Victor Assad Strategic HR Consulting
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I am always delighted when clients, in the middle of an HR audit, are curious about what additional benefits they should offer to attract and retain workers for their fast-growing firms. “Should I provide more paid-time off?” they ask. “What about setting up a ping pong table by the break area?” I always respond by… Read More
A client recently asked me about the best perks to offer Millennial and Generation Z employees. “Do they want more free food? Or is it more paid time off?” they wondered. “We already offer health care,” they added. I told them to offer competitive pay and benefits in this time of full employment. Surveys consistently… Read More
I was honored to present and be part of a panel discussion at one of Silicon Valley’s legacy innovation centers, PARC, a Xerox Company in Palo Alto, July 26, 2018. I began my presentation by asking if everyone believes that culture can be measured and managed? Not everyone understands this, despite overwhelming evidence from InnovationOne… Read More
In their experience as academics and consultants, Dr. C. Brooke Dobni and Dr. Mark Klassen have concluded that many organizations need something to improve their organization’s innovation, but they are not quite sure what. Through their research, they have learned much about assessing an organization’s culture of innovation and the practice and implementation of innovation.… Read More
The $74 billion employment engagement industry has a serious problem. After nearly 18 years, it is not driving sufficient business value to justify its costs. Instead, values, business purpose, organizational learning, and culture are the true factors that drive business value. Employee engagement is an outdated idea that needs to be overhauled. Gallup’s State of… Read More
New findings from an online survey of 2,500 reorganizations show that only 11% of reorganizations driven by Mergers and Acquisitions achieve total success. Worse, 28% have a negative impact on the business as compared with 17% of other types of reorganizations. That is a horrible track record. But there are ways to increase the success… Read More
The percentage of Americans working in alternative work arrangements — such as independent contractors, on-call workers, and those who contract through a third party — has shrunk 0.6% since 2005. According to a US Labor Department report, the total of people working in such alternative arrangements now is 10.1% According to the survey, this change… Read More
The US government announced a 3.8% unemployment rate on Friday, June 1, the lowest unemployment rate since 1969.[i] It is virtually full employment. As a result, to attract new hires, you need to recruit passive job candidates who already have a job or new entrants such as graduates from technical programs or colleges. There are… Read More
Employee engagement is an outdated idea that, by itself, does not significantly improve business performance. The truth is, employee engagement can improve the relationship between managers and employees, but will take your organization only so far. Companies are realizing that employee engagement alone is not providing actionable items and that the employee engagement survey is… Read More
Concern over employee retention has increased sharply in the US — where unemployment is now below 4% — but, also, around the world. A 2017 study by Towers Watson uncovered that more than 50% of all organizations globally struggle to retain their most valuable employees.[i] More than 80% of HR leaders believe improving retention is… Read More
Companies want managers who will build relationships with their employees, give them feedback, coach and develop them and continually recognize them for their achievements. The once-a-year performance discussion is not sufficient in a business world of constant change. The problem for managers is that they are too busy with the constant change and pressures of… Read More
Yesterday the California Supreme Court adopted a new legal standard that will make it much more difficult for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors, drastically changing the legal landscape across the golden state. The misclassification of workers can result in significant legal exposure concerning wage and hour compliance and fines. Although the court case… Read More
Establishing a global team is always a daunting task. How do you get people on time zones around the world on a video conference together, knowing someone will be up in the middle of the night? How do you motivate them to perform on your strategic initiative when their local management already has them busy… Read More
When we removed performance rankings from our performance review process at Medtronic Coronary and Peripheral in 2012, some executive leaders and managers warned that employees would lose the competitive edge to perform. They didn’t. Our changes included holding weekly or biweekly meetings between managers and employees as well as formal quarterly updates to goals and… Read More
The number of lies on resumes is increasing and could be as high as 85%. An Office Team survey found that 46% of workers said they know someone who lied on a resume — a 25-point increase from its 2011 survey.[i] HireRight’s 2017 employment screening benchmark report (which surveyed nearly 4000 HR professionals) states that… Read More
When I worked with factory leaders in the US in the 1980s, I provided them research showing that factory worker productivity declined heavily after 11 hours and after sustained days of constant overtime. They used the research to schedule more sane and stable manufacturing hours and to maximize productivity and worker health. Now, new research… Read More
