Archive

October 2013

Check out the latest in the New York Times 'Corner Office' interview series, this one with CEO of Spreecast Jeff Fluhr, (who was also the founder of StubHub), and thus probably knows a few things about finding and retaining talent).

October 31, 2013

Globalization and outsourcing have led many U.S.-based organizations to expand their business operations internationally and increase their hiring of foreigners. Hiring foreign nationals brings an additional challenge: conducting an international background check.

The need for international screening occurs when:

News Updates
October 31, 2013

On October 30, @weknownext chatted with Jim Stroud (@JimStroud) and Aliah Wright (@1SHRMscribe) on Spreecast and Twitter about The Building Blocks of Social Recruiting.

In case you missed it, here is the link to watch the archive of the conversation on Spreecast.

Here are all the great tweets from the chat:

 

October 30, 2013

How many times have we heard this story? During the interview, candidates say “Yes, I’m committed, willing to do this, love to do that” and so on. Then after they start, we realize they’re not a good cultural fit for our organization. 

October 30, 2013

Three national health organizations have published guidance for worksite wellness programs that use risk assessments and biometric screenings to collect health information from employees.

News Updates
October 30, 2013

Employee Engagement Should Be a Focus Before It’s Broken

It really is our nature though isn’t it. To not think about things until they are completely screwed up. In the last few years the idea of employee engagement has taken a front seat in our book of leadership speak. It’s important. We like to talk about it. We believe it impacts the bottom line and that is important to us. Yet, we only begin to really focus on it when it’s completely jacked up. And that’s too late.

Can I be honest for a second? If you said no, stop reading.

October 30, 2013

The When Work Works initiative administers the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Excellence in Workplace Effectiveness and Flexibility annually, which recognize exemplary employers for using flexibility as part of an effective workplace strategy to increase business and employee success.

October 29, 2013

Social recruiting remains one of the hottest and most discussed trends in the human resources profession, yet many recruiters have been slow to join the bandwagon. 

October 29, 2013

A growing number of Latin American executives say that gender diversity is a top agenda item at their companies. However, Latin American women are still greatly underrepresented in the C-suite within the region, according to global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Conducted in February 2013, McKinsey’s survey received responses from 547 executives (354 men and 193 women) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

News Updates
October 29, 2013

HR professionals have more faith in the U.S. labor market than they did six months ago, and more than half believe that the economy will add jobs in the fourth quarter of 2013, according to the newest Jobs Outlook Survey (JOS) by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

News Updates
October 28, 2013

Today’s world is powered by the most diverse workforce in history. Businesses, non-profit organizations and institutions of all shapes and sizes are experiencing dramatic change in the composition of their workforce – due to alterations in the economic landscape, technological advances, globalization, and – for the first time - members of five generations working, competing, learning and leading together. The very nature of our work has changed with the continuing rise of the “knowledge worker”.

October 28, 2013
Tags:

Discover how the world's top companies create thriving, engaged workforces.

Most leaders know that a winning, engaged culture is the key to attracting top talent—and customers. Yet it remains elusive how exactly to create this ideal workplace—one where everyone from the front lines to the boardroom knows the company's values and feels comfortable and empowered to act on them.

October 25, 2013

Follow the conversation as the Society for Human Resource Management and the Families and Work Institute host a discussion about flexible and effective workplaces during "Transformational Workplaces: Making Work Work in a 24/7 Global Economy" Oct. 29-30 in San Francisco.  This Storify will be updated continuously thoughout the conference.

 

October 25, 2013

John Lasseter, best known for producing the films Toy Story, Finding Nemo, Monsters Inc., and The Incredibles, is chief creative officer at Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios.

But it wasn’t always so.

News Updates
October 25, 2013

Humor can inspire trust, advance careers, boost company reputation 

At Zappos.com, the online shoe business, the person answering calls is not the “receptionist”; he’s the “director of first impressions.”

At Texas-based BerylHealth, where health care workers advise clients by telephone, the company pairs employees with executives in a spoof of “Dancing with the Stars.”

And at San Diego-based Red Door Interactive, a business consultancy, one of the core values is this: “We are 100 percent jerk-free.”

October 24, 2013

Last week, I wrote a piece about my journey to finding the perfect job. I know many are not so lucky. Some studies even indicate that most people hate their job.

