In the corporate world, the staffing department is almost always part of the HR department. Over the years, some protagonists have argued that the staffing department should be separate to HR. That discussion is not the subject of this particular post. This post is about the relationship between the staffing department and HR, a relationship that is often tenuous at best and a relationship that often doesn't work as well as it should.

Staffing is responsible for…

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When I traveled this previous weekend, I found myself sitting on the plane, stumped on what to write for my next post. A sheet of paper lay bare on the drop-down tray in front of me and a fresh ballpoint pen in my hand and I started thinking, “I wonder what it would be like to work on a plane? What if I were the one giving emergency flight instructions while graciously suggesting specials on the beverage menu? How would customers treat me? What kinds of challenges would I have to deal with?”…

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Last week, a final year MBA student wanted me to coach him, as he was keen to move into HR, in itself a little unusual career choice. In talking to his university career manager, he was an excellent student with a passion for HR. Now HR is not always seen as the preferred choice for ambitious, talented and commercially orientated graduates, which is his profile.



At times, I am still amazed and also a little disappointed, when I read the criticism by HR people of HR and it’s value to… Continue

Life is just not fair. There are some roles that get the best out of a person, and then there are roles that were designed to make your life feel at times like hell on earth. It was only recently that I discovered that there is a life cycle for roles, similar as for a company.



The best roles are those with a great company and with a great boss. However, not all roles are created equal. In two of my roles I only stayed for one year, but started looking around after one month, as I… Continue