Tag Archives: HR

How to successfully pull off a career transition!

Posted on by
1

All in the space of five weeks last year I went from working 5 days a week as an HR Advisor to becoming something that Dan Pink calls a Free Agent. I transitioned out of an HR Generalist Role into several different roles which required a set of skills a lot wider than the ones I was using. After being a big fan of flexible approaches to work, side projects, social entrepreneurship & the concepts mentioned in the four-hour work week I was thoroughly looking forward to this new lifestyle and approach to work.

I had different titles for each of the different projects I was commencing. These included titles such as a social entrepreneur, digital strategist, director of operations & consultant. Now I think it’s important to point out that I never expected to transition careers so early in my working life but my passion for lifelong learning, or #eternalgeekery as someone calls it, always meant that my eyes would wander from time to time.

This is a topic that I’ve wanted to explore for quite some time & that I haven’t covered on my site before. Luckily I was recently approached by Mel Gleeson, a student from RMIT in Melbourne, who was looking at the topic of career transitions. The following is an interview that I did as apart of her assignment.

IKEA Australia Case Study – Now this is how you recruit!

Posted on by
10

Welcome to 2012 readers! It’s going to be a big one. You might have heard (read here) that I’m no longer fully working in the HR space anymore… It’s ok though, because I’m still going to be writing cutting edge HR & Recruitment articles & I’m still consulting & speaking in the HR Space!  

Now you may laugh at this cartoon, I know I did, but when you’re looking to hire employees that live & breathe your brand then it’s essential to ensure that your recruitment process identifies who will be a brand advocate & great hire. Now I’m not saying that every single person in the world has to find a job that aligns with their values & beliefs. Sometimes you need a job that pays the bills or is a stepping stone (I’ve had both).

But I’m here to showcase the worlds leading organisations & forward thinking HR & Recruitment practices so that everyone who reads this blog will feel inspired & motivated to go find jobs & projects that they truly care about. That’s why I’m showcasing the latest effort from IKEA Australia.

IKEA, you either love or hate the place. Those of us who love it (like I do) will order the catalogues in advance, highlight the living daylight out of the catalogue & then go around in circles for a day trying to find everything to brighten up your flat, apartment or McMansion.

So if I was the head of HR at IKEA & had been tasked with find a couple of hundred new staff then I’d be wanting to talk to & interview as many of those brand advocates & fans as I could. So how could they have done this?

Ask if they’re looking for a job at the registers?
Pro: After realising how much they’ve spent they might consider taking on a second job. 
Con: Slows down the transaction.

Or they could have done this. Which in my opinion is ingenious.


Pretty neat huh? Let me know of an organisation you know who looks to hire their biggest fans.

#TruAustralia

Posted on by
Reply

Bill Boorman has blown up the traditional conference and thrown away the rule book. His TRU events have become a global phenomena. TRU is now truly global with unconferences having taken place in the United Kingdom, Holland, America and most recently a couple of weeks ago in South Africa and attracted about 220 attendees. Topics are deconstructed and conversation goes where the discussion flows, which is sometimes onto a completely new topic. The focus is purely on the audience. The audience are active participants, there’s lots of discussion, debate, sharing of ideas and opinions, and getting off one’s seat and moving around.

The Recruiting Unconference (#truAustralia)  

The first ever #TruAustralia comes to Melbourne next Friday. To get more people to experience an UnConference and have more concurrent tracks running, Bill has dropped the Un-price to AU$150 +GST – which in my opinion is the best value for money professional development you can buy.

How would I know? Because I led a track at #TruLondon in February this year alongside online megastars Laurie Ruettimann and John Sumser. It was an incredible experience. I learnt more about the industry and the profession in those couple of days then I did in three years at university. The networking opportunities were the best I’ve experienced to date due to the nature of an UnConference and I’ve made life long friends from the experience plus did I mention the fact that I spoke at a conference in London!

There’s no powerpoint and no presenters, only track leaders. It’s worth attending #truAustralia just to see how amazing an UnConference can be. After attending one I assure you that every other conference you attend will never feel the same.

Networking won’t kill you…. Or will it?

Posted on by
7

Networking won't kill you. But this might!

Networking doesn’t come easy to everyone. In fact my first networking experience nearly killed me. I’ve had a few enquiries recently from people who wanted to learn a bit more about my approach to networking so I thought I’d start by sharing the story about my first ever networking story and then follow that up with another post with some tips on how I capitalised on this event. 

