I speak around the country at conferences about a variety of things.  Hiring, culture, modern employees, learning and development, and burnout are amongst the topics I cover.  Typically after the sessions, it is normal for attendees to come ask me questions about what I presented on.

Unequivocally, the number one question HR pros ask me is “What HR technology do I need to get for my company?”.  The second question, “How do I pay for it?”. Now, HR technology is such an important topic that I likely I mention it in every presentation I give, regardless of topic.  Since HR tech touches every aspect of our function it is always important and relevant to every topic.

Here are some of my thoughts to pros, vendors and pundits. 

• Not having HR technology in your organization is like a balloon with no helium.  Yeah, you can blow up a ballon manually, and technically it is still a balloon, but it doesn’t fly.
• If your CEO/CFO (hell, even CHRO) thinks HR tech is a non–essential, they have a head like a hole. Yes, it is black as their souls.  I want to say quit these folks.  But I know, sometimes “I just can’t quit you!”.  In that case, you need to start the education process. Yes YOU.  Not IT, not accounting, YOU.
• Education tip one:  Don’t expect divine intervention to pop knowledge into your head.  Don’t expect an epiphany.  The only way to get most things done is to do it yourself.  How?
  • GOOGLE The Tim Sackett Project T3 series
  • Visit Steve Boese’s site
  • Visit the HR Tech Blog
  • Visit the HR Tech Weekly
  • Check out Jason Averbrook.
• Don’t put the cart before the horse.  The order of your tech purchases does make a difference.  My suggestion:
  • Start with a lightweight HRIS system if you are small to medium sized.
  • If you are a huge company, you probably already have an enterprise system in place.  It’s your job to make sure you are using all components of the HR module.  You have no idea how many HR teams have tools and don’t use them
  • Next, trick out your Applicant Tracking System.  This is still the core component to your tech stack. See last weeks post for more on this!
  • Stop there.  You can worry about other stuff later.
• Don’t be a victim.  Own this.  You’ll be a rock star.  You’ll prove value
• Get help from Sales.  Why?  They can teach you how to build a business case.  You need advocates anyway, start there.

Good luck – have fun – and make some magic happen.

Modern recruiting/ talent acquisitions teams, it is time to roll up your sleeves and get your tech on.  Why?  To be effective most pros are using multiple talent acquisition platforms to provide a soup-to-nuts recruiting experience.  And not just a good experience for candidates, but also for recruiters.  Looks like a one-and-done recruiting platform isn’t quite enough to get the right candidates to you and provide recruiters the data needed to be the most effective.

At the HR Technology Conference in Las Vegas, I attended a panel called “If We Build It, Candidates Will Come: Building the Perfect TA Tech Stack”, facilitated by Tim Sackett.  The panelist included Marriott International’s VP of Talent Acquisition Strategy, Jessica Lee, Intel Corporation’s Recruiting Capability Adoption expert, Allyn Bailey, and Bazaarvoice’s, Head of Global Talent Acquisition, Graham Pionkowski.

• Applicant Tracking System
• Sourcing
• Employee Referral
• Candidate Experience
• Employment Branding
• Job Descriptions
• Onboarding
• Screening/ AI
• Data & Analytics
• Recruiting Marketing/ CRM
• Background Check
• TA Communications
• Reference Checking
• Assessment
• Contingent Labor
• Interview Tech
• Job Boards
• College Recruiting
• Career Sites

This edition of HR On The Run…

Harvey Weinstein, media mogul, founder of Mirimax, producer of incredible movies is now another cliche’ loser.  Not shockingly, he’s admitted to perpetrating rampant sexual abuse towards several actresses, assistants, or other women in the Mirimax organization.  This is really, really awful.  More shameful, people didn’t talk about this for years.  I call bull-shit that the board, parters, and bother didn’t know — but that’s another post.

Here are my 4 Tips/Takes on how HR pros can help prevent this occurring in your organization.  Check out the video for more! 

1. Sexism / Harassment is about Power
2. If your CEO misbehaves — ALL know.
3. Create a safe space for employees
4. Remember your legacy as an HR pro

Hey Gang–

I’m off to the HR Technology Conference and I want to invite you to participate in a very timely twitterchat.  The folks at #SHRM are hosting a special technology themed #nextchat where we are going to discuss women in technology-based STEM careers. We’ll chat about how HR can work inside and outside their organizations to attract, develop and support more women in technical careers.

Please join @shrmnextchat at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on October 11 for #Nextchat with me (@dawnhburke) and five other fantastic women in HR: 2017 HR Technology Conference presenter Cecile Alper-Leroux @cecilehcm;  Heather Bussing @HeatherBussing, Heather Kinzie @HeatherKinzie, Jennifer Payne @JennyJensHR and Robin Schooling @RobinSchooling.

The women in technology has been not only top of mind, but also top of the headlines lately.  Remember in August, when Google engineer James Damore posted a 10-page memo claiming that women may be unsuited for tech jobs.  Although many thought his thoughts off-point, many agreed.

Timely indeed.

Click here to read all about the twitterchat on the SHRM Blog, including the list of questions we will discuss.

In addition, for those of you who have never participated in a twitterchat — here is an easy how-to.

