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Last week I found one my DR's resume's on Dice. I wasn't looking for it; we are recruiting heavily and I merely stumbled across it.

I haven't mentioned it to him yet, but I did probe deeply into his overall satisfaction during my one on one w/ him last week (another good reason for O3's!).

If I hadn't of seen his resume on Dice with my own eyes, I'd have absolutely no reason to suspect that he was looking. He seems happy as can be and I"m not picking up any red flags or other indicators.

I mentioned this to one of my trusted lieutenants. We are a matrix environment and the direct officially reports to me, but he dotted lines to my lieutenant. My Lt was also shocked and indicated that he wasn't picking up any signals either.

The direct is not a person that I want to lose, but I'm not completely sure what to do next? Should I tell him that I saw his resume and listen to what he has to say? Or should I say continue 'shower him with affection' so to speak?

jhack's picture

Talk to him about it. Ask if he's looking, and if so, why. He may have good reasons for doing so. Be calm and ho-hum about it.

You shouldn't be surprised. Many folks always have their resumes out and about. Times are uncertain, jobs move overseas, and this may his hedge if things don't go well for him at your firm.

You should understand his goals and how your firm fits into them. If all he wants is money, you'll lose him sooner or later. If he's looked around and knows for sure you're the best place for him, great. And if you're not, well...

John

tomas's picture

It is pretty easy to upload a resume to a job site on the odd chance that the perfect job might come along. I wouldn't read too much into it. Maybe they were having a bad day one day and posting a resume can act as a bit of a circuit breaker.

It shouldn't really change you manage them at all. It doesn't make sense to treat someone better because you think they are looking, but ignore them the rest of the time. Think about it this way, even if someone isn't actively looking for a job they still have a network of contacts and could be offered a position at any time. You just don't know, so you shouldn't take your people for granted.

If you are talking to them regularly about their career you should have an idea if the probability of them moving on. You can do a risk analysis on the probabilities of people changing jobs based on their level of satisfaction, time in role and average tenure of staff. Seeing a resume on Dice might be a factor to take into consideration, but other factors are likely to weigh more heavily.

You may decide to talk to him about it directly, but realise that he is likely to be very embarrased about it.

US41's picture

I think youa re out of of bounds here. Forget you saw it and move on.

These days no company is ever loyal to the employee. Expecting employees to be loyal to the company with zero return on that investment is a recipe for heartbreak.

Also, if you are surprised to find his resume, I would suggest that you are not doing enough to seek out potential employment upgrades yourself. I think a professional is constantly on the lookout for newer and better employment opportunities, and that means you are in circulation 365 every year.

Stop spreading rumors about your employee to your coworkers and let it go. Nothing happened.

BTW, I was browsing linked in the other day and found the resumes of everyone on my team. Should I be worried? What should worry me more - that they have their resumes made public so they are all trying to leave en masse, or that they have had them out there all this time and no one is interested in these people I hired and thought were so awesome? See what I mean? You can drive yourself crazy trying to use telepathy to figure out other people's motivations and intentions.

I would recommend you avoid falling into the managerial trap of the suspicious spouse. Going through receipts and credit card bills and following your spouse around town is not healthy behavior, and neither is worrying over their activities away from the office. Hold your O3's, coach, give feedback, and delegate. Set objectives, measure performance. Let everything else just happen. Focus on behavior.

jhack's picture

I would second pretty much everything US41 and tomas said.

One caveat on my previous advice (based on reading the above): you don't [i]need[/i] to talk to him. It depends on your relationship with him. I have directs with whom I discuss career management, including "handling their resume." If you don't have that kind of relationship, you may want to develop it before you have any conversation.

Regardless, this is not a cause for alarm.

John

TomW's picture
Training Badge

Moments like this my sarcastic side comes out... it would be fun to invite him for an interview through Dice ;-)

tcomeau's picture
Training Badge

[quote="US41"]I think youa re out of of bounds here.[/quote]

That's literally the only sentence in US41's post I disagree with. I understand your concern, but a) it's probably not reflective of any bad intent, and b) there's nothing you can do about it anyway.

Mention it if you want, don't mention it if you're uncomfortable asking about it. My wife asks me about lunch receipts she finds, and I fill her in on how my former boss is doing in her new career.

Finding a resume from your boss on a job site is more of a shocker, and it turned out he actually was looking to leave.

