Susan was doing well in her job. She had an eight-hour workday, great friends, a supportive family, good health, and she was paid well. Everyone around her thought she was happy and lived an ideal life.

Susan was well-compensated and appeared to have time to balance her career and personal life. But she was struggling.

But Susan’s life was actually a mess. Her overly aggressive boss thought nothing of shouting at her in front of her colleagues. Though Susan was a good performer, she was constantly anxious about the next time her supervisor would berate her. Though she was expected to work eight-hour days, her boss would call her at any time of the day or night.

Susan began to dread hearing her cellphone ring and was so worried all the time that she couldn’t even sleep. She fretted that her colleagues and friends would lose respect for her, and she lost so much confidence that she couldn’t handle even the simplest of social interactions. Susana began to spend less time with her friends and family, where she would have to put up a brave face, and instead devoted more hours to work, where she could worry freely, obsessing over every detail of her job to the point of compulsiveness.

By most traditional measures of work-life balance, Susan was doing quite well. She was well compensated for an eight-hour workday, and she appeared to have enough free time to balance her career and personal life. But in reality, Susana was struggling. What’s more, her frustrations would not be picked up by conventional measures of wellbeing, because those measures don’t take into account the quality of people’s experiences, nor do they incorporate people’s own evaluations of their lives. Instead, those measures rely on factors like income and number of hours worked, under the assumption that these factors determine the quality of people’s lives.

Beyond work-life balance

When the idea of work-life balance was first introduced, it was a revolutionary concept. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution and its resulting shift to manufacturing work made it possible for employers to require workers to labor longer hours than ever before in human history. In some industries, people toiled 14 to 16 hours a day, six to seven days a week.

As researchers began to study the impact that these long hours had on stress levels, health, and family life, the idea of work-life balance gained currency, and many countries began to legislate limits to the workweek. Most developed nations now mandate 40-46 working hours per week, with a minimum of two weeks per year of holiday/vacation.

The concept of work-life balance has been instrumental in influencing these changes and bringing about an improvement in the quality of life that is assumed to accompany shorter working hours. But the concept is useful only up to a point. Globalization has undermined the relevance of reducing worker hours to achieve work-life balance and has revealed limitations; the most significant is that at some point, limiting hours further is just not sustainable.

France has mandated a 35-hour workweek, for example. But what can the country do next? The workweek can’t be reduced indefinitely, as this has implications for a country’s economic viability and competitiveness. In a globalized world, if workers in one country are unwilling to work for economically viable hours, then businesses will migrate to a country where they are willing to do so. In countries such as India and Pakistan, workers are motivated to work 10- to 12-hour workdays — and this is unlikely to change soon due to the large number of workers willing to do so to move up the economic ladder.

Another problem with the concept of work-life balance is that it takes the number of working hours into account but not the quality of the working experience. A person may spend 35 hours a week at work, but if that worker, like Susan, has an abrasive manager or is in a highly stressful job or one that is not suited to her natural talents, then those manageable work hours are unlikely to enhance her quality of life. Conversely, a person may choose to work long hours because it allows her to progress in her career or to build a social system at work.

Thus, the assumption that reduced hours at work lead to an improvement in personal life is too narrow, and probably faulty. Other factors, such as social support, health, safety, and job fit, contribute greatly to the quality of a person’s life. Since the concept of work-life balance doesn’t take into account these significant factors, it does not provide direction as to how people can actually improve the quality of their lives, except for reducing the hours spent at work. As such, it is not actionable.

The assumption that reduced hours at work lead to an improvement in personal life is too narrow, and probably faulty

How we think about and experience our lives

A more comprehensive concept-one that’s more appropriate for the 21st-century economy-is that of wellbeing, which includes factors that contribute to our experiences and our perception of our lives. Until recently, wellbeing has been seen as an esoteric concept that is difficult to define and quantify. It is most commonly understood as relating to wealth or health, perhaps because of the ease with which these things can be measured.

