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Melissa Dobbins
Jan 295 min read
The Secret to Successful Check-ins: Project/Team Status Updates
Check-in meetings are a fundamental tool for managers to ensure that their programs and teams are healthy, productive, and on track. When...
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Melissa Dobbins
Dec 5, 20245 min read
Tips to generating great feedback questions
Great processes require constant reflection and adjustment which is driven by feedback. Feedback, in turn, requires great questions, as...
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Melissa Dobbins
Nov 6, 20244 min read
Structured vs. unstructured feedback
As experts in people, teams, and evaluating talent, we know there is no such thing as perfection. The best candidates are not the ones...
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Melissa Dobbins
Aug 13, 20245 min read
The Secret to Successful Review Meetings: Finding Opportunities for Improvement
Where check-in meetings are fundamental for ensuring healthy, productive, on track teams and projects (as covered in our blog, The Secret...
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Melissa Dobbins
Jul 24, 20245 min read
Inclusive benefits: fueling the competitive edge and DEI in hiring
“How can we create more inclusive benefits packages?” It’s a common question, especially now as competition to attract, engage, and...
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Melissa Dobbins
Jul 16, 20244 min read
Managing Risk to Manage Change
Change is good. Change is what allows us to continuously improve, grow, progress. Change is what turns okay into fantastic and antiquated...
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Melissa Dobbins
Jun 12, 20244 min read
The trick to building healthy sourcing relationships
Have you ever met a person for the first time and all they do is talk about themselves? Perhaps you try to inject a little about yourself...
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Melissa Dobbins
May 22, 20246 min read
Building a DEI roadmap one piece at a time
Have you ever played a game of Tetris, assembled a jigsaw puzzle or Lego set, or played any type of game where the object is to turn a...
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Melissa Dobbins
May 15, 20245 min read
Experience vs. Performance – how to interview for ‘problem solving’
“Problem Solving” It’s a common requirement for a variety of jobs. From the challenges of making a sale to the intricacies of designing,...
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Melissa Dobbins
May 8, 20244 min read
The art of ‘ish’ – tricks for high-level DEI project scoping
Have you ever played the game ’21 questions’ or ‘guess the animal’ or similar? In these games, one person selects a thing or animal (or...
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Melissa Dobbins
Apr 9, 20244 min read
Tips to increase candidate quantity and quality from sourcing partners
With competition for talent remaining high, optimizing sourcing partnerships such as those with educational institutions, industry and...
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Melissa Dobbins
Mar 14, 20245 min read
The hard skill of Interviewing for hard skills – question types, tips, and techniques
Hard skills (or ‘teachable’ abilities) are at the core of so many jobs. Which means verifying that your candidates have those hard skills...
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Melissa Dobbins
Feb 14, 20245 min read
Solving the equity vs. humanity paradox in interviews
On the surface, the concept of equity in candidate interviews is straight forward – provide everyone with the same inclusive experience...
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Melissa Dobbins
Feb 8, 20244 min read
Personas – Engaging candidates through wisdoms from advertising
Have you ever noticed how great advertisements seem to talk directly to you? They make you laugh or think or trigger some sense of...
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Melissa Dobbins
Jan 10, 20243 min read
The strategy for achieving DEI goals – lessons from resolutions
I’ve made many New Year’s resolutions and life goals over the years. From the very lofty “this is the year I get in shape” or “this is...
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Melissa Dobbins
Jan 3, 20244 min read
The tale of a journey to achieving a lofty goal
For my 40th birthday, my parents gave me an interesting gift – a treadmill. After getting over the initial assumptive implication… “Hey!...
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Melissa Dobbins
Dec 20, 20236 min read
“Algorithms?” The DEIB dangers of asking questions you don’t understand
“What is your algorithm?” We were recently asked this question at the conclusion of a demonstration of our career.place anonymous...
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Melissa Dobbins
Dec 6, 20234 min read
The Power of Completely Conscious Bias as Illustrated by … a Video Game?
Unconscious Bias. This conspicuous concept in the circles of Diversity argues that our bias-driven choices and actions are, in large...
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Melissa Dobbins
Nov 29, 20232 min read
Three MUST haves to turn feedback into effective DEI actions
One of the core values of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (and other variants) initiatives is to respect and empower every...
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Melissa Dobbins
Aug 30, 20235 min read
A Tale of an ATS implementation gone right – lessons learned
‘Applicant Tracking System (ATS) implementation’. It is a phrase that is not often said with excitement or enthusiasm (unless by an ATS...
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