I was lucky enough to see Hillary Clinton speak on Sunday at SHRM 2013 in Chicago.
She banned the press and she didn’t take questions. No, she didn’t talk about Benghazi. She told some stories about being the Secretary of State and shared her personal insights about the job.
I am not a sycophantic Hillary fan, but I like her. One great thing she said? She has learned to take criticism seriously but not personally. Read more…
I get pimped constantly to write about companies and their products and I rarely do.
It’s not that I don’t like the companies, products or people – but it’s boring!
Recently, Katie Farrell was pimping me to write about her client InternMatch, and more specifically, a report they did called State of the Internship 2013 where they actually had some fun data to report — and one interesting data point I couldn’t turn down! Read more…
Editor’s Note: Sometimes, readers ask about past TLNT articles they may have missed. That’s why on Fridays we republish a Classic TLNT post some of you have asked about.
“Director of Fun.”
That was the title I was looking at on a resume for a marketing director position. As I read through the applicant’s accomplishments and responsibilities, I could see that it was clearly a marketing-type position. It stuck out, just not in a good way.
What may have seemed like a great little thing to have on a business card as an attention getter had now turned into a liability. Nobody knows what a “Director of Fun” does. And sure, maybe “Marketing Director” isn’t all that specific on its own, but give me some context (industry, company size and market) and I can pretty quickly figure out what you’re doing.
Using these fun titles externally is a mistake. Read more…
It’s that time of year when college and universities around the world will release onto us the great minds of the graduating Class of 2013.
This always makes me think of the popular advice given at a commencement a few years ago – “Wear Sunscreen.” (see below)
While this advice might be from 1999, it still rings true today. But like everything else in the world, this advice can be added to and expanded upon. Read more…
Imagine that you have one opening you’re trying to fill, and 16 eager applicants aged 17 to 22 — all with more than adequate skills for the job — awaiting their second interview.
Before the interviews begin, you discover that among those candidates are five recovering addicts, two pregnant unwed teens, three who are on probation, eight high school dropouts, four who have earned only a G.E.D., and one who’s recovering from a traumatic brain injury.
And those issues are just the ones listed on the background checks of the young people you are about to meet. There are many that aren’t listed, to be sure. Read more…
Last week on an upgraded flight between Denver and Orlando, I was given a warm cookie after the meal service. This is a nice touch United Airlines does and has done for first class passengers for years.
But as I examined the little brown paper sack the cookie came in, I was amused by the sentence printed on the bag: Made fresh, especially for you.
Something about that woke up the stand-up comic that resides deep within me as I began to imagine how Jerry Seinfeld might relate this story on stage. Read more…
As HR and other leaders grapple with high turnover rates among the Gen Y/Millennial cohort (see last week’s post here), all kinds of issues get raised.
Is the turnover due to “special” characteristics inherent in Gen Y? Is the turnover due to lack of education and training opportunities? Naivete on the part of Millennials – the world of work doesn’t match their expectations? Could a lack of thoughtful onboarding play a part?
The Aberdeen Group published Onboarding 2013: A New Look at New Hires last month and author Madeline Laurano provides data that might help organizations become more effective in retaining the youngest of their workforce. Read more…
With only days left before this year’s college seniors become alums, those who don’t already have jobs are going to find it as hard to find work as last year’s grads did.
And for those in the liberal arts, three different surveys of hiring managers and recruiting leaders recently found that employers are only planning slight — if any – increases in the number of entry-level grads they bring on board.
Most striking about the surveys is that while they measured different aspects of hiring plans, and talked to different types of companies and employers, the bottom line was the same: entry-level jobs in a grad’s field are few. Read more…
How are you going to deal with a new culture? Do you think the leadership style in another country will make a difference? I know that you can be very opinionated, but you may need to tone it down in another country.
Questions about workplace culture have always intrigued me. What is a successful model so that you are accepted into a new environment?
What if you are rejected? How can you get a sense up front to make the changes to increase your chance of success? What will you have to give up — and what will they have to give up?
These are all interesting questions, and they are all relevant. Read more…
When you fly, do you actually pay attention to the airline safety announcement?
Neither do I.
These FAA-mandated announcements are, for the most part, monotonous, mundane, and insulting to the intelligence of anyone with a fifth grade education. Instructing passengers on how to fasten their seat belt by inserting the end with the clip into the metal buckle? PLEEZE!
However, this past week I experienced one that made me drop my USA Today Sports section, as it captured my undivided attention for nearly five minutes. Read more…
““ 'It’s not about how good you are at the beginning, but about how good you can become.' He admonished . . . ”
— Crystal Spraggins on SHRM Chicago 4: Mark Kelly, Gabby Giffords and a Big Dose of Inspiration, 13 hours ago
“Tim, thanks for the nice piece here. One of the most common objections I hear is "oh, my you're . . . ”
— Acertiv on Lessons From SHRM Chicago: The 3 Big Misnomers About HR Technology, 16 hours ago
“Hi Jennifer. Thanks for commenting, and no, I'm not a recruiter. Now, I'm intrigued by this statement "Its not realistic . . . ”
— Crystal Spraggins on Jerking Around Candidates on Salary? Not a Way to Start a Relationship, 18 hours ago
“Wendell - I wholeheartedly agree that there always has to be a component of HR analysis that is purely focused . . . ”
— DavidBernstein_eQuest on Big Data: Just Another Big Fad For HR, 18 hours ago
“At least he's a far better choice than Hillary Clinton.”
— William Schabel on SHRM Chicago 3: Dan Pink on Why We’re All Really Salespeople, 20 hours ago