John Nykolaiszyn: Ain’t got time

What are you most looking forward to about #HRFL13?  

I really enjoy seeing HR professionals learning, sharing their experiences, and expanding their HR knowledge in a traditional conference setting that’s not as stuffy as other conferences. There’s great programming and sessions, but if you stop to listen to the conversations that take place in the sessions or even better, in between the sessions, you’ll see that’s where the magic happens.

This conference also attracts a diverse crowd of practitioners, high powered keynote speakers, and session leaders. We are lucky to live in a state that has a large diverse population of businesses and people. The HR pro’s that come to an HR Florida event get a chance to leverage and learn from practitioners across that landscape, and I think that experience is truly amazing.

What do you think the future holds for HR?

Future HR practitioners will need to continuously improve their business acumen, know how their work has a direct impact on business operations, and leverage creativity in an effort to boost the bottom line and productivity. By being able to embrace disruption and change and in some cases, become a catalyst for those elements, the exceptional HR practitioner will be an effective business and people leader.

Which social media platform or application is your favorite?

I’m a big fan of Foursquare. I get a kick out of seeing the places where my friends and contacts frequent. I also think that there’s a huge potential upside for disrupting the approach to attracting talent on social platforms.

What is your funniest/best HR story?

When I was at BKC, you never knew when you’d run into The King in the building. It was alleged that one of my HR colleagues would be tapped to perform “kingly duties” every once in a while. One day, I’m going to get signature from our CIO for a candidates offer letter. The doors open, and you guessed it, I run smack dab into the CEO, The King, two models, and the CMO. I smile, nod, and turn around facing the doors of the elevator. Suddenly, the King taps me on my shoulder and gestures for me to hand him the offer letter (remember The King doesn’t speak).  I hand him the letter, he reviews it and gives me the thumbs up, approving the offer.  Fast forward to the moment of truth where the candidate is going to sign the offer and join our team and all of a sudden she balks. We had both invested a good deal of time and energy into this process and now it was all going to go away.  Thinking quickly, I said “Let me tell you a story about this offer. You know, this offer was approved by The King himself.” She looked at me incredulously, smiled, and said “Give me the letter.”  We still laugh at how The King, helped me close a stellar candidate.

What is your favorite internet meme?  What do you think that says about you?

For me, it’s grumpy cat. Whenever I’m asked if I’m in HR because I “like people” I make that some iteration of the cats face.  I’m in HR for several reasons, but the generic “because I truly like people” isn’t one of them. I mean seriously, ain’t nobody got time for that…

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