The HR Hub

🥱 Leadership is stagnating... they got successful and stopped learning.  (Stagnation) 🤬 Structure and rules are four-letter words.  (Chaos)   🙊 People in one department don't talk to people in another. (Silos)   🤷🏻‍♀️ "Work on what you think is important." (Permissive Leadership)   These are all forms of dysfunction at work and usually aren't helpful to  organization success. Often they start...

HR Tech seems like a big decision.  Get the wrong tech and you might be  'that person'. 😬 Get the right tech and you'll get more and better  opportunities.  Fortunately there are steps to success!   I spoke with Phil Strazzulla of Select Software Reviews which  specializes in HR tech.  I don't usually plug my guests too much, but  his site gives us free advice on how to navigate the process of bu...

Presenting data is harder than it looks.  Bar charts may not cut it.  But, maybe in HR we have an advantage because our data is about people.   We can tell stories! We can humanize the data!      For example, change ' 20% of employees are planning on leaving within 6  months' to '1 out of 5 employees want to leave by Easter'.  It's even  better if, after that, you draw the line between the fact an...

Employees complain to HR because they hope we can fix it. Sometimes it's  more than hope... they KNOW it's our job to solve the problem. And  it's easy for us to be drawn in.  After all, HR is ALSO supposed to be  empathetic and supportive and many of us buy into that idea. But stop.  Yes you can and should hear the complaint and there likely is  something on.  But before you make the determinatio...

Microaggressions, putdowns, harassment... Sometimes they are obvious,  but frequently they are not.  What's often true is that they are  difficult issues for an organization and they are dealt with badly or  ignored. Which is also partly why only 30% of issues are reported.   There must be a better way. Maysa Hawash, this week's guest is  finding a better way.  She has collaborated on software tha...

Implementing an HRIS is a big endeavour which could garner you much  support and credibility in the organization.  Or it could do the  opposite.  Let's try to make sure you it helps your career?! Phil Strazzulla helps advance HR by sharing information about HR tech on  his site, Select Software, and he gives all his advice to us for free!!  And it's pretty darn good advice.  Frankly, it applies to...

Microaggressions are exhausting for the people who experience them.  But  what are they exactly and how do you know?  And, for HR, what do you  do???   Well they're subtle so, yah, it might not be easy to be certain.   Honestly I struggle to identify what is a microaggression and what is  truly an innocent comment.  This week's guest, Emily Williams, suggests that if  someone accuses you of microa...

Write a kick ass job ad!!  It matters!    It can be tempting to think that your effort is pointless, after all  it's an OCEAN of postings and they look the same.  So it's even more  important that your posting appeals to the ideal candidate.   This episode with Shelley Billinghurst of the Recruitment Flex Podcast  has very high utility:   🖊 There are websites to help all those awkward writers out...

Good organizational structure can boost the effectiveness and  performance of an organization as well as the lives of employees doing  the work.  But how do you get there?    This episode talks about the steps to organization design. Before drawing  lines and boxes you want to understand the organization's strategy and  operating model.  Strategy, in this context, includes: goals, the value  propo...

We don't all know how to use job boards properly. Frankly, everyone has  jobs advertised so I wasn't even sure what made a job board.    Steve Rothberg answered all my questions and the ones I didn't know I  had! He's founder of College Recruiter and host of the High Volume  Hiring Podcast.     🔢 First he clarified job boards: job boards have jobs from multiple  employers.    📑 There's thousands...

It's very hard to predict if a person will succeed after they've been promoted.   Sorry but your awesome interview, or the opinion of someone's manager is not reliable.  Fortunately there is a more  effective alternative! Psychometric testing may be one of the most valid and reliable tools to  assess employees potential.  The only down side is you need a  psychologist to do it.   I spoke with Mari...

In many things 1-2% improvement is good enough especially year after  year - you don't always have to do something dramatic.  But when the  future of your company is at stake or there's some other big factor at  play, you need transformational change.    I spoke with Jordan Ludwig of Stack'd Consulting which specializes in  transformational change.  He has led many of these projects and said  💪Tr...

