SHRM Day 2 Update - Wellness, Great Branding

Today's SHRM 2010 update provides a humorous example of the power of brands.

Walking into the SHRM exposition hall Monday morning I saw this (see photo).

Directly in front of the exposition hall were two choices for coffee:

Choice one: A long line with about 25+ people.
Choice two: No line.

Great branding? Herd mentality? Quality? Whatever the reason, this photo illustrates the value of a brand and why marketing is so important.

The last few days I've had several conversations with sales executives from a variety of quite successful human resource vendors who've used HRmarketer.com's software and services to grow their visibility in the space. One theme that resonates is their respect for the role marketing plays in supporting the sales process. Sure, it is a wonderful feeling when your marketing initiatives deliver immediate leads. But it is equally refreshing when a prospect knows about your company BEFORE you make that call.

Speaking of marketing, we've blogged about how popular preventive wellness services are as company's try and combat rising health care costs and comply with new federal health regulations.

This was clearly evident by the number of health promotion and wellness companies exhibiting at SHRM - more than I recall seeing at previous shows. But what was more revealing was the health and wellness vendors NOT exhibiting at SHRM - or doing much of any marketing these days. Reminds me of a great line from the Nicolas Cage character in the movie Family Man when he reprimands a tired co-worker wanting to leave the office early on Christmas Eve "when a deal like this turns up, you get on it and you ride it till it's over".

Anyway, exhibiting at SHRM will wrap up today - thank goodness because we're tired. But a great show this year. And thanks to all the very generous vendors for the wonderful parties - the two I had the pleasure of attending were Monster's tweetup and NowHire's outdoor event at the Fox Sports Grill. Thanks Monster and NowHire and all the other vendors who exhibit and sponsor activities - you help make these conferences possible.

SHRM 2010 Day 1 Recap (from exhibit floor). Positive Economic Signs and Making it Easy on Buyers.

With 11,000 paid attendees (up 4,000 over 2009) congregating in San Diego Sunday afternoon for SHRM 2010 and several thousand more non-paid walk-ins expected, could it be a hint that perhaps economic conditions are improving - or at least HR budgets are freeing up?

At least for the moment the mood is optimistic. While helping the HRmarketer team set-up our exhibit (#318), I ran into Audrey Johnson from World at Work who told me exhibit space for the May 2011 Total Rewards conference is already nearly sold out.

Then their was the HR VP I spoke with from Tennessee (her first SHRM) who traveled the 2,000 miles to San Diego at the request of her CEO. She was on an HR shopping spree, telling me business was great and she was looking for ways to improve HR and support their employees - and the many more they expect to hire in 2010.

Speaking of hiring (and Steve Forbes who keynoted SHRM 2010), a recent report from Forbes Magazine finds that more than a dozen companies in a variety of industries are expected to hire 1,000-plus freshly minted employees this year. Verizon Wireless tops the list, with an expected crop of 10,500 this year.

All of the exhibitors I spoke with said opening night was excellent. Our own HRmarketer.com team set an opening night record for HR Phonebook orders.

I had a great discussion with ReviewSNAP (an HRmarketer.com software customer) founder David Arringdale who told me demand has substantially increased the past 18 months for their web-based performance management system - another positive sign for the HR economy. While I was speaking with David, I noticed the literature rack at his exhibit included a pricing sheet for his product.

Huh? I did a double take.

I'm guessing no other exhibitor in the talent management and HR technology space is so open about pricing to the point of having their price sheet available for any passerby .

As a marketer, I think this is very, very smart - for four reasons: It makes it easier on buyers (who hate to ask "how much does it cost?"), acts as a self-qualifier for prospects (saving your sales team time), helps establish immediate credibility with the prospect (who appreciate the transparency) and finally, it puts competitors on the defensive.

OK - on to the exhibit floor for Day 2.

Think Global. Act Yokel.

It's like stepping out onto the moon for the first time.

That is, the point when I went from the online social media and meeting world, to the What’s Next Lecture Series last night: The Revolution of Work. In Santa Cruz. Where I actually live.

