Telecommuting: Is Banning it a Terrible Idea?

In light of the alleged ban of telecommuting by Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, I took the opportunity to address some key points on the issue. I read the memo and despite the media coverage, there was no mention of a “ban.” Employees were “asked” to come to work physical locations in the interest of fostering a more collaborative environment … and then the world exploded.

As someone who has worked on both the administration of a telecommuting policy, and telecommuted myself, the media coverage of this issue struck a chord with me.  First, let’s take a look at a few of the issues.

Entitlement

Granting your employees the ability to work from home gives them the flexibility to balance their personal lives and their work. This type of flexibility really lets your employees know you appreciate that they can benefit from not having to be in the office all day. Nothing says work-life balance like being able to take a conference call on the toilet, while there’s a roast in the oven. Employees who have enjoyed this privilege up until now will be just as outraged and offended as if their pensions had been rolled back.

Legal Obligations

Employers are required to provide telecommuting as a reasonable accommodation for disabled employees. An all-out ban would be completely illegal. The interesting component to this will be how Yahoo addresses employees who refuse to come back to the office on a full time basis. Do they have a clause in their contract that requires an employee to be in the physical office when asked, and does it cover the frequency with which they are now being asked to be present? Could an employee argue that the terms of their employment included the assumption that they would have telecommuting privileges?

Cost

A remote workforce obviously reduces overhead for the company, but also reduces the cost to the employee. This includes daycare, transportation, parking and more. This is going to be another bone of contention as employees start to experience increased work-related costs as a result of this new initiative. It’s not good for Mayer’s PR that she’s increasing daycare costs for some of her employees after building a nursery onto her office. However, she paid for that nursery with her own money, and rich people have babies differently than the rest of us.

Innovation

The whole purpose of the change in Yahoo’s telecommuting perspective is to foster innovation within the company (I used the term perspective, because there doesn’t appear to be any changes to a policy anywhere in the memo). There are many strategies and tools companies can use to encourage employees to communicate with their peers remotely, but honestly nothing really beats living with your co-workers for 8 hours per day. You never accidentally bump into anyone at your home office, and you rarely interact with anyone you don’t work with directly. Being physically present in the office creates a lot more opportunity to interact with co-workers on a more personal level.

Example: Employee A bumps into you in the hallway and complains about project X, and you (as an outsider) can provide input that may different from other employees assigned to the project.

Yahoo is really just going to have to gauge the feedback from employees to determine how this will play out. The media backlash is really coming from people talking about efficiency, and it WAS implied that employees cannot be as efficient from home, which contradicts a whole lot of recent research. Many are shocked that this reduction in flexibility is coming from a working mom…she went to work two weeks after childbirth…why would you think she would sympathize with someone who doesn’t want to drive to work in the morning? 

Personal Marketing: The New Job Search

If you’ve been unemployed recently, you’ll notice that the job hunt has changed drastically from what it used to be. You used to submit applications to job postings, sit home and wait for someone to call you for an interview. People don’t do this anymore. We’re still in a recession and unemployment rates are still high. Because of this, it’s likely that someone more qualified than you had applied to these open competitions anyway. If you’re sitting home waiting for the standard process to work, you’re going to be sitting there for a long time.

I've spoken at length about how to use social media to network and get yourself noticed outside the traditional channels. In addition to doing this, you need something about you that stands out from the other candidates, and then you need to effectively convey that to potential employers. You basically need a personal marketing plan.

1. Describe Your Dream Job

First you need to identify what you want to be doing.

• What are the skills someone doing that job needs to have?
• What are that person’s daily tasks?
• What behavioural competencies are required for this position?
• What type of experience does that person need?
• What does this person’s career path look like?

You should be able to answer most of these questions before even starting to think about applying. Then you need to identify the gaps between you and the ideal candidate for this position. Before applying for this position, you may need to upgrade some skills or gain some experience. Don’t sit there defeated saying “I can’t get experience because no one will hire me.” There are internship opportunities or not-for-profits, and small businesses who would gladly accept a volunteer to do whatever it is you do. Then when you introduce yourself, you can replace the word “unemployed bum” with “freelancer” or “professional consultant” even if you’re not getting paid.

2. Identify Your Key Differentiators

• What is unique about you?
• Why do you stand out from the other candidates?
• Do you have accomplishments that other candidates may not have (i.e. awards, publications, relevant memberships, etc.)?

Get to know your own personality. Ask some friends how they would describe you. You need recruiters to look at your resume and online profiles, and really feel like they know you. Unless you’re just a miserable person… then hide your personality at all costs.

