Articles

Training Classes – It’s What You Do With It That Counts

On 1st August 2016 / Development

Training classes are an opportunity to put yourself in ‘learning’ mode away from the distractions of your job. Give all training classes you attend your undivided attention to really get the most out of it.

We can only take in so much information at any one time. Often in training classes you are bombarded with a huge amount of information which you cannot retain just by attending. You may not even be able to figure out what’s directly useful to you in your job in the moment you receive the information. So to get the best value from attending a class you should do three things.

Midyear Review Time – You’re Halfway There!

On 1st July 2016 / Feedback, Goals, Review

It’s midyear review time! We’re half the way through the year, which is an excellent time to take stock of how we’re doing. Hopefully we all started the year with some SMART goals. You should now be well on your way to achieving those goals. If you’re not, you still have half a year left to get yourself back on track.

Now is the time to do a midyear review. If you’re doing well, give yourself a pat on the back. Take the time to congratulate yourself and feel good about what you’ve achieved so far. Are the goals for the rest of the year still relevant? Adjust them or create new ones if required.

Decision Time – Which Candidate To Hire?

On 1st June 2016 / Recruitment

It’s decision time. Let’s imagine you have interviewed a number of candidates. How do you decide who to make an offer to, and hopefully hire? You must make sure you are fair and objective in your evaluation based on what you learned during the interview.

As you review your notes and evaluate the candidate, remember that some behaviours are more trainable than others. A technical competency can typically be trained – how to use software or equipment for example, whereas attributes such as proactivity and drive are difficult to train.

Interview Approach – Under Pressure Or Friendly Chat?

On 15th May 2016 / Interview, Recruitment

You have found a number of candidates to interview, so now you can bring them in for a friendly chat, right? Or maybe you will bring them in and put them through the wringer? Hopefully neither is true.

You need to help the candidate provide you with open, honest answers to help you decide if they will be the right fit for your company. That means you must push to get all the information you need while you have the candidate in front of you. You also want to make the interview a positive experience, or they might decide they don’t want to work for your company at all.

Right Fit – For Recruitment It’s Worth Time And Money

On 15th April 2016 / Recruitment

Make sure the people you hire are the right fit for your company, because each time you recruit and hire someone it costs you and your company time and money. If you hire someone who doesn’t fit well with the rest of the team or with your company, they are likely to leave after a relatively short time.

If that happens, it will cost you all that time and money again to redo the recruitment process and hire a replacement. Putting the time and effort in to get the right people on board first time will pay off overall.

Candidate Funnel – The Recruitment Process

On 1st April 2016 / Recruitment

Think of the recruitment and selection process as a funnel. At the top it starts with the generation of a candidate pipeline. Hopefully you start out with a large pool of possible candidates – the wide top section of your funnel. Then your screen those candidates using their CVs and possibly a round of phone calls to check on basic information.

Finally you have narrowed it down to the best candidates (the bottom narrow section of your funnel). These are the people you bring in for an in-person interview. At the end, hopefully, a single great new hire emerges from the bottom of the funnel.

Problem Solving By Team – Two Heads Are Better Than One

On 15th February 2016 / Problem Solving

How many times have you struggled with solving a problem that you and your team are facing? You can see something is not working quite right, but you’re struggling to come up with a simple workable solution (especially when multiple people are involved). You’ve heard the saying ‘Two heads are better than one’ and you have a team, so you have more heads you can call on for ideas to use for problem solving.

How about periodically running a simple employee survey to get feedback on anything and everything going on in your company, or to address a specific problem you need to solve? A company’s challenges are not just the manager’s challenges to address

Navigating The Maze – New To People Management

On 29th January 2016 / General

Being a good manager of people requires you have skills that need to be developed. If you’re new to people management, until recently you might have only had to look after yourself. Now you’re also accountable for many aspects of another person’s career.

Expecting someone to step up to a management role, or expecting a business owner who suddenly has a team of employees to manage, to suddenly be able to handle all the issues, interactions and emotions that come with managing people is not realistic. You can learn how to do this on your own through experience – but that experience might be a hard one, especially where there are legal implications.

New Year’s Resolutions (A Goal By Any Other Name)

On 12th January 2016 / Goals

It’s that time of year again – gym memberships have peaked and we all have our New Year’s Resolutions.

The New Year is the time when many of us set our goals. These may be our work goals for the coming year set by, or with, our managers, but they’re also often goals set in the New Year for our personal lives (all those gym memberships and busy gyms in January!). So as we get into goal setting season, here are some things to consider.

Your goals need to motivate you. Make sure they stretch you and give you something new or better to aim for. This will give you a real sense of achievement when you meet the goal.

They also need to actually be achievable; an unachievable goal (a stretch too far)