Winning teams love to celebrate. We’ve all been involved with companies that have “employee of the year” awards or other annual rewards. Whether or not these are actually rewarding and motivating depends on how the recipients are chosen and the awards administered. A big part … Read more

Let me preface this by saying that collaboration is not as important in some companies as in others, and in some it’s not important at all. For example, some outside consulting firms might not care if their people work together productively, because collaboration isn’t a … Read more

While performance reviews can provide valuable feedback and coaching to an employee, most do not. The keys to a good performance review are consistency, brevity, clarity, and a mutual agreement on the plan going forward. Let’s go over each of these points in more depth. … Read more

Your employees are a great source of information about how your company is doing, both internally and externally. Remember, your job is to grow your people. As the CEO, you want to know what your employees think and feel about your organization so you can … Read more

For smaller companies, it’s important to find a resource that can function as your HR expert(s). There are several ways to go about getting outside help and it is invaluable because they will review your employee handbook, answer legal questions, and recommend other kinds of … Read more

In most organizations, human resources is the department within the organization that supports your most valuable resource: all things “human.” Companies with fewer than fifty employees frequently delegate this to the Controller, Office Manager, or whichever manager says, “Yes, I’m good with people.” In this … Read more

Please have these expectations in writing for every position. This is not the same as a probationary period (we’ll talk about probationary periods in Chapter Five in detail), so don’t use that terminology when discussing expectations. You hired this person for a reason, you have … Read more

By on-boarding I mean what you do to determine the experience your new hires will have their first day on the job. Jack Daly, a Vistage Speaker, talks about how we commemorate a person’s retirement, but not when they start. But isn’t it just as … Read more

As you map out your hiring process, determine how many references you will require and how you will verify those. In our litigious society, most employers are reluctant or unable to give out any more than the standard: “We can verify the dates of employment, … Read more

In addition to strategic interviewing, you’ll most likely want to use some kind of assessment tool to augment the interview process. Some tools, such as Personalysis, will only be appropriate for final candidates in key positions. Others, such as Behavior Styles, are short and inexpensive … Read more