Archive
October 2011
By SHRM Staff
When Newell Rubbermaid’s business model changed, HR helped leaders identify the skills employees need to execute new strategies.
October 31, 2011
The “Occupy Wall Street” protests are gaining steam across the country. Could employees who participate risk losing their jobs? Recent events show that the answer to this question is “yes,” at least in certain circumstances.
Public radio host Lisa Simeone, on Oct. 20, 2011, told the Baltimore Sunthat she had been fired by the public radio series "Soundprint" because series executives saw her work as a spokeswoman for one of the groups involved in the Occupy DC movement as a violation of the series’ producer’s ethical code.
News Updates
October 28, 2011
By Dan Rockwell
Everything you need to know about getting a grip on time is contained in three words.
Eliminate … Delegate … Accelerate
Eliminate: Stop unnecessary or low priority tasks.
Delegate: Give tasks to others.
Accelerate: Become more efficient.
All time management tips and principles either, eliminate, delegate, or accelerate.
8 Time Management Tips:
October 28, 2011
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of HR professionals polled by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in August 2010, said they align their organization’s diversity efforts with business goals and objectives. And when asked about the importance of various outcomes of diversity practices, respondents placed business results, such as profits and competitiveness, ahead of HR-related outcomes such as recruitment, retention and employee opinion survey results.
News Updates
October 27, 2011
More than two-thirds (68 percent) of HR professionals polled by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in August 2010, said they align their organization’s diversity efforts with business goals and objectives. And when asked about the importance of various outcomes of diversity practices, respondents placed business results, such as profits and competitiveness, ahead of HR-related outcomes such as recruitment, retention and employee opinion survey results.
News Updates
October 27, 2011
The majority of law associates and attorneys “of counsel” who make partner at U.S.-based law firms are white men, despite the growing presence of women and minorities within the law firm population, according to Vault/Minority Corporate Counsel Association (MCCA) Law Firm diversity data released Sept. 27, 2011.
News Updates
October 26, 2011
Men in the United States—especially those in two-income families who are fathers and working 50 or more hours a week—are experiencing the kind of work/family conflict that women long have felt, according to a study, The New Male Mystique.
Researchers Ellen Galinsky, Kerstin Aumann and Kenneth Matos of the Families and Work Institute (FWI) discussed their findings during a Sept. 8, 2011, webinar. The report, funded by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and the IBM Corp., was released June 2011.
News Updates
October 25, 2011
By Matt Charney
Lost in all the buzzwords and best practices about social media recruiting is a simple fact: it’s supposed to be fun. In the olden days of faxed resumes, form cover letters and cold calling, engaging talent could be a chore. But new methodologies have developed along with new mediums. As more and more employers are finding out, the business of work doesn’t have to feel like, well, work at all.
October 25, 2011
One of the sessions I really enjoyed at this year’s SHRM Annual Conference in Las Vegas was presented by Sue Meisinger, former CEO of SHRM, on the “10 Things Your CEO Will Never Tell You, But HR Needs to Know.” If you missed the session…well, that’s a bummer but Sue did mention a report you might find interesting. Booz & Co. compiles a CEO study each year that offers some insights about the role of the CEO in today’s marketplace. It's an interesting read and you can find a copy here.
October 24, 2011
By SHRM Staff
LAS VEGAS—“The script of your life is not yet written. Life changes, and you change with it,” said Michael J. Fox, the Emmy Award-winning actor, author and advocate, during the June 29, 2011, closing keynote speech of the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) 63rd Annual Conference & Exposition.
News Updates
October 21, 2011
By Susan Avello
Since October is National Work and Family Month, it’s a good time to discuss work-flex.
I love how Jason Seiden described “work/life balance” recently at Illinois SHRM: “We talk of it as something we separate by a slash and then hope we can balance everything in between. Trying to package them and keep them separate doesn’t work…There is no rigid separation.”
October 20, 2011
Scripps Health, a major hospital and health care provider in Southern California, has been recognized as the top company in the 2011 AARP Best Employers for Workers Over 50 awards program, a decade-long effort to acknowledge progressive policies and practices that are meeting the needs of the country's aging workforce. AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people over 50.
October 20, 2011
By SHRM Staff
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) was invited, along with nearly 30 private-sector companies, to Capitol Hill recently to discuss the challenges employers face in finding and hiring returning U.S. military personnel for civilian jobs.
The meeting was a three-hour Veterans Employment Summit that the House of Representatives Committee on Veterans’ Affairs hosted in September 2011.
News Updates
October 19, 2011
Have you ever had a red rubber ball moment? Kevin Carroll, author of the Red Rubber Ball Book Series describes these as when play transform even tense, high-stakes moments into pure fun and result in deep connections formed that can last a lifetime.
October 18, 2011
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) continued to push flexible workplace options as a business imperative during a congressional briefing that SHRM and the Congressional Hispanic Leadership Institute Inc. hosted Oct. 12, 2011, on Capitol Hill.
“This is an issue whose time has come. It’s good for workers, it’s good for businesses,” said Sara Manzano-Diaz, director of the Women’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Labor, during her keynote remarks.
News Updates
October 17, 2011
Organizations today are seeing three major trends—a rapidly diversified workforce, an aging workforce and an influx of military veterans—Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Chief Global Membership Officer Janet Parker, SPHR, said during opening remarks at “The Workforce Mosaic.”
SHRM underwrote the National Journal policy summit, held July 12, 2011, at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.
News Updates
October 17, 2011
By Ann Tardy
Flight Attendant vs. Consultant
“They paid some consultant millions of dollars to figure out how to load this plane. They should have just asked me. I’ve been a flight attendant for 22 years.” I overheard this on a recent flight when the boarding process caused a traffic jam of people.
