In "The New Consumer of Work," Libby Sartain, author of "Brand For Talent," examined the new way in which workers are now approaching and engaging with work.  The American Dream, Sartain argued, "is no longer moving up, but moving out."  Employers should no longer be concerned about losing talent to competitors, but to their dreams.  Even with the best approach to retention, high performing employees may still leave.

The current challenge to employers is that many employees continue to be unhappy at work.  Over 25% of employees are not satisfied at work, Sartain claims.  People are not excited or motivated by a job description.  So, how do we create a compelling experience for workers?  Should we treat employees like customers?

Sartain used the example of Google to find employees.  A billboard was placed where the web site was the "first prime 10 digit number in e".com   Programmers able to write the code and solve it, and entered that info, were directed to a site that informed them that they were smart enough to work at Google.  It dawned on Sartain that the world of work and the view of talent had changed.

With social media, Sartain argues, HR is no longer just HR.   HR must be joined at the hip with marketing.  One's profile is now always online.  HR needs to better target itself to consumers; in this instance, those customers are potential employees.  Similarly, social media are enabling employees to create their own job descriptions.  Employees are looking at "what's in it for me?" and using social media to explore these answers.  Sartain cites the use of "Living Social" as an opportunity to share one's experience; the world of work is no different.

Sartain argues that their is a new talent marketplace.  Baby boomers are retiring, but not necessarily wanting to leave work.  Government workers are aging.  Technology is requiring new skills and new ways to work.  There is a new uncertainly, with numbers not reflecting the fundamentals.  Despite unemployment being high, many jobs, such as sales reps, engineers, and technicians, are difficult to fill.  As a result, their is a war for targeted talent to address this mismatch.  Consumer, employer, and talent brands need to be tied together.  An employer brand can connect with the employee, for example.

Sartain closed by challenging the audience in how do we create the appropriate candidate experience?  What are you currently doing to keep your best employees?

Coming up next are breakout session featuring Tim Sackett asking "What your CEO wished HR would do" and Laurie Bassi on "Business Success in the Worthiness Era" at 2:00 Central.

If you are not in attendance, you may follow the conference on Twitter at #TransformHR or follow it live where it is streaming at http://transform.tlnt.com/2012/live/

Some 200 passionate HR people made their trek to Austin for the first Transform HR conference sponsored by TLNT.com.

Ron Thomas, Principal Consultant, Strategy Focused HR, kicked off the introduction of the conference talking about how attendees are all transformers.  He noted that HR needs to be people focused, scalable,  repeatable and analytical

Jim Knight, Senior Director of Training for Hard Rock, and the morning's keynote focused on how to build a team of "rock stars" for your organization.    He focused on 10 types:
1.  Develop a crystal clear, brand-specific recruiting strategy
2.  Ensure leaders are singing off the same song sheets - Hard Rock uses a three interview process for every staff-level potential hire in the hopes of gaining interrater reliability
3.  Be the chocolate - create employment differentiation - Have to avoid lipsynchers to differentiate one's workforce from everyone else
4.  Serve the brand koolaid through compelling storytelling.  Look at onboarding.  It matters who and how onboarding occurs.  General managers can reduce turnover by 15%. Don't just give onboarding responsibilities to just any employee.  That story matters.
5.   Communicate in the language that employees dream.  Staff materials with photos/graphics, less text, white space, bullet points, consistent font, and humor (where appropriate) key.  Job aides are awesome.  Videos are extremely helpful. Using PollEverywhere.com to gain instantaneous responses with small groups (n < 30)
6.  Create an army of giants around you - It starts with performance appraisal.  Simple performance form with a performance grid creates consistency in assessing performance.  Appraisals should be done more than once a year.  Managers have to give the "Why" behind the "What."
7.  Incent employees like they're rock royalty and treat them like volunteers.  Public, daily recognition of positive performance helps develop morale and repeat positive performance.  Lots of interesting perks you could offer (Hard Rock has Rolex Watch for 10 years of service; GM of the year gets a Harley-Davidson).  Employees expectations today - they want both money and work/life balance, and are only loyal to those that inspire.
8.  People quit individuals - love the ones your with - Employees have an "emotional bank account" - the more deposits the better the interest and health of the account.  Peer recognition is critical.
9.  Let love rule - support an employee volunteer philanthropy group.  Philanthropy helps employees become valuable community partners.  It galvanizes employees and gives employees an emotional connection to the brand.
10.  People only repeat what they like.  Positive experiences are critical.

