How to Transition Your Career

I though that since there are a lot of human resources professionals out in the market today that this information would be helpful. Although, HR practicioners always say that you should network I have found that HR people are the worse offenders. Given that statement, I hope this helps or that you tweak your strategy.

If you are searching for a job or for a new career entirely, you are likely faced with a mixture of emotions: You know you awesome, but you have to convince a hiring manager of the same thing! Maybe you are considering a new path for your future, and are trying to start some things from scratch. Either way, here are some tips on how to approach the next chapter of your career:

• Get Social - You know how they say that your next job will come to you via networking? Increase the chances of that happening by getting more involved in social media. If you're not on Facebook, join. If you're not on Twitter, join. If you're not on LinkedIn, join. But even though these are powerful tools, being social extends offline. Take people out to lunch or for coffee, set up phone calls with people you admire or former colleagues, and meet new people at meetings & events. Don't just rely on Twitter or email to extend a connection, get in touch with people in other ways to build relationships.
• Get Over Yourself - Sorry if this one is blunt, but it has to be said. Oftentimes the biggest barrier we face is ourselves. Maybe you already use Facebook, but have very strict rules about who you friend. You know, like you will friend current real-life friends and close family members, but not second cousins, former colleagues or childhood friends. I totally get that, but...
• Create a Brand Identity - I know, this sounds creepy. You don't want to be a "brand," you just want a job that you deserve. And you're right. But... now you need to find that new gig. So, by 'brand identity' I mean, just find a simple way to explain your value, and be consistent with that explanation across all your networks. How you talk in person with folks, and across online networks. Consider reading "Start with Why" by Simon Sinek.
• Get Involved - Let's just say that now you are on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Twitter, and maybe even have a blog. Now, get involved with people. This is not about 'having a profile,' but about sharing expertise, sharing your life, listening to others and finding ways to be of assistance. If you are still at the place where you are saying 'nobody cares about what I am eating for lunch,' then you have to ask yourself: how will ANYONE know of your value if lunch is the only thing you can think of updating Twitter with? Your resume is one of a thousand sitting on someone's desk. Find a way to share your value in other ways, not as a resume, but as a person.
• Embrace LinkedIn, Not as a Thing, but a Place - Get serious about LinkedIn. CRAFT your profile, and continually maintain it and make it better. Ask people for recommendations. Get involved with LinkedIn Answers and Groups. There is so much information and networking going on in LinkedIn, and so much of it is in the business context, with each response 100% connected to a person's real name with their real bio/resume. So powerful.
• Help - Seriously. Help people. On Twitter, on Facebook, on LinkedIn, in real life. If you aren't helping people every week, then how are you proving your value? And don't overthink it - don't only help people that you think are 'worth it.' Help everyone you can. I can't stress this enough.
• Create a Support System - This is critical. Transitions wreak havoc on your emotions. Everything is now in question: your identity, your future, your day-to-day. This is going to sound like pre-school, but find a buddy. I'm serious. Find someone that you schedule a weekly phone call with. This call is unchangeable, nothing can get in the way. This is the person you brainstorm with, the person you help and who helps you, the person that you gain some sanity with. If you can, get a few buddies, two or three people you touch base with each week, people who keep you accountable, and help you set and achieve goals. Important caveat: these people need to be outside of your immediate family. People who have no immediate stake in your future.
• Publish or Connect Every Day - This is my rule: every day I must publish or connect. Why? Because it would be all too easy for me to get caught up in SEO research or diving into web analytics reports, but after a few days, realize that NOTHING I did affected anyone else's life. So every day, I must publish something to the web or connect with someone in a meaningful way, usually a phone call, Skype call or lunch.

I want to thank Dan Blank for this information.

Sustainable Talent Planning, and a New Role for Recruiters and HR

Past talent initiatives have generally not aimed at people, but at improving efficiency, managing work flows, and ensuring quality. Now, service, innovation, and relationships are seen as the enablers of increased profit as the spotlight moves away from manufacturing and production. HR has the opportunity to shine or be replaced by some other function as it is asked to ensure the availability of and quality of talent. Recruiters are central to that effort and many changes are underfoot.


