Recruitment and Retention Strategies
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Recruitment Quickstart
How to Find Good Employees
Have them come to you. Often we try to figure out how to find good employees when the most effective way to find good employees is simply to attract them. Think about the combination Read more >
3 Ways to Distinguish Fantasy from Reality in an Interview
How do you uncover if the person in front of you, in their best attire, smiling their best smile, is for real? The next time you have an interview consider these three ways to distinguish Read more >
Top 10 Interview Questions
Before we get to the questions, for a successful interview keep in mind the following: #1 - Hire for your culture (if you like your culture!); hire for your values Can teach skills, can’t teach Read more >
Quiz – Am I a good employee? Ten Questions to Consider
Mostly on this blog you'll find ways companies can be better employers. However here's some questions and considerations for employees to chew on - not surprisingly many of these questions are applicable for the executive team too: Read more >
Retention Quickstart
Stop Fearing Your People Will Leave
Why? Because they will. Some day they will find a better opportunity, and when they do, be proud you were part of their journey and celebrate their commitment to playing even bigger. In Read more >
Retention: Imperative First Impressions
You are being watched, compared and judged. Your team is being evaluated. It’s your new hire’s first day, first week, first month. This is an extremely impressionable time. While they are looking to impress and Read more >
Golden Handcuffs Are Still Handcuffs
With the unemployment rate so low these days – here in Denver we’re down to 2.7% - organizations are getting nervous about losing their top talent. There’s been an uptick in talk about how to Read more >
Why won’t they let go of the past? And how to help them move on.
Does your organization have “baggage?” Or rather, mistakes from the past individuals on your team insist dredging up on a semi-regular basis? You’re not alone. And you ponder, why won’t they let it go? Here’s Read more >
Onboarding Employees
How to Find a Job You Love
About a year ago I shared with you “How to Support Someone Who Wants to Leave Your Organization.” This Culture Tip is the other side of this coin and has been a longtime coming. Over Read more >
We can’t afford to have happy employees
I hear this often - we don't have the budget of Google or Apple - we simply can't afford to have happy employees. There's a misperception out there that in order to have happy employees Read more >
What’s the value of my Psychic Compensation? Add it up here.
What's it worth to you to work in a company where you feel good about coming to work? Grab a pen and paper and find out. Calculate how much each of these is worth to you on an annual basis:
- Doing work that contributes to the success of your company (knowing what you do makes a difference)
- Working for a company that helps society through its product/service/contributions
- Enjoying the people you work with
- Being genuinely appreciated for your hard work
- Working in a workplace where you trust the people you work with and know that you are trusted
- Working in a workplace where you respect the people you work with and know you are respected
- Being "in the know" of what's going on within your company
- Knowing that if you need to occasionally take care of a loved one who's sick you can without repercussions or sideways glances
- Having a manager or supervisor you respect, can count on and who's fair
- Knowing you have control over how to get your work done
- Working where there's truly transparency, open communication and where feedback is not only heard, but taken seriously
Now add it up. How much?
Top 9 Questions to Ask in an Exit Interview
There's really only one reason to do an exit interview - to potentially learn from an individual who is leaving your company whatever it is they felt they couldn't say while they were working there. Read more >
Employee Lifecycle
Can Your Compensation Pass the Printer Test?
Nanci Meadows, the People Champion of Hubb (an event management software company out of Vancouver, WA), recently shared their compensation printer test. Here’s the printer test: If a copy of everyone’s compensation was Read more >
Workplace Compensation Trap: Fairness
A very well-known culture survey (not Choose People’s) asks team members to assess the following statement: I am paid fairly. Be careful what you assess. The term “fair” exists in comparison. In comparison to Read more >
Choose People is Hiring! (And, how to create a great job posting to attract the right candidates.)
It’s time for Choose People to scale and we are creating our dream team. Please pass the below opportunity on to anyone you know who would be a great fit and let them know to Read more >
Tricky Titles: 8 Key Considerations
Many managers wonder what to do about titles and their team’s desire to climb the proverbial ladder. Here are 8 key considerations… The reason titles are so tricky is because they feed into people’s identity Read more >
Employer Reputation
One Important Question to Ask Your Team
Go ask each of your team members: Walk me through what makes a good work day for you.* This simple request will get to the heart of what’s important to your team from a culture Read more >
3 Insights to Support Low-Income Employees
I used to run a moving company and many of my crew members came from a low-income background. Back in 2003 I read Ruby Payne’s book, A Framework for Understanding Poverty. This book was immensely Read more >
Compensation: Mitigate Money Stories
While money is fictitious paper, it’s reality as energy is undeniable. It empowers Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: physiological, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. Money spurs self-determination and autonomy. It provides a roof over Read more >
The Perfect Holiday Gift for Your Employees (And Your Company)
It’s that time of year when you may spend an inordinate amount of time trying to discern a “good “ gift for all of your employees. Trying to choose something is not an easy feat Read more >
Employer Trust
Retention 2.0: Proactively Communicate Departures of Team Members
Know that how you handle the departure of a team member is mission critical to your cultural integrity. As part of the employee life cycle in your organization, you need to honor departure with the Read more >
Explain Why the Money Matters
Chances are you talk a lot about money in your business – the money coming in, the money going out, to raise prices, to lower them, to give raises, to hold off, to make a Read more >
So you’re buying a business…something you haven’t thought of
If you're buying a business there are a many factors you're assessing - looking at past performance as well as potential future success. When looking at the potential upside, have you asked yourself what kind Read more >
So how do you turn an employee culture around? 1st Step
After presenting to an MBA class at Denver University, I was asked the following question by a young woman who's a manager at a restaurant that is having major employee morale issues: So how do Read more >
Employee Turnover
How to Support Someone Who Wants to Leave Your Organization
Traditionally if someone wants to leave your company, s/he doesn’t tell you. They look for a job, secure one, and then provide two weeks notice. Leaving you to scramble to find their replacement, and if Read more >
5 Considerations to Create a Cultural Identity Worth Tattooing
What would a tattoo of your organization’s logo say about the person wearing it? Think about this for a moment. Because what it says is representative of your organization’s personality, reputation, brand, and identity. Read more >
How Emotional Health Won the Superbowl
ESPN recently wrote an extensive article on the unusual coaching methodology of Pete Carroll, Head Coach for the Seattle Seahawks. Unusual because his philosophy hatched in answer to his question, "I wanted to find out if we went to the NFL and really took care of guys, really cared about each and every individual, what would happen?" They’ll win the Superbowl, that’s what’ll happen.
What’s Best vs. What’s Fair
I recently spoke to a forlorn business owner who lost one of his key people. And while this was painful, what was more painful is he couldn't hire the person who he interviewed and knew would be Read more >
Long Term Strategies
Florence Kelley – One of the 1st on recognizing Good Employee Treatment
My amazing neighbor who is also a history professor sent me some interesting information about the history of good employer certifications that I just have to share! "In the early 20th century a reformer named Florence Read more >
THE Reason for Valuing Employees
I recently finished reading Alain de Botton's book The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work - it is truly a glorious read that I highly recommend for those who love thought provoking well written real life Read more >
Do "Green" Companies Get it?
Employee satisfaction. Employee engagement. That's part of what I'm here to find out here at the Green Business Conference in San Francisco. (I should preface this blog to say that I have deep gratitude for those businesses who Read more >
