About a decade ago, some dudes crafted groundbreaking HR research. Bret Starr, John Sumser and George LaRocque wanted to know how HR people think and feel. Who is HR? What do they want? What will they buy? With those questions in mind, they commissioned an esteemed report called, “The 2011 HRxAnalysts Psychographic Survey of HR Professionals.” When the data came back, they crunched the …
Develop Your HR Philosophy
I’m a natural cynic, which means that I don’t buy the hype around anything from pony rides to human resources conferences. If people are having fun, I’m skeptical. There’s a term for how I view the world. I’m a defensive pessimist. I try to figure out what can go wrong so I can prevent sorrow and chaos. Believe it or …
Laurie Ruettimann Discusses Autonomy and Power in HR
Employee engagement numbers are low all over the world, and sometimes I think HR professionals forget that they’re employees, too. Work sucks for them as much as it sucks for other people. And many HR resources professionals are unhappy with their jobs because they have a lot of autonomy but no power. Let me explain. When you work in HR, …
Your HR Career Toolkit
I’ve never met an HR pro who isn’t looking for a toolkit to facilitate personal or professional change. Whether it’s a seven-part coaching curriculum or a facilitated day of discussion, people want resources and rubrics to take their careers to the next level. That’s fine for some people. There are fabulous instruments and curricula to help you achieve your career …
Quality of Hire Matters When No One Gets Fired
No environment exists in America where people are fired dispassionately, quickly and easily. It just doesn’t happen, folks. Yes, there are boiler rooms and call centers where people smile and dial for dollars. Some sales quotas and metrics need to be attained in backroom offices and on showroom floors or somebody goes home unhappy. But most people quit before they …
VIDEO: SmashUps with Laurie Ruettimann – Why It’s Time To Talk Failure
Welcome to SmashUps, brought to you by the recruitment marketing pros at Smashfly! Each month, our host, Tim Sackett, will chat with a featured guest on ways you can better attract candidates and actually convert them into job applicants. Novel thoughts, right? This month on SmashUps, Tim talks to Laurie Ruettimann—HR pro, blogger, and tech entrepreneur at GlitchPath—about the ‘F’ word…Failure. The problem is no one …
Keep Recruiting and HR Together
Here is my semi-annual appeal to HR and recruiting leaders who don’t get along and want to go their separate ways: Keep recruiting and HR together under one umbrella called “human resources.” If you’re one of those recruiting professionals who feel like HR just doesn’t understand what you do, I will challenge you with one question: Does it matter? The …
Alcohol and Holiday Parties
Holiday parties are tough for me because I struggle with alcohol. I am a petite woman, so it’s tough for me to hold my liquor. It just takes a few sips before I start to feel buzzed. Once I start drinking, my judgment is off. I forget that I can’t handle liquor, and one glass becomes a bottle. One bottle …
3 Attributes of Decent Recruiters
There are three qualities of a decent recruiter. By recruiter, I mean anybody who is involved in sourcing, staffing, managing requisition workflows, coordinating offers, coaching hiring managers, and, ultimately, getting people into new jobs. The qualities of a decent recruiter are in this specific order. Trustworthiness. Are your actions and behaviors transparent? Do people know who you are, what you …
North Carolina, HB2 and HR
I live in North Carolina, a state so beautiful that people like me visit from desperate hell holes in the Midwest and say things like, “I’m never going home.” That was more than eight years ago, and I meant what I said. There’s no going back. This is my home. I was born in the north, but my soul belongs …