Part Two: The Layoff will be Twittered

Following the previous post, important points to cover during a Reduction-in-Force project:

Keep Layoff Plans Offline: avoid emailing, creating, and communicating Reduction in Force (RIF) plans through company systems. I consulted after-the-fact to a company that found that a key and trusted email administrator was both reading, saving, and re-distributing – both internally and externally – all communication regarding layoff plans. Many employees fled the company prior to the formal WARN announcement due to this leak – employees that otherwise would not have been effected by the RIF. The loss of intellectual capital and the damage to the entire project was significant.

Never use Instant or Text Messaging to Discuss ANY aspect of a Restructuring Project: Transcripts of messages are saved, archived and may be reviewed. Just don’t do it, no matter how innocent you feel the message may be.

Allow Key Reorganization Team Members to Meet and Work Offsite as needed: Given the challenges associated with using internal technology to plan a restructuring project, teams need a “safe” environment to discuss and plan. Allocate resources accordingly.

Involve your CIO/CTO from the start: Prevent enterprise data leaks at the source. Oftentimes, technology teams are the last to be alerted of a project they already know is in progress, especially if you’ve been using internal technology systems to communicate planning. Your IT groups are the ones who cancel intranet portal access, email access, etc. for those departing employees. “Dumping” a time-critical task on them last minute creates resentment, and further exacerbates leaks – the longer you wait to formally communicate to key IT team members, the greater the resentment. Bring a trusted, key technology leader in to the process early.

Outplacement Consultants: When you work with us as your Outplacement Team, make sure you are providing your departing workforce with transition programs commensurate to their experience and length of tenure, are treating them with dignity and respect, and make sure you are alerted to trends regarding the mention of your company’s name and Brand – both positive and negative – quickly. The manner in which you deliver the message to transitioning workers is critically important; we will participate in all departing employee notification meetings to quickly give your transitioning workforce positive, next step guidelines that are in their best interest.

Need more information? Call us at 866-214-5445

Read Part I

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An Executive, a Contact, and a Cover Letter, How NOT to get a job interview, from The Blog of David Harkleroad

David Harkleroad, CMO - Managing Director, Global Marketing at Hay Group has a wonderful Blog, and recently posted this gem, How NOT to get a job interview, related to a recent experience he had regarding an Executive, a Contact, and a Cover Letter.

I let David know I'd be pointing to it, and I've also added David's Blog to our Blog Roll. You must read it.

Hay Group is a global management consulting firm that works with leaders to transform strategy into reality. They develop talent, organize people to be more effective and motivate them to perform at their best. Their focus is on making change happen and helping people and organizations realize their potential.

Hay Group has over 2,600 employees working in 86 offices in 47 countries. Hay Group clients come from the private, public and not-for-profit sectors, across every major industry and represent diverse business challenges. For over 60 years, they have been renowned for the quality of their research and the intellectual rigor of their work.

Visit The Hay Group

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What Hasn’t Changed about Career Transition

We all know we’re in an interesting economic climate. With hundreds of thousands of jobs being eliminated (and not being back-filled), I’m in a unique position to do what I do best – assist people through involuntary career transition.

I’ve been doing this for more than twenty years, and of course, a lot has changed.

(Note to all of you really smart people – please stop changing things until I catch up. Thank you.)

What has not changed however is the need for a person to clearly articulate work accomplishments that give them a sense of pride and satisfaction, and why the work contributes to the overall goals of their employer.

This you must still do.

People struggle with this. I struggle with them struggling.

We struggle our little hearts out, because most people can come up with one or two instances of times when they felt they achieved a superior result, and can quantify that result. It is when I ask for fifteen to twenty examples that the struggle begins.

I worked with a terrific group of folks today, who are being transitioned from a good company under new ownership. They are some of the aforementioned smart people – Molecular Biologists. (I’ll link this blog to their Resumes as they complete them).

As we introduced ourselves, one member of the group reminded another that said other also served as Site Safety Lead for the facility.

As we really started to work, I asked the person who had been Site Safety Lead to talk about her accomplishments in that area. She said what so very many people say at this point: “I don’t know, I just did my job.”

As it turns out, she did her job very well. Through asking her questions and probing a bit deeper, she was able to articulate that she attended and completed OSHA Certification, implemented a Site Safety plan, assured understanding of policies, procedures and processes, and maintained not only 100% OSHA compliance, but an accident-free work site as well. Next, we’ll figure out the average cost for an accident and other costs related to safety violations, and she’ll be able to clearly state how much she saved her employer by “just doing her job.”

That’s important, and she feels good about it. She will not refer to it as an “oh by the way.”

When discussing in an interview she’ll sit forward in her chair; her body language will show engagement; she will enjoy discussing the subject. That makes for a much more powerful interview.
So think about what you’ve done, what you’re proud of, what gave you a deep sense of satisfaction, and write the story of it.

Start by identifying:

• The Challenge you faced
• The Action you took
• The Result

Think of the above as a CAR - moving forward (you’ll also see this expressed as STARS, PARS, etc.). Then, flip the CAR upside-down and add an “S” for Statement and edit your story down to 14 to 25 words, beginning with the Result expressed by a strong Action Verb.

Here’s an example:

Achieved more than $5 million in annual savings through complete implementation of SAP software system and communications infrastructure for all Asia-Pacific Facilities.

And another:

Saved more than $250,000 in re-keying labor hours by identifying an inconsistency in CRM application, alerting IT department to issue, assisting in troubleshooting error, and collaborating on fix testing and resolution implementation.

Once you’ve written your accomplishment statements, you'll use these:

• In Cover letters
• In Your “Elevator Speech”
• In Telephone Interviews
• In the Main Body of the Resume
• In Networking
• In Interviewing
• In your Blog/FriendFeed/Plurk/Twitter conversations/VisualCVs and every other social media tool you use

Review the statements to spot patterns of your Traits, Skills, Knowledge and Abilities. This will assist you in writing the Summary Statement which heads the resume, and also will assist you in developing your “Elevator Speech” response to the question, “Tell me a little about yourself.”

This is the foundation exercise for any career transition.

The real bottom-line here is don't wait until you are unemployed to go through this exercise.

This is something you should do once a quarter, every quarter for the rest of your work life. Come up with 3 or 4 quarterly accomplisment statements, and by the end of the year, you'll have a solid history of your work year.

Doing so creates greater engagement conversations no matter your employment status.

If you bump into the CEO in the hall, and he or she asks you “So what have you been doing?” wouldn’t it be great to say “well, I just collaborated on a team that revised our benefits processes and saved the company more than $250,000 a year,” instead of, “Oh you know, same old same old?”

Make this a habit. Go on, do it now.

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HRGuru.com and Karen Masullo

I'm thrilled to be on the Featured Writers page at HRGuru.com, and if you're not familiar with the wonderful HR community they're building, you should be.

HRGuru, is an independently run hub for the HR community.

Theye’re not simply an anonymous job board, not an index of HR agencies and contact information, but something new and different: a place where your lifelong career needs come home to roost.

Whether you’re considering a career in HR for the first time, or a veteran employee, the aim of HRGuru is to serve you. Uniquely. There’s no other place that brings together the tools, information, and community you need to take action on your career aspirations.