Check out the agenda for the upcoming ERE Expo 2009 Fall in September!

Dr. John Sullivan

Dr. John Sullivan is a well-known thought leader in HR. He is a frequent speaker and advisor to Fortune 500 and Silicon Valley firms. Formerly the chief talent officer for Agilent Technologies (the 43,000-employee HP spin-off), he is now a professor of management at San Francisco State University. He was called the "Michael Jordan of Hiring" by Fast Company magazine. More recruiting articles by Dr. Sullivan can be found in the ER Daily archives. Information about his numerous other articles, books and manuals about recruiting and HR can be found online

Dr. John Sullivan RSS feed Articles by Dr. John Sullivan...

Interview From Anywhere: Live Video Interviews Are Now a Best Practice (Part I of II)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Jun 29, 2009, 5:15 am ET

Most of the media coverage these days about recruiting is devoted to social networking, mobile recruiting, and blogging, but the recruiting technology likely to have the most impact if it continues to catch on at the current rate is interviewing candidates “live” from remote locations. The approach I call “interviewing from anywhere” takes advantage... [full article »]

Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement for Development, Retention, and Profit (Part VI)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Jun 22, 2009, 5:19 am ET

(Editor’s note: This is the sixth installment in Dr. Sullivan’s series. Here are Part 1, Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V.) No matter how enthusiastic your employees are about participating in an internal movement program, they are bound to be somewhat frustrated if there aren’t a wide variety of assignments available for them... [full article »]

Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement for Development, Retention, and Profit (Part V)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Jun 15, 2009, 4:15 am ET

(Editor’s note: This is the fifth installment in Dr. Sullivan’s series. Here are Part 1, Part II, Part III., and Part IV.) In this part of the series on job rotations and stretch assignments, I will highlight three key tools or approaches that rotation program managers can use to make an organization’s job rotation program more... [full article »]

Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement for Development, Retention and Profit (Part IV)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Jun 9, 2009, 7:00 am ET

(Editor’s note: This is the fourth installment in Dr. Sullivan’s series. Here are Part 1, Part II, and Part III. Next week, installment five of this series will address tools and tips you can use to improve your job rotation program.) This series of articles started out listing the pain points that many organizations are experiencing... [full article »]

Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement for Development, Retention, and Profit (Part III)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Jun 1, 2009, 6:00 am ET

(Editor’s note: This is Part III in Dr. Sullivan’s series. Here are Part 1 and Part II; next week in the conclusion to the series, look for best practices and program metrics.) When corporate revenues are down or stagnant, talent managers typically shift their focus away from volume hiring to developing and improving existing employees. Executives are... [full article »]

Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement For Development, Retention and Profit (Part II)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
May 18, 2009, 4:00 am ET

Last week, Part 1 of this series introduced a number of pain points that render most corporate approaches to managing internal movement for development, retention, and talent ROI purposes ineffective. In reality, most current approaches are relics from years of tradition, loosely defined, poorly integrated, and barely managed. During this installment, I will build upon the goals... [full article »]

Speeding Up Rotations and Internal Movement for Development, Retention, and Profit (Part I)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
May 12, 2009, 7:00 am ET

There is little argument that job rotations, stretch assignments, and other forms of internal movement are some of the most effective development and retention tools available. While world-class organizations aggressively manage deployment for development purposes regardless of the economic state, such programs become universally popular when economies turn sour. When corporate revenues are down or stagnant,... [full article »]

Does Your Firm Have a Plan to Respond to Employee Issues Related to the Swine Flu?

by
Dr. John Sullivan
May 1, 2009, 12:37 pm ET

Most corporate executives and HR professionals might think that the impending swine flu pandemic is strictly a public health issue, but if you are thinking that way, you would be wrong. It turns out that the impending swine flu pandemic is also a major corporate issue that needs to be addressed with decisive plans and clear... [full article »]

Do You Have A Recruiting Turnaround Plan That Will Allow You to Explode Out of the Box?

