The plugHR blog

People, performance, and building teams that win.

Straight talk on hiring, performance and HR for founders who know people are the business — now more than ever.

Three asks from a performance management system

The asks from a performance system are simple. The labour to deliver them is what breaks HR teams. Here's what actually matters — and what AI changes.

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How to write a good job ad

Your job ad is the single biggest factor deciding who applies. In the AI era, the best people have infinite options — write like it.

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How to boost employee productivity quickly

Hiring adds. Productivity multiplies. Here's the math most CEOs miss — and four ways to lift the 70% of your workforce who are neither star nor dead weight.

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Salary structure, simplified

Stop dressing up salary structures with components that create liability and complexity. Keep it simple, sweet, and defensible. Here's how.

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Every employee is a tech worker

If every business is a tech business, every role is a tech role. In the AI era there are no non-tech jobs left — so why are you still hiring like there are?

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How to build the right competencies in teams

Competency building sounds like a big audacious goal. It isn't. Here's the simple path — from defining role competencies to a real training calendar in 30 days.

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Manpower downsizing made easier

Downsizing is brutal mostly because no method is followed and nobody is trained for it. Here's how to do it without inflicting collateral damage.

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You are who you hire

You want initiative, innovation and risk-taking — but your hiring process screens for the opposite. In the AI era, that gap is fatal.

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Weak HR weakens your business daily

Founders love to believe weak HR is, at worst, harmless — something to fix later. In the AI era, that false comfort is the most expensive lie you tell yourself.

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Write KRAs for departments, not roles

Set KRAs at the department level, then let supervisors pick targets from the set. More flexibility, less conflict — and you groom talent for bigger roles.

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HR should hire those who don't need HR

Hire the motivated, self-driven, problem-solving kind and they barely need HR care at all. Finding those people is the single factor that makes or breaks a venture.

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You have been jargoned, my friend

A year of KRAs, KPIs, scorecards and cascading dominoes — and nothing actually changed. The jargon went in; the performance didn't. Sound familiar?

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Your performance management fails at the start

Most performance programs obsess over measuring the end — while never setting goals at the start. Fix the start, and you've won three-fourths of the game.

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Should your HR policy follow industry practice or best practice?

Your policies are your workplace ecosystem drivers — treat them like product features. Matching the industry average is a losing game. Here's how to think about it.

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Roles first, then Jim

Everyone knows Jim Collins' bus — get the right people on, then decide where to go. But there's homework before the bus ride: the role book.

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