You and I are living in a new corporate environment. This is a new year; we have begun a new decade; and we are definitely living in a new economy. We have changed.

Whenever there is rampant economic or political change, the requirements for staying relevant as an employee or employer shift. As we look forward, what will employers look for in new employees? The answer is simple. Employers will want employees that will bring value to their organizations. This is always the answer, but what defines that value has changed. Mere technical skill is no longer enough in this economy.

As I read Tabitha’s Woods’ interview with Dr. Beverly Kaye last month, many points resonated with me; the main point, however, was the fact that what we looked for seven years ago (coming out of the last recession) is much different than what we are looking for now. Employers and employees alike are looking for flexibility, creativity and vision. What do these three qualities have in common? They are all traits of “right-brain” thinking.

In A Whole New Mind, Daniel Pink details the importance of using both sides of the brain to move ahead into the future. He believes that we have come out of the “Information Age” and are entering the “Conceptual Age.”

Pink asserts that three major factors have caused the Conceptual Age: abundance, Asia and automation:

In Light of Abundance
Today, we have more material goods and higher standards of living than any other generation in time. Most families have multiple big screen HD TV’s in their McMansions, and TiVo that they can program with their iPhones. Yes, we live in abundance, and this has forced companies to design new and more exciting ways to keep consumer-interest growing. As a result, companies have been forced to find and hire more creative employees to meet the demands of abundance.

The Asia Factor
Every day we hear about companies outsourcing their work overseas – accounting, technology and engineering are the fastest growing professions in Asia. An accountant in the Philippines earns less than 10% of what an accountant in the United States earns, yet that wage is still multiple times the average income in the Philippines. In the US, these primarily “left-brained” professionals will have to expand their abilities in order to stay relevant in the United States – they’ll have to add visionary thinking to their analytical abilities.

Automation Nation
Automation is truly creating a large portion of this push into the Conceptual Age. We have created such sophisticated computer systems that most analytical work can be done much faster and more accurately by machines. Do you remember the series of chess matches between Garry Kasparov (arguably the greatest chess player of all time) and a supercomputer created by IBM? This series of six games ended in a draw – one win each for Kasparov and the computer, and four draws. Kasparov himself has said that in the future, computers will win every match and that humans will struggle to win even one game. Keep in mind, though, that computers do not have the ability to show emotion, see the big picture, empathize, or think creatively. This dynamic will continue to open doors for people who can. People who can bring this kind of thinking pattern to their roles will become increasingly valuable in the new economy.

Throughout his book, Pink focuses on right brain attributes, but he is clear that they cannot be effective without the left side attributes enhancing them. People should be prepared to use their analytical thought patterns in tandem with their creative thinking patterns to express the “new mind” that will be in demand.

What six senses are necessary to create the “Whole New Mind?”

1. Design: Think of the last cell phone you bought. Is it just a phone? Would you buy it if it were your least favorite color or if it were bulky? Probably not. Design concepts can distinguish one (phone) product from another making them more desirable in this abundant age. Employers will search for employees that can conceptualize design and merge form with function.

2. Story: Stories are essential to the formation of an effective argument. There is always research that can be done to rebut an argument. What makes an effective argument is the use of persuasion, communication and self-understanding. You can read a book on weight loss, or you can talk to a coach that has lost 80 pounds and traveled the road before you. Which sounds more interesting? The story, of course! Story has the power of inspiration and motivation.

3. Symphony: A symphony is defined as “anything characterized by a harmonious combination of elements.” People are not just looking for black and white – they are looking for shades of grey; they are not just looking for facts and figures – they are looking for the big picture; they are looking for the ability to take the same information they’ve always had and create a new result.

4. Empathy: The main sense that sets us apart from software and automation is empathy – the ability to use reason and logic to understand the feelings of another. We can analyze information on a computer screen all day long, but what makes us human is the fact that we can use that information to find out what drives others to do what they do, or feel the way they feel.

5. Play: What is the easiest way to relieve stress? Laughter! We have so much stress and gravity at work every day that we need a way to relieve tension. Stress is one of the top contributors to illness, and fatigue. Today, some companies are beginning to urge employees to take time out of their days to play games, relax and laugh. Ultimately, they feel, a 30 minute break from the tension can create hours of productivity.

6. Meaning: Today, people want their work to amount to something – not necessarily just monetarily, but emotionally as well. They want to connect emotionally with their profession, and have their work “mean” something. Whether the work has spiritual meaning, or emotional meaning, employees want to connect with their work. They want employers to understand that and support it.

