Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization Show

Workplace Violence: Is it something that social media and news outlets have normalized within our culture? Current statistics state that over the course of a year, an average of 15 people will lose their lives because of workplace violence, and a staggering 38,500 employees will be attacked from perpetrators while on the job. Yet, while this problem continues to ravage the workforce, 70% of U.S. businesses have no plan in place to protect their employees or customers. Workplace violence experts Jeffrey M Miller and Robert Sollars stopped by the Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization show this week to discuss why workplace violence is on the rise and what companies must do to anticipate, prevent, and neutralize its risk to ensure everyone's safety and well-being. One of my biggest questions for the duo is whether they believe that workplace violence is really on the rise these days or if we are just made more aware because of the media blaring continuous feeds of violent actions through youtube, television, and various internet platforms. As a culture with constant access to every breaking story, no matter how recent or simply recycled it is, have we become so desensitized that we think workplace violence is an issue undeserving of awareness in our lives? As someone who’s quite an authority on the subject, Jeffrey gives us the answers to these questions. CEO of WCI Consulting, Jeffrey focuses on creating threat management systems within businesses to help employees survive and suffer reduced injury in the event of a workplace attack. Helping businesses to define and put into practice specific emergency procedures as well as teaching them to notice and react properly to early warning signs, is what he does best. Additionally, Robert’s 36 years in the security field combined with his in-depth knowledge of the vast amount of early warning indicators in a disgruntled or disrupted individual makes him an equal authority on the posed question. The consensus between both men is that protecting the workplace from violence starts with assessing your company’s individual needs and determining the issues most likely to arise. While acts of workplace violence may seem random, often they are not, and there are hundreds of signs and indicators that should set off warning signals and aid in the prevention of these types of attacks. Prevention doesn’t simply start with co-workers reporting possible causes for concern, such as angry or resentful comments, violent obsessions, or sudden and unusual behaviors. As far as Robert is concerned, prevention starts right at the beginning of an employee’s relationship with the company - the hiring process. Businesses need to know who they are hiring, no matter what level or type of business they are. On the opposite end of things, businesses can’t simply put zero tolerance and no weapons policies in place and expect that to be enough. If a perpetrator of workplace violence feels wronged in some way and is seeking to take action, the only thing a “no weapons on premises” sign is going to do is tell them that nobody on the inside is armed and able to properly defend themselves against an assault. It would seem that having a threat assessment plan or team in place to discuss and monitor employees exhibiting one or many of what Robert calls the “24 Warning Sign” behaviors, while also tracking to see if there is an aggressive progression of the behavior and then, if needed, decide upon a course of corrective action before the employee reaches a point of no return would be ideal as a more effective preventative solution than a write-up or paragraph in the employee handbook. Contact Today’s Guests: Robert Sollars (480) 251-5197 https://robertdsollars.com/   Jeffrey Miller http://attackproofmycompany.com/ jmmiller@warrior-concepts-online.com

David Searns, Haley Marketing CEO, stopped by Geeks Geezers and Googlization this week to discuss the staffing industry's post-Indeedageddon era. (For those of you who don't know, effective 1/7/19 Indeed no longer allows staffing firms and recruiters to post jobs for free.) Indeed is just the tip of a growing challenge staffing and businesses face when it comes to attracting job seekers and qualified workers. Misunderstanding how Google for Jobs works, delivering poor candidate experience, the lack of good recruitment marketing metrics, and low unemployment all contribute to forcing costs up & staffing ROI down. But the biggest culprit for most companies is a leaky company career site. Haley Marketing works with recruitment companies around the world, training them to recruit and engage talent by implementing effective marketing strategies. With “Indeedagedon” and the current low unemployment rate causing companies distress when it comes to receiving applicants for their positions, recruitment departments are looking for other strategies that will drive candidate traffic to their job posts. So now that Indeed has turned the tables when it comes to job posting, how can Google for jobs be utilized in its place? David says the most important thing when it comes to making use of Google’s job board is to make sure that your job is not only posted on your website, but that it’s also optimized for readability so that it can be indexed by Google Careers. Additionally, make sure that any career sites you’re using are also being indexed by Google. Aside from optimizing your job post for Google’s job boards, when it comes to recruitment marketing, David starts each case with what he calls “the four pillars” of recruitment marketing. Your Career Site: What are you doing to ensure that every job-seeker looking at your page applies? Job Advertising: What strategies do you have in place for advertising? Social Recruiting: Do you have a social platform plan in place that’s engaging passive job seekers and interesting them in your company? Your Employment Brand: What does Glassdoor, Indeed reviews, or Google say about you? How do you believe you’ll attract candidates to your company if your employment brand is unknown or poorly represented? In addition to these pillars, David points out that companies currently having the hardest time when it comes to finding and keeping great candidates are the ones who continue to ignore their candidates’ recruitment experience, the application process, mobile application availability, and pay disparity within their workforce. If you want your company to acquire top talent, it’s not only important to address the above issues, it’s absolutely vital. If your job posting isn’t available on mobile, or if your application questions are archaic and unnecessarily lengthy, you’re not going to engage or keep talent. Want to find out more about Haley Marketing? Contact them at – haleymarketing.com Or call: 888.696.2900