October 24, 2013

"Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower." - Steve Jobs

There’s lots of conversation in the current media about being innovative and the need for companies to innovate. Many of these articles talk suggest that companies should give employees the ability to innovate. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for innovation. But the more I hear about the imperative of innovation, the more I’m convinced that people don’t know what innovation means.

October 23, 2013

The next time one of your employees admires your business suit, it’s OK to wonder if she’s sucking up.

More than one in five U.S. employees admit to complimenting managers to get on their good side—even if the flattery is a bunch of hooey.

Just be glad you aren’t a supervisor in India: Almost half of workers there (46 percent) say they sweet-talk their bosses even if they don’t mean it.

October 23, 2013

Now that the government shutdown has finally ended, federal agencies have been fielding questions about adjusted filing deadlines and procedures.

October 22, 2013
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Sometimes the one word can mean different things to different people. In the HR space, gamification is one of those words. Gather a group of HR pros and casually throw out the word to see what I’m talking about first hand. This newest HR technology either brings to mind fond thoughts of leaderboards and interactive play or elicits eye rolls and skeptical glares.

October 22, 2013

A majority of working Americans are satisfied with the boundaries they have between work and home, and slightly more than half say they never or rarely bring work home, according to a new national poll on work/life balance.

But while the findings are mostly positive, “there is some room for improvement,” said Dean Debnam, CEO of Workplace Options, which commissioned the poll.

News Updates
October 22, 2013

Average base pay increases for 2014 will remain at 3 percent for the second year in a row in the U.S.—roughly one percentage point below pre-recession levels—according to the seventh annual Compensation Planning Survey by Buck Consultants.

News Updates
October 21, 2013

A $14 million award to a whistle-blower who went straight to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) without first bringing the complaint to the attention of the worker’s employer may be a sign of things to come, according to Steve Pearlman, an attorney who is co-head of the Whistleblowing & Retaliation Group at Proskauer in Chicago.

News Updates
October 18, 2013

As Halloween approaches, along with the requisite office party, there’s always the chance someone will show up as a stripper or in a drag costume that mocks the transgender community or in a get-up that insinuates that Muslims are terrorists.

In the middle will be the HR manager, trying to strike a détente between those who find certain Halloween costumes and parties offensive and those who see no harm in dressing up and poking fun—even at things others consider sacred.

News Updates
October 17, 2013

Imagine a stock-exchange-like ticker graph that measures employee engagement all year long—with spikes and dips that can be pegged to specific events.

Or, employee satisfaction surveys so individualized that managers are alerted when high-performing workers are at risk of leaving.

Such are the advances envisioned by a new white paper from the Society for Human Resource Management and the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

News Updates
October 17, 2013

 Grace Hopper was one of the first computer scientists. Born in 1906, she developed the first compiler, the concept of machine independent programming language, was a US Navy Rear admiral, and left a legacy for women in STEM fields. In 1947, she found a moth in the tubes of a UNIVAC computer, and coined the term “bug.”

October 17, 2013

On October 16, 2013 @weknownext chatted with special guest Ben Martinez (@HRHound) about "HR Technology, Simplified."

If you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat...

 

October 16, 2013

With the number of job seekers using smartphones and tablets growing daily, it’s little surprise that creating mobile-friendly career sites is a top priority for recruiting leaders.

Although much of the focus on optimizing mobile recruiting centers on the device interface—fitting content to different screen sizes and ensuring that navigation is touch-screen friendly—experts say more attention should be paid to critical matters such as creating job applications that are easy to complete on mobile devices.

News Updates
October 16, 2013

Great teams can propel organizations to new levels of success. Today we’re looking at how to improve team performance with an approach that has proven results across a spectrum of cultural, geographic, and generational challenges. A few years ago The Orange Revolution was written by Adrian Gostick and Chester Elton. The book focuses on great teams and where they come from.

October 16, 2013

Human Resources has an important role in an organization when it comes to decreasing expenses and maximizing revenue, and finding the right technology is key to increasing productivity, efficiency and effectiveness.

When looking to implement new HR technology, it’s necessary to understand current processes, identify organizational goals and determine future needs.  These initial surveys will help to streamline the selection process and mitigate costly mistakes.

October 15, 2013

One of the books that I find myself recommending a lot is Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie. It is a wonderfully written book touching on organizational culture, authenticity, courage, creativity, expression and other related issues. One of the stories in the book has always stuck with me, since the first time I read it.

