Branding and social media seem like the perfect match. Whether you’re an individual or a large business, social media can help you build strategic relationships with your target audience and create a community of trust.
Archive
May 2012
Sharlyn Lauby, author of HR Bartender, offers some great resources for veterans and any company that wants to develop a plan to hire them.
The highlight of this year’s Recruiting Innovation Summit, for me, was the Recruiting Tech Startup Competition. Of nearly 50 initial applicants, six innovative recruiting tech startups were invited to compete the grand prize of $10,000 (and some serious bragging rights). Here's how it worked: Presenters gave a live demo their product, took questions from the audience, and then answered questions from the panel of judges--Jason Warner, Steve Boese and Ethel Chen. Each startup was rated based on business model, viability, potential impact on the industry, and other factors.
An Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recommendation in its recent guidance on criminal background checks to not ask about convictions in employment applications as a best practice is bad advice, according to Don Livingston, an attorney with Akin Gump in Washington, D.C., and a former EEOC general counsel.
“A few jurisdictions ban the box,” he noted. “In those jurisdictions, employers are barred from asking about criminal convictions at the application stage of the hiring process.”
Lisa Horn serves as the Co-Leader for SHRM’s Workplace Flexibility Initiative and partnership with the Families and Work Institute (FWI). She is responsible for the overall direction and execution of the Society’s partnership with FWI, including outreach efforts to SHRM affiliates, development of products and services for the membership, and coordination with SHRM’s public relations campaign, We Know Next.
What started out well for the employer...
On April 29, 2009, Catherine Coffman, an employee of Robert J. Young Company, Inc. ("RJY"), got into a motorcycle accident. RJY provided Ms. Coffman with leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. Just before Ms. Coffman's FMLA expired, RJY offered to return her to work in a sedentary job that provided the same pay and benefits as her old position. Ms. Coffman rejected the offer because she did not feel that she was able to return to work yet.
Shaken by the realities of the Great Recession, American workers have adjusted their visions of retirement, according to the 13th Annual Transamerica Retirement Survey released in May 2012 by the nonprofit Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies. And most said they would switch jobs for a better retirement plan.
Who could possibly be opposed to paycheck fairness? That’s the question some may ask as the Senate likely will consider the “Paycheck Fairness Act” in early June to further highlight the election year pursuit of the women’s vote. The legislation is the best idea some in Congress have to address the gap between men’s and women’s earnings.
The U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) heard testimony May 10, 2012, on the challenges to work and family life for people lacking employer paid leave and other workplace flexibility options.
Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) member Juanita Phillips, HR director at Intuitive Research and Technology Corp., was among four panelists appearing before the committee that Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, chairs.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next this week.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) wage and hour enforcement under the Obama administration has become markedly more hostile toward employers, according to Paul DeCamp, former administrator of the Wage and Hour Division under President George W. Bush and an attorney at Jackson Lewis’ Washington, D.C., regional office.
Employers and their employees in the U.S. hold different perspectives on how to achieve retirement preparedness through 401(k) plans, according to the results of two newly released studies from Schwab Retirement Plan Services. The studies indicate that, despite efforts by employers to educate workers on the 401(k) offering, most workers remain disengaged and unprepared financially for retirement.
Unengaged Participants
With the two presidential nominees sharply diverging on key policy issues such as the economy, workplace policy and foreign policy, President Obama and Governor Romney will provide the American public with the starkest contrast since 1984 if not 1964.
The growing problem of long-term unemployment among older workers in the U.S. was the focus of a Senate Special Committee on Aging hearing on May 15, 2012. The hearing coincided with the Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) release of a report that found the number of workers age 55 and older who have been unemployed more than six months has doubled since the recession began in late 2007.
We Know Next conducted an eye-opening #NextChat discussion on May 23 about "What’s Holding Women Back" with special guest Laurie Ruettimann.
During the economic downturn and continuing post-recession there has been an increased need for career development programs and services as individuals who were laid-off, some after many years in one career, found themselves faced with an uncertain future. Many began the often challenging task of re-assessing and creating new career patterns and determining how to integrate their work style, their personal needs, their values, and their sense of self as they planned for their future.
