Human Resources Articles

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Saturday, 25th March 2006 @ 11:01 PM

Jane owns a chain of retail stores and good management staff are hard to find. When recruiting she has to negotiate a salary which is attractive to the candidate but fits within her budget. As these decisions are made on a case by case basis she swears each new recruit to secrecy. What's wrong with this? Nothing if it works. However, any strategy that relies on employees not discussing salaries with each other and threats of discipline if they do, is not really viable in the long te... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Mike Freemen @ Thursday, 23rd March 2006 @ 1:01 PM

When it comes to getting your favorite company to hire you, there are a number of things you can do to tip the odds in your favor. If you want the best company in town to hire you, you will have to make sure you are the best candidate for the job opening they have, and you will have to present a well polished and professional picture to the hiring manager. The first step to getting that great company to hire you is to create an eye catching resume. The resume is your foot in the door to... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Thursday, 2nd March 2006 @ 9:04 AM

We've all done it. The glossy brochure with catchy headlines promoting training courses which seem too good to miss. We either see them ourselves or employees bring them to us with a previously unknown "need" to have this training. Before we know it a large chunk of the annual training budget has gone on courses we didn't even know existed. This sort of reactive approach to training and development costs far more than systematic training and is usually far less effectiv... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Kim Jones @ Sunday, 26th February 2006 @ 6:59 AM

Rumours have been abounding all week that another major competitor has just bitten the dust spectacularly but, until its confirmed – and maybe even afterwards – I think its best to leave that alone. All in all, though, not very good for the reputation of the recruitment industry which is never that good anyway. Even in a world where ridiculous surveys - like the analysis of Oxford which cost the City Council £15,000 which found that the city had “a good university” - are the in-thing, ... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Leslie Gibbon @ Friday, 24th February 2006 @ 11:55 PM

In today's business world proper training in human resources is imperative. Any company with aspirations of success should insist that their managers and supervisors attend HR training. Because managers, especially first-time managers, often lack the skills and problem-solving ability when conflicts arise, they are not equipped with the capability of dealing with them. Far from being a desirable extra this is essential for any forward looking company. There are three basic skills th... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Thursday, 23rd February 2006 @ 6:57 AM

Warren had a beer at lunchtime, came back to his job as a forklift driver, abused the female stores clerk and carried on with his job. The warehouse manager, who was never very impressed by Warren, heard about it, accused him of being under the influence of alcohol and dismissed him. Warren claimed unfair dismissal and, after a day at the Industrial Relations Commission, was awarded three months pay. Charles did a great job of working with a new supplier to implement the new sof... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Thursday, 16th February 2006 @ 8:39 AM

Induction or orientation to the work place typically involves showing the new employee around, telling them about the organization and showing them where they will be working - if it happens at all. After selecting the right person, ensuring an appropriate induction is probably the next most important event in maximising results from people - yet it is often left to chance. Even many large organizations only provide induction programs when there are enough new employees to make up a reaso... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Thursday, 9th February 2006 @ 7:56 AM

While "throwing them in the deep end" might sound challenging for a new employee, it can be a careless way to treat your new investment. We recently heard of a new employee calling his wife at lunchtime on his first day in the new job to say he was coming home. The treatment, or lack of it, he received told him he had made the wrong choice. When recruiting it is important to note that appointing a successful candidate is not the end of the process: we must now determine that this ... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Peter Murphy @ Sunday, 5th February 2006 @ 5:58 AM

In the workplace, it can be very difficult to obtain staff motivation. There are many factors that play against staff motivation. It really is the manager's responsibility to motivate the employees. This can be very challenging at times. There are six guidelines that a person can follow to achieve staff motivation. 1. A friendly working environment is extremely important to a positive attitude in the workplace. Socializing should be acceptable in most cases. People can ... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Todd Taylor @ Sunday, 5th February 2006 @ 5:40 AM

It is always easy to blame one person or several people for the failure of a sales process or the failure for the whole sales team within a company. Sometimes those people are just symptoms of a different problem. Perhaps a greater problem. Though it easy to find fault, it requires honesty to determine the true causes of sales process failure. There are only five causes to a sales process problem. There are only five distinct areas that cause the underperformance. 1. Organizational... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Saturday, 4th February 2006 @ 9:52 PM

