The Language of Success

There is a common language used by top-level managers in every company. It is a language centered on business concepts and understanding a handful of concepts. For example, CEOs instinctively move toward the action that will maximize profits and minimize costs or...

10 Questions to Help You Hire Better People

As a recruiter, how would you describe the culture at Apple, Microsoft, AT&T, or at your own organization? Being able to distill the essence of an organization’s culture into a few well-thought-out adjectives is worth a lot. Sometimes I ask a wide variety of...

Easy In, Easy Out: Keeping Recruiting Simple

How much should we let chance and circumstances define who we hire, rather than continue to invest time in tough screening and many interviews? In the simplest terms, should (and maybe even does?) randomness play a large role in selection? Is it better to have a...

From Social Networks to Communities

Social media and social networks are all the rage.  They are supposed to help us connect to a wider range of people, find like-minded associates, build brand loyalty, locate and engage candidates for employment, provide education and real time learning, and stay in...

Why Work for You?

The simple question I always ask myself when I see an organization advertising an open position is: “Why would I work for them?” The answer to that question is the essence of employment branding, which I define simply as the amount of attractiveness an organization...

What’s Happening in Learning in South Africa?

I have been in Johannesburg for the past 4 days attending and speaking at the Global Learning Academy conference.  This is a gathering of about 100 learning executives  from nearby countries as well as speakers from Dubai, the United States, Australia, and the UK....

How to Get the Most from Your Social Network

Social networks have grown to the point where they now challenge traditional ways of communicating, marketing, and recruiting. One of the measures we often use to determine the success of our networking is to count the number of people in it. But this is not really a...