With infrequent exception, most of my working world to date has been virtual B2B. Meaning that most of our networking, prospecting and business to date with HR suppliers has occurred online and via the phone.

Yes, we've been on the floor at industry events much more meeting face to face with our customers and prospects, and that continues to evolve with our agency business.

But still.

It's like stepping out onto the moon...

Giant steps are what you take, walking on the moon...(think Police song)

The premise was this:

The nature of work is fundamentally changing. Technology, demographics, an increased emphasis on environmental sustainability, and a renewed quest for good, old-fashion sanity are driving this once-in-a-century shift in how, where, and why we work.

We talk a lot about this is the HR marketplace, but it was exciting to be a part of the conversation in my own backyard. Refreshing actually.

The panelists included best-selling author Rom Brafman whose latest book is called Click: The Magic of Instant Connections; Joyce Shimizu, VP of Innovation at Plantronics; and Beau Trincia, Senior Environments Designer at IDEO. Sandy Skees, CEO of Communications4Good moderated.

One of the intro folk used the phrase:

Think Global. Act Yokel.

That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the panel discussion. Fact is, the very nature of work is (has/will) changing more than ever before. Serial entrepreneurship is at all time hight and according to a stat I heard last night, there are about 22 million single-employed business owners today. And growing.

There are also more collaborative part-time workers worldwide than we've ever seen before.

And it's the clicking with one another that makes for this collaborative magic.

According to Joyce Shimizu we're at the historic convergence and alignment of megatrends affecting the way we work, which sounds like the tagline for the movie 2012, but really is a good thing.

This includes communication online and off, the flexibility of scheduling, the mobility of the work space, the growth of collaboration, the growth of the knowledge worker, and so many others.

The concept of knowledge work is practiced via these four modes:

• Collaborate
• Focus
• Learn
• Socialize

In that order of priority.

As another intro speaker put it:

We need leaders to lead this entrepreneurial revival of environmental sustainability and the new way in which we work.

I can dig that. Now that I'm acclimated to the moon's gravity, I look forward to more of the What’s Next Lecture Series. (What’s Next Lectures is a collaboration between UC Santa Cruz, NextSpace Coworking + Innovation, and the City of Santa Cruz.)

Think Global. Act Yokel.

Think about that when you're at SHRM 2010 next week.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

New Media Relations Functionality Added to HRmarketer.com Software

OK - maybe 1% of our blog posts are promotional (and this is one of them) so please be understanding - we just want to share our exciting news. We have a number of really cool new features being added to our HRmarketer.com software this summer, starting off with the just launched Media and Relations module that enables marketing and PR professionals to centrally manage, track and report on their media and analyst outreach campaigns.

Currently, you can distribute press releases, send pitches and monitor editorial calendar inquiries directly from HRmarketer's media database, which profiles journalists, analysts and bloggers covering the HR, workforce and benefits markets. Each profile includes the journalist’s preferred contact method, specific coverage areas, social networking accounts and an up-to-the-minute listing of their “Tweets.” Detailed editorial calendars are also shown for their related media outlets.

This new media and analyst relations feature allows users to centrally track their outreach activities, including press releases sent to the respective contact, pitches and inquiries. You can also track follow-up activities with scheduled reminders that can be seamlessly added to your s personal Outlook, iCal or other third-party calendar software.

I recorded this little demo from my home office the other night - pardon the informality - which provides a nice overview.

Enjoy - if you are at SHRM next week stop by our booth #318 for more info or just to say hi.

Valuing meaningful work always plays better to the bottom line.

In a previous life, I almost moved to France.

Almost being the operative word.

I worked for another marketing firm in the dot.com heyday and we had a satellite office in southern France where we worked with a division of a Silicon Valley icon.

The client needed another marketing project manager onsite to manage product launches and I became the chosen one. The project was only for six months, but for someone who at the time rarely traveled, it was to be an amazing opportunity.

The owner of our firm -- I'll call him Don -- managed the negotiation and logistics of my journey. He was a unnaturally quiet but savvy businessman and all would be tended to by him.

