If I Was Running A Company…Nonprofit Business

Last week, I discuss how a job seeker can join the world of nonprofits.  Now, I’m here to tell what to expect of going into nonprofits.

What Nonprofits Do:

If you want to get into nonprofits, understand their biggest strength: storytelling.  Nonprofits are there to send a message to an audience.  Nonprofits bring an emotional attachment that the person can either donate money, volunteer, or spend more time on the subject.  If there is no attachment, there will be no cause and no nonprofit.  That is why it is important what makes you tick and how to utilize your skills for “good.”

Benefits:

You know the deal that nonprofits don’t pay as much and work for long hours.  There are two reason why salaries are low.  One is funding for salaries since most come of the salary comes from the government and there are restrictions on how to spend that money.  The other reason salaries are low is your organization is spending a lot on benefits from healthcare, retirement, life insurance, and others to make up for the salary and let you have close to security in the future.

Resources:

I would like to call the nonprofiteers the “Moneyballers” of an organization.  Although nonprofits do not have the resources like the private sector has, nonprofiteers are very clever and know how to maximize with little.  This article from Harvard Business Publishing tells exactly how nonprofits use their resources.

The key player:

Although storytelling and emotional content can bring people together, the most important person in nonprofits is the fundraiser.  The fundraiser can have many faces within a nonprofit: it has a face (or voice) people recognize, a salesperson who cares about the cause, and a super salesperson/networker.  The first two is easy to identify if done properly, but the last one is like the Angel of Death.  It is the one person that you don’t want to see, but it is willing to protect you.  In this case, the fundraiser’s sole objective is to raise money by any means necessary.  Storytelling might bring people to watch a mural, but the fundraiser drives the nonprofits to monetary success.

This brings to the overall point about working for nonprofits currently is strictly business.  Don’t get me wrong, there are going to be business aspects anywhere you go, including nonprofits, but nonprofits need to pick their spots.  What business does for nonprofits is give them structure, but it is also the nonprofits job to keep the focus on their cause and storytelling, but the both can overlap at times.

In the two posts I wrote about nonprofits the past couple weeks, one thing that stands out is work that you care for.  That is why I mention to job seekers to find three organizations/causes you want to work for.  If you don’t have any purpose of what you’re working, then what’s the point of job searching and vice versa for the employees working in nonprofits?

If I Was Running A Company…Pop Culture HR Award

I remember an article that SHRM Magazine publish for their 50th Anniversary celebration of the 50 people who changed HR.  That was an impressive list of people from business, scientists, policymakers, newsmakers, and others.  This has me wondering…since I make a lot of pop culture references and write HR/recruiting posts weekly (or try to), why not a Pop Culture HR Award?

The criteria are simple: anyone of pop culture significance (real or fictional) contributed to any part of HR either by entertain, inform, or revolutionize what others see in HR (directly or indirectly).  I will be doing this from time to time if I have nothing to write and really, I’m stealing the format from the Hardball Award Chris Matthews does.

There were so many choices and I assure they’ll get in somehow.  However, for the first winner of the Pop Culture HR Award, it’s fitting I chose this week to start because this is Christmas, Thanksgiving, and the Super Bowl for this person.  This person had a similar upbringing to the history of human resources:  they were mocked by friends, both professions were ridicule by the public, and both were viewed as “filler.”  Today, their positions grew with power, fame, and notoriety over time as an important part of their respective industry.  This person made it the biggest non-event in the industry.

Ladies and gentlemen, I bring to you the first winner of the Pop Culture HR Award…

MEL KIPER, JR.

If you do not know Mel’s story, think of it as Nate Silver stealing his career path.  Mel started his own company as a college student called Draft Publications (now Kiper Enterprises) in 1981.  He wrote scouting reports, grades the top 300 players in college football who are coming out, and was the first person to institute the mock draft.  Mel would send in his scouting reports to all of the NFL teams to give them detailed information of the players.  He got an offer as a scout for the Baltimore Colts, but Mel decline.  Ernie Arcosi, General Manager of the Baltimore Colts at the time, told Mel that he should become an NFL Draft Analyst.  In 1984, ESPN hired Mel as their NFL Draft guru.  People hated the move because 1) Mel was not a former football player or a scout and 2) Mel was a nerd when nerds were not cool at the time.  Twenty-five years later, not only Mel still has his job as the main NFL Draft Analyst for ESPN, but he has created a cottage industry for “draftniks” from shrubs like me.

