PR peeps behind the scenes to help. but herein lies why and how the web and social media is one of the great equalizers. david can now go up against goliath.

there are tons of resources out there on what it means to have an employment brand, who does it well... (for starters, go here and here and here.) read up, and just keep in mind that the basics of employment branding don't change with twitter. if you take all the components of what it takes to build and market an employment brand, all those things that make your organization a great place to work - those are all the different things you could conceivably tweet about. take Kris and DAXKO as an example - they could easily take much of what Fortune highlights as making them special and use that as fodder for their twitter feed. imagine tweets that highlight...

• no one has private offices
• a work/play lounge is offered, complete with a Nintendo Wii and a 52-inch plasma TV
• all new employees get 15 paid vacation days
• all staff receive free YMCA membership
• staff receive $1,500 annually each to spend on professional enrichment
• after every seven years of service, staff are entitled to a four-week sabbatical

all compelling stuff, right? and imagine pushing that out there via twitter for public consumption. (and yes, they are already on twitter. check them out here, @DAXKO.) keep in mind though, you've gotta have the goods to back up the kool-aid you're trying to offer - just like DAXKO does - when it comes to why your company is a great place to work.

so i guess in the end? it's somewhat back to basics on employment branding, folks... it's just that this time, twitter is just another tool for your arsenal for getting the word out. wow. i think i have my brain wrapped around half of my talk for thursday now!

Using Twitter to Hire + a Cool Twitter Conference.

okay... so coming up on thursday is the first ever "cool twitter conference." the conference title, well... it leaves me wanting more. (sorry kent and bob, who are organizing this effort.) but a conference focused on just twitter alone and how to make it work on a practical level? i love the concept and i like that the guys behind this venture are trying something new... and of course, how could i say no to speaking at this event especially given the line up of folks who will be speaking? folks from some of DC's best organizations... CNN Politics, the Washington Post, the Heritage Foundation among others plus little me all talking about leveraging twitter. neat.

my focus? using twitter to hire... which is really also how to tweet your way to a job. and i have 15 minutes to make my case. i have material i can pull up from past chats and re-purpose... and the topic is a no-brainer for me... but freaking me out slightly is the conversation header they've thrown over my session though - 10% unemployment: using twitter to lower the rate. wow. those are some lofty goals for me to try to speak to... but i'll give it a whirl.

essentially, twitter for hiring really boils down to two things:

1. find + source candidates, and
2. employment branding. 

the latter, chris ferdinandi of renegade HR have written about on behalf of zoominfo... and the former, i can pull content together for. as usual,  i'll post the deck up once it's finalized... and if i have video footage, i'll post that as well... but the thing i always come back to with new twitter users is helping them get over the mystery and intimidation of twitter. at this point... i've been at it for a year! wooo! and it's taken me a year to pull together 1700 followers. not bad in terms of my reach, and i could be doing better... but new tweeters should rest assure that influence in the twitterverse doesn't happen overnight.

i charted out my follower-growth over the past year, pictured right (track your own twitter growth using twitterholic or twittercounter)... and i'm thinking the major markers for someone looking to make a mark in the twitterverse are at when you hit 200, 500, then 1000 followers. each of those points in times seem to show significant growth for me so we'll take a moment to chat about that in my session... but of course, influence doesn't necessarily equate to having a lot of followers, which i think we'll also chat about. i've realized of late that i have more people lurking and checking in on my twitter feed who don't actually follow me...

so that's it for now. the next few days of my blog's content will likely be focused on this topic as i grind out some materials for that session... 15 minutes of talking and i'm betting i'll obsess hours over getting the slides and content juuuuuust right.

More on Diversity: I'm Not a Sell Out. I Just Play the Game.

last night, i was putting the final touches on a presentation deck for a career development workshop my firm is hosting in conjunction with the Lagrant Foundation. for those not in the PR or advertising industry, Lagrant is an amazing organization whose mission is to increase the number of ethnic minorities in public relations and advertising by providing scholarships, career development workshops, professional development, mentors and internships.

we're hosting 40 or so students from DC area universities for a half-day session (plus lunch! free food!) where i'm having our CEO, our NYC office managing director/chief diversity officer and a slew of others from my firm talk with the students on a range of topics to equip them with tools and a realistic picture of what it's like to work in the PR industry. we'll end the day with my team talking about how they can set themselves apart as candidates and the basics of entering into the world of PR.

