Part-Time over Full-Time for better time

So the other day I came across this video below, check it out:



The hosts say the average working time in Ol' Germany was 30 hours a week (and I assume they have just seen the numbers provided by the state department for statistics, cause I sure know most are working way more *winkwink*). The dutch accordingly actually work 4 days a week on average with the same pensum of approx 50 hours a week. And they don't call them workoholics?!

But for all intents and purposes working past six hours without an essential break. The body and primarily the brain - and there goes my science-fable - decreases its ability to focus rapidly once the maximum span of attention payed and worked reached or when the break seems so far away. Hypothecally making us then a toddler with the attention span of 15 minutes. This just can result in nonsense and mistakes at work can't it?!

So why not voluntarily work only 30 hours in the first place? Well, your bank account will thank you - not. Our payment system is a mess. There I said it. We get payed a certain amount based on 40 hours assuming we truely are spending it all to our holy employer and are as productive as Einstein's theory of relativity allows. That most of us actually lose ourselves in work rather than in freetime we would have 10 hours more a week when 30 hours a week job taken is another phenomenon. And this has nothing to do with being from the so called Generation Y, X, Z or whatever. Honestly, though, I endorse being payed for commitment and the productive ideas given and created for the employer than for being there at least the amount of hours mentioned in the working contract. Isn't that much better for the interdependent success?

What do you think?

Personnel Marketing in the streets

Translation of Jannis Tsalikis' blog entry: Personalmarketing auf der Straße oder "Das geht mir doch am Auspuff!"

No, it is not exactly what the headline tells you. Well it is but not exactly the streets streets. Jeesh, let's just start:

On this blog we posted several times about the AIDA Concept and its criterias for good communication. Rather seldom we discussed the many opportunities or options which open up to HR Managers in regard to Recruting Communication. About the possibility of implementation. A great example of Recruiting Communication is right in front of us - on the street.

I saw two examples of it. One here, in Cologne (found at Ring, Köln, last week):

And another example from Berlin (found at Liesenstraße, Berlin, today):



And, what do you see?

Exactly. The company which is looking for hires in Cologne is not really looking for Johnny Head-in-Air. Rather down-to-earth realists who looks in the right direction. Jokes aside. Obviously, the subject Personnel does not have too high of a priority. Title: nice thought bad executed. It is not even clear what they are looking for in the first place. 

And the second example? It says: "Du hast den Plan! Wir den Job." ("You got the plan! We got the job!") Does that mean the R+S Group has no plan?! Anyway, it is obvious here that effort has been put into the matter. The theme is definitely visible even when stuck in traffic jam. On top of that, thanks to the theme you can expect different kind of handcraft jobs are offered. Awesome! You can apply by SMS even. Not bad. But how is that gonna be like? Like...SMS: "Hi, this is Fred, I am a handy man and wanna work for you. Looking forward to a SMS-reply."?!  

Doesn't matter. We do not want to discuss the quality of these two examples. BUT: You can see, you definitely have more options than "just" publishing a job-ad.

Jannis Tsalikis

What does the job as Employer Branding Ambassador look like, Mrs Krämer (SMS Meer)?

Translated from Jannis Tsalikis's blog entry: Wie ist das Arbeitsleben als Arbeitgebermarken-Botschafterin, Frau Krämer (SMS Meer)?

Experts reccomend winning employees to be a representant or ambassador for an employer brand. Reasonable, since employees display an authentic and a somwhat of a live image of the company when being employed there.

At many companies there are still objections and many questions to be answered. I.e., when employees get in contact with applicants, what is being said about the company? Or how can things be redacted or steered then?

The SMS Group does not worry about it at all. The opposite. New is the grant offer and choice of  so called "Karrierebotschaftern" (Career Ambassadors) (also check Stefan Brindt / BPM Blog).

Jannis had the chance to check with Sarah Krämer, talking about her experience as Career Ambassador:

Dear Mrs. Krämer, how did you become an ambassador of and at SMS Group?  

The colleagues responsible for this project asked me. Up front there was an intern selection process where I was suggested. Then all colleagues from different firms and divisions who were asked, also, were invited to a first "GetTogether". There the campain was introduced and our future role and tasks to be were explained to us. Pretty quick after that I decided to be a part of the campaign.

Did co-workers asked you regarding your "new" profile? What's been the feedback? 

Yes, definitely! In the developing phase whith film and photo shoots I was asks frequently for what all this was good for and if there is something new in the making. The feedback was through out positive. My colleagues find this path to be the right and support us as Career Ambassador.