According to our guest Venkat Janaparaddy, CEO of Jobiak, over 80% of jobs are not getting indexed by Google. That's a huge problem because 73% of job seekers start their job search on Google! That's why Venkat came up with an AI-machine learning solution that helps companies get their jobs indexed by Google without adding complicated code (job schema) and then getting those job listings ranked higher. How does Google for Jobs work? How can you get Google for Jobs to work for you? Listen!

Job Descriptions are the most unlikely topic for a fun but informative podcast. And yet, our guest today, Karen Young, CEO of HR Resolutions, managed to turn the dull, dreaded job description into a lively conversation. Listen to Karen share why the job description is the hub of talent management, not a legal document only taken out of the drawer only when it's time to post jobs and terminate employees. Karen is also the author of Stop Knocking on my Door: Drama Free HR to Help Grow Your Business Karen’s book is also known as “the primer for the accidental HR manager.” In case it’s not clear, Accidental HR Managers are the people that have either fallen into their HR position because of the way they moved up in a company or because of their experience in a similar position- the managers who have “fallen” into the position and didn’t necessarily start out with the intent to ever work in HR. Without prior recruitment training or experience, these are the Human Resource Managers that are Googling answers to their HR questions and crossing their fingers. Helping these “accidental managers” to succeed, is Karen. The first item on her list of advice? The proper writing of the dreaded job description, aka the “hub of the wheel” when it comes to recruitment. On the show, we go in depth about the information a job description should include, as well as what’s important and what isn’t when it comes to the “essential skills” that should be listed. Additionally, we discuss how a job description can be the key to a drama free HR department. You might be asking how a drama free HR department could EVER be a possibility. Turns out, a drama free workplace starts with a clear job description. When written well, job descriptions can be used for discipline, medical issues, and in workman’s compensation cases. Karen states that “If we have crystal clear expectations from the start between the employee and employer, when things go awry we have an easy way to approach the employee.” The conversation with this employee might go as easily as asking the question, “do you remember when we discussed your responsibilities as written in the job description? Let’s revisit that conversation and get back on track with our mutual expectations of each other.” Having a clear set of written expectations laid out before the candidate is even hired gives one the ability to be able to avoid large amounts of drama as well as have an easy segue into a conversation that involves correcting behaviors. Another important thing to remember when it comes to writing a job description is to involve current employees in the writing. Why? Because no one knows the ins and outs of the position like the employees who work it! It’s an easy way to increase your employee’s sense of well-being by letting them feel listened to and needed. Want to contact Karen Young? Email her at: karen@hrresolutions.com Or visit: www.hrresolutions.com This show is broadcast live on Wednesday's at 1PM ET on W4CY Radio – (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (http://www.talk4radio.com/) on the Talk 4 Media Network (http://www.talk4media.com/). You can reach Karen at karen at HRResolutions.com or visit HR Resolutions. You can purchase "Stop Knocking on My Door: Drama Free HR" on Amazon.

