5 Questions to HR - Becoming a true Business Partner

Strategic work in HR seldom gets the appreciation as many still may connect HR to be the great task of hoarding personnel files, being a meany to applicants and not caring what employees feel and think about. Today I would like to introduce to you a dear colleague of mine: 

Nathalie works at MSLGROUP in Paris and is always on the bus when it comes to strategic change in personnel work within the global network. Personally, I admire her for her straight forwardness and positivity no matter how slow and agonizing a task or the process within a worldwide network is.

I asked her five questions about her work and how she views HR. Check it out and be inspired.

1.) Five words to describe your field/job/tasks?
Employee Engagement & Employer Branding

2.) How do you help your co-workers turning a frown upside down?
I have experienced that passion and enthusiasm is communicative, so this is how I'm trying to energize people who are working with me. If you keep a positive attitude, positive things will happen.


3.) Is there a task in HR which you dislike? 
Not really!


4.) Do your friends ask you to redact their résumés? 
HR has always been my passion even before it became a real job for me. I was on Monster and then LinkedIn long before I graduated. I've also been through so many student jobs that I have quite an extensive experience of applications and job interviews! Hence my friends have always came to me spontaneously for advice. I have never written anyone's applications though, I think it doesn't help the applicant nor the recruiter at the end of it! 

5.) What does or should HR stand for? 
I think there has never been a more interesting time to work in HR. With more and more admin issues dealt with externally, we can really focus on the Strategic Part of the job. Also, with employees jumping regularly from one company to another, the relation you have with Talent has changed drastically. On the Employee side it means making sure people are constantly inspired and energized in their work. On the Company side, it means becoming a true Business Partner to your Managers to help them navigate this change and build the best teams that will eventually deliver great business results. It's a win-win situation!

Thank you Nathalie. It was a great pleasure. 

Amazons at War for Talents

From Jannis Tsalikis's blog post: Amazonen im War for Talents

Coming Up! The golden Mangel of HR Communication is awarded December 4th, 2013.
Awards will be given to the winner of the greatest disturbings of external HR Communication. In the categories: The most discouraging job-ad, the most horrible career-video, the most unattractive career site, the worst social media presence. 

Be there, when employers send their amazons to the war for talents and other senseless wonder works on the world wide web are shown and celebrated. For now, here is the promised and newest anonymously sent in video.  

The Countdown is running!  Till November 15th you can mail your entry to pfuipfuipfui@goldene-runkelruebe.de. Exact time and place for the award will be announced in time. Save the date and stay tuned!

Jannis

Internship 2.0 - Abolish the internship-ery

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog post: "Wir schaffen das Praktikum ab"

Do German companies need or want interns?

Bild: Sean MacEntee 

Approximately nine years ago the generation internship came to life. Young professionals were literally ripped off. Working like an employee employed for years already but not receiving an appropriate salary, many even without any at all. And career perspectives - well those existed basically from internship to the next, as hardly ever. This created a great and grand outcry. Associated were founded, dealing with this very issue and demanding transparency of employment of each company. At some point politicians added their two cents to it also and created guidelines and contract samples. Considering everything so far one would think companies have learned from their mistakes, especially as the competition, or war, for talent became quite noticeable.

Yet, current studies and comments on employer rating portals show clearly there are companies still which literelly haven't done the change, be silent about noticing an issue present. Why don't we stop these long lasting (yeeeeears) and nerve-wracking discussion by abolishing the whole intership all itself !?!OR, we keep talking about the subject "work conditions of Young Professionals". Let's create a new internship model - Internship 2.0. Maybe, let's just institute a dissuasion department for bad companies and declare prohibitions and requirements for advertisment of internships.

December 2nd in Berlin's Axel-Springer-Hochhaus, the nationwide Day of Interns topics as above are discussed. The best employees for interns will be praised. So will the Interns of the Year be elected. Therefor you still can make suggestions right here www.tag-der-praktikanten.de. 

Ralf


Editor's Note:

It is about time actually!!! Especially in countries like the U.S. were situations like this and the following video keep occurring....

Today is Boss Day - how do you celebrate?

Translated from Ralf Junge's blog entry: "Heute ist Boss-Day - wie feiern Sie?"

"The way you work I would like to have vaycay."

"Flu is the weakness of character."
"You won't like me but I don't give a ****" 

„Our intern wanted to call it a day before I do. We both laughed.“

You might know more of those phrases? These were just a few selected examples of mean Boss statements, which the German site  BADASS BOSS for instance collects and publishes. I had to chuckle and laugh a couple of time when reading such statements. But. Actually, it is quite saddening to have a proof of such boss-attitude still existing. An attitude of arrogance and dictatorship. I for myself already got to know specimen like these - especially the first sentence was merely preached at my first job after graduating. 