Except that at times he was an unnaturally volatile man.

At some point during the trip negotiations, I took it upon myself to ask our client contact in France some questions. Seemingly innocent questions about my stay, my stipend, and other general questions. All done via e-mail.

My cubicle in our office looked out and down the long hallway to the other side of the second floor. Not more than a few hours after my e-mail contact with the client, Don came storming up the mid-building stairwell, face on fire and visually throbbing, and his over six-foot frame came right at me.

At first I didn't think anything of it; I hadn't put anything connective thoughts in motion as to why Don was so angry and coming at me.

As soon as he entered my cube space and erupted with one molten expletive after another, it became painfully clear what I had done wrong.

"Nobody negotiates with the client except me!"

And although that wasn't what I had done, it overshadowed any and all meaningful work I had done to date; it was all taken away. No trip to France. The local sister account gone. Nothing remained except my job and severely bruised spirit.

I was told by a colleague who had witnessed the meltdown that every employee experienced Don's wrath at some point. It was a rite of passage at our firm.

Ouch.

Not really the way to instill passionate productivity and longevity in your team. I mean, I get that employees don't have to be happy all the time, and according to Vineet Nayar's Employees First, Customers Second program from HCL Technologies, work isn't about happy or comfortable or being satisfied or engaged.

EFCS is not about making employees happy or comfortable. I don't even really care if employees are happy. I don't think that employee "satisfaction" is something a company should strive for. Satisfaction is a passive state, isn't it? Satisfaction doesn't produce change or improvement or innovation or much of anything.

As for employee "engagement," that isn't much better than satisfaction. I would hope that everybody, no matter what their job is, would be alert and paying some attention to what they do, would be engaged.

It's all about passion.

We want people to be burning up with desire to pursue their interests. Fascinated by their assignments. Jumping out of their skins with excitement about what's next. Eagerly pursuing better solutions and new initiatives.

My trip to France being ripped away didn't entice me to eagerly pursue better solutions and new initiatives. In fact, I almost quit.

Fortunately I didn't, because for everything that my years at that firm wasn't, it was when my professional trial-by-fire experience grew exponentially and I'm so very grateful for that. Don's misplaced passion motivated me to learn and be better.

No pain no gain, right?

No pain no passion no picnics, right?

Vineet writes:

Life is work, and work is life, and both are a struggle. It's doing meaningful work and being valued for it--not picnics--that makes it all worthwhile.

Leaders like Don should take note, because for all the savvy business decisions that are made over time, valuing your employees' meaningful work instead of focusing on devaluing them and their mistakes always plays better to your customers and the bottom line.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Valuing meaningful work always plays better to the bottom line.

In a previous life, I almost moved to France.

Almost being the operative word.

I worked for another marketing firm in the dot.com heyday and we had a satellite office in southern France where we worked with a division of a Silicon Valley icon.

The client needed another marketing project manager onsite to manage product launches and I became the chosen one. The project was only for six months, but for someone who at the time rarely traveled, it was to be an amazing opportunity.

The owner of our firm -- I'll call him Don -- managed the negotiation and logistics of my journey. He was a unnaturally quiet but savvy businessman and all would be tended to by him.

Except that at times he was an unnaturally volatile man.

At some point during the trip negotiations, I took it upon myself to ask our client contact in France some questions. Seemingly innocent questions about my stay, my stipend, and other general questions. All done via e-mail.

My cubicle in our office looked out and down the long hallway to the other side of the second floor. Not more than a few hours after my e-mail contact with the client, Don came storming up the mid-building stairwell, face on fire and visually throbbing, and his over six-foot frame came right at me.

At first I didn't think anything of it; I hadn't put anything connective thoughts in motion as to why Don was so angry and coming at me.

As soon as he entered my cube space and erupted with one molten expletive after another, it became painfully clear what I had done wrong.

"Nobody negotiates with the client except me!"

And although that wasn't what I had done, it overshadowed any and all meaningful work I had done to date; it was all taken away. No trip to France. The local sister account gone. Nothing remained except my job and severely bruised spirit.