Office Managers vs. Corporate Headquarters
October 13, 2011
By SHRM Staff
This poll looks at how organizational diversity and inclusion practices have changed over the last five years. In 2005, SHRM released the Workplace Diversity Practices research report, which addressed diversity practices in organizations from the perspective of HR professionals. The 2010 study included several of the survey questions from the 2005 report to determine how diversity and inclusion in the workplace has transformed over time.
Research
October 13, 2011
By Craig Fisher
There I was, at a steak house on the Vegas strip, with 4 Brits and a German who couldn't pronounce Mojave. They had, as I had, driven into Las Vegas from Los Angeles, through the mountains and desert, a couple of days prior for HR Tech 2011.
October 12, 2011
Executives from large companies around the world said they’ve made significant progress in diversity and inclusion efforts focused on gender, ethnicity, national origin, race and color, according to a Forbes Insight study, but they face certain barriers as they develop and implement diversity strategies.
News Updates
October 12, 2011
For being a profession with heavy detail and conformity requirements, I’ve always wondered why we aren’t better at using the rigor of science within our work in Human Resources. It would seem to me that the structure and process of the scientific method would appeal to us since we spend much of our time working with structure and process all day long.
October 11, 2011
Diversity and inclusiveness are like integrity—they can’t be captured on a scorecard, but their presence or absence is noticeable, said Tiane Mitchell Gordon, senior vice president of diversity and inclusion at AOL.
Gordon explored the relationship of culture and diversity and inclusion’s success with a company during her luncheon address at the annual Workplace Diversity: Practice and Research conference June 10, 2010. George Mason University hosted the conference in the Washington, D.C., metro area.
News Updates
October 11, 2011
Few would argue the pace of change is increasing, especially in business and technology, along with their impact on the workplace. Wise company leaders sense these changes, and adjust, adapt, plan and execute. Each day brings an evolving convergence of many external influences that shape upcoming days, weeks and years. The workplace is greatly impacted by this convergence of external influences.
October 10, 2011
Fortune 500 companies, such as Boeing Co., Coca-Cola Co., IBM, Lockheed Martin Corp., Procter & Gamble Co. and Verizon, Inc., continue to pave the way for engaging women and minority employees.
News Updates
October 10, 2011
The workforce is aging around the world. Estimates indicate that by 2050, the number of people over the age of 60 will exceed the number of those in younger generations. Experts say companies should prepare now for this global shift.
Yet what most U.S. companies don’t realize, experts say, is that they need to reduce the chance of financial and legal problems arising with these employees—a group more subject to disabilities than younger workers.
Research
October 7, 2011
According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) Report, hiring will come to a near standstill and compensation will inch up during the month of October.
Employers in the manufacturing sector report a virtually unchanged annual hiring rate increase of just around 1 percent while those in the service sector anticipate a year-over-year 10 percent decline.
October 6, 2011
By SHRM Staff
SHRM’s Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) report tracks trends in the labor market on a monthly basis, including hiring projections released one month ahead of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Employment Situation report. Exclusive metrics also include new-hire compensation trends and recruiting difficulty, as well as job vacancies in exempt and nonexempt employment.
Research
October 6, 2011
NEW YORK—It wasn’t difficult spotting Todd Corley, chief diversity officer for clothier Abercrombie & Fitch (A&F), at Working Mother Media’s 2011 Multicultural Women’s National Conference held here July 20, 2011.
In a sea of “suits” at a Times Square hotel, Corley was dressed nearly head to toe in Abercrombie, from his jeans and oxford shirt to his cardigan “letterman” sweater.
October 6, 2011
There has been an astronomic increase in employment litigation. The result is that there is almost an apoplectic fear of litigation. Indeed, because the cost of litigation can be so high, sometimes we try to avoid risk at all cost.
But we cannot avoid risk. It is not a question of risk avoidance, but rather risk selection.
In my experience, here are the top three mistakes that are sometimes made in managing risk and can result in buying one risk to avoid another.
October 5, 2011
A recent study highlights the importance of considering global characteristics of leaders and members of multicultural teams and of using a selection and training process that focuses on a global rather than a cross-cultural perspective.
The findings are from a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Foundation-funded report, Managing Multi-Cultural Teams: From a Cross-Cultural to a Global Perspective, released in July 2011.
News Updates
October 5, 2011
Senior finance leaders have long taken special interest in human resources, given that compensation and benefits constitute a large portion of any organization’s expenses. But according to a recent study, American chief financial officers (CFOs) might be ratcheting up their oversight of HR because of the tough economy and concerns about health care reform legislation.
News Updates
October 4, 2011
By John Bell
Memo To: CEOs and Aspiring CEOs
From: John Bell
Re: Your CEO Epitaph
If you are already in the C-suite, I suggest you take a moment to contemplate your epitaph. Will you be remembered as Jack Bighead or Andy Goodfellow?
Epitaph of Jack Bighead:
October 4, 2011
NEW YORK—Getting diversity and inclusion (D&I) “right” requires strong CEO commitment. But an all-white panel of CEOs who recently won diversity leadership awards said the seeds for their passion were planted long before they entered the corporate ranks.
News Updates
October 3, 2011
Over the years I’ve received a handful of anonymous notes and letters while working at various organizations. Scribbled on pages torn from legal pads or neatly typed and sealed in envelopes, the notes often lacked specifics and were furtively slipped under the door of the HR Department –
“Some coworkers who work in my department are doing things that go against company policy.
I thought you should know. Signed, A Concerned Employee.”
October 3, 2011