the content of much of the workshop isn't particularly groundbreaking - and we've done many similar talks for recruiting purposes with other student groups... but today's session feels different because it's with Lagrant students - all minorities. and more than anything, i'm really pleased about the level of access they are getting to our senior leaders in hopes that we can begin building relationships with all of them... because this is exactly what i think the best diversity programs are made of - access and relationship building.

that all being said... i had a moment of panic last night as i was thinking about the workshop. i saw this blog posting about why too few women make it to the top. have a read. i laughed as i initially read through it because there are definitely pieces that resonate with me and specifically that i:

• do see this as a game, and i play it.
• capitalize on relationships.
• don't ask for permission.
• don't cry at work. (or at least, i have tried really, really hard... there was that one time i went out for a haircut during the lunch hour and was completely devastated with the result and had a nervous breakdown at work... oops.)

but as i pondered reasons why too few women make it to the top and the author's list, i couldn't help but to wonder if there were another way to read the post - that this is how white men in the US make it to the top, that these are the expectations of leaders and what you have to do to be successful. (and yes, i think a lot of what is included is very Western.) does that make sense though? because if you currently have mostly white males at the top, the reasons listed for why women don't make it to the top actually could very well also be reasons why everyone else doesn't make it to the top including minorities of either gender.

touchy subject for some, i know. however i do believe 100% that i wouldn't be where i am now had i not decided to play the game. deciding to even play though was something i struggled with - and i bet some of these students will probably go through the same. for me? i still feel strongly about the fact that there is a Western notion of what an ideal leader looks like - and it's why you have the same kind of people leading organizations here. and deep down inside, i don't want to accept that it has to be this way and that i can't be successful as a leader in a different manner... because after all, you have different ideals for leadership in other cultures and wildly successful organizations, so it has to mean that leaders don't really all have to be one way. yet i also recognize it will take lifetimes for that to change. it's difficult to reconcile this.

helping me though... years ago, i had an Asian American leader say to me once when i confessed i struggled with the idea of doing things professionally that seemed really counter to how i was raised, culturally. i told him that i felt like i was being disrespectful and a sellout in some ways by choosing to play the game. but he said something to me that has stuck with me... and it was simply that he never felt like it had to be an either/or proposition. during the day, to get ahead, to be successful, you play the game recognizing that it is a game and it is a race. but the moment you leave your office walls and go home? game over. you don't have to continue playing and you can be yourself, your natural self including all the mannerisms or tendencies or living by values that are more in line with your culture... but it's not selling out to play the game. it's just doing what is necessary to be successful, and provide for your family at the end of the day. it's only selling out if you completely forget where you come from, who your people are, and choose to not give back to them.

this was an important lesson i had to learn... and i'm thinking i might have to share it with the students too...

Jumping into Social Media - a Primer for HR Pros!

last week i presented for a DC area HR/recruiting professionals networking group on how to jump into social media. my presentation slides from my talk are below.

i don't like text heavy slides, so if it's tough to follow the presentation, here was my thought process on the content:

1) i haven't been doing social media for very long, but i jumped in and i've figured it out.
2) this is really about marketing HR and recruiting in a more savvy way
3) there are some key social media principles you have to understand
4) how you use any of these tools is the same - you can systematically jump into each but it's the same whether it's Twitter, Facebook or the next big thing.

with the entire chat, i weaved in a lot of personal stories and anecdotes including how i met my last boyfriend because of Twitter, how i was intimidated initially because of my own insecurities of what if i'm unpopular and only have 35 friends, and simply discovering HR blogs because i was looking for a turnover calculating tool and it led me to the HR Capitalist... and in the end, the presentation felt personal and approachable, and social media felt human and less scary... and diving in seemed accessible - because if i've been at it for really, about a year... you can do it too.

now that the presentation is done and over with though... i need another project to obsess over. :)

What If I'm Just a Total Farce? I Know Nothing About Social Media.

of course, it's midnight and i'm making last minute changes to a presentation i'm giving Thursday afternoon on jumping into social media for HR pros... i've blogged enough about it. Project SAME. blah, blah, blah. all of a sudden though, i feel like a BIG, FAT FARCE. who am i to be teaching anyone about using social media? maybe i'm a good person to teach because i was/am new to it and i figured it out - quickly - and i've been effective. so yes, i thought... i'll create a timeline of when i joined which sites and use it as an illustration of how it doesn't take long to establish yourself... but i feel like a phony now that i look at this quickie timeline i've developed for my social media presence. i am not an expert at this - i'm still a total newbie!

