Human Resources Articles

Please read thorugh our growing collection of HR articles. If you would like to submit your own HR article for approval we welcome you to do so on our submit human resources article page.

Future of Job Postings

So many times we see the same type of job postings on job boards and newspapers and wonder why employers even bother posting them in the first place. Stating that a position requires X years of experience doing this, and Y years of experience doing that rarely attracts the top-quality people that employers  want to hire, and ultimately only adds to the number of unqualified and overqualified applications employers need to process.

Hire Teamwork-Oriented Employees

You can use pre-employment tests, specific interview questions, realistic job previews, and role-modeling to hire employees who crave to use teamwork and collaboration.

Reinventing HR from the Classroom to the Boardroom

Ken Hammonds’ Fast Company cover story entitled, “Why We Hate HR” sent shockwaves through the HR community when it was published in 2005.  Among the scathing reviews of the current state of HR, Hammonds includes a quote from a local college professor that implied that smart, ambitious new graduates don’t enter the field of HR.  In fact, his exact quote was “The best and the brightest don’t go into HR.”  Pretty harsh words, especially for a function that is trying to reinvent itself.

International Assignments in a Changing World

Until a few years ago, relocations were a relatively simple business.  Companies selected their most career-oriented employees, got them to pack a few belongings and move with family to the other side of the globe.

Employee Communication: 5 Tips To Engage Employees

When we think of employee communication most organizations focus on information tools. These include intranet sites, staff magazines, CEO blog, Town Hall meetings and so on. Whilst all these employee communication methods are to be applauded, they inform employees about what is going on. To truly engage employees in the process of change, for instance, a merger or acquisition, a re-organization, financial results or corporate social responsibility, employee communication methods need to be designed to actively engage employees.

Discrimination by Association

The European Court of Justice has ruled that a woman has suffered ‘discrimination by association’ after being treated unfairly at work because of her care responsibilities for her disabled son. Ms Coleman said that she was ‘harassed’ into resigning and described as ‘lazy’ by her boss because she wanted to work flexibly to look after her son. Although Ms Coleman’s colleagues were allowed to take time off to attend hospital appointments or able to work from home, her requests to do so were not approved.

From Diversity to Inclusion, What to Consider...

From Diversity to Inclusion, What to Consider What differences do you have in your workplace? And, are you maximizing on the differences to leverage success for your staff and your organization?

Renaissance Leadership -- Explorers for Future Success in Business

The 21st century requires people who are well-grounded and have multiple intelligences. A keen intellect or the ability to manage metrics is not enough. To provide products and services, you have to know how to attract and retain the very best employees across four generations of workers, to dialogue effectively with others, and to bring innovative products to market faster.

Hire Happy Employees

Hiring happy, optimistic job applicants can increase your company’s productivity and lower turnover. Plus, optimistic, confident employees are vastly more delightful to have on-board.

Creating a Link Between Company Success and Employee Accountability

In America’s best-run and most-admired organizations, employee performance appraisal is a vital and vigorous management tool. No other management process has as much influence on individuals’ careers and work lives.

How To Create Lasting Change & Achieve Greater Success At Work

At some point we’ve all vowed to make some big change – similar to the resolutions above. But by the time the rosy blush of good intentions wears off, the resolution gets pushed aside. Not because we don’t still long to have what we want, but because we just don’t know how to change.

10 Tips For Planning A Corporate Incentive Travel Program

Corporate incentive travel is a great way to motivate and reward your valuable employees. Incentive travel can be group or individual, and the destination can be local or international. But every successful incentive travel program begins with careful planning.

Finding Your Voice in the Office By Jim Jenkins, Creative Visions Consulting

A client of mine recently asked me to help them produce a video to comment on the success of a change management initiative within their firm. They were looking for managers at all levels to describe their experiences in leading the company’s systematic approach to creating a more respectful and inclusive culture and what supporting this type of change effort meant to them

Solid Leadership Advice: 10 Ideas For Building Your Leadership Bench Strength & Improving Company Performance

When it comes to leadership bench strength, some company benches are dangerously light. These companies, from large corporations to small and mid-sized businesses, lack the talent needed to sustain or grow the business beyond its current level.

Seven Best Practises for Employee Scheduling

Why is employee scheduling an ordeal most managers abhor and put off to the last minute? Probably because few businesses have best practices for this labor-intensive task and even fewer appreciate how crucial proper scheduling is to a sound properly functioning business.

Organizational Change: 6 Things You Must Do To Become An Effective Leader In The Midst Of Change

All progress is the result of change. But not all change is progress. Some changes don’t make any sense. In fact, some leadership behaviors actually create more stress for yourself and your coworkers.

Achieving Peak Performance: Education Without Motivation Serves No Useful Purpose

Motivation is not enough. If you motivate an idiot, all you have is a motivated idiot.

Questions to Ask a SaaS Vendor for HR/Payroll

Finding a SaaS vendor for your workforce management can be challenging. First, few software delivery standards/guidelines exist for this relatively new software delivery model.

Skilled Migration Scheme: Highly Skilled Migrant Programme

One of the most popular schemes is the points-based skilled immigration category, the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP) which was introduced in January 2002 to attract ' high human capital individuals, who have the qualifications and skills required by UK businesses to compete in the global marketplace' (Para 2.18, 2002 White Paper).

Simma & Kate's Strategies for Cross-Generational Relationship Building

Here we highlight what we think are the best ways to push past generational barriers and build strong intergenerational relationships. We've divided the strategies into mindset tips (how to approach cross-generational differences) and practical tips (the small things you can do during a conversation to improve your communication).

