by Caroline | Sep 23, 2015 | Company Culture, Management, Training
There was a story in the Wall Street Journal recently that I just don’t think got enough play. It was about Wal-Mart’s decision to “upskill” its employees. In other words, it plans to train its entry-level workers. People expect managers to be trained. They expect...
by Caroline | Jul 29, 2015 | Compensation and Benefits, Culture, Hiring, Management, Non profit HR, Recruiting, rewards, Training
We’ve been in a weird phase in employee recruitment and retention the last decade. No matter what size your company, everybody who wants to hire top talent feels like they need to lure people in with margarita machines, giant beanbags and having a masseuse come in...
by Caroline | May 20, 2015 | Company Culture, Culture, Hiring, HRCompliance, Labor Law, Management, Non profit HR, People Evaluation, Recruiting, teamwork, Training
So, that was embarrassing. Austin Assistant City Manager Anthony Snipes has been suspended after hiring Jonathan K. Allen, former city manager for Lauderdale Lakes, Florida to come and speak to the Austin city staff about how to interact with female elected officials....
by Caroline | Apr 22, 2015 | Company Culture, Culture, Hiring, Management, Non profit HR, People Evaluation, Recruiting, teamwork, Training
Toyota has the five Whys. Other organizations have seven or three. The point of the whys, however many you use, is to understand the root cause of a thing. For example: We’re not going to make our numbers this quarter. Why? Because we’ve been down two sales people for...
by Caroline | Nov 19, 2014 | Company Culture, Compensation and Benefits, Management, Recruiting, teamwork, Training
It’s that time of year when companies are self-nominating and some winning “Best Places to Work.” I was once in charge of a company HR department where the CEO wanted my job that month to include cajoling employees into filling out surveys in order to get recognition...
by Caroline | Sep 3, 2014 | Company Culture, HRCompliance, Management, teamwork, Training
So, here are some things HR shouldn’t be asked to do. It’s not HR’s job to stand by the time clock and discipline people who show up late. It’s not HR’s job to figure out whether to hand out coffee cups or baseball caps to buck up a company’s crumbling morale. (Answer...