by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 23, 2013 | Life
For those in leadership that missed the memo, performance management is a full-time job and one that requires that you take proactive steps to manage it. I absolutely abhor hearing the following discussion:
Recruiter to Hiring Manager: Jane Doe applied for your position.
Hiring Manager to Recruiter: Oh yeah, we’ll interview Jane but we wouldn’t offer her the job. She can barely do her current job let alone this one.
In this scenario, we will assume that Jane Doe is working in the department with the vacancy; has applied to it and qualifies for said position. Essentially, the hiring manager doesn’t see Jane as a fit for the position and has cited some issues with her performance.
Ignorance is bliss.
The bigger question is does Jane know that there is an issue with her performance? If not, it is unfair to not address the issues upfront. Of course, Jane will continue to pursue opportunities that suit her background. However, had she been told of her performance issues and perhaps been warned against applying for vacancies in the department- she and the department could have been spared an uncomfortable and underhanded conversation/situation.
In my opinion, it is a red-flag anytime a hiring manager seeks to hire outside of their department or organization when the knowledge, skills, and abilities are already there. Let’s face it, if the job they are posting is a direct match to the skill profile of the people already working there- the hiring manager could save time and resources and merely reassign and/or promote from within if applicable. To do otherwise screams, “I know there are performance issues with my people, but I’m too much of a coward to address them.”
Does coward seem harsh? Forgive me.
I use “coward” because this particular issue with performance management isn’t as much about not knowing how to manage people and their performance. Instead, it is more about an inability to be forthright with constructive criticism that could improve your employee’s performance or at the very least substantiate the employee’s inability to improve. Either way, it is your job as a leader to explore either scenario and take the appropriate action. Attempting to address a performance deficit or issue at a time where the employee sees the potential for a promotion or reassignment is negligent and sloppy leadership.
How would you feel if you were plugging along in your role, meeting standards every year during performance evaluation time- only to happily apply for that promotion or opportunity you have been waiting for and be shut down; because your boss never had the guts to tell you your work wasn’t meeting muster. For a lack of better words “it sucks”.
No matter what you said in new hire orientation or what your latest branding exercise purports-these types of shenanigans don’t make employees feel valued. When they don’t feel valued they check out and when they check out- they are out the door. Now this is a good thing if the employee in question was not holding up his or her end of the deal. In deal-breaker situations, long live the termination process; but in the case where someone good exits, it’s a sad day for retention and a missed opportunity.
I implore every leader to do the following three things to ensure that they don’t make these mistakes:
1) Create accountability in your performance management system by requiring your managers to have regular conversations with direct reports about their performance. Performance issues that go undetected should be traced back to the manager that failed to do their due diligence. You would be surprised how serious your managers will get about managing performance if their performance evaluation is dependent upon their success in this area.
2) The rules of effective behavioral management say that you must reinforce good behavior and punish for undesirable outcomes. In either situation, the reinforcement or punishment must be immediate, consistent, and used when reasonable. While the word “punish” is rather harsh, the point here is the same principles apply to performance management. Reinforce positive outcome consistently, immediately and take a balanced-approach (that is overdoing it doesn’t produce good outcomes). The same is important when it comes to addressing poor performance outcomes.
3) Do a quality check of your performance management policies and system annually to assess any bottlenecks or areas for improvement.
These three tips will ensure that both leaders and employees benefit from your proactive approach to managing performance. When you put talent first and use a smart approach to managing your talent you can’t go wrong.
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 18, 2013 | Life
I am honored an excited to announce that I will be interviewed by Mary Wright, Esq.of HR Gazette on Friday, April 19th 2pm-3pm EST/11am-12pm PST on Google + Hangout. The topic will be women’s rights, diversity, 2013 and beyond.
What is the purpose of this hangout?
From Marissa Mayer to Sheryl Sandberg, women’s rights and concerns are under the lens again. The discussions about what we need to do to succeed have been reignited. I’m not convinced they ever went away, because I’ve had my own crosses to bear as a woman, mother, and ambitious employee etc. In chatting with Mary recently, we decided that we should have a candid discussion about women’s rights and diversity from my perspective.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts on where we are, what we can do better and my reality as a woman in business.
