Are you too social?

I recently met with a vendor who has software that companies can use to scour text and image based content to identify risk to your brand (especially in hiring decisions).  They operate on the theory that our workforce is a reflection of our brand 24/7.   Additionally, 54% of employers find content on social media that causes them to hire another candidate. And this software helps them do it, by flagging items that link to bigotry, illegal drugs, excessive violence, sexual assault, illegal activity, etc.  It scours Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, in addition to a comprehensive news and web search.  As they stated in their presentation, “imagine a five-hour Google search on a person using all their identifying information”.  Think about that for a moment….

Let me pose question number two – are your kids too social?

As I speak to the interns here at Gannett, my three college (plus) age boys, and the neighborhood college kids, I constantly remind them of their need to be aware of their personal brands.  I love to ask the interns, “Can I pull up your social media accounts now in front of the room?” The horror in their eyes.  I use that as an introduction into how to understand the implications of what you post online.

We pulled up a few posts from Major League Baseball that revealed racist and homophobic comments.  We pulled up a news story of an applicant for a Massage Chain position that showed he was arrested for sexual assault.  We pulled up examples of bullying and hate.  All in minutes.  All with a few keystrokes.

Social media plays a larger part in how we consider employment. Many hiring managers today are looking at our social media profiles before making hiring decisions. We aren’t just looking for blatantly bad behavior, though. We also want to make sure you’ll be a great addition to our team. 

From AC Online, 37% of employers use social media to screen candidates.  34% of hiring managers stated that information on a person’s social media profile kept them from hiring a candidate.  49% of candidates posted provocative or inappropriate photos.  45% had photos of candidates drinking or using drugs.  33% posted bad comments about a previous employer.  Would your grandparents approve of what you post?

So…. What do we do?  We should have that conversation with our staff, our interns, our kids about social media and employment.  They should expect companies to scan their social media.  They should have clean and professional profile photos, they should show off their friendly personalities, and they should refrain from offensive posts and photos.  They should scan their own accounts and go back and “clean” up questionable posts (note it may still be out there on the web, but it will be less prominent in a search).  Have them “Google” themselves.  Also, recommend they start to build a professional profile of working, studying, speaking, running school function type photos and posts.  Ask them to start to follow important brands, companies, foundations and careers. 

Below are some other things to consider when you do a self-search on the Internet.  Check for your personal information: A simple Google search can reveal a lot about you, including your phone number, address, email, location, and any photos of yourself.

You should always do an Incognito Search: using a private browsing window when you search yourself, this is particularly important because it allows you to see unbiased results that aren’t affected by your previous searches, logged in services, or other personalization factors that Google implements. If you’d like a thorough analysis of your online reputation, background checking sites like BrandYourself.com provide feedback about search results for your name and will help you fix any issues you have.

We need to understand the world has changed.  People are always watching us, they are watching us right now. Like it or not — agree with the intrusion or not — we are being “Googled”, researched, stalked, and analyzed by the body of content we’ve posted online. Whether we are applying for a summer job, or even currently employed, you can bet someone who matters to our future is on our digital trail like a hound dog.

So we all should “clean it up”.  Reflect our integrity and responsibility.  Show our professional images.  Show that we are fun and friendly.  Show our many interests.  Show our great communication skills (and personally, cut down on all those selfies).  Change our online persona.  This is not just good advice for the next generation, but for us as well.

Together.  We .  Win.

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and USA TODAY NETWORK Careers

Can’t we just all disagree?

Michelangelo or DaVinci.  Tesla or Edison.  Ohio State or Michigan. Yankees or Red Sox.  Packers or Bears.  Magic or Bird.  Microsoft or Apple.  Cats or Dogs.  Stones or Beatles.  Democrat or Republican.  Fritos or Doritos.  Faith or No Faith.  Chocolate or Vanilla.  Marvel or DC comics.  UPS or FedEx.  Woody or Buzz.  Coke or Pepsi. The list is endless.  The sides are emotional.  The history runs deep.

There is no RIGHT answer.  There are historical facts.  There are opinions.  But when it comes to personal preference, it is up to the individual. (By the way, DaVinci, Edison, Michigan, Yankees, Packers, Magic, Apple, Dogs, Stones, No Choice, Fritos, Faith, Chocolate, Marvel, FedEx, Buzz, and Mt Dew actually would be my choices).  Feel free to share your preferences.

