Articles tagged 'talent management'

True Work-Life Balance? It’s a Myth We Need to Quit Worrying About

by Eric Chester on May 14, 2013, 8:10 AM | No comments yet

Work-Life balance.

As a Baby Boomer teen born to Depression-era parents, I never heard that term once.

It didn’t exist back then and, if it had, it would have never come out of my father’s mouth. Hard work was his life, and when he had a day off, he worked. To my dad and those who were his age and older, balance was something you did to your checkbook when the statement arrived.

It wasn’t until the late 1980s when this three-word term entered the American lexicon, and it wasn’t popularized until the late 1990s. Now, those three words are said in conjunction as frequently as pass the salt. Read more…

Culture

An Effective Company Culture: It Only Happens When Everybody Owns It

by Derek Irvine on May 14, 2013, 7:09 AM | No comments yet

Culture. I write about it all the time, yet I never seem to unpack all the myriad facets of culture.

Just think about all the different ways the word itself can be used:

A “cultured” person – one who carefully monitors their own behaviors so that they align with the best expectations of the environment they are in.
Cultured pearls – a thing of beauty created by human intervention into a natural process.
Ethnic or geographic culture – the traditions, behaviors and even expectations of a people group as defined over a very long period of time.
Company culture – “the way we do things around here.” Read more…

HR News & Trends, Recruiting and Staffing

2013 College Grads Will Find a Job Market About as Tough as 2012

by John Zappe on May 13, 2013, 12:15 PM | No comments yet

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…

Training & Development

5 Reasons You May Not Be the Best Person to Train Your Employees

by Kirsten Jordan on May 13, 2013, 11:30 AM | 2 Comments

OK, so you should onboard new employees, make sure that they understand the mission and goals of your department, review policies and procedures, go over the performance management process you will be using …

I guess that sounds a little like teaching. But, could it be that maybe you’re not the best person to teach your employees everything?

Maybe you also have a responsibility to provide an opportunity for them to learn from others and in other situations too. If you’re fortunate enough to work in a company that formalizes some of these approaches for your employees, great.

If not, step up. Read more…

Talent Management

Forget Yahoo – Here Are 8 Benefits of a Distributed Workforce

by Bill Kilpatrick on May 13, 2013, 10:20 AM | No comments yet

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer got the world talking earlier this year when an internal memo was leaked, effectively announcing her intention to put an end to the company’s work from home policy.

Beginning in June, employees who work from home will be expected to start working from the office:

To become the absolute best place to work, communication and collaboration will be important, so we need to be working side-by-side. That is why it is critical that we are all present in our offices.”

Of course, this announcement was greeted with a lot of criticism from the tech community and proponents of flexible work environments. Read more…

Talent Management

Important Message For Your Workers? Make It Short, Sweet, and Entertaining

by Eric Chester on May 10, 2013, 11:25 AM | 2 Comments

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…

Classic TLNT

The Six Steps For Dealing With an Angry Employee

by Mel Kleiman on May 10, 2013, 9:08 AM | No comments yet

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.

Occasionally, into each life, a little rain must fall.

In this case, the “rain” is an unhappy employee; this isn’t an “if,” it’s a “when” because, when you deal with employees, eventually someone will feel unheard, uncared for, or mistreated.

Should this unhappy employee ruin your day? Quite the contrary. If this person takes the time, energy, and effort to speak up and air their grievances – you owe them a huge debt of gratitude. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Legal Issues

House Passes Bill to Allow Employees to Swap OT For Comp Time

by Eric B. Meyer on May 10, 2013, 8:35 AM | 1 comment

By Eric B. Meyer

Earlier this week, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 223-204 to pass the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013, which would amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to permit employers to provide compensatory time off in lieu of monetary compensation for overtime hours worked.

Presently, through the Federal Employees Flexible and Compressed Work Schedules Act, only state and federal employees may receive comp time in lieu of overtime (OT). Read more…

Culture, HR Insights, Talent Management

I Still Don’t Think That You Work 80 Hours Per Week

by Tim Sackett on May 10, 2013, 8:05 AM | 4 Comments

I have to say that one of my most well-read posts, ever, and one that I continue to take the most crap about, is What Would it Take to Get You to Work 80 Hours Per Week?

People actually take this post as a personal attack on their work ethic. So, I’m here to say – I still don’t believe you!

And now, I have research to back up how you don’t really work 80 hours in a week. This is from Fast Company and titled The Truth About How Much Workaholics Actually Work: Read more…

Recruiting and Staffing

Top Performers: Here’s Why Their Employee Referrals Are Golden

by Dr. John Sullivan on May 10, 2013, 6:55 AM | 1 comment

Articles from academics don’t always provide practical lessons, but there have been two recent ones that everyone in talent management should pay attention to.

The results of the first one focus on the output differential produced by top performers. This study published in February in Personnel Psychology which cut across several industries, revealed that the top 5 percent of the workforce at the researched firms produced 26 percent of the firm’s total output. The top-performing 5 percent produced 400 percent more than you would expect (26 percent rather than 5 percent).

That means that top performers have an incredibly high ROI because they produce more than four times more; however, they are generally paid less than 20 percent over an average worker in the same job. Read more…