On May 29, 2013, the U.S.
Archive
May 2013
By John Bell
Every day we see or read about superb acts of leadership. The ones that occupy an indelible place in our minds are often characterized by unexpected high-pressure, traumatic conditions and courageous acts taken within a very limited amount of time – a cabbie delivering a baby, a mayor calming a city after one of the worst terrorist attack in the history of mankind, a pilot making the call to land a powerless 65 ton piece of steel on a river in the middle of a major metropolis, a primary school teacher protecting her class from a gun-wielding madman.
May 30, 2013
Employers with employees who may seek coverage through a public exchange should become familiar with the applications and the information they will need to provide as part of the Employer Coverage Tool.
News Updates
May 30, 2013
On May 29, @weknownext chatted with Aliah Wright (@1SHRMScribe) about the topic "Are You Still Blocking Employees from Social Media."
In case you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat...
May 29, 2013
By Ann Tardy
Smart companies engage in succession planning. Exceptional companies focus on legacy creating.
Bank of America and Citigroup
When Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis and Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit announced their departures unexpectedly and with little warning in 2009 and 2012, respectively, each organization scrambled to identify a replacement. As a result of such unpreparedness, stock prices fell, the executive team became unnecessary distracted, initiatives stalled, growth stagnated, and employees felt uneasy and uncertain.
May 29, 2013
Many employers are making changes to their health plans as a result of health care reform coverage mandates, according to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ 2013 Employer-Sponsored Health Care: ACA’s Impact report.
Key findings from the survey of more than 950 U.S.-based employee benefits professionals include:
News Updates
May 29, 2013
By Aliah Wright
NEWSFLASH TO EMPLOYERS: Even if you block social media at your office, your employees will access Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social media platforms on their smart phones -- and the work will STILL get done...
May 28, 2013
By Roy Maurer
Global payroll administration has been made possible, at least conceptually, because of advances in technology, vendor service delivery models and global capabilities, wrote Jeff Brown, principal for human capital at Ernst & Young, in a recently published report.
But do multinational organizations agree that a truly global payroll solution exists?
News Updates
May 28, 2013
Consistent with its strategic plan to provide up-to-date guidance on the requirements of antidiscrimination laws, last week, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued this press release in which it announced that it had revised guidance on how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to applicants and employees with cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, and intellectual disabilities.
May 28, 2013
Perhaps it should come as little surprise that smartphones give people a sense of personal connection—that we use them throughout the day to stay in touch with friends and family through text messages, e-mail, Facebook and phone calls. However, recent studies paint a picture of startling social change as these multitasking minicomputers become all but universal, both at work and at home.
News Updates
May 27, 2013
"Organizations that pay for performance are more likely to attract those interested in performing," said Jay Schuster, a partner at consultancy Schuster-Zingheim & Associates, speaking at the 2013 WorldatWork Total Rewards conference, held April 29-May 1.
The rewards package is "a powerful communications tool that defines the kinds of people who will want to join the organization,” he explained. “You can't change the corporate culture without changing rewards."
News Updates
May 24, 2013
Under the 2013 revisions to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security rules, employers must update their health information disclosure policies and retrain their employees to ensure compliance, said Timothy Stanton, an attorney in Ogletree Deakins’ Chicago office, and Timothy Verrall, an attorney in the firm’s Houston office, speaking to attendees at the firm’s 2013 Workplace Strategies seminar on May 9.
News Updates
May 23, 2013
By Matt Stollak
Sadly, a 2013 college graduate writes:
"So I am coming to you for some advice. I started a job on the Monday after graduation. And I can honestly say it is the most boring thing I have done in my life. I almost dread going to work in the morning and it is only day 4 tomorrow. 8 hour days seem to last forever and I just know it is not going to get better. However, I dont just want to give up right away because I know it may reflect bad on me on when I search for jobs in the future. What do you think I should do? Any advice would be much appreciated. Thank you so much."
May 23, 2013
On May 22, @weknownext chatted with Rachelle Falls (@CorporateHRGirl) about "The Candidate Experience."
In case you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat...
May 22, 2013
By Ryan Estis
When I was working my way up through a sales organization, I looked forward to growing from running my territory to leading an entire region. When I was promoted to vice president, my first big priority was recruiting.
I inherited a region with two open territories. There was a sense of urgency in getting these two under-performing markets on the right track, and it was also my big opportunity to immediately add value as a new leader. I worked closely with HR to screen candidates and schedule interviews in each market.
May 22, 2013
A bad online reputation can come back to haunt you.
News Updates
May 22, 2013
Wellness programs are an increasingly common feature of employee health benefits, but additional guidance is needed to stop employers from violating federal equal employment opportunity laws, labor advocates told the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) at a May 8, 2013, meeting in Washington, D.C.