November 2007 - i discovered the HR Capitalist and the world of HR and recruiting bloggers. March 2008 - i joined Facebook. April 2008 - i started writing for Fistful of Talent. June 2008 -  i started using Twitter. February 2009 - i'm promoted to editor of Fistful of Talent. and April 2009 - i'm presenting on how to jump into social media.

i'm trying to convince myself this is exactly the reason why people shouldn't be intimidated - because, hey! look at me! but i'm all of a sudden second guessing myself. tell me why again am i teaching this class?

 

6 Social Media Myths Explored - So Stop Making Them Your Objections for Jumping In!

i'm a presenting in a few days at Bob Corlett's Project SAME, a DC area networking group for HR/staffing pros, on the topic of... drum roll please....!  jumping into social media for HR peeps. i've already blogged about message one of the presentation - it's time to change your tune. HR isn't about just HR anymore - HR has to be about marketing, and that's is why social media has to matter to you. and in thinking about how to transition into the next part of the presentation - the actual tools - i find myself wondering if the next logical step is actually addressing the hesitations and objections.

i was inspired by a presentation that my friend Ben Gotkin of RSM McGladrey just did at the 2009 Spring ERE Expo on implementing a social media recruiting plan. (thanks to the power of the interwebs, i could watch the conference being streamed on ERE's website! here's Ben's session.) Ben talked a bit about objections or hurdles for making the jump into social media recruiting - because yes, people find it confusing, or overwhelming. i did at first too! and based on questions asked in the audience even at the end of Ben's presentation, i realized that there are a LOT of myths about social media - regardless of whether you're considering using it for recruiting, or anything else. so, let's debunk them.

myth #1: it's only for extroverts. i'd argue it's a mix of extroverts and introverts both engaging in social media and i might argue there are more introverts. me? i'm an introvert - but i tweet, and use Facebook, and blog. i like producing and consuming content both - but what makes social media work for me is that i can converse and be "out there" without having to really put myself out there. you can hide behind your laptop safely but still  be part of a community - because we all want to belong, don't we?

myth #2: it's for play and all personal. initially, why people jump into social media is usually for personal reasons... perhaps. but more and more people are finding the value of establishing their brand online - and they're putting themselves out there to be found for professional reasons. enough said.

myth #3: you need to be tech savvy. you need to like technology, and be willing to play with it. but you don't need to understand how it works. on the back end, i don't get any of it. people talk about API's and i have no clue what it means. i'm too lazy to even look it up on wikipedia. and i don't care that much... you have to be curious, and when you get "advanced," you do need to know how different social media tools might interact with each other. that's it. trust me. i'm so clueless when it comes to technology that when my wifi signal is down, i plug in my cord-thingie... and at one point in time, i sat around plugged in to access the web for two months. you don't need to know how it works.

myth #4: it's all young people who use social media. can i just give you anecdotal proof? most all of my friends are on Facebook - but almost none are on Twitter or blog. most of my social media friends? older. (relatively speaking.) 30+. for those who want more proof, a BIGresearch study found that the average blogger is actually 37.6 years old. this Techcrunch piece breaks down the rising average age of Facebook users.  and here is the Pew Internet's study on generations online in 2009. everyone is online. believe it.

myth #5: you need a lot of free, extra time. you have to be committed to being online and to using social media. true, it's still a bit unclear how much time you have to spend to really see results or to have someone manage social media for your organization or for your recruiting efforts. know this though - people who love technology like for it to be streamlined, and easy. if there's a quicker easier way to do things or use technology, someone is figuring it out. take Twitter or Facebook for example - you can update and maintain both while on the go with your mobile device.

myth #6. it's not measurable. social media can be measured - you just need to know what tools to use. here's a post at Fistful of Talent that outlines a metrics as a starting point for measuring the efficacy of social media, particularly for recruiting. but there are parallels for many industries, or for yourself it's just that you have to understand social media is about conversations and community so there's a slight mind shift that has to be made when you consider measuring it - it's not all quantitative, a lot of it is qualitative.

and there are more objections and hesitations about social media that might actually be truths - because there are issues that make social media a bit of a challenge. but i'd argue those could be managed so perhaps we'll tackle that next here on la blog. coming to mind, some of the truths... you develop a faux intimacy. social media changes rapidly and there are new tools all the time. it can be a time suck. i dunno if i'll incorporate these six myths into the final deck for Project SAME... but i think we'll work towards debunking them at the end. full presentation to be posted later this week.

