Nobscot's WebLog

Hiring Convicts and Morons

2011-07-22T11:16:00.004-10:00

I'm reading a fascinating book from 1921 on "Personnel Relations." It's a 200+ page manual or perhaps textbook applying "scientific principles" to the personnel industry.In a chapter on Interviewing, it talks about how every adult should be capable of being hired and the focus should be on finding the proper "adjustment" between the worker and his job. The text literally states that the only

Equal Pay for Less Work? No Thank-You

2011-07-16T12:39:00.006-10:00

I have just read one of most demeaning things toward women since Larry Summers ventured to open his mouth about girls and boys.In a cleverly written piece which purports to be even keeled toward both men and women, Professor Roy F. Baumeister, Professor of Social Psychology at Florida State University, states the following:Likewise, I mentioned the salary difference, but it may have less to do

When 1950s Home Technology Enters the Workplace

2011-07-14T13:08:00.005-10:00

I came across this article from the 1950s."What started as a passing technology fad has taken hold. The younger generation in particular is taking to it very quickly. "My children spend all day on it. In fact the teenagers have given up everything else to use this technology."It all started with Uncle Miltie. After the debut of Milton Berle's show, sales of television sets doubled to 2,000,000 in

Tweeter, You're Fired!

2011-06-12T09:45:00.006-10:00

The following Tweet showed up on my twitter search for the term "Nobscot" this morning:Happily for me, my Nobscot is an HR technology company and we don't serve food in which to spit. But what about the owners of this Nobscot restaurant? If they see this tweet, should they fire @aspensullivan? Where do things cross the line from venting online to putting customers at risk?A few days earlier, @

A Short Lesson About Opportunity

2010-12-29T09:33:00.008-10:00

I'd like to ring in the new year with a reprint of "Where is Opportunity" from August 2004.Monday, August 23, 2004 Where is Opportunity? On Sunday we went to hear a friend sing and play guitar at a private club. We were introduced to a very friendly gentleman who looked like he had been planted in the

$80 Million HR Technology Project Gone Wrong - Very Wrong

2010-12-27T19:41:00.005-10:00

It's being called an "$80 million information technology fraud scheme" against the New York City government. The technology, known as CityTime, is a custom made time and attendance system which includes online timesheets and biometric devices.The story begins in 1996 when the city contracted with Science Applications International Corp (SAIC) to build a timekeeping system that would track

Two Very Simple Techniques for Innovation

2010-12-15T12:01:00.005-10:00

I read a lot about "Innovation." Classes on innovation, books on innovation, b-school programs on innovation. Creating cultures of innovation. There is currently a huge mystique around innovation as if it's something terribly complex that must be studied and learned.Here's a secret. Being innovative is incredibly simple. We are built for innovation. We only need to open our minds and look and

HR in da Office - Hawaii Style

2010-12-11T11:11:00.003-10:00

You think you have Employee Relations challenges? Hilarious short story about office life in Hawaii written in Pidgin English. It ain't easy being in HR in Hawaii!Check out this excerpt:**************************We jus rag on poor Michelle. But das how, ah? Pretty much, once you make one mistake at da office, you going forevah be reminded.And we could probably get written up by Human Resources

Where Are The Bathrooms and Other Things New Hires Need to Know

2010-12-10T11:53:00.005-10:00

One of the secrets to successful onboarding and socialization of new hires is to make sure they are fully informed on everything that they need to know. Let me amend that. New hires need to be informed on not just what they need to know but also what they want to know.Most companies fall short on this one because we rarely stop to think from the newcomer's perspective. Instead we focus on all

Lessons from The Amazing Race: Building Successful Teams

2010-12-09T15:13:00.008-10:00

Never mind The Apprentice. We have learning lessons galore from another reality competition The Amazing Race. If you want to learn about winning teams, this is the place to go.Race 17 has three top contender pairs whose team dynamics are very different from one another. Let's take a look.Team: Thomas and JillThomas and Jill, a dating couple, have been strong contenders from Race One. He, the Ad

Apprentice Lessons - How to Sell Yourself in the Boardroom (Job Interview)

2010-12-03T19:20:00.010-10:00

The Apprentice boardroom provides an excellent lesson for job applicants in selling themselves to their prospective employer.In this week's episode, Donald Trump had to decide which candidate of the final three to fire. Liza and Brandy had just come off from a winning task. Clint was the favored candidate and survivor from the opposing team.Donald asked each candidate, "Why should I hire you?"

Nuts and Bolts of Onboarding Surveys

2010-06-18T17:05:00.006-10:00

There is an excellent LinkedIn Group for those interested in employee onboarding called Onboarding Best Practices - Clearing the 90-Day Hurdle. It's run by Sue Edwards of Development by Design with whom I have been very impressed.One of the members posed a question about Onboarding Surveys for which I happen to have a little bit of experience. I thought I'd share my bullet points answer here

Has HR Technology Pricing Gone Veblen?

