What are you NOT doing because you’re afraid?
Posted by admin on May. 18, 2022 / Subscribe 0
It was one of the many provocative questions Scott Sayres, VP corporate communications for Fresenius Medical Care, asked during his seminar for PRSA Dallas on May 12 at the Dallas Public Library.
We are in a moment of great power for the labor force, with some experts seeing this as a “market correction” against the backdrop of the 2008-09 recession. But with that power comes a lot of choice. And it’s easy to get your next transition wrong. Sayres noted that fear is the number one career transition killer.
“It’s your story. It’s your career. And it is personal. So get personal,” Sayres pushed as he gave ideas on how to tap deeper into passions and construct stronger professional pitches. As for actually landing the next gig, in his experience as a hiring manager, a candidate’s personal story, passion and research far outweigh the conventional aspects of the job hunt. But even capturing your story in a resume poses challenges.
Sayres engaged in a short experiment in recent years, quickly blasting out his resume to see how the ATAs (automated talent application readers) would receive and interpret his 20+ year award-winning media career, coupled with years leading in a PR agency setting and more than a decade at a Fortune 500 technology company in crisis communications. The result? Nothing. Zero response.
“We are so busy in the United States being data-driven that we forgot we are people-driven,” he explained as he recounted harrowing stories of incoherent and disorganized HR practices. He also shared tools and tactics both for job seekers as well as talent-seekers. (You can download the slides from his presentation here.)
In a nod to the difficulties hiring managers face right now, he noted that recruiting is incredibly challenging with millions of job openings far exceeding the number of people looking for work. An unexpected resource his group found was more traditional job boards. Sayres saw success when colleagues began posting jobs on mom-focused job boards, where the company’s benefits and flexible packages appealed to the parent demographic and brought in some top talent candidates.
“In Europe, the focus is on Life/Work balance,” Sayres said. “Not the usual phrasing we hear in the US of Work/Life balance. The focus should be on life.”
He encouraged HR teams to be more strategic in talent acquisition and postulated that there is perhaps a golden opportunity for HR and PR to team up at this key juncture in our social history to help shape the landscape and craft a more productive narrative.
At the seminar’s end, Sayres circled back to his main theme: knowing what you’re passionate about and leaning into that passion to help navigate your next professional step.
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Authored by Lauren Williamson, PRSA Dallas Programs Co-Chair and Argus Media VP Commercial Product.
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