Villain-In-Chief-People-Management

Are you the Villain-In-Chief-People-Management?

Nothing frustrates a worker more than a bad boss!

Bad bosses are difficult and can make work treacherous for others. They are not a rarity, but are quite common in organisations. Their presence is hard to ignore and even harder to dodge. As one works hard to climb the corporate ladder, bad bosses can prove to be stumbling blocks to an otherwise smooth rise. 

What can one do to establish a cordial working equation with a bad boss? While the victims of a bad boss know that they are working under one, they still fail to understand his/her behavioural nuances. They do not analyse the psychological make up of their boss and end up being victimised. If the subordinates of a bad boss want to stay in the job, they have to be smart enough to understand the mental makeup of their boss, since without a clear understanding of the reasons behind the boss's tantrums the victimised subordinates could get unduly stressed. 

Bad vs. bully To begin with, it is important that victims understand that a 'bad boss' is different from a 'bully boss'. Bad bosses are not bullies. They are simply bad and gravely annoying. They tend to attack a person's self-esteem and pride in subtle ways, thereby alienating him from the team. They also tend to play favorites and always create unhealthy competition between team members. They do not aim to build cohesive and productive teams, but focus on preserving their command and control over teams, irrespective of the means. They also tend to get vindictive and personal with their subordinates, and take criticism as an assault on their credibility as a person. There are more such attributes of a bad boss. An understanding of these will help workers stay wary of them. It also enables bosses to introspect and assess for themselves their credibility as a boss. 

There is no consensus on the attributes that define a bad boss. Every person will have different definitions of good and bad, and therefore it is difficult to pin point the characteristics of a bad boss. However, there has been extensive study on the subject which shows that while there may be differences in the fine print the larger picture looks the same. The common attributes of a bad boss brought out by these studies are:

1. Bad bosses typically love ego massaging. They like people who are always in agreement with them and can get extremely cranky if subjected to criticism even if it is constructive.
2. Bad bosses use ineffective means of communication. They tend to give deadlines in a 
3. very casual way and at times fail to follow up themselves. This may prove to be detrimental to the subordinates' work output.
4. Bad bosses tend to go overboard with their criticism and punishment for people they do not like. They do not consider the option of soft and positive talking, and instead become unnecessarily aggressive to prove their point. Use of disproportionate disciplinary measures is common among bad bosses.
5. Bad bosses do not give subordinates an opportunity to explain their point, and issue verdicts based solely on their perception.
6. Bad bosses do not miss an opportunity to blame subordinates, while recognizing contribution only after a lot of effort by the staff.

Bad behavior of the boss can be very demoralizing for subordinates and can take its toll on both their professional and emotional stability. Apart from changing jobs, the only other way to handle bad bosses is to understand the reasons behind such behavior and work towards making adjustments to accommodate the negative elements.

1. Communicate: Subordinates should talk to the boss about the way they feel when subjected to bad behavior. They also should communicate their intentions in order to clear the bad air between them.
2. Choose a mentor: Subordinates should choose a mentor for themselves who can help them with their problems and show the 'right way' of doing things. The mentor should be neutral and in the good books of the boss.
3. Apprise the HR team: Subordinates should apprise the HR team about their relations with the boss if the problems get serious.
4. In case there is a credibility problem and the HR team and the boss's boss do not trust the subordinate, then the victimized subordinate must gather support from other victimized colleagues and present a united front.
5. Seek transfer: In the worst case scenario, internal transfer must be sought by the subordinate.

The aforementioned approaches can help workers tackle their difficult bosses better. However, the onus of establishing a working professional relationship, irrespective of the differences, lies both with the boss and the subordinate. Unless both show tolerance and settle contentious issues between them the relationship only stands to lose, sabotaging individual as well as departmental performance. 

  Ref: TheManageMentor

Boost Engagement in a Financial Crises: Tell the Truth

Boost Engagement in a Financial Crises: Tell the Truth

The recent turmoil on Wall Street appears to carry more than just financial implication: It may be lowering employee productivity and engagement, as well.

In a new survey by Workplace Options, a work-life consulting and training company, half of respondents said they are experiencing stress because of financial concerns, and nearly the same amount said that stress makes it hard to perform their jobs.

"It's a critical issue because the first reaction is to hunker down, play it safe and try to not stick out," said Jim Haudan, CEO of Root Learning and author of The Art of Engagement: Bridging the Gap Between People and Possibilities.

