Quantcast
Subscribe!

 

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

 

E-mail Steve
This form does not yet contain any fields.

    free counters

    Twitter Feed

    Entries in jobsite (2)

    Wednesday
    May252011

    HR Happy Hour Europe - Launches Today

    In what future historians of the grand age of social enlightenment in Human Resources will look back upon and mark as a truly watershed moment, today the HR Happy Hour Show sets a course for worldwide domination with the debut Episode of HR Happy Hour - Europe!

    Specifics: the show is live at 3PM ET (8PM in the UK), and you can listen online here. Follow the conversation on Twitter using the #HRHappyHour tag.

    The show is a joint project between HR Happy Hour, (essentially me), and the great folks from Jobsite, the leading careers and online recruitment site in the UK. Jobsite is dedicated to helping people connect with that perfect next opportunity, and over the years has really stretched the typical ways of thinking about what a 'traditional' job board is all about.,

    It is in that spirit that Jobsite is staging what they term 'Fresh Thinking' events, where Jobsite is bringing together innovative and cutting-edge ideas and people to engage, share, and progress the dialogue around important topics of the day.  The first event, with special guests Amanda Hite and Scott Stratten, focuses on the concepts of social media in recruitment, marketing the organization, and the critical need for engagement of the organization's leaders and staff to make it all work.

    In conjuction with the Fresh Thinkers event, Amanda and Scott, (joined by Jobsite's Felix Wetzel), will join me on the inaugural HR Happy Hour - Europe show today at 3PM ET which is 8PM in the UK.

    You can listen to the show live on the show page here, on the listener call in line 646-378-1086, or via the widget player below:

    Listen to internet radio with Steve Boese on Blog Talk Radio

     

    Note - UK and other outside the US listeners can use the Skype feature to call in to the show as well. 

    It should be a fun and lively show as the HR Happy Hour makes it's first step towards what will truly be looked upon as a global media empire!

    Tuesday
    Feb232010

    Real Excitement

    This past Saturday as part of the trulondon Unconference event, Keith Potts and Felix Wetzel graciously hosted several of the conference attendees as their guests at an English Premier League match,  Portsmouth vs. Stoke City. Keith Potts and Steve at the match

    Here is the connection between the HR and Recruiting event and the match:  Keith is one of the founders and Felix is a Director of a company called Jobsite, the largest job board in the UK and a sponsor of trulondon as well as the shirt sponsor of Portsmouth Football Club

    If you are not terribly familiar with shirt sponsorship, I took a quick run at describing the idea here.

    But the real point of the post is not simply to thank Keith and Felix for the tremendous experience, which I assuredly do, but rather to talk for a moment about the passion and excitement that we observed from both the Portsmouth supporters as well as the many Portsmouth FC staff that we encountered on our visit. 

    From the start of the game to the final whistle, the majority of the Portsmouth fans sang, chanted, and banged on drums to support and exhort their team. This singing and chanting was entirely organic, and required no artificial prompting from the Public Address announcer.  There were no 'Let's Make some Noise' displays on the giant videoboard.  There were no heavy metal or hip-hop tunes blared to try are create a lively or fun atmosphere.  And there was not a hint of a 'kiss-cam'. Bottom line: there was no fake excitement.

    And in total, it was by far the best sporting event I have ever attended. 

    This match, and I suspect many matches in the league, substitute spectacle for authenticity, replace contrived enthusiasm with genuine passion, and connect with supporters, club employees, and the community at large in a way that at least to me was unique and remarkable.

    I understand that sports, especially major-league, big time sports have little to do with how the overwhelming majority of organizations operate.  But there are, I think,  some interesting lessons and potentially some insights that can be learned from sports and in particular how teams exist and interact in a complex environment of internal and external stakeholders.

    Community

    The football club, and the other organizations that are part of its support network are to a large extent deeply intertwined in the local community. Match days are significant events, some sponsors like Jobsite are also significantly vested in the community, and in many ways the club, the experience, and the network help to define and shape the area.  For organizations, striving to find ways to become more vested in their locak communities can often yield extremely positive results.

    Passion

    Passion for a sports team is often deep, unwavering, and endures over the years.  For organizations, engendering that same kind of passion can prove difficult if not impossible.  But the passion for your products and services, your employee value proposition, and your brand are what could sustain you when times get hard, and external economics play against your.  Teams in the English league can get 'relegated' for poor performance (send down to a lower tier and status league), but the support and passion of the fans tends to remain.  The most successful organizations can find a way to generate this passion across its constituencies for the long term.

    Togetherness

    After the game (which sadly for Portsmouth was a 2-1 defeat) the various employees from the Director of Operations to the cooks, waiters, and bar staff at the club were all noticeably and understandably saddened and dissapointed. But in their seemingly collective pain, I really got the sense that they were still 'together' and really bound by their shared mission, desire, and hopes for the the future. While without exception every employee that I encountered at the Club did their jobs with skill and efficiency, they were also mindful of the bigger picture.  And they were seemingly invested heavily in that picture.  Do your job and support the overall goals and objectives of the organization at the same time.

    The interesting thing is that attention to and care of these areas can in some ways overcome some poor results on the field (and even off the field).  Portsmouth is at the bottom of the league standings and is even in danger of the UK equivalent of bankruptcy.  And while the immediate future looks a bit harsh, I have every confidence based on the people we met, and the support and passion we witnessed that the club will make it through.

    Thanks so much once again to Keith and Felix and to all the great people at Portsmouth FC.