How many times has this happened: The promising new employee makes a good first impression, is enthusiastic but just doesn't get the job done? To maximise our chances of getting this right we need to rely on some basic research which tells us that most people will continue to repeat past behaviours. Some say as much as 88% of the time. If this is the case then we need to define what we want them to do and find out if they have done it before - in a consistent way. While this ... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Saturday, 28th January 2006 @ 6:56 AM

"They know what I want. We don't need to write it down." is often the response when the issue of the dreaded job description comes up. Most of the time, when asked, the poor employee is left guessing as to what the boss wants. A survey showed that the response to the question "Do you know what is expected of you in your job?" 3% didn't know, 12% were unsure, 44% were fairly sure and only 41% knew exactly. This means 59% didn't know exactly what the boss want... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Stephen Steckly @ Saturday, 28th January 2006 @ 3:14 AM

You always have the staff you deserve! If you went, “Ouch!” when you read that, then good for you. You already realize you need a better team and the desire for something better is the always the first step on the road to success. Teambuilding is one of your most critical entrepreneurial activities. In business, every day is a game day and to win you must be able to field a winning team. Winning teams are made up of great employees yet many employers fail to put enough effort into thei... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Bill Sterzenbach @ Friday, 27th January 2006 @ 3:00 AM

The nursing profession has witnessed tremendous changes in the last five decades. In this continually changing environment, it is important to study the trends in nursing jobs in order to determine a successful career path. Today the demand for Registered Nurses or RNs has increased considerably, because of two factors. Firstly, relatively less fresh enrolment down the years since the turn of the century along with retirements of extant RNs has led to a shortage of trained nurses. Secondly, t... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Debra Thorsen @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 12:20 PM

Culture: n 1. natural phenomenon that is created whenever a group of people come together to collaborate; 2. foundation for all decisions and actions within an organization; 3. the way things are around here. Every time people come together with a shared purpose, culture is created. This group of people could be a family, neighborhood, project team, or company. Culture is automatically created out of the combined thoughts, energies, and attitudes of the people in the group. I o... more...

Business » Human Resources | By James Hunt @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 7:50 AM

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act or HIPAA has two purposes. The first, “portability,” allows an employee to keep their current health insurance even if they should happen to leave their current place of employment. This is easily done thanks to plans such as COBRA. The second part, “accountability,” means that the government can now regulate healthcare providers, health plans, payers, clearinghouses, and anyone else that might coordinate health data, for complete privacy a... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @ Wednesday, 25th January 2006 @ 4:58 AM

Our client had to terminate a senior manager, a process he found expensive and embarrassing. Soon after this, we were asked to develop what we call corporate "core competencies" and specific behaviors required by the organization. We discussed our findings with the client. His comment: "If we had done this in the first place, we wouldn't have recruited the first fellow and I would have saved myself a lot of money, time and heartache…" Just one small examp... more...

Business » Human Resources | By David Arnold Livingston @

In this era of technology and the World Wide Web, everything can be done over the Internet, from virtual shopping to chatting with people across a thousand miles. One of the activities that has already become a standard is online job application. This has become all the rage so much so, that some companies even prefer online applications compared to face-to-face applications. Now, there is no need for you to send your application by mail or even go to the company and personally hand in ... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Stephen Steckly @

Let’s assume you’ve completed your hiring process, your new employee is on the job, and training is underway. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a tool you could use that would let you know for certain whether each new employee was a hiring mistake or a hiring success? Well, there is such a tool and I’m going to share it with you right now. It’s called the Success Predictor Tool and it consists of a checklist that you will review at 45 days and 85 days of employment. T... more...

Business » Human Resources | By Paul Phillips @

The commonly held view that the customer comes first is worth a close look. Think about the last time you received less than satisfactory customer service. What caused it? Probably an employee! Either directly, bad manners and a "don't care" attitude, or by not addressing your needs - "sorry, I can't handle that order, you'll have to call another number". While most of our focus is rightly on customer needs, it may be useful to first stand back and look at t... more...