AO Consultants

Experience. Knowledge. Vision.

Culture Change – As Easy as Boiling Frogs

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on July 14, 2019.

I’ve long been fascinated by the tale about boiling frogs.  It goes that you cannot boil a frog by plunging it in boiling water – it is said that the frog will leap to safety in a natural reaction to a life threatening situation.  However a frog in cool comfortable water can be gradually roasted […]

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Goodbye Gold Watch – the Boomers Redefine Retirement!

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on June 20, 2019.

From a societal point of view, 2008 may have been more of a turning point than many of us recognize.  And when I reference “us” of course I mean the Baby Boomers.  I’ve prattled on about Gen X and the Millennials and the brave new world of the modern workplace, but a shift is occurring that […]

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The Video Resume Done Right

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on June 20, 2019.

The latest buzzworthy item on the talent agenda seems to be the video resume.  With the movement to the paperless application processes, it only makes sense to go “full digital” with your curriculum vitae.  Erin Carson, staff writer for TechRepublic covers the detail nicely in her article “Video resumes: The good, the bad, and the […]

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It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 31, 2019.

While employers complain about a labor shortage and not enough candidates for their open positions, they may be overlooking a large group of potential workers that face certain barriers or stigmas – among them, people with criminal records or who are in recovery, immigrants, semi-retired workers, or people with disabilities. The statistics prove that this is the best of […]

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The Video Resume Done Right

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 24, 2019.

The latest buzzworthy item on the talent agenda seems to be the video resume.  With the movement to the paperless application processes, it only makes sense to go “full digital” with your curriculum vitae.  Erin Carson, staff writer for TechRepublic covers the detail nicely in her article “Video resumes: The good, the bad, and the […]

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How to SPOT a problem with a job fit assessment.

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 10, 2019.
job fit assessment

We are always looking for the perfect fit. We try on clothes before we buy them because clothes that fit look better. We pay to get rings resized. We even look for fit in our relationships; most of us like to build relationships with people who are compatible with us in some way. Since we […]

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10 Important Questions to Help Identify High Potential Employees

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on April 18, 2019.
eSkills

According to a study by the Corporate Executive Board (CEB), now known as Gartner, as many as 25% of high-potential employees plan on leaving their jobs within a year. Many organizations make the mistake of only looking at ability when assessing an employee’s potential for managing a job. When trying to identify a high-potential (or HiPo) […]

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Signs your CEO “gets” HR

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on September 7, 2018.

Brian Evje’s article in Inc. “Want HR to matter? Start with the CEO.” the author avers that the perception of the HR function is determined by the CEO. Rather than regurgitate the article, I’ve provided the link below. What I wish to focus on for this post is not the same whining we hear from HR […]

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Jim Collins – The Right Seat on the Bus, According to A.O. Consultants, LLC

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on August 27, 2018.
job fit assessment

Jim Collins talks about getting the “right person in the right seat on the bus”, but what does that mean?  It means that matching knowledge, behavioral traits and interests of your people with the knowledge, behavioral traits and interests of the job is critical in effective hiring, promotion, succession planning and staffing of teams.  Employee […]

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2 Critical Questions to Ask for Effective Succession Planning

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on August 14, 2018.

Succession planning is often misunderstood or undervalued in the workplace. According to Talent Management magazine, about 70 percent of companies say they participate in some form of succession planning. However, 62 percent also report having too few candidates for organizational needs, and a third of organizations report no succession plan at all. These numbers are […]

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What’s your I(nk)Q?

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on August 9, 2018.

At a recent Greater Cincinnati Human Resources luncheon, Mike Fry, Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati presented “Data Visualization to Create Meaningful Insights”.  Dr. Fry explained that data and analytics are powerful resources that help organizations make decisions, but they lose their impact when they are presented in a poor visual format.  A confusing, unclear […]

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What is the future of human resources?

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on August 1, 2018.

With the baby boomers leaving the workplace and not enough people to fill the new jobs being created, we appear to be on the brink of a perpetual search for new workers.  I believe that technology will continue its exponential expansion andDue to these reasons viagra on sale many men have got relieved from their […]

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Wake Up – It’s Nap Time!