How my career in HR nearly killed me. 

I find the fact that I mentor young students on their career paths quite ironic as I didn’t follow a career path myself. But after young professionals hear my story & how I have shaped my career path, I truly think it inspires them to take control of their own career and know that anything is possible.

After finishing High School in 2006, I got my dream offer of a Bachelor of Business at QUT in Brisbane, Australia. It had awards from all around the world and is recognised globally as a great university to study business. To say I was excited was an understatement.

Fast-forward twelve (12) months and I had managed to completely screw my degree up. I spent the first year of university chasing girls & drinking in the bar instead of attending lectures. I managed to scrape through six (6) passes and two (2) conceded passes in my eight (8) subjects. I originally thought marketing was the major for me. But after not really shining in any of the first year subjects (marketing, management, accounting, statistical analysis, business law & ethics etc) I was at a loss at what to do in my second year.

After a quick chat with my father he told me to go with a stable career like Finance. It was at that stage that wisdom from a past life kicked in. I told him ‘Dad as stable as that career might be I just don’t like numbers. I don’t enjoy numbers & regardless of the job prospects or the potential earning capacity of the job, I just couldn’t do it. It doesn’t inspire me.’ He asked what other majors were on offer. I said ‘what about this thing called Human Resource Management.’ Dad looked at me & goes ‘I think you’d be pretty good at that. Give it a shot.’

So now it’s the start of 2008 & after really enjoying my the first three weeks of lectures & being quite excited about the role that HR plays in organisations, I had another one of those moments when past wisdom kicked in. I knew that I needed work experience for two reasons.

1. To apply what I was learning to the workplace

2. To boost my resume & employability after the car crash of a first year

So when I went up to the Lecturer after class to ask how can I try to get work experience, she looked at me and laughed. First, you have to cut that hair; and second, you have to network. To understand why I needed to visit the barber, here is a picture (guaranteed to make you laugh and smile) to explain how much of a HRockstar I looked back then…

So one week later and hair still at the same length, maybe even a little longer, I decided to attend an AHRI (Australian Human Resource Institute – Similar to SHRM for US folks and CIPD for UK folks) event and try my hand at networking. I did a bit of research and read it was polite to have some food/drink in the left hand and the right hand free for handshakes and business cards. I was a bit nervous so every time the waiter came around with food I just took some and kept meeting and listening to peoples’ stories. This is probably a good time to let everyone know that I’m allergic to seafood.

Whilst talking to a nice man about a potential HR internship available in the company he worked for, I slipped into my mouth what I thought was a vegetable dim sim. As I was nodding my head enthusiastically about the opportunity available, I started to feel my throat swell up. I was starting to panic. The two friends who didn’t want to be there and were attending merely for moral support noticed that I didn’t look right. As I was writing down my email address, I felt it close in more and I started to feel light-headed. I quickly thanked him for his time and managed to mumble out that I look forward to hearing from him.

I was now racing down to the elevator out to fresh air and explained to my friends what I thought had happened. I tried to walk back to where I parked my car in the city but could only make it about half way there when I started vomiting. What made this more embarrassing is that it was a Wednesday night, I had stopped right in front of a pub, and was vomiting at 7pm. I was now being called a drunk by cars as they drove by. After making my way to the hospital via an ambulance due to having an allergic reaction to seafood, I was back on my way home a few hours later. After all that, I was very glad that three weeks later after an informal interview and my long hair still in tact, I was offered the job.

2009 came around and I knew I had to keep thinking outside the box to be an attractive candidate to employers. I took up the Presidential reigns of the HR student group at QUT, was working three days a week in a large corporate HR department, had just purchased my first ever business cards, had an 80% complete LinkedIn Profile, and was networking like crazy and loving every minute of it. My marks were improving dramatically and I started to realize that I had a passion for all things on the ‘softer side’ of people management. Recruitment, attraction, retention, engagement, training, onboarding, change management, organisational culture and talent management were words that really excited me as I continued my own forms of professional development by reading books, blogs, and buying HR professionals’ coffee so that I could network with them and learn as much as I could about the profession!

All of this work paid off as I graduated with a Bachelor of Business with a major and extension in Human Resource Management in November 2009. In February 2010 I was offered a position in an HR Graduate Program beating over a hundred & sixty other HR Graduates.