2010-06-13T09:46:00.008-10:00

I write a lot about pricing strategies because as the CEO of Nobscot Corporation it is one of my most difficult and most important jobs. The reason that it is so difficult is because of the psychological component or as Dan Ariely would say the irrational side to pricing and its affect on purchasing.For me, being not only the CEO but also a co-founder and co-developer of Nobscot and Mentor

Retiree Reaps Rewards from Mentoring

2010-06-05T09:36:00.003-10:00

I was excited to come across this gem from the United Way Retirees Association newsletter.It's a great example of the many wonderful benefits of mentoring for both the mentee AND the mentor. (See Ten Best Reasons to be a Mentor). If you have the opportunity to be involved in a mentorship program jump at it. Your first reaction might be that you don't have time or you have nothing to learn or

The Personnelovac Machine

2010-05-08T10:42:00.007-10:00

I had a good chuckle last night reading a cute, satiric short story from 1960 with an HR technology related theme.The Success Machine, by Henry Slesar, follows "Personnel Manager" Ralph Colihan. Colihan works for General Products, a company where "mechanical brains" (big computers) do all the thinking and employees are there to simply act on the results. Colihan runs the "Personnelovac" machine

The Evolution of HR

2010-05-03T23:50:00.003-10:00

It's not often that you get to see the practice of Human Resources evolve before your very eyes. That is what I have been seeing with the many HR folks dabbling (and more!) in social media. Of particular interest is an upcoming "unconference" called HRevolution which is bringing together 150 forward thinking HR consultants, bloggers, practitioners, vendors and more.The group was pulled together

Prediction: Unsustainable Employee Turnover Crisis

2010-04-13T21:54:00.006-10:00

There is a lot of talk these days about sustainability. The general concept is simply about having the ability to endure.I'm predicting a business sustainability crisis in corporate America that is going to require the finesse of some genius Human Resources professionals to prevent.The crisis relates to unprecedented employee turnover rates that companies will not be able to financially

What Do You Not Understand About Private & Confidential?

2010-04-10T09:32:00.008-10:00

I was browsing through my Twitter stream this morning and this tweet caught my eye:The link brings you to a memo from Capgemini to one its employees regarding his bonus award for 2009. It then follows with the employee's presumed response. In a gesture of kindness or sarcasm (the tweeter assumes sarcasm) the employee requests that the company keeps the bonus to help with any future financial

Stay Interviews are about the Individual; Exit Interviews are about the Organization

2010-04-07T14:15:00.005-10:00

There has been a bit of PR recently about stay interviews so I thought it would be a good time to delve into the Noblog archives and dust off a post on this topic from back in 2004. In it I clarify that Stay Interviews are wonderful but they have nothing to do with exit interviews. They sound similar but in reality they serve two unique purposes. Enjoy.Stay Interviews and Exit InterviewsDecember

First Impressions: How Our Unconscious Mind Deceives Us

2010-04-06T12:18:00.003-10:00

You are a recruiter. You go into the lobby to meet your applicant. Your applicant is sitting next to a very large, obese woman. As you walk your applicant back to your office, you begin to formulate your initial impressions. Would you believe it if I told you that your first impressions were going to be more negative because the applicant was sitting next to the obese woman? Even if the applicant

Mind Your Own Business

2010-04-05T13:55:00.003-10:00

"Strategy is about creating next practices and not adapting to best practices in the industry." Vijay Govindarajan, Professor Tuck School of Business,Dartmouth CollegeProfessor Govindarajan's statement perfectly sums up my approach to business. For the past 10 years I've done my best not to look at or care about what my competitors are doing with their products and services. While I admit to a

The Importance of HR: A Tragedy that Could Have Been Avoided

2010-04-04T12:17:00.011-10:00

If any of your colleagues or senior management ever doubt the importance of the Human Resources function, tell them about the Tragedy at Mangatepopo Gorge.On April 16, 2008, 6 students and 1 teacher died due to an amazing array of Human Resources failures on the part of Sir Edmund Hilary Outdoor Pursuits Centre. The tragedy happened on an adventure field trip in New Zealand but the Human

Why Boomers Don't Comprehend Work-Life Balance

2009-10-08T18:25:00.007-10:00

This evening's #HRHappyHour was on the subject of work-life balance. When the discussion turned to generational differences, there was a palpable cringing from several of the Gen X and Gen Y participants. The post-Baby Boom generations are absolutely sick and tired of being grouped, labeled and stereotyped. They want to be accepted as individuals with various preferences unrelated to their age,

Lifestyle Company versus Growth Company

2009-09-21T06:56:00.006-10:00

Gerhard Gschwandtner's post on the premium oyster farm whose motto is "that's enough for me" reminds me of an unfinished post I had written about lifestyle companies versus growth companies. I don't have it with me but it went something like this:Starting Nobscot Corporation I found to be a relatively easy and fun challenge. We were creating a technology (WebExit) that we knew there was a need

The Wind Beneath the Organization's Wings

2009-09-18T09:58:00.002-10:00

There's an interesting discussion going on over at my new friend Laurie Ruettimann's Punk Rock HR blog regarding the death (or not!) of HR.It's interesting that for some reason people evaluate HR based on the performance and job duties of the clerks in the profession. It's as if people think the role of HR is keeping track of vacation and holiday time or posting rules in the lunchroom. Most

How Painful is Your Workplace?