Ultimately, success in the Conceptual Age will boil down to your answers to these three questions:

• Can someone overseas do it cheaper?
• Can a computer do it faster?
• Am I offering something that satisfies the non-material, transcendent desires of an abundant age?

If you answered yes to either of the first two questions, or no to the third, then you are not ready to move forward into the Conceptual Age. The six essential senses are imperative if you are going to be able to change your answers and move into the future successfully.

This is an exciting age. We are all being challenged to move past the drone-like cubicle minds of the technological age and press forward into creativity. This kind of thought used to be reserved only for the greatest minds among us. The best-known minds of our time took part in this kind of thought, and it inevitably set them apart. Albert Einstein said that two keys to his problem solving ability were that he could concentrate on one problem for an extended period of time, and the fact that when he was thinking about a problem, he would reach a state in which he was almost day-dreaming. He was able to combine the concentrated efforts of his analytical mind and marry them to his creative mind. Today, we are being asked and encouraged to think like the best and brightest minds of our time. All of us have the ability and the opportunity to expand the breadth and agility of our minds and excel in this economy. So, be adaptable. Go beyond making decisions based on analytical findings, and call upon your creative mind to understand and interpret information. Be open to seeing the big picture, and changing the way you do things to change results.

Dana Lee, CPC, CTS, is an Executive Recruiter with Delta Dallas. Reach her at 972-788-2300 or dlee@deltadallas.com

It’s a new year. Budgets are being established. People are looking back on 2009, hoping for significant change in 2010. Employers are looking forward, assessing their human capital needs. Many are deciding that it is best to get ahead of the curve.

Delta Dallas has been in the business of staffing for over 26 years, and has seen a myriad of fluctuations in the economy. We have learned a few lessons along the way in the area of “recovery hiring.” We are beginning to see our clients re-hire for some of the positions they eliminated during 2008 and 2009.

Hiring strategies during recovery can be challenging. The approach you take now could define how quickly production teams can build momentum as your company acquires more business.

Team Temperature
This is a critical time for your remaining staff. It is important that you take the time to meet with and assess the temperature/attitude of your present employees. Let’s face it, the employees you have kept through this recession are the ones you value the most. They have put in extra hours to absorb the duties of their laid-off co-workers, and frankly, they are tired. There is a kind of unintentional resentment that can build between corporations and their employees during a downturn. While it is understood that most organizations are doing the best they can to survive, many remaining employees are planning to move when recovery begins. Employees that have been retained during this recession have taken on the production burden of lost workers. Their life-work balance has diminished, and after the recession is over . . . many will start to move.

You can avoid this dynamic by talking to them now. Be sure that remaining employees know that they are valued. Let them know that you empathize with and appreciate the amount of work they have been doing. Ask them what it would take to make them stay. The hard truth is that when the economy opens up, you will not be the only employer who is hiring. It would be unfortunate if resolvable dissatisfaction made your best, brightest, and most experienced people look for greener pastures.

Get Ahead of the Curve
Even if you do not plan to hire until 2nd or 3rd quarter, now is the time to plan. You can start now by pulling your HR team and/or managers together to discuss where your most effective placements can begin.

Tackle your critical positions first. Take a good look at your business strategy and align your hiring plan with the positions that are most integral to company goals. Which positions will be the most important spots to fill as your company (and the economy) begins to ramp up?

Build a plan that allows for recruiting, on-boarding and training time as you move through each position. Create a solid hiring strategy now, and you will be able to move into action when it is time to hire.

Make Them Want It
When order of priority and strategy has been established; take the time to create well-defined performance-based job descriptions that will attract top talent. Building a complete, dynamic job description will give your team a comprehensive picture of the position’s requirements. An inclusive job description will allow them to present your opportunity to A-players with a deeper picture of your company, your position, and the benefits associated with each.

Hire Forward
Get in front of your hiring needs so that when it is critical to have talent in place, you are not waiting for new hires to complete training, or develop depth of knowledge in their positions that will allow for production speed.

We are all ready for recovery. Top to bottom, most organizations are stacked with people that have been putting in long hours, and looking over their shoulders for the lay-off axe. The economic forecast for the New Year is encouraging. In order to run with the front of the pack, organizations will have to start re-hiring and implementing sound hiring strategies to bring their production up to recovery speed.