A Passion for Diversity

Some people work at their jobs because they have to make a living, and they get to express themselves after work. Some people have careers that they love, and have a hard time not taking home their work with them when they go home. And then there are successful people in the diversity field. They have a passion for diversity and they live their work.

An Employers Guide to the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme (HSMP)

HSMP is a specific type of permit issued by the Home Office, which allows the individual to be employed without the need for a separate work permit.

Seven Horrible Hiring Mistakes

To hire the best, you need to avoid the problems that plagued your previous hiring decisions. So, let me reveal seven horrible hiring blunders or mistakes you may have made.

Building a Feedback Culture at Work

Giving feedback simply means telling people how they're going at work. However, the real art of feedback is the ability to also accept feedback yourself - being prepared to listen to what others tell you, without being defensive if it's bad news.

Team Building: Leadership Strategies To Address Today’s Most Common Team Building Problems

Despite best team building efforts, many organizations are still operating on low power when it comes to producing desired results. They’ve invested time and dollars in events that supposedly help team members bond and function coherently, yet results are short term at best.

No Excuses for not preparing as an Internal Candidate

Competition in the workforce is fierce, as internal associates we often forget that when interviewing for a promotion or trying to gain access to a different business function that we are in fact competing against all the other internal associates who are trying to do the same. I have found most internal candidates are not preparing for an interview in the same manner as if they were an external candidate. Those who are best prepared for the interview will get the job and have greater success. Below are some things to remember and put in practice as you prepare.

An Employers Guide to UK Work Permits

A work permit is a legal permission that is issued to the UK employer by the Home Office, which allows an individual to be employed in a full time, skilled post. The employer must make an application to the Home Office for permission to employ that individual in this role.

Employee Communication Surveys: Seven Tips For Successful Design and Implementation

So, your organization is suffering from poor communication practices. John complains that his boss never tells him anything. Sally is expected to come up with sales targets without being briefed on this year’s company strategy. Where do you start in improving ineffective communication between people?

Mentoring Programs for Professional Service Firms: Creating Mentoring Relationships that Serve the Individual and the Firm

It seems almost everyone can use a little something extra to help them increase their effectiveness or give them a ompetitive edge. Those in professional service firms are no exception; however, they do face unique challenges. With so much emphasis on billable hours for accountants and lawyers, how can they find the time to devote to personal development?

How To Work Out A Model Job Campaign Plan

Job campaign plan - if you have been sending out your resume and not getting interviews, you can certainly blame the resume.

Get Your Performance Appraisal Discussions Off to a Good Start (Part 2)

In a previous article I shared a couple of tips that will reduce the feelings of discomfort that often come when a performance appraisal is discussed — gather your materials in advance, make a list of the key points you need to cover, and pick an appropriate place for the discussion. Here are four more suggestions that will make the performance appraisal discussion more relaxed.

Get Your Performance Appraisal Discussions Off to a Good Start (Part 1)

Too often, participants in performance appraisal meetings seem awkward and uncomfortable. To some extent, that’s unavoidable — it’s always a bit awkward for one person to deliver a formal assessment of the quality of work performed by another.

Overcoming Defensiveness in Employee Performance Evaluation Discussions

There sits Sally on the other side of the desk during her performance evaluation. She’s scowling. Her arms are folded tightly across her chest. Her lower lip is turned out in a way that communicates both rejection and contempt. She’s flipped the performance evaluation she just read upside down on your desk as though it were some loathsome bug. She slowly shakes her head back and forth in a model of negativity. Looking you straight in the eye, she says, “Do you call this a performance evaluation?”

Are You Wasting Your Money on Diversity Training?

If you are planning to spend money on diversity training, WAIT! You may be wasting your money if you haven’t done any foundation building. If diversity and inclusion are not first integrated into your business strategy, very little will change just by holding one or two day training classes. Organizations in all sectors make this mistake and don’t realize it until it is too late.

Employee Performance Reviews — Dealing With Disagreements

What do you do when an employee disagrees with something you’ve written on their performance review? How can you prepare for this and deal with it effectively

HR Practice Tip: Reduce the Pain of Performance Evaluations

Are your organization's "annual" appraisals done even less frequently because no one likes doing them? You may be missing an opportunity to improve employee relations and productivity.

Ten Tips for Creating an Employee Appraisal System

Dick Grote

Face the facts: Creating a new employee performance appraisal system is a difficult undertaking. It’s even more difficult if the organization doesn’t have a logical, well-tested, step-by-step process to follow in developing their new procedure.

Looking to Increase Employee Performance? Motivation is Critical.

By Dick Grote

What’s an organization to do when all of its honest and genuine efforts to motivate Sally and Sam to come to work on time, work safely, deliver efficient services, and act as if they were happy to be a part of the team, fail? There is no shortage of pop-psych books and motivational speakers who’ll tell you a thousand-and-one ways to light a fire in Sam’s belly. But what do you do when the fire goes out and none of those thousand-and-one ways seem to work any more? What do we really know about motivation?

Five Steps to Better Employee Management

Hiring employees is a huge responsibility. Before hiring anyone, be sure to carefully analyze your needs in terms of extra assistance.

Once you've gotten through the hiring process, there's still much more you must do now that you've become an employer. If you're like most small business owners, you just don't have time to do all you're supposed to be doing when it comes to managing your employees.

Getting to the table and staying there

Diane Kubal

What advice would you give to a new HR, OD or Training Manager about getting to the table and staying there?

How to accelerate the return on investment (ROI) of your senior talent

All too often, the higher up an organization an individual progresses, the lower the level of investment and support. Newly appointed senior executives are often left to "sink or swim". There is an assumption that they are already at the level required to effectively deliver what is required of them and they know how to do that. There is also an assumption that they therefore do not want or need any support.