5 Tips for Using Assessments in Hiring

In a difficult hiring market, it is hard to think about adding another layer to your hiring practices that potentially screens people out instead of in.  As one hiring manager said to me last week, “I just need people with a pulse.” But one reason why you may be hunting for people that are alive and not much more is because you aren’t hiring the right people to begin with, so turnover is a challenge and a cost to you in more ways than one. If done correctly, assessments can be a valuable part of your hiring strategy.  To maximize

Is Your Organization Prepared for the Future?

“Before companies can start to think about their succession plans, they have to understand their jobs.” – Sharlyn Lauby, President of ITM Group, Inc. For the past few weeks I’ve been focused on helping a client complete a People Review of their top talent and outline their succession plan. Each April they complete the People Review, evaluating their top talent on the areas of performance and potential, risk of leaving the organization, and mobility within the organization. In working through this process with them, I’ve discovered that for most of their key employees, they don’t have a good succession plan

Secrets of the Job Search for Recent Graduates

This time of year is always crazy busy with upcoming graduation and new beginnings for recent grads. Job search is on the top of their lists. I often get inquiries about resumes, cover letters & job search strategies in the spring. So, I thought a blog post addressing secrets for the job search would be timely. But first, I want to share a quick story. A couple of months ago, I worked with a client who was approaching college graduation. She was a treat to work with; she had a wonderful attitude, great education background as well as impressive internship

The Most Popular Emerging Employee Benefit is…

I remember thinking, how am I going to do this? I had just started my first full-time job out of college, and I was getting married that year.  I had been given two weeks of vacation for my first year that I had to earn throughout the year. If I wanted to take a honeymoon and be off a day or two before the wedding, I really had almost no time left to take off.  And a couple of my good friends were getting married that summer too, and I was in their weddings out of town. Was I going

The Office Design that Promotes Productivity, Collaboration, and Cost Savings

Much has been said about the open office floor plan.  The concept arose out of Silicon Valley and became a popular way to supposedly create “collaborative” work environments where innovation happens.  Oh, and as an added bonus, companies saved a lot of money designing office spaces as open.  I’m not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg- the realization that money could be saved this way, or that “collaboration” and therefore innovation would thrive in this type of design.   But in many studies, including this one: The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on human collaboration, it was found