We are definitely walking through a new landscape economically. We at Delta Dallas have been spending our time analyzing and assessing the changes and assisting our clients as they navigate the changes in the global, national, and local terrain. We are happy to assist you or anyone you know as we move forward into this new economy.

An Interview with Dr. Beverly Kaye, Founder and CEO, Career Systems International

Every once in a while you are presented with an opportunity that requires little other than a simple and resounding YES on your part. This was the case last week when I had the opportunity to interview Dr. Beverly Kaye, author of Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em. (If you recall, Love ‘Em or Lose ‘Em was the subject of last month’s book review in Hire View Magazine.) Through that review, I was connected with Dr. Kaye, and discovered that she would be in Dallas for a presentation. After a few emails to her team, I was not only permitted to interview her, but she invited me to an intimate preview of her new HR training product CareerPower 3.0. It was fascinating.

Not only is Dr. Kaye an individual with over 30 years of experience in the HR training industry, but she is also a woman with her finger on the future of training and employee retention. I asked Dr. Kaye, during our lunch together, what direction she saw employers and employees moving in as we come out of this recession.

Tabitha: I guess my first question for you, Dr. Kaye, is where you believe this market is going. Are employers going to start hiring again? Do you think we are moving deeper into recovery?

Dr Kaye: (Laughing) My thinking is too influenced by what I want it to be . . and I don’t know that I can separate it. But, yes, I think we are. I also think we will see hiring again; in fact, some of the research that I’ve read is that we are going to rehire at least 25% of the people that we have let go.

Tabitha: So let me ask you this, what about the employees that remain? You call them the “Kept On Workforce”**. These employees who have absorbed additional production expectations from lay-offs, and have lost some work-life balance – do you think they will look to move when the recovery ramps up?

Dr. Kaye: Yes, people are getting ready to move on. We [the employers] need to ask people, “What do you want and can you find it right here?” Because the moving on doesn’t help anybody. It doesn’t help corporate America, because they will have to retrain, retrain, retrain – and it doesn’t help the person that is exiting. In other words [when you stay with a company] you build up all kinds of equity. You build up not only your financial equity, but you build up your influence equity. (For example, “I know how to get this done because I know the assistant to…”) You also build a kind of skill equity. (To Tabitha) In other words, you, Tabitha, could look at a marketing job in another organization, and even though it said “marketing” [in the job description] and you have been in marketing for all these years, the very way that they do it causes you to use your skills differently. So, I think the issue is: Is the “greener pasture” actually Astroturf, or is it real?

Employers need to ask their managers, “Have you told your people recently that you appreciate them? That you care about them?”

I write a Year-End note to every single solitary person in my organization. Something personal. I say to many people, “I want you to stay. I want you with this organization.” We know that we would be less without them.

Tabitha: When people start to fill out their teams again, what kind of person do you think that they will be looking for in this new economy?

Dr. Kaye: I think that people are asking, [everyone is saying this] “Can this person deal with ambiguity?”  Employers want to know, “If I give you a job, and I don’t quite define it all, how comfortable are you dealing with the ambiguous parts?” This is a part of the self-powered careerist. (A new term coined by Dr. Kaye in her latest work.) The self-powered careerist will say, “Oh – wow, I can make this job match me.” Whereas some people will say, “I need more definition, more definition, more definition.” The truth is that some leaders are not going to be able to give the definition that some employees crave. They want them to discover and create it.

If I am not innovating, I am dead. So [as an employer] maybe one of the new characteristics I am looking for is “employee as innovator.” And perhaps one of the interview questions I will ask is: “How innovative did you get back when you were out of work?” Did you decide to learn, learn, learn everything you could through this period no matter what?

Tabitha: Do people find creative ways to deal with their situations?

Dr Kaye: I think that some do and some don’t. The people that I have talked to – the out of work people – respond differently. Some get in the “woe is me” stage and stay there, and some are re-inventing themselves. Some have gone back to school, some are going to every networking meeting that they can, and some are taking on small projects – from anywhere. When this is over, perhaps they will be able to thread the small projects together and give themselves a new way to showcase themselves.

Tabitha: What do you think employees will be looking for in an employer? If, say, they have been out of a job for six months, and someone offers them a job, will they jump on it? Will they care if an employer has a good reputation or not?

