Archive

As more American employers turn to high-deductible health plans to reign in escalating health care expenses, many are offering health savings accounts (HSAs) in an effort to encourage workers to make cost-conscious health care decisions. But according to a recent survey by financial services firm Fidelity Investments, two-thirds (65 percent) of Americans who make household health-benefit decisions simply do not understand how an HSA works.

The multitude of new HR systems and solutions currently on the market all promise to bring greater efficiencies to the way we conduct our talent management processes.  And as HR technology continues to evolve, so has the way these solutions are implemented.  Long gone are the days of on-premise implementations and heavy involvement from the IT department; as SaaS-delivered solutions have become the norm, organizations can simply implement a new system with the press of a button.

Yesterday, I had the great opportunity to participate in the SHRM #NextChat focused on women in business. After answering the questions, I realized that there’s a theme to my answers — flexibility is key.

The Next Blog was created to help facilitate a conversation between practicing HR pros and non-HR audiences about the strategic importance of the HR profession. Next Official Bloggers create and contribute meaningful posts that explore the latest trends and best practices for the HR profession.

We compiled a list of Next Official Bloggers as a resource for our readers. You can find them below with the links to their individual author pages on the Next Blog, to their Twitter profiles and to their personal blogs, as well.

Enjoy!
 

Summer interns come and go, and some are so wonderful that you feel the need to write about them.

This summer, I had the pleasure of working with Lindsey Allen. Lindsey is the social media summer intern in the Public Affairs Department and, as a soon-to-be senior at Virginia Tech, she will be leaving SHRM on Aug. 21.  She helped manage the We Know Next campaign this summer, among several other projects within the department -- and she is awesome.

As almost everyone now knows, Sheryl Sandberg is the COO of Facebook.  She is also the author of the ground-breaking book, Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead .

I have read the book twice.  Simply put, I think it is a brilliant manifesto for women and men alike.

Yet, the acclaim is not universal.  To the contrary, the book has been met with some hot criticism.

India Outsourcing Service Changed in the United States

Indian consulates in the U.S. awarded a new contract to BLS International Services Limited to provide visa and other immigration services to U.S. residents, since July 1, 2013.

The previous provider, Travisa Outsourcing, ended its services on June 28, 2013.

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah issued a royal decree June 23, 2013, shifting the nation’s weekend for public workers from Thursday and Friday to Friday and Saturday, beginning June 28.