A new vice president reached out to me recently to discuss how to prepare for her new role. “What do I need to do differently?” she asked. Every promotion is a passage to a new level of leadership I told her. “Are you ready to stop doing what led to your promotion, and begin learning… Read More
As a recruiter, wouldn’t you like to receive 100% accurate and verifiable resumes and conduct instantaneous background checks? That technology is here. And it is called blockchain. Blockchain technology is a secure decentralized network of computers that verifies and automates the flow of information. It now can be trustworthy and eliminates intermediaries. It is best… Read More
Dominance used to be the main criteria CEOs and Chief Human Resources Officers used to determine who would make a great leader. Dominance and achievement were the most reliable characteristics CEOs looked for to determine who would be their successors. Dominant leaders are the ones who speak first in meetings, most frequently interrupt others, and… Read More
If your recruiters are spending hours or days hunting through job postings and social media looking for job candidates and handing resumes to hiring managers — you are wasting your time. Affordable technology now exists to replace the days of hunting online. Your recruiters can now up their game and spend more time developing relationships… Read More
A business executive complained to me about the lax work culture shown by his employees. “Everyone leaves the office by 4:30,” he said. “Where is their commitment to our mission? Where is their commitment to our customers and to get new products out on time?” he asked. He carried with him in his briefcase an… Read More
We recently found more than 30 new, qualified hard-to-find candidates for a client in mere seconds. The client could not have found these people after posting the job on Indeed and Career Builder and searching on LinkedIn. How did we do it? We used a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform created for recruiting. By using AI, we can find job candidates in seconds,… Read More
When putting teams together, who do you pick to lead them? The individual with the highest IQ? The most extroverted? Or, the most dominant “driver”? New studies will have you rethink the characteristics of great team members and allow you to have effective and innovative teams and improve employee retention and company performance. The Massachusetts… Read More
One of the toughest challenges facing any CEO is rallying the organization to effectively execute new strategies. Many business pundits wisely encourage CEOs to use the company’s mission and higher purpose to appeal to the intrinsic motivation of their employees. Employees, to be sure, will commit their discretionary effort and innovation to a cause they… Read More
Two obstacles stood before the business and the release of a new game-changing product. The first was achieving the technology milestones required to develop and manufacture the product. The second was hiring the 650 employees needed over 18 months to accomplish the technical, marketing and sales milestones to commercialize the product. This task fell to… Read More
Two compensation issues are giving workforce leaders fits at the beginning of 2018. The first is the continued small budgets for pay increases which causes challenges for retaining your best workers in a tight labor market. The second is gender pay equity laws being enacted in many cities and states. Salary increase predictions from… Read More
Managing culture, embracing metrics and pursuing evolving technologies are among the top priorities talent leaders should focus on in the New Year. By Victor Assad and Ataman Ozyildirim, Talent Economy Influencers. Published in Talent Economy, December 20th, 2017 As 2017 winds down, a new survey provides tips for how talent executives can prioritize innovation in the… Read More
The frightened employee called our ethics hotline 17 years ago to report that her former boss, a Vice President, was harassing her at her apartment building. He would show up at her apartment building, despite it being halfway across the US, and hide outside the entrance. He would appear as she approached the entrance to… Read More
Can human resources leaders use Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms to manage recruiting in the same way marketing executives use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems to find, nurture and win over new clients? We have heard the hype about AI. Now we are learning more about its capabilities to be a game changer in recruiting. While… Read More
Check out my article in Chief Executive Magazine, with Ataman Ozyildirim of The Conference Board, “CEOs Must Do These 3 Things to Turbocharge Innovation”. Across the globe, one business challenge has the ear of CEOs like few others: innovation. Six in 10 surveyed executives think the chance to avoid falling behind their competitors has passed. Much… Read More
Businesses have come to recognize that innovating is no longer an option. Rather, it is an imperative for survival. This year, The Conference Board and InnovationOne have just completed a valuable report: “Insights from Highly Innovative Companies: Results from The Conference Boards and InnovationOne’s Global State of Innovation Survey 2017.” The Survey was designed to… Read More
Your organization can’t afford to stumble with leadership at the CEO, senior management, or middle management levels. But when you look at the top of organizations, 39% of companies today have no viable candidate to replace their current CEO; and only 54% of company Board of Directors are grooming a specific CEO successor.[i] The labor… Read More
That was the best training I ever had for team leadership, the director told me, after a half-day employee engagement training. The objective of the program was to improve the relationship building skills of leaders with each of their team members—and employee retention. The director went on to explain that he always achieved his goals,… Read More
