When my wife and I first moved into our condo, Joni, a really nice woman who lives a few units down, came over to say hi.

We were literally unloading our car. The moving truck hadn’t even gotten there yet, and there was Joni welcoming us to the neighborhood.

She told us how much she loved living there. She gave us directions to the market and the local Target. She made us feel like we were home. What a great start to a new chapter in our lives!

Does this sort of thing happen at your organization?

If so, what about your culture compels employees to welcome new people in so enthusiastically? If not, how can you create a culture that enables and encourages this sort of behavior?

I’m not talking about the obligatory HR welcome committee. I mean real, genuine enthusiasm at having a new person join an awesome community of people.

You spend a lot of time getting people excited to come work for you during the recruiting process. Then you put them through an orientation program, get them setup at their work-station and introduce them their team. Sign them up for benefits.

What happens a month after you bring a new hire onboard? What about three months after?

Do you check-in to see how they’re doing? Whether or not the organization is living up to their expectations?

If not, you should be.

Renegade HR is a simple approach to HR: Recruit great people, and help them do amazing things that drive your business.

Here’s how to start practicing Renegade HR at your organization today.

Keep reading…

Renegade HR is really about two things:

1. Hiring great people.
2. Enabling them to do great things that drive your business.

Hiring great people can be difficult. It takes time to get it right.

If you want to be a better HR pro today, find out what’s stopping your employees from doing great things. If you can, ask them directly. Speak to their managers, too.

Once you find out what they need to do great things, get it for them.

Maybe it’s more direction and feedback. That’s something that should obviously come from their manager. But part of your job as an HR Renegade is coach managers on how to better manage.

Maybe a policy or procedure is getting in the way. Find out how to get rid of it, if possible.

A rising tide lifts all boats. Help your managers and the people they lead do better work, and you’ll be a better HR pro.

Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR discusses the future of human resources. (34:52)

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Direct mp3 download

Links from the podcast

• SHRM, Kennedy, & Blowing Up Human Resources
• The Zappos Culture Book
• Monday is Pitch-a-Policy Day
• The case for the HR generalist

Keep reading…

Image by Danny Williams

As an HR pro, it’s pretty much a given that you will eventually have to deal with performance issues. Before you go write that Performance Improvement Plan, have you asked yourself why your employee sucks at his job?

Chances are, it’s not his fault. It’s yours.

Keep reading…

Last week I stumbled across an awesome presentation by Jessica Lee of Fistful of Talent fame. The topic was onboarding strategies for Gen Y.

Now I’ll admit, I’m pretty damn sick of hearing about Gen Y (and I’m not the only one). I’ve written before that most of the articles on managing Millennial don’t teach managers how to effectively manage young people. They teach managers how to more effectively manage everyone. Who doesn’t want to be involved in meaningful work, be challenged but not overloaded, be provided with support on day one, and so on?

Anyways, it’s a pretty good presentation (and relatively short, too). Just remember that the strategies it offers aren’t for Gen Y. They’re for everyone.

(email subscribers may need to click through to view the presentation)