I hope all of my readers will tune in. I’m not discriminating; women and men are both welcomed.
For more information or to join the hangout please click here:https://plus.google.com/events/cm4fo9a6773n44evhd1i8bujqq8 m
I hope to see you there!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 15, 2013 | Life
Welcome back to the Word on #LASHRM13! I can see that many of you got a kick out of the first day and I must tell you day two was no slouch.
But first…
A word on the power of IRL (in real life) meetings. This was my first opportunity to meet many of the people that I commiserate and chat with daily online. I can’t explain how surreal of an experience it is to go from seeing a snapshot of a human being online and to getting it “real and living color” in person. I don’t care how much you hear me talk about the power of social on this blog or elsewhere. The true power in relationships is in a handshake, a conversation, or a hug. I’m not saying stop what you’re doing in social media now and go back to B.S. (before social). I’m simply saying where possible take those relationships you are building virtually and make them a reality. It is the greatest thing ever.
Now that I got that off my chest. Let’s continue the conversation about social media. My last session on day 1 (April 8th) was from Kyle Ferachi of McGlinchey Stafford, PLLC. His session was called “Social Media and HR: Where are We Now? At the top of the session, he tells the group that “privacy settings are your friend”. I nearly shed a tear when the words rolled off his tongue. For a long time, I have wondered why all of these crazy people on social were getting caught with their pants down both literally and figuratively. I would ask myself “don’t they know about the privacy settings?” The Oohs and Ahhs in the room let me know that it isn’t much on people’s radars.
The next near-tear shedding moment was when he said the following:
Yes…yes….and yes!
It is time employers realize that social is no longer a fleeting thing. Employees are using social media and it is safe to say as Kyle mentioned in his session- that they are doing it on your time. Is it a cardinal sin that they are using it on your time? Maybe not. It is no different in some cases than taking a break to smoke or to gossip/chat with a co-worker. The key here is to be clear about boundaries, expectations, and proper usage of the tools.
To friend your employee or not to friend…that is the question
My best practice is: I am friends with my boss on LinkedIn. I will not connect with her on Facebook or otherwise. My reason is: my after five o’clock life is for me and none of her business and vice versa. The problem with all of this social oversharing and over-connecting is that there is an over-abundance of information. Things we would never have considered in a hiring decision ten years ago is now fair game. Check this nugget on considering social media behavior in a hiring decision:
Kyle’s answer to the aforementioned question was ” be cautious and use good judgment.” He could not unequivocally say “no” or “yes”. His cryptic answer should be taken at face value.
Kyle shared these nuggets and much more. It was refreshing to hear him speak as a lawyer who champions the use of social media.
In keeping with the social theme, Mary Ellen Slayter of Reputation Capital gave an interactive talk on internal communications, what is wrong with it and how to make it right.
Are you delivering a consistent, audience-specific message to your employees?
Chances are if you are blindly e-mailing newsletters and other one-size-fits-all correspondence to employees- you are missing the mark. According to Mary Ellen:
Since you should be selling them on all things having to do with your company, why not tailor your message to the various groups? Shouldn’t you also make it worth their while to read? How about giving shoutouts to your employees for a job well done on your intranet or newsletter? The overarching lesson here is: get creative, give praise, get social, and use technology to aid you in knowing what works and what doesn’t. I loved this session.
Other concurrents that rocked the day were that of my good friend Sarah Williams of Luihn Food Systems, Inc and my HR Tech Godfather, William Tincup,SPHR.
Sarah and her super sleuth session was everything you needed to make the ever-draining employee investigations exciting and fun. She uniquely tied the steps in conducting a criminal investigation as seen on t.v. to some savvy tips on how to conduct a proper and thorough investigation. There are too many nuggets to share,but my favorite term of the day was her cleverly coined “HR-anda Rights”. Like “Miranda Rights” this is where the “perp” is advised of their rights as it pertains to the investigation being conducted. It is clever and right on. I have been involved in way too many instances where no expectations were set and all parties involved were disappointed.