People leave, for all sorts of reasons, some of which you can't do anything about. We've had people leave because they couldn't stand the commute through Baltimore any more. Focus on what you can affect.

tc>

stephenbooth_uk's picture

My CV is constantly out there, as are those of most, if not all, of the people I know. That seems to be the way things are these days. Ten years ago phone calls from recruiters started with "I saw your CV and have a great opportunity for you, can you get to Nottingham for an interview this Friday." now they start with "I found your CV on oursystem/Monster/LinkedIn/Where-ever, are you currently looking for work?"

Your direct may be looking to move on but if neither you nor your Lt know of any issues probably not. Bring it up if you want, let it lay if you feel more comfortable that way. Maybe you can use it as a springboard for a chat about development?

[quote="tcomeau"][People leave, for all sorts of reasons, some of which you can't do anything about. We've had people leave because they couldn't stand the commute through Baltimore any more. Focus on what you can affect.[/quote]

Look into more home/mobile working so they don't have to do the commute?

Stephen

tcomeau's picture
Training Badge

[quote="stephenbooth_uk"]
[quote="tcomeau"]People leave, for all sorts of reasons, some of which you can't do anything about. We've had people leave because they couldn't stand the commute through Baltimore any more. Focus on what you can affect.[/quote]

Look into more home/mobile working so they don't have to do the commute?
[/quote]

Yah, we do some of that, and we even have one guy who "commutes" from Boulder, CO one week out of five, but he had to quit and come back as a contractor to get it past senior management.

There have been other threads on telecommuting and remote work, and I do believe the definition of "work site" is changing. Doing better would require extensive management of the boss. (Which I hear is a bad idea.)

tc>

garyslinger's picture
Licensee BadgeTraining Badge

[quote="stephenbooth_uk"]My CV is constantly out there, as are those of most, if not all, of the people I know. That seems to be the way things are these days. Ten years ago phone calls from recruiters started with "I saw your CV and have a great opportunity for you, can you get to Nottingham for an interview this Friday." now they start with "I found your CV on oursystem/Monster/LinkedIn/Where-ever, are you currently looking for work?"
Stephen[/quote]
I'll pick Stephen's message to reply to, to show I don't always automatically disagree with him :)

"What they said" - my resume is out there on LinkedIn, and on my own web site, right now. It's quite probably still active on Monster, and maybe elsewhere - I may go check that out later. I'm not looking right now, but I don't know if or when I might be, and there's always that very small chance - someone might come along with exactly the right offer for exactly the right job, based on all manner of variables... You never know.

I must admit that I did find a little humor in the idea of calling them to interview though!

G

stephenbooth_uk's picture

[quote="tcomeau"]There have been other threads on telecommuting and remote work, and I do believe the definition of "work site" is changing. Doing better would require extensive management of the boss. (Which I hear is a bad idea.)[/quote]

We're currently supposed to be moving towards a more home/remote/mobile working paradigm, this being driven by senior management (the ones who see the bill for office accomodation). The cost of office accomodation in Birmingham has shot up over the last few years due to an over enthusiastic programme of conversion of offices to appartments coupled with a number of businesses moving staff out of London and the South East corner, due to the high cost of office accomodation there, to the Midlands resulting in a local shortage of offices of a reasonable standard in or near the city centre.

We have a lot of staff (probably around 60-70%) who are in jobs which could be done just as well from home or satellite offices near their home as from the main office. Around half of those are in jobs where, for the bulk of their work, it doesn't matter exactly when the work is done (10am or 10pm) so long as it's done on time. The main barrier we're facing right now is that we have a lot of managers who are very much of the mind set that if they can't see their staff then their staff aren't working, totally focused on the inputs.

Stephen

ramiska's picture

I'd have to ditto what's been said above. Don't worry. As we all know, the best way to find employment is with people you know. Without a posted resume, your DR may be seeking within his/her network and you'd never know.

How about offering suggestions on how to improve his/her resume the MT way? :wink:

tcomeau's picture
Training Badge

[quote="ramiska"]
How about offering suggestions on how to improve his/her resume the MT way? :wink:[/quote]

LOL! That's perfect!
[quote]
Can I give you some feedback? I found your resume on Dice, and it's more than one page long, and doesn't list your significant accomplishments. That makes me think you haven't listened to the MT 'cast on resumes. What could you do differently?
[/quote]

I think I'd pay money to see your direct's reaction. 8)

tc>

stephenbooth_uk's picture

[quote="tcomeau"]
[quote]
Can I give you some feedback? I found your resume on Dice, and it's more than one page long, and doesn't list your significant accomplishments. That makes me think you haven't listened to the MT 'cast on resumes. What could you do differently?
[/quote]

I think I'd pay money to see your direct's reaction. 8)

tc>[/quote]

Definately a Kodak moment. Also a good way to introduce a direct you're trying to develop to MT as a development resource they can access.

