I am an unabashed follower of the HR philosophy of Jack Welch, former CEO of GE. He is a proponent of a “business-like” approach to HR that emphasizes its critical role in impacting organizational results. Welch is certainly controversial in HR circles because he advocates many things that “softies” in …

Over the course of my nearly 40-year career in human resources, I have witnessed almost a dozen recruiting booms (where recruiting budgets ballooned) and busts (where there were sharp and painful drops in the need for recruiters and for recruiting). While the primary factor driving each differed, all were attributable …

A better question is: why do you stay in your job. This more positive approach gives significantly different answers than the traditional exit interviews. Just as a marketing expert focuses on a product's best qualities, you must focus on the reasons why people stay in their jobs. Reinforcing these factors …

Why Utilize Metrics? While researching my book "HR Metrics, The World-Class Way," I found that many HR professionals realized a need for more metrics, but lacked the vision to create them. They didn’t have criteria for where to apply metrics or a methodology to figure out which activities it even …

If you want to avoid many of the interview errors that have been outlined in the previous three installments in this series, it’s important that you take the time to educate managers about interviewing. I’m not talking about a day-long training session; instead, use a reminder sheet, e-mail, or website …

Is your firm experiencing an increasing turnover rate because recruiters from other firms are raiding you? Part 1 and Part 2 of this column introduced 15 elements of a world-class blocking strategy. This week, read on to learn six new, essential tips for blocking the poaching. In addition, this column …

Corporate Head count "Fat" Assessment Plan Ever wonder why the decision that we need layoffs seems to come up as a surprise? Why not establish a set of assessment tools that will let you know in advance where head count and overhead costs are excessive. Redeployment / Agility Plans In …

Recruiting Managers, Do You Really Have a Recruiting Strategy? Part 1. What is a recruiting strategy? When I meet with directors or managers of corporate recruiting, I routinely ask them a simple question: “What is the name of your recruiting strategy?” Almost without fail, I get one of two basic …

Questions and answers with Michael Lackaye (and some outrageous quotes!) I asked Michael to highlight some of the approaches he used at Quicken Loans and at other previous employers. What follows are his responses. I think you will agree that they are aggressive?and on the edge. What is your most/ …

12 Best Practices I Would Emulate Valero's business-case model. Using basic statistical regression models, the recruiting function identified the gaps between what the business would need to continue operations and what talent they could bring in via their current model. They then converted that gap into a dollar impact and …