Upsetting the reMix Apple Cart

Change is something I’ve been obsessing on lately because there is a lot of it going on personally and professionally, sometimes I’m on the side of “lets change it all” but others times I’m like “No more change!” Perhaps it is a function of settling into life that makes us more resistant to change? When you are younger everything is a good disruption: meeting new friends, taking new classes, getting a new or different job. But somewhere along the line we seem to settle into a comfortable existence and we start to resist the stuff we used to embrace: going to different restaurants, meeting new people, etc;
Don’t misunderstand me,  things are awesome but  I also don’t want to become settled or “comfortable.” With that in mind I’m going to be taking a week or two off the reMix. I need to take some time to focus on some other priorities, re-assess my current priorities and put some thought into future content for this blog.
In the meantime you can still get some fresh content from me over at PerformanceICreate. I’m writing about change over there to.
Here is a quick snippet to whet your appetite:
“Many of us HR pros (including myself) would advocate a leadership shakeup in different circumstances, but it feels different when that change is happening to my…”
Thank you for your patience while I take a little break, keep in mind you can still contact me via email, Twitter or LinkedIn. Make it a great day!

 

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Melissa Fairman in Guest Posts Leave a comment

My Advice for College Grads

In the next few weeks we will be hearing a lot about commencement speeches. Some of these will be great, some boring and some mind-blowing. Some colleges will pay a fortune to bring in some heavy hitters like Bill Clinton or Condolezza Rice.   Unfortunately not everyone gets to hear speakers such as Bill Clinton.  Some get stuck with someone marginal they don’t even remember.  It’s OK!  You don’t want to pay the tuition bill for the college that hires a former president to speak at commencement.

Today’s post isn’t about aspirational stories or funny anecdotes about conversations with Vladimir Putin; instead I want to give you some solid advice on the next endeavor in your life: getting a job, keeping a job and maybe even liking that job.

I have spent almost 10 years of my life working in the corporate world on both sides, so I think I have something relevant to tell you.  Here goes:

Job search tips: 

1. Resumes are important – double and triple check grammar and spelling.  I see  grammar, spelling and formatting errors across all age groups, these mistakes chip away at your candidacy before you’ve even had a chance to open your mouth.

2. Cast a wide net – you are just starting out in your career so you can and should explore different jobs, different locations, and different companies. Consider all opportunities.

3. Don’t take the advice you receive too seriously.  Most people give advice based on their own life experience. This may or may not be relevant to you depending on how close your life is now to someone’s when they were your age 30 years ago. You should listen but take advice with a grain of salt.

4. Interview advice – This is simple but I feel like I have to reiterate the basics: show up on-time,  turn off your phone (I can still hear it vibrate), say “please” and “thank you,” don’t interrupt someone who is speaking, dress for the occasion, send a thank you note or email.

5. Some work history is better than no work history – is it September and you are still looking for a job? Get a job. Any job. Don’t laugh at the Starbucks barista, she is building experience and making money.  Trust me, the point in time where you become the unemployed loser sitting in your parents basement is much sooner than you think.  

Career and workplace advice: 

1. It’s OK to take a job you are less than enthusiastic about….really you won’t find your passion at your first, second or third job, at this point you need to take a job (preferably in the professional field of your choice) that gives you experience and pays you money.

2. Since I brought up the “P” word, check out these two great posts from Laurie Ruettimann and Lance Haun about work passion…they pretty much sum up my views on finding your passion.

3. Working at a crappy job builds character – character is good. It is good to get crappy jobs out of the way at a young age. When people are screaming at you on the phone it won’t seem like that is true but trust me this is better now instead of later. It is much better to be at a miserable job when you only need to worry about feeding yourself and not an entire family. The crappy job you put up with now will give you the perspective and experience to see the good opportunities when they come along.

4. Don’t be annoyed if someone refers to you as the ”kid” or mentions that you are the youngest person on the team. At some point you won’t be the youngest person on the team anymore…this will make you sad.

5. What you were taught in school is not always how things play out in real life. The best practices you read about in your text books are expensive. Contribute realistic ideas that fit the organization (financial, culture and people) that you work for.

6.  Do not compromise your ethics or morals.

7. Live below your means – this is common sense right? Unfortunately it is so common that people ignore it.  Do you have a hard time thinking thirty years into the future? When 10, 15, 20% of your paycheck is going toward a goal 30 years in the future it is tempting to spend that money on your current reality.  Don’t buy into that. Money = Freedom. Freedom = the opportunity to go into business for yourself, the opportunity to take a real vacation and disconnect, the opportunity to educate yourself and much more. Money = Freedom

8.  No one expects you to know everything. I’m ashamed it took me a minute to learn this one; it actually took me quite a few frustrated hours and some candid advice before I finally stopped giving a crap and started asking questions.  Don’t make my mistake.