3. Build Your Brand

Once you’ve done this, you need to be able to describe yourself as the ideal candidate. Seamlessly link your description of yourself to the description of the ideal candidate. When you introduce yourself to people, they will often ask what you do. You need a brief description of yourself that highlights your key differentiators. You should also tailor it to your audience. There may be more than one career path to your ideal job, or more than one job that interests you. Know your audience, and make sure you’re telling them what they want to hear from you. Companies wouldn’t use the same marketing collateral across all clients. They tailor it to highlight the products or services most valued by different target markets. You should do the same for your target companies.  

4. Execute

Once you’ve created the outline of your candidate brand, update all of your social networking sites well as your resume, business card, etc. to reflect this brand. Then you can start to develop an application process. Much like a sales process, you’re going to be generating leads and identifying the most effective methods of reaching out to those companies, that is consistent with your personal brand. I have an entire series of “How To” posts about using social networking for the job hunt called “Dude Where’s My Job?” Take a look back through for more tips on interacting with these companies online.

Sitting at home, filling out applications and applying to open ads is old-school. That job search model is not productive in this type of economy, so why would you sit home and do the same thing over and over again with no results? Stand out and be productive.

The Job Hunt Blues

People often tell you that looking for work is a full time job. Those people are correct. It is actually the WORST job ever because you don’t get paid and the more you have do it, the worse you feel about yourself. Like a regular job, you need a work-life balance. This is actually more important than it is in a regular job, because companies need to see you at your best. If you’re too eager, or mopey, or tired your chances of success decrease slightly. Sitting at home doing the same thing over and over again with little or no success really demotivates a lot of people and they start complaining about everything, including the lack of employment in their respective areas. This is not attractive to any prospective employer.

Lucky for you, I’ve put together one of my famous numbered lists to solve all your problems.

1.       Wake Up at an Appropriate Time

It’s really easy when you don’t have a place to be, to sleep in, watch cartoons and live the sedentary life. You still have to put in the hours to be an effective job seeker. Also, interviews are always during work hours, so you’ll most likely need to be alert for a morning interview. It’s hard to do that at a 9am interview if you’re used to waking up at noon.

2.       Plan a Full Workday

It’s really easy to get sidetracked when you don’t have a plan. Create a job hunting strategy and map out all of the tasks involved.  You know when you are the most effective, so you can plan the heavy stuff for those times. You need to take into consideration the time it takes to fill out applications, write cover letters and tailor your resume. Make sure you include time to use social networking for job hunting purposes, and attend physical networking events as well. A former employer of mine once told me not to work on any one task for more than two hours at a time. He says after this time, you become less interested and less efficient. Change it up every now and then.

3.       Take Breaks

The reason steps 1 and 2 are important is that if you do them properly, you won’t feel guilty about taking regularly scheduled breaks. Your employer is required to give you a 15 minute break every four hours and 30 minutes for lunch on a full shift. If he’s not a douchebag, he gives you a full hour. Take those breaks. They are government mandated for a reason. Don’t be your own douchebag boss.

4.       Don’t Forget About Your Hobbies/Personal Life

If you are a regular gym-goer, now is not the time to stop. You should also take this opportunity to start eating healthier. Continue to go out and see people on a regular basis. Doing stuff from a computer at your kitchen table and then moving to the couch at 5pm, and then to bed and back to the table in the morning can make you a little crazy. The networking events you attend won’t be enough. Plan things with your friends and go out at night. Be a regular person even though you don’t have a job…just do it cheaply cause you’re poor.

When you neglect to properly plan and execute your job hunting strategy, you start to feel guilty about how little you’ve done. Then you don’t take time for yourself. This results in you being less effective. It’s a vicious cycle that ultimately results in a pint of ice-cream, a lot of crying and still no jobs. The worst thing you can do for yourself at this juncture is take away the things that make you sane. Also, if you have good friends, they will pay for things because they feel sorry for you. You won’t get this kind of treatment again until someone you love dies (true story).

P.S. These strategies can also be applied to people who work from home or for themselves. 

Networking Doesn’t Stop Being Important Just Because You’re Employed

Remember when you were looking for work, and people kept telling you the best way to find employment was to network both on and offline? Specifically, you should remember ME telling you that. Well once you start working, your networking shouldn’t stop. Opportunities are going to continue to present themselves outside of your current position and you still need to be visible to really take advantage of them.

Reasons to Network

Side Projects: Other motivated people will always have some kind of side project on the go that will enhance your resume beyond what your current job can offer you.

Random Really Cool Stuff: There is always some kind of event going on that you only really know about because you’re connected to the right people.

Finding Out How Much You’re Worth: If you’re decent at your job, and others see what you can do, you could start getting offers to “jump ship.” Then you see things like how much another company is willing to pay you, and you can feel confident asking for a raise.