Dr. Kaye: My advice to those people is: Look before you leap. There are so many ways to find out about a company nowadays, on the net. But you know, there are going to be those people [self-powered careerists] who get a job, and then make it what they need it to be. The self-powered careerist will come into a company with more of a game plan.

Generalizations are so hard to make. Some workers will stay bitter, they might come back with a chip on their shoulder, or they will be eager, or over-eager. But they are not going to buy in to the “vision, mission, and values” easily, and maybe that’s a good thing. They are going to look at your vision statement and mission statement and say, “How does this play out – really?” And they are going to listen to what’s “corp-speak” and what’s real. What are the words that I know you are just using because you use them with everybody and they sound good?

Those on the recruiting end have done a lot of targeted interviewing and probe for examples of the competencies we are looking for. I think they [potential employees] are going to target interview employers. So, if in an interview, you [the employer] say, “Yes, we develop people.” They are going to say, “Well, tell me how you would go about doing. . .” and you are going to have to talk about cases and talk about stories within the organization in detail.

One of the most valuable take-away’s from my meeting with Dr. Kaye was her eye on the future. She is connected, to be sure, worldwide. But I had an opportunity to watch her interact with some of her clients first-hand. She has her finger on the pulse of what is going on in employment through her variety of connections in a wide-range of industries in a myriad of locations. That being said, I think the best gift we can all give ourselves at the moment, employers and employees alike is to pay attention. I think that as we search, view, and work to understand the ever-changing landscape of the employment world, that we will need to constantly re-tool our skills and our organizations to stay relevant. I appreciate the opportunity to have met someone like Dr. Kaye who has done so for over 30 years.

**Recommended Reading: The Kept On Workforce of 2009 by Dr. Beverly Kaye.

Tabitha Woods is Marketing Coordinator for Delta Dallas. You can reach her at 972-788-2300 or twoods@deltadallas.com.

Help your High Volume Managers Succeed

Have you ever seen a great working sheepdog? They are amazing. They dart back and forth guiding the sheep away from danger, to the location the farmer points out. Check out this video about sheepdogs. I found it while I was pondering the ups and downs of managing a high volume of employees. When a sheepdog is a puppy, they begin their training with the farmer; then they are exposed to the sheep. In the video I laughed out loud when the 5 month old puppy was first introduced to the sheep. The pup just went wild, chasing the sheep back and forth….intense, but not very productive. It was a sharp contrast to the skilled dog at the end of the video. The dog at the end guided the sheep, set boundaries for them and with the slightest move could manipulate the herd like a conductor. That dog brought the farmer measured, daily results.

Managing a large number of people requires a similar high level of skill. It requires perspective, emotional intelligence, decision-making abilities, vision, and the ability to delegate. In high volume environments, like call centers – it can be challenging to try to bring the corporate vision to every employee during the course of a workday. These environments can present additional challenges when the managers of some departments are new to managing. Their experience in the company may have been great, but they need leadership training. Like the sheepdog, a lot of new managers enter the job with pure adrenaline. They enthusiastically try to chase success or intimidate employees into cooperation, when simply setting the boundaries and guiding trained, well-informed employees would bring a lot more success.

Tools of the Trade

Train your Managers
Invest in your managers and prepare them for a leadership role with sound leadership, and management training. They will be able to solve a higher level of departmental problems before they have to approach leadership about an issue, saving production time and money.

Train your Employees
Teach each manager how to fully train their team at the front end of their on-boarding process. Invest in thorough training, training materials, and daily operations guides for the employees in each department. If you don’t have designated training specialists, and your budget is limited…find a way to get complete information to your employees.

Clearly define, in your training, your employees’ scope of decision-making authority. They will be able to interface with your clients with confidence, and when fully armed with information, can handle a majority of situations on their own. They will only contact managers in extreme situations, saving the manager time, and saving the company money. What would it be like if your managers could spend a larger part of their time planning for the future – setting new departmental goals and developing vision?

Share Company, Leadership, and Departmental Vision

Get your Managers on Board
Managing a large number of people can be stressful. Your managers need to be tapped into company vision. Share your company’s big-picture goals with each of your managers, and let them know how their department plays a role in the process. Transparency with internal leadership could give your managerial team a deeper buy-in to company aspirations…it can also help them engage their constituents.

