Shifts in the economy are a fact of life. But managers and HR professionals are often forced into recommending layoffs during economic downturns because for months they have procrastinated and put off taking the appropriate preventative measures. As a layoff strategist, I recommend a forward-looking approach aimed at minimizing the …

Few firms really know how to do layoffs right, and unfortunately, there really aren’t any “how-to” books or seminars on layoffs. But taking the right actions couldn’t be more crucial during this sensitive process, and as a layoff strategist, I recommend a structured approach to ensure this happens. If you’re …

Whether as a result of a terrorist attack, natural disaster, or just rapid growth, companies quite often need to ramp up their hiring efforts quickly. But high-volume and high-growth hiring requires an entirely different set of tools and strategies than traditional recruiting. It’s actually a lot more similar to a …

In times of tight budgets and low growth, managers need to think twice before hiring more staff. Hiring people is expensive, time consuming, and even a bit risky if you later find out that you don’t really need more employees. Smart managers consider the alternatives that are available to increase …

Managers often wonder why they have a hard time landing the best candidates. One of the biggest reasons is that delays, caused by the difficulty in finding convenient times when both parties are available for interviews, cause a good number of the top candidates to drop out of the hiring …

Smaller firms need talent also, but they normally have more limited resources and recruiting expertise than larger firms. If you are a small business owner, here is the way to approach recruiting. 1. Realize that the firms with the best people win. Most entrepreneurs spend too little time on people issues, even …

One of the primary ways of convincing applicants to work for your company is by building your brand as a great place to work. You can build your brand in a variety of ways: getting written up in articles and getting listed on great-place-to-work lists are two good examples of …

You can’t improve what you don’t measure, so metrics are a crucial element of great recruiting. I recommend three basic approaches to employment metrics. The first is a “dashboard” (like a car dashboard), which is so named because it allows you to continually monitor all of the vital elements in …

Managers frequently ask me, “What is the best recruiting source to use when you have no budget, little time, and don’t know much about recruiting?” Without hesitation my answer is…use reference referrals. The Definition of a Reference Referral A reference referral is quite simply asking the references (that were given to you …

If you want to dominate your competitors in the talent “war,” you need to act a lot differently than they do. If you expect to win more than a majority of your head-to-head “battles” for talent, you must take a deliberate approach to recruiting. The following 20 rules outline just …