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E. James (Jim) Brennan

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Senior Associate, ERI Economic Research Institute

720 points

E. James (Jim) Brennan became Senior Associate of ERI Economic Research Institute after decades heading compensation consulting firm Brennan,Thomsen Associates, Inc., designing reward systems for clients of all sizes in every industry throughout North America. A noted pre-trial consultant ...

E. James (Jim) Brennan became Senior Associate of ERI Economic Research Institute after decades heading compensation consulting firm Brennan,Thomsen Associates, Inc., designing reward systems for clients of all sizes in every industry throughout North America. A noted pre-trial consultant and in-court expert witness on personnel management and pay practices, particularly in the area of executive compensation, routinely retained by the IRS and DOJ, Brennan earlier worked in virtually every area of corporate human resource management at Mallinckrodt, Dart Industries and Rexall. Jim is also a widely published author and experienced speaker who holds the ACA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Well known for his many personal opinions, all of his views are his own expressions and do not represent those of (nor are they necessarily endorsed by) any past, current or future employer.
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WEB: Salary Expert

May 23, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 3 other people answered this question at this roundtable

HR & Recruiting Blues in the News [5/22 @ 4 pm]

Can the bad actions of the few really hurt the overall organization, making it hard to recruit & retain talent?

Of course, one bad apple can spoil the entire barrel. The more prominent the negative influence is, the more damage that results. People react more strongly to bad things than good things; it is easier to repel folks than to attract them by positive inducements. ... more

Human Resources

Talent Managment

May 23, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 4 other people answered this question at this roundtable

HR & Recruiting Blues in the News [5/22 @ 4 pm]

What is HR's role when there's a scandal; who should be in charge of handling - CEO, HR, PR or Legal?

Scandal is always a PR issue but other functions may be involved, depending on the cause and effects of the ugly situation. Getting the truth out first in the best light is the operative PR rule. Other functions will always be involved in diagnosis, investigation, ... more

Human Resources

Talent Managment

May 18, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 13 other people answered this question

What is the difference between influential leadership and manipulation?

While a leader may use circumstances to gain an advantage and manipulate consequences to inspire people to cooperate in a joint venture towards a specific objective, a simple manipulator just likes to be a puppeteer. The influencial leader will always use ("manipulate") the tools at ... more

Human Resources

May 17, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 4 other people answered this question

What does "organizational behavior" mean to you?

Having served my time in both the military and corporate HR with my last large conglomerate role being in organization development, "organizational behavior" is a broad descriptive term inclusive of everything done by the enterprise. Organizational CULTURE, on the other hand, is a specific description ... more

Human Resources

Organization Development

Organizational Behavior

May 11, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 3 other people answered this question

Do employees learn strategic thinking/acting rather by working on strategic tasks than in seminars?

Theory can be imparted via instruction but you only truly learn what you teach yourself by application. Seminars are useful preparation but lack the substance of real-life implementation. The best indicator of a talent is past demonstrations where you displayed it in actual practice. more

Human Resources

Strategic Thinking

May 8, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 2 other people answered this question at this roundtable

The Status Quo: Defeat Your Biggest Competitor in Marketing and Sales [5/17 @ 1 pm]

How do you define the term "status quo"?

It is Latin for "the state in which" (things currently exist) and is understood to mean the present situation without change or the way things are right now. It is often used to communicate a reluctance to embrace progress or discomfort with any new idea ... more

Status Quo Strategy

May 2, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 8 other people answered this question

Are liberal arts degrees a waste of time if you want to enter the business world?

Nope. As Newman observed in his classic "The Idea of a University," liberal arts equip you to live your life intelligently; business or science degrees are the equivalent of vocational trade schools in modern times. While an MBA is about making a living, a BA ... more

Human Resources

Career Planning

Liberal Arts Degree

April 30, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 8 other people answered this question

Are leaders born or created?

If they aren't born yet, they are at best embryonic leaders. Whether they are created or not depends on your view of science, religion and cosmology; that seems outside the HR perview.
Nevertheless, anything can be learned. No one grows up in a vacuum without ... more

Human Resources

Talent Management

April 23, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 9 other people answered this question

Should there be a universal definition and method for measurement of employee engagement?