"When fear, uncertainty and doubt reign supreme, people begin to get on the [anxiety] train," Haudan explained. "They look at turf control, they begin to catastrophize what's going on, and they begin to worry if [they're] next. All of these emotions are very real, and all of these emotions are exactly what you don't need at a time when you want people to unify, align, change and be agile.

"To help get employees back on track and to leverage workers' capabilities to the fullest, Haudan said talent managers should advise leaders to do the following:

1. Convey the reality of the situation.

Above all, leaders must be frank with employees. "People are amazingly resilient and able to deal with the downside, but the unknown is paralyzing," Haudan said. "The leader's job is to bring the facts into focus and create a perspective.

"To do that, leaders must engage in two specific behaviors: tell the truth and show the bigger picture. "[When leaders tell] the truth, people actually becoming more trusting," Haudan said. "It's when you're not thinking you're being told the truth that you become less trusting.

"There's a very emotional connection, too," he explained. "Telling the truth also conveys that we, leaders, understand the predicament our people are in in such an empathetic way it creates a connection [that allows us] to go forward rather than stay where we're at.

"But leaders also should be sure to convey the bigger picture to employees. Haudan said employees often complain they only receive bits of information that can often give them a haphazard view of what's going on, like disparate jigsaw puzzle pieces.

"They said, 'Why don't [executives] just send the cover of the box across to the puzzle, so we can see how it all fits together and then realize that some of these parts that seem to be in conflict may have their appropriate places?' I think more than ever in these turbulent times, getting people to see the 'box top' of the business and the state of the business is absolutely essential to tap into their capability," Haudan said.

2. Communicate the "score.

"When the financial crisis began to unravel, many employees were glued to their computers, constantly clicking for updates."I've never seen so many [people] check the market so many times in one day," Haudan said. "Human beings, in times of turmoil, want to know what the score is. There's never been greater curiosity about the score; use and leverage that curiosity to not only [get employees to] understand the business but to keep everybody in the game. The urgency can either tear us apart or be a catalyst to bring us together."

3. Prioritize.

Employees are likely to feel overwhelmed in turbulent times, and when upper management unwittingly leads them to believe every initiative is urgent or important, they're more apt to just give up. Leaders should focus on keeping things simple and direct to improve engagement.

Ref:Agatha Gilmore

The Current State of HR

The Current State of HR

Year-end 2008 is quickly approaching and all across the globe the news is dominated by negative stories about the dismal economy. We have all experienced irrational thinking and are guilty of doing it from time to time, but as we prepare to move into the New Year there is no greater threat facing global companies than irrational thinking in the HR function. Looking back, one thing was glaringly obvious more companies than ever before realized just how ill-prepared they are for the emerging labor climate. All throughout 2008 stories emerged from iconic organizations detailing just how out of touch they had become.

Moving Forward, No Reprieve

Despite night after night of negative economic news around the world, the vast majority of global companies (70% according to the most recent Gallup research) were actively trying to maintain or grow their workforce in December. Despite burgeoning unemployment, demand for top talent in skilled and professional roles is as tough as ever. Global growth combined with profound labor force demographic changes impacting more than 85% of the developed world are keeping competition for top talent fierce. While recruiters understand the challenge of recruiting today, and senior leaders understand the demand for continued investment, the vast majority of HR leaders appear to be doing business as usual.

Are You Prepared?

The near future requires robust and prescriptive action that cannot be influenced by irrational thinking. Do your measures reflect reality, or rather the perception you want others to have regarding your efforts? Are you comfortable standing up and saying the ship is already taking on water and a change in course is needed? These are the kind of questions VPs need to be asking right now. For every major strategic initiative, as well as all core deliverables, you should have objective evaluation processes in place that prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that your efforts are effective.

Three Most Important Things

While every organization has different strategic priorities and will undoubtedly work to achieve them in differing ways, there are three things that every world-class HR organization should be doing, including:

1. Prioritizing mission critical and key jobs. For far too long HR professionals have equated the terms equitable and equal. All jobs do not impact the organization the same when performed well, below average, or left vacant. While politically difficult, organizations must find a practical and accepted way to define mission critical and key jobs, and then to prioritize HR deliverables towards those roles and the talent that occupy them. Once identified, its a lot easier to deliver world-class service and demonstrate a profound impact on the business.

