"Getting the best employees on board and weeding out the worst--without getting slapped with expensive lawsuits--are two of the most crucial and difficult jobs of human resources professionals and general managers. Now there's quick, reliable information on how to do it right. Written by employment expert Paul Falcone, "The Hiring and Firing Question and Answer Book" contains over 100 commonly asked questions ranging from basic to sophisticated, including: * Does my company need an Affirmative Action plan? * Why should I conduct an exit interview? * How do I find the best Web sites for recruiting employees? * How do I protect my company from negligent hiring claims? * How do I terminate a long-term employee with a history of positive performance evaluations? Each question is followed by a short answer and a longer ""Tell Me More"" section, making the book perfect both as a concise overview and as a practical reference." 'Paul Falcone (Valencia, CA) is Director of Human Resources at Platinum Equity in Beverly Hills, and was previously Director of Employment and Development for Paramount Pictures in Hollywood. He is the author of several best-selling books, including: 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire, 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews, and 101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems.

LEARN TO NAVIGATE COMPLEX EMPLOYEE MANAGEMENT ETHICAL CHALLENGES Paul Falcone, author of 101 Difficult Conversations to Have with Employees, teaches you the leadership principles that cultivate an ethical workplace and legally protect your company. Ethical challenges ranging from designing a diversity and inclusion strategy to creating a process for handling harassment allegations or establishing an employee discipline or termination process can overwhelm even senior leaders. This quick-guide walks you through these and many more critical ethical challenges you'll face when managing a team and workplace. Workplace Ethics provides solutions for: Facing common ethical challenges in the workplace and offers quick pointers to help you navigate those situations. Understanding The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 affects your team and meeting SOX obligations. Educating employees how they can foster an ethical work environment at any level. Identifying failing diversity and inclusion initiatives and how to fix them. Mastering the tools needed to ethically manage your team and legally protect the company. This quick-guide will help you cement your reputation as a selfless and emotionally intelligent leader who sets high expectations and achieves exceptional results.

101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees provides guidance for managers on how to broach uncomfortable conversations across a wide range of issues. Inappropriate workplace conduct, lateness, sexually offensive behavior, productivity and communication issues . . . these are just a few of the uncomfortable topics supervisors must sometimes discuss with their employees. Top human resources author Paul Falcone?offers realistic sample dialogues managers can use to facilitate clear, direct interactions with their employees that help sidestep potential awkwardness and meet issues head-on. This practical, solution-oriented book walks you through some of the most common and most serious employee problems you are likely to encounter. In 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees, Falcone covers topics including: substandard performance reviews, progressive disciplinary warnings and termination meetings, FMLA abuse and ADA accomodations, wage and hour challenges, team turnarounds, compensation conflicts, and more. This handy guide helps you treat their people with dignity and respect, focusing not just on what to say but also on how to say it. It provides proven techniques you can use to protect yourself and your organizations-and get the very best from your people.

LEARN TO HANDLE EMPLOYEE CORRECTIVE ACTIONS LEAGALLY AND ETHICALLY A quick-guide to legally and ethically mastering progressive discipline and structured termination, from the leading voice in HR expertise. Paul Falcone, author of 101 Sample Write Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems an renowned HR and leadership expert, breaks down the best practices for progressive employee discipline and structured terminations into easy-to-understand steps that will help you avoid common legal and ethical pitfalls. Leadership Defense answers practical, legal, and ethical questions surrounding employee discipline and termination, including how to: Conduct an exit interview Protect my company from negligent hiring or termination claims Terminate a long-term employee with a history of positive performance evaluations And much more This quick-guide offers easy-to-implement solutions that make the often-feared task of employee discipline more approachable and easier to navigate.

MASTER EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT AND PERFORMANCE REVIEWS Ready-to-use quick-guide to streamline employee reviews, create effective career development plans, and monitor year-round employee performance. Paul Falcone, author of 101 Difficult Conversations to Have with Employees and renowned HR and leadership expert, gives you powerful scripts and templates you can apply immediately to your employee reviews and development conversations. Along with key tactics for appraisal, motivation, and professional and career development, Leadership Offense: Reduces the time it takes to complete employee reviews by offering sample phrases for key performance areas. Gives you the framework and language for concrete and constructive feedback. Hones your ideas for evaluations and development plans with examples of employee behaviors, strengths, and opportunities. This handy, quick-guide turns a task many managers dread-giving performance reviews-into a positive opportunity to hone your leadership skills and guide your employees to the path for success.

PUT THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN PLACE THE FIRST TIME with the help of scripts, templates, and tools you can apply immediately, from the leading voice in HR expertise. Paul Falcone, author for 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Your Employees and renowned hiring, performance management, and leadership development expert, walks you through the challenges you'll face during the interviewing, hiring, and onboarding process. This quick guide to Effective Hiring: Offers new interpretations of candidate responses to the most often used interview questions. Identifies red flags in the candidate assessment process, such as unrelated responses to questions that delay getting to the answer to your question. Provides leaders who often struggle to meet crucial HR demands with simple tools to guide them through effective interviewing, hiring, and onboarding. Getting the best employees on board is one of the most crucial and difficult jobs of leaders and human resources professionals. This book provides quick, reliable information on how to hire effectively.