Is working with a 3rd party recruiter worth it? If yes, when is the right time to hire a recruiter and what are reasonable expectations? As more and more companies turn to search firms, or "headhunters," executive recruiters during this historic period of low employment, we took the opportunity to ask those questions and many more to our show guest Hugh Gallagher from The Gallagher Group. We go behind the scenes with Hugh, exploring what employers should expect and how they can be better prepared. The Geeks Geezers and Googlization Show is broadcast live on Wednesday's at 1PM ET on W4CY Radio – (www.w4cy.com). You can view all episodes on Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization or on your favorite podcast platform.

Job hunting used to be so easy. Send a resume. Fill out an application. Schedule an interview. Get hired. Today, it's become a lot more complicated. Both job seekers and employers seem to be like 2 ships passing in the night. That's why we're excited to welcome Courtney Kirschbaum CEO of Job Hunt School, to the Geeks, Geezers, and Googlization Show. Courtney takes us behind the scenes of her job hunting "school" and shares tips and insights about building a compelling resume to get you in the door for your next job. Job School was created for those that have been out of the job hunting game and need advice on how to attract recruiters to themselves. A completely online course, Job Hunt includes live coaching, Q&A sessions, and mentoring calls all aimed at the goal of helping job seekers to develop their “brand”. Courtney goes on to explain that with recruiters now using Linkedin and similar online platforms in their sourcing of candidates, it’s vital that your profile stands out and grabs their attention. Job hunting has gone from an audition to a sales pitch, and you have to market what you have to offer or you’re going to lose out to someone else that has the ability to market themselves. Credentials and resumes matter, but they’re yesterday’s news. Instead, you want to grab the attention of the employer, show off what you have to offer, and get them excited about giving you a future in their company. Courtney’s statement that “job seeking is just another name for sales and marketing” really defines the entire backbone of the lessons that she teaches. The things you write, how you write, what you post, and how you present yourself is your brand and it’s what will lead employers to taking an interest in you. If you’re a job-seeker and not sure where to start, Courtney leaves us with this advice:  “The job-seeker who comes in with an upbeat, optimistic, and willing to do what it takes type attitude; these are the types of people who get the great job offer with a great salary.” Closing thoughts- on your online profile, avoid negativity and showcase your attitude as bright, enthusiastic, and optimistic. Position yourself as someone who recruiters would want to be a part of their team!

Founded in 2011, Talent Board wanted to shed light on companies that were attempting to improve the candidate experience. About 3 ½ years ago, our guest on today’s show, Kevin Grossman, was approached with the offer to run and scale the program. Working with hundreds of employers around the world, Talent Board is a not for profit institution that works to continue educating employers on how to elevate the candidate experience during the recruitment process. Regardless of company size and culture, companies that are investing more in communication have access to more qualified candidates, as well as higher rates of retention. In 2018, 60% of candidates received an automated email turning them down. 20% of candidates received a personal email with the news. 10% of candidates received a phone call. Now, obviously for large scale companies or any business that hires in mass quantities throughout the year, a personal phone call to each rejected candidate is not feasible. Often, automation needs to be used when it comes to turn-down responses. However, it’s important to remember that tech is only as good as how it is being utilized. For example, triggering automated responses at the right time and tweaking the automation so that they are more personalized in style can make all the difference. Another concerning issue is in regards to companies “ghosting” candidates. Over 52% of candidates claim that they didn’t receive any sort of response to their application. Not an automated cold email, nor a personal email, and definitely not a phone call! Businesses would be wise to remember that candidate resentment from a poor interview experience directly affects the chance that they will continue purchasing or consuming products from the company itself, as well as risking their resentment spreading into negative reviews of the business among family and friends. Power has shifted to candidates, and if companies don’t acknowledge this, they may just start to see a shift in their retention of, and access to, qualified candidates. At the end of the day, it’s not automation or tech that’s killing the candidate experience. It’s the absence of communication and the lack of providing them with definitive closure at the end of the day. Candidates just want to know - are you going to choose me or not? Check out Kevin Grossman and the rest of Talent Board at: www.thetalentboard.org