I’ll be attending the HR Technology Conference and will be speaking at the Fall ERE Recruiting Conference over the next few weeks.  As a speaker for ERE I participated in a virtual QA for all attendees.  Of course many were interested in how to prep for this great conference.  I am here to serve YOU, so I’m happy to share a handful of the tip we all had. Some I’ve never thought of.

1. Download the conference app. If you don’t, you must love winging it.  Winging it can be exciting, and it can be a shit-show.  You’ve paid money > Time is money > don’t waist time.  If you don’t prep a little with the app, or during the conference refer to it often — you’ll end up sitting on a bench on the 2nd floor of the conference, behind a plant trying to figure out what to do next.  By the time your figure it out the session is over.  Tell that to your boss when she asks you what you learned.
2. Bring your phone charger. When your phone dies, it is like you’ve entered some world that is dark and scary.  And you can’t use your app (See bullet point one).
3. BEST NEW ONE >> Be sure you don’t accidentally give out someone else’s business card when you are networking.  This one made me laugh out loud.  If you are gathering lots of cards, separate them from YOUR cards.  This can happen a lot at recruiting conferences. Who knew?!
4. Have LinkedIn up on your phone at all times.  This is the best way to gather contact info from folks you’ve spoken to or heard drop some knowledge in a session.  This actually keeps you from even having to bring cards.
5. Determine the ONE pain point you are trying to solve in your organization.  Then be sure you come up with 2-4 solves for that pain point from the conference. To me the operative word is ONE, because you then have a fighting chance of implementing that ONE thing at the office.

And don’t wear heals (unless they are sexy aerosols, life stride, naturalizer, bjorns, sketchers….).  And when I say sexy, I mean not-sexy.  Didn’t you know not-sexy is the new sexy.

And bring a jacket.

And have a cocktail at the end of the evening.

And go see one thing in the city you are traveling to outside of the conference.  #getcultured ; #wonderlust is a great thing.

And have fun.

DB

In this Episode of Hr On The Run:

In light of the terrible events in Las Vegas this past week, I thought it appropriate to share 4 simple tips to help HR pros execute emergence preparedness plans.  Stay Safe —

DB

“Great theatre is about challenging how we think and encouraging us to fantasize about a world we aspire to.”  — Willem Dafoe

Sounds like how high-performance teams must work now.  Let me tell you why.

I finally saw Hamilton in Chicago.  OMG.  My theatre nerd came out of me in all directions.

I got tickets as a Christmas present, so have been anticipating the greatness that is Hamilton for 8 months.  It was worth the wait.  I’ve had  the soundtrack for months, I know the lyrics and obviously knows how it ends.  With that in mind, I felt certain there wouldn’t be tears as I watched.  Wrong — at the end I was holding back a semi-ugly cry and at one point I started welling up because the production quality was just so good.

As I watched, I thought, if these guys didn’t make it in Theatre, what would their profession be?  I for one would hire them.  Why?  Let me tell you why… most were theatre majors, or in the very least learned professionalism through working in the theatre.

We often hear managers make leadership and teamwork references to sports.  My God! Enough already.  Expand your horizons and think differently.  Frankly, the same analogies can be made for those in Theatre.  Traits for those lucky enough to be in Theatre include:

Commitment: Theatre folks of all disciplines, from actor to director to lighting technician have to dedicate large amounts of time to rehearsing, auditioning, and keeping relevant.  If they flake, a show could be jeopardized.  I mean, there is no “not showing up” or “I’m feeling sick today”, or “my throat hurts”… you show up or someone will take your place.

A quest to be the best:  Theatre professionals have no choice.  The market is too full, competition is fierce and yes, there is no-cap on personal ambition.  No one can tolerate a bad production.  Or a patronizing clap.  Anathema.  Hubris.

Ability to take rejection:  A part of the quest to be great in the theatre means getting OK with rejection.  A lot of it.  This translates well in the professional world as well.  I mean, have you worked in the corporate world?  Jesus, enough said.

Teamwork:  Putting on a class-A production requires many separate teams to collaborate daily, through the entire rehearsal process and production.  This can be 3 months to many years. If the costumes don’t match the vision of the director, if the lights don’t actually follow the actors or enhance the mood of the play, if the sound technician forgets his cues and mics the wrong actor, if the guy who pulls the curtain up and down at the right time jacks it up, if actors forget anything, especially when not to stand in front of pyrotechnics, not only is it dangerous, but the production is screwed.

Ability to have each other’s back:  If a light cue does go wrong or an actor forgets their lines, the show must go on.  Other members must seamlessly “have their back”  and just like sports teams, all must trust the others have their back.

Ability to give away the spotlight to others:  Scenes only work when performers know when it is time to “give” the scene to their partner.  This means, it is appropriate for the actor to step back, focus attention on the other, and listen.  Sounds like a high-performance team, right?

Have passion and purpose:  Folks in the theatre have passion for what they do.  If they did not, theatre would not be worth it.  The life is too hard.  Also, sorry, without passion an actor just isn’t an actor (or a good actor). And passion and purpose are big motivators to the modern workforce.  Win.

What does an actor in the workplace need from leaders: 

• Continuous feedback
• Praise when deserved 
• To be heard

So, if you are one who love to hire athletes, you should flip your script and hire those in the fine arts.  Not only will you have folks that work well in high-performance teams, but you also may have someone who can entertain you daily, which in today’s workforce certainly can’t hurt.