SHRM Blog

Right now, with high unemployment and seemingly endless competition for jobs, nailing your interview is critical! Almost every failed interview can be traced back to the first three minutes. Experts will tell you the first ten seconds, but these are the same experts who have never interviewed or haven’t interviewed in the past twenty years. The reality is a little longer, but not much.

An interview doesn’t really start until you’re asked to open your mouth. And, not the small talk crap that you do while people get settled and wait for...

If you are like most people in today’s labor market, it’s unlikely that you are currently working at your first company. Like a lot of my friends and colleagues, my curriculum vitae lists a number of former employers. If you represent an organization and don’t expect to have future interactions with departing employees, you wouldn’t be alone. Yet, we’re discovering now that maintaining lifelong relationships after employment ends has significant benefits for both employers and departing employees.

The traditional end of the employment relationship is often characterized by an (at...

Over the years, many organizations have been notoriously apolitical. But this is changing. A couple years ago, I went to a conference where CEOs were talking about employee activism. Multiple CEOs admitted that they’ve previously felt it was important to remain neutral when it came to politics and social injustice. However, they were changing their stance because their employees were demanding it. Employees wanted to know that the companies they work for were going to support what’s just and right in...

One of my favorite activities around the house is to mow my lawn. I mean it. I enjoy it because it takes between 2 to 3 hours to do it. I’m a bit old fashioned in that I walk to mow. It’s incredible excercise which allows me to let my thoughts wander and have a good think.

As I was dripping with sweat this weekend taking my weekly lawn mowing jaunt, I was piecing together something that has been troubling me lately with how people are choosing to interact in person, online and through the media. More and more it...