Engage the Masses
Get your employees on board through the influence of their managers. The manager of each department has a great influence over the way your company is viewed as a whole. Let your managers know that it is important to have their employees understand, value and align with company goals. Set specific standards for this through arranging a 5-10 minute meeting between managers and employees once a week. (If you are in a call center or time-sensitive environment, you can stagger this time.) This time can be designated to let the employees know what the goals of the company are, where their department and specific role fit in, and what progress has been made to date. Give clear rewards for specific markers in their goals. Employee engagement is probably one of the highest deciding factors in production level. A recent survey revealed that 70% of American workers are disengaged. Yes, 70%. Don’t let your managers, your employees or your production levels be a part of this statistic.

The Rewards of Progress
Let your management team know when they are doing a good job. They are responsible for a large number of people, and ideally, they are finding ways to recognize their team every day. Recognize progress and daily accomplishments made by your managers, and make it public. Managers, too, need to know that they are valued and should be recognized when they are making a difference at work.

Direct managers have one of the highest levels of employee influence in an organization. They are the face of your corporation to your employees on a daily basis. Invest in their success, listen to and consider their ideas for change, and you will build a reputation for being a great place to work. The beginning of this recovery has been a busy time for many high volume employers. Managers are responsible for an increased number of employees in growing departments. Make sure your managers are prepared to lead with vision, guide with wisdom and succeed with their teams.

Michelle Cook, CPC, CTS is Vice President with Delta Dallas. You can reach her at mcook@deltadallas.com or 972-788-2300.

Volume. The mere mention of volume when it comes to hiring can produce sweaty palms in most hiring managers. When I think of doing anything in volume, an unforgettable picture comes to mind. I think of the “I Love Lucy” episode in which Ethel and Lucy go to work for a chocolate factory. They struggle to assemble the few chocolates they are given, and then their supervisor increases the quantity of chocolates they have to make. Eventually, they crash. They can’t handle the volume.

High-volume hiring is also intense. It can be challenging and overwhelming in any industry. To top that off, our present economy leaves little room for expensive mistakes when it comes to human capital decisions. No pressure.

Employers that hire high volumes of employees have specific challenges to face when it comes to hiring. One of the greatest concerns in a high volume environment is safe hiring. High Volume Employers (HVE’s) know that if they don’t take measures to conduct pre-employment screening and exercise due diligence in hiring, it is a statistical certainty that they are sitting ducks for expensive litigation, workplace violence, false claims, theft, embezzlement and economic loss. On the other hand…most HVE’s are facing budget restraints. A balance has to be met.

The Danger
Let’s look at the facts. Just one bad hire can cost a firm literally millions. Studies show that screening reveals criminal records for up to 10% of job applicants and at least one-third of all resumes contain material falsehoods. For food establishments, manufacturers, hotels and other businesses that have a national brand, one negative employee-caused event can result in significant damage to the company brand. Who has the time or the money for that?

The Cost
Large hourly employers face enormous financial and logistical challenges in implementing safe hiring programs. Screening large numbers of candidates can be expensive and time consuming. HVE’s tend to work in industries with large numbers of hourly, seasonal, temporary or contract workers and/or significant turnover. With that in mind, how can these employers protect themselves without breaking the bank?

The Balance
The answer is probably less complicated than it first appears. One way to bring costs down is to add weight to the front-end of the hiring process. Many firms make the mistake of believing that in order to show due diligence, they need to spend a great deal of money to perform background checks and criminal record research. It doesn’t have to be. Employers can train their hiring managers to weed out potential problems at the beginning of the process by implementing a thorough screening strategy that includes:

• a company-structured application
• a phone screen
• thorough behavioral interviews with at least two hiring managers
• in-house skills testing
• reference checks

By intensifying the front-end of the process, you can eliminate most candidates that could have been a problem, anyway. Only when the candidate has passed the front end of your process, do you need to perform a background check. You can save screening costs by only doing a background check on candidates you are ready to hire. Finally, be sure to keep several qualified candidates in your pipeline in case some of your final choices fall through.

All Aboard
The most important thing you can put into place for this strategy is a system. If you recall, Lucy and Ethel were pushed into a room with no training, and given no set strategy for getting the job done. They had the tools, but no instruction. Make sure that your entire hiring staff is on board with the new strategy and are trained to interpret applications and conduct interviews with high perception and efficiency.

Evaluate
After your system has been in place for 30-60 days, plan to evaluate the efficiency and efficacy of your program. Check and re-check attrition rates and causes, and begin to adjust your plan to improve in weak areas. Most importantly, communicate any changes to your plan quickly and clearly, company-wide. Let your hiring managers know that a portion of their compensation and advancement will be based on the attention they pay to the hiring process. Organizations typically thrive in areas that are measured, audited and rewarded.

