Articles tagged 'Company culture'

Jerking Around Candidates on Salary? Not a Way to Start a Relationship

by Crystal Spraggins on Jun 19, 2013, 8:08 AM | 2 Comments

Quick — what’s the question most job candidates hate to hear coming?

How about “What are your salary expectations?”

Receiving a job offer with a fabulous salary is great. Having to negotiate said salary is a little less so.

But worse than either of these two is being asked about salary waaaaaay early in the recruiting process (like during the initial phone screening) without knowing much of anything about the job duties, job requirements, work environment, or company benefits and perks. Read more…

HR Management, Leadership

Agile or Disengaged? How to Avoid Managing by Exception

by Laura Stack on Jun 18, 2013, 9:12 AM | 1 comment

“Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.” — Colin Powell, former U.S. Secretary of State.

In recent years, I’ve observed the increasing popularity of “management by exception” in business.

This concept basically boils down to leaders making decisions and assessing performance based on significant deviations from a project’s goals, while otherwise ignoring its daily execution.

Leaders who practice it don’t want to be bothered unless something goes seriously wrong. But there’s a difference being agile and being disengaged. Read more…

HR News & Trends

SHRM Chicago 2: Inspiring a Workforce, 1 Pair of Shoes at a Time

by John Hollon on Jun 17, 2013, 12:40 PM | No comments yet

One thing you learn pretty quickly after attending a few SHRM annual conferences is this: the inspirational speakers usually appear near the end of things, usually on Day 3 and 4.

As so many things going on here at SHRM 2013 in Chicago, that’s not the case this year.

Keynote speaker Blake Mycoskie, founder of Toms Shoes, moved the conference’s inspirational quotient up a few notches by relating the story of how he accidentally became, A) an entrepreneur; and, B) a philanthropist who figured out that weaving charitable giving into a business model is a recipe for success. Read more…

HR Insights

Your Team Will Thank Your Contribution When You Find Your Authentic Voice

by Ron Thomas on Jun 17, 2013, 8:08 AM | No comments yet

“I just sat in the room in awe. All these senior writers, and here I was. I did not speak because I had not found my voice.”

That statement was from Mitchell Hurwitz, the creator of Arrested Development, speaking about his first big break into the TV business as a writer. He had joined the TV series The Golden Girls, working with a writing team of grizzled veterans. It was his first big break into comedy writing.

I was intrigued by his quote. Everyone struggles to find that voice where we speak from a platform of knowledge and authority. How many times have you sat in a meeting and just did not feel comfortable putting your two cents into the discussion? But over a period of time we usually feel that, yes, we do have something to say. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Rewards & Recognition

Top Employee Recognition Goals: How Many Does Your Company Embrace?

by Derek Irvine on Jun 14, 2013, 8:00 AM | No comments yet

WorldatWork just released its 2013 Trends in Employee Recognition report.

The timing is ideal, as earlier this week I blogged about the importance of behavior-based recognition and WorldatWork’s press release about the new report proclaims: “For the first time in the survey’s 11-year history, programs to motivate specific behavior jumped to a top-tier goal, cited by 41 percent of organizations in 2013 vs. 25 percent in 2008.”

Indeed, four of the top five recognition goals for organizations across industries are the focus of strategic, social employee recognition programs. Read more…

Benefits, Talent Management

The Challenges You Face When Giving a Job Title Instead of Pay

by E. James (Jim) Brennan on Jun 14, 2013, 7:00 AM | No comments yet

Job titles are frequently seen as cheap alternatives to real compensation.

Every HR executive knows that many a challenge can be prevented with the proper timely endowment of a fancier title. The reality, of course, is that awarding a new job title as a form of compensation in lieu of cash can create new and different problems:

A promotional increase is demanded;
The wrong messages are sent
Discrimination claims result; Read more…

HR Basics, HR Insights

Just in Case You Were Wondering, Here’s Why HR Exists

by Laurie Ruettimann on Jun 13, 2013, 10:25 AM | 3 Comments

HR gets a bad rap for being too administrative and too pro-employee.

That’s a legitimate complaint, but I wonder: What the hell did you expect?

The history of Human Resources

The entire HR function exists because employees were tough to manage. Unions were busy. Pesky women and minorities wanted equal protection under the law. Read more…

Culture, Rewards & Recognition

A Culture of Recognition: It’s the Challenge of Simple, But Not Easy

by Derek Irvine on Jun 12, 2013, 11:37 AM | No comments yet

I have the honor of doing what I love for my job: I help company leaders transform their cultures into ones of appreciation and recognition.

Creating these cultures is simple – empowering everyone to “catch someone doing something good” – but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Strengthening culture rarely is.

Recently, I read this story from Terri Robberson on the blog The HR Difference: Read more…

Talent Management

5 Great Things You Can Learn by Working For Bad Bosses

by Jacque Vilet on Jun 11, 2013, 7:07 AM | 1 comment

“That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” — Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher

Most articles about bad bosses say that the best thing you can learn from them is how not to manage employees. Can’t disagree with that!

But aside from that, there are some other things you can learn from a bad boss that you can’t learn from a good boss.

Tim Sackett wrote a post about some of them here at TLNT. Here’s what he says: Read more…

Culture, Talent Management

Want Business Impact? Just Balance Employee Happiness and Performance

by Derek Irvine on Jun 10, 2013, 7:00 AM | 2 Comments

Last week I shared insight from Eventbrite Co-Founder and President Julia Hartz on the importance of helping employees understand how they personally and individually contribute to achieving the company vision.

In the same interview, Ms. Hartz also tackled a subject I’ve seen more and more in the last few months – should happy employees be our goal? Shouldn’t we, as a business, be focused on performance and results?

I like how Eventbrite arrived at the answer.

In Ms. Hartz’s words: Read more…