Be yourself

I have to say that of all the things that could have become my trademark, I did not anticipate that my laughter would serve as such a distinguishing trait. Would you believe me if I told you that I didn’t used to get compliments on my laugh? That phenomenon has only been around for the last few years. It’s not because my laugh has changed or because I was a more serious person before. It’s because I used to hold myself back. At work, in public, around strangers – basically, in any situation that didn’t involve really close friends or family, I would hold myself back.

You see, I was embarrassed. Of my laugh. Silly, huh? But to me I thought it was too loud, too casual, and unprofessional. So at work, I would politely smile or quietly giggle at a joke, but I would never really open up. And that was to my own detriment. Sure, I got along with my co-workers just fine, but we were never close. I’m not one who thinks you need to have a best friend at work or even that you need to like your co-workers to do your job. But by holding my true self back, even if they didn’t consciously know what I was doing, my co-workers felt the wall I had put up and didn’t try to get closer. In fact, it wasn’t until after I had left that company that I really started making friends with some of them because then I felt I could be more relaxed around them.

Once I figured out what I was doing and opened up, the change was noticeable. I was forming better working relationships, people were more willing to seek me out, and I was more effective at work. People felt they knew me. Now, I’m not advocating throwing professionalism out the window. I’m still a big believer in having a work persona. But you can be professional and still be yourself. It can be a tiny line to walk at times but it can be done. And It needs to be. Besides, a few missteps now and again will only make you that much more real in their eyes. So don’t be afraid to laugh.

Get Local

So you are starting to get involved in the HR online community. Welcome! We are happy to have you! You are reading blogs, considering starting your own, working on your Linkedin profile, and you even got on Twitter. It's a bit overwhelming, but oh so cool! We have all been there. There is a ton to learn, fun conversations to join, and best of all you are making new friends all across the country, hell, across the world. But now you find yourself wondering what else you should be doing.

You should be getting local. While the HR online community is full of awesomeness, it is important not to forget about the local HR community where you live. Trust me, there is awesomeness there too. And the best part? The HR online community will help you connect to them. For example, last Friday I went to the Minnesota Recruiters conference. 240+ MN recruiters getting together to listen to great speakers and to make new connections. I always learn a lot and it is always a lot of fun. I originally started attending these events because of Paul DeBettignies, whom I met online before in person and is an all around great guy. He's local to me, but I don't know if we would have met if I hadn't been online. But more importantly, if I hadn't taken the relationship offline and taken advantage of the fact that he was local, I might have missed out on some amazing connections and opportunities.

So great job getting involved online, just don't forget to take those relationships offline as well. You'll be surprised by all the cool people you can met, right in your backyard.

HR Happy Hour #21

We're back, baby! The latest HR Happy Hour is in the can and boy did we miss you all! Did you miss us? Well, you know that after a week off we had to come back with something really amazing. We did experience some technical difficulties, like always, Steve told our callers to step up, and John aka @BKRecruiter was dropping HR buzz words like they weren't already out of style. You know, the usual.

Our topic this week was Employer Branding: What is it, why is it important, is it important, etc. The show generated a lot of buzz, both in the number of callers (our highest number yet!) and on the crazy active twitter back channel at #HRHappyHour (which you need to check out!). There was too much material to cover in one short hour, there was a lot of great conversation/disagreements/points, and we totally need to revisit this topic again. So what are you waiting for, check out the show below!

In which others write my post for me

So here I was planning a post on customer service and a company's image when I saw Trish at the HR Ringleader Blog just did a related, and great, post on it. Now you may be asking yourself, self, why do HR bloggers seem to care so much about customer service? It's simple: customer service is both what HR does and what HR needs to care about because of the impact it has on a company's success or failure. HR has both internal and external customers that they need to provide the best service to. Whether it's getting payroll right the first time or providing the best candidate experience, that's customer service. Additionally, HR cares about the customer service the company itself provides because not only does that speak to employee performance, it also affects company culture, brand, and success.

Now I've been thinking about this issue recently because of something Ron McManmon said on the last HR Happy Hour about how managers need to go through their own recruiting process to see what the candidate experience is really like. I've heard many a HR Manager talk about how they care about providing the best candidate experience and are proud of it. How do they know? What is their follow up on this? Getting a hire is no guarantee of a good candidate experience, especially these days. Much to their own detriment, I think HR Managers are focusing on their recruiting successes and brushing off the failures as flukes. Jessica Lee over at Fistful of Talent just did a great post on the time it takes for candidates to accept an offer and what that means.

HR can talk a good game when it comes to the customer service they provide, but if they aren't doing any follow up on it, they are ultimately providing poor customer service and hurting their company's image. So how sure are you that your customer service is as stellar as you think it is?

Welcome to the Terrordome

I love Robot Chicken. It is irreverent, funny, and oh so geeky. I've been looking for this clip for a while now so when I found it tonight I just had to put it up on the blog right away! It's the new employee orientation video every company needs.


I think we can all learn a lot from Cobra Command.

Carnival of HR for Global Giving

So the latest Carnival of HR is live over at the Human Race Horses blog, and I have to say that Mike VanDervort has set the bar pretty high for all future hosts! Not only did Mike bring together almost 80 posts from around the world, it was all for charity! Mike is going to donate a dollar for every post and many others were generous enough to donate money or provide a match themselves. So if you want to read a bunch of amazing posts and be blown away by the HR online communities generosity go here to check it out!

The next Carnival will be on December 9th hosted by Rowan Manahan over at the Fortify your Oasis blog. As always, if you are interested in hosting a future Carnival or would like to be added to the email reminder list just drop me a note at hrminion@gmail.com. And if you would like to stay up to date on all the Carnival news, follow CarnivalofHR on Twitter!

Gobbles!

It's a little early but I just want to tell all my US readers to have a Happy Thanksgiving, enjoy the time off from work, and that I appreciate all of you. Now for the funny. Check out the clip below for a little chuckle.