Jason Lauritsen posted the following list of challenges to the HR community on Twitter a couple of weeks ago:

1. Know why you do what you do. Have a plan that shows how your actions drive biz value.

2. Quit whining about not having a seat at the table. It’s not the execs who are the problem, its you. Step up and earn your spot.

3. Be creative in how you create programs and opportunities for the employees of your company. They are counting on you.

4. Get out of your office and be with your business partners. They will trust you if they feel like you know their business.

5. Be a great leader. Whether you have direct reports or not, set the example of courageous and honest leadership.

6. Do something extraordinary this year. Surprise your customers and yourself. Dare to achieve something really exceptional.

7. Measure everything.

That’s a damn good list, and I’ll be aspiring to do a better job at some of these over the coming year.

Also, if you’re not already following Jason on Twitter, do so immediately.

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Training has only one purpose: Influence participants to do things that drive organizational success.

If your training doesn’t change the way people do things, why bother? If people start doing things differently, but it has no impact on your team or organizational performance, why bother?

Talent management is all about inspiring people to do amazing things at the workplace, and a well-developed training program is fantastic way to inspire.

Learn how to kick-butt with this practical guide to developing and delivering training programs.

Kung-Fu Training: The Art of Developing and Delivering Kick-Butt Training Programs.

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When you’re trying to decide between multiple candidates for a job, what’s more important: Passion or expertise? Seth Godin published a great article on his blog a couple of weeks ago titled “Expertise and Passion,” that attempts to answer just that. He asks,

Should the person who runs the customer service operations at a ski school also be required to love skiing? Can the CFO of a large church be an atheist? Does the head of marketing at Kodak have to have a passion for chemicals?

Seth’s answer to those questions is “no,” “yes,” and “no,” respectively. Looking at the ski school example, a person could have a tremendous passion for skiing but be terrible at customer service. Conversely, an atheist CFO may bring substantially more impactful financial knowledge to the job than a christian he competed against for the job.

Seth really gets to the heart of things, noting,

It’s more important that you be passionate about what you do all day than it is to be passionate about the product that is being sold.

To read the full article click here.

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How does Subway try to differentiate themselves from Quiznos, D’Angelo’s, and the plethora of other sandwich shops throughout the country?

It’s tempting to think “speed” – they are a fast-food franchise, after all. But they don’t claim to be faster than the other sub shops, so it’s not that. Think about their motto: “Eat fresh.” What comes to mind?

Quality. Subway competes on quality, and with their new “Five dollar foot long” campaign, also on price.

As a franchised business, Subway’s corporate office has little control over the management practices of their individual stores. So how do they align their talent management at a shop level with their UVP (unique value proposition)?

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There are two types of HR professionals in the world:

• Those who keep costs down.
• Those who add value.

Unfortunately, far too many human resource pros fall into the former category and not the latter.

If you work in human resources, there are two main things you should be focused on: Recruiting great people, and inspiring them to do amazing work. That’s where you add value. The other stuff – benefits administration, policy writing, dealing with employees who act like children – is necessary, but it doesn’t add value. It keeps risk and costs down.

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