Dec 31, 2011
Are We Managing Talent or Stifling It?
Many of you know that I am not a fan of buzz words or the latest corporate fads. The term “Talent Management” falls into this category. More and more companies are hiring Managers of Talent Management which is just another term for recruitment. Talent management refers to the organization’s commitment to recruit, develop and retain the most talented employees available to form a high performance workplace. This sounds wonderful in theory. The problem with this statement is that the most talented people are not interested in...
read moreThree Ways to Ignite Engagement in “A” Players
Here’s the problem with having a company stocked with A Players: You get a cadre of mouthy, talented people who are happy to follow your leadership. But you have to work hard to deserve it. This is especially true in the case of younger generations of great employees, who weren’t necessarily raised to have automatic respect for their seniors. But it’s also true among all A Players – regardless of age or background. They’ve witnessed years of lay-offs, when companies got rid of really good people as a way to recover from...
read moreThe One Policy Policy Manual
I know it’s bad for me but I just can’t help myself. The minute I wake up, I press the little glowing button on the remote control that’s buried under my pillow (like how movie cops and spies keep their guns). And then I catch up on the news, while I scratch a sleepy cat chin or two. This morning I discovered that a Wisconsin school custodian was fired because of a bumper sticker. Here’s what the various news reports say: Mary Taylor, a school custodian working for a private contractor, drives her personal car to work. On her car is...
read more3 Ways to Leverage HR Strategy to Achieve an Agile Workplace
If there is anything this economy had taught us it is that nothing is guaranteed. Workplaces needed to reduce workforces and slow down hiring in order to remain viable while facing a volatile market. That left a workforce that needed to pick up additional workloads, managers to think differently in how to engage a weary workforce and executives to consider flexible workplace strategies. Understand your customer Regardless of a bad economy, one thing is a fact, the customer has a long memory. This is particularly true, if they have a bad...
read moreAnatomy of a C-Suite Change Initiative Failure: Re-Engaging Employees by Closing “The Empathy Gap”
Twelve senior leaders in a large health insurance company I consulted for spent nearly 18 months in active, often heated debate over the direction their organization should take to address then president-elect Obama’s promise for health care reform. Each team member possessed strong opinions—believing that he or she alone saw the big picture and had the right answer for what the future required. Finally, after countless shouting matches, numerous planning retreats, hundreds of hours of research, and various consults with some of the...
read moreTo Best Employer Hopefuls: It’s Not About the Perks
Congratulations to all the recipients of the Fortune Magazine annual Best Companies to Work For list. Call me an employee engagement geek but I look forward to this annual report even more than the holiday Neiman Marcus catalog. Primarily for the same psychological reason: The list of perks sparks the same sparkly envy synapses that those over-the-top toys do. It scratches the same itch: The need to know what goodies are the cool kids getting this year. There are only 100 annual slots for the official Fortune magazine round-up of Best...
read moreDo You Have Entrepreneurial Passion?
Starting up a business is usually what comes to mind when thinking of the word entrepreneur. But what comes to mind when we say entrepreneurial passion? According to a recent report from Business Management Daily, “It’s about doing something that bends the rules a bit and makes people look at things in an entirely new way. It’s about creativity, innovation, change and new possibilities.” So let’s apply human resources to this concept of having entrepreneurial passion. If we have the ability to find smarter ways to do things,...
read more4 Reasons to Hate Team-Building Workshops
As the creator of the CareerLandscapes team-building workshop (which is based on authentic, structured and safe personal storytelling), naturally I have to talk about it to prospective clients. As much as I believe in the value of my own offering, I don’t love the marketing conversation. First of all, who likes marketing? Secondly, I don’t know a soul who enjoys team-building workshops. In fact, I’ve discovered that when I say “it’s a team-building workshop for people who hate team-building workshops,” I hear a sigh of relief and...
read moreBest Resolutions for HR
Here’s the first understatement of the year: 2012 is shaping up to be a doozy – especially for HR. Is there anything that touches the headlines that won’t directly impact the way you do your work? As I write this, Congress is wrestling with payroll tax negotiations – kicking the can two more months down the road. Our returning vets need to rebuild their lives – preferably employed in the civilian sector. Immigration. Healthcare. Unemployment, of course. The fact that the country has never been so divided in an election...
read moreAttention CHROs: Will Your HR Department Join the Great Migration Next Year?
This is the time of year when I’m especially busy doing one of my favorite things: Talking with CHROs all over the country about their professional resolutions for the upcoming year. (Watch this space for a major announcement in a few weeks.) While 2012 is full of a variety of pressing national and economic challenges that threaten to divide and distract us as a nation (and consequently stressing teams at work), it appears that HR leaders commonly have one thing on their minds: talent retention. Given a recent study released by Right...
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