Mike Creamer - Human Resources Champion - Beauty, Brains, and a Blog

Mike is one of the most memorable Human Resource partners I met while working at Microsoft. He was not only very genuine but also such a pleasure to be around. Like many people there, we’re managed to stay in touch. As topics come up that are of interest to my readers, I always like to pull in the cream of the crop to address their needs. Mike fits not only the Human Resources bill for this interview, but he is a top notch human as well. Enjoy the read!

Your career in Human Resources has spanned 40 years. That’s really impressive! Please share a few of your career highlights with our readers.

My career began in Venezuela in the state of Falcon in 1979. I began working for Lagoven which had been a subsidiary of Exxon. I worked at the worlds largest Oil Refinery, Amuay, with a refining capacity of 645,000 barrels of oil per day. My first job was in the Training and Development department and subsequently I worked in Recruiting, Compensation, and Executive Development. It was a great starting point not only for the work experience but because my first job was in the country where I was born.

My second highlight was Microsoft. I remember interviewing with Microsoft in 1989 and I honestly did not know much about the company. I responded to an ad in the Wall Street Journal. I sent my resume via U.S. mail as there was really no email back then. I had several phone Interviews and finally was invited to Redmond, Washington for face-to-face interviews. I clearly remember entering Building 9 and announcing myself to the receptionist. The receptionist was so excited and sharing with a co-worker the number of faxes she had received overnight. There was so much excitement in the air it was contagious. Long story short – I had eight interviews that day and was extended an offer to work in Human Resources (HR) as an International HR Manager. I moved to Redmond with my two young daughters. I fondly remember that my oldest daughter MeLisa said, “Dad you work at “Michaelsoft”. At the time Microsoft had 12 International subsidiaries and I was charged with helping develop HR programs for those and helping with the opening of the new international subsidiaries. It was an exciting time for me as I worked for Mary Beth Maines, my first Microsoft manager, along with Bernard Vergnes, the President of Europe, and Chris Smith, then VP for the Americas, South East Asia and Australia as well as Jeremy Butler, then President of International. I was then given the opportunity to help open the Latin American Headquarters in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida with Orlando Ayala who was (and still is) an extremely inspiring and passionate leader who later became the Senior Vice President of Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Support. I ended my career at Microsoft after fifteen years as the senior Director of Human Resources for Worldwide Sales, Marketing and Support. It definitely was the ride of my LIFE!!!

Over the last 5 years companies have seen dramatic shifts in their business. These changes have demanded a different type of hiring and in turn a different type of HR. What is the most dynamic shift you have seen impact HR within his five-year period? How prepared were most HR teams for the changes in the business landscape?

No doubt that the role of Human Resources has changed over the last five years. HR teams have become an integral part of the business supporting leaders on a daily basis. This support includes providing HR expertise as well as strategic business support. This shift has required that HR and its leaders become more business savvy gaining a true understand of the business they support. It has also required the business leaders to view HR as an integral part of organizational leadership. It has not been easy since HR has had to overcome the “stigma” of being solely a personnel department that was transaction oriented. A tighter integration with the business has required close partnering with organizational executive leadership teams as well as the board of directors. One of the most significant areas where HR began this change was in the area of Diversity and Inclusion. Organizations began seeing the need to broaden the reach of their Diversity and Inclusion efforts and programs, There was a need to have the organizations reflect the true community the business represented. The leadership teams turned to HR and tasked them for the development of inclusion strategies and programs.

This shift required HR to become a much stronger influencer and voice within the tea, and certainly within the leadership teams they represented. This is an ongoing challenge as many organizations still do not see HR as a priority but a “must have” function. It required HR professionals to become solid business leaders so as to be seen as equals. Many organizations turned to well respected (non-HR executives) to take the lead of HR organizations. Adding people with diverse skills and backgrounds helped HR become a more respected business function.

How are HR organizations managing the shift in staffing, compensation and other areas germane to HR?

Staffing or recruiting has become a key strategic partner in organizations mainly due to the extreme competition for talent globally. Stiff competition has demanded the staffing organization become extremely creative in developing candidate pipelines as well as the methods utilized to attract candidates in lean candidate marketplaces. Additionally, the change in candidate and job opportunity fulfillment has led to a prolific new method of recruiting; online recruiting companies. Companies such as LinkedIn, Monster Job, Career Job, Career Builders, Zip Recruiting and others have made a distinct footprint in this new recruiting method.

