Posts Tagged ‘Coaching’

If This Video doesn’t give you chills, and a sense of gratitude-nothing will!

Our differently abled Americans need recruiters, and hiring managers to value their talent. Our veterans and differently abled workforce become invisible, they fall through the cracks sight unseen. Yet, their voices must be heard. They WILL be heard on an upcoming episode of Compassionate HR with Josh LeTourneau, Gerry Crispin, Steve Levy, and Dave Mendoza. Please read Josh’s Post From Fistful Of Talent.

He articulates the importance of coaching veterans how to interview. He articulates how we can support our vets through transition. Josh, Gerry, Dave and Steve are on to something here. Their work is groundbreaking and I invite each of you to get involved (call to action time). Read Gerry Crispin’s inspirational article, he invites us to join a worthy survey effort regarding the disability candidate experience.  Imagine, being in a wheel chair, arriving on time for an interview, only to find you can’t make it up the stairs? Let’s change that.

Our workforce can only be strengthened when we put our differently abled veterans to work.

The Disabled American's are Differently Abled-Not Dis-Abled. They have strong skills and are worthy of a great job!

Many of our veterans have been rendered with disabilities by wars. They are NOT disabled. They are differently abled perhaps, and they deserve our respect. Our veterans, and people of different ability are still strong and capable human beings who can and want to work.

Don’t patronize a disabled American, hire them; they are gifted, and able human beings. A poignant article by the FederalTimes.com reports that The Federal Government is not doing enough to attract retain, and accommodate these incredible workers.

Unfortunately, many erroneous perceptions exist about their plight. For instance when a military veteran, fresh from the field returns homes, the business community doesn’t welcome them with open arms. As Steve Levy said on my show last week, “Hiring managers are afraid they are going to go postal,” whatever that means: it’s hogwash. Levy started a movement, 1000 recruiters of light. Veterans will be paired with a recruiter and will receive one to one coaching on how to get prepared to re-enter the workforce. Gerry Crispin and Dave Mendoza have embarked on a similar mission, and are working tirelessly to mentor, help and find jobs for our military veterans.

Today, and everyday ask yourself, what can I do empower our gifted, all too often invisible veterans and disabled workers in transition?

Please comment, share an experience. If you are a veteran, share your thoughts. Your voice is important to me. You matter in my life. And, if no one has told you “I care about you,” today, let me be the first.

Your twitter pal,

@HRMargo

I’ve been reviewing my posts the past few weeks, and I realized they’ve revolved around my blogtalkradio show, Compassionate HR.  It made me think what matters most?  The seething debate continues in the human resources and recruiting industry.  There are the hard bitten cynics who cry “I am not in the field of human resources to help people.”  In fact, they get angry, and dismissive when an interviewee suggests that’s why they are interested in the job.  Ok, I understand that argument.  But then the question begs to be asked, why did you choose to go into human resources?  If there wasn’t some altruistic motive somewhere in the back of your mind, what was it?   If you don’t want to help people, does that mean you want to hurt people?  I think not.   I can tell you this, people don’t go into to HR to get rich quick.  There are far easier ways to make a living.  There are easier ways to make the big bucks.

Unless you are a top level recruiter, or at the Vice President level, it is rare to exceed a high six figure income.  So, why…why do we go into HR? Is it because we are passionate what we do? Let’s break it down, shall we?

• Recruiting
• HR Management
• HRIS
• Benefits
• Compensation
• Training and Development
• Organization Development
• Employee Relations
• Legal Compliance
• Health, Safety, and Security
• HR Communication Strategy
• Human Resource Consultant and Vendor Relations

Not to mention the incredible services, the job boards, the human resource statisticians, the human resource reporters and publications, the professional associations, I could go on, and on the list is longer than I can account for here.  I understand that caring too much about the candidate can get in the way of the job a recruiter does for a client. The recruiters job is to find a specific skill set that will meet the needs of the client’s position. That is what they are paid to do.  I understand that employee relations experts spend the better part of their day resolving conflicts, and dealing with people”s head aches.  I understand that the role of people in benefits and compensation can be cut and dried, and yet it is a very difficult position, particularly if they are developing competency models that match the positions to the appropriate payscale.  Benefits, that is an animal all its own, and to be really good at that job, you have to be well informed, and educated about healthcare industry.  Not to mention the health and safety experts-they should get medal of honor for keeping employees safe, and their employers out of court.  Legal compliance, lawyers make a lot more money than their HR counter parts inside the organizations they represent. Yet, the HR Pro who has that job has to be so well schooled that they must be able to articulate the legal compliance issues to both employees, and the brass at the helm of the organization. HR is not one job.  It is many.  In large corporations there are large staffs where each role I mentioned above is handled by a different person.  In mid to small companies, there’s often just a few people handling all the roles, we call them “generalists.” Each role has its perks, its satisfaction, its joy, and its sadness, because we deal with employees, candidates, colleagues, senior level executives and plant floor employees.  We deal with human beings.   I assert that if you have no desire to be useful to others, to be of service to your fellows, get a computer certification, and hide behind your desk.  But even then, you will invariably be put in a position where you will be pushed into service.

After tonight’s show  with Bill Boorman, I realized something important.  Giving is its own reward.  Bill is a man who sleeps 3 hours a night, and spends the other 21 hours networking, communicating, teaching, coaching, and giving back.  As I was listening to him wax eloquently about TruLondon, it made me realize how  important it is to believe deeply in something.  To believe in it so much, that it’s not just what you do, it’s what you are.  What you do represents your values, and what you hold dear.

Sure we all get caught up in the day to day drudgery of what we do for a living.  But, before you answer the question “Why am I in HR?” think carefully about what motivates you, what drives your passion, what makes it worth your while to get out of the bed in the morning, and hit the showers. What do you think about on the drive to work in the morning? And ask yourself this one question, “What does it matter?”

Your twitter pal,

@HRMargo