Mel’s position was one of a kind in the 1980s and 1990s, but with the internet, fantasy football, and the NFL Network in the 2000s, most football fans believe they can be “draftniks” like Mel.  There are numerous blogs and articles about the NFL Draft because this is the only time fans can act like the General Manager and Mel has open the door since he was neither a player, coach, or scout.  Currently, there are 3 prominent draft analysts: Kiper, fellow ESPN Draft Analyst Todd McShay, and NFL Draft Analyst for the NFL Network, Mike Mayock.  It used to be Mel was the sole voice, now with competition, he can do this:

Mel’s track record is like your typical hiring manager in your business;  he has a lot of hits from John Elway (Mel’s only Hall of Fame rating he gave throughout his 30 years of covering the Draft), Trent Dilfer, and the blunders from the New York Jets of the 80s and 90s.

Then again, Mel has a lot of misses from his love for Andre Ware, who was a bust with the Detroit Lions and former USC wide receiver great Mike Williams, who Mel proclaim to ESPN NFL Analyst Merrill Hoge, “I’ll see you at his [Williams] Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony!”  Although to be fair, the NFL Draft is a crapshoot since it depends on numerous factors from personality, development, and miscellaneous factors.

In an HR/Recruiting perspective, Mel would be considered the HR Consultant/Advisor, specializing in placement to find the team the right fit for the organization from the structure that he is given and compensation since he looks at the team for needs, when and where the player was drafted, and the overall value of the player means to the team.  Mel can also review the NFL teams’ draft picks, what they achieve, what they did not do, and how to improve the team before training camp opens.

As a pioneer of making the NFL Draft the second most publicized event in football, his Dick Clark genetics, his world famous hair, which should of been the new SHRM logo in 2007, and his eerie parallel path with HR is why Mel Kiper, Jr. is the first Pop Culture HR Award recipient.

Epilogue: the NFL Draft is this Saturday and Sunday on ESPN and NFL Network.  Also, I want to know who in pop culture should get an HR award? Discuss.

“Top Talent”

There are sayings I do get tired of:

• You know…
• My deal is…
• Here’s the problem…
• Honey, you’re beautiful
• Scrappy-Doo

Nonetheless, there’s another saying that is climbing on this board that has been bothering me for a long time…”Getting the top (or best) talent.”  If that statement were true today, here’s what would have happen:

·         The New York Cosmos will still be dominating the NASL and soccer would be one of the top-tier sports.

·         Ishtar – One of the greatest films of all-time.

·         My beloved Washington Redskins are the team of the decade by winning 5 Super Bowls in 8 seasons (except 2001 when Tony Banks was our quarterback, 2006 where the Colts deserve the championship, and 2007).

·         The 2007-08 New England Patriots:  Best NFL Team Ever.

·         The 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers will have to be in the top 3 teams of all-time with Shaq, Kobe, The Mailman, and The Glove.

·         People flock to Houston with Enron, oil companies that have so much capital, and innovation to prevent flooding during hurricanes.

·         The New York Yankees.  Period.

·         Finally, the United States is home of innovation and collaboration.

Of course, none of that happened (except for the New York Cosmos, but they spoiled it by bringing in big-name talent on their team and bankrupt the league). 

The point is this should be a warning for recruiters of any business right now to assess their talent and to think of the future.  The problem with most recruiters is they trust the resume they were giving, love the tone of the voice during the interview, and love of all the positive reviews from references.  The new hire has this entire buzz, but a few months in, you realize the person is not bringing in much.  For this, I would like to call these types of people, the Mike Mamulas (or for the current crowd, the Matt Joneses).  They’re impressive when you talked and collaborate with them, but never executed when the actual work starts.

During these downtimes, this is where recruiters should make and really earn their money.  A true recruiter should not rely on “Mel Kiper’s Big Draft Board” or “fantasy football magazines” to assist on selecting a new employee.  They only serve as a reference.  It must be a consensus between you and the division that is hiring, to pick not only that they are talented, but can be the right fit with the company and the co-workers.   You have the information and a feel for the applicant, but the most important is do you want the position to have growth or an immediate position to replace the incumbent?  What I’m saying is don’t try to take the safe bet of every position you hire.  Try to be bold on a couple positions, but make sure you calculate the risks and make sure the hire is good not only for the short-term, but for the long haul.

Now, there will be superstars in the talent pool, but rarely, you see a natural superstar (i.e. Elway, LeBron in a sports theme) come by to your company and take it by his/her shoulders.  Mostly superstars will generally come from the bottom-up with training and an extensive knowledge of the ins and outs of the company.  However, in the age of “free agency,” it’s hard to retain talent for a long time.

So the moral of the story is don’t build a team around a bunch of superstars and egos, build a company that employees care and the depth of the company is deep that when a key employee leaves, someone internally can fill those shoes instantly.