In case you missed it a nugget on Sarah’s #sleuth thread:
If you missed this thread, be sure to get the slides from the LASHRM 2013 Conference website. Even seasoned investigators can learn from her.
All hail WilliamTincup!
This session was purely for us HRIS or gatekeepers of HR technology. The beauty in this session was not in the slide deck, but in his openess to having a real conversation about the applicant tracking system landscape and roadblocks and hurdles us techies face. I think we all left there a lot smarter about negotiating our HR Tech contracts and dealings with vendors.
So many nuggets from this session, but here is the quote of the day regarding HR Tech:
The Bill Boorman Show
“The Cult of Work” general session was great and then confusing if you weren’t there. Bill Boorman is helping companies everyday to understand culture and move it forward. He has a lot of ideas about how culture in the workplace has reached it’s current resting place- not all I agree with.
The first concept from this session that I had to peaceably disagree with was the following: “There are no bad cultures, just bad culture fit.”
I understand his point which is- if we hire the right people for our culture it is the right fit and no one can in turn find it to be a bad culture. Certainly, it is reasonable to hire the people that speak your language, but isn’t it just as important to have those that speak a different language? Aren’t those the innovators and change influencers? Having worked in what I felt were cesspool cultures- I have to disagree with the “no bad culture” theory. I will admit that my way of thinking and working may not have been a fit and perhaps that is why it didn’t work out. Nevertheless, I still think that some cultures are about likeness and therefore diversity of thought and practice are not welcomed. If an innovator type joins a non-innovative organization it might be poor fit, but there’s no question that even a non-innovative culture could stand to learn something from that “poor fit”.
To hear & see Bill Boorman is to understand him. Here is the nugget of the day captured by Christine Assaf:
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 11, 2013 | Life
First and foremost, I want to thank everyone that was RT’ing, following and engaging with me on the #lashrm13 and #notatlashrm13 hashtags. It was a ton of fun and great to see people getting involved even though they weren’t there.
The Southern hospitality was intoxicating and immediate as this tweet went out from my good buddy & fellow social media team colleague, Christine Assaf as Sarah Williams and I arrived at the pre-conference session on Sunday.
And you have to love this tweet from Laurie Ruettimann after Sarah and I had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time at a local eatery called “Schlitz and Giggles”- no really that’s the name.
Why thank you Laurie! Far too kind. ; )
LASHRM 2013 kicked off Sunday April 7th with a pre-conference workshop byJennifer McClure on “Using Social Media in HR & Recruiting” where she generously shared tools and practices for socializing your brand and recruitment efforts. Her overarching message on branding was in the power of the employee. See a tweet from me here on what she said here:
The best-in-class brands like Sodexo, Microsoft, Marriott and many others are empowering employees to share their branding message across all social platforms and networks. It not only creates a purposeful and fun environment for the employees; it creates a grassroots movement for socializing the talent brand. In other words, it draws talent in and exposes them to the brand, culture and day-to-day long before they have decided to submit an application.
Monday. Monday.
Like “The Mamas and Papas” song “Monday, Monday” “it was indeed good to me and all I had hoped it would be.” Dwane Lay kicked off Monday morning with the opening keynote “Changing Culture: The Impossible, The Possible and Living on The Difference.” In this session, we revisited HR’s Psychology roots and left us with an understanding that culture cannot be planned. “Culture is a function of various inputs such as norms, values, technology etc. Depending on how we tweak those other inputs will depend on the eventual output of culture that manifests in our organizations.”
Dwane urged the audience to find “dissenting voices”, champion individuals and to get to know “ourselves”. Which begs the question- is HR spending so much time putting out fires, trying to be “strategic” and managing the work & people; that we have forgotten to take time to know who & what we are? Kind of resonates with my regular soapbox of having a solid value proposition both as an independent contributor as well as a collective business function. Do we take time to reflect on the how & why of what we do? If the answer to these questions is “no” we are missing the mark.
More importantly, Dwane shed light on the power of collaboration in teams. Data shows time and again that better outcomes come when there is both diversity on a team and more than two people collaborating. What are you doing to ensure that you are creating productive teams and environments? Your success in business is a function of the diligence and productivity of your teams and individual contributors. It was clear on Monday that diverse teams win over non-diverse teams every time.