We seem to be destined for disagreements in many facets of our life.  America has become a divisive battleground.  We can have public discourse and not make it personal.  So with the examples above clearly just to make a point…I ask, why do these choices become emotional conflicts?  They are all just choices, but Republican or Democrat probably stirred more emotion than Frito or Dorito??  Faith or No Faith was more emotional than Woody or Buzz.  All of these can be civil exchanges of viewpoints.   What makes the difference is usually not the actual issue, but how the issue is handled. 

So I went to the “Google” and did some online research to help us all find better ways to have these conversations.  I found some interesting ideas that will help us to have these discussions that do not end in sibling separation, throwing pots, breaking cell phones, bench-clearing brawls, or mean girl stares:

As we learn over the course of marriage, we need to pick our battles carefully.  What is truly worth arguing or getting emotional about?  Since disagreements are inescapable, here’s a few practical tips to keep in mind:

-          What is the actual end result of this decision?  Is it Sophie’s choice, or just your preference on the best football team (Packers … if you were unsure by the way). If it is just a preference do you need to “win”?

-          Are you in the correct emotional state for the discussion?  Did you get in an accident on the way to work and step in a puddle walking into the office to then discover you left your badge at home?  Probably not the best morning to discuss something you disagree with.

-          Are you listening to understand the other point of view?  Did you really listen when they spoke to the Beatles ground breaking albums and their chart topping hits and ridiculous fan following?  Or were you just “the Stones are the best!”?  Expand your knowledge base.  Maybe, just maybe, the Beatles were that good.

-          Were you clear to say that this was your “opinion”?  That in itself diffuses the situation because you really cannot argue over an opinion.  Did you approach the discourse like a lawyer (no offense to my legal friends)?  Did you interrogate the person or have a respectful two way dialog?  Did you attack (which makes the other side defensive)? Or did you exchange ideas?

-          You can have an opinion and if you can support it with facts, then that makes for an easier discussion (The Packers are the best football team this year because Aaron Rodgers is the number one fantasy quarterback this year … that was all I got for facts).  Maybe my wife says the Rams because of their number one defense, fourth ranked offense, and number one fumble recovery stat?  Facts make for better discussion.

-          Can you reach common ground and discuss how maybe the Packers, Patriots, Steelers, and Rams are all top echelon teams this year vs. who is the BEST?  Do you need to win or really just gain agreement that their team and YOUR team are both good?

The old catchphrase "agree to disagree" is repeated often for a reason.  It can really be useful when you need it. Sometimes, one of the most important aspects of respectfully disagreeing with someone is knowing when you need to just call it quits and move on.  Disagreements are inevitable. But, there's always a wrong way and a right way to present your own differences unless you do not think the Packers are the best team.  We can agree to disagree that the Packers are better than the Patriots….

And lastly, please do not say “but…”, we use this way too much. “Yes, but…” or “I agree up to a point, but…” When you say but you’ve generally negated everything that was said before. You may have agreed to common ground, or you’ve just given the person a complement, then you take it all back by saying “but”.  Diplomatic disagreement is a great way to “win friends and influence people,” and will help you in business and in life.

Yes, we still get things terribly wrong face-to-face, no matter how smart our social circuits in our brains are supposed to be. Ultimately, when we can come to the table to compare differences, we need to bring our full bag of friendly disagreeing armor with us. That means tools like emotional awareness and emotional self-control.  Think about how you phrase and think about how you react.  It will make a difference.

Go. Pack. Go.

Together.  We.  Win.


Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and USA TODAY NETWORK Careers

The Hug 2 … which one are you?

Who would have thought that would be my most read blog ever?  The HUG?  Really?  A hug.  A lot of interest and feedback which led me to conduct more non-scientific based research as I traveled the last few weeks.  And yes, Detroit, Milwaukee, NY and DC all have similar hugging etiquettes.

Well, before I get to “The Hug 2 …which one are you?” I wanted to share some funny follow-up messages from my friends and peers.  The comments were generally very supportive, but as you well know, some college buddies were a bit snarky.  Many of my college buddies and high school friends dropped me a text asking about the family, or get togethers, or just general check-ins … and then followed up with a “btw I am a 6 on the hug scale”.