MASTER YOUR ROLE AS AN EFFECTIVE MANAGER An accessible and practical quick-guide that will help you develop your skills as a manager from Paul Falcone, author of 101 Difficult Conversations to Have With Your Employees and renowned HR and leadership expert. Being a good manager is not a natural skill for anyone, but it's an easy-to-learn discipline that will allow you to develop a strong team and create an environment that amplifies the skills of everyone on your team. This book breaks down the basics of each aspect that new managers struggle with most. New Managers covers key leadership topics facing any manager, including: Coaching and Mentoring Employees Inspiring Employee Engagement Fostering Teamwork to Encourage Innovation Mastering the Art of Active Listening Becoming an Effective Communicator Establishing Key Metrics to Drive Business Forward How to Create a Positive Relationship Between Yourself and HR And, Much More This quick-guide is an indispensable resource that will guide managers of all levels in becoming their team's favorite boss.

The must-have resource for HR managers who want to lessen the learning curve, succeed in their role, and set themselves up for future growth. The world of work continues to grow more complex with hybrid work, a shortage of talent, and a mandate for more inclusive environments with a true DEI perspective.  These changes have created many exciting opportunities but also carry big risks for HR managers on the front lines in organizations in transition.  Bestselling author and Human Resources expert Paul Falcone breaks down the landscape for new managers to quickly get up to speed covering recruitment, employee relations, compensation and benefits, “HR Defense� legal and compliance strategies to keep your organization safe, as well as “HR Offense� strategies to help drive organizational strategy and performance. This one-of-a-kind guide will: Round out your exposure to the full gamut of disciplines within the HR suite of services. Share deeper-dive knowledge and insights into particular areas of the HR world to shortcut the natural learning curve. Maximize certain features of HR programs and service offerings to help you attract, develop, and retain top talent Raise red flags in areas that could potentially expose you or your organization to unwanted legal liability Help you master the levers of HR so that you can perform agilely and skillfully across the full HR spectrum Provide a tool for your own personal and professional development as you progress within your own HR career

Whether you're an HR professional or a manager, we know what you hate most about your job: giving performance reviews. Even if you know the basic points you want to get across, finding the right words and committing them to paper is about as much fun as a trip to the dentist. But this handy little book puts thousands of ready-to-use words, phrases, descriptions, and action items right at your fingertips! Falcone covers the 25 most commonly rated performance factors, including productivity, time management, teamwork, and decision making, plus job-specific parameters that apply in sales, customer service, finance, and many other areas.

Not just for review time, the book will also be instrumental in creating job descriptions and development plans, as well as for monitoring performance, progress, and problems year-round.

You know what you mean--here's what to say.

Praise for Paul Falcone's previous books:

"If the art and science of hiring and firing has become a puzzle, then author Paul Falcone [The Hiring and Firing Question and Answer Book] has the answer."

--Houston Business Journal

"When you feel the need to document an employee's actions (or inactions), turn to this great tool [101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems]."

--Legal Management

"[96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire] takes the guesswork out of the interview process."

--Benefits and Compensation Solutions

As a manager, you aren't truly successful unless your employees are as well. Helping them establish compelling, actionable performance goals is the first and most important step, and this handbook is there to lend a hand. A follow-up to the bestselling 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews, HR executive Paul Falcone provides you with ready-to-use performance goals organized by the characteristics and core competencies used most often in the appraisal process. From attendance and attitude to teamwork and time management, managers will find the language they need to inspire exceptional results. In 2600 Phrases for Setting Effective Performance Goals, Falcone shows you how to: Build on individuals' strengths rather than compensating for their weaknesses. Help your employees feel engaged and self-motivated. Develop an "accomplishment mentality" that encourages your staff to constantly reinvent themselves based on the organization's needs. Encourage retention by developing realistic, customized goals that prepare them for their next career move. Determine appropriate follow-up intervals and measurable benchmarks to determine progress throughout the year. 2600 Phrases for Setting Effective Performance Goals also shares language tailored to many of the most common positions in sales and marketing, accounting and finance, HR, IT, legal, manufacturing, operations, and more. If your employees don't succeed, neither will you. This one-of-a-kind guide enables you to get more done through others and develop your own leadership abilities along the way.

Why do so many promising job candidates turn out to be disappointing employees? Learn how to consistently hire the right people at the right time for the right roles. Every manager and human resources department has experienced a candidate whom they viewed as promising individuals full of potential turning out to be underwhelming employees. Employment expert Paul Falcone supplies the tools you need to land top talent. What is the applicant's motivation for changing jobs? Do they consistently show initiative? The third edition of this practical guide book is packed with interview questions to possibly ask candidates, each designed to reveal the real person sitting across the table. In 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire, Falcone shares strategic questions that uncover the qualities and key criteria you seek in your next hire, including: Achievement-anchored questions Questions that qauge likeability and fit Pressure-cooker questions Holistic questions that invite self-assessment Questions tailed to sales, mid-level, or senior management positions Complete with guidelines for analyzing answers, asking follow-up questions, checking references, and making winning offers, 96 Great Interview Questions to Ask Before You Hire covers the interviewing and hiring process from beginning to end, leaving no stone unturned.

