Workplace 101: A Profiles Global Business Blog

A rose by any other name does not smell as sweet, because a name like Rosewood Hotels and Resorts demands a flawless reputation. Rosewood Hotels and Resorts is a premier manager of ultra-luxury properties worldwide. Their reputation precedes them, and maintaining that stellar reputation is a priority for the company. Learn how they reduced hiring costs and improved quality of hire.

The current pool of available talent is larger, and more diverse than ever. This fact alone should tempt managers to rethink their hiring process. The quantity of people and the skills they have to offer can be overwhelming for companies trying to find the best fit for available jobs. The volume and quality of submitted resumes may breed anxiety for those trying to pick the best applicant.

HP Welcomes Meg Whitman as its Latest CEO

HP just announced its 7^th CEO in 12 years. No, no one was promoted from within to fill the big chair. Instead they chose to look outside and hired heavy-hitter Meg Whitman to steer their course towards “Innovation.” Do the rewards outweigh the risks of making an outside executive hire?

During times of budget challenges and uncertainty, supervisors might be experiencing an increase in the number of difficult conversations with their staff. These could include delivering bad news about an employee’s job, informing staff about work restructuring, or discussing other complicated and stressful work situations.

Would you lose sleep if you lost a mission-critical employee or if your CEO announced a major expansion strategy in a new field of play? How quickly could you react and adapt to these situations and do your part to help your organization win in an intensely competitive environment? Most organizations can't simply go out into the world and pick up quality talent on a whim; skills are in short supply, and the competition is becoming increasingly resourceful in attracting the people with those skills. Proactively building your talent pipeline is good business and will help you shine in times of change.

In case you are catching up on your reading or just joining us, here are our top stories for the last two weeks, September 10, 2011 - Spetember 23, 2011. Check out the hot topics in Leadership & Management.

Ever wonder if or how you can motivate without money? Every day, workers wake up, go to work, and come home. These people "work to live," and although the routine is monotonous the paycheck is necessary. If you ask them, they may tell you that money motivates them and they would leave in a heartbeat for a small raise. However, in today’s economy, many organizations no longer have the luxury of using money as a motivational tool.

Are Executive Blind Spots To Blame?

Customer loyalty is being put to the test at Netflix. Driven by internal reorganization and changing technology, the company is making bold moves at the expense of their customers. Could executive blind spots be part of the cause?

By Deiric McCann, Sr. Vice President & Consultant to the International Division

Do you ever wonder why your sales teams always seem to have so few star performers?

By Kyle Lagunas, HR Analyst at Software Advice.

Business leaders invest a lot in their organization, and expect to see a tangible return on their investments. But as organizations search for opportunities to maximize the ROI of their workforce, they one process is often overlooked: onboarding. Sadly, the onboarding experience is often reduced to little more than a checklist of tasks to be completed in the first week. But the fact that many leaders fail to leverage is that an employee that experiences a smoother onboarding process will be better trained, more connected to the organization and quicker to produce.

Morgan Stanley’s chairman will step down as 30k depart Bank of America

You can take this to the bank: talent management in the financial sector just got busier. Today it was announced that John Mack, chairman of Morgan Stanley, will step down at the end of 2011 while earlier this week news broke that Bank of America will shed 30k jobs in an effort to save costs. Does this talent upheaval indicate a sign of what’s to come, or is this a blip on the radar?

Here is what happened at our 2011 Client Summit.

“Building Organizations with Strategic Sustainability” was the theme of this year’s Client Summit. It was another great event with exclusive content, case study presentations, exceptional keynote speakers and a perfect time for networking. It took place at the renowned Rosewood Crescent Hotel in Dallas where over 40 clients and associates attended.       

Ah Friday... The last and final day of our jam-packed Client Summit 2011. We intended to go out with a bang and that we did! Lots more sessions and presentations were planned and went off without a hitch!

After an hour lunch break to rejuvenate and soak in the morning’s sessions, the action didn’t stop there! There were still plenty of  great presentations and breakout sessions taking place. Attendees had the opportunity to listen to speakers from the hospitality, insurance or finance industries.