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on July 19, 2018.

Remember nap time during school? That forced 30 minutes of quiet time where we were required to lay down and be silent? I never slept and was pretty sure this was just a ruse by the teachers union to allow their membership a few free minutes on the clock. Well, it turns out that what […]

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Find Your Inner Unicorn – Marketing “You”

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on July 9, 2018.

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does.” ― Steuart Henderson Britt, Marketing Management and Administrative Action In a Forbes post, Susannah Breslin provides tips to the challenge of selling ourselves by focusing on the self we wish others to […]

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When Employees Hate Each Other: 6 Tips for Resolving Coworker Conflict

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on July 9, 2018.

Let’s face it, as much as we want people to “play nice” at work, we will have conflicts. How we handle those conflicts is the key to good leadership and management. When two employees hate each other, their animosity can turn a healthy working environment into a toxic space. Coworker conflict will always come up; […]

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The Future is Partly Sunny?

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on July 9, 2018.

A few years back I was working outside when my high school aged daughter approached stating that her psychology homework assignment required her to canvass family members regarding their view of the world.  Specifically she needed to know if I was a ‘glass half full or half empty’ type of person.  I responded that since […]

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Productivity and IQ Dwindle with Multi-tasking

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on June 30, 2018.

  Guest blogger Ty Hall provides some meaningful insight regarding “multi-tasking”.  So for the next few minutes focus on this article and make the easy action steps part of your life.  You and everyone around you will be glad you did. The other night I had an epiphany. I realized that I was talking on […]

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Waffling Managment

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on June 26, 2018.

Employee engagement is one of the singularly most important things management should ensure for its workers. It reduces turnover and boosts productivity, sure, but management should ultimately care about its employees’ wellbeing. After all, management is people. This brings me to a story I’ve been following recently. Shaina Brown, mother of three, works at the Waffle House […]

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Nonprofit succession planning — sound risk management practice

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on June 16, 2018.

As a kid growing up in rural Iowa, I got to school via the bus.  On at least one occasion I climbed aboard and was surprised to see an unfamiliar face behind the wheel.  “Ike isn’t feeling well, I’m your bus driver today.”  Straightforward enough, but as I found my seat I noticed that this […]

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Hey D.C. your leaders are missing!

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on June 2, 2018.

The VA scandal is just the latest show of failed leadership by our current administration.  With NSA, IRS and the State Department looking like rogue agents or worse – just plain clueless, we are being treated to a text book case of management incompetence.  In his Psychology Today article, Dr. Ronald E. Riggio, Ph.D. I’ve […]

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What do you make? Wait, don’t tell me – I don’t want to know.

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 30, 2018.

With recent legislation – mercifully stalled due to a lack of enthusiasm, the Paycheck Fairness Act will have to wait before it gets another shot at the light of day.  It goes without saying that most reasonable people believe in fairness of pay.  But as many of us know, when it comes to deciding what’s […]

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Imagine a bus…

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 28, 2018.

Think about a bus….seriously, picture a bus in your mind. What does the bus look like?  Is it a yellow school bus full of happy kids going off to school?  Now imagine that that bus is going to a football game….is it still a school bus but now with players going off to a game? […]

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When TED Talks, people listen

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 19, 2018.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past few years, you’ve probably heard of TED talks.  TED – technology, entertainment and design talks are limited to no more than 18 minutes and basically force the presenter to deliver a message in a compelling, impactful and educational fashion that eschews the use of standard […]

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All Aboard! 5 Factors of a Successful Onboarding Process

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 16, 2018.

Do you remember your first day of school? That moment standing at the bus stop, lunch box in hand, waving good-bye to your mother, while your heart was beating faster than ever? Well starting at a new job feels the same way. We’ve all been there – dressed in your finest business attire with butterflies in […]

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There’s no “luck” in being right.

Posted by Thomas C. Johnson on May 12, 2018.

I’ve heard the phrase “I’d rather be lucky than right.” on a number of occasions – usually on the golf course but sometimes in the conference room.  It really is a tongue-in-cheek comment since most of us would rather rely on confidence rather than coincidence.  For this reason it is important for us to be […]

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