Are you ready for the disruptive spirit of HR? If you have never experienced a DisruptHR event, expect high energy, fast pace, fresh and leading content like you have never heard before. Food, wine, and beer. The audience is encouraged to holler, text and tweet. DisruptHR is an information exchange of 12 speakers presenting fresh… Read More
Every time I hear a presentation from a Silicon Valley based human resources organization about its Big Data analysis of the workforce, I remember Peter Cappelli’s article in the Harvard Business Review, “There’s No Such Thing as Big Data in HR.” Most organizations, Cappelli observes, have thousands of employees, not millions. And the documented performance… Read More
The traditional approaches to diversity and inclusion are not moving the needle. Whether its “the letter” at Google or sensational headlines about bad behavior at companies such as Uber or Fox News, diversity and inclusion remain a hot topic. Can Artificial Intelligence help? Artificial intelligence (AI) is gaining wide acceptance for Customer Relationship Management (CRM)… Read More
I have long felt that nothing is worse than a big company that can’t grow organically. So, writes retiring GE CEO, Jeff Immelt in a piece for the Harvard Business Review on the eve of the transition of GE’s leadership. What a difference the Internet of Everything and a CEO make! I remember his predecessor,… Read More
The implementation of Human Resources digital technology “is about the relationship.” I was delighted to hear these words from Charlene Li, Principal Analyst at Altimeter. She is the author of five books, including The New York Times best seller Groundswell and her latest, The Engaged Leader. Ms. Li advocates that CEOs and Human Resources leaders… Read More
The goal was to double the sales force of a medical device company that was launching a game-changing product, by hiring more than 100 sales representatives across the U.S. We needed to accomplish this in roughly six months. And, by the way, the new sales reps had to have technical skills our current sales force… Read More
The new general manager of a recently acquired, innovative global business asked me if his new staff, which spanned seven countries and four continents, could understand English. “Yes, they can,” I responded with a smile. “But it doesn’t mean they can understand you, or will follow your direction.” They had all learned English, as taught… Read More
“I hate Human Resources,” the CEO began. “When I worked at Sun Microsoft, Human Resources was always getting in the way, with its bureaucracy and rules.” The sneer on his face suggested that he not only hated Human Resources policies and procedures, but also the people in HR. “Why am I here?” I asked. “You… Read More
No Amazon chatbots, virtual reality, or Artificial Intelligence recruiting screens? Amazon is using old fashioned, face-to-face job fairs! What gives? They work! And Amazon is not alone in turning to older, but reliable, recruiting methods in this tight labor market. Across The Pond in Sweden, high technology company Ericsson recently held a full day “Swarm… Read More
After giving a presentation about the return on investment of smart recruiting strategies, I was asked to consult with a couple of human resources departments. I began by asking them to tell me about their organization’s business strategies, their recruiting strategies to support those business strategies, the obstacles they faced, and the insights from their… Read More
One of the biggest influences in my young life was a baseball coach in junior high who spent extra time with me, not the best athlete by any measure. He helped me work on my batting technique, especially, bunting. It paid off, when we needed a bunt during a playoff game to score the winning… Read More
A recruiter complained to me recently about Millennials, “I have so many Millennials who do not show up for their interviews. Once they are hired, our managers have a hard time motivating them, and their turnover is high. It’s not like when we were young.” “Maybe it is,” I countered. I reminded her of the… Read More
“She is a good candidate, but I want to bring her in at 75% of our market value. That salary will give her a 12% increase, and it saves my budget. She will take it.” “Not so fast. Our minimum is 90% of market value.” After reviewing the resume, application and interview notes for this… Read More
I was seated at an innovation conference for lunch, when the Research and Development leader of a major U.S. active sportswear maker told me he had a confession. His organization was successful at creating new ideas, selecting the best ones to advance, and project- managing those ideas, but their innovations often stalled because the organization’s… Read More
Do you want to have faster time-to-full productivity for your new hires? Improved retention? Higher employee engagement? Have your new hires be your best new hire referral source? Who doesn’t? So, what is your company doing to have an awesome onboarding program? The Aberdeen Group, in a 2009 study, found that companies with effective onboarding… Read More
Are you looking for that new disruptive innovation and business model? Awesome! In your hot pursuit of disruptive innovation, it is important to remember that the demise of many once innovative, or even long-standing brands hasn’t been a bad financial quarter. Instead, it has been disclosed unethical behavior. Enron and Tyco immediately come to mind.… Read More
Recent headlines proclaimed that many IBM departments have ditched the company’s long-standing and successful remote work program. Despite the attention those headlines garnered, empirical evidence shows that teleworking is on the upswing with many companies because it improves productivity, and it is one of the most popular non-monetary attractions to employees. If you are recruiting,… Read More