How People See HR.

we're a few weeks away from from my presentation for Bob Corlett's Project SAME networking group session and because i slave away, probably unnecessarily, on creating the *perfect* presentation deck, i'm going to start pulling it together now. i never love the end product - and i always end up with last minute, midnight hour changes - but aesthetic details are important to me. and i want it right.

the topic is focused on helping HR pros jump into the world of social media. and i'm thinking that message numero uno will be this: it's time to change your tune. HR isn't about just HR anymore - HR has to be about marketing, and that's is why social media has to matter to you. the talk will be about social media - but that's just a tactic at the end of the day. the discussion is actually about branding - your personal brand and your employment brand. a few things that i'm going to try to weave into this first message:

• here's how the American Marketing Association defines marketing - and it totally applies to us:

Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

• every few years you have the old fight resurrected of HR vs. Finance, or just generally, why we should hate HR. we could be angry, and we could fight back - but even better is to just keep on doing what we do but let's try to be better. let's be exceptional, rather, and then, let's work on marketing ourselves. 

but to set the stage, i think i'll start here - with a little exercise on why HR needs to market itself better. you should play along out there as well.

more later from me on this presentation and the pieces i'll build into it... but for now, think about HR marketing itself. how do you see yourself? your function? and is it aligned with how others see it? and i mean how do others really SEE you? whether it's your forms, your policy documents, your program or training or recruiting materials to your presentations - how are you presenting yourself? how do people see you?

In the Cooker for April: Project SAME/Intro to Social Media.

i'm realizing more and more that i like using this bloggy as a playground and laboratory of sorts for things i'm working on elsewhere. it's nice to test out my thoughts, ideas and pieces of projects i have on my plate and i'm back here again thinking about a presentation in April that i'll be doing with a local staffing group in Maryland, Project SAME, the staffing alliance of Maryland employers. my FOT colleague, Kelly Dingee of the AIRS Corp, did a session with their staff this month on using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter in your recruiting... and apparently they were left clamoring for more and their founder, Bob Corlett of the Staffing Advisor, asked me to come back and present. so cool! 

in chatting with Bob, we discussed how best to approach the session... and i shared with him how as much of an enthusiast i am for the world of social media, i haven't been steeped in it for very long - so i totally get that initial hesitancy and apprehension to get involved whether it's for recruiting or professional development or personal branding. i mean, when i think about even using Google Reader, i stayed away for quite a bit of time because i just didn't "get" how it could be useful to me. and i had excuses. a feller i dated a few years ago used to rave about how great Google Reader was, and how it was changing his experience on the web, and how he was able to now consume more information, and on and on and on he would go. and i fought trying it out because i told him i wanted to experience a website and its aesthetics. ha! i remember saying... "but a website is meant to be seen. i want to go to a website and see the article or blog laid out in the way the creator wanted me to experience it!" and now? my Reader overfloweth. there are probably only three or four sites i venture to otuside of my reader to actually consume news or information.

and when i think about how i even got started with blogging for professional reasons? i never even considered turning to the blogopshere for HR or recruiting news or information until i found the HR Capitalist by accident when scouring the web for a good turnover formula. prior to that? i only read political and fashion blogs, or my friends' blogs. that's it. and look at me now!

so for this session in April with Project SAME, i'm determined to make getting into the world of social media less intimidating with some of these stories, and then course some practical stuff. and i'm thinking these are the major areas i want to discuss:

• the shift in thinking from recruiting/HR to marketing/branding
• it's about relationships, conversation and influence - not transactions
• web 2.0 changes quickly, so there will always be a lot of tools and a lot of voices
• start with baby steps
• for actual tools, begin with:
  • Google Reader + the blogosphere
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn (duh) - but i don't really think this is social...
• and while there are many more tools than just the ones i list above, bottom line is that you don't have to get overwhelmed, and don't feel you have to be everywhere. choose your watering hole...
  

i'm sure the format and likely, the content will change as we get closer to April (okay, the night before i'll scrap the whole thing and who knows what i'll end up discussing)... but stay tuned. as i develop a deck, i'll include slides here and there just like i did with the onboarding presentation i did last month.

