Sweet Reason with a dose of Common Sense
WHY DO SO MANY people think that companies only focus on building strong, positive workplace cultures? The fact is, organizations are ALWAYS building their culture — whether they mean to or not. You know what I’m talking about: Those kinds of businesses where workers spend more time yakking about all the bad management and terrible decision making going on
AREN”T WE ALL SICK and tired of employee engagement? I know I am. I’ve been writing about it for years (here’s one from July 2010), and the story never changes. A great many consultants and companies have gotten involved in helping organizations get more engaged employees, and a great deal of time and money has been spent.
I SUBSCRIBE TO THE OLD ADAGE that there’s nothing new under the sun. But once in awhile even I get gobsmacked (as the British like to say) by a new insight that’s so thoughtful and incisive that it makes up for all the crap that normally passes for management wisdom these days. The insight that grabbed me comes from
A FEW YEARS AGO, I was working as Editor of a fairly well-known talent management magazine and found myself engaged in one of my frequent discussions with the publisher over something. I don’t remember what the subject was, but at some point I said something that seemed to startle my publisher. His face contorted, turned red, and
I’VE SAID THIS BEFORE, but it bears repeating: Good management — smart, savvy, people-focused management — is at a premium and getting harder and harder to find. And if you think I’m wrong about that, here’s the latest evidence to prove my point. Two of the bibles of the business world — The Wall Street Journal and Fortune magazine magazine — recently
HERE’S A CONFESSION: I hate online job ads because they’re a crappy way to find the best candidates. On the one hand, my recruiter side loves the fact that a smart, well-focused Internet job post can pull in a boatload of candidates for a position. It’s a great way to get a bunch of resumes in short order.
YOU’RE NOT ALONE if you are a little fuzzy on the definition of “soft skills” in the workplace. Here’s one that I like from a website called SearchCIO: Soft skills is a synonym for “people skills.” The term describes those personal attributes that indicate a high level of emotional intelligence.” Why soft skills really matter In other words, according to
HERE’S A NOT-SO-SURPRISING statistic that speaks volumes about the world we live in: More than one-third (37 percent) of employees are always looking for their next job opportunity, according to a global study by ManpowerGroup Solutions. These never-ending job seekers are referred to as “Continuous Candidates” in Manpower’s new report titled Always Looking: The Rise of
PERFORMANCE management, at least as organizations have traditionally practiced it, is in big trouble. A recent McKinsey report didn’t pull any punches when it said: Managers and staff alike too often view performance management as time consuming, excessively subjective, demotivating, and ultimately unhelpful. In these cases, it does little to improve the performance of employees. It
AS MUCH AS WE LIKE to focus on all the various ways we can improve upon the way we recruit and hire new employees, we also know that we should spend as much (if not more) time on how we can better retain the people that we already have on our staff. The problem is,