Tapping into Existing Workforce Skills

Despite the efforts devoted to developing strategies to attract candidates for potential skill gaps and talent shortages, some organizations fall short when it comes to making the most of the skills and experiences already present in their workforce.

Photo credit: Halogen Software

Do your supervisors and managers pigeon hole employees into the specific roles they were hired for, over-manage, under-delegate and in the guise of protecting employees from themselves, assume the burden of delivering information on a need to know basis?

If so, you are guilty as charged.

Wondering what to do now? Check out the rest of my article, Knowledge is Power, on the HCI Blog. 

{Women} Voice Your Concerns

I am a woman. I have issues. I am also a professional, a partner to my husband and a mother to my daughter. I don't want to make sacrifices anywhere.

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​Serving as a woman in the military resulted in some awkward yet revealing circumstances for me: heads coming out of tanks to see the new "girl" maintenance officer, visiting an artillery company with no women's bathrooms, and an uncomfortable commander offering to make me coffee were just a few. 

"The blunt truth," Sheryl Sandberg wrote, "is that men still run the world." 

Recently, more companies are recognizing the value of women in the workplace. In an early 2013 article on Huffington Post, the author wrote, “History has proven that those companies that fully tap into the women in their workforce benefit from the diverse talents and perspectives they bring and are the most successful.” 

It’s true and while not enough companies are asking employees what they want to see in their workplace, some are. I'll be visiting a company this week to listen to employees on matters that concern workplace and company policies.

Here are a few articles I came across in preparation that I'd like to share with you:​

• Skills that Give Women a Sustainable Advantage Over Men
• Better Benefits Won't Create Employee Engagement
• What women really want in the workplace (and why men matter)​

I love that I get to do this because not only am I able to use my experiences to help others but because it makes me more effective in my role as an HR professional and leader.​

If I were visiting your company to gather workplace/company policy concerns, what would you want me to ask your staff?