Onboarding Presentation Done. Debriefing + Lessons Learned.

what a sigh of relief. finally... my onboarding presentation at IQPC has come and gone. whew.

here's the thing - i dislike public speaking. i'm good at it. but it's not my thing. and i've never presented or taught for the industry, in front of a group of my peers who do not work in my org or on my team, or for folks senior to me outside of my organization. this was a first for me. and i was nervous because i was in pretty good company - in the line up were some of the senior-most HR folks from companies including Whirlpool, Bank of America, Starbucks, IBM - and then little 'ole me? besides Fistful of Talent (which is how they found me!), i think i have little brand recognition, a modest title... my firm isn't widely known unless you're in PR or you're in DC. i'm working on all of this... but honestly, i was not sure if i would be able to hold my own. yet i did. and i'm pleased.

debriefing and lessons learned:

• i joked that perhaps i would rather teach via a webinar where it's a one way street where i don't have to face the audience. but in reflecting about today, it turns out, i actually do need that immediate feedback. they laughed at my jokes. we laughed at each other. i saw the heads nodding, the smiles on their faces, their furrowed brows. i could see what points hit home with them as i watched them scribble notes. i had them engaged and it built confidence seeing the immediate reaction.
• i spoke from my heart where it made sense. that sound so... cheesy, but i was able to do so since i was speaking about gen y - which i'm technically part of. i used a personal story to kick things off and in starting there, i became comfortable immediately and i think so did the group. it broke down any question of authenticity. i poked fun at myself and it helped to humanize me, and later picking on them helped humanize them too which was perfect - because we were there both learning from one another really.
• i had probably a dozen questions asked of me - and truly, i don't have all the answers. the topic struck a chord with so many in my little audience and i was fortunate to have a handful of gen y folks in the room who piped up quickly and answered questions for me. it turned my presentation into a meaningful dialog at the end. i used the wisdom of the crowds. 35 minutes in, i was no longer the only one speaking and we were having an interactive discussion. we went over by about five minutes because the dialog was so good and it didn't feel right end it just yet.
• interestingly, gen y and millennials still generates a lot of interest among folks. i was surprised (yet not surprised since i chose to spoke on the topic in the first place) to have so many attend my breakout session... but still, generational differences continue to be a mystery for HR pros and managers both. it was great to have some boomers in the crowd though who spoke to what it was like when all the hype was around them entering the workforce - they helped to illustrate that there will always be hype about every new generation... the issue of how to manage a new, large, different workforce isn't completely new.
• in watching others present, too many folks still rely on their presentations + bullet lists. you read to me what i could easily read off the screen. and i ask you - please stop. pretty please. i had a revelation the other night thanks to a slidecast i listened to on McArthur's Rant on the science of presentations and following that... i went through my presentation and stripped down a whole heck of a lot of stuff, consolidated, and below is the final deck. can you follow everything that i discussed? probably not. and of course, that was the point. i wanted you to listen to me ,and i wanted to have a conversation with you. the deck was just back drop.

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My Hypertext Mind, Your Onboarding Program.

i'm starting to put the finishing touches on my presentation for the IQPC Onboarding Seminar next week. in a few previous blog postings, i covered some pieces of the talk including what HR's role in onboarding is (or isn't!), and then a personal anecdote on helicoptor parents and how they possibly have impacted gen y in the workplace.

even though i am close to wrapping this deal up, i keep struggling with how much empahsis to really put on gen y - because aren't we all generationed out? the hype about this generation or that generation could be seen largely as a media construct... and i truly think that the reality is that while we may work differently or have different attitudes, you can't make generalizations or sweeping statements about an entire generation. i also hate, hate, hate getting pigeon holed into being one thing or another. that aside, it's still hard to ignore that we've got four different generations co-existing in the workplace. but what does that really mean? in my opinion, i think the best place to go with that fact is that we simply have a lot of diversity in the workplace including differing work styles, varying levels of expectations, and different learning styles at play. and from an onboarding perspective, i think this means flexibility in your approach is important. some traits will be heavily prominent among one generation, and some will be universal. 