I was told by a colleague who had witnessed the meltdown that every employee experienced Don's wrath at some point. It was a rite of passage at our firm.

Ouch.

Not really the way to instill passionate productivity and longevity in your team. I mean, I get that employees don't have to be happy all the time, and according to Vineet Nayar's Employees First, Customers Second program from HCL Technologies, work isn't about happy or comfortable or being satisfied or engaged.

EFCS is not about making employees happy or comfortable. I don't even really care if employees are happy. I don't think that employee "satisfaction" is something a company should strive for. Satisfaction is a passive state, isn't it? Satisfaction doesn't produce change or improvement or innovation or much of anything.

As for employee "engagement," that isn't much better than satisfaction. I would hope that everybody, no matter what their job is, would be alert and paying some attention to what they do, would be engaged.

It's all about passion.

We want people to be burning up with desire to pursue their interests. Fascinated by their assignments. Jumping out of their skins with excitement about what's next. Eagerly pursuing better solutions and new initiatives.

My trip to France being ripped away didn't entice me to eagerly pursue better solutions and new initiatives. In fact, I almost quit.

Fortunately I didn't, because for everything that my years at that firm wasn't, it was when my professional trial-by-fire experience grew exponentially and I'm so very grateful for that. Don's misplaced passion motivated me to learn and be better.

No pain no gain, right?

No pain no passion no picnics, right?

Vineet writes:

Life is work, and work is life, and both are a struggle. It's doing meaningful work and being valued for it--not picnics--that makes it all worthwhile.

Leaders like Don should take note, because for all the savvy business decisions that are made over time, valuing your employees' meaningful work instead of focusing on devaluing them and their mistakes always plays better to your customers and the bottom line.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

The Monster.com got a digital cookie for you. Yum. Yum.

It doesn't take a pulp fiction detective novel to figure out that marketing and recruiting make friendly bedfellows.

In fact, it's much more simple and innocent than that. They tend to skip hand in hand through the school yard playing and playing and generating:

• Publicity (other kids take notice)
• Traffic (other kids follow along)
• Leads (other kids want a piece of the action)

And whether you're a buyer or a job seeker -- the Monster.com got a digital cookie for you.

Yum. Yum.

Wait, what?

Yesterday the good folks at Monster.com showed off their Career Ad Network(R) to Steve Boese (HR Technology Blog) and me.

For the most part it was launched last fall, but there are a few new scoobie snacks to announce tomorrow prior to this year's SHRM.

In it's simplest form Monster is taking targeting search engine marketing to the recruitment space with over 3 billion job ad impressions per month.

Yep, over 3 billion. That's a whole lotta yummy cookies.

CAN offers:

• Search-optimized ads
• Precision site targeting (relevance to job seekers)
• Network syndication including mobile

Monster's media buying power combined with 60-80 million unique users per month makes for one big Google-like reach.

And it's not just about sending back relevant traffic to your jobs on Monster -- many companies prefer the traffic going to their corporate job site instead and of course Monster can accommodate.

Sure there's still the issue of sorting through quantity versus quality of job applicant (the recruiter's/hiring manager's job), especially in this job market, but for corporate recruiting teams looking to maximize targeted job search traffic for open reqs across multiple disciplines and industries, this could be a playground favorite.

Check out a demo of the Career Ad Network(R) here (which I'm sure will be updated after tomorrow).

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

HRchitect's First Mid-Market Talent Acquisition Systems HRtechnology(R) IRONMAN

I've never participated in a triathlon or an ironman competition, and for good reason. I run three times a week, but I only bike for leisure to the ocean and back, and I definitely don't swim in it.

It's 55 degrees for goodness sake. I'm only an ironman in spirit.

Last Friday HRchitect launched the latest in their educational webinar series -- the HRtechnology(R) IRONMAN (of which we are a media partner). The IRONMAN pitted software vendors against one another in a race to prove who can swim better, bike stronger and run faster.

Of course it wasn't a literal race; it was more like the vendor beauty pageants they did last year.