We are heading into 2010, and everyone is looking forward to continued recovery. However, we have to prepare ourselves for the new expectations that accompany a downturn of the magnitude we have just experienced. Corporations are already beginning to hire again, but with the cost of turnover presenting at 1.5 times the salary for a position…we don’t have the time or the money for hiring mistakes. Now is the time to innovate new screening strategies with your team. The team you build now will be the team that evaluates and trains the new hires once this recovery speeds up. Prepare them for success.

Melissa Johnson is Assistant Vice President with Delta Dallas Call Center Staffing. Reach her at 972-788-2300 or mjohnson@deltadallas.com

Getting Good People to Stay

Employers have it easy right now. We are all working in a candidate-heavy market, so when a position opens up, we can select from a bevy of qualified candidates, picking only the cream of the crop for our teams. Terrific.

But what will happen as the recovery begins to speed up? How will employers keep the star players they were able to acquire in a down economy? What will keep our top-performers on board when companies begin to hire again? Will our core employees be wooed away with money? Time off? Reputation? (Gasp) Flex Time? Will they steal away our best and brightest with something we could have offered them? It’s something to think about.

This week I bought a copy of Love ’Em or Lose ’Em: Getting Good People to Stay by Beverly Kaye and Sharon Jordan-Evans. Their employee retention research was collected from 17,000 workers who have job longevity. The book is well-structured, easy to read, and created to help busy managers make a significant difference in lowering attrition rates. They give examples of both good and bad experiences when it comes to retention, lay out the ABC’s of 26 engagement strategies, and give you exercises to implement what you have read. (My personal favorite is the chapter for the letter J; Jerk: Don’t Be One, complete with a handy-dandy jerk assessment.)

Talent is Always In Demand
First, Kaye and Evans stress that managers need to cultivate a talent-focused mindset. Talent is a valuable asset in any economy, and this one is no different. Talent is the difference between a company that functions and a company that thrives. This quote from the book says it all:

“Disney paid $7+ billion for Pixar today (January 25, 2006). We already own the rights to several Pixar characters. Basically we paid $7 billion for the 400 brilliant, creative people who work there. You see, we all (our companies and us) have access to the same technology. We all have access to money. The only differentiator is the people. We paid $7 billion for the people, and what we hope they’ll be able to create for and with us in the future.” ~Disney Executive

Keep the Main Things the Main Things
Most people are interested in the same things. Respect, opportunity for growth, job satisfaction, connection, time with family, etc. We want the same things. They seem intrinsic to human needs in the workplace…why then do so many corporations get it wrong?

In my last job, I had the opportunity to visit Southwest Airlines during their Halloween celebration. It was amazing. Teams worked together to create the best decorations and costumes, and everyone was having fun. Aside from the festivities, let me tell you three things I noticed about their employees:

1. They were happy to be working for Southwest, and all were grateful for the opportunity they had been given at the company.
2. They identified with and worked toward company ideals and goals. They were tapped into the larger vision of Southwest Airlines and it showed.
3. All of the employees that I met, from security, to the dock workers, to the executive team exhibited a level of self-respect, respect for others, and respect for their work.

Tell Me What You Want, What You Really, Really Want. . .
The first step to valuing your employees is finding out what makes them feel valued. This book suggests that managers simply ASK their A-players, “What keeps you here?” Revolutionary. What? No high-level executives sitting in a conference room speculating about what they think will make their peasant population leap with joy? Nope. What would happen if we sat down with our top performers and asked them what makes them stay…or what would make them leave? It could be surprising.

“Our work, our relationships, and our lives succeed or fail one conversation at a time. While no single conversation is guaranteed to transform a company, a relationship or a life, any single conversation can”.
~ Susan Scott, author, Fierce Conversations: Achieving Success at Work and in Life, One Conversation at a Time

The information in Love ‘Em or Lose ’Em is deceptively simple. There are no magic predictive graphs inserted or abstract studies done by human resource professors in a psyche lab, but there are practical ideas and real-life examples that can help you ramp up your reputation for being a choice employer. The time to act on retention is now. Your top performers will be the foundation of your team as hiring speeds up in the coming year. Don’t lose your leaders…Value them. Engage them. Motivate them…Keep ’em.