2009-09-10T10:20:00.003-10:00

According to an interesting set of articles on pain in the Scientific American Mind September/October issue, we all experience pain uniquely. For some people, the volume has been turned up on their pain channel which causes them to experience pain sensations to a greater degree than others. Other people have normal pain reactions but are blessed with creating natural opiates that hide the

Bratty Employees Need Their Toys: The Changing Face of Employee Entitlement

2009-03-16T15:44:00.005-10:00

Geoffrey James, a writer and former salesperson has written a scathing post calling a company "stupid," "clueless" and "like the Chinese government" for blocking employee access to YouTube, the video sharing community site.While Mr. James admits that there is "a lot of crap" on YouTube and agrees that it can become a "waste of time," he points to the free business oriented videos that are also

Feeling Predictably Irrational Today

2009-02-01T09:39:00.004-10:00

I am not going to tell you about the book Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. There is too much incredibly useful information on how people make purchasing decisions that I want all to myself. (Is that predictably irrational, Dan?)

Lessons from the Recruiting Archives - Part One

2009-01-30T14:20:00.003-10:00

I've been having great fun over the last couple years following the hottest recruiting oriented blogs and more recently connecting with recruiters in the Twitterverse. (You can follow me on Twitter: here.) It's been excited watching all the changes in methodologies since my recruiting days back in the 80s and 90s.To payback the young superstars for allowing me to live vicariously through them (

Onboarding the President of the United States

2009-01-20T07:54:00.017-10:00

Isn't it great the way we onboard the President of the United States? After the President was "hired" on November 4, 2008 we provided a transition period for him to prepare for the new job. He was able to spend time with his predecessor and plan his strategy. On his start date, today, January 20th, 2009, we celebrated his hire, introduced him to ... err ... everyone, heard his shared vision

Penelope Trunk's Misguided Career Advice For Women

2009-01-15T08:37:00.007-10:00

Another interesting, controversial and not exactly correct bit of advice from the self described brazen careerist "Penelope Trunk." While I love "Penelope's" writing style and her generally acerbic wit, I get concerned that people might actually take her seriously.In a recent post, she lambastes five career tips often given to women in the workplace. Along with ignoring the Best Companies for

How HR Should Respond to Glassdoor

2008-12-30T13:57:00.004-10:00

Glassdoor, like the earlier Vault.com, allows employees to anonymously rank and rant on their employers publicly.Even in today's world of transparency and social media, this is one area that companies would be wise to take an immediate stance against and prohibit the use of posting on this site. The employers being targeted, particularly Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, should create a firm policy

A Holiday Inspiration

2008-12-21T09:43:00.003-10:00

One delightful and unexpected outcome of Nobscot's Charity Holiday gift is how it inspired one of our employees and her family to change the way they celebrate the holidays this year.I am very enthused to share this guest post from Ashley DiFlorio.My name is Ashley DiFlorio. My mother, Laura works for Nobscot Corporation. We sat around the dinner table one night and my Mom was explaining how

Ten HR Ideas to Beat the Year End Blahs

2008-12-19T13:57:00.011-10:00

For many people, the end of the year brings on a nasty case of the blues. According to Monique Rissen Harrisberg of The Stress Clinic, "Most nervous break-downs, burn – outs, illness and depression occur just before Christmas."This can spill over into the workplace and create a slowed down, negative environment just when you are looking for a fresh, bright start for the new year.The good news is

Why Best Buy CEO Should Be Losing Sleep

2008-12-17T14:12:00.012-10:00

I admire Best Buy for many of its innovative practices, its growth and success over its competitors and the general quality of its business.That's why I was surprised to see the enormous Human Resources risk that they just announced that has the potential to cost them greatly for many years to come.(See my blog post Top 5 Worst Human Resources Practices for Surviving the Bad Economy.)Workforce

Feeding America Holds Top Position at the Halfway Mark

2008-12-15T17:10:00.006-10:00

It's been very gratifying to receive so much positive feedback from clients regarding Nobscot's Charity Holiday Gift. It appears that HR professionals are both incredibly generous and happy for a good excuse to avoid high caloric treats.After one full week and approximately 100 votes, Feeding America is holding strong in the top position. Habitat for Humanity made a big leap from eighth place

One Client's Charity Gift Votes

2008-12-12T11:05:00.005-10:00

I woke up to this great email from a Mentor Scout client this morning:My votes are in:1. Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, because my niece was a beneficiary of a program like this and I believe it saved her life. (she is currently a thriving Freshman at Smith College on a full scholarship package)2. Boys and Girls Clubs; supporting this program is an investment in our future - our

Holiday Gift Update - Day 4

2008-12-11T18:39:00.003-10:00

We are four days into the voting and Big Brothers Big Sisters and Feeding America remain in the top three for the Nobscot Charity Holiday Gift poll. There is now a tie for third place between Boys and Girls Clubs, Global Fund for Women and YMCA. All ten of the charities, which were selected by Nobscot employees, are outstanding organizations. We'll be happy to send the donation gift money to

The Holiday Gift Voting Has Begun

2008-12-09T19:25:00.005-10:00

The voting has started for the Nobscot Charity Holiday Gift. So far Nobscot and Mentor Scout clients have chosen Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and YMCA as their top two choices. Feeding America and the Global Fund for Women are tied for third place. Which three will be the final winners?

