SHRM Blog

Are We Too Dependent on Technology?

Recently, I was without a computer for a better part of two days. I had anticipated only being off-line for 30 minutes, as our IT department applied a few “enhancements” to my machine. Those minutes turned into days and my anxiety level rose. I experienced some depression-like feelings and I even tweeted about it. A friend texted me and ask if I was ok, and if I would please step back from the ledge. 

Looking back, my actions seemed silly, but it got me thinking about our dependency on technology at work and in our personal lives. Are we addicted...

COMMENTS 0

Friends Don't Let Friends Use HR-ese

I am happy to be with our employees today in bricks and mortar rather than in the clouds. You truly are our most valuable resource.

I am sorry that we had some systems issues when we reached out to you.  But we are agile, so we created a work around to connect with all of you today, so that we can call out to you a new initiative that will result in a knowledge share.

I want to share with you, our key stakeholders, a new value added initiative that will help build bridges. It is a proactive response to...

COMMENTS 0

#Nextchat: HR, What’s the ROI on Your RBI?

I’ve Gotta Measure It, Too?

Baseball season has arrived and it’s interesting to note the correlation between metrics-based decision making in baseball and HR.  Metrics based decision making actually helps baseball – and other sports teams -- assess the value of their selections and determine the costs and benefits of trading up or down for draft picks.  It’s a lot like managing the top talent for your organization.  Trading up and down?  Well …

Effective metrics are the key to achieving tangible...

COMMENTS 0

9 Leadership Lessons from the Best Boss I Ever Had

I walked into the restaurant five minutes early for our 6:30PM reservation.  He was waiting to greet me by the bar. I couldn’t help but smile.  I’ve never forgotten the sales lesson “showing up on time means you’re five minutes late.”  He was always five minutes early.
 
As we slid into the corner booth it certainly felt like old times.  After working together for more than a decade, we had enjoyed some great dinner conversations and it was good to reconnect. He had been a mentor, friend and hands down the best boss I ever had. Dinner with him...

COMMENTS 0

Employee gets fired for tweeting complaints about discrimination

Is this Retaliation 2.0?

Two weeks ago, Adria Richards attended an industry conference at which she overheard sexual jokes from two attendees sitting behind her during a session. So, she complained...on Twitter:

And then she blogged about it here. The social-media complaints resulted in one of the joke tellers getting fired. And, last Wednesday, Ms. Richards tweeted that her employer supported her.

That same day, SendGrid, Ms. Richards's employer, fired her.

(Jon Brodkin at arstechnica.com has the full story here).

We can argue about...

COMMENTS 0

Using Locus of Control Theory For Career Success

I firmly believe in the power of using the locus of control theory to have a richer, more fulfilling career. Read on for how you can use the locus of control theory to evaluate job candidates.

Last week I had a discussion with another local HR pro, and we were talking about interview questions that help to discern what candidates lack the requisite people skills to get the job done. We’ve all run across candidates who may interview very well, but then they turn out to be a nightmare once they are on board.

...

COMMENTS 0

Taking Online Social Networking Offline

In Tuesday’s post I mentioned my friend Doug – that’s him in the picture with me. I met Doug on Twitter several months – maybe even a year ago. If you are an HR professional and not a part of the large HR community that exists on social media you are missing out and I’m going to use Doug to tell you why.
 
I joined Twitter in 2010 as a means to connect with other moms with newborns. I had no idea what I was doing and thought that the mommy community might be able to give...

COMMENTS 0

Believe in Others

One summer while I was in high school, I worked as a counselor at an Easter Seals camp for disabled adults.  Going to this camp genuinely changed my perspective on life!  I entered the camp a bit freaked out honestly.  Everyone around me was vastly different that me, and what I was “used to.”  People in wheelchairs.  People who couldn’t speak clearly.  People who couldn’t feed themselves, or pretty much care for themselves on their own.
 
Remember, I was a teenager.  Arrogant, self-assured, indestructible, etc.  This was too much for me. The adult who had asked me to work...

COMMENTS 0

On Base Rate of Success

One of my favorite terms in HR is "base rate of success."  Its also rarely discussed, but absolutely critical.

Simply put, the "base rate of success" tells us the proportion of employees who would be successful on the job if we hired randomly instead of applying some predictor.

As Gatewood and Feild (2010) write in their book "Human Resource Selection:"

"If 100 percent of the applicants would be successful if hired, there is no added information provided by the predictor; one would simply randomly pick from the pool of superstar candidates.  Conversely, if every applicant in the selection pool...

COMMENTS 0