Six Steps to Building a Better Performance-Review Process Not many employees relish being criticized. But performance reviews.evaluating both the positive and negative aspects of an employee's performance.serve many purposes, and are an integral part of every company's HR plan. Effective Pre-Employment Background Screening In today's competitive economic environment, employers have increasingly turned to pre-employment screening as a critical risk-management tool to try to avoid hiring problem employees in the first place. Following these preliminary steps that occur before a person is even hired can dramatically increase the effectiveness of a screening program. Recruiting Pet Peeves I have recently been recruiting for positions at my firm (as opposed to recruiting for clients). I must admit, I am looking for a rare individual, what I consider the cream of the crop. The interesting thing is that I am not lacking applicants (we have 500 to date), but I feel as though I lack quality applicants. In addition, I have noticed a few things that might be beneficial for recruiters and employers alike. Your EMPLOYEES' Career Development, Your COMPANY'S Competitive Strength Career development is a powerful employee motivator and retention tool, not to mention a competitive strength when it comes to attracting new talent—all of which can have a profound impact on your company's bottom line. Startup Staffing In staffing a startup, begin with a series of assumptions. You're going to grow - and you'll need people with the ambition and talent to grow with you. You'll have a lot to do - and you'll need people with enough enthusiasm and initiative to do a lot more. When hiring, even though your list of desired qualities may spin out of control, there's a set of essential qualities you'll need in your team. How to Reduce Employee Turnover Employee turnover can cost organizations thousands of dollars when you consider lost production time, re-training, etc. One of the key ways to keep good staff is to instill in them a sense of loyalty and commitment. Are Your Employees Good Enough? Take a good hard look at where your company will be going in one year and in five years. Look at what form of company structure and organization will be necessary to meet your future needs. What will your future customer want? What kinds of employees will be needed to service your future customers? One of the most important questions your company must ask is: are your employees good enough? Teambuilding It takes time and patience to work through the underlying issues that have eroded the effectiveness of a team. "Teambuilding" has gotten a bad rap in recent years, but when done right, a good retreat can be valuable time away from the workplace, where all stakeholders can get together and focus on future plans and improvements. How to Help Your Competitor Hire Your Future Employee You've spent several hundred dollars placing ads in all the right places to get the attention of highly qualified candidates. Are the right follow-up steps being taken by your staff to ensure that best remain interested in your company or are they turning to your competition? Measuring Employee Value What exactly is an Employee Value Proposition? Basically it's a measurement of the balance between what an employee receives from their employer in return for their performance on the job. What to Find Out When Retaining a Search Firm Recruiting and retaining a top quality executive is one of the most important decisions you can make. Choose a search firm that operates with a style, approach and sense of values that complement and reflect your own organization. Here are some questions to ask your search firm before you hand over this important task. Getting Your Recruiters to be Consistent You have some recruiters who have the basic skills to be successful but who are keeping their activity consistent and therefore have marginal success. There are many reasons that this could be happening but one of the most common is that it seems boring and unimportant to track numbers and focus on activity. Deflation, Inflation and Compensation Over the past few years, economists have been debating the possibility of deflation. This is a situation that most firms will be poorly equipped to respond to.Compensation managers should have a plan for what to do if we do hit a deflationary period. Find out what this means to compensation and the employees. Making Difficult Decisions My theory of difficult decisions is that if it's hard to choose, it's because the expected outcomes are very close in value. If the outcomes are very close in value then it doesn't really matter which one you choose. Managers are used to making choices but it's still easy to get hung up on a difficult decision. Should Top Managers be Accredited We need an accreditation process. HR managers of Global 2000 firms should work towards universally recognized assessment processes that all top managers must successfully pass. Customer Service Staff Companies are forever rediscovering the customer, but it's hard to make customer-focus stick because it's contrary to the fundamental way organizations work. Shoshana Zuboff predicts the replacement of the familiar managerial capitalism with a new form of capitalism she calls "the support economy." Business Ethics and Consumers Business ethics are part of the human dimension of business, and naturally is of interest to HR. More specifically, ethics are part of the company brand and culture. HR has a responsibility to play a role in promoting ethical behavior, it is part of the job. No Experience - Required In the past, HR was unimportant enough that a person steeped in HR could make VP. Now that is changing. HR -and by that I mean an understanding of people and organizations, not an understanding of compliance- is critical to everything the CEO wants to do. A second rate VP HR just won't do anymore. 5 Key Factors to Consider When Selecting an Outplacement Firm With today's economy, more and more companies are finding themselves faced with the situation of having to reduce headcount to remain competitive. Here are five key factors to consider when selecting an outplacement firm if your company is ever faced with a workforce reduction. Is More Functionality Better? Bigger is not always better and larger companies do not always need more robust and comprehensive products. Make sure that you investigate the true requirements of your users and the impact of changing their process before you invest in additional functionality. Beware Those Who Boast Job seekers like to quantify their accomplishments. It makes them feel like they are providing concrete data that makes them shine. You know the drill. They say something like "I was able to reduce office expenditures by 30%" or "I was able to consolidate all of our training manuals into one overall tutorial." It might sound very positive, but what about the long term effects of their actions and was their success at the expense of productivity or knowledgeable employees? The Customer Is Not King HR must be vigilant in patrolling the boundaries of common wisdom and ensuring that worthy ideas do not turn against the interests of our employees and organizations. The idea of The Customer is King has become malicious for at least three reasons. Make Time To Travel Although you may think this is the time to stay close to the home office and not spend money and time on travel, HR needs to get out to the branch offices, factories and depots-in person. You'll never learn as much from a consultant's report as from bringing a peanut butter sandwich to the staff cafeteria. Top Management Support A ubiquitous gem of wisdom says that you need top management support for your projects. However, if all the significant projects require top management support, what's really getting done? There is a reason the mantra of "get top management support" is endlessly recited. We have all seen projects fail when that support is absent. But perhaps the problem lies elsewhere. Do You Need to Be a Tech Nerd? If people don't understand the cascading ramifications of what may seem like a simple change to a HRMS they can undermine the integrity of the system. In truth, we all need to be techies now. This means having the patience to sit down with the nerds and listen as they explain, in detail, how a change will affect the system.