Boolean Operators and More Updated!!

So this is an update to my all inclusive list of operators. The update is as of 5/14/13, of course I will have other updates as I find new operators. Why you ask, well as I said below there are always new ones…

Over the past week I have been going through some family issues which began with a medical emergency last Friday. Everyone we talked to from our family practitioner to the ER medical team believed that the signs pointed towards one thing. When the surgeons went in to operate on Saturday morning, they found an entirely different problem was manifested in the same environment. Upon reflection we do the same steps in the HR world we work in.

Every single day we are confronted with…

Is Fit a deterrent to innovation?

All you hear when you talk to companies is fit, the right fit, fits in with the team, etc. The problem is fit, can and usually does mean ensuring that the people you bring in, are of similar type,…

In the LinkedIn groups (TLS-TOC Lean & Six Sigma in particular) there has been an ongoing conversation about when you merge the three. In the course of the discussion we posted a comment regarding an output from a seminar we were facilitating which talked about an organization in which the job requisition was reviewed and approved three times by the same person in a hiring effort. One of participants replied that that was an indication of mismanagement not a system problem. He further…

The Clock and The Compass

by Jon Bartos

“How to keep your top producers ecstatic about working for you and your Organization”…

Interesting pronouncement but I assure you you that it did not come from my mouth to heaven's ears. Several years ago when I thought about trying to return to the full time corporate side of HR a seasoned recruiter made the comment after looking at my resume. He was basing this on the fact that since graduating from college I have been in a number of positions within a number of industries. But the statement is more telling of the state of the recruiting industry then it is of my skill…

It has been an interesting week between Marissa Mayer's clamp down on telecommuters at Yahoo and Sheryl Sandberg's pitch that women sabotage their own careers.In both arenas there seems to be a criterion missing. That criterion is how do you view your human capital in your organization - are they a liability or are they an asset? Let's look at the two events separately:

Marissa Mayer contends that in order to make Yahoo more productive she wants all human capital assets under one…

Awhile back we posted a blog entry in this space based on the marque of a local church. When I drove by it the other day the announcement of this Sunday's sermon was on the marque and is the title of this post.

I hear everyday people telling me that they know things need to change within the organization, but it will take time and they will wait it out until the organization gets around to changing the culture or the policy, usually by managerial edict.

The problem is that is…

We had in one of the first posts here asked you to define what you thought HR Excellence was. From the level of responses I am assuming ( I know the problems with assumptions) that you are having a hard time coming to some sort of consensus. So let me tell you what I feel the components of the definition of HR excellence are:

Achieving HR EXCELLENCE is the result of:

CARING more about your organization than others think wise;

What are…

Converting a Military job to the Civilian World and more!!

So one of the most difficult things to do is convert a military occupational classification (MOC) or job to a civilian job. It is hard because the MOC’s typically do not carry standard titles, and the…

While checking my LinkedIn groups this morning I found this post from Seth Godin

At a recent seminar, a woman who helps run a community college stood up to ask a question.

"Well, the bad news," she said, "is that we have to let everyone in. And the truth is, many of these kids just can't be the leaders you're describing, can't make art. We need people to do manual…

To my HR purist friends I apologize if you think I believe that HR does not have a vital role within our organizations.I am in no way equating HR to playing the child game of house. What I am suggesting is that there is a new visitor in  the neighborhood.

For some time I have had some elementary interest in a new tool to increase employee engagement called gamification. It came to the forefront when I received a LinkedIn Invite from Noreen Poli of…

Have you ever been hungry, and stopped in to the grocery store without a list? You come out of the store two hours later and chances are you spent more than you should have. Social media can be the same way. It is fun and engaging for a recruiter that is hungry to make more connections. But jump in to social recruiting without a plan, and you may find yourself…

On two separate times in the past week, my inbox contained entries which centered around the image that the corporation puts forth to the marketplace. In each one to some degree the organizations involved forgot what their purpose is -- to acquire and maintain customers. To do that we need to have the "right person, in the right job, at the right time and in the right place."

Consider these events. The first involved a cheerleader on the Baltimore Ravens. She was banned from being…

The moving target that is the job Description!!

We have all seen it and dealt with it. A job Description (JD) not written with us being involved, that says almost nothing, and when you speak to the hiring manager (HM) and ask question they…

Boolean Operators Updated!! 

So this is an update to my all inclusive list of operators. The update is as of 1/16/13, of course I will have other updates as I find new operators. Why you ask, well as I said below there are always new ones being…

I admit it I have an addiction. Back in 2001 I was introduced to the writings of Kathleen O'Neal Gear and her husband W. Michael Gear who have written a series of 23 historical fiction books centered around the lives of the North American Native Americans(http://www.gear-gear.com)They are fast reads but full of twists and turns. Their latest one is called People of the Back Sun in which the Standing Stone village is manned by about 400 warriors and they…

The Overly Cocky Candidate!!!!

We have all had one, in most cases several. For me the ultimate overly cocky candidate was the one who basically told me, I would hire him, I would pay him this much, he would start when he wanted, he would get…

Here we are on the weekend before Christmas and the Iowa Supreme Court handed us an early "gift" Before I explain what the gift was, let me take you back in time to when Bobby Darin was still performing and he sag the following words:

"WelI … I don’t know what you got But it’s got me and baby I’m hooked Like a fish in the sea. You make angles call from above. You could make the Devil fall in love. An-a … who-o-o wouldn’t fall for irresistible you."

Over the past several decades…

I recently was involved in a conference call with a prospective client who was asking me whether I would be available to come speak to their office meeting about how the staff could work closer with corporate HR professionals. I got off the call and began to look back to the time in my career when I was in the external recruiter's seat and what was important to me to establish that relationship.

So for what it is worth, here are my thoughts.

1. The Toyota Production System…