Blogging4Jobs

I’m one of those people that isn’t a fan of lists like the top 100 people you should follow on Twitter or the 30 blogs you should read to find a job.  This is one reason why I created the HR Blogger Directory.  I’m one of the hand holding folks that doesn’t like being the kid picked last for kickball.  I never was picked last since I was more of the nerdy jock type in high school but you know what I mean.  Anyway, what I have learned is that recognition is important and that people who have influenced you or had an impact in your personal or professional life deserve to be singled out.  It’s fun and gives those recognized for their hard work warm fuzzies.

And so I bring to you my top 11 besties of 2009.  These are folks who have changed the way I view the world, helped me reach for the stars and do some pretty drastic things this year like leaving the corporate world behind and supporting me in my goal to become a published author (BTW, Tweet This!  Twitter for  Business will be available for purchase late January 2010).   A couple of these people I have never spoken to in real life but they have forever influenced me.  Without further ado, here are my Top 11 Besties of 2009.

• Steve Boese.  Steve is an HR Technology guy and co-host of HR Happy Hour, the most popular Human Resource Blog Talk Radio show.  He is obviously very tech savvy in the HR world and has been a major player in leading the charge for Human Resource social media folks.  Because of Steve and number of others, we have had our coming out party and are showing that it’s okay to be a real, authentic person in the field of Human Resources.  Steve is a very humble guy and I recommend checking out his website, Steve’s HR Technology Blog.

• Jennifer James.  You may know her as Jen X.  She is a fantastic blogger and PR mind.  Jen is someone I can talk to for hours and believe me we have.  She is an inspiration for so many reasons not only because she has great blog content but also because she is a mother and has more than supported my decision to be a mom first and break out of the box and take a chance in more ways than one.  Jen provides great perspective about being part of generation X at her website, JenX67 and on a lot of levels I can relate.  I believe that generational stereotypes transcend age.  Someone can be 55 and have a Generation Y mindset.

• Gerry Crispin.  I had the honor of meeting Gerry earlier this year at Recruitfest, a recruiting unconference and was able to talk with him one on one while we were both waited to board our planes in Toronto.  He is well-respected recruiting and HR strategist know for his well-researched and revolutionary ideas.  His advice and insight has been invaluable to me.  Gerry’s blog is located CareerXroads.

• Laurie Ruettimann.  I think most people in the Human Resource social media space are influenced by Laurie.  I love her candor and honest perspective.  It’s quite refreshing.  She has great insight into the Human Resources industry and is a leader for folks who are looking to follow their passions outside of the conventional corporate humdrum.  Laurie’s website is Punk Rock HR.  Laurie does an excellent job of engaging her audience and responds to most every comment on her blog which is quite well trafficked

• Becky McCray.  I first encountered Becky on twitter and had the honor of hearing her speak and getting to know her over this past year rather well.  Her website the Small Biz Survival Guide is a great resource for small and rural businesses.  She has been an amazing mentor and resource for me.  I’d recommend chatting with her if you are considering developing a blog among other things.  She is very talented with Blogger and I wish that I had spoken with her prior to moving my blog over to WordPress.

• Chris Wilson.  Chris is an Oklahoma blogger and a digital branding expert.  I’ve gotten to know Chris very well over the past year working with him on some projects including OKC Tweetup.  Our talks helped me understand that HR and Marketing have a large number of similarities.  He was one the inspirations for one of my most popular posts, HR is the New PR.  Chris’s blog, the Marketing Freshpeel is very well-written and insightful.

• Dan Schwabel.  Dan is the personal branding guru.  His book, Me 2.0 has been a great resource for me, and I recommend it to job seekers or people that are looking to develop and define themselves online.  I credit alot of my success this last year because of Dan’s book.  It was just the kick in the pants I needed to get going and take things to the next level.  Check out his Personal Branding Blog website.

• Wayne Sutton.  I’ve been a lurker on Wayne’s website, called Social Wayne for a long time.  He has great content and some very creative ways to use social media.  I was lucky enough to chat with him a month or so ago.  I am certain he has no idea how he has influenced me.  His website and creative use of social media to promote events has given me great direction and inspiration.

• Chris Hoyt. You might know him as the Recruiter Guy.  Chris has successfully used social media to help drive AT&T into the 21st century.  They are a leader in using social media as part of employment branding and recruitment.  Chris’s website is one of the reasons I made the decision to move over to my own domain after using Blogger for more than 2 1/2 years.  I’m also hopeful that Chris and I can finally meet up in January for lunch or coffee as I make the drive to Dallas to hear Chris Brogan at the Dallas Social Media Club.  (*nudge, nudge*)

• Darren Rowse.  You may know Darren as ProBlogger.  He is one of the first bloggers to make blogging a full-time career.  His website is jam packed full of great information and resources for bloggers or aspiring bloggers.  I highly recommend that you check it out.  One of his most helpful posts is How Much Should I Charge for My Advertising Space.

• Jim Stroud.  I’ve been a long time subscriber to Jim’s website RSS feed at the Recruiter’s Lounge.  Check out his current passion, the Searchologist.  I first learned about Jim and his website at ERE.  His posts and insight have had a huge influence on me in 2009.  I’m excited to finally meet Jim in February as I travel to London for the  TRU London Conference.  I’ll be helping to lead some tracks there and Jim will also be as well.

Here’s to a great year in 2010!

Photo Credit Become

“A brand is a living entity – and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures” – Michael Eisner, CEO, Disney

What Mr. Eisner is saying is that the small things matter when it comes to your organization’s brand. Every interaction impacts the perception participants have of your brand.