A few folks let me know some areas which I missed in my coverage: the effect of time spent not seeing each other, think that if you live in Cincy and me NY you last saw me Summer 2017 – probably a hug.  You saw me last Friday…not so much.  Then there was this WHOLE other side which I was not aware of (I am now! Thank you readers) regarding make-up, hair, outfits, OCD, germaphobia, bad breathe (lest us dare to say body odor…), etc.

And lastly, there was the other country etiquette.  One kiss, two kisses, three kisses, air kisses, cheek kisses, arm grabs, the list goes on…..(sounds a bit like Dr. Seuss there).

So since I wrote the blog a few weeks back, I have been keenly observing (OK that is a stretch – when I thought about it I would watch) and here is what I have discovered:

I have studied the definition of the word and it means "to press tightly especially in the arms," likely from the Old Norse word hugga, which means "to soothe."  First used in 1567 (useless fact of the day).   As I studied awkwardness in hugging at work, I read that Drake Beer, in Fast Company stated, “The uncomfortable feeling you get when you realize that your concept of your relationship with someone else doesn’t match their concept. The intensity of awkwardness roughly corresponds to the magnitude of difference in relationship concepts.”  How true.

So all my extensive research conducted over the last two weeks led me to identify hugs in various categories.  This is my NOT all-inclusive list of how I categorized hugs (any hugs intentionally or not intentionally left off my list were solely due to my inadequate research and rush to get my follow-up blog completed):

The true warm hug.  This hugs originates from a person who is usually a big hugger (10 on the 10 scale).  The hugs denote caring and a person very aware of feelings in others.  These hugs are given by people who are quite comfortable with hugging.  They have the ability to even make the most anti-huggers feel good about the hug.  There is no other intention in this hug other than to make you happy.  Words cannot convey what a true warm hug can do and express.

The PC hug.  Not a computer or android type hug (although there may be a little correlation there), but a more formal hug usually at meetings, work, formal type events.  This appears to be the social hug and given for the sake of social etiquette.  The only reason is to give the hug and be done.   No emotion.  Period.  (It makes me think of “Housewives of Wherever” shows and I am concerned I even have this thought).  I gave the hug, let’s move on.  Interestingly, it usually ends with a big smile which may or may not be real.

The bruh hug, the sister hug, the buddy hug.  These hugs are for friends only.  They happen a lot.  They are not even thought about.  These are your true friends and it shows in the hugs.  Gender is generally not an issue here, the main reason is true friendship.  It is amicable, warm and longer than other hugs.  Generally they end with some kind of a laugh.  Endorphins have kicked in making us feel good about our friend.  There is history and stories and laughs that all flow back with that hug.  Under no circumstances should any person gently place their head on the other’s shoulder during this hug if at work. This pushes the hug into the “unacceptable” zone and is inappropriate in the workplace.

The bruh hug, the sister hug, and the buddy hug on steroids is the not seen very often – bear hug.  These hugs occur with super close friends or family.  These are the squeeze the life out of me in a good way hugs.  These two huggers are close and have a deep relationship.  There are no pretensions here and just unbridled joy in the hug.  Maybe even a lift off the ground.  Brothers meeting at the airport, girlfriends from college, neighbors from the past, wedding party friends from years back.  Outfits, and hair, and political correctness are not even thought of.  Please note, if there is an extreme size difference – these can be comical to watch.

The lover hug (not usually for work or at work).  Usually preceded by some movie type long stare in to each other’s eyes.  It may even be a hug from behind the other person.  Very personal.  Also, hand placement and hand movement is not to be discussed here.  Saw many of these at the airport by the way.

The it’s gonna be OK hug.  This hug may be the most meaningful.  It is a really caring hug that is given to comfort and reassure.  It is more of a one-way hug at first.  Funerals, family issues, pet issues, sadness and concern, etc. -  all bring on this hug.  My mom passed in 2003 and I STILL remember this wonderful woman giving me a 45-90 second it’s gonna be OK hug.  I needed that.  And it was meaningful.

The pat on the back hug.  I saw this more than I expected.  A quick hug followed by the pat on the back.  This is generally a buddy type hug regardless of gender.  No other meaning attached.

The hey I am not comfortable but I will give you a hug ½ turn hug (or some may say – the awkward hug).  You know this hug.  Neither wants to hug.  It starts with the handshake then evolves to a half hug half shoulder bump kinda thing.  Awkward.