Like the beauty pageants, the IRONMAN virtual events are helpful when you are an "HR Buyer" and want educate your organization if you're in the market for HR software systems. (And of course to gather intel if you're a competitor.)

The first IRONMAN last Friday was the Mid-Market Talent Acquisition Systems IRONMAN. The competitors were iCIMS, nowHIRE, SilkRoad technology and Newton Software. They gave their pitches and the virtual audience voted.

The event categories included:

Swimming
The first of three skills. Competitors need to get ahead early by using this portion to discuss company history, overview, specific identity, financial viability, marquee clients and leadership team.

Biking
Stamina is required during the biking portion of the IRONMAN and competitors will race against each other by showcasing their product's functionality, technology/integration, usability and configurability.

Running
As in any competition, it is important to finish strong! Competitors will fight it out to the end by stating key differentiators of their solution and their company.

Media Interviews
The race isn't over when the finish line is crossed. Each competitor will face hard-hitting questions from the media (i.e. - our audience).

And all in less than 15 minutes per vendor in total.

I've witnessed many of these online competitions and I must say that this was one of the best to date.

The quality of:

• Visual presentation
• The comprehensive software system review
• Verbal presentation delivery

Were some of the best I've seen. Kudos to the marketing and sales folks from each vendor!

Who was the winner? It was my pick -- SilkRoad technology. Congratulations!

You can watch the archive here. Look for more HRtechnology(R) IRONMAN competitions this fall.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

They won't come to you. You've got to keep coming at them to induce the tipping point.

You've got to stay in front of your leads, regardless of where they fall in the continuum.

"I only attended your webinar so back off" to "yes we're in the market for a new talent acquisition system but take it easy champ."

Larger HR suppliers have well-defined lead-nurturing processes and sales strategies to qualify and move prospects along.

But most smaller suppliers don't; you generate a bunch of continuum interest as stated above and then you let them sit expecting them to jump up and rabidly buy your products and services.

They won't come to you. You've got to keep coming at them to induce the tipping point.

Now, there's the broader integrated marketing strategy to generate visibility, traffic, leads and improved SEO. But many of those same cost-effective activities (and other not so cost-effective) need to continue with your sales pipeline including:

• Sharing your news -- make it easy to subscribe.
• Sharing your blog posts -- make it easy to subscribe.
• Sharing your marketing content without asking them to jump through more hoops like registration (white papers, articles, tip sheets, podcasts, videos, etc.).
• Creating a regular newsletter-like e-mail that includes the best-of content from above with secondary call-to-action links like demo requests.
• Continuing to foster relationships and network via social media channels.
• Giving them virtual front row seats for any upcoming Webinars.
• Inviting prospects to region-specific events where you or your team is speaking.
• Inviting prospects to region-specific networking events that you organize with pertinent guest speakers, maybe at local SHRM chapters, chambers of commerce, etc.
• Asking them what's going on in their worlds via informal polls and surveys, and then generating new specific best practice content to address their latest pain points.
• Recycle all of the above and add some more.

It takes a lot of leads and lead nurturing to induce the tipping point for only a few.

Make the time to make the marketing work for you.

Here are some more lead-nurturing blog posts of late:

Before the deep sales dive you gotta screen through the luke-warm jive.

You'd think someone left the water running.

Lead nurturing makes the popcorn pop

4 in 100 leads Buy. The Importance of Aggressive Marketing and Lead Nurturing.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Don't overthink your social media efforts. Keep it simple, real and human.

Recently I spoke to a company who thought that they needed hundreds of folks participating in their social media marketing effort, like a grassroots political campaign.

And then there was a company who thought they should just start pushing demo campaigns via social media channels.

And lastly there was another company recently who took a completely clinical viewpoint of social media helping to drive website traffic and SEO.

These are smart people who have well-established companies in the HR marketplace, but it begs the question how mainstream is social media marketing in our space?

Or in any space?

It doesn't matter that there are 500 million people on Facebook. It doesn't matter that there are millions using LinkedIn and Twitter.