Such behavior by superiors are hardly tolerated without having corresponding consequences. Since there are employer rating platforms and social media channels, frustrated employees are able to counter. And what day would be best than todays Boss Day!?

The Boss Day was declared in 1958 in the USA by Patricia Bays Haroski. She chose the birthday of her father who was, according to her, the examplary boss. Todays this day is seen as occasion to thank the own boss or tell him what the deal is.

Sudies show, the behavior of boss'/superiors to be one of the strongest factor regarding employees motivation, as well as being a base of overall employee satisfaction. However, we hear of bad working atmosphere too often, branded by fear of ones own boss, who loves sitting nose-up-ed on his thrown, losing the connection to his employees. For observers only, such "The office"-boss might be funny. It seems as if some boss's haven't cought the irony of the show just yet and adapted to the main character. Unfortunately, such behavior is cruel reality to too many employees still. So, why not considering  todays Boss Day as a reason to make a change. 

How do you celebrate the Boss Day? With flowers for your boss or a negative rating on the internet?

Ralf

Storytelling in HR

Everybody talks about Storytelling these days. And for brands storytelling is a well-working tool to gain and retain costumers. Especially as storytelling allows a brand to be presented in more than 6sec commercial "break".

The ads streaming prior to videos on sites like youtube.com are allowed to be skipped. While my daughter loves to click the skip button I find myself actually enjoying those ads as they are capturing an evolving story as grand visual play. It also allows the tool to be repeated within a self-marketing campaign without it getting annoying or old. So is Chanel's current storyboard for Coco which had me sucked in Chanel-World for 6 episodes of about 3-4 minutes each. Here is one to give a taste.




One big question popped up then: Why in the world does no employer gain and retains his employees via this tool?! 

(I haven't found one - but I am sure this would go more than viral.)

The assumed answer(s) to my question:
-  a lot of employers have not understood they are a brand on the job-market
-  most companies have not understood how emotions and motions can be used for HR
- HR and self-PR/Marketing does not get that big of a pot to finance an elaborated story
- HR has not understood that storytelling not only works for training purposes


Or maybe the world hasn't grown old and tired (and sick, personally) from carreer-rap-video-awkwardness
I would like you to spare from. But even videos like this one below is leaving a blah-feeling and makes me quote my cousin who loves to say "you cereal?!"




Nan

Factor: Industry Image - The Ad Industry and its aweful Employer Image

Translated from Jannis Tsalikis' blog entry: Faktor Branchenimage - Beispiel: Die Werbebranche und ihr schlechtes Arbeitgeberimage

In many Employer Branding - Models the industry image plays as actually quite contributing factor a smaller role for the Employer Image of companies. A mistake. It is obvious that the industry image influences the attractivity of corporate brands, and with it its employer brand. (For instance, if fluent in German, check this University paper, page 28, Univ.-Prof. Dr. Christoph Burmann, Das Branchenimage als Determinante der Unternehmensmarkenprofilierung, 2005).

Important "Players" for a good image of an industry are the big, well-known companies of the industry itself as well as the regarding associations, as they are the ones who has the take care of the very industry.

How you should not do it, well, that shows one industry as best, erm worst example: the ad industry.

Since working in this industry (for over 10 years) hardly anything has changed on the fact of "advertiser" being one of the most unfavored vocation.  The image is not new...
Certainly, the in August open letter released by a couple of students from University Pforzheim from Werbeliebe, an association who actually love advertising, is not the first warning to the ad industry. But instead of becoming active and cope with the situation finding a proper solution, the GWA, the association of advertisment agencies reacted (with an attitude *EN), demanding a definition of "appreciation"

Is advertisment really like this!? 39,90 

Last evening, in preparation for this blog post, I started a mini survey (anonymous, 2 questions), asking HR Manager I know. The seven well-experienced colleagues from well-known agencies asked all agreed with me. All answered regarding the sentence: "The GWA engages noticeably for the employer attractivity of the industry, especially regarding winning young talents" with the same - not aggreeing. If the GWA actually understands the signs in this content (this was the second question) is questionable. Here HR's are at odds.

But what to do when the association doesn't do anything? Resign the membership like Serviceplan did? Surely saves a lot of money but won't help solving the problem. 

Catastrophy as a chance? You cannot really free yourself from the industry image. With good Personnel- and Self-PR, however, singly companies can strive and steer against it. This means, though, companies will have to face and appreciate critics and not talk/make them small. In doubt, this means to walk new paths boldly.

Jannis