one trait that i do think is important to consider is the notion of gen y folks having "hypertext minds." it's dominant in our set because many of us are digital natives (although me? i still remember cranking out reports on typewriters in grade school.) but as more and more people become comfortable or obsessed with technology, regardless of generation, the hypertext mind has implications for how to learn and how we work. consider this:


so from an onboarding or generally, a training and development perspective, how does the hypertext mind impact the shape or format of your program? i think many of us likely have the content down pat - you know what your new hire needs to learn... but let's think about the both the actual presentation (here you go) and layout (see, look) of information in the context of the jump and after-the-jump of a webpage. essentials first, then link out everything from there for people to play and explore on their own. how much is really necessary on the on-set? organize everything in buckets of information or buckets of content. make the information accessible after the fact. in setting up various orientation meetings or sessions - what is the context for each of them and how are they connected to the bigger picture? how is it connected or tie back to the individual's job? what's the relevance? 


those with hypertext minds are active learners - they are less about observing and more about participating. or as one gen x-er i know describes him versus me... he's a consumer of information where as i am a producer of information. it's a different mindset. just some more food for thought and another piece of the oboarding puzzle

Why My Expectations Are So High: Helicopter Parents.

presenting is half (or completely) story telling, right? for the onboarding presentation in a few weeks, i'm focusing on strategies with gen y in mind. i have a few stories about situations i've encountered as an HR pro that are about classic gen y's... but i wanted to find a way to get personal. and i think i've nailed it. let me share and test it out with you... and here's the slide for the story:

pictured above, that would be me, circa 3rd grade. i was the featured solo act in this all-school, end of the year assembly. and that honor, well, it was a big deal. a BFD.

look in the background of the picture though and you'll see a girl whose head is cocked to the side. that would be Angela. and if you look closely, she actually looks pissed off, rightfully so because i was singing what was supposed to be her solo. (for what it's worth, it was Bette Midler's The Wind Beneath My Wings... nice, right?)

let me back track and explain. for this assembly, the choir director had us audition for the solo opportunity. one by one, we sang it out, just like on American Idol. Angela was a really good singer - probably the best singer in the choir. and me, i'm an okay singer. Angela was selected for the solo, which she earned, but i still went home crying about it because i had wanted that solo, and frankly, i thought i had sung my heart out at the audition.

before we move forward in the story, let me ask you this: if your child comes home in tears, how do you react? you probably want to kick the ass of whoever made your kid cry, right? so as you can guess, my mother was furious that i hadn't been selected and that i was so upset. after all, she thought i was a great singer with a lot of potential to make it big. like Britney Spears big. so she called the school and she proceeded to yell and scream that i deserved the solo. she ranted and raved that i was a far superior singer, better than any other kid, and that i deserved the solo act. eventually, after a series of phone calls with the choir director, my teacher, the vice principal and finally the principal... the gig was mine.

this is how i grew i up - with a helicopter parent. and this is how many other gen y or millenials grew up. if we wanted something, we would tell our parents and somehow, they would always find a way to make it happen. even if we didn't deserve it, even if we didn't earn it - what we wanted, was ours. end of story. we were handed things, we were told we were the greatest, and the best, and the brightest, and the most talented. (luckily, in my case, my mother was right. see how i turned out?) we were rewarded just for participating, just for showing up. and as you can imagine, as a result of growing up this way, my expectations are high. sky high. and now, years and years later, i'm in your workplace where you have to deal with me, and my expectations which remain high. and when i don't get what i want, i'm going to call my mother, who mother might call you and make you give it to me.

so how do you deal with someone like me, who grew up being handed things that i didn't necessarily earn or deserve but now has high expectations for what i should be given in the workplace? okay, so not every gen y or millennial is like this and i exaggerate a bit about what it was like growing up although this story is 100% true. however this theme of sky-high expectations is definitely real, and one of the most challenging aspects of gen y in the workplace. 

i struggle writing or even presenting on generational differences - truthfully, i'm generationed out. i get sick of all the "experts" on the gen y/millennial set, and i think there is a lot of exaggeration about us... but, when i have managers who continue to struggle managing the expectations of their young staff, and some young staff who are frustrated because they aren't receiving what they need, it's hard to ignore the issue. stay tuned for the next piece of this story, the practical stuff, later this week or next. in the meantime, read this good piece in the economist about managing gen y in this downturn and a take on gen Y and generational differences by Gerry Crispin.

