I often question groups I am training about what they consider their greatest emotional need. Common answers tend to include respect, a sense of belonging and community, security (which is related to trust), love, acceptance, validation, peace of mind and success. Okay, I don’t think “success” is an emotional need, but it is the byproduct [...]
One long-standing aspect of the American culture is the belief that "bigger is better." A humorous yet proverbial anecdote might be helpful to illustrate this point. A young Texas belle, eager to have the finer things in life, happened upon - what she hoped - was a wealthy rancher. Although plainspoken with simple accoutrements, he [...]
“Our only agenda today is to find out what your agenda is.” This is the way I have opened many client meetings - meetings where the goal was to craft a superior contingent labor and workforce solution for them. As opposed to a monologue or a “show up and throw up” presentation approach, the [...]
It was an unexpected yet fateful encounter at a business breakfast and one I will never forget. I didn't get his name, but his question profoundly reverberates with me to this day, and at times it has even haunted me. “Who are you?” “Hello, I'm Linden Wolfe.” “I didn't ask your name, I asked who [...]
Despite the common business psychobabble and overwhelming advice of not-so-sage pundits, I believe that a fear of failure is a good thing. And it’s not that I’m just a contrarian – we all know that fear can be healthy and provide safety. This is why we carefully and passionately tell our children about situations that [...]
Contingent staffing is a critical part of many companies’ overall business plans. This is especially true since the Great Recession, as organizations have built workforce buffers of a certain percentage of contingent workers to protect them from any potential downturn. Allocating a ratio of, let’s say, 20-30% of extended workers - and I don’t recommend [...]
With so many options available, here are some fundamental observations on the best approach to choosing a Vendor Management Software (VMS) for your contingent labor program. Size – How big is your company and your contingent labor needs? If you spend less than $20 million in staffing services, you are likely better off to partner [...]
You could impale me for being obvious if I said the labor market was tight. That wouldn’t be news, nor would me saying this is the most difficult hiring landscape I’ve seen since I first took the plunge into the staffing industry in 1983. (This is not a typo, folks - and, yes - [...]
Although decades removed from what is considered to be the Millennial age range, I’m not a Luddite. In fact, I’m a fairly avid consumer of all sorts of technology. If I’m not to be confused with Bill Gates, please remember my college technology class was called Data Processing and my first known operating system [...]
In my workforce solutions role, I read a lot of contracts. I’m not an attorney, and I don’t play one on TV, but I find many staffing contracts to be quite interesting (read strange, laughable, curious, creative, out of touch with reality, etc.). After all of these years, I have compiled a list of some [...]