Our guest today is Danny Iny, author of Leveraged Learning and CEO of the online business education company, Mirasee. With his works followed by over 100,000 experts and professionals, Keith and I were excited to have him on the show. In the context of education, a core part of Danny’s belief is that the college degree is a “generic magic ticket to the successful life, costs too much and delivers too little.” The college degree as a measurement tool is no longer working, and the disruption resulting from this fact is obvious. So how do people stuck between these two schools of thought and looking to follow a non-traditional and non-college path obtain the careers that they desire? If you’re looking for the answer, listen in as we dive in to explore this further. I brought up this statistic to Danny as a segue into what he calls the “signals” of the disruption. “Working minimum wage in the late 1970’s- a typical student with a four-year degree could pay off their entire tuition by working 182 hours. That’s a part time, summer job. Currently, it requires working full time for 990 hours just to pay off a community or state college.” This is a perfect example of the “signals” that Danny has been looking at as far as the future disruption of education in the workforce. In this case, the signals are clearly showing the deterioration of the college degree’s value, and that a degree is only as good as your abilities. In and of itself, a college degree is merely a piece of paper and no longer holds the value or weight that it used to. For example, 30 years ago, a college degree was a way to sort through candidates and decide who was qualified or considered valuable enough to spend time interviewing. A degree showed employers that you checked the required boxes for the offered position. It also used to be that only a small minority of the population went to university, and the value of a degree and what it said about a person, was extremely worthwhile. However, things have changed drastically over the years.   Herein lies the issue. In the education and employment sectors, we’re in this place where the old way is falling apart, but there isn’t anything that’s fully replacing it yet. With online courses, or even Youtube, one has the ability to learn anything. Unfortunately, with the vast differences in the value that courses offer and the incompletion rate statistics on such courses, simply taking an online course doesn’t show that you know enough or have the abilities to be truly considered for a position. So what can someone do to succeed when they’ve followed the non-traditional path of abstaining from college? Danny’s advice is this, “You have to construct the signal yourself, and you can do this by building a portfolio that demonstrates what you know how to do and how well you know how to do it.” Regardless of what the old scope or structure of recruiting looks like, there is plenty of opportunity to take advantage of this changing market and use it to propel yourself into the exact career field that you desire. When talking about the non-traditional education paths available, I asked Danny what he’s seen available and how someone should go about choosing the right course or learning tools to help them achieve their career goals. His response? “Start by thinking backwards.” “Start from the end and think, where do I want to be, or where do I want to go in my life and career?  In order for the right doors to open, what do I need to know how to do, and how well do I need to be able to do it?” Once you have the answers to these questions, find people in that field whom you admire or would like to work with and ask them for 10 minutes to explain to you what they’ve done to get where they are. Show them what you think the path is that you need to take, and ask them if you’re on the right track. If you are, ask what online courses or forms of education you should use to get where you want to go and to where they currently are. People that are already out there practicing the skills they’ve learned and leading successful careers will know exactly what it takes in this non-traditional and non-college age to get there.  

