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Do you remember being tasked with the assignment of writing an essay about how you spent your summer when you were in school?  I wish I had copies of the stories I actually wrote when I was a kid. There wasn’t a lot to do in the small town where I grew up other than participating in the summer book club. Summer always seemed endless and as someone who suffered from FOMO before it was a thing, I was always counting the days until we headed back to school so I would be back in the know. As I watched the school buses drive up the street this morning, I thought this was the perfect time to recap some of my favorite content shares and posts from the summer. First up are the top 3 original posts that received the most reactions from readers: I tried a lot of new things […]

I’m not sure who is officially credited with making this joke first, but the first time I heard it, it was from the late Bob Hope.  It always made me chuckle until I was telling a friend of mine I was going to be on the HR Today radio show last week and that was the first thing she blurted out.  Now, I know she was joking…. or at least I hope so. For those who are not familiar with this program, it’s local to Philly and showcases a wide range of individuals who work in or around HR with the purpose of sharing what’s working in HR in their organizations.  While the segments are only 12 minutes in length, it’s definitely enough time for the moderator to dive in and uncover a nugget or two. When I was invited to be on the program, I jumped at the chance.  […]

Social media has always been the wild wild west.  Companies have struggled with the boundaries between someone’s personal social media account and how it is associated with the individual as representative of the company as an employee.  In the very early years of LinkedIn, I remember an employer requiring a disclaimer on employee profiles that said: “the opinions contained herein are my own.”  I imagine that was enough to protect them from being liable for some rogue employee’s behavior back then. As social media has evolved, many clients encourage employees to post away with few if any boundaries.  We are now at a point where we receive a barrage of company photos, live tweets, and posts announcing new openings or service offerings in our feeds. It was only a matter of time until the lawyers came running and this article caught my attention. I’m sure many never considered how a […]

Culture.  Is anyone else tired of this word or is just me?  What started out as a cornerstone for gaining a competitive advantage for an organization has quickly eroded.  And it’s unfortunate because when designed intentionally, it’s what separates companies that thrive apart from everyone else. How did we get here?  In the quest to become a “best places to work” many companies quickly and haphazardly came up with a list of adjectives that they thought described their company cultures.  Some even borrowed the same words and phrases from other companies…which I guess is working efficiently, but definitely not effectively.  I even worked with a client who took a verb he liked and then force fit values to support it. So we are left with a significant number of organizations who have pretty posters on the wall with words like “honesty, integrity, trust, collaboration, commitment, caring…..” I could go on […]

Need some end of the summer inspiration?  Check out Gary Vaynerchuk’s video “August is the Month to Go All In.” If you can’t spare two minutes and twenty-two seconds, the point Gary is making is that if you want “it” (meaning achieving a goal for the year) then August is the month where you double down and work even harder because using this time to perfect your plan, make more calls, conduct more interviews, source more candidates, make new connections, etc.  puts you way ahead of the competition who will restart these activities after Labor Day with hamburger hangovers and sunburns. August is always when I prompt clients to start working on their talent plans for the next calendar year.  If you use this time wisely and identify skill gaps in your current team, evaluate your attrition, identify new skills required to support the business, create new recruiting marketing collateral […]

Generation Z also referred to as iGen, Centennials, the Selfie Generation, and a whole host of other names is generally defined as those who were born around 1996 through 2010.  It’s estimated that there could be as many as 60 million Americans in this demographic and they’ve grown up during interesting times.  Most in this demographic only know about 9/11 from history books and they grew up during a time when the US was (is) always at war (on terror, climate change, you name it).  They’ve lived through the Great Recession and have likely seen their parents face financial hardships.  Many have seen millennial siblings struggle and boomerang back to live at home. They are also the first true digital natives as they’ve always had access to the internet, smart phones, apps and loads of other technology. Research suggests that those experiences have created a group that “appears to be […]

Authenticity.  When I hear that word, I instantly think something that is real or actual.  A classic “what you see is what you get.”  In an era of #fakenews and photoshop, it’s hard to come by these days. When it comes to your employer brand, company values, and culture, authenticity is the only thing that matters.  It is critical that who you think and say you are as an employer to the outside world is in complete alignment with what someone’s experiences are on the inside.  Pretty words on a poster, catch phrases on a wall or snappy sound bites don’t matter if your candidates or employees have a completely different experience when they work with you. Which brings me to an interesting case study. Have you ever heard of Barstool Sports?  Until last week, I hadn’t either.  They describe themselves as a media and entertainment company that provides a […]

Retain. Release.  Rehire.  It’s this pillar of the talent continuum that I talk about most.  In fact, when I’m meeting with a CEO for the first time, I’m often asked what the “one thing” is that they should be thinking about relative to their overall talent strategy and the conversation often starts here. But, we’ve missed an element.  Yup, there is a fourth. WTF. That’s right…What’s The Future (of work)?  Get it?  WTF…What’s The Future?  What did you think I meant? The future of work is going to require us to reconfigure our current people operating models and talent engagement strategies and we need to be responsive and nimble.  We’ll have to navigate through new and emerging employment models (gig and shared economies for example), leverage new technologies (automation and AI), and manage multiple generations under one roof (and maybe no longer under a roof at all).  These changes will […]

Let me begin by saying that no fish were harmed during the preparation of this blog post. I was preparing for a speaking engagement a few weeks ago on the topic of how to attract and retain talent when funds are tight.  As we were finalizing the content, the conference organizer asked me to specifically address where people can find “hidden” talent.  Now, my internal dialogue was “if I could answer that question, I’d be retired on a private island somewhere.”  But I knew what he was really asking me was to provide some creative ways this group of entrepreneurs could uncover the resources and expertise they needed on a tight budget.  No problem. The words “hidden talent” stuck with me.  Since hidden implies something that is invisible, I kept thinking about the most unknown, untapped or underutilized segment of an organization’s talent pool.   It’s the one that no one […]

I’m certain that I’m dating myself with a Michael Jackson song reference, but I’ve heard it 3 times in the past week, so I know it’s not a coincidence (it may not be the best blog title either, but go with me here). Since we are talking all things talent on this blog, you might be questioning how this song title ties into it.  Perhaps more than you think.  Let me explain. In Jim Collins’ book Good to Great, he makes the statement that “People Don’t Quit Companies, People Quit People.”  When I first read this quote years ago, I had one of those lightbulb moments as that statement rang true for me personally.  And it continues to be reinforced through the work I do with clients today.  Retention is something that comes up in almost every meeting I attend.  Clients describe a list of symptoms that they believe are […]