Coming up next is Libby Sartain on the new consumer of work.

If you are not in attendance, you may follow the conference on Twitter at #TransformHR or it is streaming live at http://transform.tlnt.com/2012/live/

That's right!

365 days in the making, it's the 2011 Season of "The 8 Man Rotation."  We introduced you to the 8 Man Rotation last year, and because demand was so high, we've brought it back!  Featuring 45 stylings from Steve Boese, Kris Dunn, Lance Haun, Tim Sackett, and me, as well as forewords from William Tincup and Trish McFarlane, you are not going to find a better collection of sports-related HR posts anywhere.

Check it out here or here

In the last part of the 1990s, and early part of the 2000s, like much of America, I was a regular viewer of "Everybody Loves Raymond."  Peter Boyle always was good for a laugh or two every episode.  But, is its humor translatable across cultures?  This is the challenge of "Exporting Raymond," a 2010 comedy by the co-creator of "Everybody Loves Raymond," Phil Rosenthal.

Wanting to maximize the success of the sitcom, Russian TV came calling to do their own version of the show, called "Everybody Loves Kostya."  However, Rosenthal meets resistance at every turn:
*A dark, dank studio ("is this where they filmed "Saw?" a nervous Rosenthal asks
*The Russians see Raymond as too wimpy
*The costume designer wants the cast to wear hip clothes, even when doing the cleaning.
*Comic setups, such as leaving one's luggage on the steps for weeks on end that turn into a power struggle among husband and wife (who will be the one to succumb and move it), fall on deaf ears.
*The actor desired for the lead can't get out of contract with the major theater company
* Writers toiling on multiple shows and can't dedicate their full-time effort on this sitcom

While a bit broad, Rosenthal provides a lighthearted look at cultural differences, a bevy of workplace issues, and the transcendence of comedy.

In "Social Gravity: Harnessing the Natural Laws of Relationships," the wizards behind Talent Anarchy, Joe Gerstandt and Jason Lauritsen bring their immense knowledge to their first book.   Riffing off Sir Isaac Newton, our authors note that social gravity carries the same pull.  What is social gravity, per se?    Simply put, it is the power of relationships in your life.

The old adage, "It's not what you know, it's who you know" is given a new sheen by Joe and Jason.  One builds relationships through social capital: information about a job opening, opinions on finding a new dentist, expertise on a particular problem, access to unique resources.  But, social capital means more when looked through the prism of the network which develops and the power and influence one may be able to wield within that network. 

With technological advances, our network and connections have changed dramatically.   A long time determinant of friendship, for example, might be simple proximity.  Your best friend may have been on the same floor with you your freshman year of college.  With social tools like Twitter, social media has broken through many of the traditional barriers that might have limited a global network.

From there, the authors state their 6 Laws of Social Gravity that help the reader to begin harnessing their own social gravity.  Through end-of-chapter thought exercises as well as apropos personal anecdotes highlighting the particular law under investigation, Joe and Jason provide helpful guidance in building better relationships with others without it feeling like yet another self-help book that is easily digested but feels like empty calories.

The one area I would have loved to see the authors explore in more detail is in the area of cross-cultural differences.  Are the 6 Laws uniquely American, or do they have a more universal application?  In China, for example, the term guanxi refers to the benefits gained from social connections.  Does guanxi apply the same way with social gravity?  Perhaps we'll see it in the expanded 2nd edition or the sequel.

I can see "Social Gravity" being used in an undergraduate seminar in communications, sociology, or business class as a companion piece to Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point."  Yet, even the most seasoned of social media experts can glean some new piece of information from this welcomed tome.  Highly recommended!

