Something Funny Happened on my Way to the Apple Store...

I opened my email this morning and had a funny email from Apple. It's a great example of how the right idea executed poorly can do more harm than good. In my case no harm has been done. I am sharing it as an example of the opportunity and responsibility HR professionals have to step up their game.

Two parts to the post:

1. The recruiting email from Apple
2. The email response I sent to their team

THE EMAIL

From: SFStaffing@apple.com
To: terrence@makingstories.net
Subject: You’re_Invited_-_Apple_Retail_Hiring_Seminar_-_San_Francisco_
Date: 07/30/2010
Time: 3:40 AM EDT

Dear Terrence Gargiulo,

Congratulations! You have been selected to participate in our invitation-only recruiting seminar for our San Francisco Bay Area Stores. We want you to explore starting a career with Apple Retail - we are currently seeking full-time and part-time Specialists, Experts, and Inventory Specialists.. We are also looking for candidates that desire training that will lead them to Genius, Creative and Management roles within Apple Retail. This will not be a typical
Seminar but rather an interactive experience. Please join us!

Date:
Monday, August 9th

Time: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm

or

Date: Tuesday,
August 10th

Time: 10am, 1pm, 4pm, 7pm

(please plan on being with us
for about 2 hours)

*Please include in your reply your top 2 preferred
dates and times to attend this event.

Place: Galleria Park Hotel
191 Sutter Street

San Francisco, CA 94104

(415) 781-3060
What to
wear: We are Apple! Business casual attire is perfectly fine, no suits
necessary.

What to bring: A copy of your updated resume

How: Please confirm your attendance by sending an email to SFStaffing@apple.com by
August 6th, 2010. Please don't forget to give us your 2 preferred days/times.

I look forward to hearing back from you soon!

To learn more about the positions we have to offer, please visit
http://jobs.apple.com and click Apple Store.

We look forward to meeting you.

MY RESPONSE

Please take this as constructive feedback...

I feel insulted. This is a recruiting by numbers strategy. I appreciate the need to ramp up your operations and to leverage the names of people who have applied to the company. However, it reveals (whether true or not) that little to no care or attention was put into who to send this opportunity to.

I'm not responding from a place of ego - I am responding from the care and attention HR and recruiting need to have for Apple's incredible brand - and from my passion for your company.

One glance at my resume - even a quick keyword search by meta tag cralwer would quickly indicate I should have never been sent this offer.

I'm disappointed. Its an example of how I feel the HR profession continues to lose opportunities to bring real value to companies.

Thank you for being open to my feedback - please share my note with the appropriate people. I am more than happy to share my perceptions - 415-948-8087.

Good luck with the recruiting event (the event and idea is an excellent one). And thank you for being an awesome company!

Warm regards,
Terrence
cell: 415-948-8087
http://www.makingstories.net

It's a Marathon - Not Magic - New Webinar

Last year Shawn Callahan and I delivered a webinar in the triple threat of storytelling. It was really popular and we had a great time doing it.

Well we're back for another webinar, this time we're exploring how to become a better storyteller by applying some specific and deliberate practices.

Here is our little marketing blurb. Sign up details are at the bottom of this post.

Have you wondered why you are not making better progress at becoming a storyteller at work? Are you finding it difficult to find good stories to tell? Are your stories relevant to your colleagues or do they look at you blankly wondering what planet you're on?

Spend 45 minutes with master business story practitioners Shawn Callahan of Anecdote and Terrence Gargiulo of MAKINGSTORIES.net as they share deliberate practices you can employ today to be a better storyteller.

We will conduct the session as a conversation involving everyone. Yippee!

We expect you'll walk away with three things from this session:

• Three practices to deepen your storytelling skills
• Ideas from other attendees of how they improve their skills or what works for them...what works in their organization
  
• Some specific resources for finding good stories

We're doing this webinar twice, one timed for Asia Pacific and the other for the Americas. Just click on the link of the webinar you want to attend and fill in your details.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM AUSTRALIAN. EST

Tuesday, August 17, 2010 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM USA PDT

Looking forward to chatting with you on the call.

Organizational Responsibility

Is it possible to adopt a new paradigm? Who's to blame? Things go wrong and someone’s got to take the hit right?

Inspired by recent events with BP and other corporate calamities I put together this two minute video conversation starter...

Organizational Responsibility from Terrence Gargiulo on Vimeo.

How would innovation change in an organization if we became more responsible for each other? What would that organization look like? How would you feel? And how would you perform?

Please add your voice to this conversation starter...