That wasn’t enough though as resting on my laurels is not what I’m about. After finding a job that I love and am passionate about, I found myself doing a lot of reading for my own professional development. I also started to find lots of professionals around the same age as me (21) asking questions about my journey and breaking into HR. It was at this time that I decided to try my hand at sharing my knowledge through blogging, Twitter & public speaking.

Since then I’ve also learned the importance of having an online presence and the Google search. Whilst having a unique name such as Damon Klotz was great for SEO, I wanted more than that. I started reading about branding on a corporate and personal level. So I thought to myself what do I stand for. It was a combination of my dress sense, my long hair (it’s a bit shorter now), my loud personality, my need to voice my opinion with an amplifier (my blog/twitter), as well as my desire to bring change to my profession that The HRockstar was born! So The HRockstar is here to stay. I love my work; my networks from around the world and my love of travel (spell my name backwards!). I was lucky enough to be able meet some amazing thought leaders at #TruLondon in February where I also got the chance to speak and make my international speaking debut. When I consider the cataclysmic changes my life has witnessed from 2007 to 2011, I can only look to the future with anticipation & the glint of desire in my eyes.

So in the last three (3) and a bit years, I’ve learned a hell of a lot including not to eat seafood even if it’s polite and that ladies and gentlemen is the story of how my career in HR nearly killed me!

#SOSU11

Posted on by
Reply

The Australasian Sourcing Summit kicks off today in Sydney. I’m looking forward to hearing from some global thought leaders in this space and to learn more about talent communities and integrating social media into your efforts.

I’m live blogging the two days and you can read all about it here - http://sosu11.posterous.com/

Don’t forget you can follow all the tweets here!

Who Is The Worlds Worst Boss?

Posted on by
2

The world’s worst boss

That would be you.

Even if you’re not self-employed, your boss is you. You manage your career, your day, your responses. You manage how you sell your services and your education and the way you talk to yourself.

Odds are, you’re doing it poorly.

If you had a manager that talked to you the way you talked to you, you’d quit. If you had a boss that wasted as much as your time as you do, they’d fire her. If an organization developed its employees as poorly as you are developing yourself, it would soon go under.

I’m amazed at how often people choose to fail when they go out on their own or when they end up in one of those rare jobs that encourages one to set an agenda and manage themselves. Faced with the freedom to excel, they falter and hesitate and stall and ultimately punt.

We are surprised when someone self-directed arrives on the scene. Someone who figures out a way to work from home and then turns that into a two-year journey, laptop in hand, as they explore the world while doing their job. We are shocked that someone uses evenings and weekends to get a second education or start a useful new side business. And we’re envious when we encounter someone who has managed to bootstrap themselves into happiness, as if that’s rare or even uncalled for.

There are few good books on being a good manager. Fewer still on managing yourself. It’s hard to think of a more essential thing to learn.

Post thanks to Seth Godin

Recruitment 2.0 – For the Employer

Posted on by
2

With changing technologies comes changing demands. As Apple continues to tell us with each new iPhone they bring out “This changes everything. Again.” I think the same can be said about the way we in HR are looking at recruiting all new staff (notice I didn’t say “how we recruit young gen y candidates!” This applies to everyone).

Candidates are expecting more from potential employers and vice versa. So this week I am going to look at Recruitment 2.0 from the Employers perspective.

A standard job ad in the paper was deemed a viable option only a few years ago. But now, in 2010, candidates are asking for more than just an online ad with a  generic organisational summary and role description. Candidates want to see pictures from the office, video testimonials from the organisations leaders & in some cases hearing from the person currently sitting in the role which was recently made famous by the Replace Brie campaign run by AdCorp.

But if an employer is looking for a certain type of candidate such as a creative genius, technological wizz or the like then you have to use mediums and techniques that will appeal to those specific types. An example of this is the search for the next digital dragon. The St. George Illawarra Dragons have used a combination of facebook, twitter, youtube, websites and their constant PR man Wendel Sailor to hunt down a new Digital Communications Coordinator.

By using all these different mediums The Dragons are ensuring that they are appealing to the best in the business. Because who in their right mind would apply for an IT job that was only advertised in the newspaper? Doesn’t exactly scream ‘we are an innovative IT company’ now does it.

