Archive for May, 2008

7

Clueless HR People

Friday, May 30th, 2008

The Diversity Solutions in the Workplace video above is the most impactful training video I’ve ever seen. The subtitle of this piece is “HR realizes they need some diversity training” and that nails it. I’m still shaking my head about how good this is.
There’s a communication lesson embedded in this training film: Show, don’t tell. [...]

0

Use Different Accents in HR Communication

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

Actress Amy Walker demonstrates 21 accents in 3 minutes in this video. Embedded in her work is a question for you in HR: How many employee accents do you use when you communicate with employees?
I’m not talking about putting on a fake drawl, or mimicking some B-actor in a bad movie. I’m talking about paying [...]

6

HR Gardening Tip of the Day: The Best Time to Plant a Tree

Wednesday, May 28th, 2008

The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago.
Do you ever find your staffing plan lacking a certain je ne sais quoi while you say to yourself, “We should have done something about that a long time ago”? That’s parallel in gardening to the question of when you should plant a tree. Get [...]

10

HR Gardening Tip of the Day: Dig a $100 Hole

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

There’s a saying in gardening that’s the best advice I’ve ever received: If you buy a $20 plant, dig a $100 hole.
What that means is preparing the hole is the more important than the plant itself. If you dig a hole that’s not big enough, the plant ends up root bound. If you dig it [...]

9

Summer Hours Make for Happy Employees

Friday, May 23rd, 2008

Memorial Day is Monday in the U.S., and with that holiday comes the commencement of good old summertime. When I first started working, the company I joined had summer hours — and I loved it. We worked nine hours for four days, and half days on Fridays. It’s not like we got out of there [...]