PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 211 - The NBA Playoffs Prediction Show

HR Happy Hour 211 - The NBA Playoffs Prediction Show

Recorded Monday April 20, 2015

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Featuring: Ben Eubanks

Listen to the show HERE

Fresh off the fun that was the HR Happy Hour Oscars Preview Show a few weeks back, Steve and Trish take a a look at and make their predictions for the just-started 2015 NBA Playoffs, in HR Happy Hour Show style. Translated: As in the Oscars show, one of your fearless hosts knows probably too much about the NBA, while the other brings a unique style and perspective to making their selections and predictions as to which NBA team will be raising the championship trophy in June.

Let's just say things like local cuisine, team tie-ins to 'Keeping Up With the Khardashians', Las Vegas wagering, and where people we know reside all play an important role in the selections. NBA fan or not, you will not want to miss Steve and Trish's takes on the NBA playoffs.

Additionally, Ben Eubanks stops by with Ben's HR Book Review, Steve and Trish discuss what states are actually in the 'midwest', we get a German Rondo reference, and we all learn if actually having seen an NBA basketball precludes someone from betting on basketball games. Hint: It probably does not.

You can listen to the show on the show page HERE, or using the widget player below:

Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Steve Boese Trish McFarlane on BlogTalkRadio

And of course you can listen to and subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on iTunes, or via your favorite podcast app. Just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to download and subscribe to the show and you will never miss a new episode.

This was a really fun show, and we hope you have as much fun listening as we did recording the show!

The text message is the new phone call

If you find yourself saying or thinking something along the lines of 'I can't believe he/she texted that! Why didn't they pick up the phone and call instead?' you need to stop, take two or three deep cleansing breaths, and join the rest of us in 2015.

I thought about this again while reading about a Major League Baseball player who texted an apology to a player on an opposing team who, due to a borderline unsportsmanlike play, had been injured by the first player in a previous game.

Ask your kids about texting (if you have some). Or if you don't, just find someone between say about 13 and 35 and ask them about the kinds of messages and circumstances where it is completely acceptable to use text (or other messaging tools like WhatsApp) as a medium of communication as opposed to more traditional and formal tools like email or (GASP!), the phone.

I have banged on this drum a couple of times before, and I know recently so has KD, the HR Capitalist. But somehow I still think more widespread, comprehensive, and mainstream adoption of text and other kinds of short message service apps for internal and job candidate communications still eludes all but the most progressive organizations. And I think the problem has nothing at all to do with evidence of the effectiveness of texting, (everyone reads their texts, usually within minutes of receiving them), but rather from some old-fashioned, preconceived notion that somehow texting is inappropriate for some types of communications.

But again, ask a 25 year old about what types of messaging would not be 'appropriate' to receive via text and it is quite likely that you will hear a very short, perhaps non-existent list of subjects and topics where a text is not the desired form of communication. And the kinds of thing that might be mentioned by said 25 year old (extremely important family news, a death of a close friend or loved one, etc.), are also not the kinds of things you would email about either, (the easiest, and therefore default method of communication for 99% of organizations).

Most people send more texts than they receive, read and respond within minutes, and for a growing population of your workforce, have grown up with texting and short messaging as a staple of all their digital communications - with family, friends, and if you would just get on board, with organizations too.

And now with the imminent release of the Apple Watch, and its likely popularity (and tiny form factor), short, to the point, and informal messaging will only get more popular (and essential for organization's communicators).

Stop drafting that next 'All employees' email and see if you can't find a way to get your message across in the medium that more and more of your employees prefer, and enjoy. And one that they actually read.

Have a great week! 

PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 210 - LIVE from Equifax Forum 2015

HR Happy Hour 210 - LIVE from Equifax Forum 2015

Recorded Live from New Orleans on Wednesday April 15, 2015

Hosts: Trish McFarlane, Steve Boese

Guests: Dann Adams, Mike Psenka, Scott Collins, Equifax Workforce Solutions

Listen to the show HERE

This week on the HR Happy Hour Show, Steve and Trish recorded a special show LIVE from the Equifax Workforce Solutions Forum 2015, an annual event for Equifax customers and community. We were joined by Dann Adams, Mike Psenka, and Scott Collins from Equifax for a fun, informative, and wide-ranging conversation on some of the most important challenges facing HR leaders today - managing compliance in a complex environment, the continuing need to stay on top of evolving ACA requirements, and how modern technology solutions and approaches are enabling HR leaders to move from simply collecting data, to gaining valuable business insights from that data.

Additionally, we learned about how two Equifax customers, Tyson Foods with their amazing support of disaster-hit areas, and Team Rubicon, who have engaged significant numbers of returning veterans in their disaster relief efforts are doing incredibly valuable and important work in the communities they serve.

You can listen to the show on the show page here, or using the widget player below:

Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Steve Boese Trish McFarlane on BlogTalkRadio

The Equifax Workforce Solutions team not only has developed a powerful set of HR technologies, they also understand the importance of true partnership - with their customers, their employees, and their communities. This was a fantastic, fun, and very informative event, and many thanks to everyone at Equifax for the warm hospitality.