One reason that wellbeing has been difficult to define is that it means different things to different people depending on what they consider important. To one person, it may mean prosperity or wealth; to another, it may mean values or community involvement or the realization of one’s potential. This is why wellbeing should be measured at the individual level, though it may be aggregated for organizations, communities, and nations. And any measure of wellbeing must be broad enough to incorporate an individual’s own choices and purpose in life while being specific enough to be compared and aggregated to facilitate action that can improve it.

Gallup has developed a wellbeing metric that includes the five key elements of wellbeing: Career, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community. These five distinct factors emerged from research that Gallup conducted across countries, languages, and vastly different life situations. Because these elements of wellbeing are universal, they can be measured and reported on for individuals, organizations, cities, countries, and regions around the world.

Because Gallup’s wellbeing assessment measures these elements individually in addition to yielding an overall score, it is actionable: The assessment gives individuals, organizations, cities, and countries the ability to manage wellbeing by undertaking actions to improve it. If an individual has relatively low Social Wellbeing, for example, she would do well to focus her efforts on improving interpersonal relationships with friends and family.

This can be managed over time. As her Social Wellbeing increases, she may choose to concentrate on Career Wellbeing, for instance, or choose to address both elements by spending time socializing with colleagues and making friends at work. In this way, wellbeing can be measured and managed comprehensively at the individual, as well as government, state, city, or corporate levels, by taking its various components and their interactions into account.

Conventional metrics such as employment status, income, educational level, hours worked, and women’s participation in the workforce are necessary to understand an economy, but they are insufficient when it comes to understanding and evaluating overall life satisfaction. Unless we begin to use a metric of a life well-lived — as measured by one’s own experiences and evaluation — people like Susan will continue to be under the radar, aware that something is amiss, but without an idea why or what to do about it.

The Five Essentials of Wellbeing

For many years studies have been done exploring the demands of a life well-lived. More recently, due to the evolving workforce and generational issues there has been an increasing need to understand how to help our employers achieve a well-balanced life. The elements of wellbeing that transcend the global work environment that differentiate a thriving life not a surviving life are as follows:

• Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time — or simply liking what you      do every day
• Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life
• Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life
• Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
• Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live

Take a moment and enjoy all the gifts you have and it will reduce your stress and only say “YES” to the activities and life experiences that you know you want to do!

 

 

They’re young, smart, brash. They may wear flip flops to the office or listen to IPODs at their desk. They want to work, but they don’t want to work to be their LIFE. These are Millennials a force of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now embarking on their careers — taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace. Get ready, because this generation — whose members have not yet hit 30 — is different from any that have come before them. Read the rest of this entry »

While the question sounds like the preamble to a funny punch line, the answer is no laughing matter.

According to an article last week in the Wall Street Journal, it takes many more than most employers think (or at least want to accept.) I repeat – a lot more. The actual numbers are mind boggling.

For example, infographic presented in the Wall Street article revealed that it takes approximately 1,000 online views by candidates to get 100 candidates to complete the application. Out of that, 25 applications are selected for review, and then 4 to 6 candidates are recommended for an interview. When all is said and done, companies may find their one diamond in the rough only after 1,000 candidates view the job posting. If those numbers hold up, it is clear that the impending war for talent is no longer imminent or pending. It’s here today.

Not one to rely only exclusively on hearsay, I was prompted by the article to review 25 jobs posted on our applicant processing system by clients during the last 3 months. The results don’t only confirm the findings presented in the Wall Street Journal but throw up an even bigger gauntlet to challenge employers. The best views-to-applicant scenario was 10 percent. But a more common scenario was as low as 1 percent.

Unfortunately for many companies, as good or bad as those results are, the job search does not always end when the one lonely qualified candidate is identified and offered the job. According to research presented by Talent Function Group, LLC, “the chosen applicant accepts the offer only 80% of the time.” That situation leads to two options – offer the job to your second choice (if there is one) or go back to the drawing board. Neither choice is desirable when a company’s productivity and competitive advantage are on the line and dependent on a minimum time to hire and high quality of hire.