Today, Keith and I are happy to have Eric Meyer on the show discussing social media as it applies to at-will employment and HR. A partner in the employment group at FisherBroyles LLP,  Eric Meyer is a volunteer EEOC mediator, a paid private mediator, and publisher of “The Handbook.” https://www.theemployerhandbook.com/ We start off the conversation with this simple and relatable question - “How has social media changed in the last few years, and how should employers be using social media?” Eric’s take on this is that it’s common knowledge that businesses can gain a huge economic advantage from responsibly using social media platforms, and if they are using these platforms, it should come as an obvious fact that companies need to be training their employees to use social media responsibly. This training should cover everything from how one can adjust their privacy settings to instilling awareness in employees that whether or not they are on the clock, they are still accountable for the things they post, tweet, and type. For example, if an employee goes home at the end of the day and posts something that is discriminatory, racist, or simply paints the company in a bad light, then the company has every right to fire them. This is a working example of “at-will” employment. As far as the recruiting aspect of social media, Eric recommends to companies that they create and implement a standardized set of hiring criteria that is applied evenly across the candidate board. This set of hiring criteria is non-negotiable and applies to every applicant being considered for the position. What comes across the desk of the final person making the hiring decision should be clear facts and credentials regarding the candidate, a picture painted from the company’s absolute hiring standards and not based on a person’s race, religion, etc. Moving forward, I asked Eric what his thoughts or suggestions are on how employers should be handling #MeToo and discrimination complaints. First, Eric states that it’s extremely important for companies, managers, and employees to take these complaints seriously. Again, having a clearly written company handbook that states what is tolerated in the workplace and what is not, as well as a list of the avenues that one can go down to place their complaint, is essential. Additionally, it’s worthy to note that each complaint case is different and should be handled accordingly. There are instances in which an employee may consider something said to them as discrimination, when in fact, it wasn’t, by legal or company standards. In these cases, educating the employee or providing counseling while striving to not make them feel like their complaint was unnecessary, is important. Aside from these great thoughts, and steering our talk towards technology, I ask Eric to consider the fact that we know that tech’s pace of change is going to continue happening, and it’s going to keep happening quickly. Knowing this, what impact does he see Artificial Intelligence making in the workplace and are they positive changes? His response was solid. “Using AI for recruiting is only as good as those programming it.” For instance, consider Amazon’s great debacle when it came to light that their algorithm was ignoring a high percentage of female applicants. AI in anything, especially recruiting, ultimately comes back to the humans creating the program, codes, and algorithms. So, Eric advises that companies make certain that they are auditing their hiring processes and not inadvertently discriminating against a certain class. Summing up our conversation, I ask Eric what he sees coming up next in employment law. He believes that the next big thing in 2019 will be the Supreme Court taking up an LGBTQ case and using it to define the instances that violate anti-discriminatory laws in regards to these classes. Contact Eric Meyer https://www.theemployerhandbook.com/ https://www.facebook.com/TheEmployerHandbook/ https://twitter.com/Eric_B_Meyer https://www.linkedin.com/in/emeyer

With 300 million people worldwide suffering from depression and with depression and anxiety disorders costing over 1 trillion dollars each year, I thought a discussion with Dave Quinn of Being Well 365 would be of great value to our listeners. Excited to have him on the show, Keith and I discuss with Dave some of the startling statistics when it comes to employee disengagement related to stress and depression issues. Did you know... 80% of workplace stress affects relationships with family and friends 35% of employees miss 3-5 days of work per month because of workplace stress 71% of employees constantly spend time thinking about or actively looking for another job Keith started our conversation with this thought- “There is a massive element missed in job/life integration. For employers, doesn’t it make sense to help the employees that they already have lead a better life?” Well, in Dave’s opinion, the U.S. spends billions of dollars each year on wellness programs that simply are not working. With a former career in economic development, Dave witnessed fellow colleagues, himself, and their families affected by work stress and started looking for a solution. Wanting to make more of a difference in people’s lives, he developed a program focused on helping businesses retain their current employees and cut down significantly on recruitment and turnover costs by focusing on the mental and emotional state of these same employees. With the mantra “Wellness isn’t a destination, it's a decision you make daily,” Dave created Being Well 365 with the idea that this mindset can help add many quality and productive years to one’s life. Instead of throwing money into wellness tech that doesn’t focus on the person, Being Well 365 brings the human element into a company and gets to the heart of why its employees are disengaged and stressed. Being Well 365 approaches anxiety and depression issues with employees by meeting them where they are, talking to them about what it is that’s causing stress, and teaching them techniques and skills to better cope with what they’re going through. Beyond that, they assess the different departments in a company, looking for pain points, current fires that need to be extinguished, and possible issues that could be on the horizon. After assessing, they offer solutions in the form of different workflow suggestions, day-day department changes, or simply just environmental improvements like loosening the reins on confining cubicles and break time rules, or introducing more “movement” into the office in the form of walking desks or walking breaks. Of course, it’s up to the CEO’s to make the ultimate decision to hire Being Well 365, and convincing them relies on them not only buying into the culture that these mental and emotional issues should be talked about and dealt with in a positive manner, but also showing them the financial benefits of an effective wellness program. Dave says, “We show them the cost of not taking care of these problems and how ignoring these issues leads to higher turnover and recruitment rates. We show them what they’re losing from not investing back into their current staff.” Contact Dave Quinn and Being Well 365 Website: www.Beingwell365.com