Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 64:

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Kevin Wheeler, Chairman of the Future of Talent Institute provides an overview of demographic, technological, and cultural shifts impacting workforce productivity and performance. Drawing on extensive experience working with companies around the globe, Kevin discusses how companies are adapting to a workforce that is becoming more creative, autonomous, and heterogeneous.

What is the key to building and sustaining a highly adaptive, creative organization? What role does peer-pressure play in organizational productivity? What can leaders learn from honey bees about structuring an organization? Hear answers to these questions and much more by listening to Kevin Wheeler – this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 61:

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Robert (Bob) Lewis, Director of APT Inc. discusses the role job descriptions play for guiding employee performance and ensuring effective and legally compliant staffing and compensation practices. As jobs increasingly focus on intangible concepts like “service” and “knowledge work”, it can be difficult to capture and define specific job requirements. This ambiguity creates confusion and legal risk within companies. But there are ways to address this through appropriate job analytics methods.

Job descriptions can be a critical tool for ensuring employees are doing what is expected of them and are being treated appropriately. If knowing what your workforce is supposed to be doing is important to you, then you will enjoy hearing Dr. Bob Lewis – this week no People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 57:

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Thomas Britt, psychology professor at Clemson University shares insights from research studying potential limitations and downsides of employee engagement. Thomas explains that highly engaged employees tend to have much more demanding expectations from employers in terms of the resources they expect from employers. The more employees care about performance the less they tolerate work conditions that do not allow them to perform at an optimal level. Highly engaged employees even become physically more stressed when companies set them up for what they perceive to be failure.

Documents referenced in this episode:

• Self-Engagement, Stressors, and Health: A Longitudinal Study
• Self-Engagement at Work

Learn about the caring, nurturing and feeding of highly engaged employees: this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 55:

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Nigel Bristow, President and Founder of Targeted Learning shares insights gained from his 20+ year career helping companies maximize the performance of knowledge workers. Nigel shares five key stages of knowledge work: acquiring, applying, creating, sharing, and leveraging knowledge. He discusses the role each stage plays in workforce productivity and the challenges and unique issues associated with moving from one stage to another.

Whether you are a knowledge worker, manage knowledge workers, or just wish you had more knowledge, you will benefit from Nigel’s insights on knowledge work: this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 52:

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This episode marks one year of People Performance Radio.

During this episode I encourage you to look in our archives and listen to some past shows. We avoid reruns here at People Performance Radio, but we do have a lot of interviews that are worth hearing more than once! Reflections on one year of talent management knowledge and insight: this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 51:

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Jim Matheson, Director of Web Operations for SuccessFactors discusses EasyReviews, a new and FREE online tool to help managers conduct performance evaluations. Available at EasyReviews, this tool contains some of SuccessFactors most popular performance management features including the competency library, performance rating tool, and online writing and coaching assistant.

Jim explains why SuccessFactors decided to give this tool away for free. He discusses why SuccessFactors believes there is value in helping managers maximize the performance of their teams without requiring there organization to purchase the SuccessFactors system. Its free, its cool, and its all about talent management – Jim Matheson this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 50:

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Jim Irvine, Manager of Talent Management for Nissan North America describes how Nissan is increasing workforce productivity during what is probably the largest downturn in the history of the automotive industry. Operating under extreme financial pressure, Nissan has developed highly innovative methods to build talent through engaging employees at both a rational and emotional level. By rethinking what performance management should be, Nissan has increased productivity without increasing talent management costs. Highlights include moving from a once a year performance management event to an integrated series of 6 separate performance dialogues, providing managers with feedback on the quality of their feedback, and engaging managers to view performance management as an enabling process and not an administrative constraint.

Want to shift your talent management methods into overdrive? Listen to Jim Irvine from Nissan North America this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 42:

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Ron Adler is president of Laurdan Associates, Inc., a management training company with a focus on helping companies avoid problems associated with illegal or otherwise improper talent management practices. Ron discuss the Employee Labor Law Audit (ELLA), a tool that allows companies to evaluate, identify, and proactively address human resource practices that could expose them to legal risk. He highlights the five major legal risk areas for companies and shares methods on how to guard against decisions and actions that could expose a company to costly litigation.

The current economic downturn is creating significant workforce reductions and growing unemployment rates. These factors increase both the opportunity and likelihood for employment litigation. Learn what you can do now to your talent management practices so you won’t end up paying for them later, this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 36:

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Mel Kleiman is the President and Founder of Humetrics, a company that helps organizations maximize the productivity of hourly workforces. Mel notes that hourly employees represent over 60% of the workforce in the United States yet receive surprisingly little attention from the talent management community in general. He calls attention to problems that result when companies view hourly employees as “temporary workers” even though these employees often represent the face of the company to the customer. Mel shares examples showing how companies can achieve much higher levels of retention and productivity simply by treating hourly employees with the similar levels of respect and attention commonly given to salaried employees.

If you manage hourly employees or work with organizations that have significant hourly workforces then you will benefit from listening to Mel’s observations, recommendations, and insights regarding hourly workforce management this week on People Performance Radio.

Listen to People Performance Radio Episode 29:

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Paul Falcone (profile) is VP of Human Resources for Nickelodeon and author of several best-selling books on talent management including “101 tough conversations to have with employees: a manager’s guide to addressing performance, conduct, and discipline challenges”. Paul shares techniques for dealing with difficult performance issues in ways that increase the chance of turning around underperforming employees while simultaneously decreasing the potential of putting a company at legal risk due to making inappropriate or questionable termination decisions. Providing stories and methods rooted in extensive applied experience dealing with the good, the bad, and the ugly of talent management, Paul offers up rich information about how to deal with even the most troublesome performance issues.

Wisdom from 20 years of HR experience distilled into a 20 minute interview. If you crave this sort of high grade talent management information then do yourself a favor and listen to Paul Falcone this week on People Performance Radio.