Creative On-Boarding: Building Productivity and Promoting Retention
At the Charles Schwab Corporation, Charles Schwab himself or Dave Pottruck, the co-CEO, often make personal appearances at new employee orientations. At National Semiconductor, new recruits play board games to learn the history of the company, and at AMD, new college hires go on outdoor adventures as part of the team building and assimilation process.
Organizations are devoting more time to the on-boarding process.
A Receding Recession Will Leave Us With Many Changes
The hunt for senior-level executives and directors has heated up recently, indicating to me that we may be seeing the beginning of the end of this short recession. In my experience, organizations almost always anticipate hiring and growth by bringing in top management to pave the way.
I know of firms seeking vice presidents of sales and of marketing, and many looking for key R&D talent.
Got Four Days and $75 for a Cheap Business Education?
Winter is a great time to develop new skills, rejuvenate -- and read. The slow economy does have its plusses: it gives us elbowroom to take a few hours out of the week to catch up on some excellent books. Here are four of them that will take you less than four workdays to read and less than $75 to buy, and I promise you, you will be glad you did.
Every recruiter should get a copy of the recently published book, Weird Ideas That Work, written by Robert Sutton.
What the CEO Thinks You Know
You would probably be very surprised to know what the CEO of your organization thinks you know. There is a common language used by top-level managers in every company, and these managers assume you can speak that language. It is a language centered on business concepts and a handful of assumptions they make daily. Whenever those of us in talent acquisition or human resources are not part of a conversation, it may simply be that we don't speak or understand that language.
Some Final Thoughts on Our Recent Survey
There is renewed interest in talent this month. Old and new clients are asking for help in implementing more comprehensive talent programs that focus not only on recruiting, but also on development, succession planning, and performance management. Suddenly the role of the successful recruiter looks a lot different than it did last year when we were all "reactors" and just trying to fill slots as fast as we could.
Toward a New Beginning
We are well into the new year now, and incontrovertibly into the new millennium. Things are looking a little brighter from my window on the world. Unemployment is stable -- which is better than worse, but not as good as better -- and many indicators point to the beginnings of a recovery. Those of us who have survived so far are, I hope, wiser and more focused than ever on the edge -- on that fine line between what has been and what will be.
One of the ways to stay balanced at the edge is to have good information.