All Blog Posts (561)

Posing this question to all members and thank you in advance for your replies and comments.

Is there a market (or a need) for interim talent acquisition, recruiting leadership?

So many companies are out trying to hire a head of recruiting.  Could they benefit from interim leadership that could help both in the current state and helping to shape the role of the new permanent leader?  Would they benefit from a senior leader who could help mentor the new…

“Oh Fear” by DeAnne Pearson

A poem inspired by Leading Change

Oh fear, oh fear, my old friend,

I have put you on a shelf.

It is not that I don’t expect to see you again,

But while holding…

In tough times, people feel more vulnerable and their senses of safety and confidence can easily evaporate. Never has it felt more important to watch out for your people. A boss who backs up her people provides an emotional relief as well as a material one. But don’t assume that your team members know that you’d go above and beyond to support them. Even the best bosses can be poor judges of what it’s like to work for them. Make it clear by telling your employees that you have their backs.…

Do your (new) employees know:

1. Your background and experience?
2. At least enough personal information to show that you are human? (When it comes to working with people, it is all about relationships.)
3. Why you hired them?
4. What you expect out of them? (Goals and standards.)
5. What they can expect out of you as their manager?
6. Your leadership style?
7. How you want them to manage you and communicate with you?
8. How they should…

Do you have a contingency or disaster preparedness plan in place? I ask because a regular, once a week blogger I read just missed a week. He did not say specifically why; he just apologized and wrote that “life got in the way.”

This is certainly not an earthshaking event and, most likely, will not tarnish his blog or his reputation, but you have to wonder, if you blog once a week, once a day, or even once a month, wouldn’t you have at least one or two blogs in the can and ready to go…

In order to minimize costly frontline, hourly employee turnover, you’ve got to:

1. Hire tough
2. Let new employees know why their job is important
3. Avoid the mindset that it is “only an entry-level job” (in both the new employee’s mind and in your own mind)
4. Pay the highest wages that you can afford to pay (when you pay more, you can expect and get more)
5. Give a pay raise as soon as the new employee deserves a raise (not on a time schedule, but on a…

Exit Interviews: Too little, too late

Written by Mel Kleiman on May 24, 2010

For the most part, exit interviews are useless. When you wait until they tell you they are leaving, the information you gain will do nothing to help you retain them because people who…

It may not provoke a lawsuit, but it sure can create problems.

The fastest growing class of lawsuits in America today are those related to employment law. Within this category, the two fastest growing types of…

We think new ideas represent progress, but progress often does not start with new ideas.

Instead of having a meeting to come up with…

The slide below is from a recent workshop on hiring, motivating, and retaining teenage workers:…

Most employees cannot tell you their employer’s mission or values statement and if the rank and file don’t know what it is, what good is it? Yes, your employees need to know what you stand for, but you have to make it easy to remember. Here are some employers who got it right:…

Quit concentrating on how to avoid hiring the wrong people and focus instead on how to find and hire the right ones.

The primary goal of most hiring managers and hiring systems is to screen out the least suitable applicants. They…

According to recent reports, managers spend over 35 percent of their time dealing with workplace conflict. So, how do you stop the war between workers once it's begun?…

I don’t really care what your answer to this question is and I am not going to suggest any answers. The power is in the question itself. Not just this question, but any question that challenges the way we work, the way we think, the way we act, and the way we react.

Instead of visiting a…

Another title for this post could be. "Why do over 50% of new managers fail in less than 18 months?" Today most people are promoted for three main reasons:

1. It is seen as a promotion or a move to help forward their career. It has nothing to do with the kind of work they have done or the skills and training they have received.

2. They are very good in their present job or they show up for work on…

It will be interesting to see what effect this will have on call center employment.

In some ways this is better/faster than a live operator.

SAsaveSale.mp3 (Click to hear the .mp3 file.)

What if there were a rift in the Time-Space Continuum or (more believably) a change in the federal government’s employment law policy that made it impossible to get rid of any employee who is on your payroll six months from today? How would you change the way you look at your present workforce? Who would you keep? Who would you let go? How would you change your structure, your policies, and…

Skim through the help wanted section of your local paper and you’ll find that about 95% of the ads have one word in common: “Starting wages based on experience…” “Looking for experienced, energetic servers and kitchen staff...” “We are currently seeking an…

Because we live in a world of “Helicopter Parents” (parents who hover over and are involved in everything their children do), and because the number one reason teenagers quit or get fired is for not being willing to work the hours required, when you find a teen you’d like to hire, it makes sense to contacts their parents and ask if they are aware…