With a shifting job market where candidates can become more choosey about where and who they work for Recruitment 2.0 needs to be put on the agenda. When you consider the cost of hiring a new employee, not to mention the costs associated with hiring the wrong employee, I urge you to stop for a second and think about the specific job you are hiring for and what mediums you should be looking at using to ensure a quality candidate pool.

If you have any other examples let me know in the comments or write a blog post about it and let me know!

In an upcoming post I’ll be looking at Recruitment 2.0 from the candidates perspective.

HRockstar strumming out!

The HRockstar

Posted on by
5

The HRockstar. I have tagged myself as The HRockstar for some time now but have never really delved into what it means to me and how it comes across to others.

H-R-ockstar
- Noun
1. A passionate young professional who drips in style, substance and swagger that cares about helping people realise their full potential. 

I had a very enjoyable coffee the other day with somebody whose first thought on it was ‘elegantly drunk’. I’m sure that depending on how many hours ago work had finished on a Friday that The HRockstar could well be that very character.

But besides being a conversation starter and my personal brand it’s most valuable asset is the fact that it’s remarkable. So much so that people do address me as The HRockstar.

So what I want to know from you guys in the comments is:

  • Do you have a personal brand?
  • Do you have any crazy personas or nicknames that could sum you up as a professional?

If this has never crossed your mind but you think it is something you may be interested in then leave me a comment and lets work together to see what we can come up with.

HRockstar strumming out.

What is your secret to passion, drive and….?

Posted on by
1

I have had the privilege of speaking at a few forums recently including the chance to get up in front of young professionals and students about my career in HR to date.

Usually I get quite a few enquiries about my drive, determination and passion for all things HR and what is my secret to finding success at such a young age. I’ve found it quite hard to answer these questions. But obviously I was not the only one.

After I watched this video on my lunchtime inspiration session it all clicked. I knew I had passion and ideas but I couldn’t explain the rest until now.

  • Passion: Once I found HR it wasn’t work anymore, it wasn’t about picking the major with the most money. It was using my ideas to ensure that in a nutshell workplaces were sustainable and workforces were sustained 
  • Work: I have big plans to really shake up HR as we know it. But I know that it is going to take nothing but hard work. As Guy Kawasaki said “Create like a god, command like a king, work like a slave.” I’m up for it
  • Focus: I’m focused to become known the world over as The HRockstar. The kid who really redefined what modern day HR is. Try and stop me!
  • Persist: Bring on the CRAP as Richard St. John puts it. I’ll see you on the otherside of it.
  • Ideas: I am full of them, hundreds come through daily. But I am now ready to start shipping my ideas both within my organisations and to the wider industry.
  • Good: This goes with my work ethic. I found my HR passion at 20 years of age. That is a hell of a long time to get good at it. But I’m starting now and I’ve hit the ground running by reading, listening, watching and doing as much as I can related to HR, people and business
  • Push: I’ve pushed myself through lots of challenging situations from the self-doubt of not thinking I was cut out for university to pushing myself into new cities and industries to build new networks away from my HR circle
  • Serve: This is what I try to do with my presentations, with this blog and with an upcoming business I’m starting. To serve the HR industry and young students by helping them connect with their passion and by mentoring them on how to crush it in the business world and the hidden job market

If you are reading this with self doubt about your career, your studies or your current job rewatch the video and visualize each one of the 8 words and have a think about whether or not your current path is checking each one of those 8 boxes. If it’s not and you want some coaching around it I know of some great career coaches or I can personally sit down or virtually sit down and talk these things out, email me at damon dot klotz @ gmail dot com

This has been a timely post as I am speaking again in two weeks at a forum about young HR professionals in the workforce and I now finally have some concrete reasoning behind the tour de force that is The HRockstar.

Happy reflecting!

Why do we need HR?

Posted on by
Reply

I’m going to summarize an excerpt from China Gorman to answer this one.

“Regardless of the size of your organisation, the essential role of HR is to ensure that the organisations workforce is sustained and sustainable. This is what makes HR the most critical function in the organisation.”

I love this because it’s short and sweet and sums it up perfectly.

If you can see that your workforce isn’t sustained or sustainable don’t wait to be asked, don’t wait for ‘that seat’ at the table, step up and make the change yourself.

What have you done in your career to ensure that your workforce is sustained and sustainable?