As far as I'm concerned, social media B2B marketing is still far from mass adoption, although yes, spending is on the rise. Don't forget, it's only one tool in the marketing tool belt.

Let me address the three issues above:

1. No, you don't need hundreds of social media staffers. You need at least one who is an effective listener and communicator and who can invest at least 30-60 minutes per day monitoring channels and sharing content. By the way, at a minimum your company should have a business blog -- fresh perspective content leads to more readership and search engines eat it up for your benefit.
2. No, you shouldn't just jump in and start selling stuff. Social media channels are networking channels first and foremost and should be treated as such. You don't go to a face-to-face networking event and immediately start your sales schtick, do you?
3. No, you shouldn't only focus on SEO value with social media. Yes, you get incremental traffic via sharing content links (downloads, blog posts, etc.), but don't forget point 2 above and leave the human out of the networking.

You can find more tips from me at Because who doesn't want to be on the Celebrity Apprentice? And sit in a social media cuddle chair?

Here are some other important social media tips I came across this morning from the SmartBlog on Social Media:

• Keep it real. Don’t try too hard — think about the personality of your brand and stick to it. Authenticity is paramount — Stephanie Miller, Return Path
• Make it easy. Encourage sharing of your content but don’t overwhelm your audience with choices. The less choices people have, the better — Guy Kawasaki, Alltop
• Encourage customer participation. Get your constituents involved to make them feel smart and “in the know” — it will make them feel more connected to your brand and get people talking — Stacy Kane, California Tortilla
• Ask for help. People want to help you and share your stuff, so allow them to do so using the tool, medium or technique of their choice. It makes people feel good that they can help your organization — Andy Sernovitz, Gaspedal

Don't overthink your social media efforts. Keep it simple, real and human.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

I love it when there's a whole lotta big sky pie thinking goin' on.

Yesterday we had a marketing call with a big global HR supplier. On the call was their CEO and his entire leadership team.

The good news is -- the call went very well.

What struck me was the CEO's vision, his clarity, his directness and his plan for the next five years and the role he envisions marketing playing in that plan.

Well-defined and succinct, if not a little grandiose.

But hey, able leaders must shoot for the sky pie. I prefer banana cream or any berry that gets me the market share.

He was also very attentive to his team, asking for their opinions and ensuring each had ample time to speak and ask us their questions.

In fact, in the span of one hour he was pretty representative of the seven critical roles a 21st century leader must assume, according to a great article in Chief Learning Officer titled The Global Leadership Mindset:

• Strategist: Integrating short-term and long-term interests with global and local stakeholders and establishing a clear course of action to achieve organizational success.
• Innovator: Generating a climate of innovation and change and personally identifying and pursuing new global possibilities, products and markets.
• Communicator: Engaging diverse stakeholder commitment and enthusiasm by sharing clear messages through multiple networks and technology.
• Relationship builder: Creating relationships of trust by developing keen insight and respect for difference while also connecting with others globally in a meaningful way.
• Mentor or coach: Building the next generation of leaders by supporting a strengths-based apprenticeship culture within the group or organization.
• Decision maker: Leveraging a global view, systems thinking and broad spectrum analysis to execute strategy in the midst of ambiguity and uncertainty.
• Global citizen: Honoring one’s own unique origins while developing appreciation of and integration into a larger global citizenship.

I love it when there's a whole lotta big sky pie thinking goin' on.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Management and HR need to merge in the middle, become one another and serve the customer.

No, I'm not suggesting that HR pros get MBA's or take hours of bland classroom tests about business best practices.

But I am suggesting that they learn how to run a business, to outsource the administrative and compliance minutiae, to actually apply business principles realtime, and to truly be a strategic leader along with the rest of the leadership team.

We need only to look at our family tree.

Ack, right?

Last week John Sumser wrote a post titled Revisiting Why They Hate HR, basically reliving the painful truths of the Fast Company article from five years ago titled Why We Hate HR.

Because they still exist today. Or are they really improving?

It's not all HR's fault, though. For decades running Personnel meant hiring, onboarding, handing out benefits packets, performing reviews and firing and laying off when necessary.

