The culture of performance and firing by form letter

Super look at just one of the ways that a 'performance is the only thing that matters' culture that is professional American football manifests itself over at Deadspin last week in the piece This is the the letter you get when you are cut from an NFL team.

Take a look at a typical player termination letter from one of the league's clubs, the Houston Texans:

A couple of things about the letter, and then i am out for the rest of a summer Monday.

1. First up, in a really hands-on job like 'NFL Player', physical ability to perform issues are number 1 and 2 on the 5 possible termination reasons. For the rest of us who are not NFL players, this could equate to keeping up our skills, learning new ones as business and technology shifts, and importantly, not 'faking' it in terms of what we say we can do.

2. Reason 3, and the one that this example from 2006 shows, says basically, 'You are just not good enough, i.e., the other guys on the team are better'. No details, no wordy explanations or nuances. Just a cut and dried 'You're not good enough.' That's cold, but again, completely aligned with the organizational values and culture. Performance trumps everything. Want a high-performance culture? Then you have to be ruthless in trimming the organization of people who don't meet the standard. And you as a leader can't let it bother you too much either.

3. The organization also has a broad right to terminate you for 'personal conduct that adversely affects or reflects on the club'. Heck, that could be just about anything, since it is the club who gets to evaluate the 'impact' of your behavior. In other words, we (mostly) care about your physical condition and your performance, but we can fire your butt for just about anything we want at any time. Heck, that sounds a lot like many of the places us 'normals' work too. Employment at will is a great deal for sure. Until you get fired, well, just 'because.'

Hiring, promoting, rewards, and even terminations all play a big role in defining, supporting, and communicating an organization's values and culture. If you are going to go all-in on high performance, well, you need to remember the dark side of that decision too.

And firing by form letter is one example of that.

Have a great week!

PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 214 - Catching up with QUEsocial

HR Happy Hour 214 - Catching up with QUEsocial

Recorded Wednesday June 3, 2015

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Guest: Josh Schwede, EVP, QUEsocial

Listen to the show HERE

This week on the show, recorded live from the HireVue Digital Disruption Conference in Park City, Utah, Steve sat down with Josh Schwede, EVP from QUEsocial, named one of 2014's "Awesome New Startups for HR" at the HR Technology Conference. QUEsocial has created an innovative platform for delivering employer branding and recruiting content to an organization's recruiting team and employees, enabling organizations to ensure branding consistency, increase reach, and to ,monitor and measure results. Josh gave us an update of what has been happening since last year's HR Tech Conference, shared how some QUEsocial customers are leveraging the platform, and also shared his perspective on some of today's HR Tech trends.

Additionally, Josh and Steve talked some Chicago sports - Blackhawks and Bulls mainly, and how (of course), just about anything you need to know about HR and Talent Management can be learned from sports.

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

This was a fun conversation with one of the coolest guys in HR Tech - hope you enjoy the show!

Remember: You can find and subscribe to the HR Happy Hour Show on iTunes and on all major podcast player apps on Android. Just search for 'HR Happy Hour' to add the show to your podcast subscriptions.

PODCAST - #HRHappyHour 213 - Try Again

HR Happy Hour 213 - Try Again

Recorded Wednesday May 27, 2015

Hosts: Steve Boese, Trish McFarlane

Featuring: Ben Eubanks

LISTEN HERE

This week on the show Steve and Trish (calling in from an undisclosed location in Arkansas), talked about the the most valuable brands in the world, how work and workplaces are pretty much forever changed, and the how it isn't really cool to let someone know they are a loser when they didn't even know they were competing in the first place.

Additionally, Trish made a big and very exciting announcement, Ben Eubanks dropped by with the next installment of Ben's HR Book Review, and Steve showed incredible ignorance of the quality of the fish that one can catch in Arkansas.

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. Thanks to everyone for listening and subscribing!

HRE Column: On the HR and Marketing Connection

Here is my semi-frequent reminder and pointer for blog readers that I also write a monthly column at Human Resource Executive Online called Inside HR Tech that can be found here.

I kind of liked this month's column, (I suppose I like all of them, after all I wrote them), but felt like sharing this one on the blog because it touches upon what has been in the past a pretty popular topic with readers here - the connections and synergies between HR and Marketing.

Here is a piece from the HRE Column, HR and the Marketing Mind-set:

There are four important stages that marketers should traverse when building relationships with customers and potential customers. I think these stages can also be highly relevant and applicable to HR leaders, and they can also be supported by HR technologies and thought of as one way to help guide and organize your thinking if your goal is to “think more like a marketer.” Here are the four stages and some ideas of how they might fit into an HR leader’s program:

1. Collect and Analyze Data

While marketing has embraced data, data analysis and using data to make investment decisions for quite some time, it is only more recently that HR leaders and organizations have joined their marketing colleagues in this mind-set. But, since HR has embraced data at least conceptually, it is probably time to think about data more strategically—much like marketers do.

A big part of the Oracle marketing presentation was not just about how collecting data itself is the goal, but about what the data empowers you to do once it’s been collected. More specifically, the marketing technologies that enable increased understanding of customers and prospects for the purposes of targeted communication and messaging suggests HR leaders consider similar segmentation and targeting with their own outreach efforts.

Unique and more specific messaging that “fits” your audience more specifically is much more likely to get noticed, read and acted upon. Think about how your next “All Employees” email blast can be segmented and made more individually meaningful for the people in your organization, based on some defining criteria or past behavior that makes sense....

Read the rest over at HRE Online.

Good stuff, right? Humor me...

If you liked the piece you can sign up over at HRE to get the Inside HR Tech Column emailed to you each month. There is no cost to subscribe, in fact, I may even come over and wash your car or cut the grass for you if you do sign up for the monthly email.

Have a great weekend and Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there!

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!