All and all, Dwane took me back to research methods class in college, while providing a practical way to understand and utilize the science of culture. As I’ve stated here before, good cultures are not built upon likeness they are built upon the unique knowledge , skills, and abilities that coelsce and manifest via the collaboration of a diverse workforce.
My favorite quote from Dwane Lay on Monday that set the tone for everything I do in business and HR going forward is the following:
If you are in business or HR and you have been hoping for a better day in one or the other; it is not a strategy. Your strategy begins with data, a plan and execution. We are charged to get things done in HR not to sit around an hope. If nothing else take this nugget with you wherever you go.
From Dwane Lay breaking down the Psychology of culture to Jennifer McClure talking about the “Future of HR” to Devin Lemoine’s discussion on succession andRobin Schooling and Bill Boorman’s “HR’s Turning Point” session it is clear we are at the crossroads in HR. We have to rebrand ourselves as the human engineer and business liaison/partner. In doing this, we stop talking about being invited to the table; we “invite ourselves” as Jennifer McClure stated in her keynote. We realize that “global is the new local” as I stated at the top of the year and was emphasized by Bill Boorman. We stop being reactive and get proactive in planning not for just retirees to exit but for the day-to-day existence of the business by indulging in workforce planning as well as succession planning as Devin Lemoine, President ofSuccess Labs suggested.
All of these concepts left me with a feelings of obligation, responsibility and opportunity as I return to my HR desk to continue HR life as normal.
What will you all do to ensure that you keep HR moving on the right trajectory? More importantly, what will you all do to remain relevant in a business landscape and discipline that is rapidly changing? After you have skimmed some of the tweets from Mondays sessions, you will find that these are the two most important questions to be asking yourself as an HR practitioner right now. You must answer them and when you do you must strive to be the change in your business that solves business problems and provides a value to the customer.
Tomorrow, in part two of my post, I will share nuggets from the latter half of Monday and discuss the themes of Tuesday.
Get ready to move people and HR forward in 2013!
by Janine Nicole Dennis | Apr 2, 2013 | Life
It has been humbling to see such an array of posts from some phenomenal women unfold and being received by women of every demographic in the celebration of my birthday. I really can’t thank my “Leading Ladies” roster enough for their contributions.
In as much as the series has been about me, it really isn’t. Sometimes we go through life and the motions never stopping to take a moment to think about the road traveled. Each of the women in this series had to take a real and in some cases a difficult look back to how they arrived where they are today. In many cases, there were several drafts, thoughts of how vulnerable they wanted to be and still great gratitude for going through the process.
I didn’t just play editor-in-chief. I took the journey with them. I laughed, I pumped my fist and some even made me cry. Not because the stories were tragic, but because collectively I saw me in each and every one of these women. Week after week, my road to thirty became clear as I read each post and realized I am not alone in my thoughts, actions and struggles. The roster was made up of different ages, races, geographies, perspective etc. Still, the message was clear and consistent- leading ladies are about more than being a celebrity or a person of importance. We make things happen, we fail, we ground ourselves in our familial values and culture, we learn, we share, we support one another and everyone else.
Have we arrived?
The answer is “yes” and “no”. The truth is while this collective roster practices what they preach many of us “in real life” do not. There are some of us who are bashing, catty, jealous, and very singular in their approach to life. I’d like to think these types are the minority, but I encounter them more often than I would like to. If nothing else, I hope that this series has inspired all that have read it to deviate from those behaviors, love themselves and champion others.
The journey is the destination.
In other news, we all have a sense that no opportunity is beyond us. We have the ability to grab what we want with fewer obstacles than previous generations. Essentially, we can have it all if we want or we can have bits and pieces. The choice remains with us. The challenges of balancing our ambitions with the reality of life still exist. However, audacity and perseverance has squelched some of those concerns as well. Perhaps, it is the case that we haven’t arrived; but I do believe we are almost there.
Many thanks to all of you that have supported the series. Whether man or woman there is something to be admired about those that are willing to share themselves for the purposes of helping others.
The “Leading Ladies” posts may be over for now, but the movement continues.
Stay Tuned!
