By Sheri Mazurek on October 3, 2011
Change is constantly around us. In our daily lives, we experience change in almost every aspect. In order to adapt to the changes around us we learn. Adults are constantly learning and adapting. In HR, we must adapt to changes in business needs and priorities and to changes in resources and functions. We must also be prepared to learn new technologies and new business tools that will enable us to meet the changing demands of our organizations and the people they employ. So how do we keep in front of changes and stay alert to where our profession is headed?
We learn. How do you keep up to date? My suggestion is simple: Get out of Your Office.
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By Sheri Mazurek on September 27, 2011
Before cell phones and mobile devices, decisions sometimes had to be made at a moment’s notice by someone other than the boss, or the leader, or the person in charge. As a result, I think we spent more time developing the people who might have to make those decisions. And people were learning from having to make those decisions. And succession planning was occurring very naturally. And leaders had time to think and to reflect.
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By Sheri Mazurek on September 10, 2011
In an previous post, I discussed the many different views of HR’s number one priority. Despite the view from which you see HR, most would agree that HR has a responsibility for talent. From talent acquisition to development and retention, HR has responsibilities. However, this very concept that HR owns talent can be a source of frustration for many. For the HR professional charged with the responsibility of talent, it can be frustrating when managers fail with their talent. For the managers who believe HR owns talent, it can be frustrating when HR can’t fix their problems. And what about the employee? What about the talent caught in the middle feeling like their manager isn’t leading them to success and HR doesn’t care?
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By Sheri Mazurek on September 5, 2011
Hopefully by now, you have heard or read enough advice to know that giving me your job description doesn’t tell me what I want to know. I need to know what did, how your did, what were you able to accomplish. I need verbs, actions, and results. Simple as that. Sure if you want to list on your resume that you were “employee of the month” that is great, but what I really care about is what you did to earn that recognition and why it was important in your role. If you can give me that in a concise way on your resume, even better. If not, I am going to ask you if you make it to the interview, so be prepared to give the details.
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By Sheri Mazurek on August 23, 2011
Learning requires action and sometimes failing. There are a number of failures that I have learned from throughout my career. One of the most painful for me was in my early days of multi-unit management. I had just been transferred for the first time out of my hometown to a new city with an entirely new group of stores, employees and customers. Coming into this new environment, I was a little cocky. I had been a rock star store manager and after my promotion, I led a rock star district of stores. My team was good and my stores were very profitable. So of course, I assumed if my new team wasn’t comprised of rock stars, I could have that turned around in no time. Unfortunately, the time frame it took for that happen was quite a bit longer than I expected. The main reason, I thought it was about me and my talents. It wasn’t. I took over a team of rock stars who just didn’t know it yet. And everything I did when I got there communicated that they weren’t.
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By Sheri Mazurek on August 11, 2011
I read. I read a lot. I read a lot of books, blogs, magazines, whitepapers, and articles on a variety of topics related to HR, talent management, training and development, metrics, leadership, and management (I am sure there a few more I missed). I have read a million buzz words in the past several years and hundreds of works that discuss why HR will never have a seat at the table. In fact, I have written a few of these works myself. Recently, I keep reading and hearing a phase (you know all those free webinars which are really just audio white papers that allow for a few minutes of questions at the end) over and over.
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By Sheri Mazurek on July 23, 2011
Are interested in working in Netflix? Do you think that talent is your number one priority in HR? Then you shouldn’t apply at Netflix. In a current job posting on their website, Netflix clearly spells out what they are and are not looking for in a Director-HR. The message is short and doesn’t mention anything about company benefits or essential functions. But, it is effective. It is to the point and my guess is that it will weed out a number of candidates that don’t fit.
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By Sheri Mazurek on July 11, 2011
Over at the HRCapitalist blog, Kris Dunn asked the question, “Why Don’t We Coach Employees More Than We Do?” This is a great question and to quote Dunn, “confrontation sucks.”
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By Sheri Mazurek on June 30, 2011
During my career, I have been given a few nuggets of wisdom from people with whom I have made contact. Upon truly understanding their meaning, those words shaped a paradigm shift in my thinking that transformed the way in which I did my work or lived my life. Other pieces of wisdom I heard simply reaffirmed what I already knew, but perhaps provided a unique way in which to describe or communicate the concept. One of those concepts seems to be rarer today than when my career started and I thought I would share it with you.
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By Sheri Mazurek on June 21, 2011
If you ask a number of people what is HR’s number one priority or responsibility, you’ll most likely get a number of different responses based on who is answering the question even if two of those asked are in the same position. People are egocentric by nature. They tend to view things from their own experiences and needs. Below are a few examples
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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 15 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development.