Meghan M. Biro, Author at TalentCulture

The First Steps to Transforming Work Culture

Changing workplace culture is never a revolution—at least, not if you want change that lasts. So if you’re focused on transforming your work culture as we move into the coming year, it’s important to know that it’s a process, not an overnight transformation. That’s an idea that makes many leaders uncomfortable; we like to think of ourselves as disruptive and courageous, able to flip a switch and inspire change. The reality is, particularly in a large organization, sudden changes often do more damage than good. It’s exceedingly difficult, and often a mistake, to aim for wholesale culture shifts overnight. The benefits

What's More Important to Give Employees: A Gift Card or a Pat on the Back?

While many companies use financial compensation to reward employees, there are times when these rewards lose their effectiveness. Here is when to consider ditching the bonus for a simple pat on the back. While companies are comfortable with giving financial rewards to employees, they often get stuck when it comes to giving meaningful, genuine recognition. Yet recognition is often the more powerful reward, since it speaks to the employee in the language of meaning and personal context, rather than generic gift cards. What speaks even more volume is creating reward programs with a social component. This approach brings the department or larger

5 Ways Leaders Rock Employee Recognition

I was grocery shopping the other day (Yes, this sometimes happens). A mom with two small kids in tow kept up a constant stream of chatter: “Great job pushing the cart, Stella, you are so smart.” “Good work picking out a pepper, Max, now put it back.” It went on and on – kids do something/anything, mother responds with a positive affirmation, kids do another something, mother reacts. This is so awesome to see in action. I’m in aisle 10 and it continues. There is a giant metaphor unfolding as I seek out my coconut water. You rock. You’re so special.

Are You a Social CEO?

Richard Branson lives large on social media, weaving stories about a life lived on the edge in <140 characters. Jack Dorsey tweets of past presidents, music and business wisdom filtered through poets and writers. Elon Musk narrates rocket launches and provides matter-of-fact commentary on innovation. But the C-suite at HP, Oracle, GE and many other companies has largely been silent on Twitter, LinkedIn and other widely-accessible social media channels. Why, when it would appear social media has changed the rules of communication, would a leader be silent? Hasn’t social media rewritten the rules of leadership? It’s arguably lowered barriers to communication,

How Technology and Work Culture Drive Each Other

There’s a ton of research showing that a happy employee is a more engaged employee(and more productive, too), and technology can play a big role. As I’ve mentioned previously, the future of work is here. Companies operating with a 21st century mindset know that technology and work culture are interlinked, with one driving the other. Apart from the typical communication tools, technology goes much further, even allowing us to reward workers in the moment. Gamification, intra-company social networks and external applications all play a role when it comes to maintaining the health and well-being of employees. Gamification and Employee Engagement Gamification

5 HR Technology Trends: HR Isn’t The Stagnant Step-Sister Anymore

Here’s yet another case where what happens in Vegas should not stay in Vegas: the HR Tech Conference. With $812 million venture capital investment pumped into HR and recruiting tech in the first half of 2015, this one’s going to be hot. Sure I’m geeked on it. Now that products and rollouts run the functional gamut you should be too, considering what’s worth the bite. It’s a big bad buffet. So what are these HR Technology trends? Here you go. 1) Go for today, later, and even later than that Assess your present and future needs. Ask the hard questions: where

#TChat Recap: How Social Recruiting Makes the Talent Business Case

Do you ever wonder how prevalent social recruiting is today – especially versus five years ago? Or what are considered best practices for reaching out to candidates on social sites? Social recruiting is no longer a trend. It’s the new norm. According to new Dice research, 9 out of 10 recruiters are using social media in talent acquisition. This week, the TalentCulture community enjoyed a fast-paced and high-energy discussion about how social recruiting makes the talent business case with this week’s guests: Stacy Zapar, Founder of Tenfold, and recruiting strategist, trainer & advisor; and Allison Kruse, Senior Manager of Social Media

Want Great Corporate Culture: Focus on Nurturing Relationships

The holy grail of companies large and small is a great corporate culture. And what’s the secret sauce, the master ingredient when it comes to creating a great work culture? It’s all about the relationships your team creates with one another. As a manager, you can play a big role in fostering great corporate culture by nurturing and guiding your team when it comes to building those relationships. Let’s explore. A Deloitte University Press study earlier this year cited employee engagement and work culture as the number one challenge facing organizations today. There are a number of reasons HR professionals are

How To Get The Most Out of Your Job Ad

So, you’re hoping to create some buzz around the job ad you’ve just published on your careers page? Today’s recruiting environment is competitive and complex. Recruiting the best candidates starts with making the right first impression—and using a combination of tactics will help you get the most out of your job ad. For the best results, it’s important to include social and mobile recruiting tools, as well as free and paid ads—and to know the best day to post. Building Hype Around Job Openings So where do you start? The first thing you need to do is get your listing noticed

