Tag Archives: Employment

I understand the appeal of looking for job candidates who have done the job before, but a “been there done that” approach to hiring often leads to less than optimal results.

How much does a bad hire cost companies? It’s more than just money according to this infographic by Mindflash. Hiring the wrong person also causes lost time, productivity, and morale.

Guest post by Veena Vadgama, Vice President of Marketing for Network Instruments
Making a decision to reduce headcount or shut down operations is a scenario no CEO ever wants to face.

Photo credit: Wikipedia
I just completed my three-part series about how CEOs can model culture and influence it using the SCARF model (employees’ perceptions of Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness).

Last week I introduced the SCARF model as a way for CEOs to understand and influence their company cultures. Humans are wired to react to rewards and threats in our environments, including in social situations.

We want people to join Starbucks who have like-minded values.

Photo Credit: Horia Varlan via Compfight cc
I’ve been discussing the top traits I look for in job candidates – creative initiative, exceptionalism, motivation and value – but a vital and vexing question for most hiring managers is whether to hi

Besides creative initiative and exceptionalism, which I’ve written about recently, there are two more traits I look for in every job candidate: motivation and value. Here’s what I mean by each.

I actually interview everyone at SpaceX personally. And we’re a 500-person company, so that’s a lot of interviews.
What do I look for? It depends on the task.

What’s the best way to motivate employees? Career analyst Dan Pink gave a fantastic presentation at the TEDGlobal 2009 conference titled “The Puzzle of Motivation,” where he discussed the science behind extrinsic vs. intrinsic motivators.