Human Resources

Succession Planning is NOT a Buzzword!

Yesterday a colleague shared performance and training data with me that truly illustrates just how ill-prepared we are for Workforce 2020. Here are a few realities from that data: Thanks to tight budgets and retirement incentives, the Feds have lost a vast amount of seasoned talent over the past 5 years. Although we have doneRead… Read more »

What Are the Top 10 Traits of an Ideal Mentor? How About a Mentee?

This past Friday night, GovLoop kicked off the Spring 2012 Mentors Program. As part of the orientation session, we asked participants to break into small groups and identify attributes of the ideal mentor and mentees. Here’s what the group (including participants who chimed in by live chat) identified as the top 10 traits for each:Read… Read more »

Tired of Sneak Attacks?

Buried in the Senate Highway Bill (Amendment #1826 to S.1813) is a sneak attempt to extend the Pay Freeze imposed on Federal employees for yet another year! Surprised? According to it’s author, Senator Pat Roberts, “This amendment includes a special deficit reduction trust fund … <that> would contain the savings from the energy production incentives,Read… Read more »

How Organizations Could Be More Successful – (Part Three of How Organizations Fail)

To understand how organizations can succeed, let’s briefly recap the lessons from the first two parts of this series on organizational failure. Part One –Framework for Analyzing Organizational Failure1) Every decision has unintended consequences for the future – latent conditions.2) Leaders often make decisions without a thorough analysis of the effects of their decisions.3) EmployeesRead… Read more »

Addressing Austerity – What should you as a public servant do?

Social Connect via: For public servants across the world and more specifically in Canada, austerity measures being introduced by their governments represent a threat to their livelihood. Public service has traditionally been viewed as a cushy, secure job with wonderful benefits. Public service is not the most well paid job but the job security andRead… Read more »

Social Media in Government Reading Discussion: Clay Shirky’s “Cognitive Surplus”

This week, we read Clay Shirky’s Cognitive Surplus Why I assigned this book There are a few different kinds of value that government agencies can wring from social media. The first is simply to use it as a venue for engaging citizens. Another is to listen to citizens as they talk to one another. StillRead… Read more »

All About Clarity

Performance Management has been part of many workplace discussions for several years now. But many people—managers and employees alike—still don’t understand what it is and how it can help everyone. At its most basic, performance management is all about clarity: clear expectations about both performance and on-the-job conduct or behavior.And while it can take timeRead… Read more »

Live! From New York! It’s Jobs Friday! (Job growth has spread to more of the nation’s large metro areas)

The Wally Street Journal reports: “Wall Street, Washington and Main Street are all aligned on one thing: Jobs” “One reason for optimism is that job growth has spread to more of the nation’s largest metro areas—divisions bigger than cities that can include several counties. According to data from the government and Moody’s Analytics, 82 ofRead… Read more »