VA@VictorHRConsultant.com | 707 331 6740
We help companies improve HR, recruiting, leaders, teams, and cultures of innovation.
The virus COVID-19 proved Plato was right: crisis is the mother of invention. McKinsey's new report on the Trends that Will Drive 2021 and Beyond identifies a wave of innovation and a new generation of entrepreneurs sparked by the pandemic as one…
Read More Innovation in 2021 requires three talent strategies
Last year ended with the FDA approval of Pfizer’s COVID19 vaccine and the vaccination of the first US health care workers on Monday, Dec. 14. The US still has several months of rising COVID19 infections and deaths before 60 percent…
First ISO, then the SEC, and now Nasdaq. All these agencies are requiring the disclosure of human capital measures. Human capital often drives a majority of the costs for businesses. Its role in driving business success, when smartly managed, is…
Read More Better talent management will help improve your bottom line
Many executives cling to the hope that COVID-19 vaccines will abate the pandemic and allow a return to normal, with remote workers back in the office. They remind me of a VP of Clinical Research who initially resisted our remote…
Read More Optimize remote work and redesign your office now, before you’re left behind
This is a year to forget. In 2020, we have witnessed more Americans die from the pandemic than many of our wars combined, more unemployment than the Great Depression, social and racial unrest with severely divided politics that we have…
The pandemic has changed investment priorities for recruiting organizations in 2020. Last year was all about improving the candidate experience. Today, the emphasis is on finding skilled and qualified job candidates. But without a focus on candidate experience and employer…
Read More COVID19 has changed recruiting strategies. Don’t be short sighted
The pandemic has proven that remote work can increase office employee productivity, morale, and employee-work life integration while reducing carbon emissions. But what about innovation workers? Do they have to be face-to-face every day to innovate? The answer from my…
Read More Six tips for accelerating innovation in a hybrid workforce.
200,000 US veterans leave the military and enter the civilian workforce each year. Hiring veterans is a smart recruiting strategy. In addition, companies can earn a tax credit of $5,600 for hiring veterans and up to $9,600 for hiring long-term…
Read More Get reliable talent and a tax credit: Hire vets! Free hour of consulting…
Pfizer and BioNTech’s Nov. 9, 2020 announcement that their vaccine is successful in preventing more than 90% of infections, is welcome news. However, it’s also important to stress that the better-than-expected results are preliminary and a successful vaccine by the…
Read More Five steps to take to lead in 2021 with the hybrid workforce of today
COVID19 has accelerated companies’ digital communications strategies by an average of six years, said Jason Averbook when he spoke at the HR Technology Conference. Unfortunately, research on spending for HR Tech is predicted to be anemic in 2021, meaning organizations…
Read More The pandemic accelerated the need for HR digital technologies. Do you have a strategy?
The biggest news from last week’s virtual HR Tech Conference was not about tech. It was about research from Marcus Buckingham on how companies can boost the resiliency of their workforces. Resilience is independent of employee engagement, according to Buckingham,…
Read More Three steps to improve employee resiliency during COVID19 based on new science
While championing diversity initiatives over the past 20 years, I have always emphasized how these actions will improve financial outcomes for companies. Now there is mounting evidence that by overcoming the racial wealth gap, which includes hiring biases, the U.S.…
Your job postings may be your worst nightmare, scaring off job applicants with jargon and needless clutter and driving away female applicants. If your job posting is more than 250 words and uses gender bias tones, it is time for…
Read More Over 50 percent of job postings drive away applicants, especially women
Most U.S. companies are planning to give employees pay raises and annual bonuses next year despite the economic fallout from the pandemic. However, the pandemic and the growing demand for pay equity and transparency and remote work are all changing…
Online recruiting is under attack. The system is breaking down and becoming rife with tech-savvy scammers. Job aggregators are ruining the job candidate experience and in many cases preventing job applications from reaching recruiters’ applicant tracking systems. Job aggregators have…
Read More Job aggregators are sabotaging online recruiting. Tips on how to stop them.
