There are some questions out there I can answer on the spot. For instance, Why are light bulbs to blame for your terrible sleep habits? Well, it could be that your suprachiasmatic nucleus is no longer able to differentiate between daytime and nighttime, so it doesn’t know when you should sleep. (This is a real thing!) Another one I know: Who has the cutest dogs in the world? Literally the easiest question ever – that would be me, of course! Others, though, are a little more difficult.

Onboarding: 1 Day Vs. 90 Days Effectively onboarding employees can go a long way in ensuring they become productive, engaged employees. Although the focus is finally shifting to enriching onboarding programs, there are still many companies that believe onboarding consists of having the new hire complete the required paperwork and turning them over to their supervisor to start their job. Unfortunately, I’ve been through new hire experiences like that, so I know firsthand how lost and unimportant I felt as a result.

Though international work experience has definite benefits for both employees and the businesses they support, the cost of a failed assignment cannot be ignored. Depending on the assignment package and location, some international assignments can cost a company three to four times the base salary. Failure can come in many forms:

I recently spoke with an HR leader who is considering moving to a new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) in the next year. Knowing that we are in the midst of implementing a new ATS, she wanted to know what kind of timeline she should have in mind. Generally speaking, to incorporate all recommended steps, it could take 4 to 5 months to make the change to a new ATS. In order to be fully prepared and have a process with some rigorous due diligence, consider the following timeframes:

We have all been there. A day that simply doesn’t turn out the way you expected leaving you tired and frustrated. As consultants, this is an all-too-familiar feeling as we juggle projects and different personalities. As people managers and project managers, this is also a very common feeling and often one that leads to a hesitation to delegate responsibility and the statement “I’ll just take care of it myself.”

We keep hearing that Millennials seem to be more liberal with time in that they come in and leave the office on their own schedule. That they quit every six months or have unreal expectations on promotions. They are often referred to as "Generation We", the "Boomerang Generation", and the "Peter Pan Generation". While some of that may be true, let's not forget, that every new generation entering the workforce has typically been seen by older generations as not being as dedicated to their careers. Each generation has unique life experiences that largely play into how they show up at work. Millennials grew up with technology which continues to evolve to become more and more sophisticated, which has largely attributed to characteristics like wanting instant gratification.