Ginni Rometty

We’ve got to move the whole country to a skills-view, not just degree-view, of jobs, and then hire for that and reward for that. This accomplishes many things. First, as an employer, I need more people with the right skills. Second, there are so many people left out of economic opportunity. This brings more people back into our workforce.

Research: When Bonuses Backfire

Why do bonuses sometimes backfire? It’s because each incentive design choice both signals information about your own beliefs and intentions as an employer and shapes the signaling value of employee behavior within the organization. If you don’t think through these signals carefully, you may end up approving a bonus scheme with results that are the opposite of what you intend. This article offers a way … [ Read more ]

Sally Helgesen

One of the ways that I assess whether an organization has an inclusive culture is one of the simplest possible methods: Does the largest possible percentage of people speak of the organization in terms of “we” or “they”? If it’s we, it’s probably inclusive, and if it’s they, which it often is, then despite all the mission statements extolling diversity and inclusive culture—it’s not an … [ Read more ]

Strengths-Based Employee Development: The Business Results

Key findings from Gallup’s major study of companies that have implemented strengths-based management practices.

Four Keys to Boosting Inclusion and Beating Burnout

Organizations can focus their attention on just these four areas to diagnose where they may be falling short in their efforts to meet employees’ needs.

  • Our survey of 11,000 workers in eight countries found that nearly half are dealing with burnout, which heightens attrition and lowers morale, engagement, and productivity.
  • Burnout is highly correlated with low feelings of inclusion.
  • The four sentiments that have the greatest impact on

[ Read more ]

Why so many bad bosses still rise to the top

Narcissism. Overconfidence. Low EQ. Why do we persist in selecting for leadership traits that hamper organizational progress—and leave the right potential leaders in the wrong roles?

Why Great Managers Are So Rare

Companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for the job 82% of the time, Gallup finds.

Tough trade-offs drive 80% of the gender pay gap in the US

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is grabbing a lot of headlines, but let’s look beyond the latest debates to understand some labor market dynamics that can help employers hire and retain talent to meet business needs. New research from the McKinsey Global Institute compares women’s and men’s work experiences to better understand the tough trade-offs at play in the world of work.

Katy George

Capturing the full benefits of diversity is not about hiring people who can fit into the existing corporate culture; it is about ensuring that the culture itself is supportive and adaptable enough to embrace all kinds of talent. Only then will companies get the creativity, innovation, and different ways of thinking that diversity can bring. For that to happen, there needs to be data and … [ Read more ]

Bill Gurley

I hate the 5 to 10 percent layoffs. You don’t get any material impact to lowering your expenses. Yet you get all the cultural negatives of having done a layoff. You get 100 percent of the pain and very little gain. And then you’re in retweet land—you end up with two or three of them.

Geoff Tuff, Steve Goldbach, Jeff Johnson

Even when interview questions are relevant, the interview is a poor predictor of future performance. It demonstrates someone’s competence to answer questions, know theory, and prioritize information – all of which may or may not correlate to what they need to do on the job.

The traditional interview also makes it more likely we hire someone in our image, the “mini me” cognitive error. We can’t … [ Read more ]

In the spotlight: Performance management that puts people first

Performance management systems help people continuously develop—but most companies fall short of best practices. A set of defined design choices can help guide leaders forward.

What High-Quality Job Candidates Look for in a Company

Some characteristics and behaviors are common to top performers across many different roles. Here are four ways that high-quality candidates may respond differently than the rest to the right interview questions.

Is Your Workplace Biased Against Introverts?

Extroverts are more likely to express their passion outwardly, giving them a leg up when it comes to raises and promotions, according to research by Jon Jachimowicz. Introverts are just as motivated and excited about their work, but show it differently. How can managers challenge their assumptions?

Jeffrey Pfeffer

We know that educational credentials help predict salary. We know that gender and race help predict salary, even though they shouldn’t. We know that years of service, or seniority, helps predict salary, and there’s some evidence to suggest that years of service is one of the more important predictors of salary.

Gender, race, years of service, and educational credentials all have nothing to do with performance. … [ Read more ]

How To Hone Your Compensation Strategy

Answering these questions will help you determine what’s working, what isn’t and explore options for a successful compensation strategy.

Atta Tarki, Tyler Cowen, Alexandra Ham

In an effort to minimize mishires, many companies have adopted extensive hiring processes … that we believe is as damaging a form of inefficiency as mishires themselves. […] And there’s no strong evidence that it’s actually even working.  The treatment has become worse than the disease.

[…]

In their review of their hiring processes, Google discovered that they could capture 86% of the value produced by … [ Read more ]

The big power of small goals

Employees who are disciplined about setting daily goals not only accomplish more but also feel better about their work. Here are three ways that managers can make daily goal-setting a habit.

Some employees are destroying value. Others are building it. Do you know the difference?

More than half of employees report being relatively unproductive at work. New research into six types of employees shows how companies can re-engage workers while amplifying the impact of star performers.

Meet the four forces shaping your workforce strategy

Specialization. Scarcity. Rivalry. Humanity. Companies that understand—and harness—these forces will have an edge in creating vibrant workforces capable of achieving sustained, positive outcomes.