Think Beyond Mobile Apply for a Stronger Mobile Candidate Experience

For more insights on recruitment marketing best practices employed by the world’s leading organizations, including mobile candidate experience, get a free download of SmashFly’s Recruitment Marketing Report Card for the 2015 Fortune 500. This September, SmashFly researched and evaluated every 2015 Fortune 500 organization’s career site for 13 unique recruitment marketing practices. The research itself was pretty illuminating (see a snapshot here in the Report Card Infographic), especially as more organizations are aggressively investing in better ways to attract, engage and convert candidate leads into applicants. While I highly encourage you to check out all 13 practices in the report card and use the data

The Five Secrets to Retaining Millennial Talent

The job market is definitely heating up. Millennials, now the largest demographic in the American workforce, are moving into leadership positions. Wired from birth, Millennials have different expectations than their older colleagues, and those expectations are shaping how successful companies manage HR functions. Gaps in what the Millennial generation wants versus what an employer is offering can make or break an organization’s advancement. What exactly are the most important Millennial needs that should be addressed? We looked at SilkRoad’s “Millennial Secrets Survey 2015” to try and understand the difficulties inherent in balancing Millennial expectations, as well as the secrets to retaining this valuable and

#TChat Preview: How Social Recruiting Makes the Talent Business Case

The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, December 2, from 1-2 pm ET (10-11 am PT). On November 18, we talked about how wellness programs improve employee performance, and on December 2 we’re going to discuss how social recruiting makes the talent business case. Social recruiting is no longer a trend. It’s the new norm. According to new Dice research, 9 out of 10 recruiters are using social media in talent acquisition. In fact, the same research shows that social media has improved or is greatly improving tech recruiting results—including quality of candidates, referrals and time-to-hire. Social has become

What HR Pros Can Do About the Lack of Women in STEM

Thanks to the pace of innovation, STEM skills—science, technology, engineering, and math—are in increasingly high demand. It’s not a news flash that there’s a lack of diversity (and women) in STEM jobs, and this presents an opportunity for HR pros. Make sure you understand the challenges for women in STEM careers and how your company is focusing on STEM opportunities; this can be key in ultimately attracting top talent. Consider this —there are two STEM job vacancies for every qualified-but-unemployed person, and staffing agency Adecco forecasts that “U.S. colleges are only graduating enough computer science engineers to fill 30 percent of

#TChat Recap: How Wellness Programs Improve Employee Performance

Making time to stay in shape isn’t easy. Frenetic schedules and long work hours take a big bite out of exercise. However, wellness programs and physical activity can boost employees’ health and it’s good for business, as well. In fact, research shows that workers who exercise during the day reported a 15 percent boost in performance, a happier mood and increased ability to meet deadlines. This week, the TalentCulture community discussed some of the many ways you can help employees find time for wellness programs, supporting their overall well-being. Our special guest was Ann Wyatt, vice president of account management at

How to Better Use Employee Stories in Your Recruitment Marketing Strategy

For more insights on recruitment marketing best practices employed by the world’s leading organizations, get a free download of SmashFly’s Recruitment Marketing Report Card for the 2015 Fortune 500. This September, SmashFly researched and evaluated every 2015 Fortune 500 organization’s career site 13 unique recruitment marketing practices. The research itself was pretty illuminating (see a snapshot here in the Report Card Infographic), especially as more organizations aggressively invest in better ways to attract, engage and convert candidate leads into applicants. While I highly encourage you to check out all 13 practices in the report card and use the data to benchmark

The Future of Work is Here: Are Your Managers Prepared?

We often talk about the “future of work” as if it’s a destination; but the reality is that the future of work is already here. Technology’s impact on the remote and part-time workforce is transforming work culture right now. Are your managers prepared and ready to embrace this new work world? The “future of work” is an umbrella term that encompasses everything from technology’s impact on work environment to changes in organizational structure, marketable skills, and government policy. Today, let’s focus on the five aspects that most impact your bottom line: Productivity Technology Big Data Organizational Structure Leadership Leadership in a

Engaging Top Talent: Employee Perks Just Aren’t Enough Anymore

There is a movement developing in the corporate world that many businesses still don’t understand: Consumer grade communication. Although its growth has been so silent many don’t realize how widespread it is. It arrived in the U.S. via apps like Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp, but it’s pervading other countries as well: Kik is very popular in Canada (among other countries), China has WeChat, and India has Nimbuzz. All told, the number of users is well into the billions. But what do social networks, apps, and messaging have to do with recruiting top talent and engaging current employees? As it turns out,

#TChat Recap: Blended Workforce Benefits and Staffing Challenges

The days of full-time or part-time employees have given way to the blended workforce — a mix of independent contractors, freelance workers and self-employed entrepreneurial talent working alongside full-time colleagues. This week, the TalentCulture community talked about the many benefits of a blended workforce and the staffing challenges a blended workforce creates. With our guest Sunil Bagai, Founder and CEO of Zenith Talent, we had a fantastic conversation about this growing movement and how it’s impacting the world of recruiting, hiring and overall workforce management. Employers are now hiring record numbers of contingent workers and relying on a mix of employees