A Unique Holiday Gift for Nobscot's Corporate Clients

2008-12-08T11:49:00.010-10:00

For the holidays, we decided to do something a little different at Nobscot this year. As of today, when Nobscot clients login to their WebExit, Mentor Scout or FirstDays account, they see this:When they click on that link, it takes them to a holiday message explaining that rather than sending cookie baskets, we're going to spend our holiday gift budget on helping the communities and the world

Are you LDD? Why We Are All Becoming Listening Deficient

2008-12-07T15:46:00.013-10:00

How well do you listen these days? I mean really listen. Like the kind of listening that the old management books used to tell us to do when meeting with our employees. The door closed, good eye contact, mind focused 100% on the communicator kind of listening.I have noticed that in the past year or so we have all become a little bit listening deficient. I'm sure you have noticed it too. The

Solving Organizational Challenges with Enterprise 2.0

2008-12-02T23:09:00.007-10:00

Interesting post from Enterprise 2.0 thought leader and academic Andrew McAfee on his prescription for restoring the operational and financial health of the big 3 US automakers. Mcafee imagines himself a newly appointed auto industry IT Director and discusses what he would do to heal his ailing company.His solution is to implement a corporate wide talent networking type program which he calls an

The Election is Over: Reconnecting Red and Blue Employees in the Workplace

2008-11-25T16:06:00.005-10:00

The Presidential election may be over but the negative affects of a long and divisive campaign season on workplaces have only just begun. Tensions are running high. Things have been said in anger that can’t be easily forgotten. Respect between colleagues has been diminished. Like the nation itself, it’s time now for companies to begin the healing process to reconnect their red employees with

It Hurts to Think - So We Don't

2008-11-24T10:58:00.003-10:00

When we were kids, I used to tease my sister for saying that she didn't like to think. She used to say that it "hurt her brain." It turns out that she was right. New brain research shows that some of the brain waves produced when the prefrontal cortex is "thinking" are the same ones that are produced when you plunge your hand into a bucket of ice cold water!Then how do we think all day without

What Happens When a Luddite Becomes a Tech Entrepreneur? Great Software.

2008-11-16T17:37:00.003-10:00

I was wondering last night, as I began to "tweet" for the first time, how a semi-luddite like myself could successfully lead a technology company like Nobscot Corporation.I don't use a cell phone. I don't like to talk to people on the phone when I'm not in work mode and when I am in work mode I like to be at my desk concentrating not at the grocery store.I have an old T-Mobile Sidekick that I

Top 5 Worst Human Resources Practices for Surviving the Bad Economy

2008-11-08T09:05:00.002-10:00

Right now we are seeing companies take drastic moves to survive the bad economy. I am probably going to shock a few people by suggesting that some best practices may turn out to be your worst nightmares.1) Early Retirement. Early retirement is often touted as the panacea for reducing payroll. You allow those nearing retirement to leave with a generous package and reduce your payroll by a

Would You Pay Applicants to Interview? Not I.

2008-10-21T19:32:00.006-10:00

When I hire new employees I look for people who are excited about the opportunity and not just in it for the money. This has served me pretty well throughout my years as a business professional, entrepreneur, recruiter, and HR Staffing Manager.Which makes me really scratch my head in wonder about the new employment website that requires companies to pay applicants simply for the benefit of

Rules of Thumb for Hiring in Start-Up Companies

2008-10-20T18:13:00.004-10:00

Bob Warfield over at the Smoothspan blog ponders how Start-Up companies, which should be running lean and mean, are able to cut 10% or more of their staff as they are being asked to do by their Venture Capital investors. He suggests that in a start-up environment, you should never have a single employee that is not indispensable to your success. I agree.Warfield also provides some good

Employee Retention Needs Similar Across the Globe

2008-10-16T16:25:00.002-10:00

Employee Retention is not just a North American challenge. In some global markets, the rate of employee turnover is reaching close to unsustainable levels. According to an article in MIT Sloan Management Review Fall 2008, some companies in India are experiencing turnover rates of young professionals of up to 50% per year. Can you imagine 100% turnover every 24 months?India's initial approach to

The Best Human Resources Recruiter Movie Ever

2007-09-28T13:26:00.000-10:00

I love when I come across HR in fiction books and movies. Last night, I saw the greatest movie for recruiters. It's called The Method and is a Spanish film by director Marcelo Piñeyro. The title refers to an assessment method used by the corporate "Personnel Officer" called the Grönholm Method. Here's an excerpt from a New York Times review:In this Spanish comedy, based on a play by Jordi

What Is The Best Pricing Model - Dynamic or Static?