The key difference between a highly successful organization raising bars at every turn and one that limps along just happy to reach its quarterly goals--most of the time--might very well be how they address performance reviews. Are they just a perfunctory, annual "check-off," with no other goal than to justify salary increases, or does the organization truly know how to manage and measure its employees' performances in order to best impact a company's bottom line? In The Performance Appraisal Tool Kit, readers will discover a customizable appraisal template covering the essential areas of performance and conduct and learn how they can adapt it to fit varying business strategies. After all, every organization is a unique entity, therefore, the performance appraisal plan must also be unique to its company. In order to find the process that best increases efficiency and effectiveness in your workplace, learn how to: * Profile ideal employee performance and behavior * Design competencies that power performance, both at the individual and enterprise level * Drive future change by setting your organization's strategic direction * Retool the appraisal as needed to ratchet up expectations over time * And more There's nothing more valuable to a company in the long-term than a motivated and dedicated workforce. This forward-thinking, one-of-a-kind guide gives you the resources you need to construct a performance appraisal program that will accommodate market changes, revised priorities, and increasing productivity targets--and in the end, will lift your organization to a higher level.

THE best military transition Field Manual. A no nonsense process for any transitioning military member that is based on real experiences. This book is a true guide for what you need to know, not what an ACAP or TAP instructor has in their script Every military service member will experience three phases as he moves from a military career to a life outside the gate: transition, transformation, and integration. The foundation of "Boots" is built upon these three concepts. They provide the structure for the advice and guidelines I want to convey to you. You may experience each of these to different degrees depending on your wishes, circumstances, goals, and surrounding environment. These three stages will vary from individual to individual, and they will be shaped by one's attitude and inner strength as well as his ability to manage the hurdles of life. From the first day you set foot into boot camp, no matter what service you have been in, until the final days of predeployment training exercises or redeployment, you are taught to always pay attention to every detail in every situation. Our military knows how to turn you on and get you fired up for a mission. Transitioning out of boots will require the same focus on details and the energy to get fired up for your next mission, getting a job. More than a decade of war in God knows where in the world and many of America's treasure, our young men and women, will come home and be lost when it comes to preparing for their next fight-finding a job Many will leave the military voluntarily; more than 1.5 million will leave in the next 5-years. Boots gives them a helping hand, a guide, their new field manual that I never had when I retired from the US Army and entered corporate America. Let me help them find their new true north.

When not handled correctly, performance appraisals can turn into nerve-wracking confrontations. If employees and managers aren't on the same page about expectations and performance, the working relationship can be seriously harmed. "Productive Performance Appraisals" gives readers all the easy-to-use tools they need to conduct an effective review -- including sample dialogs, checklists, and forms. The book shows readers how to:

* plan and organize the appraisal session

* set short- and long-term goals

* elicit the employee's input

* handle problems and "sticky" subjects such as promotions and disagreements.

Now completely updated, the book has new sections on rating employees, justifying scores, and weaving disciplinary language into the review. Readers will also find guidance on developing career plans, keeping consistent records, communicating changes in roles, how reviews are used when determining layoffs, and much more.

Whether you're addressing an initial infraction or handling termination-worthy transgressions, you need to be 100 percent confident that every employee encounter is clear, fair, and most importantly, legal. Thankfully, HR expert Paul Falcone has provided this wide-ranging resource that explains in detail the disciplinary process and provides ready-to-use documents that eliminate stress and second-guessing about what to do and say. In 101 Sample Write-Ups for Documenting Employee Performance Problems, Falcone includes expertly crafted, easily customizable write-ups that address: sexual harassment, absenteeism, insubordination, drug or alcohol abuse, substandard work, email and phone misuse, teamwork issues, managerial misconduct, confidentiality breaches, social media abuse, and more! With each sample document also including a performance improvement plan, outcomes and consequences, and a section of employee rebuttal, it's easy to see why this guide makes life for managers and HR personnel significantly easier when it comes to addressing employee performance issues.

Products and services will change with demand, but one thing that will always be required for a company's success is having the right people working hard for you. As a manager, are you cultivating this vital resource? Is there more you could be doing? In this accessible and practical playbook, HR expert and author Paul Falcone helps take the guesswork out of this crucial element for success. In 75 Ways for Managers to Hire, Develop, and Keep Great Employees, Falcone shows managers how to: Identify the best and brightest talent Hire for organizational compatibility Address uncomfortable workplace situations Create an environment that motivates Retain restless top performers Delegate in a way that develops your staff Every HR executive has a laundry list of things they wish managers knew--best practices that would enable the entire organization to operate more effectively. Falcone's book 75 Ways for Managers to Hire, Develop, and Keep Great Employees has encapsulated all of this for you in a single indispensable resource!