And of course you can listen to and subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on iTunes, or via your favorite podcast app. Just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to download and subscribe to the show and you will never miss a new episode.

We hope you enjoy the show as much as we did recording it! 

WEBINAR: Five Ways to Make Learning Matter at Your Company

Never stop learning.

The day we stop learning is the day we head out to pasture.

It's what you learn after you know it all that really counts.

<insert your favorite 'learning' cliche here>

You get the idea...

But I'm not breaking any new ground here when I remind you that in modern life and business, the shelf life of acquired knowledge is now pretty short, and getting shorter all the time. Technologies come and go, popular services rise fast until suddenly a 12-person app company is worth billions, and then six months later they're dust - replaced in the public's imagination by the next hot thing.

Learning, the constant, repeatable kind, is your only chance to prep yourself and your organization at least somewhat from becoming the next victims in a 'blink and you will miss your opportunity' world.

That's why the good folks over at Fistful of Talent, (where I am a contibutor), are back with their FREE April Webinar focusing on Learning & Development. Join us on Thursday, April 23rd at 2pm EDT for Bootstrap Your Training Function: 5 Ways To Make Learning Matter In Your Company (sponsored by the L&D experts at Meridian).  We're going to give you a roadmap to build your training function from scratch, including the following goodies:

What the modern Learning & Development function looks like across core job skill training, leadership development and more.  You don't have to focus on everything to have an effective L&D function.  We'll walk you through how leaders in the space prioritize tough choices in this space

How smart HR and Talent leaders are building their approach to L&D with a mix of company provided training, outsourced training and self-paced activities tied to competencies of the most critical positions in their company.  It's 2015.  The classroom matters, but there's this thing called Google...

Why you need an LMS/technology solution to bootstrap and make learning matter.  There's only one of you, right?  Then you're going to need to use technology to make your L&D initiatives look bigger than they really are and deliver the way the end user wants---just in time, on the device your employee is using.  You don't have to break the bank... we'll show you what to look for.

5 ways to effectively market your L&D/training function to look fabulous as a Talent Leader.  You could build the best L&D machine in the world and there's a good chance nobody would notice.  We'll show you the 5 biggest lessons you can learn from marketing and how to put them into play as you build your training function.

A roadmap for how to effectively optimize your training strategy to positively influence turnover and retention in your workforce.  This just in: Some people aren't going to leave---ever. That means you've got choices to make related to how you spend the limited L&D budget you have.  We'll show you how to do that

You know ramping up your Learning & Development function has been on your "to-do" list for too long.  Join us on Thursday, April 23rd at 2pm EDT for Bootstrap Your Training Function: 5 Ways To Make Learning Matter In Your Company, and we'll jump start your planning process and help you get things done in 2015!

Not Haunted

Take a look at the pic on the right side of this post. A 'For Lease' sign spotted in the French Quarter in New Orleans the other day.

Pretty funny and clever bit of advertising by the leasing agent. It is always kind of refreshing to see something so familiar, like a 'For Lease' sign, taken in a slightly or even entirely new direction. 'For Lease' signs are everywhere, they tend to kind of blend in to the surroundings like so many other aspects of the urban landscape. But this one, with the 'Not Haunted' sign stood out. In fact, in the five minutes I was standing near the sign, at least 4 or 5 other folks stopped to take the same pic of the sign that I did.

It is pretty easy to see something like the 'Not Haunted' sign and have a reaction along the lines of 'Look at this example, HR/Business professional, and try to make your communications, job ads, emails etc. more punchy so that folks will stop and actually read/remember them.'

But I think you also need to be careful with that kind of approach and advice. You can reasonably go two ways with dropping the equivalent of a 'Not Haunted' in your standard communications.

The first way is that you actually do get folks to stop and notice your communication or job ad with some kind of edgy line or element. Just like people stopped on the street to laugh at and take pictures of the sign, mostly tourists that had no intention of actually inquiring about the apartment lease, your folks, many of whom that might not be in your target audience, will stop and notice/engage with your content.  That is a win, mostly, but only a win if you have built up at least some credibility and trust as a communicator, and your moment of edginess has at least some context to support it. The 'Not Haunted' sign works in the French Quarter of New Orleans because in that place, themes of strangeness, weirdness, voodoo, and general fun prevail. 'Not Haunted' fits there. 

And that takes us to the other way the equivalent for you of something like 'Not Haunted' can turn out, as something that seems completely out of place, or creates a suggestion or an implication of an experience that you can't deliver. If you suddenly start punching up job ads will all manner of clever and newly invented titles, edgy statements of company culture, and describe the ideal candidate in some kind of a combination of rock star, champion athlete, and Don Draper-level creative, you run the risk of coming off as a little bit insincere, and trying a little too hard.

'Not Haunted' works on the New Orleans sign because it fits the context, it's quick to digest, and it shows that the communicator understands the place and the mindsets of their audience. It's easy to tell folks they should be more clever and funny in their communications. It's much harder to do well. And it's even harder than that to do it quickly and concisely.

Take a lesson from the 'Not Haunted' sign sure, but make sure that lesson is that great, funny, memorable communications are a job for real pros. Like Don Draper maybe.

Have a great Tuesday!