2007-07-30T18:05:00.000-10:00

An article in the summer MIT Sloan Management Review on dynamic pricing reminded me how much I dislike the concept of variable and negotiable pricing. Dynamic pricing is described by author Arvind Sahay as "where prices respond to supply and demand in real or near-real time." Sahay suggests that dynamic pricing provides a way to "reap higher profits" in every individual sale. That sounds well

40% Discount on CareerBuilder for Costco Members

2007-07-30T17:40:00.000-10:00

Did you know that if your company is a Costco member, you are eligible for a 40% discount on your job postings with CareerBuilder.com? Since I'm probably the only person that reads the Costco Magazine cover-to-cover, I thought I'd pass news of this discount along. The example provided in the August issue said that for a 30-day posting on CareerBuilder.com, Costco members pay $252 compared with

In Praise of Praise

2007-07-29T21:45:00.001-10:00

I always like it when I see a company provide public praise and recognition for one (or more) of their employees. Tonight I ran into a nice post on the Twitter blog from Twitter co-creator Jack Dorsey about Twitter "Support Superhero" Crystal. Jack had received an email from a happy customer about the exemplary performance that was provided to him by Crystal. Jack posted the full letter on

Good "Fit" or Employee Discrimination?

2007-07-26T20:13:00.000-10:00

Chick-fil-A Chairman S. Truett Cathy and his sons Dan T., CEO and "Bubba," SVP routinely making hiring and firing decisions based on their applicants' and employees' religious and marital status. More astoundingly, they make no attempt to hide the fact and speak openly to the press about it. According to the July 23rd issue of Forbes magazine:- The company's corporate mission is to "glorify god

Best Mentoring Pairs in TV and Film

2007-07-26T18:59:00.000-10:00

Mentoring is not only popular in companies and associations, it also makes for a great theme in films and television. Peer Resources has compiled a fun, comprehensive "Hall of Fame" list of fictional mentoring relationships.Do you remember any of these?Rounders - 1998 motion picture, directed by John Dahl. John Turturro's character Joey Knish mentors Matt Damon's Mike McDermott.Donnie Brasco -

The Ten Best Reasons to Be A Mentor

2007-07-24T16:35:00.000-10:00

Jill asked a great question on the Mentor-me-Meg Update post - Why should someone be a mentor? What's in it for them? To help answer that question, I have put together a list of the top 10 benefits of being a mentor.1) Sharpens your skills. Working with a mentee requires you to stay on top of your game. As you help someone else develop their ideas and work through their challenges, you

Mentor Me Meg Mission - Update One

2007-07-21T08:33:00.001-10:00

Aside from feeling a little bit like a stalker, the Mentor-Me-Meg mission is off to a great start. It began with this post explaining my quest for connecting with Meg Whitman, CEO of Ebay. After I posted about the mentoring mission, I enthusiastically charged ahead with some of the steps I had outlined in hopes of quickly reaching my goal.Here is a list of what I have accomplished thus far:1)

YouTube-Style Film Ad Contest

2007-07-19T18:22:00.000-10:00

You may have heard about Nobscot's unique film marketing project/contest. Aspiring filmmakers and marketers are competing to create the best YouTube-style video on why people really leave their jobs.The rules require that the video begins with a person or person-on-the-street being asked via voice-over: "Why did you leave your last job?" The filmmaker will then be able to use their own

Mentor Me Meg!

2007-07-11T12:57:00.001-10:00

In today's connected world where everyone is just a few degrees away from everyone else, how difficult do you think it would be to reach out to the person of your choice and ask them to become your mentor? If the CEO & President of a niche HR software company in Honolulu wanted to have, for example, Meg Whitman as her mentor, would she be able to connect with her? That is exactly what I aim to

The Holy Grail of Enterprise 2.0

2007-07-09T08:26:00.000-10:00

Pundits, professors and providers of technology are scurrying around trying to predict how Web 2.0 will successfully enter the workplace. There is talk of wikis and blogs and tagging and collaboration and social networking. Everyone recognizes (correctly) that Web 2.0 tools can and will transform the workplace but no one is quite sure how they will work and more importantly what value they will

The Happy-to-Grumpy Metric

2007-07-08T19:28:00.000-10:00

There's a nice article on metrics in last month's (June 2007) CFO magazine. The article brought up my favorite financial ratio - the "Happy to Grumpy" ratio which Wells Fargo uses to measure actively engaged employees to the actively disengaged. Says Wells Fargo's CFO Howard Atkins, We want to measure what drives our results, and that includes team-member engagement. That measure might not get

Keeping Up With the Joneses

2007-07-07T11:58:00.001-10:00

In my last post, I said that I was a Baby Boomer. It turns out that I was wrong. I have just learned that I'm actually a Jones. A Jones? Apparently a movement to redefine the generations has been brewing for the past 7 or 8 years. From a 1999 news article They grew up watching The Brady Bunch, not Leave It to Beaver. Their attitudes were shaped more by Watergate than JFK. They remember gas lines