Recruitment Marketing: Your Key to Recruiting Success [Webinar]

Recruitment marketing has never been more important. Why? Today’s hiring economy is highly complex and competitive–and finding top talent is harder than ever. Unemployment is at a seven-year low, and it’s taking increasingly longer to hire. If you’re an employer searching for top talent, this is likely something you live and breathe daily. And you may already be well aware that recruitment marketing is key to recruiting success. Attracting candidates and retaining current employees is a lot like attracting and retaining customers. Consumers can take up to 12 touch points with a brand before they make a purchase decision. Candidates are

The Harsh Reality of Diversity in Today’s Workplace

Would it surprise you to learn that highly educated black professionals face a widening gap with whites as they progress through their career? Diversity in the 21st century workplace is still a challenge that impacts not only our ideas of fairness and opportunity, but the bottom line as well. NPR recently highlighted a study by social scientists that outlined the depth of the challenges non-white professionals face when applying for jobs. One of the most surprising discoveries is the widening gap minorities experience as they progress through their career. Led by John Nunley, an economist at the University of Wisconsin at

#TChat Recap: How to Make Meetings Worth Everyone’s Time

Do you feel like meetings are the bane of your existence? We have all grown tired of scrambling to get real work done after sitting through countless meetings. It is frustrating and expensive to waste time and money this way. This week the TalentCulture community discussed how to drastically improve meetings, changing them from energy-zappers to energy-boosters. Our guests were Dick and Emily Axelrod, founders of The Axelrod Group, Inc., pioneers of using employee involvement to effect large-scale organizational change. The good news is that meetings can be where people do actual work, plan ahead, reach decisions, make commitments, grow and

Want to Create Organizational Change: Look to Middle Managers

Companies focused on leadership and creating organization change often overlook the fact that true organizational change comes not from senior leadership but rather from the company’s corps of middle managers. While rock star CEOs like Tony Hsieh, Richard Branson, and Jack Welch receive a lot of attention for their leadership philosophies (and rightfully so), deep and meaningful change—the kind that affects a company’s bottom line over time–must start in the middle, supported by the managers who translate the CEO’s vision into day-to-day practices. How does this actually work? Let’s dig into the case for leadership and organizational change from the middle,

Gender, Influence and the Use of Qualifiers

Your organization has a major operational problem. A strategic team has been called together to come up with a solution. You have winnowed the options down to three (3) after four (4) long meetings. The leader of the group asks each individual to state his or her choice. Your choice is Option A. Let’s consider some options: You say: “My best guess is Option A.” What may be heard: “If after all of this discussion you only have a guess, I’m not sure why we included you in these discussions.” You say: “I feel that Option A would be best.” What

#TChat Recap: How Hiring Managers Can Reduce The Cost Of Hiring

This week the TalentCulture team discussed how hiring managers can reduce the cost of hiring with Nikos Moraitakis, CEO of Workable, a technology startup reinventing hiring for ambitious companies. In an increasingly competitive hiring environment, hiring managers must improve their engagement and performance with recruited and candidates alike in order to hire and retain top talent. But all too often, this is far from ideal, and they unfortunately fail to do this effectively. Listen to the recording and review the Twitter chat highlights below to learn more. "True cost of hiring is not measured in dollars. It's measured in time and attention." –

Stay up-to-date with HR, tech and the future of work. Get our weekly newsletter!

Meghan M. Biro

Meghan M. Biro

The First Steps to Transforming Work Culture

What's More Important to Give Employees: A Gift Card or a Pat on the Back?

5 Ways Leaders Rock Employee Recognition

How Technology and Work Culture Drive Each Other

5 HR Technology Trends: HR Isn’t The Stagnant Step-Sister Anymore

Want Great Corporate Culture: Focus on Nurturing Relationships

How To Get The Most Out of Your Job Ad

Think Beyond Mobile Apply for a Stronger Mobile Candidate Experience

The Five Secrets to Retaining Millennial Talent

What HR Pros Can Do About the Lack of Women in STEM

#TChat Recap: How Wellness Programs Improve Employee Performance

How to Better Use Employee Stories in Your Recruitment Marketing Strategy

The Future of Work is Here: Are Your Managers Prepared?

Engaging Top Talent: Employee Perks Just Aren’t Enough Anymore

#TChat Recap: Blended Workforce Benefits and Staffing Challenges

Recruitment Marketing: Your Key to Recruiting Success [Webinar]

The Harsh Reality of Diversity in Today’s Workplace

#TChat Recap: How to Make Meetings Worth Everyone’s Time

Want to Create Organizational Change: Look to Middle Managers

Gender, Influence and the Use of Qualifiers

#TChat Recap: How Hiring Managers Can Reduce The Cost Of Hiring

Quick Links

Topics

Newsletter Signup

Stay up-to-date with HR, tech and the future of work. Get our weekly newsletter!

Meghan M. Biro

Meghan M. Biro

Subscribing to Ho-Hum Newsletters? We have the fix!