Tag Archives: HR

Exit Interviews – The Real Purpose Of Them!

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Employee engagement continues to be an issue for organizations.  There is constant conversation about being over-worked and under-paid.  We all realize times have been tough but now is the perfect time to examine some of your processes to ensure your business remains healthy.

One of the overlooked opportunities to communicate and learn more about your organization is the exit interview.

Conducting exit interviews can be a valuable experience for any organization.  Provided of course that the exit interview is done with proper planning and for the right reasons.  If you’re doing exit interviews to get the heads-up on whether the departing employee plans to sue you and your company, well…that might be good to know but it’s not really the best use of an exit interview.

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Overcoming The Painful, ‘Tell Me About Yourself’, Interview Question

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The Wrong Response

There are many ways to respond to this question correctly and just one wrong way: by asking, “What do you want to know?” That tells me you have not prepared properly for the interview and are likely to be equally unprepared on the job. You need to develop a good answer to this question, practice it and be able to deliver it with poise and confidence.

The Right Response

To help you prepare, I spoke to a number of career coaches on how best to respond when faced with this question. Heed the career advise that follows to ace this opener:

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Money Isn’t Always The Answer:: Top 10 Ways To Motivate Employees

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Almost all employees want to do interesting work, secure a good salary and earn recognition for their contributions. But motivating employees takes more than money and an occasional “thank-you.” It requires a strategy tailored to each worker’s needs.

Either as the manager of a small company or a human resources department, you work  to get the most out of your employees. Here are 10 ways to make your motivational techniques work for every employee.

1. Ask what they want out of work.Just knowing that an HR manager or boss is interested in a worker’s goals will make many employees feel better about their jobs. It can be difficult to get a quick and accurate answer to this question, however. Some workers may say that they want to work on a prestigious project, for example, only to discover once they have been assigned to the project that it isn’t what they expected.

It may help to ask a more specific question. Have workers describe a previous project that they felt good about, then see what aspects of that can be repeated, suggested Michael Beasley, a career-development and executive coach who owns Career-Crossings in Portola Valley, Calif.

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Social Media Background Checks Examined

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Over the past week, I have been bombarded with questions regarding the HR responsibility and the legalities behind the “Social Media Background Check”. I have posted the following article which, not only contains the regulations of conducting such a check but information about the top company preforming these checks along with a pdf of one of these background checks completed for your review. Take a look at the information available and the legalities behind such screenings. When I bring in new employees, I do a surface screening and it proves to benefit my clients. Is adding this screening to your hiring process advantageous?

On May 9, 2011, the Federal Trade Commission approved the Social Intelligence Corporation as a consumer reporting agency in compliance with the Fair Credit Reporting Act. The commission noted that Social Intelligence can now issue legal background checks “because it assembles or evaluates consumer report information that is furnished to third parties that use such information as a factor in establishing a consumer’s eligibility for employment.”

As part of the approval, the FTC required that Social Intelligence ensure maximum accuracy of social media information collected — and that the company is under “obligation to provide employees or applicants with notice of any adverse action taken on the basis of these reports.” While the FTC found that no further action was required, the commission said it might evaluate Social Intelligence’s operations in the future if public objections are raised.

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