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Most employees look forward to the annual performance review the way they look forward to a root canal. Feelings range from anxiety and angst to annoyance and anger. Not that performance reviews are a thrill for managers, either. Typically, they involve hours of preparation, and the outcome is often an employee who is less engaged… Continue reading 5 Key Benefits of Real-Time Performance Feedback

A changing workforce has left many highly qualified professionals out of the job market. But are these candidates too qualified, or could they be the right people for the job? Hiring Managers have traditionally hesitated to employ overqualified candidates because of several presumed risks –  the assumption is that the person will be bored and… Continue reading Should You Hire An Overqualified Candidate?

Greg Boyed’s recent death raises issues of mental health in the workplace.  For many of us, his death sent the sobering message that no matter the professional heights people have reached, it’s impossible to fully know what they are dealing with in private. Most people don’t realize that more than 300 million people worldwide suffer from depression.… Continue reading 5 Ways to Start the Mental Health Conversation

Open-plan offices have taken off because of a desire to increase interaction and collaboration among workers. But an innovative new study has found that employees in open-plan offices spend 73% less time in face-to-face interactions. Email and messaging use shot up by over 67%. The study is the first to track the impacts of open-plan offices using objective… Continue reading Why The Open-Plan Office is a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Idea

Good health and safety practices don’t just protect employees; they also create an environment which cultivates economic success. Many of our manufacturing & processing clients view Health & Safety as a potent differentiator which strengthens their culture, reduces downtime & cuts labour costs through fewer accidents as well as reduces their ACC levies. It makes… Continue reading Health & Safety Starts At Recruitment

When recruiting new employees into their organisations, most of our clients use our flagship product the “15FQ+”, which is a personality questionnaire designed to provide insight into how an individual may think, feel and interact in the workplace. This information is primarily used alongside other assessment methods to explore the match between the candidate and… Continue reading Ready To Up Your Hiring Game?

New Zealand business leaders have been relatively quick to recognise the benefits diversity can bring to a business.  It’s no surprise that businesses who embrace diversity have enhanced decision making, increased engagement and greater access to top talent. Unfortunately, some recruitment processes haven’t kept up the pace in embracing diversity, whilst some recruiting people struggle… Continue reading Bolster your recruitment talent pool by overcoming bias and embracing diversity

A hiring manager’s and candidate’s idea of “proficiency” in any given software system can be two very different things.  If you’re hiring for a position requiring Microsoft Office skills, then our blended Microsoft Office pre-employment skills test is exactly what you need to measure a candidate’s true depth of knowledge. The Microsoft Office skills test… Continue reading Are you 100% certain that your candidates are proficient in MS Office?

“Candidate Experience” is a hot topic in my HR network at the moment. For those of you unfamiliar with this phrase, it’s the reaction a job seeker has about an organisation’s job application process, and for me, it hits close to home. Whilst the idea of “candidate experience” isn’t necessarily new or even innovative, what… Continue reading The Good, The Bad & The Ugly of Candidate Experience

For those of you who don’t know me, I consider myself to be a Kiwi/American. I’m a citizen of both countries and have lived in each for about the same duration of time.  When I relocated back to the States a couple years ago, I began reflecting on what I had accomplished whilst living in New Zealand;… Continue reading Cultivating Grit: The Secret Ingredient of Successful People and Organisations