May 21, 2013
By Steve Browne
Recently, LaRosa's, opened a new location called Eastgate. I’m fortunate to be the Executive Director of HR for this iconic Cincinnati company, and we had a pivotal role in this store opening. HR interviewed every new potential Team Member because we were looking to add 70+ folks to this much larger pizzeria!
May 21, 2013
By John Hudson
Every 12.6 seconds, a blog about generational differences is written. Ok, I made that up, but you get my point. Much is written about what is wrong with the expectations of generations, but there needs to be more action around what we can do to make it better. As HR and business professionals, we need to take a more active role in preparing future generations for expectations in the workplace.
May 20, 2013
A bad online reputation can come back to haunt you.
News Updates
May 20, 2013
The job posting was inaccurate, the online application process malfunctioned, the receptionist was rude, the interviewer was 45 minutes late and the recruiter never communicated that you didn’t get the job. You’re glad you didn’t get the job, and you relay your horrible experience via Facebook, Twitter and Glassdoor in an effort to warn others.
May 17, 2013
Learning has developed a bad reputation, perhaps as a result of those painfully boring lectures we all endured in school, those grueling exams or pop quizzes we took or those long hours of memorizing information we’ve never once had the opportunity to use. But think about how you felt when you were learning to tie your shoes, drive a car or master a new hobby. Didn’t you have an insatiable curiosity about that skill that would serve you well or provide hours of entertainment?
News Updates
May 17, 2013
Employee award programs can be powerful motivators, but poorly designed ones can lead to unintended and negative consequences that can reduce their value and effectiveness.
In a Feb. 11, 2013, Harvard Business School working paper, The Dirty Laundry of Employee Award Programs: Evidence From the Field, researchers found that even simple programs can have broad and complex employee-behavior implications.
News Updates
May 16, 2013
By Ben Eubanks
Just a quick post today. I’m reading a book and I ran across a section where the author is discussing the differences between two phrases that seem pretty similar but have very different meanings.
- What’s keeping you up at night?
- What gets you up in the morning?
The idea is that focusing on what keeps you awake at night might seem innocuous, but it focuses on fears. What are you afraid of? What’s scaring you? The question assumes that the recipient has worries and fears that they want to share.
May 16, 2013
On May 8, @weknownext chatted with Crystal Miller (@TheOneCrystal) and Carrie Corbin (@TheAlphaFemme) about "Leaning In and Opting Out."
In case you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat...
May 15, 2013
By Emily Jasper
Leadership is an important skill in today’s world. I once heard a supply chain executive from Elizabeth Arden tell me he used to always be encouraged when he would receive position applications from young candidates who could clearly articulate their experience and goals.
May 15, 2013
Organizations working to build the business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) around women’s rights globally said recently that scalability and sustainability are key to maximizing effectiveness.
Two programs designed to help foster women’s advancement were highlighted on March 8, 2013—International Women’s Day—during a webinar presented by Diversity Best Practices.
News Updates
May 15, 2013
By Steve Boese
The below chart (or a version of it) has been making the rounds plenty in the last year or so as the American economy rebounds and seemingly continues to strengthen coming out of the financial crisis and ensuing recession of the late aughts.
It shows how despite corporate profits, expressed as a percentage of GDP, continuing to set records, that those record profits have not (taken in aggregate), translated into lots of new jobs, as the labor participation rate shows.
May 14, 2013
There are now five generations in the workplace, and boy, don’t we know it. Seems like you can hardly pick up an HR- or business-related publication these days without some reference to one of these groups: the Traditionalists (1925-45), the Baby Boomers (1946-64), Gen X (1965-80), Gen Y or Millennials (1981-95), and Generation Zen (1996-present).
News Updates
May 14, 2013
I embolden job seekers on a daily basis to make sure they have a tailored job search strategy. Rather than just go about their job search randomly, I preach the importance of a strategy that is targeted, reviewed and adjusted on a daily basis. Ironically, those on the other side of the hiring line do not always seem to have the same focus.
May 13, 2013
New bachelor degree graduates in the U.S. commanded an overall starting salary of $44,928 in the first quarter of 2013—up 5.3 percent over the average starting salary that their class of 2012 counterparts realized a year earlier ($42,666), according to the nonprofit National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE).
News Updates
May 13, 2013
For the past 40+ years, Boomer and Gen X women have “leaned in” to balance work and family in order to have it all. Many have done so with great success. However, that success seems to drop off significantly somewhere between the levels of “management” and the “executive offices.”
May 10, 2013
Don't underestimate the importance of job advancement for keeping talent.
Employers in the U.S. are facing a "talent paradox." Despite relatively high unemployment, many companies are confronting shortages in areas where they most need to attract and retain experienced workers. As the economy recovers, employers increasingly should be concerned about losing critical and high-potential talent, according to a presentation at the 2013 WorldatWork Total Rewards conference, held here April 29-May 1.
