Sourcing Seattle

From Twitter New User to Blogging about Twitter (with a Little Bit in Between)

April 18, 2009 – 12:45 pm

Peter Hall has a funny but largely true post regarding the life cycle of a new Twitter user. There has been a flurry of news activity about Twitter with Ashton Kutcher pwn’ing CNN on who can reach 1 million followers first. Twitter has officially become mainstream. Oprah Winfrey now has 280,000 followers. I would imagine a good number of them are first time users.

I, for one, don’t feel a compelling need to use Twitter but it already has gone in some interesting directions, such as providing real time data on unfolding events (Mumbai Attacks for example) Although, it is debatable how much relevant information was being micro-blogged, see Alexander Wolfe’s article. His opening line is poignant, “Never before has a crisis unleashed so much raw data — and so little interpretation.” For many, twitter is just one more distracting information feed in a sea of social media platforms; its value debatable. Fortunately all this raw data with little interpretation creates opportunities. A former colleague of mine, Demian Crumb, is doing some interesting stuff with data collection with Twitter. You can follow his efforts on Twitter, fittingly enough. 

Dan Hall

Posted in data, social media | 1 Comment »

Dean Graziano, Co-Founder, leaving Visible Technologies

April 15, 2009 – 7:53 pm

On Friday, April 3rd, it was announced that Dean Graziano, one of the co-founders of the company, was leaving Visible Technologies.

Dean was always pushing the company forward; he is amazingly passionate and loved VT. Many of our biggest deals started with Dean “hunting elephants.” In my opinion, he was the heart of Visible Technologies.

Dean, I wish you the best.

Dan Hall

Posted in Startups | 1 Comment »

My Interview on SEO Boy Regarding Online Reputation Management

April 14, 2009 – 10:15 pm

I had the honor of sharing my thoughts on managing your online reputation with SEO Boy. I believe that is increasingly important for business professionals to have a basic understanding of personal branding, search engine optimization, and managing your reputation (both in the traditional sense and online). There is more and more data about you on the Web, plain and simple. You can either influence and shape that data or you can let it influence your personal brand and your career.

 Dan Hall 

Posted in Online Reputation Management, Personal Brand, social media | 1 Comment »

I am a producer of data and so are you …

February 9, 2009 – 7:53 pm

One of the more interesting revelations that came to mind as I was leaving my previous job as a Seattle Human Resources Manager at Visible Technologies was just how much data I had produced. When it was all said and done, I created from scratch over 3.3 gigabytes of new information in 15 months. This data did not exist prior to my existence at Visible. A vast majority of this data was flung out in cyberspace in forms of emails, posts, presentations, and so forth.

Over 50% of all Americans have created consumer generated media (AKA new data). There are over 20 million blogs from American bloggers. A million plus NEW posts per day (plus or minus varies by source).

What does this all mean? First, as if there was any question, Social and Consumer Generated Media is here to stay. Second, that is a lot of data being created daily. The future of business and the Internet is all about data. Want job security?

Learn data. Everything you can, how to manage it, how to search, how to sort, how to connect, how to digest.

How much new, unique data have you produced in the last year? Ever stopped and thought about it?

Dan Hall

Posted in social media | No Comments »

Creating Efficiency - Rypple and ActiveWords

January 31, 2009 – 11:35 pm

I had the pleasure of interviewing the co-CEO, Daniel Debow,  of a Toronto based startup, Rypple.  He reached out to me after I had posted my initial thoughts about them in a previous blog post, Making Rypples in Performance Management. He took 45 minutes talking to me about Rypple, what they are doing and where they are going with their Company. I got chills. The full write up of that conversation is forthcoming.

Meanwhile, check out ActiveWords. If you are like me and do a lot of organization of files into folders or a lot of repeative actions (like sourcing candidates from LinkedIn), this simple program is a must have. 

Dan Hall

Posted in Creating Efficiency, Startups | 1 Comment »

Making Rypples in Performance Management

January 12, 2009 – 9:05 pm

I read a good article in The Economist about a company called Rypple, that undoubtedly will be making some splashes about how Companies think about Performance Management.

Rypple has created an anonymous, twitteresque like concept around the constant feedback that Gen Y’ers crave. You can ping your boss or co-workers to death by asking for feedback. While it may not actually prompt traditionally minded supervisors to respond with any more vigor than before, it may start making headway into more social web conscious companies like creative agencies.

I am actually a big proponent of constant feedback. I think anonymous feedback works well for peer networks. I think the challenge around Rypple is on where the feedback starts, while it could be used by managers to solicit feedback, it seems more focused on the employee soliciting feedback by others.  We will see how it all plays out.