2. Macro level workforce planning. Too many organizations that have tried to implement workforce planning programs have gotten bogged down in the complexities that arise when the focus is too granular, i.e. every role, every employee. Granular workforce planning produces too much data and makes it easy to get lost in the statistics. Workforce planning programs should be actionable in nature, they should help answer several high level questions that establish whether or not the workforce in moving in the right direction to support the future needs of the organization and at the right pace.

3. Leveraging robust analytics and process yield modeling approaches to prove impact. With mission critical and key roles identified and macro level workforce planning initiatives in place, the next practice firms must focus on is yield modeling transformative processes such as development efforts and staffing programs. HR professionals should be able to respond with precise plans that include cost, timeline, and resources needed.

Final ThoughtsA perfect storm of environmental factors is lining up to make the next ten years very difficult with regards to recruiting and retention of top talent.

Ref: HR Funda

10 Recruiting Problems You Might Face During Tough Economic Times

10 Recruiting Problems You Might Face During Tough Economic Times

During volatile economic times, some things that used to be easy in recruiting and Talent Management become much more difficult. As a result, it’s important to identify and then focus on these new problem areas:

1. Hiring freezes. One of the first knee-jerk reactions during tough times are company-wide freezes. Although salary, promotion, and budget freezes negatively impact retention, hiring freezes can decimate a recruiting function. Some tips on fighting hiring freezes can be found in my recent article.

2. Stock options are no longer a major motivator. With the stock market constantly going up and down, stock options become less valuable as a motivator both for current employees and for candidates. As a result, you need to shift your sales approach to candidates to emphasize exciting work, flexible work, better benefits, more security, or to focus on cash performance bonuses.

3. Job security is king. Economic volatility makes both employees and candidates nervous about their future. This fear among potential candidates causes them to increase their emphasis on security, which will definitely make “drawing away” the currently employed top performer from their current firm much harder. Recruiting needs to re-examine the information that it provides on job security on its website, in position descriptions and in its offers in order to make it more compelling.

4. An increased volume of traffic. Normally, all great recruiters focus on the employed candidate (the so-called passive candidates). However, layoffs and high unemployment may mean that some high-quality people are now available among the ranks of the unemployed. Unfortunately, if you actively recruit during tough times, the volume of mediocre but enthusiastic unemployed people who will apply for your jobs will also increase dramatically. This high-volume, low-quality flow means that your screeners will be strained and that your selection process has to be more precise to ensure that you don’t mistakenly hire highly enthusiastic people who turn out to be low performers.

5. Relocation issues. Moving people between regions becomes nearly impossible when individuals can’t get new mortgages or sell their existing homes. This problem affects both internal transfers and new hires. Alternatives to consider include focusing on recent college grads who generally rent or consider “narrowing” your recruiting area to a reasonable commuting distance.

6. A loss of trust and confidence. Although your firm might not have been involved, the general mistrust of business that has resulted from the economic turmoil means that both your employees and your candidates will likely now have less trust and confidence in anything that you say. In recruiting, this means that your website must be more objective and believable, your interviews need to be more credible and your offers will need to be stronger, if you expect to convince the cynical.

7. Managers will focus less on recruiting. Few managers have ever really enjoyed recruiting. But their interest in it will likely even decrease further during tough times as the stress from their business workload increases, while their available staff decreases. Their interest in recruiting will decrease because they certainly won’t be doing it as often but also because of the increased frustration that invariably occurs when many of their “active searches” are never be completed because of frequent “surprise” hiring or budget freezes. Their lack of interest in reading resumes and interviews will invariably mean a dramatically slower average “time to fill” at your firm.

8. Layoffs. Although you probably can’t stop layoffs from happening, you should certainly fight to minimize their impact on your employment brand image. Work with PR to ensure that layoffs by your firm don’t become front-page news for potential applicants to see and worry over.

9. Technology budgets. Almost invariably during tight economic times, any budget resources available for buying new technology (ATS systems or new software) are likely to disappear. So either make your purchases immediately or be prepared to live with what you have for a while.