To win the war for talent moving forward, nearly every employer will need to cast the widest possible sourcing net to attract, identify, and hire qualified candidates. In addition, operations and sales managers don’t have the time to waste interviewing candidates who can’t do the job. The competition for recruiting qualified skilled workers poses a formidable challenge for most organizations. Management has a choice: deal with a “resu-mess” which will inundate recruiting and human resource staffs, which are already running lean; or insist on applicant processing automation to build a talent pool of qualified candidates, reduce the time-to-hire, and ultimately improve the quality of employees.

 

Mobile recruiting, in its purest form, is the act of recruiting or engaging candidates on a mobile device. Using mobile devices to recruit candidates includes many different forms and involves many different devices, such as a smart phone, cell phone, tablet, or iTouch. Mobile recruiting can be the use of mobile devices for either the candidate or the recruiter, and it supplements any social and internet recruiting strategy. When making your company’s recruitment strategy, consider the many apps, technologies, and tools that are already out there and developed for the company’s benefit.

Mobile recruiting involves any action or conversation regarding the job search using a mobile device. This could include an app that aids in candidate sourcing or pushes notifications when a candidate applies or schedules an interview, or even reads QR Codes for use at job fairs. According to Mashable, mobile recruiting is on rise in the job seekers mind: 19% of job seekers use mobile devices to search for jobs, but 57% of job seekers would like to use mobile devices to search for jobs. Technology will catch up to the job seeker. While best practice of mobile recruiting is still evolving to candidate behavior, it is clear that companies should have a mobile recruiting strategy going forward.

“For employers, mobile is the new paradigm shift,” states mobile recruiting expert Michael Marlatt.

Tools exist to make the hiring and interview process easy and mobile-ready for the job seeker as well. These include mobile ready web sites, audio job listings, and text message alerts for job seekers who are mobile, active, and on the go. Mobile is especially appealing for this reason. Recruiters and companies can engage job seekers anywhere and at any time. A quick text message for a recruiter to alert a job seeker offers a real-time opportunity to engage. Job seekers don’t have to wait to be in front of a computer to apply, or receive email about a job. Job seekers want to be able to easily research and apply for your position without being tied to a computer.

Creating and executing a mobile recruiting campaign doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be as simple, complicated, inexpensive, or expensive as you wish it to be. Let’s start with easy, here are three budget friendly ways to leverage mobile recruiting:

• Schedule Candidate Interviews via Text. Enterprise text message systems serve as a form of CRM. Make it easy for your Millennial candidate pool by scheduling and communicating the details regarding their interview via text. Offer to send interview location and directions via their cell phone linking to a simple Google Map. Candidates can easily create a route using their Maps app while also having the option to receive directions via emails.

• Make Applying & Research Easy. Your company must be easily accessible on mobile devices. As candidates have more choices – even in this current economic market – it’s important to make it easy for job seekers to learn more about your company, the company culture, and where they could fit in. This includes open jobs and details of what those jobs actually entail. Mobile formatted career sites make it easier for candidates to quickly view information. Also bear in mind that the traditional employee applications take an average of 45 minutes to complete. Using mobile technologies, and a professional profile, the application process can be snap, sometimes even 60 seconds or less. Consider not only the context of employee applications, but also in the context of building a talent community.

 

• Leverage Video. One of my most popular online activities via mobile is viewing video. As more people own smartphones and as smartphones get bigger and better, more and more video viewing will be on phones. Whether live streaming or a 5 minute day in the life video or employee testimonial, companies can leverage opportunities to engage their candidate base using the power of mobile video. Video provides insights into the environment and company culture that we can see and hear creating a lasting impact that goes beyond any job fair brochure.

As the “Generational Guru” and author of Ties to Tattoos, I am often asked how social networking can positively impact recruitment strategies and develop the workforce of the future. Social Networking is a powerful recruiting tool that allows an organization the access to potential candidates that they could not reach before. Proven techniques and tools like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn provide support to business’ ongoing efforts to increase visibility with active and passive candidate pools. Use of effective social media channels allow interested parties immediate access to questions related to hiring practices, culture, and positions available. It also answers the important question: What’s In It For Me (WIIFM).