To alleviate stress for new remote workers, many companies stopped their performance management systems during the pandemic’s peak. But rather than stopping performance management, they should have focused on accelerating their organization’s ability to be agile. The best performance management…
Has your employer brand held up during the pandemic? Even companies with stand-up employer brands in February need to retool them in the pandemic age. For example, how has your brand changed regarding remote work, innovation, and your new role…
Many companies are ramping up their recruiting efforts as the pandemic abates in many areas of the country. At a time when face-to-face meetings in an office are still considered risky, virtual recruiting and interviewing techniques such as the pre-recorded…
Read More Structured interviews significantly improve your hiring success
I am always struck by how many companies fail to track their readily available data. This data offers cost-saving, productivity-enhancing, and revenue-generating information for the picking. If only someone would look. While today’s applicant tracking systems and AI powered chatbots…
Read More Increase your business revenue with better recruiting data literacy
Join me on August 27th for a recruiting roundtable discussion on data literacy for HR professionals. Piyanka Jain ⭐️and I will discuss how with excel and some simple data sets, along the candidate funnel, HR practitioners can gain valuable insight into…
Read More Aug. 27 Recruiting Roundtable on data literacy for HR professionals
With the pandemic and significant decline in revenues, executives know that they must innovate to survive these unprecedented times. But how? Many executives, however, have chosen to play it safe and secure, hunker down, and hoard cash. The problem with…
Our most recent research with The Conference Board reveals the importance of managers in encouraging innovation. In our infographic below, the "Innovation Priorities" chart on the right shows that highly innovative companies have managers who score higher in encouraging innovation…
While the Pandemic has cooled recruiting in most industries, many HR organizations have upgraded their technologies to conduct online interviews and onboarding. But there is much more to do. Now is the time to hack recruiting processes before the hot…
Read More Join my August 27 virtual session to learn how to hack your recruiting.
In this Orange County ReINVENTHR webcast, I present 3 robust strategies to crush today's crises. I remind HR leaders that HR has the empirical research, predictive models, and digital technology to crush it! The full REINVENT HR webinar, "HR…
Read More ReINVENTHR webcast: 3 robust strategies to crush today’s crises
In the wild pandemic world of constant fear and change, management needs feedback from employees to keep them aligned, motivated, safe, and innovative. Are employee surveys still useful — given how they have been carelessly overused and in the face…
Read More Bad management practices killed employee surveys. 7 ways to get reliable employee feedback
I am delighted to announce that my company InnovationOne, LLC, has joined forces with Innovation Minds. Together, we provide our clients the best researched-based cultural assessment for measuring, benchmarking, and improving your culture and capability to innovate with the best…
Companies that enjoyed progress with their remote work strategies in March, are now stalling in the dog days of mid-summer — and in the face of a pandemic that just won’t quit. After the resurgence of COVID-19 across most of…
Read More Six tips for rekindling remote work success and creating the now office
When the pandemic started, employers reacted to the first surge and warning by health officials. They sent employees home to work remotely and to be safe. But as the stay at home orders were canceled, and the public ventured out.…
Read More COVID19 surges, confusing leaders, and stalling remote work progress
Highly innovative companies treat innovation as a strategic imperative. These companies involve their external partners, nurture transparent, inclusive, and collaborative cultures, and align their operations to quickly adjust and commercialize innovation. These findings are based on InnovationOne's research of over…
Read More Top six factors of highly innovative companies in the digital era!
While the rush to remote work provided a welcome relief from daily commutes and the fear of catching COVID19, many employees struggled with being on-the-job 24/7 now that the commute does not define the workday. Besides, when school resumes, the…
Read More 9-to-5 is on a COVID19 ventilator. Rethink your work schedule!
Today's hottest conversation among many executives is on the best strategies to nimbly pivot among our multiple crises. When they decide upon winning strategies, the question then becomes how do we implement strategies successfully. Our research at InnovationOne has found…
Read More Why some companies innovate during crises and others don’t
Video evidence of police brutality, the Black Lives Matter protests, and recent discussions on social media have raised the nation’s consciousness. These events have also challenged recruiters and hiring managers to rethink their hiring practices. The bad news is that…
Long before the world knew there was a coronavirus, I, and a team of executives, implemented a flexible work environment enabling 45% of a medical device company workforce to work from home three to four days a week. The result…
Over five years of writing blogs, I have noticed that posts on diversity and inclusion are often the least read. Today, are you ready to reflect on the nation’s crisis with civil rights and social unrest and the failure of…
Executives have often confided to me that employees’ jobs are difficult enough without having to think of new products and services or better ways of doing their jobs. Besides, they cannot afford to have people lose their focus on this…
Read More 7 Steps to Seize Upon a Crisis and Innovative Successfully
Many business leaders told me they planned to reopen their offices in May. Then in mid-May, after their state’s restrictions were lifted, they told me that they had delayed until June. Now, the date they have in mind is July.…
Read More 4 strategies that will transform your office into an industry leader—post-COVID19
Eighty-one percent of US office workers have been working at home four or five days a week since COVID-19, and 71 percent would like to continue working from home. Further, some 70 percent of managers report that their workers’ performance…
Read More Work from home has become the new normal. Boldly adapt now!
