upstartHR

Making HR better. One HR pro at a time.

  • Recruiting your candidate’s family

    I had a great experience this past week. I have been recruiting pretty much 24/7 for some urgent hires, and I asked one of the candidates who accepted to stop by so we could get some paperwork out of the way. He said that his wife would be in the car since they were headed…

  • The case for developing leaders at all levels

    Today I’m going to make the case for leadership development at all levels, not just at the top of the organization. Think about it, do you want those employees positioned closest to your customers to have that training? I would. Yes, it’s a question of cost for many companies, but if your customer-facing people aren’t…

  • Communicating with difficult team members

    How do you communicate with team members with a chip on their shoulder? What do you do or say when they are stubborn, constantly interrupting, unapproachable, or unwilling to accept feedback? Well, for starters, you are not alone. Every workplace I’ve ever been has at least one of these people working there. Let’s look at a…

  • How to manage a team (four key concepts)

    Many new leaders wonder how to manage a team. It requires a unique set of skills, patience, and charisma, and it’s not for everyone. In my short career I’ve led teams in multiple ways; however, while I haven’t led a formal team in the workplace, I have seen firsthand how my own manager leads the…

  • The What vs. The How

    I covered the concept of the “what” and the “how” of work long ago in my review of The Pursuit of Something Better. In the book, U.S. Cellular is going through a dramatic culture change, and a large aspect of that is the shifting mindset from focusing on the “what” to focusing on the “how.”…

  • 3 HR and Recruiting Tools I’ve Used Lately

    In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been bombarded at work lately (hence the low number of posts!). Some of that busyness is driven by projects I’m working on (recruiting, baby!). Other parts of it are self-imposed, because once I have an idea I have a hard time letting it go. The good part for you,…

  • The right people in the right seats

    We talk often about having the right people in the right seats. However, the step that is commonly skipped in that metaphor is what to do with the incumbent workforce. In this guest post for my buddy Glenn at the Young CXO blog, I talk about the three options for making talent fit a priority. Check…

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