We're experts on all things Management & HR
Recruit like a punter: rationalise
Written by John Berry on 6th March 2018. Revised 24th April 2023.
6 min read
There are three approaches that humans take to make decisions - automatic, neuralistic and rational. Emma Beddington in The Guardian summarised those recently, asking, "...can you really wing it to the top?" As she describes, only one - rational - has any place in recruitment and selection. Automatic helps us survive. Neuralistic is fine for incident commanders. But only rational works for hiring decisions. Here's why.
Building a positive staff worldview under hybrid working
Written by John Berry on 21st August 2021. Revised 24th April 2023.
5 min read
The creation of the right staff worldview is critical to a firm's operations. Worldview requires that managers set up the right formal and informal communications for staff. A positive worldview within the firm heightens staff commitment and enables high performance. Here's how to think about worldview and how to set about managing the worldview for positive outcomes.
Lay people make statements like, “Hire for attitude, don't hire for competence". These people are right… and yet wrong. Actually, not wrong, just inaccurate. They recognise it’s not an ideal world. So in the real world, what does a manager 'hire for'? This blog illustrates how psychologists can help managers develop define foundation personal characteristics of ideal candidates. It shows they can then administer psychometric assessments to provide information to hiring managers to make rational decisions.
Building internal management training with BYPM3
Written by John Berry on 17th April 2023.0
2 min read
Training employees must, of course, be targeted to their needs – needs to take on new skills and learn new knowledge or needs to recover old rusty competencies. And determination of needs is a matter of analysis by managers.
But that said, there are many topics that we can identify as typical. And these are featured in our third edition of Because Your People Matter: a playbook for managers, entrepreneurs, and leaders. Here are some examples, with references to pages in the book.
How does society affect career development of young people?
Written by John Berry on 4th May 2017. Revised 3rd April 2023.
16 min read
This paper is about how the wider society in which a young person lives, is educated and works affects their career options, decisions and subsequent development. It considers how young people make decisions and what influences those decisions. It then describes the context of the wider society, drawing on sociology. In drawing conclusion this essay suggests that one cannot separate the individual and society in careers management and coaching.
Employing Foreign Workers Abroad
Written by John Berry on 2nd May 2017. Revised 1st April 2023.
35 min read
Managers can find it extremely attractive to ‘employ’ foreign staff resident abroad. Engaging workers in foreign countries is complex. In many cases it is better to trade at arms length through business to business agreements, paying against invoice. But that won't suit many firms, particularly where they have constraining upstream contracts. They must employ workers locally. Here are all the issues for firms wanting to gain worker services in both EU and non-EU countries.