A federal judge ruled on May 14, 2012, that new regulations governing union representation elections are invalid. Judge James Boasberg with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia found that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) did not follow proper voting procedures when the board approved the rule revision in December 2011. According to Boasberg, a quorum of at least three NLRB members did not cast votes on the rule change and therefore the rule change could not take effect.

Eighty percent of learning in the workplace is informal, according to Jay Cross and a number of other researchers. That means that 20 percent of the learning is formal, structured training, organized, funded and required by employers.
Think about it. When your boss gives you a new task with no instruction or direction, you will likely turn to a coworker or search engine to guide you. In certain environments, particularly professional services (consulting), you are likely to be challenged in this manner several times a week, if not daily.
The U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) wage and hour enforcement under the Obama administration has become markedly more hostile toward employers, according to Paul DeCamp, former administrator of the Wage and Hour Division under President George W. Bush and an attorney at Jackson Lewis’ Washington, D.C., regional office.
‘New Normal’
The mind-boggling stories of unintentional leadership breathe color into every headline. From the Coach of the New Orleans Saints to John Edwards to the “improper conduct” of HP and Best Buy CEOs, it is almost difficult to be surprised anymore.
Each incident, however, is exacting an additional toll on leadership, forcing the rest of us leaders to stay vigilant to the power we wield.
Here are two irritating examples of accidental leadership creating missed opportunity to intentionally lead:
Lady Gaga’s Missed Opportunity
In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next this week.
To attract, retain and engage Hispanics and Latinos, employers need to understand the common—and unique—characteristics of the various cultures that fall under the label of “Hispanic,” according to Di Ann Sanchez, SPHR, president and founder of DAS HR Consulting LLC in Hurst, Texas.
According to the latest research from McKinsey & Company, while 53 percent of new workers entering the workforce are female, only 3 percent of CEOs are women. Complicating this statistic are individuals and organizations who limit women’s ability to advance in their careers due to outdated attitudes and limited -- if not zero -- workplace flexibility.
When salespeople at LifeSize Communications, a video conferencing company in Austin, Texas, wanted advice about how to sell a product against a competitor, they didn't turn to formal training or e-learning. Instead, many logged onto an internal online collaboration network to access content posted by a LifeSize partner in South Africa. It describes an approach he used to win business against that competitor.
When she was the director of organizational development at a family-run auto parts manufacturer employing 3,000 workers, Amy Schuman had an odd experience.
“I remember when the 10-year-old son of the owner came to lunch at the cafeteria one day. Suddenly, you got the sense that he could be your boss,” she said in an interview with SHRM Online.
Interview by Donna M. Owens
Having witnessed the end of apartheid in his native South Africa, Mark Addleson knows what it's like to see a society undergo transformational change. Perhaps that's why the business professor says it's possible—and necessary—to revolutionize U.S. management practices.
"Every generation needs a new revolution.” – Thomas Jefferson
On May 16 at 3 p.m. ET, We Know Next conducted a lively and insightful #NextChat discussion on "Creating Generational Engagement with Reverse Mentoring" with Next Official Blogger, Microsoft's Ross Smith and his reverse mentor Prem Kumar.
Ross and Prem shared their experiences with reverse mentoring and explained how leaders should think differently about managing multiple age groups.
Michael was a Director at a medium-sized company. A self-proclaimed perfectionist, he had equally high expectations of his direct reports. He began with the company when they were first formed and had the luxury of hiring and training his own team. Like so many young leaders, he struggled with delegation. Michael was a work horse. He could crank out work like nobody’s business, and many times, found it easier to do things himself rather than engage the team he had hired. His team of professionals was relegated to less than fulfilling work for much of the time.
There is "a significant, across-the-board increase" in the number of workers seriously considering leaving their employer, according to a global survey released in April 2012.
We all know that powerful women face Catch-22s. When Donald Trump exercises control, he is in control. When Martha Stewart exercises control, she is controlling. Same behaviors; different labels.
A lot has been written about these Catch-22s. Less has been written on how women with power can handle them.
Here are three of the many Catch-22s women with power face and my suggestions for how to navigate them.