News Updates
May 10, 2013
The Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1406) narrowly passed in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives by a vote of 223-204 on May 8, 2013. The bill now moves to the Democrat-controlled Senate. Introduced by Rep.
News Updates
May 9, 2013
I have done over 300 speaking engagements on the topic of Employee Engagement over the last 6 years and I am getting tired. My quest to find the essence of what creates organizational culture and how we can empower workforce awesomeness has been trumped by a number of things:
May 9, 2013
On May 8, @weknownext chatted with Matt Charney of Talemetry and Lizzie Maldonado of Starr Conspiracy about "The Next Generation Workplace."
In case you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat:
May 8, 2013
To control health care expenses, U.S. businesses are continuing to switch to health plans that shift a greater share of costs to employees. According to benefit provider Aflac's 2013 Aflac WorkForces Report, published in April, more than half (53 percent) of employers have implemented a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) over the past three years—a trend that shows no sign of slowing.
News Updates
May 8, 2013
With social media, what you don’t know can seriously hurt your organization. One 2010 survey found that employees estimate spending roughly four hours every day checking multiple email accounts, with up to two hours spent on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. A 2012 Salary.com survey found that 64 percent of employees visit non-work related websites daily.
May 8, 2013
By Steve Bates
Fewer than one in five HR professionals are satisfied with their information systems’ ability to manage talent data, according to a new survey of HR professionals in emerging and established economies. That problem might be contributing to an erosion of HR’s role as a strategic player.
News Updates
May 7, 2013
By Joe Coombs
Millions of goods-producing jobs have been eliminated in the past 20 years, and although the manufacturing industry has bounced back in recent months, the most consistent growth in the labor market has been tied to the service sector for the past several quarters.
May 6, 2013
Where do young professionals see themselves in the next 10, 15 … 25 years?
Where do their employers see them?
We know that the next generation of workers has already initiated a historical shift in the workplace. They’re demanding cultures that are mobile, flexible, collaborative, and learning-focused. They view top-down organizational structures as obstacles for accomplishing goals and prefer networks of peers over hierarchy.
But what do they think about leadership and ladder climbing when their vision for the future doesn’t really have any ladders?
May 6, 2013
By SHRM Staff
Organizations are increasingly using social networking sites to recruit job candidates, and many HR professionals use these sites to target passive candidates and those with a specific skill set, according to new research the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) released April 15, 2013.
News Updates
May 6, 2013
Food, glorious food. Like adding a pinch of salt or a splash of sauce to a recipe, organizations find that breaking bread together—or throwing back a pint—can spice up the workday and feed corporate culture as well as hunger pains.
And it’s not just large or high-tech companies such as Zappos.com, DreamWorks Animation, Facebook and Google where free meals are served up. Employees at AFN Logistics, a third-party logistics provider outside of Chicago, tuck into a free lunch every Friday.
News Updates
May 3, 2013
By SHRM Staff
Talent practices from the world’s top companies and foremost workforce planning strategists.
From the C-suite to the sales force to the ground floor, downtime is deadly. When a job opens or turns over, organizations must adjust seamlessly. In Positioned, some of the world’s best people strategists examine how best to address the constant challenge of having the right people available when needed.
May 2, 2013
By SHRM Staff
In May, the hiring rate will rise in the service and
manufacturing sectors compared with a year ago,
according to the Society for Human Resource
Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of
National Employment (LINE) survey for May 2013.
• Employers will continue to grow payrolls in May.
A net of 42.9 percent of manufacturers and a net of
37.1 percent of service-sector companies will add jobs
in May.
May 2, 2013
By Greg Wright
U.S. employers are not expected to do much new hiring in 2013, but leaders say they want to make sure the people they do bring aboard have a positive attitude and a team spirit.
That’s because, according to two new studies, employers are concerned that if they hire a negative person, that employee’s bad mojo will infect the workplace like a flu virus.
News Updates
May 2, 2013
On May 1, @weknownext chatted with past winners of the Sloan Awards about "Award Winning Workflex."
In case you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat:
May 1, 2013
Most fish don’t know they swim in water. At least not the fish whom I have interviewed.
The same is true of most human beings when it comes to corporate culture. Most of us don’t appreciate fully the cultures of which we are a part.
Corporate culture is a product of human beings, and none of us is perfect, so no corporate culture is without some strengths and weaknesses. Indeed, the weaknesses usually are the strengths (taken to the extreme).
May 1, 2013
A university chooses to hire a native English-speaking male professor, instead of a Taiwanese female professor whose command of the English language is limited.
An upscale women’s-clothing retailer makes hiring choices, in part, on how “good-looking” the applicants are.
A mom and pop restaurant will not hire anyone who might be seen by patrons if he or she has visible tattoos.
News Updates
May 1, 2013