Shift Your Thinking



Instead of thinking about your job as filling requisitions, or sourcing candidates, or screening people, think of it as providing talent guidance to management. Recruiters can help managers achieve their business goals by helping them determine what combination of skills and experience will make it easier for them to achieve their business goals.


You can push back on hiring managers who seem to be asking for talent that is not right for the direction the organization is headed. You will also need knowledge of the talent market and be able to speak intelligently about the availability of certain kinds of talent with numbers and facts.


Having the right frame of mind is the most important aspect of change. It will not be easy to begin thinking like a solutions provider rather than a “slot filler,” but as long as that is your goal and you periodically assess whether you are moving in the right direction, you will succeed.

Reinventing HR

I had a discussion with an esteemed colleague the other day at an HR meeting about reinventing HR in light of the current economic environment. I wonder if other HR practioners have given any thought to this since HR has for many companies taken a hugh hit both with personnel reductions and what their real value is to the business.

I think that if you are on top of your game you would be thinkning of this on a daily basis. Asking real questions about your departments' value and how the business preceives it. Think of these few things when you have that in-depth discussion with yourself, CEO, and department members:

• do they truly understand the economics of business?
• do you and they understand the new changes in healthcare and the impact on the business?
• do they really understand the business or just the basics?
• are they fully engaged with the managers they support?
• what profound improvement can they make that benefits the business?
• do you have a direct link to the CEO, I mean report to them?
• is the HR department disconnected from the daily operations?
• do you really understand talent development and process improvement?
• are they Six Sigma ceretified?
• have you off-loaded administration to a self service enviroment?

These are just a few questions you should be asking yourself and your staff. What are your thoughts on this very important subject, drop me a line at wgstevens2@gmail.com

How Well Do You Really Read?

Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. If you can raed tihs, psot it to yuor wlal. Olny 55% of plepoe can.

Intsring tohught.

Putting the 'Social' in Social Media

Paul Gillin of IDG recently surveyed 55 marketers, including many at b-to-b companies, about their satisfaction with social media tools. While the results aren't statistically valid, they yield some interesting insight on how the media landscape has changed. 

Respondents said that in 2006 their companies were using an average of less than one social media platform each. By last year, the average had swelled to more than eight. Equally interesting were the satisfaction ratings. Just two of the 55 respondents said they perceived the ROI on their social media investments to be negative, while 46 rated it somewhat or very positive.

There's both good and bad news in these trends. Businesses have clearly turned the corner in their adoption of social platforms, but the rush to join the party indicates that they may be reverting to the mass-market mentality that social marketing explicitly rejects.

The mindset of mass has been ingrained in the marketing conscience for a century. In a world in which the only efficient way to relay a message to a small number of people who cared was to bother a large number of others who didn't, big media was the only game in town.

Online media have flipped this equation. Success is now defined by the ability to establish meaningful conversations about very specific topics. Quality displaces quantity, and relationships replace messages. 

A lot of marketers are having a hard time grasping this because they spent so many years doing the opposite. They see new channels as a way to build another mass audience for the same old messages. They wear their Twitter follower count as a badge of honor. They miss the point. 

Social media are called social for a reason. They are a means to create relationships between individuals. Human resources professionals at Sodexo Worldwide have learned this. The big food service and facilities management company has all but discarded job boards in favor of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and a variety of conversational tools. The reason: They found that initiating conversations with applicants before moving them into the recruitment funnel improved both recruiter efficiency and candidate enthusiasm. Along the way, the volume of applications jumped 25% in two years, while recruitment ad spending dropped $300,000. 

The new challenge for b-to-b marketers will be to exploit the potential of social media to create connections between all their employees and all their constituents. This will present enormous governance issues as we begin to “media-train” entire companies instead of just a few individuals. That's a topic for future columns. For now, the challenge is to discard the old economics of mass and embrace the value of one-to-one.