HR
« Previous EntriesFiddling While Rome Burns
Wednesday, November 19th, 2008“Rome” is burning. The “Rome” I am talking about is the private sector of the U.S. economy. Last month, the only job sector that grew was government jobs. I get this feeling that we are pulling a “Nero” watching this thing happen and are hopelessly standing by not doing anything about it. I read HR Blogs, including [...]
When Teenagers Worked
Tuesday, November 18th, 2008We wonder about the work ethic and how different generations approach work. I was recently talking to someone about their teenagers and how that they weren’t working and how many of their friends weren’t either. I heard some talk show hosts commenting about the same issue. They believed that many parents don’t want their kids [...]
Halloween’s Over And I’m Still Scared
Monday, November 17th, 2008I’ve been here on earth for some time now and I have never seen a time like this and I’ve been through several recessions. Economically speaking, I’m scared, but being in Human Resources, I don’t have the luxury of showing it. I must be a model for being positive, calm and confident. I am not [...]
Bail Me Out!
Friday, November 14th, 2008You have to bail me out. I haven’t sold enough books on my blog site here, so I need to be bailed out. I going to make it easy for you - instead of going to the government and ask for my handout, I’m coming to you directly. Just send me money and lots of it. Come on… I’m not [...]
Improving Bench Strength
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
How many times did I receive a personnel requisition with the instructions from the hiring manager to find someone from the outside? A lot. This happened even when we had a formal Succession Plan in place. The excuses I would get were, “Well, she is not ready yet,” or “I have to have someone who [...]
Keeping Your Boss Out Of Jail
Wednesday, November 12th, 2008I was reading a trade journal earlier today and it was mentioning how most Human Resource Departments focus on keeping their companies out of trouble (abiding by the law and avoiding lawsuits). I remember a GM telling me, “Your job is to keep me out of jail.” I don’t know about you, but this was never my favorite [...]
Keeping The Guy With Red Pants Out
Tuesday, November 11th, 2008By the way, I have nothing against red pants. The bad hire just happened to be wearing red pants to his interview that day. We hired Mr. RP prior to the advent of Behavioral Interviewing. Today I would have used this technique to screen him out.
What I have done since is to construct Behavioral Interviewing questions [...]
Don’t Hire The Guy In Red Pants
Monday, November 10th, 2008Don’t hire the guy in red pants. I did. Oh, I didn’t want to. I fought the hiring manager. He, his boss, the VP of Engineering took it all the way up to the General Manager and they won. They hired old “Red Pants” in spite of HR’s objections.
Why didn’t I want to hire Mr. [...]
Extreme Employee Engagement 2
Friday, November 7th, 2008Yesterday I implied that the Culture of We-They is the main enemy of Employee Engagement. I would venture to guess that some of the best organizations have aspects of We-They. Some of these aspects seem to be unavoidable. You might want to create your own checklist…
Do you have any of these?
Designated parking spaces based on employee rank
Offices for higher ranked employees versus cubes [...]
Extreme Employee Engagement
Thursday, November 6th, 2008A guru in our field, used to say that the number one cause for unionization of your employees had nothing to do with money. They would say it was about money, but that was only a ruse. The real reason was: “We-They.” The instant I heard this, I knew it was true. Things in the [...]
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