Paul Falcone’s Blog

Paul Falcone writes about critical HR topics, and his bestselling books and scores of articles have been profiled recently in Forbes, Inc. Magazine, CBS Money Watch, the New York Post, and HR Magazine. Visit Paul’s author page on AMA Playbook for blog articles on stimulating creative teams and increasing innovation, career change strategies, sample scripts for performance reviews and tough conversations, and more! His blog here covers such areas as Effective Interviewing and Hiring, Performance Management, Leadership Development, HR Essentials, and Career Management.

Decision-Making Leaves: Dramatic Performance Turnarounds without a Lot of Drama

June 9, 2014
Decision-Making Leaves

One of the greatest workplace challenges to supervisors and managers lies in turning around workers when their conduct or behavior consistently disappoints you. A decision-making leave, otherwise known as a “day of contemplation,” could be just what the doctor ordered to snap these people back into reality…

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Researching Publicly Traded, Privately Held, and Non-Profit Companies Prior to Your Interview

May 25, 2014
Company Research

Job search candidates at all levels realize that it’s important to research an organization where they have an upcoming interview, but outside of looking up the company’s website, they’re not quite sure where to look and what to look for. If you’ve got an upcoming interview and want to impress upon an employer that you’ve […]

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Small Companies: Know Your Employment Laws!

May 17, 2014
Employment Law

 If you ever feel confused by the vast array of federal laws and regulations that govern your organization, rest assured you’re not alone. Still, many smaller companies often assume that all laws apply to them when, in fact, organizations with fewer than 100 employees may not be governed by particular legislation. Here’s a quick snapshot […]

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Employment-At-Will vs. Progressive Discipline: Understanding the Legal Dichotomy

April 26, 2014
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Why does a company have to offer its employees progressive discipline if they’re already employed at will? As an HR professional, you’ve probably been asked that question a number of times throughout your career, especially when one of your front-line manager clients wants to terminate someone quickly.

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Avoid the Preemptive Strike

March 18, 2014
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One of the challenges about managing people in corporate America is that troubled workers sometimes look to manipulate a company’s Human Resources (HR) department to their advantage. Workers are very sophisticated consumers, and whether they figure this out on their own or are prodded by a plaintiff attorney looking to fatten a potential lawsuit against […]

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Travel Time, Waiting Time, and Training Time: 3 Wage & Hour Landmines for Unsuspecting Employers

January 25, 2014
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Managing overtime properly can be quite a daunting task for many managers who may not be aware of some of the intricacies and traps that await them within this specific area of wage and hour administration. If you’ve ever been confused about whether you have to pay an overtime premium to nonexempt employees who fly […]

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Investing in Your 401(k) in Your 20s

January 18, 2014
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You may not realize it, but your 20’s is the most important investment decade of your life! I’m not a financial planner—I’m a human resources practitioner—but I’m writing this article for my children and their friends as they make their way through college and into the “adult” world.

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Ten Practical and “Street-Smart” Rules for Conducting Internal Workplace Investigations

December 18, 2013
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There are a number of important strategies for conducting effective workplace investigations. Unfortunately many organizations lose sight of the fundamentals before moving to termination…

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Creating a Vanity URL on LinkedIn in 5 Easy Steps

December 5, 2013
LinkedIn Vanity URL

There’s a common question in resume writing about including your LinkedIn address at the very top of the page under your phone number and email address. While there’s no general rule that says you should or shouldn’t include your LinkedIn address, it’s becoming more common to display it these days because of LinkedIn’s growing popularity.

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Helping Managers Agree Upon How to Score Employee Performance

November 29, 2013
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Unfortunately there’s no magic bullet that distinguishes a performance review scoring of a 5 from a 4 or a 3 from a 2, for example. What’s important, however, is that leaders within each division and/or department and across divisions and departments should discuss what those scores might look like in a sort of performance “calibration” […]

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3 Surprisingly Easy Ways to Generate Meaningful Candidate References

November 29, 2013
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Hiring candidates without checking references is like having a loose cannon on the deck of your ship. Until you’ve vetted your impressions with prior immediate supervisors who have managed the individual on a day-to-day basis, you won’t know whom you’re hiring or what the real person behind the “interviewing facade” is all about until you’re well into the relationship. The critical part of effective reference checking lies in how you structure your call and set expectations, both with the candidate and the prior supervisors.

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College Grads: Here’s a Crystal Ball to Your Future Career

October 6, 2013
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[quote style=”1″](Hint: Choosing the Right Industry Has Never Been More Important in Launching Your Career!)[/quote] If you’re a recent college grad, the first questions you’ll be asked after graduation will focus on your (1) job, (2) company, and (3) industry. It’s time to reverse that order, though—never before has the industry that you select played […]

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Tapping the Hidden Job Market: A Business Research Directory to Help You Identify the Dominant and Growth-Oriented Companies in Your Field

October 2, 2013

[quote style=”1″]Utilize this smart, strategic and proactive way to approach a job search, and you’ll really stand out among your peers because very few job candidates have the wisdom to present themselves in such a favorable light.[/quote] Identifying the dominant and growth-oriented companies in America (AKA the “Hidden Job Market”) isn’t as hard as you […]

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Veteran-Friendly Employers and Other Resources for Ex-Military

September 30, 2013
Excerpts from Boots to Loafers

From John Phillips’ new book Boots to Loafers: Finding Your New True North The goal of this website is to find new ways of giving back to the community, whether that’s professionally for Human Resource practitioners and corporate leaders or via career development strategies—for new college grads, returning veterans, or older workers having challenges “navigating […]

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Paul’s Interview with Mary Ellen Slater, Senior Editor of Smart Brief

June 18, 2013

Watch Paul’s interview with SHRM’s Mary Ellen Slater, senior editor of Smart Brief on 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees. Paul addresses the factors that commonly prevent effective addressing of issues with employees such as avoidance, guilt-oriented communication, lack of documentation, etc.      

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Podcast for The Proactive Employer: ”Unleashing the Power of Performance”

June 17, 2013

Paul and co-author, Winston Tan offer this helpful podcast related to their recent book, The Performance Appraisal Tool Kit, published by AMACOM Books. http://www.thomasecon.com/tpe/shows/259-may-31-2012-unleashing-the-power-of-performance-with-paul-falcone-and-winston-tan.html

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