It has been an amazing year in recruiting and talent management, despite severe economic hardships, budget cuts, and widespread hiring freezes. Unlike the economic turmoil following 9/11 and the dot-com bubble burst, many recruiting functions have continued to innovate and stretch the limits of what can be defined as “standard …

For many in corporate staffing, contingent labor management is an unpleasant activity often relegated to the lowest-cost outsourced service provider the organization could find, mainly because no one internally wanted to deal with it. The work is largely considered mundane, process-oriented, and as a necessary overhead cost that provides little …

Let me apologize upfront for this “rant” on HR’s failure regarding workforce planning, but I can’t think of another time where human resources as a profession appeared to be floundering to the point where it’s embarrassing itself. All you have to do is read the paper on a regular basis …

Economic downturns, mergers, and acquisitions all place pressure on organizations to curb labor costs. No time in the last decade has that tenet been more apparent than right now. Layoffs, large or small, force organizations to cut loose the talent in which they have invested salary and training dollars. While …

Questions & Answers How do you make the business case to managers who believe now is not the time to be recruiting college grads/interns, etc.? What are the long-term consequences of stopping college recruiting? Any time you make a business case you need to address the concerns of your audience …

You can’t read a newspaper these days without reading about organizations that are implementing employee furloughs in order to save money and to avoid layoffs. They might seem like a good idea but they might end up not saving money at all and could cause more turmoil than they are …

Impacting Business Results Makes You a Hero During tough times, there is increased pressure on every business function to demonstrate a direct (positive) impact on business performance. The functions that successfully demonstrate business measures like revenue, time-to-market, market share, and profit receive the majority of the attention and available resources. …

What is Succession Planning? Organizations use succession planning to help mitigate the risk of a vacancy occurring in key management and leadership roles that could impact the organization’s ability to perform. In more strategic organizations, the scope of succession planning is expanded to include high-impact and mission-critical roles throughout the …

Questions on Reward Methodologies Any recommendations for paying after X number of days versus paying 50% up front and 50% after X number of days? That’s an easy one. Never ever delay payment — it’s a program killer. Try giving your kids their Christmas presents six months later in July, …

  How is the Friends Program (Cisco) an employee referral program? The Friends Program, introduced by Michael McNeal in the late 1990s and no longer active at Cisco Systems, leveraged employees in a specific role to communicate with and excite possible applicants for similar roles who had indicated a potential …