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News & Topics
December, 2008Talent in Tough Times: Opportunities, Risks and Strategic Actions
People issues come rapidly to the forefront in a down economy. How do you keep employees thinking forward and moving forward? No one has all the answers, but there is a silver lining to this cloud! After grieving the present situation, it's important to take a deep breath and a positive stance, then examine the big picture. Surprisingly, there are hidden opportunities to seize. In addition, identifying any talent risks you face puts you in a good position to address them early in the game. Taking strategic action can give you a degree of control that's very practical. So let's begin with a few ideas that will help you put things in motion. Read full article »November 20, 2008
Assessments Relieve High-Volume Screening Pressures
The increased use of job boards, online applications and automated applicant-tracking systems has made employee screening like trying to sip water from Niagara Falls. Finding gems of talent amidst a flood of applications can be a monumental challenge. Assessments solve this Information-Age problem by quickly identifying top talent and providing a priority ranking of the entire candidate pool. Assessments supply the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, professionalism and insight that are critical for employee screening. Read full article »October 17, 2008
Succession Planning: Four Imperatives for Success
The basic concept of succession planning is nothing new. Throughout history, every organization in the world has engaged in some type of planning for future talent needs, either actively or passively. Every entity who needs people to operate must replace people when they are gone. We see this in our daily lives and in the media -- it was well-known that Jay Leno was to be the successor for Johnny Carson and now Conan O’Brian will fill Jay’s shoes. Whether a company pays attention to it or not, the succession of people is often the difference in an organization’s sustainable success. Read full article »September 19, 2008
Value of 360 feedback
To 360, or not to 360? …That is the question. And an important question for an organization to consider before using 360-degree feedback. Done properly, 360-degree feedback programs can focus individual development, promote a climate of open communication, and increase job effectiveness which can result in positive performance outcomes. However, improperly planned and implemented 360-degree feedback can at best be a waste of time for participants, and at worst can cause corporate revenge reminiscent of Shakespeare's Hamlet. So how can you design a 360-degree program to maximize the benefits and avoid the pitfalls? Read full article »August 15, 2008
Unraveling the Sales Gene
Is there a sales gene? The practical implications of this simple question are complex and significant for sales organizations. If sales success is determined by innate talent, then a sales organization would be well advised to focus most of their attention on recruiting the right talent for their sales team. In contrast, if sales ability is primarily a learned skill, then an investment in sales training would be wise. So where should sales organizations invest their resources to get the most bang for the buck – recruiting or training? Read full article »June 12, 2008
Leaders: Born and Made
The old debate over whether leaders are born or made yields a simple answer with one revision to the question. Are leaders born and made? Of course they are! Nature and nurture both play critical roles in how people develop as leaders. People vary systematically on a variety of traits and characteristic that we can define and measure. Many are strongly influenced by genetics and early life experiences. A large body of scientific research has consistently shown correlations between some of these attributes and success as a leader. The reasons for those correlations may be obvious, such as the high assertiveness that many successful leaders possess. They may be less obvious or related to other factors, such as tall men and women being more likely to emerge as leaders (Judge & Cable, 2004). Unfortunately, some result from historical precedent or irrelevant factors, such as race or gender. Read full article »May 1, 2008
Your Employees are the Face of Your Business – Hire the Best
In the service industry, your employees are the face of your business. Good employees create positive customer experiences, generate repeat business, sell more, and influence positive behaviors in coworkers. Bad employees disrupt the work environment and cost the company money through turnover, inventory shrinkage, lost productivity and lost customers. Read full article »April 1, 2008
Developing toward Effective Performance: Creating a performance development culture to achieve success
It seems that there are dozens of articles circulated each month around the topic of performance appraisal – which tools to use, why on-line appraisals are the answer, how to implement the appraisal event, etc. In our experience, implementing a process or a tool for an annual appraisal "event" is only as effective as what the organization does during "those other eleven months" of the year. The best process and tools will be ineffective if your organization does not embrace, or at the very least recognize, the need for a performance development culture. Read full article »April 1, 2008
Assess-based Coaching
Coaching is often described as the process of helping individuals go from where they are to where they want to be. To accomplish this it is important to begin with a clear understanding of both the starting point and the destination so that the proper route (action plan) can be undertaken. The trip you plan to Paris might be very different if you knew you were starting from Dallas, TX or Rome, Italy. Read full article »Welcome to the first edition of the Wire
Febuary 21, 2008 Greetings and welcome to the first edition of the Wire. We hope your year is off to a great start! In the coming months we plan to use this newsletter to provide you with articles, case studies, practical tips and applications for how best to select, develop, engage and retain employees in today’s workplace. We also want to keep you up-to-date on events in our organization such as our monthly consultant-led webinars, certifications and development workshops... Read more on this topic »We’ve joined the Merlin Team
Febuary 21, 2008 In order to accelerate our status as a leading provider of Human Resource selection and development solutions in the rapidly evolving landscape of client expectations for more complete solutions and better integration among providers... Read more on this topic »Events Calendar
January 15, 2009
Selection Success? Enhance Your Hiring Process Webinar - Broadcast by HR.com
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Selection Success? Enhance Your Hiring Process Webinar - Broadcast by HR.com