9. Grit is good.  There is a wealth of research material (and a great TedX talk) about grit.  This is the ability to diligently persist until things are accomplished, a box is checked or the product has shipped.   This is one of the most important skills you can develop. You don’t need to be the smartest or the most connected but if you can get things done, you shine. The people who get things done are the organizational linchpin. You want to be a linchpin.

What advice would you give to this year’s college graduates? I would love to hear it! Tell me in the comments. 

 

 

Posted on May 15, 2013 by Melissa Fairman in Career Leave a comment

Who knew? Middle managers have value

There are few things more ridiculed in corporate culture then the middle manager.  Executives usually get their fair share of hate but they also get some glorification as “kings of industry” or job creators.  We rarely see the middle manager treated in such glorious fashion.

Once a position aspired to, the middle manager has fallen by the wayside and is now thought of as a relic of the past. There is an easy explanation for that: innovations in technology has enabled businesses to remove entire layers of middle management and individual contributors. It seems that in our never ending quest for greater efficiency and lean organizations we’ve also forgotten the value of good middle managers as anything other than task managers.

A recent study detailed in Harvard Business Review blogs, describes the importance of middle managers as companies undergo major change efforts:

“I recently conducted a study of 56 randomly selected companies involved in major change and innovation efforts in the high-tech, retail, pharmaceutical, banking, automotive, insurance, energy, non-profit, and health care industries. Nearly 68% of these large-scale change and innovative efforts failed…The result was startling: Aside from the role of the senior executives, the most important determinant of success was the role of MLMs [Mid-Level Managers, emphasis added]. In the successful initiatives, MLMs served as levers of change, influencing those above and below them in the corporate hierarchy.”

The study found three things were important to the success of the change initiative from the perspective of the MLM, to paraphrase:

Alignment – Managers goals were aligned with the change initiative

Authorship – the best companies put together cross functional teams of middle managers and used those teams to create initiatives aligned with organizational goals

Actions- Managers put into place initiatives and are held accountable for the results.

This is all good information but it is also common sense. When you are trying to change an organization why wouldn’t you involve your middle managers? IMHO if you want successful change it has to come from the top, the bottom and the middle. I would go one step further and set up cross functional teams at the employee level as well. I don’t think it is enough to develop initiatives at the MLM level, I would argue there is just as much if not more value on the employee level.

I’m also interested to see how the perception of middle management influences decision making at the top.  Are executives and consultants sitting in the proverbial ivory tower assuming that middle managers are task managers and can’t handle the strategy? Is there a belief that middle managers should stick to tasks and leave the strategy to the experts?

If that is the case it isn’t hard to understand how 68% of large-scale change initiatives fail. One of the bonuses of a leaner organization is that all employees are closer to the business and performance expectations are higher.  We shouldn’t demand change and at the same time assume middle managers are the same task masters of the past.

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Melissa Fairman in leadership 3 Comments

Easing your FMLA headache

Today’s post is brought to us from Optis, a HR cloud software company.  Read on to get some great tips on managing FMLA.

Is there any bigger headache for HR managers than the one brought on by managing FMLA leave events? Keeping track of federal and state leave laws, managing requests, tracking snippets of time … it can eventually drive even the most organized HR pro to the brink of madness.

HR often wonders, “Is there anything to do to ease this headache?”

Good news: There is. The first step is to stop banging your head against the wall. The second is to follow a few simple steps.

But before we jump into the steps, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page:

The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives eligible employees job-protected leave for 12 weeks in a 12-month period to care for any of the following:

  • A newborn, adopted, or foster child within one year of birth or placement

  • A spouse, child, or parent with a serious health condition

  • The employee’s self

Additionally, FMLA covers any family matters that require missing work to coordinate logistics for a spouse, child, or parent on active duty (e.g., finding a child-care provider). It also protects eligible employees for 26 weeks in a 12-month period when caring for a service member if that service member is their spouse, child, parent, or next of kin.

Whether it’s the birth of a child or caring for a parent, there are a lot of reasons that your employees could be on protected leave. To complicate matters, the leave can be taken intermittently. With a large number of employees, we can all agree that managing FMLA can quickly become unwieldy.

