Talent Retention Best Practices

Talent retention is not a new problem, but it seems to be ever more critical. The question of attracting the brightest and best talents is a key issue for successful companies. Today with large signing bonuses and very attractive salaries and benefits, the more perplexing question is how to best build the loyalty of the talented people. The more talents organizations retain, the more talents they’ll attract. Organizations should focus on designing a sustainable career package that supports a graduate’s continuous professional and personal development. It is important that an organization keeps track of each individual’s changing needs and priorities. This will be down to the job of a coach or a mentor who should carry the long-term and important responsibility of coaching and mentoring the graduates. Being new to the organization, graduates require continuous feedback and coaching to help them to assimilate well and be successful in their role. Continue reading

Emotional Intelligence in the Workplace

At the work place the ability to exercise clear and sound judgement in situations that the jobs role presents solely depends on the emotional intelligence employees possess. It encompasses the ability to manage their own impulses, cope with change, effectively communicate with others, and solve problems and being able to make use of humor to defuse a tense situation. Such employees have the ability to empathize with others, are optimistic in the face of down turns and are effective in resolving customer complaints. Therefore emotional intelligence plays a vital role in separating top performers from weak ones at the work place. At the work place certain emotional quotient competencies correlate with each other to make it a successful place, such competencies include; 1. Social Competencies Social competencies describe a person’s ability to handle relationships. Inherent in the person is the awareness of the feelings and concerns of others. The social Continue reading

Social Recruiting – Using Social Media in the Recruitment Process

Social recruiting or otherwise known as the  Social media recruitment is the next big thing on the cards. A lot of companies have started using Web 2.0 applications for recruitment purposes. Web 2.0 is the second generation Internet-based services which is different from the first generation static Web sites with little interaction. Popular Web 2.0 applications include the social media/networking sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc), blogs, podcasts (Podcast Alley, iTunes), video sharing sites (YouTube, FlickR), mobile apps, etc. Today LinkedIn and Facebook has become a powerful tool in recruitment. LinkedIn is a social networking website meant specifically for networking amongst working professionals. Social recruiting widens reach and helps segmentation, targeting and positioning of potential jobseekers. They also increase the accuracy of profile searches.  Instead of simply recruiting the person with the best-looking CV, social media can ensure that that person is also the best fit for the company. Big companies Continue reading

Evolution of Performance Management

Traditionally, performance appraisal  has been used as the guide for employee performance. Performance appraisal also known as ‘performance evaluation’, ‘merit rating’, and ‘performance assessment’ is a process of recording assessment of employees’ performance, potential and development needs. According to Wayne F Cascio (1995) performance appraisal is defined as “the systematic description of job related strengths and weaknesses of an individual or a group”. Performance appraisal is a system of review and evaluation of an individual’s (or team’s) performance. Lately it has been supplanted in more and more companies with performance management (PM), a more comprehensive human resource management process. Within the recent past there has been a shift from traditional annual performance appraisal to continuous performance management. The obvious reasons behind this have been the inadequacy of Performance appraisal in serving as a performance enhancement tool. Performance appraisal is known to be a contentious and unpopular activity of Human Resource Continue reading

HR Scorecard: A Balanced Scorecard for HR

The new economic paradigm is characterized by speed, innovation, quality and customer satisfaction. The essence of the competitive advantage has shifted from tangible assets to intangible ones. The focus is now on human capital and its effective alignment with the overall strategy of organizations. This is a new age for Human Resources. The entire system of measuring HR‘s contribution to the organization‘s success as well as the architecture of the HR system needs to change to reflect the demands of succeeding in the new economy. The HR scorecard is a measurement as well as an evaluation system for redefining the role of HR as a strategic partner. Managers often use an HR Scorecard  to measure the HR function’s effectiveness and efficiency in producing  employee behaviors and thus in achieving the company’s strategic goals. The  HR Scorecard is a concise measurement system. It shows the quantitative  standards or “metrics” the firm Continue reading

Impact of Personality Types at Workplace – The Big Five Personality Traits

The unique thought patterns, behaviors and feelings that make an individual different from the other can be termed as Personality. The personality of every individual originates out of genetic heritage as well as his immediate surroundings, and remains constant all through their lives. This results in individual differences. Due to complexity in human nature arising out of the wide variety of experiences in life, the different personality types affect individual relation ships in an organization, and affect the organizational climate. However, though it is assumed that the personality of an individual is more or less constant, it does not happen so. It has been observed that though individual differences occur as a result of various styles of parenting and the amount of attention that one received in childhood grooming, individual successes and failures experienced in life, changes in individual personality do occur in the long run. Individuals are likely to Continue reading