And then there is the (wait … you can Google this), the London Bridge hug.  It is awkward, neither side want to hug.  Arms only with no body contact.  Did I say awkward.  Oh the London Bridge, yeah that is your arms….

Some other hugs I saw: the twirling hug (like a romantic movie – saw a few in the airport), the lover hug (usually followed by a smooch or two), the smeller hug (we all have that person like grandma or our aunt who hugs us and tells us we “smell really good”), the eighth grade hug (remember the junior high school dances and the “book between you rule” – well this person still abides by this rule), the close my eyes hug (self-explanatory – may be deemed a tad creepy at work), the I am not putting my mobile down hug (they will hug and continue to use and or hold their phone – usually allows a quicker escape from the hug), the ain’t got time but need to hug you hug (saw this in the airport as well,  as one of the hug participants was late for their flight), the creepy hug (nobody likes this…ever!), and finally the alternative hug (high-five, salute, fist bump, handshake with arm grab – this is for the person who is not against touching just does so in a lesser manner).

Oh and lest I forget, two more, the global hug and the Heimlich hug. The global hug is when they peck quickly one cheek, then another, and then maybe even another, a method meant to confuse and bewilder.  They grab your forearm.  They air kiss or maybe even cheek kiss (I think what it really means was that their Semester at Sea in their college formative years was a memorable experience and they cannot let it go three decades later). 

The Heimlich hug takes place when trying to save a life. The hug is from behind the choking person in an attempt to dislodge the office party pizza chunk that was scarfed from the leftovers in the common area. This hug is perfectly acceptable in any corporate setting – especially if co-worker is turning blue.  

So again, unless your workplace actually prohibits hugging between colleagues, you are left to your own devices when it comes to giving or accepting hugs at work. Most office etiquette experts say that generally, an arms-off policy is best. And yet, most of us will admit that we have been in a situation where we’ve either given, or received, an awkward co-worker hug.  Hopefully after reading this, you have a better understanding of the various hugs (and you cannot get back the ten minutes you spent reading this…sorry).

To remind you from the original Hug blog:  If you are in a situation where there is a hug, think of the office hug like those who go fishing: “hug and release.”

Together.  We. Win.


Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and USA TODAY NETWORK Careers

Racism and Sexism.

Attention grabbing words in this day and age.  Reality as well. 

How can we become more comfortable and honest in these discussions?  How can we affect change?

I was in Detroit last week at the annual National Association of Black Journalists convention.  Detroit wonderfully hosted the nation's leading journalists, media executives and PR professionals for the 2018 NABJ Convention and Career Fair.  Over the course of five days, there were networking events with colleagues, great panels featuring prominent keynote speakers, breakout sessions to learn about emerging industry trends, discussions to better understand the challenges and opportunities facing women and people of color in our world today, AND there was great talent to hire.

Enlightening and engaging.  Dab Gilbert and Dhani Jones were there.  David Aldridge and Jemele Hill were there.  Isiah Thomas, Deanna Nolan and Steve Smith were there.  James Brown (CBS), Tyler Perry and Soledad O’Brien were there.  The list goes on.  Incredible talent all around.  Pretty cool to be there.

The 2018 NABJ Annual Convention & Career Fair is the premier venue for journalism education, career development and networking opportunity that draws leaders in journalism, media, technology, business, arts and entertainment. Over 3,000 of the nation’s top journalists, media executives, public relations professionals and students gathered in Detroit.

I had the opportunity to not only recruit some great talent to hopefully choose Gannett as their next place to work, but I also was able to sit in on some very powerful panels.  The most riveting panel I sat in on was about racism and sexism in sports today – The Intersection of Racism and Sexism in Sports.  It really was not about sports, it really was about our society.  150 minutes and it seemed like 10 minutes.

Listening to the experiences and events that are happening (in 2018!) from noted celebrities like Jemele Hill (Reporter for ESPN and The Undefeated) and David Aldridge (TNT Sports) was certainly a sad reminder that racism and sexism continues to plague our country – every company, every school, every team in more ways than most of us truly understand.  The stories about the trolls, the hate mail, the bosses behavior, the peers – the ugly side of the world we live in today.  It was eye opening, to say the least, and I am not naïve about these issues.

