Most people have to check references in some shape or form, whether it’s for a candidate or a babysitter.  I don’t know about you, but until I wrote Success for Hire I never really knew how to do it. Here's what I learned:While you can e-mail a reference initially, connect either in person or by phone with at least one reference for ...

My new book, Success for Hire (ASTD Press) features employee recruitment and retention practices that a lot of people think they know but in reality, don’t put into practice.  One of those practices is effective in-person interviewing, which can ensure that you hire the right candidate the first time around.  The next time you speak ...

Admittedly, staying on HR’s good side is probably not at the top of your list of managerial priorities, but HR has the power to make your life easier…or very difficult.  Over at HR Capitalist, Kris Dunn has five great tips for how managers can make HR love them. You clearly communicate expectations.  Your employees understand ...

In the coming months, I’m going to be focusing some of Water Cooler Wisdom’s content around employee recruitment and retention techniques.  Let’s start with the obvious: the e-advertisements that you, as a manager or HR rep, might be perennially posting on major online job boards.  You know that these boards receive tons of traffic, but ...

Penelope Trunk has an interesting post on responding to racist comments in a work situation, and she links over to a brilliant entry on the very useful blog, Race in the Workplace.  The author, Carmen Van Kerckhove, is a consultant for New Demographic, an anti-racism training company.   I loved Carmen’s tips on the best way to respond ...

Got a new job?  Congratulations!  But don’t throw caution to the wind just yet.  It has taken a long time to create your strong reputation at the office, and unless you want to erase everything you’ve accomplished since you started, your departure must be as strategic and deliberate as your arrival.  Some tips for leaving your ...

It’s your lucky day.  You just got a sweet job offer at a company you’ve been dying to work for.  Congratulations!  Now, though, you want to make sure you leave with your great reputation intact.  In business, you should never burn any bridges, because you never know when you might be working with these people again, or when ...

Expense reports are a reality of employment in Corporate America that most people tend not to think too much about.  You spend money on behalf of your company and HR pays you back ASAP, right?    However, once you go to actually submit your first expense report for a new job, you may realize that reimbursement is more complicated ...

[ImageAttachment] CollegeRecruiter.com has a great post on topics to avoid during job interviews.  According to Steven Rothberg, you should avoid topics such as sex, politics, and religion unless they are directly relevant to the position (they almost never are) as well as any discussion of compensation, your old boss, your significant ...

[ImageAttachment]   At the Here We Are, Now What? blog, Terry Seamon talks about a speech he heard by Greg Taylor at Lee Hecht Harrison.  According to Taylor, the Disney World employees who receive the most training dollars are not the characters who entertain, the customer service operators, or the people who handle the park’s ...