On the site you are automatically invoted to contact you on XING. Does being contacted there happen often? How much work time do you spend on answering applicant requests? 
As of now it is still manageable. The campaign runs on the medial wave which is noticed in the amount of contacts via XING and Mail. Especially when we consult students personally at fairs the contact flow gets stronger. 

Could you tell what is asked usually? And do you answer all questions yourself? 

Most questions are about regular things, such as the hiring procedure or the particular jobs [offered]. Thanks to back-up from the HR division we, Career Ambassadors, can answer the questions ourselves well. Some, however, has to be forwarded to the HR division.

What about spam-request? Is there any? 

No, there has not been any yet.

In a short note: How is it to be ambassador of the SMS Group? 

I am proud to be chosen, and it is nice to give young alumnis something to take with from it.

Mrs. Krämer, thank you for the interview! 

Job-Ads from the other side

Last month, being on XING, I noticed a fun written job-ad by BFFT, a (not so well known to me) automotive engineering company. The Job-Ad was for a an Internship in Personnel Marketing who obviously belonged to the Pinky and Brain Generation. It sounded truely like fun to me, however, it was "just" an Internship. For career starters of three years working experience for instance, such ads appear disappointing. 

Nevertheless, this kind of ad actually made me think about why a probably not young staffed company would start or at least try to speak the language of current all age 17-25...

Three days later I came across the job-ad by Lululemon seeking for a new CEO on Hawai'i. Businessweek wrote about it. Now this company is surely no nine day wonder. In fact Lululemon is a grant success in regards to Yoga-Fashion.

Companies trying to speak the "young ones language" is okay. However it has to walk the same talk as the corporate culture does! Having a frumpy or very old-fashioned corporate culture does not make you morally eligable to display a wrong image of a younger company on job-ads. After all, Job-Ads are the first thing that intrigues potential employees to apply for the job. The only acception is a total image change has happened, which is usually only done when the company is in trouble or merged with another firm.

Lululemon did it right tho. And boy, that ad went offline quickly, too. Their somewhat healthconscious hippy target group naturally speaks as the ad did. And if the company is supposed to be lead just as it was or as easy-going" as before it is surely right and fun to portrait such image via job-ad. If you need a CEO to be a firefighting leader, however, employers should reconsider the language in their job-ads. Especially when you write the ad all fun, but you are a stick-in-the-mud company, things are going to be a waste of time for both sides. 

Dearest companies, please, act accordingly - or like the old Hawai'ian would say: ho'opono.

HR Innovations - Whatcha Got?

In regard to Ralf Junge's blog entry: Innovationen in der HR-Arbeit – Was? Wer? Wie? Warum?

Last week, Ralf was requesting, well actually demanding rightfully, more progress in HR. This request certainly met open ears of plenty which made Ralf check for more input regarding the key: Innovations. 

Now a lot of companies have tried all kind of existing techniques in HR, went back and forth and eventually got stuck on the level they are now. Most companies even run the, in my opinion, completely wrong way of outsourcing. After all, sites like hr-innovations.com promote it. The from outsourcing being an HR innovation we consider to be truely innovative and less... how to say, culture destroying, is another thing to be discussed. One day folks, one day. ;) 

Back to the actual matter. Ralf knows it from his studies still, and me from my vocational school and the terror of final exams too. The theory "Diffusion of Innovations" by Everett Rogers. The theorem shows and describes the characters and spreading process of innovations. According to Rogers innovation is an idea which is apprehended as "new" to an individual. Over a certain period, this new idea is spread via several channels meeting the members of a social system/ community. That's the diffusion of innovation, or as we Germans would say: innovation diffusion. Yea, say that three times out loud, fast.  But it is easier understood when seen:

Depending on the types shown and the social community targeted, implemetation of such ideas can be approached accordingly. I am not gonna get into this much now. Let's call it suppression. But you definitely should check out the Adoption Lifecycle to find out what kind of "adaptor" you are (English/German)

But I searched for more detail. Again, suppression makes one nosey to find more, differently. And I came across this blog featuring the study by futurestep with the very informative list: 

• Over three-quarters expect employers to be innovative in the way they retain and engage their staff.
• 72% expect employers to be innovative in the way they develop people, but only 36% think that their current company is innovative in those fields.
• 79% agree that innovative approaches to engagement and development would make them more likely to perform better in their jobs.
• 49% say they would be more likely to take a job advertised or offered in an innovative way, and 51% believe that innovative approaches to recruitment would make them feel more positively about that company overall.

