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Work habits of leaders tend to filter down through the troops. That is why it is important for leaders to develop a productive and positive work style. Motivated to please their boss, employees may unconsciously emulate their leader’s positive and negative work styles. Unfortunately, I have met leaders who make you think they would rather work, work, work and eventually drop dead at their desk rather than in the loving arms of their spouse or close family member.

There was a lot of great conversation happening at TLNT Transform in its inaugural year. There was one conversation, however, which stood out to me as being of particular importance. In a breakout session moderated by John Hollon, Nick Araco--co-founder and CEO of The CFO Alliance--discussed a very interesting trend. In the post-recession C-suite, an increasing number of HR chiefs are now reporting directly to the CFO rather than the CEO.

Corporate leaders are making more demands on managers to maintain high levels of employee engagement, and HR professionals are drawing on a variety of strategies to get managers involved in nurturing an engaged workforce. Employee engagement has a direct impact on worker performance, dedication to mission and drive in helping an organization accomplish its goals.

Research has shown that employee engagement is higher when responsibility for sustaining it is spread throughout an organization.

It's called many things: employer or employment branding, recruitment marketing, talent attraction, talent marketing, etc. It's a largely misunderstood thing that is really just about what your company looks like as a prospective employer to job seekers.

Wikipedia describes Employer Branding like this:

The National Labor Relations Board stresses that employees must be able to discuss their jobs freely.

The National Labor Relations Board, which helps administer the provisions of the National Labor Relations Act, believes that social-media policies are overly broad if they unfairly restrict employees -- union or non-union -- from engaging in protected concerted activity. In simple English, if employees can't discuss their jobs with one another, the Board has a problem.

Sexism is more than illegal. It is immoral and bad business.

There is more than a little bit of sexism in the roles portrayed in Mad Men.  So why are so many of us crazy about the show, even though we deplore the sexism that is part of it?

Of course, it is a TV show and not real life. And, the characters are not only psychologically interesting but also physically attractive.

Social media is rapidly becoming an essential tool and an integral force in the workplace. Whether for human resources, sales & marketing, public relations or customer service, social media is now the megaphone for an organization’s corporate culture and employment brand.

For those companies that have embraced it, this new way of working and communicating has generated fresh opportunities, influenced new audiences, and increased productivity. It’s also created a few unforeseen fires.

Over the past year, I have been researching how companies are approaching wellness as we dive head first in the age of mobile. I’ve even written about it here.

Like many Americans, Jeff T.H. Pon, Ph.D., HCS, knew someone who was affected by the Sept. 11 terror attacks. In his case, it was “a dear friend in the Pentagon.” In the troubling days after the attacks, “I found myself wondering: How can I serve? How can I give back?”

On a Saturday morning not long thereafter, he received a call from Washington, D.C., asking if he was interested in helping bring the federal government’s human capital functions into the 21st century.

Although there are many reasons to celebrate the contributions of women, a series of reports released shortly before International Women’s Day, March 8, 2012, reveals a disparity between the number of women participating in the global workforce and the number holding corporate leadership positions around the world.

On March 12, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) published a final rule outlining a framework for state-run health care exchanges under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). The exchanges are intended to offer private health insurance options that meet government standards and to coordinate the eligibility of low-income individuals for premium tax credits and other assistance.

For a long time, analysts have looked at the temporary staffing industry as a bellwether for the U.S. economy. "Staffing is always the first to get hit and the first to come back," says attorney Joel Klarreich, head of the Corporate and Staffing Group at Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP in New York City.

Injury risk increases 37 percent for employees with difficult family issues, researchers reported.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next this week.

I asked a manager recently, “Would you want to work for you?” Stunned, he stopped, wordless for once. Then meekly, he admitted, “No, I wouldn’t.”

Why this manager (and many others) answer “No”

Manager Mike knew he was difficult and habitually gruff. Demanding and impatient, he was often accused of being in a bad mood. He was constantly complaining to his employees about his boss, his peers, the company, the policies, and even the economy and politics. He was so busy managing up to his bosses and out to his customers, that he forgot to lead down and around.

I am just back from the SXSW Interactive Conference where I spent time with tens of thousands of geeks, nerds, dorks, and techie wizards. Not everyone at the conference was a Gen Y hipster — although it felt that way. I was tremendously fortunate to meet amazing men and women of all ages who had impressive resumes and interesting stories.

The one unifying theme? Everyone in attendance was passionate about technology, mobile devices and digital media.

Quite often, including here at We Know Next, when the term “flexibility” is used with respect to the workplace, it’s often in the discussion of worklife balance initiatives that serve as benefits to the employer and employee.  In this arena, we think about telework, co-working, ROWE, and other employer-supported program to give employees more control over how, when and where they work.  Having a flexible workplace is now viewed as something that smart companies do in order to support their culture, increase employee engagement and loyalty, and ultimately drive business success.

There was an unscientific experiment conducted in the 1950’s by Candid Camera to determine the impact of group behavior on individuals. The experiment took place in an elevator in what appears to be an office building.  Without knowing they were being filmed, each subject walked into an elevator with complete strangers.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next.

Smart phones, mobile sites and business applications continue to impact the way employees use technology at work. Many organizations are shifting away from company-issued devices and adopting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policies, which allow employees to use the mobile technology they’re most familiar with. There's a lot of buzz around the benefits of BYOD in an increasingly mobile workforce, but little discussion around the policies needed to establish rules and guidelines for usage.

Half of manufacturing companies and a quarter of service-sector companies polled plan to expand their payrolls in March 2012, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey.

I opened my eyes 5 minutes before the alarm clock sounded. 5:25 a.m. Atlanta. Still half-asleep. I was into the third day of a 3 city, 3 keynote speeches on 3 different topics stretch. Time to help a national sales organization kick of their annual Sales Summit. We finished our sound check around 7:30. Attendees were starting to fill the room to an upbeat playlist. Coffee. Breakfast. Name tags. Networking. You know the drill.

My client, the CMO of the organization walked over, smiled nervously and asked if I was ready. I smiled and answered in the affirmative. Then she added:

Increasing numbers of U.S. workers say they would be willing to trade some of their pay for more secure and generous retirement benefits, according to a survey by consultancy Towers Watson.

The second annual Telework Week, taking place March 5-9, 2012, encourages businesses, government agencies and individuals to telecommute. Individuals and organizations can visit Telework Exchange, a public-private partnership, to calculate potential commuter cost and environmental savings and to pledge to telework.

In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next.

Mike Aitken, SHRM’s Vice President of Government Affairs, shares his thoughts on key issues surrounding the 2012 political landscape as they relate to HR and business professionals.

Meanwhile, U.S. military veterans are being hired, yet not targeted in recruitment, according to a recent military poll conducted by SHRM.

A 67-year-old man was worried that his age would hurt his job search. So, says Jessica Miller-Merrell, SPHR, “he sent out a simple e-mail to five people and attached his resume. [The e-mail] read, ‘Hey, I’m looking for a job and here are four companies I’m interested in. If you have a relationship or connection there that could help me in my search, I’d really appreciate it.’ That one e-mail sent to five people led to an interview and a job,” she recalls.