When the topic of brand comes up in conversation, most people’s minds go straight to the outward, consumer facing side of a brand—the side that customers see and interact with. But that isn’t a complete view of a brand; in fact inner beliefs and culture directly affect the outward actions and performance of a brand. After all, how many organizations do you know of that don’t have a single frontline employee that interacts with customers on a regular basis? I’m going to guess very few.

Let’s take another look at Michael Eisner’s quote. He describes a brand as “a living entity,” that is “enriched or undermined.” What a better way to grow and enrich a brand than by focusing on the people and culture inside the organization? And who better to facilitate an inward focus on brand than Human Resources, the task force in charge of recruiting, hiring, training and coaching the organizations greatest assets—it’s people—to become better teams and leaders?

In most organizations, brand ideology is embedded into some activities more than others. For example, it is standard in most companies to an orientation process, where new hires learn the history of the company and it’s beliefs. It’s in these moments that employees learn the “this is how we do things here” lessons about the brand.

Outside of these few brand centered occasions it can be very easy to overlook the day-to-day processes and the implications they have on the brand. I believe it is in these small day-to-day activities that the most opportunity exists to build the brand into the culture. Ultimately, an orientation may make an impression on a new employee, but it’s the everyday experiences that the employee is going to live. If the stated company beliefs don’t match up with daily experiences, then which perception of the brand is the employee is going to take to heart? You bet! Their own.

While working with clients to help them continually improve and grow their brands, I’ve developed a simple framework to help them fully grasp the depth and complexity of the many ways that their brand is experienced, and also help them improve this experience over time.

I call it the Touch Cycle. It’s a great method for diving in and exploring the many touchpoints of your brand, and learning where you can make improvements.

Here are the steps:

1.  Choreograph Touches

• List all the HR touchpoints large and small.
• To make this easier start breaking down all the activities that HR is in charge of in your organization (trainging, hiring, recruiting, etc.). Now start listing all of the interactions that take place within these segments of HR.

2. Listen and Watch

• Observe how people interact with your touchpoints. Are there any breakdowns in communication? Are they responding the way you thought they would?

3.  Reinforce Behaviors

• Encourage on brand behaviors at each touchpoint.  

4.  Evaluate and Expand

• Take a look at all the work you’ve done in steps 1, 2, and 3. Evaluate the effectivness of the touchpoints you identified in step 1. Determine what’s working and what’s not. Were there any surprises? What insights did you gain from this process?Is value being added at each point of contact, giving people a reason to further engage? Are there touchpoints that we should eliminate? Are there areas what we should expand into and add new touchpoints to the brand experience?

I outline this process in detail on my blog – The Brand Touch Cycle

Use this tool to help you identify, analyze and improve the brand touchpoints of your HR activities. Here are some things to consider during your analysis:

Speed – How fast do you respond to job inquiries or resumes sent your way? How long does it take for an internal issue to be identified and dealt with? In this day and age, speed isn’t hoped for, it’s expected.

Culture – Are you proactively recruiting talent that is passionate about your brand? Or are you just trying to fill a job description?

Empower – How easy is it for employees to send organizational complaints or suggestions your way? Have you built and intranet for collaboration?

Procedure and Paperwork – Are all the forms, procedures and paperwork required of employees necessary? Do they align with the brand?

I hope you will take this as a challenge to explore the internal touchpoints of your brand and continually improve them to grow a better organization, one that employees are proud to work for and consumers want do business with—a strong brand.

Chris Wilson is our guest blogger and is a  Marketing and Brand Strategist and author of the Marketing Fresh Peel.  He is the Digital Brand Strategist at Hester Designs.  Find him on Twitter @Freshpeel.

Photo Credits bsamp & FreshPeel

One of my favorite fellow bloggers is Chris Wilson who is also located in Oklahoma City.  While his blog focuses on digital marketing strategies for businesses, many of his posts are relevant to those in the job hunt as well as the human resource industry.  A recent post of his discusses, a revealing Slide Share presentation by Jeff Brenman of Apollo Ideas discussing  the future of the workplace.

With Chris and Jeff’s posts in mind, it is important for us to understand that how we as the employer and employees view and see the workplace is changing.  And because of this what companies are looking for in candidates is also changing.  How will you as a job seeker and me as a human resource business professional adapt?

• Transparency. Your activities both inside and outside of the office will be tracked. Everything you do and say both online and offline can and will effect your company’s future success.  For businesses, this is certainly scary stuff which is why having a clear vision of who you are, your company is, and what the rules are is especially important.
• Flat. Your work location won’t matter.  Offices for the most part will become the thing of the past.  Skype, Videoconferencing, and streaming video will be the future of the way in which we work.  If your company has an office space, it will most likely be shared, a term called coworking where creative people often outside of your company work in a shared workspace.  Working from home will be the norm.
• ROWE with me. Companies like Best Buy have been using the ROWE for years with great success.  ROWE stands for Results Oriented Work Environment.  Environments like these are ideal for the global world we live in and offer flexible hours, employee satisfaction, and a focus on results.  Imagine taking Wednesday off to attend your child’s school play and spending that evening in the virtual office without having to take a vacation day or feeling guilty if you didn’t.
• On demand. One of the down sides to this new world of work is that because work is flexible and results based it is also always changing.  Employees and businesses will have to learn to quickly make solid business decisions while also understanding that because change is constant so will the work load and hours required to do your job.  Employees will begin to work on a more contract and consultancy basis to allow businesses to better adapt to the changing needs of the business world and marketplace.