Basically saying: If you (the employer) are not innovative, you loose. 

For more pretty picturized stastics, check this link.

So after Ralf's last weeks request we wanna know: What kind of HR-innovations works best for your company, how was it introduced or applied and why is it working, or not working? 

Who are the Innovators and Early Adopters in HR? Ralf is going to find it out and report for sure. Stay tuned.

EMBARASSING: 300,000 employees not enough - Vacation and Sick Leave totally overrated

From Jannis Tsalikis's blog entry: Ich finde es peinlich und Herr Frank Sennhenn (Vorstandschef DB Netz) findet das irgendwie auch! Fakt ist: 300.000 Mitarbeiter sind einfach zu wenig!

Ladies and Gentlemen, what a ham. Kind of a surprise ham with extra madness on top.
The Deutsche Bahn, biggest company of Germany when it comes to transportation system throughout Germany and a company of 300,000 employees and counting, was totally surprised by, guess what, employees taking vacation days off. Or, awfully rude and inacceptable for calculations obviously, also get sick AND stay at home then. Now the Bahn came to the astonishing conclusion: Without employees, no operation.

Result: Hardly any long-distance train stopping at Mainz since Friday! 

Many Online-News titled - not without the necessary malice (lol) - i.e. the Fokus: "Der Bahn fehlt Personal – Noch weit entfernt vom Top-Arbeitgeber" (Bahn missing personnel - far away from top-employer still). Rightfully, if you ask me. How dare the Bahn to act like some mom-and-pop store? And I'm sorry, Mr. Sennhenn (Chairman of DB Netz), but your whiny apology, erm excuse: "Ja, es ist mir peinlich. Ich möchte mich ausdrücklich bei den Fahrgästen entschuldigen" (Yes, it is embarassing to me. I would like to apologize to all passengers), is ridiculous too.  Have you ever heard something about contractual staff?! What a pitty image this all causes for the Deutsche Bahn. Again.

(For German speakers here the report at SWR)

With such way of acting the laborly built image (pun intended) is torn down in a heart-beat. The million-heavy campaign "Kein Job wie jeder andere" (no job is like the other) was well done...for the trash bin. 300,000 employees are obviously not enough. Mainz needs at least 10 more station inspectors, doesn't it?

HR, wake up! - Rethink your application procedures

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Personaler wacht auf! – Umdenken im Bewerbungsprozess"

It is well known, the German Economy and with it the German work force, suffers from a skills shortage. Living or working  in Germany, you might have noticed this already. The more I cannot understand why this fact and/or problem is no reason to wake up or becoming active.

Times when applicants stood in line to apply for a job are over. The competition for skilled workers is too grant for employers. Even applicants don't tremble for jobs much anymore. If it isn't that one, oh well, it is going to be the next one. After all, the application procedure is a two-sided thing in getting to know another.  Now you might say, ain't nothing new. But there are sill colleagues who work with the same methods and thinking as they did 10 years ago.

1920, Toronto: Women apply for waitress's jobs at the CNE. The job paid $1.25 per DAY!

It starts with the recruitment. Too often insignificant and weird job-ads with horrible stock-pics and no clear messages are published. And they wait, for most possible fitting candidated to apply. Usually not successful. Applicants don't want to watch trendy, fancy employer videos where employees dance and sing with a bright (fake) grin. The only thing they might win with "acting" like that would be the Golden Mangel Award.

Be yourself. You got enough to tell about yourself already - that is how companies come across real and believable. Be interested and show your applicants that while the application procedures also. When applications landed in the inbox, let them know they have reached you! In a personal interview, please don't let them rephrase their résumé all over again. You should know what they did already if you read the application. The worst, however, are the assumptions "read" out of the résumé being expressed through suggestive questions then. No, I certainly don't want to justify myself and feel like in a police questioning in an interview. Eventually, it is not about which impression I leave, but what impression the company representives leave on the candidate. If you haven't notice yet, most High Potentials have more than one door of job-opportunity open!

And after the interview, we don't want to hear nor read: "I was able to figure your image out. I will contact you then". You already know wether the interview went well or not and what feeling you have about that applicant fit in the team with the open position. How about you, yes you, the company representive, ask your candidate: "What do you think? Would you like us as your employer?" 

It is time to wake up!