Second of two parts
By Dr. John Sullivan
Yesterday I listed The Top 30 Most Common (and Critical) Interview Problems. Here are 20 more. In total, this makes up the Top 50 interview problems:
If you study the research on interviews, you will find that there are many psychology related issues. Read more…
First of two parts
By Dr. John Sullivan
What’s wrong with corporate job interviews? Pretty much everything!
Interviews are the second most used and “flawed” tool in HR (right after performance appraisals). They are used and relied on around the world for hiring, transfers, promotions, and for selecting leaders.
After studying and researching interviews for over 40 years, I find it laughable when people think they can become interview experts simply by conducting a few of them. Despite their many flaws, my purpose is not to tell you to stop using interviews. Instead, the goal is to make you aware of the things that can negatively impact the results of an interview. My premise is that if you encounter these problems and you understand their causes, you can take steps to avoid or minimize them. Read more…
To Our Readers: This week, TLNT is continuing our annual tradition by counting down the 30 most popular posts of this past year. This is No. 1 – the top story of 2011. Our regular content will return on Monday Jan. 2, 2012.
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“(Some) 90 percent of performance appraisal processes are inadequate.” – Salary.com survey
In conversations with HR leaders and employees, the talent management process that suffers from the most disdain around the world is the performance appraisal. It’s one of the few processes that even the owners of the process dread.
If everyone hates it, but it still gets done nearly everywhere, you might assume some asinine government regulation requires it, but in this case there is no such regulation. The only legal justification pertains to showing just cause for termination and other disciplinary action. Read more…
By Dr. John Sullivan
If you worked in a business function where a majority of those you served were unclear about exactly what you do, wouldn’t you want to know why?
If you work in HR, it might come as a surprise to you that it is not unusual for a majority of managers to report that they are confused about what HR does. A 2007 study by the Australian Human Resource Institute found that an astounding 80 percent of mangers outside HR either did not “understand or were unsure about what the human resources department does.” Read more…
By Dr. John Sullivan
You might think it’s a stretch to connect the debt ceiling-related turmoil in Washington with HR, but that could be a shortsighted mistake.
While HR professionals can’t directly impact the debt ceiling decision, they do need to be aware of potential impacts that could result regardless of the decision. As a business professor with a background in both HR and economics, I have been able to assemble a list of impacts that organizations might encounter.
At the very least, HR should develop a plan for monitoring the relevance of each impact as it appears. The seven major impact areas include: Read more…
By Dr. John Sullivan
If you worked in a business function where a majority of those you served were unclear about exactly what you do, wouldn’t you want to know why?
If you work in HR, it might come as a surprise to you that it is not unusual for a majority of managers to report that they are confused about what HR does. A 2007 study by the Australian Human Resource Institute found that an astounding 80 percent of mangers outside HR either did not “understand or were unsure about what the human resources department does.”
That finding was reinforced on a global scale by a 2010 Mercer study that found 84 percent of business executives admitted to having no more than a moderate understanding of the return on human capital in their organizations. Can you imagine the uproar that would occur within finance, accounting, advertising or supply chain if a majority of their users openly admitted that they were confused about what the function does or the value of that work? Read more…
Is it a good idea for firms hiring to purposely exclude the unemployed from consideration?
If you missed the news last summer (June 2010) about the growth of this practice, then you might be scratching your head and thinking to yourself, “that’s crazy.” However, for those that follow trends and deal with job postings daily, it’s clear that postings increasingly contain some variation of the phrase “you must be currently employed in order to be considered.”
For example, a posting made last week to CareerBuilder by an Alabama restaurant chain made the requirements crystal clear by putting the word “currently” in all caps”
“Must be CURRENTLY employed as a restaurant manager” Read more…
“(Some) 90 percent of performance appraisal processes are inadequate.” – Salary.com survey
In conversations with HR leaders and employees, the talent management process that suffers from the most disdain around the world is the performance appraisal. It’s one of the few processes that even the owners of the process dread.
If everyone hates it, but it still gets done nearly everywhere, you might assume some asinine government regulation requires it, but in this case there is no such regulation. The only legal justification pertains to showing just cause for termination and other disciplinary action.
While that is the justification used, no matter how strong their design, most performance appraisals are executed so poorly that they may actually harm a legal case. (A major labor law firm found that among a random sample of performance appraisals conducted in a retail environment, a majority would damage the employer’s case versus support it.) Read more…
Someone recently asked me to name an aspect of talent management that has the potential to largely impact business performance, but that is essentially ignored by most organizations.
It was a genius question; most talent management leaders spend hundreds of hours trying to marginally improve existing practices, but few even attempt to identify and execute on new opportunities. So, my answer is…
A systematic process for improving cross-functional collaboration.
Such a process has the potential to significantly improve organizational performance and innovation, and, is almost totally absent as a talent management discipline.
Collaboration, the process of working together, routinely occurs within functions and business units without the need for intervention, but rarely occurs across functional or professional borders where it has the potential to deliver the greatest impact. Read more…
There are many lists that highlight great places to work. Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” and BusinessWeek‘s “Best Places to Launch a Career” are two of the most compelling for general jobseekers.
However, I have never come across a credible list designed specifically for those early in their career in the field of talent management. I’ve been researching and working in the field for 40 years, and it is obvious to me that there are a number of firms that clearly stand out above the rest.
Rather than just picking names based on my experience, I used the following criteria to select 15 companies that anyone interested in becoming a talent management rock star might want to join: Read more…
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