Since different cultures have different dynamics that affect their styles of engagement, I don't see how you can theorize any universal definition or universal method for such a variable construct. more

General Management

Human Resources

Employee Motivation

April 13, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 17 other people answered this question

Is there any value to churning your existing talent base just to get some new energy in the company?

No, churning merely terrifies victims and persuades supervisors they should exaggerate the performance ratings of valuable people simply having a bad year or risk losing them. That was the experience back in the 70s and 80s when trimming your low-end outliers got credence from enthusiastic ... more

Human Resources

Corporate Culture

Employee Engagement

April 9, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 3 other people answered this question

What are some tips to succeed in the human resources industry?

HR is not an industry but a field of concentration that exists in every industry, just like technology and communications and finance. Those who specialize in human resource management deal with the most crucial element of every organization, the talented people who make and sell ... more

Human Resources

Career Development

April 3, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan recommends this answer by Art van Bodegraven

On an employee performance review rating scale of 1-5 (1 - poor, 5 - excellent) should the company remove "5" if no one ever receives that rating?

Keep the 5, shift to a 1-10 scale, use words, wherever, but don't eliminate the top ranking.
Do consider that your managers might be clueless about how and why to rank performance at any level, and educate or replace, as indicated.
Recognize that a normal ... more

Human Resources

Employee Engagement

Employee Performance

Performance Review

April 1, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan asked a question

What do you think of The Compensation Cookbook?

Human Resources

Talent Management

March 27, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 6 other people answered this question

Do you think employees should decide who gets bonuses? Have you implemented this practice within your organization?

No, because most employees do not know the relative contributions towards the critical missions of the total enterprise; that is traditionally the entire reason for management. Only seen one enterprise in almost fifty years that is completely open and totally employee driven, and that works ... more

Human Resources

Company Culture

March 27, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 3 other people answered this question

Can a supervisor talk to employees about other employees in a negative manner?

Of course, they CAN. But why SHOULD they? If it's a baseball coach comparing the new replacement's on-base percentage to the departing player(s), it is simply a statement of fact and an explanation of strategy, not a value judgment about some subjective characteristic. The back-stabbing ... more

Human Resources

Employee Relations

Internal Communication

March 21, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 10 other people answered this question

Why do baby boomers managers have little to no relationship with their employees?

Why do you make such an unsupported assertion? There are differences between result-oriented people and process-oriented people. Some (regardless of birth date) focus on output product and some focus on manner of behavior. Some work for objectives essential for organizational survival and some pursue personal ... more

Human Resources

Corporate Culture

Employee Relations

March 18, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 5 other people answered this question

Could enforcing the 40 hour workweek help solve our underemployment problem?

Then we would fight about "what's right." Human beings love absolutes; people tend to impose their absolute values on anyone who feel otherwise. Corporations are (and generally always have been) legal "persons" in every legal and economic system in history; and they usually reflect the ... more

Human Resources

40 Hour Work Week

March 18, 2012

santosh kakalij selected a best answer for

How many systems engineering jobs are there?

Human Resources

Information Technology

Systems Engineer

Systems Engineering

March 17, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 9 other people answered this question at this roundtable

Inside Look at Workforce Mobility [3/13 @ 4 pm]

Why do many companies spend so much more on external recruiting fees than on internal hiring & a focus on retention?

http://www.compensationcafe.com/2011/06/some-bad-is-good-for-you.html fits this subject and this particular day of March 17 as well.

Human Resources

March 16, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan and 2 other people answered this question

Should a nonprofit board of directors be organized like a for-profit board of directors?

Eugene: This report was just submitted to the Senate Finance Committee Commission on nonprofit accountability issues: http://www.erieri.com/PDF/CharityExecutivePay.pdf. more

General Management

Board of Directors

Corporate Governance

March 16, 2012

E. James (Jim) Brennan recommends this answer by Matt Heinz

How should a leader react to failure ?

You can't have a success-only policy.
I recommend checking out Seth Godin’s book Poke the Box. It’ll take you an hour to read, and it’s worth the time, but the point is simple.
Do stuff. Put your plans into action. Get it off paper and ... more

Human Resources

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