These new companies have led organizations to change compensation and benefit strategies. This has required companies to not focus only on base salaries but to develop a comprehensive total compensation philosophy. This new approach has forced companies to develop short and long term incentive programs (Short term bonus programs and equity programs). The review and development of soft benefit programs has also been a newer focus and has been reported on extensively. It has led to the development of very creative and unique programs in technology companies. In my opinion the two areas of Soft Benefits that have been focused on are:

Time-off programs which include paternity/maternity leaves, adoption assistance, and paid time off as examples.
Medical prescription benefits have had a key focus due to the dramatic increase in employer costs and due to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. High deductible health plans have also made a major impact.

What changes are occurring at the college level to provide a pipeline of new HR professionals? How has an HR professional career trajectory changed?

Companies have developed very robust intern programs with the advent of many colleges requiring internships as part of graduation requirements. Internships are now focused on providing meaningful challenges and opportunities providing a much broader and impactful work experience. Companies are focusing on hiring and retaining the interns they invest in. For example, interns who show the highest impact as well as future potential are extended offers in their junior years. High tech companies have very strong intern programs with many other companies following suit.

As far as HR professional’s there has been the creation of two distinct career paths within HR 1) Generalist track is a career track in which the HR professional become a trusted business parter to the organization. These professionals are dedicated to provide daily support on general HR issues such as employee relations, organizational communications, development of business focused HR strategies and working arm in arm with the business leaders. Many of those who join the generalist track are graduates with an HR focused degree, general business degrees and in some cases completely unrelated degrees that have worked in the business and found a passion for HR. 2) The specialist track is focused on those professionals who lean towards a very specific area of HR such as benefits, compensation, executive compensation, diversity or organizational development and training. The specialist serves as the expert who assists the generalist with specific areas of expertise and works with generalist to develop programs that are tailored to a specific business unit. Both roles are exciting and great opportunities for people who want to help an organization focus on their employees.

Technology has played an enormous role in HR, among other areas of corporate life. No longer do candidates apply for jobs in person, but rather electronically. What tips do you have for job seekers to help them better navigate the HR technology “black hole”?

This a very interesting conundrum both for the candidate and the staffing organizations. Many of the initial contacts with a candidate are phone screens or video screens. In a few companies candidates have been sent a list of question for to answer via recorded video. The candidate must develop this and return to the company. The key is that it requires the candidate to conduct a completely different preparation for these screenings as compared to face to face interviews. The essential element for candidates is preparation and practice similar to face to face interviews. Candidates need to practice with video and get used to it. Discover what makes them nervous, how to slow down their speech, how to they come across with confidence and karisma. These are all things that need to be analyzed and adjusted for. These essential skills take time and practice. Ask friends, family or mentors to help with practice time. One last point is to make sure to test the video link, phone link prior to the interview to ensure there are no technical glitches and have downloaded any software that may be needed

Most people feel a resume is most compelling on the “top fold”. Given that most resumes are sorted first by electronic means, what are your recommendations for making the top half of one’s resume compelling to man and machine?

The rise in the use of technological tools to do the initial screening has led to many prospective employees being screened out because their resume lacked certain key words or experiences. This requires candidates to adapt their resumes to each job they are applying for by carefully studying the job posting to determine what key words are utilized and then adjust their resume to include these words. The other approach is to use LinkedIn to see if they can find recruiters for the company they are applying with. If they can identify the appropriate recruiters they should develop a relationship which will allow them to get their resume in the recruiters hands. This is a bit more work, but the payoff will be greater when the job seekeres truly invest in themselves and their career search. I use the word ‘career search’ because I do not believe most candidates like the prospect of getting just a “job”. Rather they want to find an opportunity that is satisfying, helps develop their personal values and most of all, creates future opportunity.

Social media usage at companies has certainly changed over the past few years. Five or more years ago, it was squelched. Today companies accept it as a form of corporate life (with some caveats) and realize this is a new form of employee communication and sharing. Social media has also become a hotbed for finding talent. What has been the most positive impact social media has had on the HR field? What has been the most challenging?

Social Media is a way of life and a new ”Normal”. It has its very positive aspects and its very negative downsides.With the advent of social media companies have been forced and NEED to have a very clear social media strategy. This strategy needs to be developed with business leaders and with legal assistance. It is also important to work with marketing on the strategy to ensure you take into account the marketing aspect of social media and that you are following similar messages as those used by marketing. The reason for this is the widespread reach that social media has and the possible negative impact and legal risks it has if you do not have a very well crafted social media strategy.