Workplace Interruptus

2007-07-06T11:24:00.001-10:00

Noise is the most impertinent of all forms of interruption. It is not only an interruption, but is also a disruption of thought. - Arthur Schopenhauer (1788 - 1860) I'm a Baby Boomer which means I get work done by starting, concentrating and finishing. I'm pretty good at juggling multiple work items throughout the day but I like to give 100% of my focus to whatever I am working on at a given

Winning at Employee Retention

2007-07-06T00:14:00.000-10:00

An interesting, albeit somewhat rambling, post from Marc Andreessen with his thoughts on employee turnover and retention. Andreesen is the software entrepreneur best known for co-founding Netscape shortly after his graduation from college. In this post, he asserts that employee retention is directly tied to being a "winning" company and conversely that employee turnover is due to a "not winning

It's Not What You Say It's What People Hear

2007-07-05T19:36:00.000-10:00

I hate that this great phrase is being used by political spinmeister Frank Luntz as the subtitle for his new book. Words That Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear is about using verbal chicanery to manipulate people's viewpoints. But let's set aside Luntz's less than honorable objectives and focus on the very practical concept of paying attention to what people hear rather than on

HR in Fiction

2006-09-09T13:50:00.000-10:00

There aren't too many novels with HR Managers as main characters. I just ran across a new work of fiction, called A Woman in Jerusalem by A.B. Yehoshua which stars an unnamed Human Resources manager. Apparently the HR Manager is called in by the boss to help solve the mystery surrounding an employee's death.According to this review on AmazonIn A. B. Yehoshua's "A Woman in Jerusalem," a local

How Would You Rate Your Cell Mates?

2006-09-08T09:54:00.000-10:00

Here's an unusual use of exit interviews that even Nobscot Corporation never dreamed of. According to this article, The Sedgwick County Jail in Wichita has begun conducting exit interviews with prisoners a few weeks prior to their release. The goal of the program according to Captain Glenn Kurtz is to assess the prisoner's needs. I'm not sure if they are talking about their needs while they are

New Analysis Shows HR Improves Profitability

2006-08-29T14:32:00.000-10:00

In a nice counter piece to HR being reptiles, new analysis is about to be published in Personnel Psychology that reveals that rather than HR being detrimental to an organization, it in fact adds real bottom line value.Using mathematical analysis of 92 previous studies, researchers have found that human resources activities created a 10% - 20% improvement in employee retention and employee

The Great HR Herpetologist

2006-08-29T11:51:00.000-10:00

Dr. John Sullivan, the great herpetologist.Dr. John Sullivan is at his headline grabbing best this week with a new article likening Human Resources people to snakes. No, I'm sorry, I got that wrong. He's found HR people's actions "scarier and more despicable than any real snake I’ve come across." He has always shown his disdain for the profession but in this article he is just downright mean.And

Do you look like your dog?

2006-08-15T08:35:00.000-10:00

I don't know what this has to do with HR but I thought it was funny.An "I Look Like My Dog" contest winner over at HRWhatnot.I always start my work day there for an amusing look at things in the workplace.

Awash in Data

2006-08-14T21:26:00.000-10:00

Our Blogswap guest post today comes from Frank Mulligan of recruit-china.com. He presents us with some common sense thinking on data and metrics. Thanks, Frank!One of the more useful elements of service offerings like Exit Interviews is the hiring metrics that repeated, measured operations will generate.But which hiring metrics?We can always look to the net for information but checking out

Pile People are from Pluto, Neatniks are from Neptune

2006-08-08T09:34:00.000-10:00

I have a pile problem. Paperwork piles I mean. Piles crop up around me; on the desk, on the floor, overflowing on tabletops. I have piles of magazines, piles of books, piles of articles, piles of mail, piles of things I am in the middle of working on. You name it, I have a pile for it. When I worked in HR and recruiting, the resume piles alone were overwhelming.For years organized people would

The Secret of Why Hoppers Don't Add Value

2006-08-05T11:13:00.000-10:00

I recently wrote a guest post on Your HR Guy's blog about Why I Still Don't Like Job Hoppers. One of the reasons that I noted is that employees don't generally contribute much to the organization in their first 6 to 18 months. Job hoppers leave before they have the opportunity to contribute in a meaningful way. New research is beginning to explain why it takes so long before even highly

Teams Need A Swift Kick In The...

2006-07-27T14:31:00.000-10:00

Someone started a discussion on "Joel On Software" about teamwork in distributed work environments based on my post a few days ago about the psychology experiment on group conflict.One person wrote this:I believe the success of such an undertaking is a function of management's skill and their own ability to define the parameters of the teamwork. I also believe that most managements are not

4 Weeks Into the Recruiting Blog Swap

2006-07-27T12:26:00.000-10:00

The Recruiting Blog Swap has been running for a month now. It's been great fun having the opportunity to get to know other bloggers in the Recruiting and Human Resources field. So far I've created 4 guest posts as part of the Swap.The first was on "It's All About the Experience." This blog is about the hiring experience from the applicant's point of view. I wrote a post about the old fashioned "

What’s an Employee Worth? Not Compensation! But Value?