October 15, 2013

There is a troubling mismatch between the talent needs of emerging markets and the desires and expectations of Millennials, according to research from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

The PwC report Talent Mobility: 2020 and beyond, based on data from 900-plus global companies, predicts that the number of workers taking on global assignments will increase by 50 percent by 2020 and that companies will need to carefully manage global mobility to respond to skills shortages, changing business needs and employee preferences.

News Updates
October 15, 2013

Today’s world is powered by the most diverse workforce in history. Businesses, non-profit organizations and institutions of all shapes and sizes are experiencing dramatic change in the composition of their workforce – due to alterations in the economic landscape, technological advances, globalization, and – for the first time - members of five generations working, competing, learning and leading together. The very nature of our work has changed with the continuing rise of the “knowledge worker”.

October 14, 2013
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America’s workers aren’t doing enough to learn about their benefits options and coverage gaps—and it’s hurting them at annual enrollment time.

News Updates
October 14, 2013

Hiring Activity Will Accelerate in October in Manufacturing, Services

In October, the pace of hiring in manufacturing
and services will increase compared with a year
ago, according to the Society for Human Resource
Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of
National Employment (LINE) survey for October
2013.

News Updates
October 11, 2013

While planned layoffs fell to their lowest level in three months in September, U.S.-based employers announced plans to reduce payrolls by 40,289, according to the latest report on monthly job cuts, released Oct. 3, 2013, by global outplacement consultancy Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. That figure represents a 20 percent drop from August but is 19 percent higher than the job cuts announced in September 2012. This is the fourth consecutive month in which job cutting was heavier than a year ago.

News Updates
October 11, 2013

HR managers are constrained when workers quit without notice

 At many companies, employees are told they must give two weeks’ notice before leaving their job.

But is a notice of any kind required? And if someone walks out the door suddenly—leaving deadlines hanging and colleagues in the lurch—is there anything an HR professional can do?

News Updates
October 11, 2013

The SHRM Advocacy Team has been developed by SHRM Government Affairs as a way to assist HR Advocates — professionals like you — in making their voices heard on public policy issues impacting the workplace. It’s time that policymakers — both in Washington and in state capitals across the country — understand the role HR plays in today’s workplace.

October 10, 2013

When I left corporate life, the glass in the ceiling suppressing the advancement of women to the C-suite was beginning to show cracks. That was two decades ago. Today, there’s a venerable list of female executives who have shattered that glass and gone on to illustrious careers as successful CEOs. One might think the likes of Melissa Mayer (Yahoo!), Laura Sen (BJ’s Wholesale Club), Ellen Kullman (DuPont), and Indra K. Nooyi (Pepsi) would inspire more and more women to seek greater responsibility in the corporate world.

October 10, 2013

In the first oral argument of the 2013-14 term, the U.S. Supreme Court, on Oct. 7, 2013, addressed the question of whether state and local government workers may file constitutional claims of age discrimination instead of pursuing their complaints under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) (Madigan v. Levin [No. 12-872]).

News Updates
October 10, 2013

On October 9, 2013 @weknownext chatted with special guest Steve Browne (@SBrowneHR) about "Paying Attention to the 90%."

If you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat.

October 9, 2013

Employers need access to top talent globally, and they devote significant resources to managing employee immigration, but they still face a variety of obstacles that inhibit their ability to hire skilled professionals in a timely manner, according to a new survey report.

News Updates
October 9, 2013

As the Osmond's told us back in the 70s “One Bad Apple Doesn't Spoil the Whole Bunch” - when it comes to love, but what about when it comes to organizational culture? We’re bound to have one or two bad apples in the bunch and sometimes we learn to live with them or give them the boot. But there is something to it when the rotten apple is in a management or leadership role of an organization.

October 9, 2013

Let me tell you about a teacher in South Dakota. In 2010, she received a letter communicating concerns about her performance. Subsequent evaluations of the teacher's classes noted several deficiencies. So, the school placed the teacher on a performance improvement plan.

It was right around this time that the teacher met with a physician's assistant, who diagnosed the teacher with "anxiety and depression, likely stemming from her concerns about possibly getting fired."

October 8, 2013
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The upcoming Supreme Court term promises a series of significant decisions for employers. The high court will hear at least eight workplace-related cases.

