Pamela J. Watkins

While the economy has been hard hit with millions of lost jobs, many organizations are still actively searching for good candidates. One of the most common worries I hear is the challenge of recruiting and hiring good candidates in all business sectors. From food services to manufacturing and health care, the frustration is the same. How do we find and hire qualified candidates during a pandemic? While I don’t have a magic wand, I do have a few tips and thoughts that may help. 1. Get comfortable with technology. I believe virtual interviewing and onboarding are here to stay. Make sure [...]

The Exit Interview – A tool to uncover your employees’ perceptions of your organization’s culture, structure, leadership and more. By Pamela J. Watkins For the past 25 years, I have been conducting employee exit interviews in one fashion or another.  Some of these were formal and structured interviews focused on specific criteria, i.e., how the employee rated our compensation, benefits, and working conditions.  Other interviews were unstructured meant to focus on gaining insight into employee motivation, management effectiveness and ways to improve our processes and procedures. While mentoring a newly trained HR professional, I was told, “Exit interviews [...]

“IF IT ISN’T BROKE, DON’T FIX IT” By Pamela J. Watkins When evaluating an organization for the first time, I was once told, “If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.”  Sound familiar? Like dysfunctional families, many organizations carry their own burdens of dysfunction and brokenness but fail to identify them as such.  What makes an organization a good place to work will vary with personal experience and opinion; however, when dysfunction becomes disruptive, good leaders understand the need for action. Disruption can occur in a variety of ways.  Loss of production, quality issues, poor attendance, turnover, turf wars [...]

Yada Yada Yada….The Communication Challenge By Pamela J. Watkins “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place.” – George Bernard Shaw As a follow-up to my blog on Exit Interviews, I thought it fitting to share one common denominator that runs through the large majority of exit interviews I have conducted during my career. Lack of communication. When I probe a little deeper, I have heard all manner of communication challenges including what I will call the “sensitive seven.” One or more of these seven concerns come up in most exit interviews I [...]

An HR Manager’s Examination of Legalized Marijuana in the US and Canada and its impact on the workplace by Pamela J. Watkins New legislation on the legalization of marijuana has employers in both the US and Canada keeping a close watch on the ever changing political and regulatory landscapes.  In the meantime, employers are in limbo wondering if they need to revise current drug testing policies and employee handbooks in states where recreational marijuana use is now permitted. With marijuana dispensaries popping up on main streets as well as the rapid creation and aggressive marketing of online stores, [...]