Now, imagine using Social Networking as an internal forum where new ideas are shared instantly, with every employee at every level. Questions are answered in real-time by your knowledge workers and leaders. People down the hall and across the country are brought together to share a common vision. And revenues increase while costs are lowered. That’s the power of Internal Social Networking.

An internal social network that is used as part of your strategic recruiting strategy can expand your talent pool options like never before—it’s powerful and proven. It can work for any employer interested in attracting the next Generation of Leaders.

Take a look at how we used social media strategies to attract 1500 new hires for an Oklahoma Casino “WinStar World Casino” in a town with a population of less and 800 people.

Layoffs associated with the Great Recession allowed hiring executives to cherry pick a flooded talent market, but as the economic downturn slowly reverses, business focus will shift from acquiring top talent to keeping it. According to Shelly Little, CEO of talent recruitment and retention firm Michaels Wilder, businesses may be surprised to learn that retaining top talent doesn’t necessarily mean throwing buckets of money at employees. In fact, Michaels Wilder has found innovative strategies which keep employees engaged and involved yield better retention and motivation results than offering a token yearly raise.

Michaels Wilder’s talent retention efforts are focused on creating and retaining exceptional talent within the organization. “It’s not high-dollar amounts, but we want to show that these employees matter.” According to Ms. Little, one of the best ways to identify, reward, and keep top talent is to create internal opportunities for employees to take on high profile projects that put them in the spotlight. “We get them involved and get them to work with senior levels of management,” Little says. “This gives them the opportunity to understand the company hierarchy and move politically within the organization.”

Projects like these facilitate another critical business function—knowledge transfer within the organization. As the Baby Boomer and Traditionalist generations retire, it’s critical for organizations to guard against knowledge drain. Creating opportunities for newer employees to work on projects with senior talent serves the dual purpose of facilitating knowledge transfer and boosting retention rates by making younger generations feel invested in the company.

Investing in remote-office technology is another way to attract and retain top talent, according to Little. Michaels Wilder has put this technology to work by adopting a program called ROWE, which was originally implemented by Best Buy. ROWE stands for Results Oriented Work Environment. “The idea,” Little says, “is that our employees are capable, responsible adults who know how to manage their work, so we give them the flexibility to work remotely so they don’t always have to be in the office.” Certain provisions and eligibility requirements apply, but employees who qualify will have the flexibility to work off site in the event they need to do so.

Flexibility to work remotely and the ability to maintain a work-life balance is particularly valued by Millennials and Gen X. Studies show that Millennials and Gen X  will almost always choose employers who offer remote-office capabilities over employers who offer higher salaries but require rigid office attendance. According to Little, Boomer and Traditionalist generations are slow to recognize the merits of this type of program, “but when they recognize there are no negative repercussions, the light goes on.” When Michaels Wilder first implemented ROWE, upper management grumbled a bit because the new program threw a wrench into an entrenched management style. “It was a bit of a curve ball,” Little says. “But once management started participating themselves, they thought, ‘This is great! I can’t wait to do this more. Please don’t take this away!’”

Employee tenure is one of the top indicators of success and revenue generation within an organization, Little says, and small steps to make sure employees will stay even twelve months longer can directly affect a company’s bottom line. Retention programs like the ones she’s implemented at Michaels Wilder cost little but have a direct impact on a business’ bottom line. “More tenured employees perform better, and that results in more revenue for the company,” Little says. “If you’ve got employees who are engaged and involved at work and stay with the company, they build and develop client, vendor, and partner relationships. The longer they keep those relationships and the longer they stay with you, the bigger the tangible benefit in the form of increased revenue to your company.”

Photo Credit In the Library with the Lead Pipe.

1. If you aren’t measuring anything else, social media measurement isn’t the problem.

Measurement is a discipline, and it needs to be business-wide. If you’re going to ask about the ROI, value, or impact of social media and how to measure it, I’m going to ask how you’re going about determining those things for other areas of your business, and ask you to translate or adapt some of those practices over to social initiatives.

If you’re not measuring anything else, you’ll have a learning curve. A steep one. It’ll come complete with needing the right tools and platforms to collect data, the right people to analyze it, the buy in from management to spend the time doing all of this, and the commitment to use the measurement as a means to underscore your strategy. The social media data is available for the taking, so that’s not the problem. The *real* issue is connecting the dots. See #4.