2006-07-27T08:20:00.000-10:00

HR professionals often discuss the cost of turnover. Some say that the cost is equal to 150% of the employee's salary. The American Management Association uses the figure of 30% of salary. When I'm doing ROI calculations, I usually use a very conservative 25% so as not to oversell my case. But can you really come up with an average value of what an employee brings to a company based on their

1954 Psychology Experiment Provides Clues for Cooperative Work Among Distributed Work Environments

2006-07-24T14:32:00.000-10:00

Both large and small companies are moving toward more distributed workforces. A small juice company was recently touted in Business 2.0 Magazine for having growers in California and Mexico, processing in Washington, bottlers in California, warehouse in Wisconsin, customer service in Philippines, accounting in India and headquarters in San Francisco. I can remember back in the early 1990s when the

Is It All About The Towels?

2006-07-20T07:50:00.000-10:00

Our second guest post from the Blog Swap comes from Tod Hilton. Tod shares with us an insider's view on a company and employee retention issue that I blogged about earlier. I don't want to give it away though so I'll just say - Welcome, Tod and thanks for the great post. A quick little intro for those of you tuning in to the Big Bad Recruiting Blog Swap ... My name is Tod Hilton and I will be

It's Who They Know Not What They Know When It Comes To Employee Turnover

2006-07-14T09:50:00.000-10:00

Have you noticed how the most effective employees are the ones who have the best relationships with other employees across the company? These employees with high "social capital" can speed a vendor contract through the legal department or get IT to fix a nasty bug in the HRIS without delay. I have been thinking about this after reading new research on how the loss of social capital through

Human Capital: Long-Term Assets, Short-Term Plans

2006-07-11T15:50:00.000-10:00

I am participating in the Blog Swap, an experiment concocted by those creative folks over at Recruiting.com and Job Syntax. As part of the blogswap, I will be providing guest posts once per week on other blogswap participants' blogs. Likewise, I will publish one guest post per week here on this blog. The first guest post for the Nobscot Weblog has been written by Colin W. Kingsbury, Chief

Planet of the Apes Recruiting

2006-07-06T17:26:00.000-10:00

There's a funny post on HR Whatnot's blog (Whatnot at Work) about using bonobos, primates that are even closer to humans than chimpanzees, to fill workforce shortages. It includes a link to a video of a bonobo playing pacman on the computer. The post is located here.Be sure to bookmark their blog. They have lots of interesting and amusing workplace related posts updated daily.

Physical Features and Racial Stereotyping

2006-07-05T11:33:00.000-10:00

More disturbing news in the area of racial stereotyping. Researchers have recently concluded that when victims of capital crimes are white, black men are more likely to receive the death penalty if they have physical characteristics that are perceived as being stereotypically black.The study was conducted by researchers at Cornell, Stanford, UCLA and Yale. Photographs of convicted criminals

465 Men and 35 Women

2006-06-26T10:59:00.000-10:00

The Answer: 465 men and 35 women. The question: What are the numbers of men and women Chief Financial Officers in Fortune 500 companies. Just 35 women out of 500 top positions even though women make up the majority of graduates receiving accounting degrees and the majority of new hires at CPA firms. This from the June issue of CFO magazine by senior writer Alix Nyberg Stuart. In this well

Brain Research Provides Clues to Best Management Approaches

2006-06-19T20:08:00.000-10:00

There is a fascinating article in Business + Strategy magazine that links neuroscience, psychology and business management practices. It points out that many standard business practices such as punishment and rewards and performance feedback run counter to the way our brains function.The articles gives a fairly scientific but very readable overview of various brain structures and how they

Dear Abby - HR Style

2006-06-16T09:35:00.000-10:00

I thought I'd share some HR Q&A today. These are real questions from real HR people.Question: This is the first time I have worked for a start up company. I have asked for a mission statement (there is none). I have asked for more direction of where the company is going (it is still being talked about). Is this unusual? How can HR align if there is nothing to align to???Beth C.: They don't have

Cognitive Enhancers - Coming Soon to a Workplace Near You

2006-06-11T18:56:00.000-10:00

Did you read in the Washington Post about the alarming trend of college and high school students taking "cognitive enhancers" - pills obtained legally or illegally to boost their concentration?A recent survey of 7th through 12th graders reported that, 2.25 million kids of middle and high school age are using stimulants such as Ritalin without a prescription. This equates to 10% of all kids in

Should Recruiting Secede?