More than 50 percent of small US businesses and 90 percent of high tech start ups fail. But not all failures are equal. Some are catastrophic, while others smaller. More vitally, the catastrophic failures are often proceeded by smaller ones.…
Read More 6 Steps to instill a discovery culture and thrive through adversity.
Your guidebook to restart your business with the new normal, safely, productively, with high morale for employees, and reduced costs. Your company sent office workers home in March in a mad scramble to protect them from COVID19 and to…
Read More 9 Steps to Implement a New Post-COVID19 Office Environment
Our new research shows that highly innovative companies can pivot quickly in a crisis because of their collaborative cultures, agile organizations, and the well understood processes they have to suggest, build upon, and prototype new ideas. Download our free report…
Read More Highly innovative companies are designed to pivot quickly
Watch the rebroadcast of our highly attended and successful webcast, "Reinventing Innovation During Times of Crisis: Lessons from Leading Companies." From this post, you can also download our valuable report and PowerPoint slides. John Metselaar of The Conference Board, Peter…
Read More Watch the Rebroadcast of Reinventing Innovation During Crisis Webcast.
Companies have been switching to video interviewing over the last decade because they could screen job candidates faster and save costs. Today, with COVID19, it is a no brainer. Video interviewing technology allows recruiters to conduct pre-recorded interviews quickly with…
Read More Learn the key features and how to pick video-interviewing software
How a company pivots during a crisis significantly impacts its customer engagement, employer brand, and long-term profitability. In the latest podcast in my series, "Leadership During the Coronavirus Crisis, I cover alternatives to RIFs and the legal issues. I review…
Read More Leadership During the Coronavirus Crisis Podcast: Alternatives to RIFs
US companies with fewer than 500 employees will be covered by the Families First Coronavirus Response Act beginning April 1. The Act requires employers to pay for 80 hours of sick leave and extended family and medical leave for up…
Read More Must Know Overview for The Family First Coronavirus Employer Paid Leave Requirements
Many businesses are now scrambling to implement working-from-home procedures, cutting worker hours, and reducing their workforces, whether temporarily or permanently. Economists are now predicting a short but deep recession, with a drop in US economic output of $1.5 trillion, 7%…
Read More Brand building strategies for handling the coronavirus recession
After the decade of innovation, the pursuit of successful innovation execution is still not easy. As reported by McKinsey (2018), 84 percent of executives feel innovation is critical for growth, yet only six percent are satisfied with their innovation efforts.…
Read More Ten insights on improving innovation from the decade of innovation
Join me for an informative webinar today on how to continually win with innovation in today's competitive and fast changing business environment. Arthur Liberian, Senior Innovation Advisor at Planbox and I will uncover how highly innovative organizations disrupt the market…
Read More Webinar TODAY: Eight Practices to Fire Up Your Innovation Culture!
Today's applicant-tracking systems (ATS) not only help you lure and build relationships with job candidates and hire high performers — they can also help you build employer brand. Applicant tracking systems have become job candidate management systems. Wouldn't it be…
Read More 9 tips for buying game-changing applicant tracking systems
The Coronavirus is now growing faster outside of China than in China — including in the US. More than 90 Americans have the virus from coast-to-coast, and six have died. Health officials expect the virus to infect hundreds if not…
Over 4.7 million people now work remotely. Employers reap the rewards of a cost savings of $11k/person. Learn up to date best practices for managing a remote workforce to ramp up productivity, save costs, recruit top talent & maintain accountability.…
Read More Back by Popular Demand! Managing a Flexible and Remote Workforce.
Since Gallup began measuring employee engagement at the turn of the century, it hasn’t improved employee engagement much. It has helped companies realize the importance of empathetic and empowering leaders and collaborative team environments. But Gallup this month published a…
Read More Successful companies focus on building a better culture
The secret of successful innovation is not simply innovating, it’s embracing innovation. In today’s era, innovation should be shared and promoted internally, just like your brand is across the globe. Victor Assad and Arthur Liberian will uncover how highly innovative…
Read More Webinar: Eight Practices to Fire Up Your Innovation Culture
The US now has had 22 months where there are more job openings than unemployed people. According to Manpower’s last study, 69% of US companies struggle to find workers. This trend will continue in the US for a long time due…
Read More Today’ Talent Shortage Is Long Term. Are You Prepared?
