HRWatchBestSM HR's biggest asset If you are having difficulty seeing this mail or images in it, you can view it in your Web browser. Volume 10, Best of 2010      In This Issue:   Beyond the Bland: 11 Questions to Identify 'Must Hires'          What's the most bizarre thing you've ever experienced in a job interview?   The 5 Worst Interview Questions & What to ask Instead   The Top 15 Oddball Interview Questions   12 Manager Mistakes that Spark Lawsuits          [Employee] time's a wasting, but where does it go?   Is Your Employee Discipline Fair? A 5-Question Self-Test          How to handle a lying employee   What Can You Say If You Get Word An Employee Is Sick?          Keep your workplace drug-free without creating liability   7 Ways to Unearth the Truth in Résumés          Are applicant 'blacklists' legal?   What are the Top HR Skills you Need to Succeed?          Trim the fat from your business writing   Ten Management Practices to Axe        Ten secrets of emotional intelligence   Ten Things Human Resources Won't Tell You If you enjoy this newsletter, read more in our Archive and Explore more Topics and Events Beyond the Bland: 11 Questions to Identify 'Must Hires' Ask exploring questions in an interview to get better than bland answers. Your favorite! Answers to 'What's the most bizarre thing you've ever experienced in a job interview?' Imagine an interview like this! The interview remains a hiring manager's most effective tool for evaluating job candidates. Unfortunately, managers too often rely on a list of standard interview questions for which most applicants have canned responses. The message: Ask generic questions and you'll get generic answers. Instead, try these queries, each designed to get applicants to really tell you about themselves and their skills... Read the article     Back to top The 5 Worst Interview Questions & What to ask Instead Find out more in your employee interviews by asking for descriptions and explanations. The interview remains a hiring manager’s most effective tool for evaluating job candidates. Unfortunately, managers too often rely on a list of standard interview questions for which most applicants have canned responses. The message: Ask generic questions and you’ll get generic answers. Here are five common questions to avoid, according to an OfficeTeam report, as well as suggestions for more productive queries that will help you make the correct hiring choice:... Read the article     Back to top The Top 15 Oddball Interview Questions Make your interviews more interesting and thought provoking while learning more about your candidates. The change-up is one of the most potent pitches in baseball. Likewise, a change-of-pace interview question can give HR and hiring managers keen insight into a job candidate's analytical, creative and organizational thinking. Here are 15 of the most intriguing interview questions from the more than 14,000 submitted by job candidates last year through Glassdoor.com, an online career community. (Note: To read 10 more oddball questions and the suggested answers to all, go to... Read the article     Back to top 12 Manager Mistakes that Spark Lawsuits Be consistent, know the rules and save your company a lot of hassle. [Employee] time's a wasting, but where does it go? Here are several tracking options to help you figure it out. Lawsuits by employees against their employers have grown tremendously in the past decade. Sometimes those lawsuits have merit, sometimes they don't. But, either way, those lawsuits cost time and money to fight-money that is better spent on product development, training and raises. Even worse, some laws-including federal overtime law and the Family and Medical Leave Act-allow employees to sue their supervisors directly, meaning a manager's personal bank account could be at stake. Most lawsuits are not triggered by great injustices. Instead, simple management mistakes and perceived slights start the snowball of discontent rolling downhill toward the courtroom. Here are 12 of the biggest manager mistakes that harm an organization's credibility in court. Use these points as a checklist to shore up your personal employment-law defense:... Read the article     Back to top Is Your Employee Discipline Fair? A 5-Question Self-Test Consistency and documentation is critical for fairness. How to handle a lying employee Prove employee history before you take action. Whether it's deserved or not, the perception that management is "against" employees, once earned, is difficult to shake. That's why it's vital for supervisors and HR to make sure all employees are treated fairly and consistently at all times, especially when it comes to discipline. To make sure your disciplinary actions are fair, ask yourself the following questions before taking action against an employee:... Read the article     Back to top What Can You Say If You Get Word An Employee Is Sick? Looking for employee health problems can lead you to be looking at the judge. Keep your workplace drug-free without creating liability A solid drug policy can keep you safe on more ways than one. Q. We recently heard from a co-worker that an employee ("Mike") seemed to be having some health issues. Mike hasn't said anything to his supervisor or anyone else as far as we know. What can we say? - M.D., Virginia A. First, remember that employees... Read the article     Back to top 7 Ways to Unearth the Truth in Résumés Pay attention to details and ask the right questions if you want the truth. Are applicant 'blacklists' legal? Your black list may help you be protected against retaliation. As unemployment continues to hover near 10%, the temptation to stretch the truth on a résumé is becoming harder for desperate job-seekers to resist. That's why experts say job applicants are doing more "creative writing" on their résumés these days. And... Read the article     Back to top What are the Top HR Skills you Need to Succeed? Do you know what you need to know? Trim the fat from your business writing Get your emails read by using these simple tips. A new Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) survey of 2,000 HR professionals cites these as the top five competencies that senior HR leaders need to succeed today:... Read the article     Back to top Ten Management Practices to Axe There is a plethora of advice out there, here are some that should be removed from the list.   Ten secrets of emotional intelligence Become a top performer by raising your "EQ". So you've studied all the best sellers about how to make yourself into a better manager? Well, you can't believe everything you read. Every few years, a management book or philosophy emerges to change our thinking about the best ways to lead employees. From The One Minute Manager to Who Moved My Cheese?, new and revived leadership concepts have shaped the way we organize, evaluate, inspire, and reward team members. With so many competing management theories in the mix, some ill-conceived practices were bound to take hold-and indeed, many have. Here's our list of the 10 most brainless and injurious:... Read the article     Back to top Ten Things Human Resources Won't Tell You What HR personnel will want to share outside of the department... "We're squeezed too." There was a time when human resources departments handled every staffing need at a company, from hiring and firing to administering benefits and determining salaries. But HR's role has begun to change significantly as departments have shrunk at companies across the board. According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management, the profession's largest association, the head count at the average HR department fell from 13 in 2007 to nine in 2008. "HR departments are under pressure like never before," says Steve Miranda, the society's global HR and integration officer. As much of what was once HR's domain increasingly gets... Read the article     Back to top                   Forward to a Friend: Do you have a friend that would like to receive HRWatchBestsm? Perhaps you know a peer within your organization, or associate at a partner company that would benefit from applying to receive this publication. 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