2. Measurement is not the goal.

The goal is to derive insights that teach you something of value, and then act on them. Measurement is a way station, a path, but is not the goal in itself. You don’t get a cookie for measuring.

You probably need to spend three times as much time and effort evaluating and acting on your data than you do collecting and formatting it. Why? Because the analysis is what yields direction, plans, action steps, you name it. You START with the data. You need to end up with a course of action, or the act of measuring (and all the time you spent doing it) is wasted.

3. Measuring activity isn’t as important as measuring results.

Gathering fans on Facebook is an activity. How those fans chose to respond to your offer, sign up for your newsletter, or buy your product (or not) is a result.

Number of forum posts is an activity. How many of those forum posts converted new downloads of your latest e book is a result. (Even better if you can take it a step further and show the e book downloads that became leads).

Follow me? We’re very caught up in trying to track all the stuff we’re doing, and not spending enough time connecting dots between those actions and how they drive progress toward the goals we’ve set. Speaking of which…

4. Metrics are determined by goals.

Learn how to develop measurable objectives and the metrics practically jump out at you. If you know where you’re headed and have a clear definition of what it means to reach your goal, it becomes pretty apparent which signals (metrics) will tell you whether you’re close, far, or right on target.

And you don’t need 40 different metrics to underscore a story or progress toward a goal. Typically you just need a few. If your goal is to raise awareness for a cause, you can look at reach of mentions and messages, increased donations, or a surge in volunteer signups. Those go up, you can be reasonably certain that what you’re doing is contributing to those things, and likely justify staying the course. Which leads me to a biggie…

5. Cause and Correlation are different.

Cause means that something you did drove someone to act. Directly, and usually singly. There’s a clear line between initiative and result. (We could argue that nearly every causal relationship has external influences, but that discussion for a headier day).

Correlation is fuzzier, and where most folks get hung up with measurement. It’s about a relationship between two things, usually an action and a result, but that relationship isn’t exclusive of other factors.

We struggle with these two, because we’re often trying to prove cause, when correlation can be just as valuable in terms of justifying our efforts. Think of correlation as “contributing to” or “influencing”. So if you do an outreach campaign in social media and lead numbers through those channels increase, you can say that those two events are likely strongly correlated. (By contrast, if you do a campaign in social media and your offline event attendance increases, they might still be related, but likely more loosely).

Remember that today, we have any number of points where prospects and customers can be impacted by what we do. Proving cause can be tricky, because you can’t trace every interaction someone has with your company.

But we strive for cause why? Because we want CREDIT. We want to be able to say that OUR effort is what moved the needle so we can justify time, budget, headcount. But the only way to truly prove cause to a major degree is to adjust ONLY one thing while leaving all other factors the same. We rarely if ever do that in business, because we’re not conducting science experiments. We’re simply trying to understand what helps and what hinders. Get comfortable with this phrase: reasonable degree of confidence.

6. Analysis is the hard part, not measurement.

The human brain factor is the complicated bit. Data is easy to collect, easy to smash together, easy to do math around. The REAL question is: what does all this MEAN to me and why? What does this tell me about the effect and impact of my actions?

That’s the hard part because no tool in the world can do that for you. No case study will show you precisely the map you need to follow for YOUR business (though it might spark some ideas). No one person can hand you a turn-key set of metrics that will suddenly give you a light bulb moment and show you the path ahead of you. Put the effort into goal setting on the front end and analysis on the back end, and let measurement be a process in between.

7. Standardization has limitations.

You might have some types of metrics and data bucketed together such as engagement or awareness metrics – but the unique ones that matter to your business aren’t likely to be standardized anytime soon. That’s a departure from the way we’ve always done it, but then again, some of our “standard” metrics haven’t really gotten us very far (like ad equivalency) and others are standard in name, but not in how they’re calculated (like customer satisfaction).

Instead of striving for metrics that are universally applicable, focus instead on the ones that consistently deliver valuable intelligence for your business. It doesn’t matter what the guy down the street is measuring unless you’re just looking for a little inspiration.