I was reading something on the Linkedin a while back about an HR  professional from Afghanistan who was driving a taxi.  Usually we hear  this about doctors and engineers, but HR?     So what does it take to succeed in HR in Canada? While we talk about  Canada this would apply to other countries as well!  This episode is for immigrants.  Bina Kamath is an immigrant and founder of Orion's Reach and...

HEADS UP! This episode will be better on YouTube.  There is a lot of visuals in this episode and the experience will likely be better on YouTube.  Find it at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsIQh_VRedo7JcDLNZkklSQ *** Job evaluation: bored yet?     We in HR have to get over our fear of the monotony because it's that important and foundational to paying people equitably. On the bright  side this w...

Psychometric testing, performed by trained psychologists, is the BEST  predictor of job success of any recruitment or selection tool.  It's a  science and teaches you:  😄 Extraversion is not the same as social skill.  It also isn't going to  predict success in a job.  👯 Personality tests (think Myers Briggs) are a typology.  They might  help you understand people on your team but the results are...

Let's get a bit real.  Chances are if you are white in the workplace you  think you are an ally e.g. ~75% of white employees think they are  allies to women of colour.  But (BIG but)... when did you DO something  in support of someone with a marginalized identity?    Allies take action and this was a key point in this interview with Emily  Williams of Forward Ever Global. Emily is a DEI expert and...

HEADS UP! This episode is better on YouTube.  Robert has illustrations to help you better understand the content.  Check it out here: https://youtu.be/ewO6QCBws0Q Compensation is possibly the most important thing HR has to get right.   Underpay people and they'll be unhappy or leave.  It's also wrong.   Overpay people and EVERYONE is going to want a raise to match and your  compensation costs are...

When was the last time your organization went through a re-org? Have you seen a department designed for an individual and been baffled? Frequent re-orgs or designing for a person may or may not be a good idea. It depends on whether or not it’s aligned with good organization design principles. These basic questions and principles of organization design was the subject of this episode. This amazing...

How long does it take you to bounce back after some failure?  Do you  stay sad and ruminate for a long time or dust yourself off, incorporate  some lessons and keep going?  The latter is resilience and it's pretty  obvious that it would be helpful. I was also curious about the origins of resilience. Is it something we  develop in childhood or is it something we can learn as adults?  And,  for HR,...

What colour are you???  This is a common result of personality tests at work - although maybe you are an ENTJ or do odd things when stressed.  So what are personality assessments at work good for?  And not good for?   That's the basic question of this episode plus how to pick a test that will work for you.   I was a little skeptical, but Heather Johnson provides practical and  useful advice on how...

Surveying employees before or just after a merger or acquisition could  change how you manage the people.  There are two aspects to explore: the  deal itself and the similarities and differences between the two  workplace cultures that are being brought together.  Are the cultures  more similar or less?  Do you need to  protect the culture of the  company being acquired? Because maybe the culture...

In HR we deal with many upset people. Perhaps it's not daily but it's  pretty frequent.  This video will give you some tips on how to deal with  situations like:   "My leader is an a**hole... RIGHT?"   You: "Look at my nice presentation about [policy]."    Employee: "We don't want to talk about that, let me tell you about  🧨!"  "My compensation is so unfair compared to..."    As HR we need to dea...

Relationships can make or break your success in most jobs  Arguably,  they may be even more important in HR because our focus IS people and we  often have little positional power.    So how do you go about building relationships and a rapport with your  clients?  And what may be required at different phases of your career?  Well it may be a relief to know that you don't have to know it all.  But y...

Do you know how to spot burnout at work?  YOU might be burning out and  it's harder to see than you might think. Or maybe it is someone you  know.  Or, worse, it's a workforce trend. Some of the symptoms are less  engagement, fatigue, anger, and not doing the things you typically  would.    There have been some alarming stats coming out about the prevalence of  burnout and the contribution of COVI...

You need to survey your employees through an employee engagement survey.  They have things to tell you and you should know what they are.  However, it has never been easier to run a bad survey so watch this and  learn a thing or two!    Adam Zuckerman is an expert in employee surveys.  He speaks plainly  about their value in this video with loads of tips on running employee  surveys.     Follow Ad...