And are in the heart of a silo, untouched by the tendrils of strategic management and experiential learning.

Management created a big part of the us-against-them; HR was a necessary evil that fell into the general collective camp of employees, unions, etc.

I've been to many HR events where the proponents of evolving HR are working hard to, well, evolve HR into business savvy leaders -- like at HRevolution.

Two examples that merged for me this week include (which many of you may already be familiar with):

1. Reading The Pursuit of Elegance and learning of FAVI, a 50-year-old designer and manufacturer of copper alloy automotive components in France, whose CEO disbanded much of traditional business units including centralized HR. Instead, he created twenty teams, each responsible not only for the customer -- which was/is a primary tenant -- but also for its HR, purchasing, and product development. The CEO touted himself to "be the headlights and the windshield" of the company, and each team held the vision as it applied to the customer.
2. After listening to a recent Harvard Business Review IdeaCast with Susan Cantrell, fellow at the Accenture Institute for High Performance and coauthor of Workforce of One: Revolutionizing Talent Management Through Customization, titled How to Make HR Relevant, I learned how Best Buy empowers HR to customize salary/benefits/scheduling packages unique for each and every employee, as opposed to forcing a one-size-fits-all onto the employee population. Each employee is viewed as a business in itself serving the all important deity: the customer. Not easy to pull off, but Best Buy is doing it and more.

In both examples the HR becomes a profit center, a business driver, a business leader -- like the general collective camp of employees, unions, etc. should become -- and it's all to serve the customers who keep us all in business.

Management and HR need to merge in the middle, become one another and serve the customer.

Otherwise, you still got a whole lot of hating goin' on.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

HRmarketer's New HR Buyers Guide. Create/Update Your Free Listing!

We believe our recently updated HR Buyers Guide is the most comprehensive online.

But you decide.

We've introduced some really cool enhancements to HRmarketer's HR Buyers Guide in the HR Directory. Create/update your listing today and syndicate your content. It's Free.

Located here, the HR Directory showcases human resource software and services vendors and their content for thousands of HR decision makers who visit monthly.

The site also includes a new "Watchlists" feature to help HR professionals find and evaluate HR vendors. And our new "HR Benchmarking Data" allows HR pros to view budget priorities of other companies of various sizes.

Some new enhancements to our Buyers Guide allow you to enhance your listing and standout amongst HR decision makers by adding:

• RSS feeds for your company's News, Twitter and Blog accounts - to instantly update your profile and keep it current.
• Company's Key Executives with links to their social networking accounts.
• Details on your company: year founded, company size and areas you do business.

A sample profile can be seen here:

Please visit the HR Directory and create your free listing today. To update your listing login and select My Account.

If you forgot your username or password send us an email info [at] HRmarketer.com and we'll provide assistance.

Ah, the brief bursts of delectable brand on the tips of tongues

We talk so much about detailed value propositions and marketing messaging and content development, that we forget about the age-old advertising tagline. Check out the best-ever here as rated by a group of 10 CMOs and advertising experts.

You know, the brief bursts of delectable brand on the tips of tongues that are more than just fun and flavorful.

They are beyond memorable; iconic beats that are never missed in the great universal musical.

Do you recognize these? These are the tip five from the above link.

• The Ultimate Driving Machine
• Just Do It
• Don't Leave Home Without It
• We Try Harder
• Got Milk?

One of my favorites -- Think Different -- was in there too at number 7.

But what about our space, the HR marketplace? What are some of the past or current more memorable taglines?

Anyone? Bueller?

By no means did I do a complete review of our space, but here are some faves I spotted yesterday in no particular order (except for the first one, right?). They are a mix of HR suppliers and bloggers.

Do you recognize these?

• Publicity. Traffic. Leads.
• Team building is for suckers
• Smarter Screening. Intelligent Hiring.
• Work Responsibly
• One World. Right Now.
• Intelligent Energy
• Seriously human software
• Talent in Sight
• Caring today for a better tomorrow
• get to the table. stay at the table.
• Better People. Better Results.
• Realizing Leadership Potential

Do you have a favorite? Send it my way. It may be fun to do our own HR space tagline audit and then vote on them and give away fabulous prizes to the top 5, 10 or 20.