So, about those steps. Here are a few tips to help ease the head pains of managing FMLA:

  • Document, document, document — Sometimes it’s the simplest things that lead to our unraveling. As obvious as it sounds, be sure to write clear notes and keep any documentation associated with a leave organized. The payoff? Clear and concise documentation will be beneficial if there’s an instance where the leave needs to be reviewed in an audit or litigation occurrence.   

  • Keep the lines of communication open — Everyone involved in an employee’s leave of absence needs to be on the same page — including the employee, their manager, and HR. To avoid any misunderstandings, be transparent and consistent. Frequent communication will also aid in return-to-work efforts — but don’t be too clingy and interfere with their leave. 

  • Train managers and keep your policies updated — Make sure managers understand, or at least will comply with, FMLA basics so they don’t mistakenly cause a sticky situation. And in the HR department, be sure to review your policies and procedures to ensure they incorporate the March 2013 regulation updates.   

  • Run FMLA concurrently with short-term disability — If possible, start the clock on FMLA and STD tracking at the same time. You’ll thank yourself for the time sync.     

  • Request recertification and re-request, if needed — HR pros can request re-certification as frequently as every 30 days. Also, don’t be afraid to ask for a second doctor’s opinion. Just be sure to give the employee reasonable time to do both tasks.   

  • Manage FMLA with the ADA in mind — Don’t forget that extra leave time can sometimes be a reasonable accommodation under the ADA. So, if the 12-week leave time is exhausted and the employee still can’t return to work, make sure all possible avenues are explored before any staffing changes are implemented.

Clearly, there are a lot of moving pieces that come with managing FMLA. Although it sounds daunting, following these steps will definitely alleviate some of the headache. And during the times when you’d like to reach for that bottle of Advil (or a glass of wine), try to remember the big picture. As an HR manager, you get to help these folks during an important time in their lives — whether it’s welcoming a new child, caring for a sick family member, or coordinating a loved one’s military leave.

Additionally, managing the leave effectively will ultimately impact your organization’s bottom line for the better and make your job easier in the long run.

Today’s post is brought to us by Optis. Optis makes your disparate people data easy to see, control and understand. Our flexible data solutions and cloud-based software empower your organization to manage leave events, navigate regulatory compliance and integrate all of your data sources. Alleviate the burden of manual administration, reduce risks, get the full picture of your people data and make better business decisions.

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Melissa Fairman in Legal Leave a comment

HR Hero

 

Today’s post is brought to us courtesy of Broc Edwards, an HR pro that specializes in leadership and organizational development.  He recently published a book on Human Resources titled “What thinks you? A fool’s eye view of Human Resources” You can connect with him over LinkedIn  and Twitter. 

Us humans place a lot of weight on our heroes. We need them to inspire us to be better, to set an example, to show us the way, to push back the edges of what we thought was possible.

Who are your HR heroes?

Brian Tracy has said that if you don’t love what you’re doing enough to strive to be in the top 20%, you’re probably in the wrong field. What’s it mean to be in the top 20% of HR? Who do you consider in the top 20% of HR? Who do you look up to as a role model or example of who and how you want to be? Who is setting the pace for you?

Who are your HR heroes?

When you go to conferences, which speakers do you seek out, regardless of topic or re-certification credits? Have you ever gone to a conference just because of the speakers there? Who do you consider the rock stars of HR? Who would you get all giddyshyembarassed about meeting?

Who are your HR heroes?

What are your favorite human resources or business books? What’s the best one you’ve read this year? What writer do you wish you could meet? What would you ask that person?

Who are your HR heroes?

Whose blogs do you read regularly and religiously? Whose thoughts do you RT on twitter or share on Facebook? Who writes from such a consistently mind-blowingly awesome perspective that you have it set up to auto-tweet-post-announce-broadcast to your world?

Who are your HR heroes?

Who do you admire for moving the field forward over the past decade? Who do you anticipate will move it forward the most in the next 10 years? What do they do so differently? What will you bring into your own work?

Who are your HR heroes?

What traits do you most admire in the top HR pros? What behaviors do you think the entire field would be better off for emulating? When you’re facing a tough, ambiguous situation with high visibility outcomes, who do you ask yourself, “How would                    handle this?”

Who are your HR heroes?

What is your ideal HR job? Who is your dream mentor? Who inspires you to elevate your game and makes you want to be your best every day? Who would you drop everything and move your family across the country for just to be able to work with and learn from them?

Who are your HR heroes?

Why is it important to you to pursue excellence? How are you moving the field forward? Who do you inspire? Who have you mentored? What difference are you making?

Whose HR hero are you?

 

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Melissa Fairman in Changing HR 2 Comments
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