Some days are awesome, and some are awful. Some employees regularly knock it out of the park and others are in a perpetual slump. What you need, as a manager is employees that deliver consistent, high-quality performance. While you can never have every day perfect (after all, you’re dealing
When I was a child, it never once occurred to me that my parents didn’t know everything. I mean, sure, they didn’t understand what it was like to be in high school (because they were “so old”), but they obviously knew how to handle car repairs, when to
Have you ever wondered why the hiring process is so freakishly slow? It should be easy—at the moment a manager has a vacancy (or knows there will be one), a recruiter should jump in and screen candidates, the manager should schedule interviews with a few promising applicants and,
Here is a true story and a cautionary tale about an attempt to save some money on a salary. Jane received a promotion at work. When she received the paperwork from HR, they detailed a salary that included a 10 percent raise. She was thrilled and happily began
Sometimes people who haven’t ever been managers imagine that being a manager is somewhat like sitting in a big leather chair and issuing proclamations. The modern day equivalent of being a king. The reality is there might be a leather chair involved, but proclamations are few and far between.
Many people can do a great job when they have sufficient time and no stress. Others actually need some pressure and stress to get a project done. What you want is for all of your employees to be able to perform under pressure. Here’s what you need to think about
Both St. Patrick’s day and Easter are over and you should already have your summer vacation plan well under way. Why? And furthermore, why on earth would an HR columnist care one whit about your summer vacation? Well, partly because I love vacation. It’s a top priority for my
We all know it’s important to be smart. But being smart doesn’t have to mean a super high IQ, of course, it can mean being a normal human with a lot of knowledge about your particular area of expertise. Having a high IQ can be very helpful to
When you read job hunting advice columns, they’ll often tell you that the easiest way to get a job is to jump over the recruiter and get straight to the hiring manager. This is great advice, but in many companies, it’s almost impossible unless you already have a
When you go for a job interview, it’s always a mystery what questions they’ll ask. Some hiring managers have a set of questions, all typed up, that they ask each candidate. Others like a more free-form interview, where the conversation just flows. And some places want you to