1. Ice Queen
Although organizations have been talking about gender as a critical diversity priority for many years, there has been limited advancement made globally in moving women into leadership roles, said Anita Zanchettin, managing director, global talent strategy for Aperian Global, in an interview with Rajeshwari Sharma, editor of the website for SHRM India, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
Jason Lauritsen shares how we make the mistake in the employee engagement survey process of treating all employee opinions as equally credible. He illustrates how organizations already know that employee opinions are not equal and reveals the insanity of treating them as such. www.BulletproofTalent.com
To attract, retain and engage Hispanics and Latinos, employers need to understand the common—and unique—characteristics of the various cultures that fall under the label of “Hispanic,” according to Di Ann Sanchez, SPHR, president and founder of DAS HR Consulting LLC in Hurst, Texas.
“People from 22 different countries of origin are considered to be Hispanic,” she said during a concurrent session of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2012 Talent Management Conference & Exposition held April 30-May 2. “Hispanic is a culture, not a race.”
We are pretty good at knowing what our point of view is (and we are pretty good at thinking highly of our point of view). We are also good at knowing when someone disagrees with our delightful point of view. We are not quite so good at understanding why they disagree with us.
In case you missed it, here’s what happened on We Know Next this week.
When trust breaks down in organizations it can impact employee turnover, communication, collaboration, risk taking and creativity—among other things—all of which can harm the bottom line, according to Richard Fagerlin, president of Peak Solutions Inc. in Fort Collins, Colo.
By a 4-1 vote, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on April 25, 2012, approved a new guidance on criminal background checks.
Consolidating and superseding previous EEOC guidance on criminal background checks, the guidance discourages blanket exclusions of individuals who have been convicted of crimes and encourages the use of individualized assessments of whether an employer’s criminal conduct exclusion is job related and consistent with business necessity.
You probably recall the dust-up in April after it was revealed that the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) hired a clown and a mind reader to entertain some of its employees at a conference. Among the mind reader’s services was giving a GSA employee a message from Beyond from the employee’s dead dog. The scandal prompted the head of the agency to resign.
Attracting and retaining a skilled workforce is the most important consideration among U.S. chief financial officers (CFOs) in weighing whether to continue offering employee health coverage, according to a survey by the Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI).
An April 23, 2012, Associated Press report revealed some troubling information regarding job opportunities for the Class of 2012. It said that half of recent college graduates are jobless or underemployed in positions that don’t use their skills and knowledge fully.
The figures were based on 2011 U.S. Census data analyzed by Andrew Sum, director of the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University.
“Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.” – George Orwell
When your alarm goes off each morning, and you roll out of bed to schlep off to work, you are entering a community that’s unprecedented in human history (even if it doesn’t feel that way on a Monday).
Most health benefit plans include some kind of wellness program. As costs rise, plan administrators hope that their wellness programs will help stem and reduce rising health plan costs. Plan administrators might harbor over-optimistic expectations of what a wellness initiative can deliver, however.
We can rank approaches to wellness as low, moderate and high impact.
Low Impact
It wasn't the first time Pamela Howze, SPHR, was proposing an unorthodox solution to her human resource manager. Howze, a training and development manager for Siemens Energy Inc. in Charlotte, N.C., looked across the table at her boss and tried to establish some context. "I have a training idea," she said, "and I know it's going to be a little out of the box."
This time, her colleague was prepared. "Pam," he replied, "you don't even have a box."
Gov. Martin O’Malley, on May 2, 2012, signed S.B. 433, a bill prohibiting employers from requesting the social media passwords or accessing the social media accounts of prospective and current employees, making Maryland the first state to pass such a law.
The new provision, which will take effect Oct. 1, 2012, bars employers from requesting or requiring that an employee or applicant for employment disclose any user name, password or other means to access a “personal account or service” through an electronic communications device.
Each day, the 39 Filipino nationals worked up to 16 hours at South Florida country clubs, golf courses and restaurants that cater to a wealthy clientele.
Each night, they returned to crowded homes in a quiet residential neighborhood in Boca Raton where food was scarce and barely edible.
Who would you say are the best rock and roll lead singers of all time? I'm guessing that a bunch of names come to mind for you. In fact, we could probably have a spirited debate over who is the best, even if you aren't a big music fan. Now, name the best back-up singers of all time? You know, those people on nearly every album who provide the harmonies and the depth to the songs. Nothing? The list of the best backup singers is a lot harder to come by.
Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. - George Orwell
Mentee perspective – Ross
recommendations around reverse mentoring, and I asked if he would be MY mentor a few years back.
When trust breaks down in organizations it can impact employee turnover, communication, collaboration, risk taking and creativity—among other things—all of which can harm the bottom line, according to Richard Fagerlin, president of Peak Solutions Inc. in Fort Collins, Colo.
According to the SHRM Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) Report for May 2012, job creation will continue in the manufacturing and service sectors in May 2012, although the rate of growth will not reach the level of a year ago.
The world of work is a complicated place.
Technology, globalization and the great recession have accelerated the pace of change and brought about category disruption, new competition and what can feel like never ending chaos.
In a time where we need people to step up and become the very best of who they are capable of becoming, job satisfaction is at unprecedented lows and trust and confidence in senior leadership has plummeted.
At State Street Corp., a multinational financial services provider, we view flexible work arrangements as a strategic tool for achieving business objectives and employee engagement.
As work, family and personal demands increase and we are tethered to smart phones and tablet computers to be available instantly to anyone who might need us, our ability to perform at our best diminishes and our physical and mental health suffers. It’s time to revamp the way we approach work, according to Tony Schwartz, CEO of The Energy Project. It’s time to reclaim focus and be more productive, efficient and healthy.
Job creation will continue in the U.S. manufacturing and service sectors in May 2012, though less robustly than a year earlier. Meanwhile, recruiting difficulty, which had been rising in the first months of 2012, appears to be leveling off, according to the latest Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) survey report.
We all talk about high potentials being the next best thing since sliced bread. They are the employees in our midst that seemingly can do it all and we recognize them for their efforts. We come to rely on them whenever there is something we need to get done and done well. They are thought of first for projects and are primed for promotions. Where does that leave everyone else, though? High potentials are a small number from a much larger pool of employees. If you don't engage this larger group, how will you know what their potential even is?
Workplace flexibility is replacing the one-size-fits-all, 9-to-5 way of working in a growing number of organizations.
What’s motivating companies to consider new ways of making work “work?” And what impact does giving employees more choice over how, when and where work gets done have on workplaces and the bottom-line?
Road trip!
About 75 members of the Charlotte Area Society for Human Resource Management (CASHRM) chapter will be attending the SHRM 2012 Annual Conference in Atlanta June 24-27. Many will arrive on two buses the chapter has chartered.
It is the largest U.S. chapter delegation attending the conference, according to SHRM. The second-largest group is made up of 64 people from AutoZone Inc.
Seventy of the members qualified for another “ride” as well—a significant break on their conference registration fee.
Note: This series is based on the paper My Generation.
Generational and life-stage issues affect us both consciously and subconsciously every single day.
A survey by Lee and Hecht Harrison tells us that “70% of older employees are dismissive of younger workers’ abilities and nearly half of younger employees are dismissive of the abilities of their older co-workers”.
“You cannot build a reputation on what you are planning to do.” Henry Ford’s words are resonant in a time where HR leaders are tasked with a myriad of planning activities: strategic action planning, performance plans, development planning, succession plans. Planning is important, but it is how your plans translate into reality that builds your reputation.
A wide variety of in-depth educational offerings, many beginning on Saturday, June 23, offer 2012 SHRM Annual Conference attendees a chance to jump-start their Atlanta experience.
Compensation governance in the U.S. is drawing increased scrutiny as legislators, regulators, shareholders and the news media focus on how—and how much—companies pay employees in general and executives in particular. The attention has been heightened by recent headlines and media stories on perceived abuses in executive compensation, with a specific emphasis on financial services firms.
Programs designed to develop high-potential employees are more likely to succeed if there’s clear agreement on the criteria needed to drive organizational success, developmental options and program outcomes, according to study results by AMA Enterprise, the American Management Association’s research arm.
Senior executives, managers, directors, and HR and training and development functions need to be on the same page when it comes to participants’ selection criteria or there’s a risk that senior leaders will tap only those rising stars that mirror themselves.
When I retired, I thought I was through with business. And I was, until the social network came along and enticed me to blog.
Like most bloggers, I write about what I know -- strategy, leadership and branding. My motive is nothing more than to share my experience with today’s business community, in the hope they might put an old warrior’s advice to good use.