Executives who want to dramatically increase their success should implement Objectives with Key Results (OKRs). Research shows that executives who set such goals can significantly improve the performance of their organizations over telling employees to “just do their best.”[i] Moreover,…
The issues of automation and digital transformation and how to create inclusive, transparent, and innovative cultures were some of the many topics discussed by CEOs, technologists, and human resources leaders last week in San Francisco at the Work Rebooted conference. Julie Douthart, biochemist…
Read More Work Rebooted conference examines everything from AI to cultures and the gig economy!
CEOs and other executives are finalizing their business strategies and financial plans at this time of year. With great enthusiasm, their thoughts turn from strategy to implementation. My frequent advice to CEOs is to have no more than seven top…
Read More How to champion your organization’s top 7 priorities
On Martin Luther King Day 2020, almost 52 years after his assassination, the issues of equal treatment and diversity and inclusion for all still trouble many companies. But here’s another way to look at the issue: The cultures that empower…
Read More Drive innovation and diversity— at the same time. Learn how!
Join me and SHRM of Greater Phoenix on Feb 19th for my informative Lunch & Learn on recruiting hacks that will enable you to hire high performing employees faster, build your employer brand, save time, and cut costs. Register today!
During annual workforce planning, Scott Ward, the President of Medtronic Vascular, used to say, “Hire some more mavericks. They don’t always fit in, but we need them for innovation.” He defined mavericks as the technical people who were dedicated to…
An executive team asked me about the company’s need to cut overhead costs and invest more money in R&D. “Why not switch to a flexible work environment?” I suggested. Many companies find that 25 percent to 45 percent of the…
The Glassdoor Best-Place-to-Work list saw a fall of High-Tech companies, such as Facebook, Google, and Apple, while Amazon didn’t even make the list! The ranking of these High-Tech firms fell for different reasons but data privacy scandals and and falling…
Read More How Companies Become a ‘Best Place to Work’ is Changing…
I remember being promoted to my first leadership position early in my career and thinking about how I was going to set the world on fire. Slowly, I began to realize that the role of the manager, being the leader…
Read More Newly promoted to manager? Your learning has just begun…
Check out my podcast episode with @workology discussing How to Create a Strategic Recruiting Process and Plan. Listen now. Podcast Description by Jessica Miller-Merrell of Workology Victor shares why it’s a critical point for HR and recruitment. He says that…
Background checks are essential for employers to uncover resume lies or misrepresentations and to avoid the cost of a bad hire. Companies have other dependable options to ensure they are hiring qualified, high performing job candidates. Over the next five…
Read More Lies on resumes are at an all-time high. Learn how to get to the truth.
“Hack Recruiting” makes a perfect gift for recruiters and hiring managers. It has received outstanding reviews and 5-star ratings on Amazon. Order it online on Cyber Monday from Amazon, Archway Publishing, or Barnes and Noble. and now The SHRMStore. Email me for discounts…
Read More “Hack Recruiting” makes a perfect gift for recruiters and hiring managers!
Charles Schwab said, "The way to develop the best that is in a person is by appreciation and encouragement." Oprah Winfrey said, "Be thankful for what you have; you'll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don't…
Read More Gratitude will do yourself, workforce and productivity a lot of good.
Luck is never enough. Instead, double your hiring success by using effective interviewing techniques, validated assessments, and reference and background checks. If you believe that it sounds like a lot of work and money, it is cheaper than the cost…
Read More If you depend on gut feel while interviewing, you are relying on dumb luck.
When buying HR technology, know what you want, have great questions, and follow the 80/20 rule. Learn more and the future of HR technology by watching my "Hack Recruiting and HR" podcast with serial entrepreneur and CEO of Place Technology,…
With 200,000 US veterans leaving the military and entering the civilian job market every year, a smart recruiting strategy includes finding and attracting veterans for your roles. In addition, companies can earn a tax credit of $5,600 for hiring veterans…
You will find valuable insights from my new video podcast series, "Hack Recruiting and HR." My video podcast series picks up where my book Hack Recruiting left off, keeping you up-to-date with today's ongoing HR technology innovations. It provides insightful…
Many business leaders want more collaboration and innovation from their workers, but they often struggle with how to get it. Too often, they believe that a crisis, an open office environment, or a set of values will spur collaboration. They…
Another 5-star review on Amazon: "One of the most comprehensive views into full cycle recruiting, especially around the macroforces and innovations impacting how organizations attract, hire and retain talent. Plus advising the profession of what one needs to stay competitive."…
Read More Another 5-star review of “Hack Recruiting” on Amazon
I was speaking recently with a recruiting executive for a Fortune 200 company. She was struggling with the costs of domestic recruiting, poor results, and managers who didn’t interview well. The head of HR, her boss, wanted to cut hiring…
Read More Are your recruiting costs too high? Insource it and save. Here’s how…
AI won't replace recruiters. We need to embrace AI to find job candidates faster, for unbiased job matching, instantaneous communications and analytics, and to automate processes. We will always need the human interface. Step into the sunshine with Hack Recruiting:…
People often ask me the best way to lead a multigenerational workforce. The question frequently comes from frustrated Gen X or baby boomer leaders who enthusiastically tell me stories about millennials who always want fast promotions, who spend too much…
Read More Leading multigenerational workforces with success.