HR's Role in Onboarding. We Don't Own It.

i've been spending a lot of time lately thinking about onboarding. we're looking at revamping our onboarding at my current firm, and then i'm doing a session with attendees on onboarding the gen y set at IQPC's onboarding talent summit. 

i've been obsessively tinkering with the PowerPoint deck i'll speak from for IQPC. i know what i'm going to say. i know the meat of what i'll present on... but i'm still doing research to find out about best practices others are employing... and i'm doing additional research on gen y. i want to fully immerse myself in all that is onboarding leading up to the IQPC gig, so i've also been talking to a lot of my new hires from the past year, and looking at our evaluations to see what feedback they've been providing about their onboarding process. i've decided to incorporate a little bit of video by interviewing a handful of my gen y/millenial hires from the past year too. it should be cool to make it a multi-media effort.

through all this research and chatter i'm having with folks on onboarding though, i keep coming back to one point... despite all the great things my HR team does, and despite all the that your HR team probably does, the thing everyone keeps raising is that for their onboarding experience to be truly effective, the manager needs to be on board and fully committed to the program and process. in many cases, folks think HR is already doing everything right and that we've done as much as we can. but it's a disengaged, or ignorant, or way-too busy manager who always seems to be the missing piece of the puzzle. your role as an HR pro isn't to manage on behalf of an absent manager, so we can't fully own onboarding. this isn't our game. (here's a slide i'll use in my presentation!)






i've managed onboarding programs in 3 of the 4 HR jobs i've held... and in every environment i've been in, the success, or failure, of onboarding lies in managers. not HR. i think i'll be hitting this point home to folks at IQPC. as HR pros, we don't own onboarding. we can create the framework and tools for an excellent onboarding program and onboarding experience... but at the end of the day, the success of your new hire in your organization comes down to your manager's ability to engage and leverage the new talent. so what can you do as an HR pro? your job is to educate and influence.

Good Stuff: How to Blog.

maybe i'm a little bit behind. i'll admit it. i just was exposed to tech crunch last week. apparently, this is the model blog. so yeah, i know it by name now, but i still haven't gone there. nor subscribed. i'll get there... maybe. blogging for me has been about writing what i want to write about. i'm not following any models or best practices - i could probably write less, link more, interview people, and do all those things people say you're supposed to do to launch your blog... but i think i'm just going to let this roll organically. and this deck, How to Blog by Merlin Mann, makes me feel better about my approach. (thanks, friend, William Uranga, for sharing.) i'm just going to do things my way, write about the things i care about, and hopefully, i'll continue to get better... and i also like the idea of using decks on my blog to communicate ideas. good stuff. i hope you enjoy it too. 

I Hate Presentations. I Hate Training. And I Hate Public Speaking.

i hate giving presentations. i hate training. i hate public speaking. i'm decent at it though. actually, i'm told i'm pretty darn good at it all. i get nervous though. and i panic. and so i prepare and prepare... yet i also know i do best when i'm improvising and under pressure.

this week, i'm working on developing a presentation to give at the IQPC seminar on onboarding. it's not rocket science, the topic... i recognize this... but certainly there are best practices to share and lessons to be learned about how we could be doin' it better. and given the downturn economy, i think now is an excellent time for recruiting and HR pros to re-evaluate their current practices and programs - onboarding is an excellent one to tackle. 

specifically, i thought i'd go the trendy route and talk about onboarding strategies for gen Y. yeah, yeah... a lot of folks are getting generationed-out. there's an awful lot of talk about it. but despite all the talk, i'm not sure everyone is connecting the dots. we all know gen Y is different, but what specifically do you do about it? there's a lot of griping, but i'm not sure there's a lot of translation of the griping on a practical level. i'll share the deck post-conference... but for now, i loved this little presentation by Sacha Chua that i came across when doing research. she pulled together a sketch presentation on web 2.0 at work and it has some good tidbits on using technology in your onboarding. enjoy! i know i did.