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager   

Posted in Generational Management, Performance Reviews, social media | 3 Comments »

Reinforcing Leadership (Yes, Leadership)

January 6, 2009 – 10:14 pm

All good things and all bad things must come from the employee’s first line supervisor. This is called leadership, to do anything else is shirking responsibility and undermining the supervisor’s authority. Oh yeah, and don’t make HR do it.

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager

Posted in Adding Value, Human Resource Practices | No Comments »

Solicitations and Contractors

January 3, 2009 – 12:14 am

With the downturn in the economy, I have noticed a distinct increase in recruiting solitications as well as the number of hardcore contractors looking for work. About six months ago, I would receive one maybe two calls at most from a recruiting agency (I have my calls screened and don’t call back). Now, the same recruiter is calling half a dozen times, the total number of different agencies cold calling are increasing as well.

I have also noticed an increase in applicants who have normally only done contract work. In my experience, a good portion of the people who find the contracting lifestyle attractive usually stay on that career path. I am finding more and more applicants who have contracted steadily for the last five to ten years applying for full time positions. 

Of course we have all read (and felt) how the economic crisis is affecting businesses but sometimes it is interesting to see some of the second or third order effects. 

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager 

Posted in recruiting | No Comments »

Top HR Emails from Yours Truly in 2008

December 23, 2008 – 9:40 pm

I have been spending some time in retrospection as the year wraps up. I have compiled some of the top emails (by consensus) sent out this year.

 To: SeattleStaff

Subject: Krups Coffee Maker is Working Again (for the love of everything holy don’t put ground coffee in the bean grinder)

I got the machine working again. Enjoy. Next person I catch putting ground coffee anywhere near the grinder will get a proverbial beat down. Thanks. 

To: SeattleStaff

Subject: Company Economic Stimulus Package

Our Company is doing its patriotic duty in stimulating the economy through a policy of mass consumption. We will be doing our part by NOT returning our reusable silverware to its rightful spot in the kitchen. In doing so, we will force the Company to purchase more and more utensils thereby providing a much needed kickstart to our ailing economy. Thanks for doing your part!

PS - Return the silverware to the kitchen please.

To: SeattleStaff

Subject: Missed Connection - Banquet Swedish Meatballs Packaging for Recycling Bin

 Dear Banquet Swedish Meatballs Packaging,

I feel empty inside without your packaging, don’t worry I accept you for who you are. I even clearly state that cardboard is welcome. I feel slighted that you turned to the dark side choosing the trash can over me. Haven’t I been vocal in my affections?

Truly yours,

The Recycling Bin in the Break Room

P.S. Your plastic tray is a number 1 in my book, and is welcome to join us!

 

To: SeattleStaff

Subject: Pizza in the Breakroom, only 1 day old!

Still, good (I think), I ate some myself.

 

To: Allstaff

Subject: Prevent the Destruction of the World

And recycle. There is now a recycling box for cans and cardboard in the employee break area. Please wash/shake out your cans in the sink and breakdown the cardboard boxes. I will be monitoring who does and does not recycle from my cubicle and I would like to remind you that non-recyclers are not a protected class of employees.

Thanks and have a good day!

Dan

PS My wife baked magic bars (they’re yummy) and they are on the break area table for those of you who recycle. Enjoy!

PPS I am being mildly facetious in my efforts to encourage recycling.

PPPS Not Really.

 

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager

Posted in CSR, Human Resource Practices, Startups | 4 Comments »

Professional Re-engineering in Human Resources

December 15, 2008 – 9:51 pm

I saw re-engineering described in a way that made me stop and think (as you know adding value and creating efficiency are two of my guiding philosophies):

Re-engineering involves looking at the entire organization to simplify or eliminate unnecessary processes with the goal of increasing customer satisfaction though improvements in efficiency.

This got me to thinking about the sometimes bad reputation Human Resources has in organizations and led to think about the following questions:

1. When have you as a professional engaged in your own re-engineering? When was the last time you took a hard look at how to improve your customer satisfaction through the elimination of unneccesary processes? What actions did you take and what was the outcome?

2. If Human Resources does have a bad reputation for customer service (i.e. to our Employees and Managers) what can we do as a profession to re-engineer ourselves to improve this?

I would love to hear your answers. I’ll even tell you what, I will buy the person with the best answers coffee at Zeitgeist Coffee in Seattle if they are in the local area (this should get the recruiting agencies attention).

Dan Hall

Seattle Human Resources Manager

Posted in Creating Efficiency, Human Resource Practices | No Comments »