Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Fran Melmed”
The unemployed aren’t the only people suffering job discrimination these days. Have you noticed what’s going on at American Apparel? They’re being taken to task for their hiring practices, and quite likely their promotional practices, which both require a photo submission and Project Runway-level fashion sense. Reaching further back in time, Hooters was up to their own shenanigans, allegedly firing …
Others may wish death to PowerPoint. Me? I’ve put out a hit on corporate videos. Not the employee-generated videos like we’ve seen at companies like KPMG, Intuit, and Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. I’m talking the creaky, Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood-type put together to talk about the company values, your respective roles in the performance management process, or benefits open enrollment. …
When I first started as an HR communication consultant, it took hand-to-hand combat with clients to strong-arm them into using contractions or starting a sentence with the conjunction “And.” Thankfully, most HR folk are beyond this stage and recognize that using “aren’t” instead of “are not” won’t bring understanding to a screeching halt or give employees another opportunity to slag them off, thinking they’re …
People love to hate consultants. Not as much as they love to hate lawyers, but consulting’s a younger profession. The animosity’s not terribly surprising, given that consultants are such easy targets. Cases in point: They wear Dockers like they’re this year’s fashion statement. Their 100-slide sales presentations turn your conference table into a see-saw when slapped down. We have them to thank for incentivize and other nonexistent words. They come. They spiel. …
Today I’m arguing the case for being nice. Already, I hear the minds blowing and sense the distaste swillin’. “Am I on Fistful of Talent?” Yeah, you are. So, suspend all snarkiness, and let’s proceed. During our last conversation, a female client who’s also a friend remarked, “I know that being nice is important to you.” It was as if I’d lost credibility and my …
You can’t have failed to notice that everyone’s leaving their jobs now that it’s January, or at least once the economy improves. If they’re not leaving, they’re staying and hating their work, hating their coworkers, hating their company. What’s a company to do? Advice abounds. Every time I refresh on Twitter, I slam into a new link volunteering counsel on how …
Funny thing about growing older—you realize that your parents were right more than they were wrong. Except… except!… when it comes to odd jobs. Y’know, those jobs you took to pay for clothes, parties, and tuition; to avoid figuring out post-college days; to gap-fill when any job would do. I’m here to tell you that these experiences add up. Just …
It needs to be said: diversity training is futile. Adrift from the workday world, diversity training creates manufactured situations where people lie through their teeth, stay aggressively uninvolved, or—sensing a safe zone—share their story or biases and create a personal vulnerability that’s later left unsupported when they return to office. Who do we think we’re kidding that we can eliminate …
There’s a lot of yada yada yada about listening to employees. Companies know it contributes to more effective communication, increased productivity, improved retention, higher engagement. They know it’s the smart thing—the “right thing” to do. Heck, even if they don’t know that, they sure know it’s good optics. Well, I’m not going to scream from the rafters about it anymore. …