As Jesse Myerson wrote back in February of this year, “… racism is not an individual quality; it is a hierarchical system of distributed power that gets mediated through people’s acts.”  What I took away from this panel was that we need all people (not just people of color) to come and work in the trenches and be there alongside progress. It’s not about being on the outside and saying “I support this!”.  It is about being in it “not only do I support you, but I am here with you, I am rolling up my sleeves. What do I need to do?”.  This is a national problem facing all of us.  It impacts someone we know every single day.

Racism and sexism is not a problem just for people of color and females.  It is a problem for our country.  It impedes progress, impedes success, impedes fairness.  Creates mental health issues, anxiety, stress, anger, resentment.  The list goes on.  It is essential for us as leaders to start taking further action to promote social justice.  Research shows that a senior leader’s actions can influence consumers and political opinion, creating a strong ripple effect. Executive activism even increases retention and recruitment within that company, as both current and potential employees feel more connected to the company’s mission.  We can no longer be complicit.  We have to act – and at a minimum, have conversations – more conversations.

The recent news involving Starbucks and their training of over 175,000 employees and store managers and shutting down 8,000 corporate-owned stores was met with mixed reviews. Some people are applauding CEO Kevin Johnson for what they called a “bold” step in the right direction while others said it was “too little, too late” and question whether this was merely another PR stunt to please Starbucks consumers and Black Twitter.  Either way, it was a step in the right direction.  Companies can always do more, but it is certainly better received when it is proactive versus reactive.

Our Go Forward (our diversity team) initiatives at Gannett are moving us in the right direction, but there are so many aspects to review and update.  And we never seem to be moving fast enough or doing enough.  We use data and feedback from monthly pulse surveys, we change processes and build inclusion into the DNA of succession planning, promotion, salary reviews, and focus groups.  We are building Employee Resource Groups covering a wide variety of focus areas: veterans to women to millennials to LGBTQ+ to people of color to interfaith.  We are training all employees on unconscious bias.  We are monitoring our hiring practices – including our candidate slates and ALSO the panels who conduct the interviews.  We are trying to build an ally culture where all of our employees can feel comfortable and safe being themselves.  But guess what, this is not enough.  We need to continue to listen more, learn more and be open to changing the ”system”.   

There are still too many people being harassed, discriminated against, criminalized and… sadly killed.  Motives and intentions should not really matter – it is occurring at an alarming rate. And if this really mattered to us as leaders, our outcomes would reflect our focus on change. 

Racism and sexism wasn’t built in a day, and it won’t be solved in one. We must demand more from ourselves, our leaders, our peers.  Many leaders avoid conversations about race out of fear of “saying the wrong thing.” And many people of color in predominantly white companies may avoid these conversations out of fear of being viewed differently, or as a complainer — or worse. But pretending the elephant in the room isn’t there won’t make it go away.  Today, minorities make up 37% of the United States population and will climb to 57% by 2060. The U.S. Department of Commerce projects nonwhite ethnic groups will represent 85% of U.S. population growth between 2011 and 2050. As these changes transform the workplace, being comfortable talking about race will become increasingly important.  As leaders, we need to make inclusion a long-term investment which includes regular discussions about why it is important to our business growth strategy. 

I think we also need to better understand conflict and reframe it where possible.  Reframing the conversation toward solutions versus issues is an important step to making progress.  We need to be realistic and expect conflict – and then listen, learn and reflect in order to make lasting change for the better.  Finally, we need to be more proactive in our inclusion efforts.  We need to ask our employees more, ask our employees when we do not have a pressing issue, ask our employees when there is NOT a major issue in the news (not sure that is possible anymore…).  Do we understand barriers to success from all employee lenses?  Do we understand the biases that exist in our culture and what we can do to mitigate those?

Finally, there is a line between political views with which we can politely disagree, and the dangerous, offensive sexist and racist rhetoric which we must stand up to challenge. Regardless of your political persuasion, all Americans should be in agreement that there is no room for hateful, sexist or racist speech.  We need to stand together on this.

I realize I do not have all the answers, but I do realize we need more discussion, more comfort in having discussions, and more honesty about what our culture is really like (in our country, in our workplace and in our personal lives).

Together.  We.  Win.

Dave Harmon
People Division
“Kindness is Currency”
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/davidharmonhr

Look for us on: LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, The Muse, Glassdoor and USA TODAY NETWORK Careers