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To Get the Right Person for the Job, Recruit the Right Way

by William Byrnes 

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Expert Perspective from Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board
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With American workers changing jobs and companies many times over in the course of their working lives, recruiting is a mission critical job for every company.   It may seem that in these days of widespread unemployment recruiting is as simple as hanging out the help wanted sign.  But the truth is that with many people out of work the job of identifying and hiring the best and the right person for a job can be more, not less challenging.   Many ccompanies find that posting open positions can bring hundreds of resumes and wading through these can be both time consuming and fraught with challenges.  Additionally, there is no guarantee that the perfect candidate can be found in that mountain of paper.

So with recruiting becoming more and more important and with significant associated cost of employee turnover and replacement, what can a company do to effectively manage this process?
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In His Own Image: How Competency Models Compel Uniformity

by Joe Davidson 

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Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

Creating, promoting and nurturing diversity in the workplace has long been a focus of human resources efforts.  Whether its religion, race, gender, cultural or lifestyle differences, we agree that all enhance the work environment.   Why then do performance review, talent management review and leadership competency models inevitably reflect only the qualities, traits and characteristic of the current leaders? 
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Get Going Whether Times are Tough or Not: Manage Headcount Regardless of the Economy

by Michael Dennis Graham 

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Expert Perspective from Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

The Great Recession, Economic Recession, Economic Crisis, or whatever you want to call it has (as Robert Samuelson said in an article for the Washington Post: The Great Recession’s Stranglehold)  “…changed American psychology, politically, economically and socially.”  Not only have individual psyches been impacted, but also the “functioning psyche” of companies changed as a result of the dramatic and persistent downturn.     These changes will certainly be long term and very possibly permanent. 

Many companies have weathered the challenges of the economic downturn by focusing on the bottom line: carefully evaluating expenditures to ensure the greatest ROI, outsourcing and off shoring non-essential services, reducing headcount and utilizing contingent and temporary workers.  These adjustments have helped many companies stabilize and even increase profits in these difficult times.    The question remains why did it take the most significant financial crisis of the past 70 years to get companies to take these logical steps? 
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On the Brink: Boards’ Responsibilities and Roles

by Michael Dennis Graham 

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Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

For companies facing bankruptcy, there is usually plenty of blame to go around and plenty of individuals on whom it should be smeared.  The Tribune Company, however, seems to have more than its share of reprehensible characters in its executive ranks, coupled with a Board of Directors that seems unwilling or unable to make swift decisions that would benefit the company. 
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HR Leaders: Are you Managing a Business or Managing a Budget?

by Michael Dennis Graham 

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Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Boaard

The fourth calendar quarter of the year is busy time for Human Resources.  The iterative budget process is coming to a close and the final effort to lobby for funds, justify expenditures and rationalize programs is at full throttle.  For those HR leaders who manage a budget, this is the essential occupation, this is their craft and their trade.  As important as securing funds for HR programs may appear to be to these HR “administrators,” the real work of HR has changed.  As we said in our blog Who Are You? HR Roles Have Changed, Have YOU?: “HR programs in themselves don’t add value to the enterprise.   It’s not what you will do (i.e. run a training program), it is WHY and HOW these programs deliver value to the business.  HR needs to be a business partner and, perhaps more importantly, HR leaders need to operate their department like a business as well.  

HR needs to transform its thinking from a “cost center” mentality (where success is measured by how big or small the budget is) to a business mentality (where success is measured by effectively allocating scarce resources to achieve critical strategic intent).  
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Redefining Jobs Helps Companies Survive a Recession and Prosper Afterwards

by Joe Davidson 

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Expert Perspective from Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

There can be advantages to a recession, though not for the laid off worker, of course, or for the manager delegated the difficult task of making those layoffs, or even for the retained workers needing to do more work in the same workday.  But the company as a whole can benefit from tough economic times. 
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Which is Better: Making Smart Hires or Hiring Smart People?

by William Byrnes 

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Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

The Editorial Board enjoyed reading Roland Smith’s article for the Wall Street Journal (Five Rules for Making Smart Hires).    His list of “five ways to make smart hires and avoid costly mistakes” is spot on and addresses those areas that, although perhaps it seems obvious, are often overlooked in the selection and on boarding processes. 

We’d like to add a “Grahall spin” to these topics.  The best way to make smart  and to hire smart people is first to do a thorough “self reflection”.  That is to really understand the organization and articulate this understanding. 
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The Power Play: Employee Engagement May Not Be Relevant at All Levels

by Joe Davidson 

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Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

We think that Katherine Ratkiewicz missed the mark in her article Replacing Rahm.  Ok maybe  Ratkiewicz is just trying to “engage” some HR folks into attending the Engagement & Retention Conference.  But to suggest that Rahm Emanuel is leaving the Obama administration because he is “…feeling disengaged” is just silly.   As Obama’s Chief of Staff, Mr. Emanuel is one of the most important figures in the Obama administration.  He holds significant power: granting or withholding access, helping Obama determine priorities, etc.   To draw a parallel to the business word, Emanuel is an amalgam of C-Suite Administration and Operations executives with a healthy dollop of a “gate keeping” Lead Administrative Assistant.  
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Seven Careers? We Agree: That’s just nonsense

by William Byrnes 

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Expert Perspective by Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

In his September 4, 2010 article for Wall Street Journal (Seven Careers in a Lifetime? Think Twice, Researchers Say Carl Bialik sensibly questions: “Do Americans really go through careers like they do cars or refrigerators?”

Likely high school and college students asking the question “Fries with that?” do not consider that job, however well paying, to be a career,  And when these same individuals complete their education and go on to be an investment banker they wouldn’t think of the move from “burger flipper” to investment banker as a “career change” .  A job change, yes, a career change, NO.

Likewise the executive compensation consultant who has toiled for some years at Firm A and is recruited to Firm B to do similar work in a new environment (probably with more pay) would also not likely see that as a career change.  A job change, yes, a career change, NO.

So, is the question of career change even really relevant?  We think the confusion over the term “career change” vs. “job change” vs. “whatever ever else people are doing” may be nothing more than an issue of semantics. But the fact that Americans move around with some frequency is relevant to both employees and employers.   
 
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Get Prepared for Your Employees’ 2011 Summer Vacations NOW!

by William Byrnes 

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Expert Perspective from Grahall’s OmniMedia Editorial Board

The economic downturn has done more than put people out of work. It has put extreme pressure on some of those still holding jobs to do more and more.  This past summer has been a lesson for some companies under stringent workforce limitations to continue to provide service and products while at the same time providing often overworked employees with much needed and well earned vacations. 
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Filed under: Expert Perspective - Organization Development