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Everything they always wanted to know, but were afraid to ask...

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 deal
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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 27, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

Be Prepared

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 i

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 26, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

Top 10 Ways to Reduce Employee Turnover

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 pro
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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 25, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

Exit Interviews: Too little, too late

Exit Interviews: Too little, too late

Written by Mel Kleiman on May 24, 2010

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 24, 2010 at 11:10am — No Comments

Negligent On-boarding:

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 ca

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 21, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Do you really need to call a meeting to come up with another new idea?

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

Instead of having a meeting to come up with

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 20, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

Are teens really different when it comes to motivation?

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

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 19, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

Why Mission Statements Fail

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:

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 18, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Losers vs. Winners: To change your results, change your approach

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

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 18, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

How to deal with workplace conflict

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?

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 17, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

If you could get only one thing accomplished today, what would it be?

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 web

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 14, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Why do the wrong people get promoted?

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 time

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 13, 2010 at 7:00am — 2 Comments

Amazing Artificial Intelligence

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.)

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 12, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Time, Space, and Lifetime Employment?

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 practices?

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 11, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

What's Really More Important: Experience or Talent?

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

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 10, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Hiring Any Teens This Summer?

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 tha

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 7, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Are you so frustrated that you are planning to quit?

If you are, maybe you could take a different approach. You have a lot invested, so, it might pay to try to look at the job differently and see what happens.

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 6, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Which type of manager are you?

Studies show there are essentially two types of managers (and companies): accounting-focused or marketing-focused.

Accounting-minded managers focus primarily on reducing costs and overhead. This approach appears to make/save money

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 5, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Do you do it the easy way or the right way?

Do you work to fix the system or do you just try to solve the immediate problem? I have referenced W. Edwards Demming and his two most famous quotes before:

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Added by Mel Kleiman on May 4, 2010 at 7:30am — No Comments

Do you really want the low hanging fruit?

Just like it is easiest to pick the low hanging fruit, it is easiest to hire people who are looking for a job --- especially if they walk in the door and ask if you are hiring. A little higher up the tree are those who respond to your ad or "Help Wanted" sign. But the really great talent, no matter what the job, is a lot higher up the tree and harder to reach. Here is where you need a plan, a ladder, or some type of tool or tools to get the best fruit (the best employees). You have to get them t… Continue

Added by Mel Kleiman on May 3, 2010 at 7:00am — No Comments

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