human resources

Tony Schwartz: Want Productive Employees? Treat Them Like Adults

on March 25, 2013

Gunsworthy10

Tony SchwartzThis article originally appeared on HBR.org and The Energy Project. It is reprinted here with the kind permission of the author.

For more than a decade now, I’ve struggled to define what fuels the most sustainably productive work environment — not just on behalf of the large corporate clients we serve, but also for my own employees at The Energy Project. Perhaps nothing I’ve uncovered is as important as trust.

Much as employers understandably hunger for one-size-fits-all policies and practices, what motivates human beings remains stubbornly complex, opaque, and difficult to unravel. Perhaps that’s why I felt so viscerally the shortsightedness and futility of Marissa Mayer’s decision to order Yahoo employees who had been working from home to move back to the office, and Hubert Joly’s to do the same at Best Buy.    Read More →

Gunsworthy10
Comment

Promising Job Numbers and Resume Advice from an Unlikely Source, Plus What We’re Reading

on October 5, 2012

Gunsworthy3

Happy Friday, Guns. ADP and the Bureau of Labor Statistics released their monthly job numbers for September this week, and the overall outlook continues to improve:

BLS: “The unemployment rate decreased to 7.8 percent in September, and total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 114,000, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Employment increased in health care and in transportation and warehousing but changed little in most other major industries.”

ADP: “Employment in the U.S. nonfarm private business sector increased by 162,000 from August to September, on a seasonally adjusted basis. The estimated gains in previous months were revised lower: The July increase was reduced by 17,000 to an increase of 156,000, while the August increase was reduced by 12,000 to an increase of 189,000.”

In sum, growth is happening, if slowly. We’re seeing the first green shoots emerging from the soil after the spring thaw here. ADP’s hedging on their previous numbers makes this month’s performance all the more noteworthy. It’s also worth noting here that as we move into Q4, we’re likely to see sharp spikes in hiring due to temporary, seasonal jobs being added. That’s why September’s numbers are so crucial: it’s the last true measure of employment statistics that we’ll get for the rest of the year. And it looks promising.    Read More →

Gunsworthy3
Comment

What We’re Reading: A Google VP Steps Out, A New Take on Job Vacancies, and #CoffeeMugMurder

on September 28, 2012

Gunsworthy3

Happy Friday, Guns. Here’s a look back at the week that was:

Gunsworthy3
Comment

THG in the News: AOL Jobs Quotes Our Outlook for a Sunny September

on September 7, 2012

Gunsworthy3

The Hired Guns in the NewsWhen The Guns tweet, the web listens. Just this morning, AOL Jobs quoted The Hired Guns’ optimistic outlook for September hiring:

Unemployed workers looking for more evidence of a pickup in hiring this month might take some inspiration from The Hired Guns, a New York City-based employment agency focused on the high tech and creative fields.

Via Twitter on Friday, the firm said that it expects hiring in September “will be strong based on the brisk biz we’ve been seeing.”    Read More →

Gunsworthy3
Comment

How to Build a Team That Builds Great Products

on August 2, 2012

Gunsworthy9

Chili PeppersToday we are pleased to welcome Wyatt Jenkins, VP of Product for Shutterstock, to the blog.  Wyatt shares his insights on breaking into the product management game and how he built a world-class team.

Hiring is a topic I’m passionate about because I like to work with bright, enthusiastic people who challenge me every day. I’ve spent the last decade building teams (most recently a product organization that includes designers, researchers, and product owners), and I’ve learned a number of lessons in that time. Let’s focus specifically on product ownership — a role that many gravitate toward, but few do well. I’ve seen many different types of people find success as product owners — from former developers, English majors, designers, and project managers, all the way to former CEOs and small business owners. (I prefer the term “product owner” to the more well-known “product manager” because managers manage and owners own, and building great products demands ownership.) I want people who are technical enough to dig deep with the development team and at the same time enjoy interacting with customers to discover value. Finding the right person with the right combination of customer focus, consensus building, and technical savvy isn’t easy, so I’ve put together a few things to look for during the interviewing process.    Read More →

Gunsworthy9
Comment

Survey: Job Vacancies Are Hard on Those Left Behind, Too

on June 28, 2012

Gunsworthy1

According to a recent Careerbuilder survey, some companies believe that job cuts have left their organization a little too lean and mean.

Some 34% of employers believe that unfilled jobs have left the remaining staff overworked, resulting in lower-quality work. Roughly the same number of employers surveyed believed that the job vacancies caused a loss in morale; 17% thought the vacancies led to higher turnover.

And 23% of employers also believe that their companies suffered a loss in revenue because of those vacancies.

Gunsworthy1
Comment

How Good People CAN Get Jobs: Four Great Ways to Beat the “System”

on June 14, 2012

Gunsworthy14

We knew our post last week, Why Good People Can’t Get Jobs, was going to touch a nerve.  It’s like there are two job markets out there: one where companies can’t find skilled candidates, and another where qualified applicants apply and never hear a peep.  Something’s broken, and a big culprit is the multiplicity of Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) that many companies use to handle online job applicants. But good news: there are ways to up your chances of success.    Read More →

Gunsworthy14
Comment

The Salary Tutor Answers Your Questions

on April 5, 2012

Gunsworthy3

Last month, Jim Hopkinson taught a Hired Guns Academy class about negotiating your salary effectively. He’ll be teaching for us again, but until then, you can still learn from his ample experience. Below, he answers questions from the Hired Community about dealing with counteroffers and other potential salary complications.