New Job Opportunities You Never Would Have Thought of: Sometimes, you SHOULD jump ship and try something completely new. Sitting at your desk doing the same thing over and over followed by going directly home and not engaging with people outside your circle of friends really limits this opportunity.

You Could Be Looking Again: Someday your company could shut down, downsize, or just start to suck altogether. You’ll want to be able to exploit all of your contacts for a speedy job search. Remember, the bigger your network, the shorter the search.

Networking at Work

Meet Everyone at Work: Make a point to engage with as many people within and outside the company as possible. Vendors, agencies, clients…pretty much anyone.

Be Involved in Your Community: People are 300% more impressed with you when you are working vs when you are unemployed (Warning, may not be an actual statistic). So why not meet people at these events when you’re impressive rather than waiting until you’re sad and poor?

Leverage Social Media: Your community is going to have some kind of event calendar posted somewhere whether it is created by your local Chamber of Commerce or the city or town that you live in. Whoever has created it is going to love it when you comment, share or retweet it. This will also increase your presence among people who attend these events, even before attending them. Make sure to add all of your contacts to LinkedIn and Twitter as you meet them, so it doesn’t look so desperate later when you contact them (i.e. try to exploit them).

There are millions of ways to network. For a reminder on how to use social media to do it properly, check out an earlier post Dude, Where's My Job 2 - Networking Revisited. Remember, if you’re an introvert and have difficulty networking and meeting new people, just get over it cause there’s no real alternative that would yield the same results. 

Recruiting for Social Media: It’s Easier Than You Think

Your company understands that it needs to be active on social networking sites. Your Facebook page is quickly becoming more important than your website. The dilemma most small business owners face is though they understand the need for social media, they don’t understand the most effective ways to use it. You’d like to ask your marketing guy to do it, but yesterday you saw him make a voice call from a landline to a record store to see if they had the latest albums. At this point you resolve to hire someone to create and manage your online presence. Here are a few tips for when you’re looking.

1.  Age Doesn't Matter

Most people will assume that a young person will be better at social media, because they grew up in a generation that uses it more readily. This is incorrect. As a young person, I can tell you that we are literally not better at ANYTHING. Experience trumps (whatever the hell you think young people have) every time. We are more apt to engage in social media, but someone in their 40’s with an affinity for social media also has “life experience,” “related job experience,” “industry experience”  and other things to draw on that a younger person wouldn't.  Social media skills require a specific way of thinking. The person can’t be intimidated by a new program or feature, because there’s a new one every 5 minutes. There is no reason someone in their 30’s or 40’s can’t have this skill.

2. Hire a Writer

It’s all words. Your employee needs to make the words happen and he needs to make ‘em happen good.

3. Check Up on Them Online

If this person is planning to work in social media, they should have given you links to their social media accounts, and their presence should be quasi-professional. As much as you think you would like to separate the people from the organization, now that everything’s online, you really can’t. They will put your company’s name on their LinkedIn, and attach their Twitter feed to this account. Others will look your company up on LinkedIn and see who your employees are.  Anything they've made publicly available on purpose is fair game to use in your assessment.

4. Beware of Experts

Someone who walks into an interview telling you they know exactly what needs to be done and exactly how to do it is a dud. Social media is social, therefore you need to get to know the clientele before you’re able to really understand the best way to engage with them. A good candidate will offer suggestions of possibilities along with the caveat that everything is subject to change based on the results of the interaction.  

Don't make assumptions based on what you believe a good social media expert should be. Put these people through the same process you put all of your employees through. Identify the key skills and relevant experience you're looking for. Assess them thoroughly, and hire someone who is the right fit for your organization. 

Jumping Ship: Switching Careers

Remember when you started your career and you were super-excited about all the things you could accomplish? You had lists of goals, creative ideas, and enthusiasm. Over time, you may have found that the industry you work in, or the management team you work for, have slowly chipped away at all of that excitement and now every day is just a struggle not to slit your own wrists. It may be time for a career shift (or medication).

If you started in Human Resources like I did, you may have found that your position had significantly less “strategic consulting” and a lot more “glorified secretary” work. You also probably noticed that there was so much process and red tape, that anything new or innovative you came up with won’t be implemented for years, and by then it will be outdated.

Don’t’ get discouraged. Basically, you played Russian roulette with the career revolver and lost. Luckily, the consequences are less brain-spattery than actual Russian roulette and you can bounce back a lot faster.

Step 1 – Don’t quit your day job

The economy still sucks.  You need money. Food and shelter are still very important components of staying alive. You may not have any experience in this new industry you’re entering. Keeping your day job and testing the new industry in your spare time is an excellent way to not make the same mistake twice. Also, people will want to see proof that you know what you’re doing before they hire you. It’s a weird thing companies are doing now.