10. Recruiting budget cuts. Almost everyone gets their budget cut during business downturns but there’s no reason for recruiting’s budget to be cut any deeper than others. The key to maintaining your budget is to build a strong business case demonstrating that cutting recruiting has more negative business impacts than the limited cost savings that these cuts generate. Also utilize split samples to demonstrate your impact. When possible, work with powerful executives in growth businesses to get them to “champion” your cause or to directly fund recruiting initiatives that impact their business unit. Also, work with the CFO’s office to quantify the dollar impact of low quality and bad hires, as well as the revenues lost as a result of position vacancies in revenue-generating and revenue impact positions. In finally, focus on winning external recruiting and “Best Place To Work” awards to increase your visibility and credibility among executives.

Ref: http://www.ere.net/2008/10/20/managing-recruiting-during-an-economic-downturn-the-top-10-action-steps-to-take/#more-4436

How HR Professionals Can Play a Role in Protecting the Enterprise

How HR Professionals Can Play a Role in Protecting the Enterprise

The story that made headlines this past summer of the San Francisco IT administrator who locked top administrators out of the city's network for several days should spark some serious discussion among HR professionals. The incident was a classic example of what a disgruntled employee with elevated privileges can do to take down the enterprise, such as encrypting data or changing passwords to restrict access to business functions.

IT professionals perform invaluable functions – without their services, organizations could not function. On the flip side, disgruntled IT employees are generally recognized as the highest risk an organization has, as they can do irreparable damage by stealing, corrupting or restricting access to data. A recent study indicated that an incredible 88 percent of IT workers would take company secrets and remote access credentials with them if they were fired. To mitigate this staggering statistic and avoid situations similar to the one in the San Francisco lockout, HR needs to develop a close relationship with their information security staff.

Once a disgruntled IT employee gets into a position where there are red flags that he or she might be a risk to the organization, steps need to be taken to restrict that person's access to the network. Having regular contact between the HR and information security departments will help management stay informed of potential "problem" employees, which is key to approaching the entire issue of insider threats.

Keeping your organization's data secure requires the cooperation of every employee – but HR in particular should play a critical role, especially with IT professionals, starting with the hiring process. When putting together a job description for a position that will have access to the organization's information assets, such as a network or system administrator, HR needs to clearly understand the duties and responsibilities of that position. For example, how much authority is vested in a particular job? What sort of access control will be in place for this position? Effectively communicating job responsibilities requires a close relationship between HR and the information security department, yet security professionals are often left out of the process.

The organization must also place a relative value of importance upon the information in the database that is being protected. Until an organization classifies what the data is worth, it will never know how valuable it is. What would be the impact of the damage to the organization if certain data was lost? For instance, what if the company's intellectual property fell into a competitor's hands? It could put your company out of business.

Another important factor to consider in the IT hiring process is to know more about the type of person you're putting in charge of your information assets. Thorough background checks should be performed before any hiring decision is made. That means more than a simple credit check and 15-second phone call, which is all that transpires in many cases. You need to look into the past of those employees requiring elevated clearance levels to determine if there's a history of disruption or any sign of previous instability. In many instances, this type of information is not discovered until after the person has already been hired; you may then have to alter their job or even terminate them.

Once employees have been hired and put in place, the next point of consideration for HR should involve separation of duties. Giving any one position too much power is rarely a good idea. For the IT professional, there should be a clear separation of duties, whereby one person doesn't have complete network control or authority. It is advisable to divide network responsibilities between at least two people to prevent significant changes within the IT infrastructure. Even if the two positions are totally independent of one another, the position descriptions should be linked to communicate that no one person will have sole responsibility for a particular function, such as access to changing passwords across the entire network.

Companies need to be especially aware of employee behaviour during difficult times. Actions such as layoffs, lack of bonuses or pay increases, or turning an employee down for a promotion can prompt some people to want to 'make themselves more important' – escalating their privileges to give themselves additional responsibilities and control. Companies need to be aware of suspicious behaviour within their network. Therefore, an independent, knowledgeable party such as an information security professional should consistently review network logs to check who has accessed various portions of the database and network. Your company's network(s) and databases must also be segmented with access control best practices in place.

If bad company news, or even the rumour of bad news, is on the horizon, HR should alert the security person to be on the lookout for suspicious behaviour. For example, if there is a massive change of passwords by one individual, or someone suddenly has more authority than they had before, that individual needs to be closely monitored or even isolated until a sufficient investigation can occur. Enforced vacations and job rotations are sometimes necessary for those holding highly sensitive positions.

