Many online CRM providers argue that implmenting their system is the solution to all of your business problems. In a few months you can run their system and collect all the data you need to make better business decisions! But none of that is really true. You have a system presently, it might not be …
The years ahead will see increasing challenges and conflicts over race, immigration and international employment as more middle-class people can complete with each other across boarders and the gap between people and countries with money and those without widens. The increased mobility of workers at…
In recruitment we talk with a lot of people and meet a lot of different companies. Over time, we get a unique perspective on what motivates teams and companies to fail and to succeed.
The beginning of the end for any organization or team is when everything is put on a few people (or one) and expect…
Saying people lack creativity due to education, country or age is inaccurate and discriminatory. I often hear people from American and Europe complain about the Asian "lack of creativity" and many Asians often express concern that they themselves don't seem to be creative enough. Yet these same "un-…
There seems to be a sort of Chaos Theory that governs the success and failure of businesses. There are many small companies that seem to be managed horribly. Staff quit within a few months, sometimes even days of joining. Their reputation in the market is horrible, or they simply produce a shitty p…
Lately the incentives debate is really heating up. Some research is showing that employees respond best to intrinsic rewards like better healthcare, donations to charity, promotions, compliments or other good-will work by the company. Other articles claim that a company that maintains a strong ethi…
Our world is pushing the bounds of automation. Automation is giving us many things we never had before, but it is also creating more waste, stressed workers and clinical processes than ever before. Our world will become ever more automated and the true costs, and pit-falls of automation will become …
There are a lot of personality-profiling tools out there. Most seem to be based on some variation of the Myers-Briggs system or other established psychiatric tests. Yet few of these tests are designed to assist us in understanding ourselves better. Often they seem to be better suited for doctors exp…
The streets of Bangkok and Phuket teach an interesting lesson in motivation, scams and customer service. When you walk along the street many different stall owners sell their wares and try to get you to buy. In areas that are heavily visited by foreigners prices are well above the normal market pric…
Many managers and companies today insist on strict schedules, working flows and policies and refuse to implement flexi-time management for their staff. This way of thinking is outdated and puts their company at risk. These managers make decisions based on what worked for them in the past, but they f…
I talk a lot about technology. I think leveraging technology can make many processes and tasks faster and cheaper. Also I have an intense hatred for repetitive tasks. If I have to do something repeatedly I will start thinking of ways to automate it. But I also have to be careful because sometimes th…
People tell me that there was a time when being humble, lowering yourself and minimizing your strengths was a virtue. In some countries a worrying large number of people still believe this. Unfortunately it seems to be one of those human traits which is hard to override but is handicapping those peo…
Are your company policies, systems and management-style setting your employees up for success or failure? Chances are if your staff turnover is higher than 10% per year, you are setting them up for failure.
So what does it mean to set your employees up for failure? Here are some signs:
1) Punishmen…
The world is in an all out talent war... Or is it? Heavy Industry, Manufacturing, Semiconductor and IT seem to have a growing number of available talent as the industry moves toward more automation. Yet the talent war seems to be heating up. Companies are expecting more, faster from even the best ta…
Back in May we reported on the challenging situation HR is in with the economic downturn. Then we encouraged HR to focus on what they do best - developing people. Now that the economy is improving, things are looking better and many people are starting to think about what to do next, we wan…
Back in May we reported on the mixed situation of the market. Today we want to send a clear message with our newsletter that the worst is over. The market is improving. Major Oil and Gas companies around the world cut back on staffing and lowered their expectations for earnings. Most of the EPC, Sh…
Are you a Little Lost?: Managing your workload and personal interests seems to be getting more and more challenging these days. We have so many options and so much cool stuff to do. Even our companies keep giving us more IT tools so we can take on broader job scopes. So we now all struggle with how …
© Connor Clark-Lindh