Remember:  Don’t Rebuild, Reload.

The Future of Employment

Since I started my company a month ago (technically, I’m unemployed, but if I make a profit this year, I’m officially self-employed.  That’s my rule of thumb), a lot has happened.  There was the start of a big economic crisis, which has lead the stock market into chaos, Alan Greenspan admitting his mistake that he created this mess, George W. Bush is still president, and a bunch of companies started having hiring freezes and layoffs, causing people to scramble this holiday season.  This brings up two trains of thought.

The first one is the generational gap of these businesses.  I spoke to a fellow alum of George Mason about this and we’re somewhat competitors in our industry.  We talk about that our generation (Millennials) does not like the big companies and people our age prefer smaller or medium companies that speaks to them.  If you been reading current events the past few years, you already know about company downsizing, bigger banks taking over others, mergers, buyouts, golden parachutes, etc.  People are much fed up that the additional money goes to the people who caused these situations, which make some potential job seekers very hesitant.  The Millennials want to have the freedom that there should be no supervision and work as independents in their jobs.

However, the trend will continue to get young talent to the big companies because the big companies have what most companies do not have:  money.  I would refer companies like Booz Allen & Hamilton, Ernst & Young, and other big companies as “adult internships” that pay the job very well, but only on a short-term basis.  These jobs have everyone applying for and who can’t blame them.  These jobs will cover their student loans, grad school, and the occasional bachelor parties and hang-outs.  That’s great and all and more power to them, but what’s next?

This leads to the second thing I want to talk about and that is company identity.  From the articles from Laurie, Jenn, HR Minion, and Mark, who all went to the Talent Management Summit in Vegas (I couldn’t come because of money plus I would of gamble like crazy), the material is the same old HR stuff and still companies think HR can have a seat on the table and the need to “speak the language of business.”  What language is that, the Harvard Business Review? This is where companies need an overhaul of their business strategy.

As I’ve mention before in my Big Announcement post, companies must focus on their brand first and hire talent who actually gives a damn about the product and would want to work there.  Most of the companies are just hiring talent like the 2000 Dan Snyder Redskins.  If you remember that team;  after a playoff season the previous year, they signed Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, and Mark Carrier for a lot of money, plus they had 2 of the first 3 picks in the 2000 NFL Draft.  There was hype around the team to win the Super Bowl.  What happened?  Team started 6-2 and ended 8-8 and did not make the playoffs.  This is a perfect example of what your company looks like now.  Do not get me wrong, you do need superstars in your company, but you also need the “blue-collar” people who can do the dirty work to have success.  Also, you need these people who admire the leadership and the mission and values of the company to make you work for them.

According to Dan Pink, we are living in a Free Agent Nation, and he’s correct.  However, I will take it one step further and this is where companies need to go.  EVERYONE IS A FREE AGENT!!!  At my last company when I announce that I was starting up my own company, they said the typical stuff, but then I heard that I should of mention I was interviewing for other HR jobs and they would like to assist on my search.  If I were of known that, I would have mention I was job searching way earlier. 

I do believe both employee and employer do need to be transparent and communicate about the next step.  Of course, the number one issue will be money and that makes it very complicated, but if the worker cares about is getting a raise and get a bonus, then that person would have to look elsewhere if he cares is a paycheck.  My belief is that there’s a match somewhere for every employee or job seeker here.  It is also the company’s responsibility to be open to their employees of what they are and this is where there’s a huge disconnect because they assume people chose to be here and they did, but it could be many reasons why they selected the company.  The other side of the argument is the variables of each job from corporate culture, the chemistry of the employees, and if this is for the short or long haul?  I will say take it day-to-day.  Employers are not expecting employees to stay there for a long time, but it’s their responsibility to make employees comfortable during their time and it’s the individual who decides if they are doing enough for the company or themselves.

You are thinking this is a radical idea of overhauling the old business system.  You’re right.  The reason for the downturn in the economy and employment is that we believe too much of our leaders and executives will fix anything, have all the answers, and our guard will never let us down.  However in most cases, it did and now everyone is scrambling for answers.  There is one answer to solve all these problems:  YOU.  You need to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your networks, your passions and interests, and your beliefs and values.   If you answer all these questions, you’re prepared to jump back in the job market and find a job that you want.  For the economy to rebound it’s you that dictates the market and companies will be looking for a leader or a contributor to help their company.  The final answer will always be you if you want the job.  That’s why 2006 Time’s Person of the Year is You.  Like every answer in physics is inertia, every answer to the economy and businesses is YOU;  don’t forget it.