by Joanna Barsh and Johanne Lavoie
When we think of leadership, we often focus on the what: external characteristics, practices, behavior, and actions that exemplary leaders demonstrate as they take on complex and unprecedented challenges. While this line of thinking is a great place to start, we won’t reach our potential as leaders by looking only at what is visible. We need to see what’s underneath to understand how remarkable leaders lead—and that begins with mind-sets. Continue reading
By Stephanie Shaw
Onboarding, or organizational socialization, is a topic that can seem somewhat daunting for companies to embrace. Going beyond the simple employee orientation, onboarding ensures that new hires feel welcome and prepared, while giving them the confidence, trust and freedom to succeed in their new position. Most companies have some form of onboarding practice, but it is often regarded as tactical, rather than a strategic endeavor in the talent management process.
The Aberdeen Group, an organization that conducts business research, found in 2013 that companies are interested in re-evaluating their onboarding strategies. They found the top reasons for revamping onboarding practices were to improve new hire productivity (68 percent), engagement (67 percent) and retention (51 percent). Aberdeen also found that 90 percent of organizations believe that new employees make a decision on whether to stay at a company within the first year. This means employers need to make a great first impression and have a full year to make sure their top talent stays. Continue reading
By Bill Sims, Jr.
Are you keeping up with your New Year’s resolution? If you’re like most folks, you’re probably hard at work on that new diet or workout program.
While you’re doing those next 25 crunches, ask yourself these questions: What’s my New Year’s resolution for my business? What are the exercises that will help me and my team perform better at work this year?
That answer is positive reinforcement. Continue reading
by Alan Kantrow
Employers the world over tell us that what truly counts in hiring decisions is not the rote knowledge that helps college students answer examination questions, but skills and competencies that are essential for, and often developed at, work. To be useful, the bricks of modern education need the straw of experience-based skills. Bricks without straw tend to crumble; they cannot support weight, as has been known from Biblical times. Continue reading
by John Boudreau, Ravin Jesuthasan and David Creelman
Should you hire as if your workforce will stay a month, a year, or their entire career? The answer makes a big difference in the qualifications you set, how well candidates must “fit” with the job, the team or the organizational culture, and the “deal” you offer. A traditional employment model may work for some, while a model based on short-term employment may work for others. At the extreme, it may be best never to “hire” your workers at all, or to “fire” and “hire” them several times. Leaders need solid principles to build talent strategies that fit the situation, with an optimization approach. Too often the necessary principles for optimization are lost in the chorus of divergent views and pithy examples. This chorus can also obscure the need to question long-held assumptions. Letting go of those assumptions may be the key to seeing new options that make optimization possible. Continue reading