Any time an organization tries to cut corners with their security and doesn't have enough people in place to provide a separation of duties, the organization runs the risk of putting all their eggs in one basket. The days when it was satisfactory to perform a 'minimum' level of security are gone. Having a second person in place that can understand the technology and undo any damage – or prevent the damage from happening in the first place – is crucial to any organization's well-being.

Source: http://www.hr.com

IT firms hike referral bonuses

IT firms hike referral bonuses

Though recession goes on worsening, some U.S. firms in India are on a hiring mode for outsourcing jobs and they are increasingly hiking referral bonuses for existing employees. Referral bonuses are supposed to be given to employees who refer talented people to the company. U.S. Firms like Deloitte, ADP, Pegasystems and Broadridge in India have hiked the referral bonuses already, reported The Economic Times.

Deloitte, which employs over 6,000 people in India, has doubled its referral bonus to employees last week. The employees will now get Rs. 10,000-50,000 for every person who they refer, depending on the level at which they will be joining the firm. The company has also increased its campus hiring by 20-30 percent this year.

An industry analyst said, "This is the right time to hire as salary expectations of people have become realistic and referral system helps identify suitable people. Besides, expansion of India operations will help the firm cut cost significantly and mitigate the risk of the U.S. slowdown."

"Most firms in the West are trimming down workforce there to cut cost. This is expected to bring more offshore work to India. This could lead to an increased demand for people especially the high-end talent pool," said, Prashant Srivastava, HR expert & managing partner (India), The Gallup Organization.

He also mentioned that firms are under pressure to scale up faster and the referral system provides a cost-effective way to get people with right-skill and attitude. Compared to the recruitment process through executive search firms referral will be at least 10-15 percent cheaper.

Pegasystems, a U.S. based business process management (BPM) software provider is looking to hire 60-80 high-end talent-pool for its R&D center in Hyderabad in six months. "Our referral bonus ranges from Rs 25,000-75,000 per person. As we want to scale up our operations at a faster pace, we have increased this bonus by Rs 50,000 for referring a person at certain positions like tech lead. Hence, if a candidate is selected, an existing employee can earn up to Rs 1.25 lakh, which will be beyond his salary. We will give this extra benefit for the next six months," said Suman Reddy Eadunuri, MD, Pegasystems Worldwide India.

Similarly, ADP, the $9 billion business outsourcing solutions firm, is looking at recruiting 400 people in the next six months at its Hyderabad and Pune centers. This year (June-December), the company added 400 people. Of this, about 52 percent were selected through referral process as against 45 percent last fiscal.

Ref: http://www.siliconindia.com/shownews/49984

Three New Strategic Roles Defined

Driving Change: Three New Roles Defined

While breaking down the barriers between the existing HR functions that impact talent management is in itself a profound success, leading organizations are also formalizing a number of proactive activities that add true strategic power to talent management.

By creating a formal workforce planning role, organizations are empowering staffing departments, training departments, and operations departments to take the guesswork out of how it will happen, and they are managing using robust forecasts that scientifically demonstrate the correlation between workforce utilization/composition and organizational capability and capacity.

To further support strategic talent management, workforce planning is coming online with two other proactive roles. Employment branding is becoming more mainstream as organizations recognize the need to make themselves more visible and attractive to top talent, and to motivate existing employees. Retention efforts are formalizing not just to stave off the need for hard-to-find replacement talent, but also to support knowledge management and knowledge transfer between several generations of talent.

Each of these new roles is outlined here:

Vice President/Director/Manager of Workforce Planning

This role will be responsible for developing systems that ensure that the organization has an adequate supply of talent to support planned business objectives in both existing and new markets. (Note the emphasis here is not to run statistics and create reports, but rather to ensure an adequate supply of talent.)

Specific responsibilities for this role include:

· Overseeing the creation and management of all strategic HR goals, management practices, organizational policies, and talent management systems to ensure the organization has the capability and capacity to secure an adequate workforce when needed.

· Participating in organization-wide strategic planning and operations-planning sessions to provide input on workforce-related touch points.

· Projecting the organization's supply and demand for talent on a moving one-, three-, or five-year basis (timing dependent upon industry).

· Identifying gaps in projected supply and demand for talent and developing strategic and tactical plans to acquire the labor needed to meet objectives.

· Marshaling the cooperation and integration of HR deliverables.

· Establishing and maintaining the business case for organizational change needed to retain a position as the "employer of choice" among key internal and external talent constituencies.

