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What Defines Culture?

I’m on record telling everybody that the current trend of “culture” is a bunch of baloney. You don’t have a culture. At best, you may have a vibe in your office that’s influenced by real-time employee interactions, systems and behaviors. That’s not culture. That’s just a bunch of people who are paid to come together…

HR Expert

I’ve been doing more media, lately, and I just thought it would be amusing to share some of those links. The Office Pet Is a Pig. No, Really – WSJ How to get that promotion you’ve been waiting for – Mashable How to Determine Your PTO Policy – Entrepreneur  11 Habits of Expert Salary Negotiators –…

The LinkedIn HR Hackathon is a Joke

I’ve been blogging about human resources, in one capacity or another, since 2004. While I’m the first to indict human resources for its stupid behaviors, I also serve as a character witness for the men and women who are in office parks and factories around the world—serving leaders and employees who don’t deserve their genius.…

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3 Rules of Reference Checks

I get calls on a regular basis to provide formal and informal references on people in my industry. First things first: reference checks are not background checks. Reference checks are subjective. Reference checks are unreliable and invalid ways of measuring someone’s knowledge, skills and abilities. Reference checks are what you do when you want to…

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Forced Ranking is So Old and Stupid

I’ve been doing some video chats for CareerBuilder, and they’re pretty fun. We use a combination of Google Hangouts and Twitter, and what you end up with is a crazy and interesting mix of video and interactive tweets. We discussed talent management strategies and techniques in the last episode. Tim Sackett makes an offhanded comment…

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Have Fun at #SHRM15

I let my SHRM membership lapse in 2015 because my employer will no longer pay for it. My employer is me, and honestly, she wants me to spend $190 on spa treatments in Turks & Caicos because she believes in employee engagement. So I won’t be going to the 2015 SHRM Conference & Exhibition in…

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Your Questions about Work and Labor

Here are some questions that have come to me from events and via email. If a company has grown organically, how do you start to grow through acquisitions? I worked on the HR/M&A side of the house at a company called Kemper Insurance. I was the only HR kid who understood the internet, so that…