The inspiration for TerrainHopper’s off-road mobility vehicles was founder Todd Lemay’s desire to stroll on the beach with his girlfriend. “I remember 20 years ago being so excited that I just bought a van enabling me to drive, and now…
Read More Girlfriend’s desire to stroll on the beach led to the creation of TerrainHopper
Burnout is becoming pervasive across the US workforce, costing employers productivity and innovation, and leading to employee turnover. It disproportionately impacts our younger workers and women. However, companies can reverse this trend. A recent Gallup study of nearly 7,500 full-time employees found…
My most significant learning from last week’s HR Tech Conference in Las Vegas relates to how chatbots and online discussions are being used to improve the employee experience. Not only are there chatbots that can automate and provide instantaneous communications…
Read More HR Tech: the year of chatbots and improved employee experiences.
My book Hack Recruiting has received excellent reviews, such as this one: “Hack Recruiting is an essential read for anyone hiring employees or gig workers today—from employer branding to technology to recruiting processes, it offers fresh thinking based on research and years…
Read More LAST DAY to purchase “Hack Recruiting” and have access to my new video podcast series!
Today, I am at HR Tech in Las Vegas, the largest HR technology conference in the US with over 10,000 attendees. The place is abuzz with the latest extraordinary technology platforms for human resources: chatbots, blockchain, on-demand video interviewing, artificial…
Read More Digital technology is a candy store, but most implementation fails. Turn the odds.
During a time of full employment, Universities offer a valued and increasingly rare asset: new entrants to the labor market who are trained in their disciplines and the latest technologies. The long-standing advice for University recruiting today is similar to…
Read More University recruiting: 8 tips for success and how to recruit Gen Z
Please look for me at HR Tech in Las Vegas Oct. 1-4, with the ThisWay Global team at Booth 1953. At 2:00 PM on Wednesday, Oct. 2, ThisWay Global Founder and CEO Angela Hood will sponsor an excellent panel discussion…
Read More Join Me and ThisWay Global at HR Tech in Las Vegas, Oct 1-4.
Before launching recruiting chatbot AllyO, co-founder Sahil Sahni walked around shopping malls in Silicon Valley recruiting workers for the mall’s stores. The manual processes he and co-founder Ankit Somani put in place became the blueprint for AllyO’s award winning algorithms…
Read More Meet Sahil Sahni, Co-founder of AllyO, in My New Video Podcast Series
When the California legislature passed its bill last week that most likely will require Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash to convert contract workers to employees, the legislation upended the business models of these companies and the gig economy itself. The upending,…
Read More Gig economy disrupted. How to keep your company out of legal pitfalls.
Beth White is the Founder and CEO of MeBeBot, and you can meet Beth in my upcoming video podcast series, Hack Recruiting and HR. After working in HR for 20 years, Beth founded MeBeBot, a 24/7 virtual HR assistant leveraging…
In today’s fierce recruiting environment, expect to be asked penetrating questions about your company, its culture, and the career development employees may expect. If you are not asked questions by a candidate, it’s a red flag as to their interest…
I was delighted to interview Sandeep Purwar, Founder and CEO of Bevov in Sausalito, CA, for my upcoming video podcast series. After consulting and recruiting for pharmaceutical companies, Sandeep founded Bevov to help companies overhaul their manual and fragmented recruiting methods that…
Last week Google surprised the small to mid-company landscape by announcing that Google Hire will shutter in September 2020. Google Hire was launched with great fanfare a little over two years ago as a top job candidate search, posting, and…
Empirical researchers have long pointed out that more than five years of previous experience did not predict great job performance for new hires.[i] A new review of 81 studies looking at the correlation between prior job experience and performance in…
Read More Experience does not predict the success of new hires. Here are better methods…