Step 2 – Start doing what you love

Just start doing it. If you want to be an events planner, start small. Host a dinner party. People will give you feedback on how terrible you are, and you can see if it is something you want to do full time. You can take on additional, larger events as opportunities arise. Once you develop a reputation, people will start asking you to do it, and maybe even pay you! …unless you suck…in which case, you still have your day job.

Step 3 – Advertise

Keep a portfolio of the new projects you’re working on. You don’t have to spend money on advertising. Post your portfolio on LinkedIn, Facebook, Blogger or any relevant account where your target audience would be.

Step 4 – Network

Develop a list of relevant people to follow and engage with online and learn how to do it properly. Think about where your target customer/employer will see you and who they engage with. If you would like to become an event planner, you should be interacting with companies that plan events, the events themselves (which will normally have their own social media accounts or at least a Facebook event) , and anyone else who is interested in what you’re doing. The more people sharing pictures of your place settings on Pinterest, or talking about you on Twitter, the better.

This gives you an opportunity to test out a new job risk-free. It’s like an internship, but more impressive because of the entrepreneurial aspect of having to create the opportunity yourself. After a while, you’ll have developed enough experience to make yourself a marketable employee in a completely new industry. …or you’ll have realized this job isn’t for you, but without getting all wrist-cutty. 

Why Recruiting is as Awful as Dating

Here’s a neat little tidbit about recruiters. They’re real life people and everyday is full of disappointment. E-recruiting, much like E-dating, has many success stories. You’ve probably met a lot of happy couples who met online, but for every happy couple, there are 10 horror stories of people showing up 10 years older or 50 pounds heavier than their picture. The sad part about recruiting is that you don’t get to date the winners for very long. You give them to the hiring manager and then you have to start all over again.

A little insight into the process

First the recruiter crafts their profile:

I like long walks on the beach, Reggae music and I love to cook. I’m looking for someone with 5 years’ experience in marketing, experience with popular software with excellent attention to detail and willing to work in a remote location.

…then we sit back and laugh, knowing that person probably doesn’t exist, especially in the remote region the hiring manager needs them in. This is basically the equivalent of asking for someone with a six-figure income who is ok with the fact that you’re a single parent of five. If you ever see someone in a restaurant writing on a laptop, swirling a glass of brandy and laughing maniacally like a Disney villain, but crying at the same time...that’s a recruiter having a normal day.

Speed Dating Round

Recruiters schedule entire days of interviews just to meet the people, make sure the person matches the profile and isn’t a complete douchebag. You need to get through the first date to get to the second date with the hiring manager.

Step 1 – Make sure you can back up what’s written on your resume.

You were chosen to be interviewed because of several things you wrote on your resume. We’re going to ask you about them to make sure you did them. Be prepared to elaborate on specific projects.

Step 2 – Know yourself really well.

You are going to be asked to give an overview of your work history as well as what you’re passionate about. Print off your resume and make notes if you have to. Just be prepared to talk about this. It sounds like a given, but a lot of people fail here.

Step 3 – Be Charming

I interviewed a woman who had her own tagline. She told me she was “a small town girl with a big city attitude.” I never forgot her name as a result. Just like people don’t forget a good date, they certainly don’t forget a bad date.

Fact: Sometimes the HR guy won’t know all of the intricacies of the app development position you applied for.

Fact: They will be completely aware of the condescending attitude you have towards them.

Here is a list of things that will not get you to a second date

·      Name dropping: Tell me on your resume what companies you worked for, don’t spend a significant amount of time asking me if I know so and so. I’m not impressed by the fact that you worked for Donald Trump unless you can effectively tell me what you did for him.

·      Questioning my questions: If I ask you to elaborate on something, don’t ask me why I want to know that or how is that relevant to this position unless the question makes you uncomfortable for some reason. Often recruiters will want to know about all of your skills (even the ones that don’t pertain to the position you applied for). They can contact you for other positions, unless you were uncooperative.

·      A Shi**y Tone: Be intelligent, but don’t get smart. You would be surprised at how many professionals, after they realize they’re talking to a lowly recruiter, develop a smarmy attitude. Newsflash! In order to be hired, HR still needs to want to work with you.

I actually had an interview where the applicant told me to go to his website, because I could stand to learn a little about the field I was recruiting for…resume deleted.

Don’t be a douchebag. We share all of our notes with the manager.

Example: John Smith, 10 years of marketing experience, excellent portfolio, possibly overqualified for the position. Complete ass. If you hire him, I’m quitting.

Bottom Line: Most successful organizations are looking for someone who is a cultural fit. Being an attractive candidate does not give you carte blanche to be an ass. Getting through the first round is not a difficult task. Know your resume, be confident and courteous and welcome to date #2.