With organizations finding the need to “go green” or even to integrate sustainable practices into their everyday duties, I found this article interesting on how the use of “We’re Green” branding in recruiting is currently being seen.  Read this and see if you agree.  I would be interested in your feedback. The use of sustainability as a recruiting tool is something new these days and I am interesting in tracking its use.  So read up and let me know your thoughts!

Organizations are striving to “go green” for many different reasons. While social responsibility and cost control are two common motives, many organizations also implement green-business practices to attract customers. And if green policies are strong enough to draw in customers, could they also help organizations attract and retain the best and brightest employees?

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Sustainable awareness practices are becoming more popular by the day now which turns out being a good thing for everyone involved.   One underlying theme of sustainability that is  as popular in the “mainstream” is the concept of the “triple bottom line”.  This bottom line involves 3 P’s: Planet, Profit and People.  The first two P’s, Planet and Profit have been getting the lion share of attention.  Receiving less attention is the “People” aspect and the impact this last segment can have on an organization. Sustainability is about more than tangible items.  It is about making decisions today that will positively affect future generations. That idea has to include people.

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For those of you who read my thoughts on LeBron James  leaving  the Cleveland Cavaliers this past year, here are some additional views on the recent departure of Keith Olbermann from MSNBC on Friday January 21^st.  This event was big news on the internet over the week-end and on MSNBC the following Monday. Lessons on how businesses should deal this kind of situation can be gleaned from how MSNBC handled this situation with its viewers. Read the rest of this entry

For those of you who may have read my September blog entitled Making Waves in Leadership  may remember  I recounted Dov Seidman’s book “How:  Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…In Business (and Life)”.  In that book, Dov tells the story of Krazy George Henderson who has been credited with creating the now common stadium crowd phenomenon known as “the Wave”.  One of the points made was how Krazy George got thousands of people to trust him in doing the very first stadium “wave”.   It took Krazy George several tries, but eventually he got the capacity crowd to follow his instructions and viola – “the wave” was born.

One very important characteristic Krazy George exemplified was being an optimist.  He didn’t shrink from the challenge of engaging the crowd into the game in a totally new way. He wanted to do something different. He led the crowd and eventually the sports world into a new realm of entertainment. There were four qualities shown that day Read the rest of this entry

I was reading one of my HR journals recently when I was struck by an article on re-recruiting your top talent after an acquisition.  This article gave me reason to pause after I finished it. The author was indeed correct; encouraging employees to stay  is certainly an all important project to achieve in the aftermath of a company take over.  However, expanding that notion beyond a merely a merger and thinking about employment stability in this economic climate, this makes even more sense.  There is never a bad time to re-recruit top talent or even developing talent.  With the looming job surge, there is no time better than the present.

The common approach by employers today towards recruits and employees alike is “Be thankful you have something”. While I cannot argue that ANYONE should be thankful for gainful employment, I would say that tactic is shortsighted and asking for trouble when the economy turns around.  Most of the employment surveys I have seen for the past 9-12 months indicates a large percentage of surveyed employees are either seriously thinking of or will leave their current job when the economy improves. If you are a manager or owner reading this, stop and think  what if one  your top performers was thinking of leaving you. Would you want them  to leave?  Do you have a back up plan to seamlessly replace them if they left?  Read the rest of this entry

I  finished an outstanding book by Dov Seidman entitled “How:  Why How We Do Anything Means Everything…In Business (and Life)”. In one section, he outlines an example that combines outstanding leadership with an American phenomenon that has been around since October 15, 1981: the stadium “wave”. Dov describes what went through “inventor’s” creation process of getting an entire stadium of  fans into an event we still enjoy to this day.  In summary, here is how he outlines the process. Read the rest of this entry

Recently, I was busy performing harassment training for one of my clients of all their employees. The purpose was the yearly review of what is harassment and what can employees do to continue its prevention in this environment.   As I was conducting this training, the parallels between retaining excellent employees and their working in respectful and dignified surroundings continued to strike me.  I am reminded how much simply following the Golden Rule just makes sense.

Harassment is a sensitive and combustible issue. There is no clear-cut, all-encompassing behavior that neatly delineates what is and what is not considered harassment.  That’s why organizations need constant reminding on this issue.  At the heart of it all, it is about how one human treats another in the workplace.  What we forget or don’t understand is the ripple effect an atmosphere of intentional or uncorrected mistreatment poisons a culture and sabotages productivity.  Broadening the scope of a toxic environment to any mistreatment of employees can cause on the victim:

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 The circus has ended, tempers seem to have cooled, and LeBron James has left the city.  While you may have your personal view of “The Decision” and which side was right, I have seen several lessons business owners and managers can take away for themselves.  Unbelievably, there are opportunities for learning in the wake of this national spectacle.

What can you learn from this exhibition?

Remember, stripping away the glamour and limelight of athletics, this was an employer/employee relationship.  LeBron was employed and paid by the Cleveland Cavaliers. While professional sports are a unique world, it is still about the relationship between people.  As a business owner or manager, you may have a similar situation with the looming economic turnaround where a top-performer of yours may leave.  Starting to sound familiar to “The Decision”?

Here are 5 lessons we can take away from LeBron’s leaving the Cavaliers: Read the rest of this entry

Everyone I speak with is feeling budget pressures these days. Many business owners and executives are ”waiting to see” before they launch the next initiative… HR or otherwise. 

It’s understandable. Forced with profit targets, many companies are holding the line on expenditures–and unfortunately, training and development is viewed as a luxury and an unnecessary expense. 

But eliminating training and development altogether, while good for the short-term profitability, is bad for the long-term health of your business. This is because many employees view training and development as one of the reasons why they stay with their current employer. It’s important to remember that employees are looking towards management for leadership. In these unstable times, they look for signs of stability in the organization to reassure themselves that they are okay.

There is a middle path of low-cost training and development…

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Everyone is out there telling you how and why you as a manager or business owner should attract the top talent to your organization.  Paradoxically, the better you are at keeping your best talent, the better  you’ll be attracting the top talent.

Is this something new?  Of course it makes sense you would want to recruit the best talent available! And there’s a lot of discussion about talent gaps, and competency modeling, when one of the top priorities should be develop and nurture the talent you’ve got.

The trick is  to keep your best talent. Retention is rarely mentioned when attracting employees is discussed. Companies spend lots of money attracting talent and everyone hopes they will stay once they start. Managers of all levels are best served by understanding the motivations of their hires. Doing so will help keep your top talent.

So how do you, especially if you are a small organization, suppose to do this without breaking your budget?

5 Things you must to do attract the best talent

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