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

3 Ways to Create Insights for Learning Transfer

the word discovery spelled out in scrabble letters

“Mom, I made a connection!” we hear our son say quite frequently now. We didn’t teach him about “connections” so someone at school must be talking about paying attention to be able to make connections between information and learning. For example, a couple of weeks ago they read a book about Rosie an Engineer and then “engineered” a plane to see if it would fly.  He loved it- the building the plane part, not the reading ☺ This past weekend, he was playing in the front yard and came running in. “Mom, Mom! Come outside, I need to show you

4 Training Facilitation Tips Gleaned from a Five-Year-Old

“Mommy,” my five-year-old said from the backseat of the car on the way to school one morning, “What do you do for work (pronounced more like wurk)?” I wasn’t sure where her question was coming from, but in trying to think about how to describe what I do to so her Pre-K mind would understand, I quickly thought that “consulting” wasn’t going to make sense. So, I chose instead to describe what I do in the context of what I was scheduled to do that day. “Well, today, I’m going to train some people on their first day of work.

Creating a Teaching Culture

My twelve-year-old son had his first experience with interviewing this week. He is applying to a special program for high school and as part of the application process he had to participate in a panel interview with members of the program administration. Naturally, he was nervous. Luckily the interview was scheduled on very short notice so he didn’t have too much time to overthink it. As I sat in the waiting area with him and his best friend before their interviews, I put on my recruiter hat and gave them some basic interviewing advice. They were both very receptive to

4 Ways to State Your Intentions in Order to Drive the Best Outcomes

I’m preparing to take my kids into Target, Lord help me. I just need to get some necessities.  I park the car, turn and look them in the eye and tell them, “We are not going to the toy section.  We are here to get milk, a card for someone, and some toilet paper. You will both walk beside me and the cart.  You will not run, and you will not ask if you can go look at toys, okay?” I get “yes ma’am”.  And then ask them to repeat back to me what I just said and what they