· Analyzing data from all internal functions to determine the relationship between talent availability or utilization and productivity, or the occurrence of sentinel events. (A sentinel event is any unexpected occurrence that results in a severely negative outcome.

Vice President/Director/Manager of Employment Branding

This role will be responsible for developing systems that identify and manage how the organization is perceived by both internal and external key talent constituencies to ensure that the organization develops and maintains a dominant position in relevant labor markets as the employer of choice. (Note that the emphasis of this new role is not on employment advertising but on understanding and managing perception among key constituents.)

Specific responsibilities for this role include:

· Developing and implementing an employment branding strategy that ensures key constituents continue to perceive the organization as an employer of choice, thereby simplifying talent retention, motivation, and attraction.

· Marshaling internal management practices and people programs to ensure that the employment experience delivered is one capable of sustaining projected talent needs.

· Overseeing the creation and integration of employment branding messages in all public relations, media relations, marketing communications, community relations, special events, and recruitment advertising campaigns.

· Identifying and developing storylines around company management practices that can be repeated internally and externally through employee referral campaigns, public speeches by executives/managers, news stories, and select awards program applications.

· Periodically assessing employment brand internally and externally to ensure alignment between current strategy and labor market conditions.

· Establishing and maintaining the business case for organizational change needed to develop the required employment brand.

Vice President/Director/Manager of Retention

This role will be responsible for developing systems that identify mission-critical talent stores within the organization and a stable of tools and approaches that can be used on a one-to-one basis to retain them. (Note the emphasis here is not to develop organization-wide approaches that treat employees equally, but rather to provide differentiated treatment to top performers in key roles that have been characterized as critical to the success/failure of organizational objectives.)

Specific responsibilities for this role include:

· Overseeing the development and implementation of talent management methodologies to identify mission-critical roles within the organization based on objective assessment versus speculation.

· Overseeing the creation and deployment of tools and approaches on a case-by-case basis to ensure the retention of key employees.

· Analyzing internal data from all functions to identify relationships between organizational practices/events and turnover.

· Developing and administering knowledge management and transition processes for planned turnover.

· Developing and maintaining systems that monitor and report on managers' abilities to develop and retain top performers.

· Establishing and maintaining the business case for organizational change needed to drive retention efforts.

Conclusion

It's a brave new world, one with few barriers to competition, which is why barriers to strategic talent management must be removed. Existing barriers include isolated HR functions, lack of strategic mindset, and lack of infrastructure to power true strategic talent management. Removing these barriers isn't easy, but is a necessity for survival in a global economy. Many professionals in HR are not adequately equipped and will not survive in a modern HR function. Organizations cannot let those incapable of transitioning become barriers themselves.

It is time to step up to the plate. It is time to embrace new proactive activities. It is time to stop talking about being strategic and actually be strategic! Enjoy the future — it your turn to be the corporate hero.

HR World in Transition Phase

Three New Roles Every Modern, Strategic Talent Management Function Must Have

These roles are Employment branding, workforce planning, and retention.

The human resources profession is one often perceived by those outside the function as a bureaucratic, compliance-driven, administrative function that is reactive versus proactive and that changes at the speed of a rock.

In most organizations, that perception is one well-earned, since most HR processes and policies are developed in response to a significant event and are intended to limit certain behaviors instead of enabling others. HR has become the function known for saying "you can't do that" as opposed to function known for saying "this is how we can accomplish that." However, a few leading organizations are breaking with tradition — at least when it comes to talent management — establishing new functional structures that account for current labor market realities, and adding new proactive activities to the stable of HR services.

A growing number of organizations are leveraging the visibility currently being placed on the impending talent shortage/crisis by corporate leaders and growing the scope of talent management activities to include formalized processes, programs, and departments focusing on proactive management of the employment brand, retention, and workforce planning. These groundbreaking organizations are tearing down massive walls that years of political infighting have created between HR functions in order to develop entirely new HR structures where all deliverables are integrated to "strategically" manage the portfolio of talent that the organization can use to call upon to achieve both short- and long-term objectives.

No longer does the training and development function devise and offer training programs for skill sets that can more readily be acquired through recruitment at a lower cost. No longer do key employees leave the organization because a bad manager kept them from advancing or learning. No longer do offers made to top candidates get rejected because compensation cannot adequately assess the market value of talent. Sounds too good to be true? It isn't, but getting there isn't easy; lots of archaic thinking gets in the way!