Last week I wrote about rebuilding a damaged or tarnished employer-of-choice brand. Based on the articles people were searching for on my website and email questions that had come in over the past few weeks, I figured this was becoming an emerging issue. This week my colleague Master Burnett and …

I have helped numerous companies improve their employer-of-choice brand image over the years. But recently I was asked about an interesting related issue: How do you rebuild a “tarnished” employment brand after a negative PR event? The question is a new one, in part because in the past it was …

Most firms miss the boat when it comes to identifying their recruiting competitors. They assume that their competitors for talent are the same companies that they compete against in the product/service area. But that narrow assumption can be a major mistake. Your talent competitors (TC) are your product and service …

In order to do succession planning, you must first identify the “future leaders” of your organization who will be included in your succession plan. Once identified, those leaders can then be targeted for development and, eventually, a planned progression throughout the organization. But what is the best approach to use …

During economic downturns CEOs and CFOs come to HR looking for ways to cut labor costs. As sales go down, labor costs must also go down proportionately. Unfortunately, HR’s responses to requests for labor cost reductions frequently come well after they can have a real impact. But HR must learn …

In last week’s article, we looked at the “precursor approach” to workforce planning. We saw how using this approach was a great way to split the difference between extensive statistical modeling and relying on “gut instinct.” Here we’ll take a look at some precursors that can be used in conjunction …

There are three parts of all successful workforce plans. It turns out that the three parts are not all equal, however. The first part, which is the workforce forecast, is the most important. It projects company growth and the corresponding change in our talent needs as a result of that …

With the anniversary of the events of September 11 approaching, many managers are wondering, what is the appropriate way to respond? Should you memorialize the event, mourn, pay respects, or ignore it? There are many perspectives and issues to consider before you make a decision. Since I did a lot …

Last week, we took an overview of the eight catastrophic failures that have occurred in workforce planning in the past, looking at the areas where workforce planners had gotten into trouble. This week we’ll take a more detailed look at some very specific reasons why workforce plans fail. I have …

Workforce planning was one of the hottest areas within HR during the 1980s. Now it’s back on top of the hot HR issues list. Why is workforce planning a burning HR issue again? There are four basic driving factors: A shortage of talent. No one wants to go through the rapid …