This question was asked during a BNI that we subbed for this week. Each individual member brought a candy bar or candy item that they could tie back to their own business or industry.
When our CEO, Alysa, was given this situation there were instantly a few things that came to mind.
- Kit Kat – because, well, HR needs a break!
- Snickers – there are many layers to HR and recruiting, some great and others not so much.
- Lindt Chocolate Truffle – protecting the organization from legal trouble and protecting employees from bad management practices using HRs hard outer shell.
We also needed something quick and easy that was already in the house, since the BNI would be at 7:00am the next morning.
Then Alysa remembered the Smarties! Not only do they come in a multitude of different colors, but the more she thought about it the more she could see how they represented HR and Recruiting.
See, Smarties (especially the Sweetart ones) come in different colors. They are all different, but they are working as a team and staying together to do so. With those Sweetart versions in particular, there is a sour or more tart flavor at first and then a sweeter flavor that kicks in after. Some people believe that HR is a sour or negative place to visit. But others who have worked with HR to support them through challenging situations or as the resourceful partner they are meant to be, know that they can be sweet, kind and compassionate.
And you might think that the perfect packaging Smarties come in would make it easy to find the flavor you’re looking for, just like how easy finding talent can look. The Smarties are lined up one after the next and the next, and so on. That’s how you may think it is in the hiring market right not, but that’s not how hiring actually looks. Hiring looks more like when you accidentally open the Smarties package and the candies go rolling in all different directions and you embark on a journey to find the purple one, because that’s obviously the best. Sometimes what can happen is the Smartie never gets found by you or is crushed in the rolling process. Either way you don’t get the purple one you might have been looking for.
There are so many more comparisons that could be drawn here, but for the sake of everyone’s time we’ll stop there!
What candy represents your industry, profession or business?