Social Media is a valuable staffing tool and you can, with assistance of outside experts, develop strategies and tools to reach candidates with specific skills. For example I worked with an organization that helped developed hiring campaigns to reach a very specific candidate type. The process consisted of getting feedback via a questionnaire of high performing employees in certain roles. This along with a very behavioral oriented role profile allowed them to reach potential candidates via LinkedIN, Facebook and Instagram. They then sent you the results and provided information for you to contact potential candidates for your roles.

The other critical aspect of your social media strategy is having a very dynamic staffing website. Key to this is to not use it simply as a way for candidates to apply but as a means to provide key information about your company. Use video and interactive messages from employees that provide a sense of company culture, leadership and overall environment. This allows future candidates to get a sense of the company and insight into possible roles and careers at the organization. The key here is to ensure you are constantly refreshing the site; do not let it go stale.

The last point on social media is its use as a a company wide communication tool. No doubt that is a powerful tool to reach all company employees on a global basis. It provides leadership an avenue to update employees on new strategies, new products, and business insight. It allows employees to interact virtually with leaders, ask questions, make suggestions and provide input. The most important caveat here for public companies is to provide information that you are comfortable reaches the public domain, however and you need to make sure you are not divulging information that you do not want made available outside the company.

Social media is a great tool, use it thoughtfully and with care.

Benefits are a large component of hiring, both for the company and the employee. Benefit packages have also changed. (I sense a theme in this interview!) Employees are requiring different benefits and as such, companies may need to recalibrate their offerings to remain competitive. What are the most compelling benefits companies offer employees today? What are the newest benefits employees are demanding today?

Health, wellness and paid time off are the three areas that I see as the ones most employees are most interested in. Over the years companies have tried to provide the largest choice possible to employees. This a great thought but it can get costly and out of control quickly. Companies need to develop a sound benefits strategy that is part of its overall total compensation philosophy. HR needs to work closely with the finance organization and executive leadership in developing this strategy.

As far as the most compelling demanded benefits here are my thoughts on the three mentioned above.

Health – Health benefits are the most sacred benefits for employees. It provides several things that are extremely dear to employees, financial protection, care for their family and security. The difficult part of health benefits is that you will not be able to satisfy everyone so do not even try. As a company you need to work with your internal specialists and outside experts to ensure the desired protection by employees and the financial protection of the company. Health is not just about doctors visits but about access to health experts and this has created the new industry of tele-medicine providing almost immediate access to health professionals. Prescription care is part of the overall health plan and again one that needs to have a sound strategy. Over the last few years the cost of health protection has skyrocketed and one of the biggest contributors has been medical prescriptions. The key with your health program is clear and constant communication to employees all the time; this cannot be a focus only during open enrollment but throughout the year.
Wellness – This is a new area of focus and one that cannot only provide satisfaction for employees but a financial benefit to the company. A well developed wellness program is not a short term fix but a long term commitment. It is not only about gym memberships it is about health screenings, follow-up on the screenings and ensuring access so that employees can get the access to medical experts. Wellness is about an employees Well Being and providing Balance to employees. It is about helping employees with external pressures such as financial management, stress management, and child care as examples. Again it is a long term commitment and a very valuable one.
Paid Time Off – It is not about vacations any more it is about maternity and paternity leave, adoption leave, family emergency leaves. You again need to have a very well thought out strategy taking into account employee desires and balancing with the business needs. Vacation time is an important tool but in my mind very misused. Employees look to the company culture as a compass for taking vacation and in many organizations it is a badge of honor to not take vacation, to constantly work while on vacation or even cut them short. Vacation is a time to recharge, de-stress and enjoy things you normally do not get to do and your company culture should stress this.

Annual reviews as we knew them 10 years ago, are a thing of the past in many companies. The draconian measurement tools of the past no longer apply in many companies today. As more millennials are hired, they have voiced a need to have more frequent performance conversations with their managers. What shifts in review models have occurred and what do you believe still need to change?

Over years the annual review process was one of the most stressful experiences for employees. None of us like confrontation and in the past performance reviews were focused on how to give negative feedback with out much thought. As our world and work force has evolved it is more about inclusion in the process, constant communication and feedback. The biggest challenge for organizations is to ensure senior leadership values the process and communicates this to managers, supervisors and employees. Managers and supervisors must not see the review process as a mandate but as a way to help employees achieve growth.