8. Reporting is not an outcome.

Related to #2, delivering the graph isn’t the end of the road. It’s what you outline as the next steps to either a) keep doing what you’re doing or b) adjust something in order to try and change the results.

The report, in fact, is often the starting line. And reports full of data alone aren’t very useful. The art in reporting isn’t just packaging the information, but its in interpreting and translating that. When you give your boss the monthly report of PR impressions or lead volume, do they ever ask you what you attribute those numbers to, and what recommendations you would make based on that information? Have YOU ever thought about that? Why?

9. Measurement doesn’t have to be complex to be effective.

You don’t necessarily need convoluted indices to get you where you’re headed, especially when you’re starting. Sometimes, just a simple correlation between an awareness metric and a sales timeline can tell you whether there might be a positive relationship, and you can act on that. Think of it this way: pair one qualitative metric – like customer satisfaction – with one related quantitative one, like sales or call center costs or website hits. One metric alone rarely tells you anything valuable.

Are they both headed in the direction you want them to be? Over time, do you see them moving together, away from each other, or in unrelated ways? Do the strategies you have in place to move them both tie into one another?

CAN measurement be complex? Sure. Some really detailed measurement formulas can help you get super scientific and granular. But again, if you’re getting mired in the process of measurement instead of the practice of deriving some intelligence from what you measure, you’re doing it wrong. The average business simply needs a guide, not a dissertation.

10. Measurement is a constant evolution.

You set a goal. You back out a few metrics. Then you evaluate, and realize you haven’t learned anything of value, or that you need more clarity, more specifics, a broader view, or whatever. That’s okay. Look, business is an iterative process. It’s part art, part science, and so is measurement. Who wrote the rule that said we had to have the perfect, bulletproof set of metrics before we start measuring?

If something doesn’t get you the information you need, change what you’re doing and try something else. If you’re missing something, add it. Eventually, you’ll settle into a few combinations of metrics that really illustrate to you those Almighty Actionable Insights.

We’re way too caught up with being perfectionists about gathering and presenting information, and not nearly good enough with FRAMING the information in a way that gives us something to chew on.

11. Measurement is cultural as well as operational.

We’re taught to fear failure, so if we track and measure failure, we don’t want to share it. We manipulate numbers to show our work in its best light, instead of showing the hard truth in order to identify what we need to improve to be more effective. That’s a *culture* problem, based in businesses where accountability is absolute, blame is personal, and failure is a dirty word. That’s a conversation that can’t be fixed with a PPT presentation.

12. Measurement is more than ROI.

Measuring ROI is something we can and should do. Track how much we spend (in time and capital), track how much we net in terms of return (usually $$). That’s a smart move.

But we can’t limit the discussion about measurement to ROI. We have to talk about qualitative metrics, like brand perception, customer satisfaction, advocacy. We have to talk about quantitative metrics that tie to things other than revenue, like reduced costs. We also have to understand the difference between justifying something from a “good use of time” perspective, and looking at a financial return as the way of determining success.

Ultimately, all roads lead to somewhere. But so much of social media isn’t about being the sales channel, but is about positively impacting the likelihood of sales through all other experiences.

13. “Social media isn’t measurable” is an excuse.

Here’s what people really mean:

• I don’t have the right tools in place to collect the data I need
• When I have all the data, I don’t know where to start
• I don’t know what data might relate to each other to analyze it well
• I don’t want to or am not empowered to spend time doing data collection and analysis as part of my job
• I’m afraid of what measuring will actually tell me about the effectiveness of my work

The first one is a functional problem. The second and third ones are knowledge based, with no exact “right” answers, and require a bit of practice and applied effort, but they’re solvable too. The last two are cultural, and are probably much more firmly rooted in the people rather than the process. That’s a different discussion.

Above all, we have to stop blaming the medium for hindering the measurement process. It’s not social media’s fault at all. If anything, it’s guilty of providing us too much information.

What we need to understand about our own measurement practices is whether we’re equipped with the right tools and data, whether we’re willing to spend the time evaluating that data and extracting the juicy bits, and whether we’re functionally and culturally prepared for what it might show us, for better or for worse.