It was a day full of insight, excitement, learning and good company at our 2011 Profiles Client Summit in Dallas. The day’s events included a keynote address from research director of Aberdeen’s human capital management practice, Mollie Lombardi, followed by engaging breakout sessions with clients from various industries. We will be publishing multiple posts this week to keep you up to date on our 2011 Client Summit!

After a great kick off to the day with keynote address by Mollie Lombardi of Aberdeen Group and a short coffee break, clients broke into groups to participate in various sessions and presentations by clients across an array of industries.

For decades, Zig Ziglar has motivated and inspired millions of people to be better at whatever they do for a living. Zig's ideas about creating a sense of urgency are exemplified in his "Day Before Vacation" story. This technique can have a tremendous effect on your productivity, and the ability to motivate employees.

Many Summit attendees arrived in Dallas the night before, as we saw many familiar faces around the luxurious Rosewood Crescent Hotel. A select number of guests registered for a special early presentation by Profile's Chief Sales Officer Al Rainaldi. They met in the grand ballroom Wednesday afternoon and began the session on “Leadership Charisma and Business Impact.”

This article will provide you with information that can help better understand how job fit assessments work for selecting employees for jobs in your organization. Whether you're an owner, an executive or a manager, the following information will be beneficial to you.

7 Lessons for Employers and Employees from Yahoo

It has been fascinating, shocking, and at times uncomfortable to witness the C-level drama coming from Yahoo last week. Just after Labor Day, now-former CEO Carol Bartz was fired over the phone by Yahoo chairman Roy Bostock. Employees are dismissed all the time, but firing executive leaders can be a sticky situation.

Benefits of integrated talent management systems

iPhones, Androids and BlackBerrys have revolutionized our productivity. You can check your business email, find the nearest Starbucks, book a plane ticket or read the New York Times in an instant, all on a single screen that fits in the palm of your hand.

How to Engage at the Organization, Managerial, and Employee Levels

Unless something dramatically changes, looking ahead to 2012 will be similar to looking back to 2009. A challenging economy demands that companies run lean and maximize workforce productivity. Managers and employees must “do more with less.”  Leaders who can foster a culture of engagement throughout their workforce will prevail.

In case you are catching up on your reading or just joining us, here are our top stories for the last two weeks, August 27 - September 9, 2011. Check out the hot topics in Leadership & Management.

A new study by the Aberdeen Group has identified the four most common strategies to achieve hiring excellence. These are:

Branch managers of Loomis seemed to have mastered all aspects of the business: technical, logistical, and operational. The company was making money. So no issue, right? Wrong!

Manpower recently released their annual Talent Shortage Survey, in which they identified the 10 toughest jobs to fill in US. With 25 million Americans out of work or underemployed it might be hard to believe that any employer is struggling to fill positions. But surprisingly, Manpower reports that 52 percent of the employers in the survey are having trouble filling jobs. In the 2010 survey, only 14 percent of companies reported problems filling jobs. Now the percentage has nearly quadrupled.

In recent months we have stumbled upon many fantastic bloggers that we just had to share with you. Please feel free to comment on who your favorite bloggers are and why.

“Great job – you’ve failed again!”

Organizations such as Procter and Gamble and Unilever with vast product lines continue to churn out new products. Some are variations on existing products while others, such as the Swiffer, give birth to an entirely new brand, revenue stream, and way of cleaning. Not every company has an R&D group, or if they do, not one with the resources of P&G, for example. Whose responsibility is employee innovation in your business?

Customer loyalty and social media make for an interesting combination. On August 25, 2011, Karen Pascoe packed up and  headed for New York's JFK airport with her two feline best friends and pets, Jack the Cat and brother Barry. Shortly after clearing security, Pascoe was informed by an American Airlines (AA) employee that Jack was missing.

Robert Half recently surveyed 1,400 chief financial officers (CFOs) to publish their report CFO Concerns: What Are the Top Challenges Facing Today’s Financial Executives? Suprisingly, they identified retaining and motivating top talent as a top concern right up their with managing healthcare insurance and controlling costs.

We all like a good scary movie every now and then (well most of us do anyway!), but nothing is scarier to a CEO than hiring someone who appears to be perfect for the job, and then finding out quickly that he or she is a nightmare. Everyday we see organizations use hiring practices to avoid.