2006-06-09T12:26:00.000-10:00

Big discussion on an absurd question. Should Recruiting secede from HR?That's like asking, should accounting secede from the CFO's area. Recruiting is about hiring the right people which is the centerpiece of HR's job. I'd go as far as to say it's the core competency of anyone in Human Resources.Now, when I was a third party recruiter and thought (mistakenly) that I knew something about HR, I

The Power of Saying "NO"

2006-06-09T07:13:00.000-10:00

Some very practical business advice from Patti Danos, a business book publicist who specializes in workplace titles:Know and Understand the Power of NoFrom saying 'no' to new business that doesn't feel right to saying 'no' to a client request that doesn't gel strategically to saying 'no' to timelines proposed by others that compromise my work-life balance, I've learned that there's as much power,

What's Hot in Motivational Rewards

2006-06-08T20:42:00.000-10:00

Are you up on the latest trends in incentive rewards? According to a recent survey 40% of people chose travel as their most desired incentive and 23% chose a shopping spree. Electronic gadgets were selected as a reward of choice by just 4% of people surveyed.Travel has always been a hot reward. When I was a recruiter in the mid to late 1980s, we had contests for travel to places such as Aruba,

Howz Yer Spelling?

2006-06-07T07:00:00.000-10:00

Great article called Fix Your Spelling over at HRWhatnot.It includes steps for fixing your spelling (keep a "cheat sheet"), spelling rules (prefixes never change the spelling of the root word), common mistakes (a lot and all right), misused words (ironic), bankrupt expressions (in point of fact) and a spot where you can add your own misspellings.I am sure I am going to refer back to this article

Straight Talking Americans - But Not in the Workplace

2006-06-05T16:45:00.000-10:00

Have you ever noticed how Americans who are known for being opinionated and valuing straight talk are actually make-no-waves yes-men and women in the workplace?It's an interesting dichotomy that I hadn't given much thought to until I read the excellent article in Across the Board magazine by intercultural expert Susan Davidson. In this article Davidson shares many European executives'

Want to be an HR "Mover & Shaker?" Write a book!

2006-06-02T16:57:00.000-10:00

Who are the most influential "movers and shakers" in HR? According to Human Resources (UK) magazine, not HR people.I pulled together some statistics on the top 25 HR Influencers from a Top 100 list published this week.Those with the greatest influence in the HR profession are:80% male; 20% female56% published authors, most of muliple titles (one guy has written over 100 books)44% college or

The Corporate Culture Conundrum

2006-05-29T10:56:00.000-10:00

John Hamm, a former CEO and current general partner at VSP Capital, reminds us that successful corporate cultures nurture employees' natural drive and enthusiasm toward creating a winning company. In May 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review, Hamm advises that a healthy corporate culture is "created and maintained by focusing on the right goals and creating the experience of winning in the

Apprentice Update - Where are they now?

2006-05-24T07:37:00.000-10:00

Forbes has a slide show of previous Apprentice candidates and what they are doing now.Remember, Tana and her quest for a Bedazzler? She is now their corporate spokesperson.The much loved Troy from season one still runs the same mortgage company but has landed a deal with a financial firm that has helped him grow exponentially. Young Andy from season two was actually hired by Trump a few months

Cheers for Towel Service in the Locker Room

2006-05-19T09:35:00.000-10:00

When is towel service in the locker room an employee retention tool? When employee feedback tells you it's something that employees want. Kudos to Lisa Brummel, Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Microsoft for spending the last year gathering feedback from employees. In an email to employees she said, "Maintaining and strengthening the employee experience is one of the highest priorities

Rank and Yank, Chickens and Enron

2006-05-16T07:14:00.000-10:00

I've never been a big fan of GE Jack Welch inspired "rank and yank" forced ranking and termination of the bottom x percent.This article emailed to me today (thanks HRDan!) looks at why, from an evolutionary standpoint, managed survival of the fittest HR policies that focus on the individual are doomed to failure. It uses for examples a chicken experiment that ended up unwittingly selecting for

Time Bomb Fathers Create Good HR Managers

2006-05-15T15:24:00.000-10:00

According to psychologist and author Stephan Poulter, success or failure in the workplace is closely related to the kind of father you had while growing up. In his new book, Dr. Poulter tells us that time-bomb or explosive fathers raise children who are very intuitive and good at reading people. He suggests that these children may grow up to become excellent personnel managers or

Obedient Employees Fall Victim to Hoax

2005-11-27T13:43:00.000-10:00

Last year I wrote about corporate prank email and the hoax that was successfully perpetrated on a Starbuck's Human Resources assistant. The prankster, Shizzy Joyce, pretended to be the President of Starbucks and asked the HR assistant to do a number of unusual tasks such as spying on the head of HR and firing the "fat girl." As bad as this was, it pales in comparison to the trick (crime) that has

HR's Relationship With Employees

2005-10-19T17:23:00.000-10:00

I came across an exit interview recently that said, "Please have someone from corporate come to this office and really listen to the employees. I do not mean HR. HR has made it very clear that they are friends with the managers here and are not willing to listen to our concerns."Another one said, "This relationship between workers and company would benefit from a liaison that should act as an

Explaining Pay Raises

2005-09-30T09:49:00.000-10:00

How often in HR have you had to smooth over some ruffled feathers with an employee who is upset about his or her pay increase?You might want to share with them an article on HRWhatnot called How to Maximize Your Pay Raise. This article explains to the layperson how he can improve his increase and provides information on grading systems including a simple explanation of compa ratios. (How the