But make no mistake, folks, basic social media measurement isn’t someone else’s responsibility to sort out for us. And waiting for the manual is simply burning time and money.

Measurement is our job. It’s our responsibility. And it’s within our capabilities, without doubt. So let’s get cracking.

Photo Credit by Amptoons.

As a seasoned HR professional and recent author of an internationally published book – Ties to Tattoo’s I had the opportunity to enter into the Social Media world recently. Last night I attended the Monster Tweet Up and was in line with Sue Meisinger prior President of SHRM who was gracious enough to endorse my book. It was wonderful to be able to thank her personally for taking an interest two years ago in the issue of the 4 Generations in the Workplace.

As the night progressed I met several new wonderful friends and some old. Some folks wanted to know “What Do You Do” which always makes me laugh because my work in HR, speaker and author do not define What I Do, it is more like this…..”You May Know Many People but Who Do You Really Know” It is the Sign of a Significant Life by the number of people you have reached out and lent a helping hand and offered your time, talent or treasure freely without expecting anything in return.

I know many HR professionals currently out of work and my firm does not provide recruiting assistance BUT it is my mission in HR to provide as many connections and interim consulting opportunities to fellow HR professionals as possible to assist them while in transition.

How many times have you asked for something and never given back? How many times have you given to someone and never had the courage to say something to them directly because it was not acknowledged or appreciated?

“The Best Way to Predict Your Future Is to Change It”

Sherri Elliott-Yeary @sherrielliott

Photo Credit CCSF.

Check out our new video about what is important to Millenials when considering to work for a company.

Recruiting the Millenials from Sherri Elliott-Yeary on Vimeo.

Featured in Talent Management July 2009.

For the first time in history, effectively managing employees means reaching out to four distinctly different generations: traditionalists, boomers, Gen Xers and millennials. Each group has different values, experiences and expectations, which means the rules of recruitment and retention haven’t just changed – they’ve been thrown out altogether.

The one-size-fits-all programs that worked 10 years ago are now irrelevant and obsolete. Talent managers who think they can attract Xers and millennials with fabulous retirement benefits plans that kick in after five years of tenure with the company need to think again. The Bureau of Labor reports that people in their 20s change jobs on average once every 18 months. This age group grew up in the Internet Era – they have a short attention span and are used to instant gratification, which means they’re unlikely to bite if the carrot that’s dangled in front of them is only good five years out. They’re more likely to be enticed by a company iPhone – which costs a lot less than an extensive retirement package.

It might be tempting to ignore the wants and needs of these apparently flaky job-hoppers altogether. But failure to tailor corporate recruiting and retention efforts to attract this demographic can spell disaster for any company. The Department of Labor reports that the number of employees aged 55 and older increased by 30 percent between the years of 2000 and 2005, while the number of 25- to 50-year-old employees increased by just 1 percent in the same time frame. As older workers retire, there will be a shortage of young people to fill their shoes. Companies that are not effectively recruiting younger generations will experience a labor shortage that could produce a catastrophic interruption in business continuity.

The good news is millennials and Xers are not as flaky as their managing boomers and traditionalists might think. High turnover among younger generations is often directly linked to management’s unwillingness to tailor corporate programs to meet younger worker’s needs. Millennials are fiercely loyal and have faith in institutions, as long as those institutions make them feel valued and appreciated. However, traditionalists, boomers, Xers and millennials feel valued in very different ways and require different incentives.

Forget About One-Size-Fits-All So how can talent managers design a uniform program that will effectively recruit, motivate and retain all four generations? They can’t. Companies that expect to compete in today’s marketplace implement incentive programs that offer options. Deciding which options to offer is as simple as surveying employees to find out what they want. Many companies never think to ask.

HR professionals have seen a strong disconnect between what managers think their employees want and what the employees actually want. For example, managers think high wages and job security are at the top of the list. But today’s workforce would rather have appreciation and better communication – two things that require little money to implement but can produce dramatic boosts in job satisfaction and employee retention rates.

Photo Credit Zichi.