The biggest and most positive change in the review process is the elimination of a rating. It has been a slow trend to adopt since all of us have been graded since kindergarten. The problem with ratings is that employees see it as the equivalent of a scarlet letter and many managers use it as way to avoid conflict by saying “I was forced to give you this rating but not much I could do”. This thought process made reviews not an inclusive process or one that was open; and as employees want more involvement it became a brick wall. As you state above many companies are now focusing on communication, speaking of career development, frequent feedback sessions. It requires extensive and quality training of managers and supervisors and should be communicated to them as a KEY RESPONSIBILITY of being a manager or supervisor. Good people managers should be rewarded and be made examples of to emulate.

The biggest change needed is to continue to focus on communication; it is about commitment to your team members, it is about honesty, it is about clear messages. This is what we need to continue to work on.

Covid-19 has proven that employees can effectively work in a non-centralized or home environment. Many companies such as Salesforce have joined the growing number of tech companies who are allowing their employees to work from home until the end of the year. Moving the workforce from office space to home may provide some long-term cost savings to companies. (No longer need office space, parking, transportation, etc.) Do you foresee a wholesale shift in movement from corporate campus environments to home base work?

Home Offices has become a real necessity because of Covid and as you state, there have been several companies announce full availability for home offices going forward. This has been mainly in the high tech space but has not shifted in my mind as a complete wave of the future and I believe that this trend will be very industry specific. There are many CEO’s who still see the value/need of having employees in the office and I believe that a lot of this is a matter of trust and need for control. There will be a continued shift even in those companies where a strong preference by the CEO exists but employees will set the tone. My belief is that we will have a shift to home offices but it will end up in a middle ground with companies allowing home offices but have a requirement for in office presence on at least two days of the week. I truly feel that this middle ground is best for employees and the company for the following two reasons.

Need to stay connected with other employees and the personal touch from managers.
The need to maintain evolve or change company culture can only be done in person with the presence of management.

One area that needs to be focused on and developed is the training that will be needed by managers. Remote management is not easy and many managers today are not prepared for remote management. Employees need to hear from managers and be in touch and managers need to be prepared for this.

Employees are no longer staying employed at one company for 20 years. Rarely are employees operating out of loyalty but rather they seek new job opportunities and experiences that expand their career and peak their interests. This must make for challenges in hiring and staffing models. How are HR organizations adapting to this shift?

It is a huge challenge and needs to be addressed in several ways.

Beginning with recruiting, hiring managers need to remove the bias that “job hopping” is bad.
Companies need to provide strong opportunities and career paths for employees. Todays work force wants and needs challenging opportunities as well as growth. If they do not see this in their organization they will move on.
More than ever, managers need to listen to their employees and what they are looking for. We now live in an environment where employees are more vocal and want to be heard. Managers need to listen and more than ever understand the messages they are getting from employees. Listening will not necessarily mean change but it will require managers to be quick with feedback and rational for the actions or no actions being adopted. Companies still have shareholders and they need to return value to them; and employees need to be educated on this.

Who is the most inspirational person (not famous) you have met in your career? How do or did they inspire you?

This one is easy, Orlando Ayala with whom I worked for over a span of 15 years. He inspired me by his passion, drive, decisiveness, ability to confront and drive change. Orlando drove change, growth and new opportunities at Microsoft. He was quick to say that I can not stay in the same job for more than three years; if I do, it means I am finished. He did move to new jobs in this span of three years which was inspiring that he was committed to himself as well as the company. We shared many fun and hard experiences together and I thank him for what he shared with me.

I would be remiss in not naming others who influenced me during my Career. Luis Urdaneta (Lagoven), Mary Beth Maines (Microsoft), Bernard Vergnes (Microsoft), Jerry Fowden (Cott Corporation) and I truly value what these individuals contributed to my career and growth. Thanks!

Knowing what you do today, what advice would you give your 20-year-old self?

The biggest piece of advice would be to learn and manage confrontation. This is a skill that some people have naturally and others as myself we need to understand how to manage it. It is not about being disrespectful but about confronting in a positive way with solutions.

What are three key pieces of advice you have for today’s job seekers?

Here you go:

There are many opportunities out there; and make sure you do your homework. Make sure you are looking for these three things.
1. Make sure you have a career objective in mind and an outline of what this will mean as you progress in your career. It is not about finding a “Job” but finding opportunities that will help you continue on the path of your career objective.
2. Company Culture; does it fit with your values.
3. Just like when we went to college we did our research. Do the same with the companies are interested in. Dig for information to get a view that you are satisfied with.

If you were a superhero what would your superpower be and would you wear a cape?

Flying and NO CAPE REQUIRED!!!