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Apr 27, 2009, 6:37 am ET

Everyone knows that recruiting is currently in a down cycle, but there is no doubt firms will again need to recruit significantly to fuel growth and replace aging workers. But do you have a plan that will enable you to explode out of box immediately as the downturn ends? If you don’t have a feasible recruiting turnaround... [full article »]

Amazing Practices in Recruiting — ERE Award Winners 2009 (Part 2 of 2)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Apr 20, 2009, 6:00 am ET

It has been an amazing year in recruiting and talent management. Despite severe economic hardships, budget cuts, and hiring freezes, recruiting functions have continued to innovate and stretch the limits of “standard recruiting.” After evaluating hundreds of applications, here is part two of the list of best practices in recruiting that I recommend you emulate. (This article... [full article »]

Amazing Practices in Recruiting — ERE Award Winners 2009 (Part 1 of 2)

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Apr 13, 2009, 6:30 am ET

It has been an amazing year in recruiting and talent management, despite severe economic hardships, budget cuts, and widespread hiring freezes. Unlike the economic turmoil following 9/11 and the dot-com bubble burst, many recruiting functions have continued to innovate and stretch the limits of what can be defined as “standard recruiting.” If you work in an organization... [full article »]

Not All Employee Turnover Is Bad — Celebrate “Losing the Losers”

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Apr 6, 2009, 6:34 am ET

It’s hard to find a more misunderstood and mismanaged human resource area than employee turnover. Executives are constantly sounding off about how “bad” employee turnover is, but in some cases, employee turnover is actually a positive thing. Imagine, for example, that you had a poor-performing worker like Homer Simpson. If Homer walked in late one day... [full article »]

The Most Powerful Questions That Recruiting…Never Asks

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Mar 30, 2009, 6:45 am ET

More often than not, it is the simplest things in life and in business that produce the biggest impacts. Having spent more than 30 years analyzing corporate recruiting practices and strategy, I have noticed there are some rather basic questions that, if only posed, would have a profound impact on the effectiveness of most recruiting... [full article »]

Metrics for Assessing College-hire Effectiveness and ROI

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Mar 23, 2009, 6:00 am ET

It would be pretty hard to throw a stone in most HR organizations without hitting someone who manages an antiquated process. Despite significant changes in how people live, work, and play, many HR practices continue on as if they were operating in 1960. For years employment advertising specialists relied on channels with shrinking... [full article »]

Managing Contingent Labor Strategically

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Mar 15, 2009, 6:00 am ET

by Dr. John Sullivan & Master Burnett For many in corporate staffing, contingent labor management is an unpleasant activity often relegated to the lowest-cost outsourced service provider the organization could find, mainly because no one internally wanted to deal with it. The work is largely considered mundane, process-oriented, and as a necessary overhead cost that provides little... [full article »]

HR Got Caught With Its Pants Down…Once Again!

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Mar 9, 2009, 6:00 am ET

Let me apologize upfront for this “rant” on HR’s failure regarding workforce planning, but I can’t think of another time where human resources as a profession appeared to be floundering to the point where it’s embarrassing itself. All you have to do is read the paper on a regular basis to see that many firms and... [full article »]

Corporate Alumni and Boomerang Recruiting Programs Are Hot Due to Layoffs

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Mar 2, 2009, 7:00 am ET

Economic downturns, mergers, and acquisitions all place pressure on organizations to curb labor costs. No time in the last decade has that tenet been more apparent than right now. Layoffs, large or small, force organizations to cut loose the talent in which they have invested salary and training dollars. While talent released during a layoff today... [full article »]

Workforce Planning Is Hot; Are You Lagging Behind?

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Feb 23, 2009, 4:15 am ET

What’s hot in talent management changes quite often. Right now, there’s no hotter topic within the talent management community than workforce planning. The reasons are simple: with the current economy driving revenues down dramatically, many senior executives are examining how to plan ahead in order to increase their firms’ capabilities, reduce costs, and survive the... [full article »]

College Recruiting on a Shoestring Budget – ERE Community Q&A

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Feb 16, 2009, 7:00 am ET

By Dr. John Sullivan & Master Burnett This past week more than 400 ERE.net community members tuned in for a webinar on college recruiting with a shoestring budget. Despite sour economic conditions, many organizations are continuing to hire, albeit maybe not with the gusto or resources they used to muster. Those organizations that continue to augment organizational... [full article »]

Employee Furloughs Can Be a Bad Alternative to Layoffs

by
Dr. John Sullivan
Feb 9, 2009, 7:16 am ET

You can’t read a newspaper these days without reading about organizations that are implementing employee furloughs in order to save money and to avoid layoffs. They might seem like a good idea but they might end up not saving money at all and could cause more turmoil than they are worth. This article will cover the... [full article »]