Yesterday I was talking to a friend of mine about human resources (HR), team management and human handling. She has a degree in education and was talking about some seminars she attended about those matters. The speakers were mostly HR leaders of new technologies driven enterprises. The conclusion of our discussion was that unfortunately in many companies there are still inadequate HR staff, policies and management. I decided to put all our discussed ideas together and write down this little mash-up with the goal of helping some confused minds that may randomly end up at this post.

I will catalogue the tips according to 2 different approaches: "Choosing and Hiring People" and "Managing and Handling People".

Choosing and Hiring People

Equilibrium in HR team is good

Before starting any interview within your candidates, you have to set up a capable team to proceed with the selection. The team has to be balanced and composed by, at least, two people:

1. A person graduated in Education or, if not possible, Sociology.
2. A high skilled person in the knowledge area where you intend to recruit people.

This way, you avoid any bad decisions about social/personality background, as well technical skills.

Curriculum Vitae selection

Please, never ever reject a CV because it has more than one page. For instance, in France they unfortunately do that. They live in their own world apart (a little like USA) and don't evolve with the new European standards for curricula: the Europass system. So most of companies automatically discard CVs that are longer than one page. With the new standards it is an absolutely ridiculous and old-fashioned way of thinking. New CVs are designed to include non-technical aspects and experiences of the candidate which is a great trump card for cultured people. Because skills aren't everything. So do not decide only by the CV, but give some margin to bring people to a face to face interview.

Personal and technical interview are definitely not the same

Make sure you perform at least two phases of personal interviews:

1. First of all, the candidate's technical profile overview. If you can, try to give him/her a little challenge where he/she can prove some of the skills he/she have enumerated on his/her CV and that he/she will need for the job. In a further interview you may ask him/her how he/she solved some problems. If it is the case, ask him/her how he/she did certain aspects of items listed in his/her portfolio.
2. Then, if the first point has been successfully filled by the candidate, it is now time to proceed to the candidate's personality interview. Indeed, it is very important to measure the motivation and psychological profile of people. See if his/her personality may fit in the team he/she will work with and if his/her posture can be a positive addition to the work he/she will perform.

Managing and Handling People

Promote the integration of new people

One very important step is the good and as fast as possible integration of the new elements of your team. A good start is to ask them to build a short keynote where he/she should talk about:

• a short introduction of him/herself ;
• a small presentation about the subject he will work with for the company ;
• a little conclusion about what he/she expects and some ideas he/she has for the team he/she's going to work with.

Ensure permanent formation of actual staff

Again, please never ever get rid of people that you think are technologically "outdated". Instead, pitch into constant training of your actual staff that already knows the "house". Unfortunately many enterprises are firing workers with that wretched excuse. They should dismiss their HR staff instead. The employees constant training is a growing reality and any company that wants to be on the top of the pyramid will have to promote that.

Communication: the most important foundation

Every time you ask something be sure that you colleague understood exactly what you wanted to. Ask him/her to redefine it his/her way. The figure below illustrates a reality in software development.

So, make sure you use the right words and that your requirements may not drive to confusion or misunderstanding.

Make people work together

Promote interaction between every element of your team and try to never put anyone apart. As well, distribute the work load efficiently within your team and according to the skills of each person.

Give people responsibilities

If you are a Project Manager or a Team Leader, you should trust your colleagues' work and give them responsibilities. You can't do everything on your own, so you have to learn to delegate some work to the right people. The more they feel your trust in them, the more they will feel confident to execute a task. As well, don't be afraid to evaluate and orientate the team work, so it's encouraged to realise meetings to keep track of everyone's decisions and/or milestones progress.

Learn how to talk with people you lead

This is a very difficult point for most of team leaders. If you are one, you have to find the right words to compliment or correct their work. Use wisdom in your words and don't use a slight speech if you are not in your best mood. Talk to them in a horizontal perspective instead of a vertical one. It means that you should talk to them as colleagues instead of having superior manners and ways. It will not help in most of cases. People should respect you for your abilities to handle projects and the whole team, not because you are a grumpy Sergeant.

Keep up high level motivation

There are so many ways to keep high motivation within your team. Obviously there are no magical philtres or recipes to do that. According to the field you work in, you have to use your brain to do so. Still, it is very important for people you lead to feel useful (they are!). So, you can stimulate them to feel free to give their opinion about the project they are doing and encourage them to tell you how they would do if they could make some decisions. You will be impressed how many good ideas may appear! If you do not agree with them, try to explain carefully why their idea can't be applied. Good discussions can make the difference! It's not a psychological game but a great way to keep them active and develop new ways of thinking. Like that you can see who has a leader spirit or who's a nest of ideas.

And that's it. I hope this short post will be useful. Feel free to complete it by posting on comments. And remember: an employee isn't a robot, it is somebody who keeps your company running!