If you are going to be in Austin, TX on February 26-28 at the Transform HR conference, you can see the authors present their thoughts on social gravity (and other relevant items) in person. Check them out.

To some it is should be a national holiday.  The day?  Nation Letter of Intent day in college football.  Around the country yesterday, thousands of high school football players signed the all important piece of paper and faxed(!) it in to the college of their choice.  Accompanying the pomp and fanfare are stories about the recruitment process.

Several years ago, a highly-recruited Florida kid by the name of Willie Williams was allowed to write-up his recruiting diary, that gave a behind-the-scenes look at the process.  His exploits soon reached scandalous proportions as he regaled the about the private jets, lobster, steak, jerseys and girls her was given.

The best story from yesterday.   Let's look at the case of Cassanova McKinzy, a linebacker from Birmingham, AL, who was choosing between Clemson and Auburn.   Was it the academics?  The quality of the football program?  Check out his rationale below:


That's right!  Chick-Fil-A!

As Graham Watson points out in his Yahoo report:

Never mind that there is a Chick-fil-A on Clemson's campus. Clearly this crucial fact was not highlighted on McKinzy's visit. And if you've ever been to a Chick-fil-A, you can sympathize with McKinzy. There's no better way to start a morning than with a spicy chicken biscuit and no better way to settle into an evening of studying than with some waffle fries.

 Moral of the story: Know your candidate!  You never know when waffle fries could make a difference in the hiring decision

Judge, T.A., Piccolo, R.F., Podsakoff, N.P., Shaw, J.C., and Rich, B.L.  (2010).  "The Relationship Between Pay and Job Satisfaction: A Meta-Analysis of the Literature." Journal of Vocational Behavior, 77(2), 157-167.

Wealth continues to fascinate us.  From the Occupy Wall Street protests to offshore bank accounts, income inequality is at the forefront of most newscasts these days. Mime truly is money.  But, does money truly buy more happiness on the job in Corporate America?

In "The Relationship Between Pay and Job Satisfaction," Judge, et al, explore whether income dispersion pays off in terms of happiness.  "How does the pay we receive from our work contribute to our feelings about our jobs and lives?" (Judge, et al, 2010, p. 157). They study three important questions:

1. At the individual level, is pay level related to: (a) pay satisfaction or (b) overall job satisfaction?
2. At the organizational/sample level, are average levels of pay level related to (a) pay satisfaction or (b) overall job satsifaction?
3. Do the following factors moderate the relationship between pay level and job satisfaction or pay level and pay satisfaction: (a) U.S., vs. international samples; (b) publication source (published vs. unpublished, and quality of publication outlet); (c) measure of job or pay satisfaction (d) common v. independent vs. independent sources of data; and (e) measure of pay?

To investigate these questions, Judge, et al, conducted a meta-analysis (a combined impact of many existing studies to produce a more statistically powerful analysis) of 86 studies to estimate the correlations between satisfaction and pay level.

FINDINGS

To question 1, Judge and his colleagues found a statistically significant relationship between pay level and both types of satisfaction.  However, with question 3, there was no significant difference between U.S. employees and their international counterparts.  Similarly, no significant difference was found for publication source, measures used, sources of data, or measure of pay.

Question 2 provided the most interesting result.  Here, individuals with high income jobs were only slightly more satisfied than those in low income jobs, and, in some cases, those with lower paying jobs were more satisfied.  To wit, "For example, in 2009 dollars, a sample of lawyers earning an average of $148,000 per year were less job satisfied than a sample of child care workers earning $23,5000 per year." 

IMPACT FOR HR

1.  For job seekers, other job attributes besides pay should be taken into account, such as intrinsic job characteristics (such as skill variety or task identity).

2.  While pay can be motivating, it may not be as satisfying as once thought.   Being a pay leader may not lead to a more satisfied rank-and-file

3.  Pay increases may only have a temporary effect.  Judge and his colleagues compare the thrill of a pay raise to being a newlywed; you get an initial boost once married, but it soon returns to pre-marital levels.

4.  High pay may only work in areas where there is significant pay dispersion within the organization.  If everyone else's pay is high around me, that increase loses some of its effect as well.