What kind of HR Department are you?

Tip o' the hat to Tim Sackett for a great article: http://fistfuloftalent.com/2013/09/hr-5c-5s.html What kind of landscape do you play in, and how good are you at providing value that improves your organization?

Intern vs. Apprentice - a good argument for today

A Tip o' the fedora to Suzanne Lucas for this interesting article: http://www.inc.com/suzanne-lucas/forget-the-interns-hire-an-apprentice.html I agree that none of us ever learned our profession in 3 months of an internship - what we learned in that time was basically if we liked the nature of the work, and not necessarily how to perform any of the work itself. Many of us did "apprentice" with someone more senior to learn a craft. Even when there is more science than art to a profession, much of the professional skill is acquired by doing the work under the direction of a senior and highly skilled worker. This is as true in software development as it is in product management or human resources or recruiting.

A new spin on Best Practices

As consultants and business owners, many of us subscribe to the idea that Best Practices are just that - the time-honored success methods of various companies to solve common problems and construct new business methods to ensure ongoing success.

Tim Berry, a very smart guy and serial entrepreneur, has another spin on the whole
Jim Collins "Good to Great" idea. Really thought-provoking for me as a systems and process-oriented person. Think about using Best Practices as just the idea generator.

http://timberry.bplans.com/2010/07/the-sad-truth-about-best-practices.html

Thanks, Tim for bringing these ideas into focus so well. This article has implications great and small for all of us in the recruiting business. We so often look at best practices in both HR and recruiting that maybe we need to re-think our allegiance to the concept.