by Kristen Ireland | Jul 5, 2023 | Build Relevant Skills, Leadership
As the co-founders of People Spark, we’re leadership junkies. We’re always listening to Ted Talks and podcasts about leadership, and we’ve lost count of how many articles we’ve read and clever quotes we’ve memorized on the topic. Over the last few months, we’ve...
by Kristen Ireland | Feb 1, 2022 | Build Relevant Skills, Change, Leadership
Is there a merger on the horizon for your coop or ag business? If so, congratulations. It’s a big deal when a company grows in size, scope, or industry influence. We know it takes time, energy, and resources to get your teams and systems aligned with the new way of...
by Kristen Ireland | Mar 15, 2019 | Build Relevant Skills, Focus Efforts on Business Goals, Hire and Keep the Right People
It’s interesting to introduce myself as an HR person. I usually get the “oh, I better watch my language” or “boy, do I have questions for you.” The questions are usually centered around what policies and processes should be in place. This tells me that we are...
by Kristen Ireland | Mar 11, 2019 | Build Relevant Skills, Focus Efforts on Business Goals, Hire and Keep the Right People
So, where do you spend your time? I ask managers and supervisors this question a lot when discussing employees. Do you spend your time with your high performers or your problem employees? The answer I typically get from managers is that they spent more...
by Kristen Ireland | Mar 4, 2019 | Build Relevant Skills, Focus Efforts on Business Goals, Hire and Keep the Right People
I recently read that 94% of employees say that they would stay at a company longer if it simply invested in helping them learn (statistic from LinkedIn’s 2019 Workforce Learning Report). I am guessing your initial response to that was “yeah, but I don’t have the...
by Kristen Ireland | Feb 5, 2019 | Build Relevant Skills, Flex to Meet Changing Business Needs, Focus Efforts on Business Goals, Hire and Keep the Right People
As the struggle to recruit and retain employees intensifies, many organizations, especially large ones, are offering employee perks. Small businesses than start to question how they will compete for employees with companies that are offering concierge services,...