ADEA: Will the Court Tire of Administrative Exhaustion?

News Updates
October 8, 2013

U.S. employers expect their health benefit cost per employee to rise by 4.8 percent, on average, in 2014, according to a survey by consultancy Mercer. Cost growth slowed to 4.1 percent in 2012, a 15-year low. The projected increase for 2014, while still relatively low, represents a slight uptick.


(Click on graph to view larger version)

News Updates
October 7, 2013

“An employee's motivation is a direct result of the sum of interactions with his or her manager.” - Bob Nelson

But what if there are no interactions because – as a manager - you spend 90% of your time dealing with 10% of the employee population?   

October 7, 2013

HR professionals no doubt have spent plenty of time managing differences among their companies’ various generations of employees. Now, one consultant says, there’s a new group of workers who deserve immediate attention: Generation Z.

October 7, 2013

Today’s world is powered by the most diverse workforce in history. Businesses, non-profit organizations and institutions of all shapes and sizes are experiencing dramatic change in the composition of their workforce – due to alterations in the economic landscape, technological advances, globalization, and – for the first time - members of five generations working, competing, learning and leading together. The very nature of our work has changed with the continuing rise of the “knowledge worker”.

October 7, 2013
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The recent firing of an Internet executive who had posted inflammatory tweets serves as a warning to managers and employees alike: Reckless social media utterances can have serious ramifications.

Pax Dickinson lost his job as chief technology officer at news website Business Insider this month amid an uproar over his Twitter posts that readers viewed as misogynistic, racist, homophobic and against working poor people.

News Updates
October 4, 2013

In Nasir, the U.S. Supreme Court held that, to prove retaliation under Title VII, a “but for” analysis applies. This is a higher standard than the “motivating factor” burden to prove discrimination under Title VII.

Nasir has been hailed as a big win for employers.  But that’s only at summary judgment or perhaps at trial where the wins can be extremely expensive. 

The real win for employers is that it makes it easier for us to take corrective action in response to retaliation without necessarily making admissions, at least under federal law.  Why?

October 3, 2013

The Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C., is supposed to be a secure facility, protected by checkpoints, armed guards and requirements of valid credentials for entry.

According to authorities, 12 people were killed and eight others injured when Aaron Alexis opened fire Sept. 16, 2013, in Building 197 at the facility.

So what went wrong?

News Updates
October 3, 2013

On October 2, @weknownext chatted with special guests Chris Ponder (@ChrisPonder) and Holland Dombeck (@Holland_Dombeck) about HR Silo Busting.

If you missed it, here are all the great tweets from the chat: 

October 2, 2013

Employers struggling with the application of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) received welcome relief in July 2013 when the Treasury announced a one-year delay on implementation of the "pay or play" mandate. This mandate would have required most employers with the equivalent of at least 50 full-time employees to provide affordable, minimum value health insurance coverage to their full-time employees by Jan. 1, 2014, or pay penalties.

News Updates
October 2, 2013

Just when the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) seemed to have been resuscitated by the appointment of five members, along comes the government shutdown, shuttering the board.

The shutdown will result in the:

News Updates
October 2, 2013

U.S. workers said that to make informed decisions about selecting health care coverage options they need a description of the available benefits, a comparison of how the cost of health insurance may change, and a comparison of coverage among available plans, according to the First Annual Transamerica Center for Health Studies Survey.

News Updates
October 2, 2013

How can great leadership and a strong company culture elevate engagement and drive business performance? Our new white paper, “Winning with Culture: How Leadership Drives Engagement & Performance,” answers that question.

October 1, 2013

Culture has become a buzz word in the #HR world. We went from Employee Benefits to Employee Rewards to Employee Recognition to Employee Engagement which has created an emphasis on Organizational Culture. Google has created a city to engage their employees; Zappos has re-invented old town Las Vegas for the same purpose. With our personal brands now more prominent than our company logos, the emphasis on culture is no longer the exception but the rule.

October 1, 2013
Is it legal—and if so, is it advisable—to fire a worker if he or she is looking for another job?

“Yes, it is legal,” said Eric Meyer, a partner at Philadelphia-based law firm Dilworth Paxson LLP and author of the online law blog “The Employer Handbook.” “Whether or not it is advisable depends on the circumstances.”

News Updates
October 1, 2013