[crickets chirping]

C'mon, it'll be fun.

[house creaking]

Really.

[more crickets]

*sigh*

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Is it always Christmas morning or a humdinger of a 5th birthday party for you and your customers?

So the first thing I see this morning on Facebook is one of my friends "liking" this page:

We do not stop playing because we are old; we grow old because we stop playing.

And then I immediately thought of these two things:

• Are you excited when developing new products and services to release to the world?
• Are your customers, prospects, influencers and the media excited to hear about (and eventually to use) the new products and services you're releasing to the world?

In other words, is it always Christmas morning or a humdinger of a 5th birthday party for you and your customers?

Because if it's not, then I'd take a moment to reflect on what the heck you're doing for a living.

[Insert moment of reflection here...]

As a "customer", I'm jazzed beyond belief when my favorite band Rush releases new material as they did this week.

I'm also somersault thrilled when Apple releases new products and software updates. I don't have an iPad yet, but I'm still take donations if you're interested in helping me out. But I'm already immersed and well-versed in their product and lore.

As a leader of a marketing software and services firm, I'm stoked when our founder Mark Willaman and his product development team release new stuff like these enhancements to our HR Directory:

• Company RSS feeds for News, Twitter and Blog accounts - to instantly update your profile and keep it current.
• Ability to add key Company Executives with links to their social networking accounts.
• Ability to add details on your company's size, year founded, annual revenue and areas you do business.
• Expanded "Focus Areas". So instead of just categorizing you company as providing "Recruitment" services you can select from a more detailed list of types of recruitment services.

We've also add a new “Watchlist” feature allowing HR professionals to find and evaluate HR vendors. And the first-of-it's-kind "HR Benchmarking Data" allows HR pros to view budget priorities of other companies of various sizes.

More official announcements soon -- how cool is that?

So what about you? How's that reflection working out?

Get on with your product and service thrill-fest, please.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)

Catch a marketing cold and get your ill on.

I'm in the midst of nasty cold. At first I thought it was just exacerbated allergies, but the old cold man river carried me away to misery.

Now I'm knee deep in post nasal drip and scratchy hack.

Most of us do everything we can to either a) avoid getting sick all together and b) nurse the heck out of ourselves -- from homeopathic remedies to hardcore narcotics.

But catching a cold is (and should be) analogous to catching the marketing bug, something more HR suppliers not only need to catch once in a while, but to catch a nasty one with no recovery in sight.

A healthy bottom line means doing the hard marketing work. It means investing in the staff, tools and resources in order to plan, execute and track. It means getting messy with sick in the sometimes unmeasurable world of marcom.

Catch a marketing cold and get your ill on.

Plan - Figure out your messaging, your value and your place in the HR space -- and give yourself a sore throat doing it.

Then, expose yourself to all sorts of possible marketing bugs:

• Your competitors
• Industry influencers and thought leaders
• Reading and developing your own best practices content
• Developing your own internal editorial and marketing calendar
• Research list rentals, online advertising and SEM opps
• Research everything from potential media outlets to editorial opportunities to conferences to speaking opportunities to analysts to awards to blogs to social media...

The sick goes on and on and finding the right team and/or marketing partner to infect you is key.

Execute - Let the snot surface and the coughing commence -- push and pull that marketing plan each and every month and leave a tissue trail behind you. Stay in front of your customers, your pipeline, your prospects and your competitors.

Your eyes should be itchy, red and watering from all the hard work.

Track - Generating quality visibility, traffic and leads gives snot-nosed a whole new meaning. Your marketing cold should be making you run like a sieve while benefiting from the fruits of your laborious sneezing and hacking.

Yet another KWG forced metaphor, but good luck to you catching a marketing cold nonetheless.

Throw in a fever as well, but the only prescription, is more marketing.

And more cowbell if you really insist.

Post by Kevin W. Grossman (join me on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn - and now join HRmarketer on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!)