I have an exciting new job offer and am in a bit of a quandary. I want the new job very badly but wish that the base were a little higher. Even though I desperately want out of my current company, I was thinking about going back and asking for a counteroffer so that I can get a bump from my new company. Good idea?    Read More →

Gunsworthy3
Comment

Bullet Points: Your Resume Has Six Seconds to Impress

on March 26, 2012

Gunsworthy1
Gunsworthy1
Comment

NPR’s #PubJobs: A Case Study in Recruiting with Twitter

on March 22, 2012

Gunsworthy2

Writing for MediaShift, NPR’s director of talent acquisition, Lars Schmidt, lays out a successful Twitter strategy he used to publicize and fill openings at the company.

First, he promoted the use of the hashtag #PubJobs for any jobs in public media — wherever they were. By also getting American Public Media and local public-radio and -TV stations on board, Lars not only helped fill NPR’s own openings but also helped get “great talent in the system” in general.

Since the launch of #PubJobs last June, the hashtag has appeared in over 700 tweets by 130 unique contributors. Roughly 60% of them were retweets, which Lars believes points up the “virility” and “visibility” of the campaign. And as far as ways to use social media to get the right people to keep your company in mind, it definitely beats asking applicants for their Facebook passwords ….

Gunsworthy2
Comment

Bullet Points: Where the Recruiters Are

on March 15, 2012

Gunsworthy0
  • For a recent study, the social-recruiting company Bullhorn Reach analyzed the way the 35,000 recruiters on its network use the “big three” of social media (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook). It’s probably no surprise that LinkedIn is the runaway favorite, used by 98% of the recruiters who have connected their Bullhorn account with any social-media account at all. Twitter and Facebook are used by only 42% and 33% of the recruiters, respectively. Whether or not this means that recruiters are hunting in the wrong place remains to be seen, but we bet that you’ll see more and more recruiters at least trying to prospect more on Facebook and Twitter in the future.
  • The Daily Herald of Everett, WA, considers a job interview on Skype a real downer: “Because of the awkward nature of the on-screen interaction and lack of flow in the conversation, Skype is a good tool for employers who want a cost-saving way to rule out candidates. However, the job candidate is almost always at a disadvantage.”
  • “There is only one thing you need to measure when it comes to being a perm or search recruiter… How many of your candidates are sitting opposite your clients.” [Greg Savage]
  • Ex-Goldman man Greg Smith may have made “muppets” famous, but the New York Times points out that lots of businesses have less-than-kind terms for their customers.
Gunsworthy0
Comment

LinkedIn’s Recruiting Revenues May Soon Eclipse Monster’s

on February 23, 2012

Gunsworthy1

It’s been a banner year so far for LinkedIn, with its stock up an amazing 46% since January 1 — a big jump in its revenue accounts for much of this new sexiness to investors.

For the Forbes contributor Josh Bersin, though, the “real story” is the fact that LinkedIn is now the “fastest growing public provider of corporate recruiting solutions.” So if there’s anyone out there who still thinks that LinkedIn is just a more-boring Facebook for suits, it’s time to get with the program.    Read More →

Gunsworthy1
Comment

Bullet Points: Oracle’s Play for Taleo

on February 9, 2012

Gunsworthy2
  • In a deal worth nearly $2 billion, Oracle intends to buy Taleo, which makes cloud-based “Talent Management” software used by HR departments in 5,000 companies worldwide. The purchase is seen as a move against SAP, which recently bought a Taleo competitor.
  • The bad first impressions that new employees get during onboarding may linger for a long, long time. [Ere.net]
  • Helicopter parents are keeping a close eye on their little darlings’ entry into the workplace. But how are companies supposed to deal with it? One consultant goes deep: “You don’t want to block the energy of the parent…. It’s like jujitsu. You just want to channel it in a certain direction.”
  • In what’s starting to feel a lot like the first dot-com bubble, there are simply not enough great programmers to satisfy Bay Area startups: “Top programmers are like a race car,” says one developer. “Once you get them you don’t want to lose them and you want to get as many as you can.” That’s caused headaches for the talent agency GitHire, which is a startup itself.
Gunsworthy2
Comment

Product Management, User Experience, Information Architecture, Interaction Design, Usability Testing

Project Management, Program Management, Production, Content Production

Animation, Art Direction, Creative Direction, Corporate Identity, Flash Design/Dev, Graphic Design, Web Design

Content Strategy, Editorial, Copywriting, Copy Editing, Research, Blog Outreach

Brand Management, Business Development, Sales, Product Marketing, Event/Conference Planning, Promotions, Marcomms, Corporate Comms, Direct Marketing, E-Marketing, Public Relations, Market Research

Account Management, Account/Brand Planning, Media Strategy, Communications Planning, Media Planning/Buying, Social Media, Search (SEM, SEO), Web Metrics & Analytics

Web Development, Front End Development

[no subcategories]

close

We're sorry, we could not retrieve the gun you were looking for. Please close this window and try again.

Thanks for your interest in our talent! We'll be in touch soon.

An error occurred and we weren't able submit your request. Please try again.

close

We have but one over-arching rule for comments: Do not add to the chaos of the universe.

  • This blog is devoted to developing a point of view around the Future of Work through the lens of the digital creative class. It offers some of the best career writing out there to help you get ahead as well as some brand new bloggers livin' the dream and tellin' it like it is. We encourage you to use the comments to drive conversations to the next level, bounce ideas off our bloggers, challenge them, and engage in dialogue with your fellow readers.
  • Disagreement is fine. If one of our bloggers gets your goat, say so, but elevate the conversation. Substantiate. Strive to teach. Your words might actually change someone's opinion. Don't just rant.
  • Sign your name. Anonymity makes you a wimp.
  • If you're just commenting to get your handle out there, please be clever about it. Or witty. We'll delete unimaginative self-promotion.
  • We'll also likely delete comments that are vulgar, inadvertently or maliciously off-topic, spammy, creepy or sloppy.
close