Stephen

thatguy's picture

I have a similar problem, in that a skip of a coworker has posted a resume to a job board like DICE.

The responses generally seem focused on something like LinkedIn, which is not a job board per se, but a place to put your info for the long run. This skip had specifically posted the resume to find a job somewhere else, two weeks ago. This skip may also be interviewing as we speak, given the timing.

My question is: in this particular case, what is the best way to find out what's wrong? Is a direct conversation out of the question, or would it make sense to get someone with a good relationship with them to talk to them? Is there something more circumspect that can be done like a "every 6 months employee satisfaction survey" or "every year lunch with skips" that happens to be starting today?

jhack's picture

This thread is actually focused on Dice. Read the first seven or so posts and then please post a followup.

Weekly one on ones: the most powerful management tool EVER.

John

tomas's picture

thatguy,

As jhack has indicated, the replies do relate to a resume posted on a job board.

There is almost zero effort involved in posting a resume online, so the fact that an employee has done so is not necessarily an indication that they are hellbent on leaving. It might be a reaction to a bad day that they have already forgotten about or they might be testing the waters. How can you tell the degree of urgency of the skip from the fact that they have posted a resume? (Long lunches or unexplained absences might, of course, indicate that they are actively looking)

In any case you should recognise that there is an open market for talent and this is why you should build your relationship with your staff through O3's and the like. The idea is to be proactive rather than just reactive. A good relationship provides the platform for finding out what issues your employees have. If that relationship isn't already there it is a bit late to try to cultivate once someone is looking to leave.

stephenbooth_uk's picture

[quote="thatguy"]My question is: in this particular case, what is the best way to find out what's wrong? Is a direct conversation out of the question, or would it make sense to get someone with a good relationship with them to talk to them? Is there something more circumspect that can be done like a "every 6 months employee satisfaction survey" or "every year lunch with skips" that happens to be starting today?[/quote]

First off, there may be nothing wrong. Employees post their resume for all sorts of reasons. Maybe their spouse/partner has just got a job in another city and they are going to have to move. Maybe they're just testing the market to reassure themselves that they've still 'got it'. Maybe they were watching the news and saw reports about how the problems with sub-prime mortgages may lead to recession and are worried they may be downsized so thought they'd better get their resume out just in case.

Personally I think a once a year lunch (you with two or three of them, either directs or skips, never a mixture) with each of your directs and skips (assuming there's not too many of them, one every three or four weeks is probably the most you should be aiming for) is a good idea any how from an employee relations point of view and for giving you an indication of how things are. For addressing a particular concern, not so good.

I firmly believe that employee satisfaction surveys are a good way of finding out what your employees think you want to hear. even if you say they're totally anonymous, there's no way to find out who said what and even if there was no one would be disciplined for what they reported, employees will, in my experience, believe that it's a fishing trip for evidence to use to sack them or to identify candidates for lay off.

Since it's a skip of a co-worker would you be stepping on anyone's toes by talking to them direct? Would it be better for your co-worker to have a chat? Maybe you could introduce your co-worker to MT and encourage them to start O3s and skip meetings.

If you do decide to go for the direct approach to assuage your concerns then I'd suggest a light and friendly approach, don't mention the resume. Maybe engineer an opportunity to be standing next to them in the lunch queue and open with something like "Hey, you work for one of Bob's people don't you? How are things over there?" or some other apparently random meeting.

Stephen

quentindaniels's picture
Training Badge

*Complete side-note that does not need to be responded to.

Thanks to everyone for this post. I don't know of any other community where this could happen. I have never had this problem. Yet I have loved reading from those more experienced than me about it.

This post is one of the best examples I have seen of how this community has helped solve a problem all of us can be affected by. And with no input from M&M. You have all added great value to my professional life. Thank you.

QD

*Also, I loved the idea of helping them improve their online resume, hilarious. And I would love a picture of the expression on their face. :oops: