SHRM Blog

7 Ideas for Generating Buy-In by Leveraging Human Influences

by Ann TardyOn November 8, 2011 0 comments

Whole Foods Employees Vote for New Hires

Every new hire at a Whole Foods store is subject to a peer-based selection process. The newbie is provisionally assigned to a team, for example in bakery or produce, pending a 4-week trial and a team vote. After the trial period, that team votes on the newbie’s suitability and ultimately his or her fate. A two-thirds majority vote is needed to achieve a full-time slot on the team.

Pret a Manger Employees Vote Too

Similarly, to secure a job at Pret a Manger, a British fast-food chain with...

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Today's Managers Must Be Connectors

by Lisa HornOn November 7, 2011 0 comments

By Shirley Davis and Lisa Horn, Co-Project Directors, SHRM’s Workplace Flexibility Initiative

The first joint SHRM and Families and Work Institute work-life conference is next week in Washington, D.C. The conference — Work-Life Focus: 2012 and Beyond/Workplace Effectiveness Strategies that Work — promises to provide senior HR professionals and other business leaders with the opportunity to explore effective and flexible workplace practices and the impact they have on business success and improved employee job satisfaction.

Kyra Cavanaugh, president of Life Meets Work in Park Ridge, Ill., will lead one of the conference’s Learning...

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SHRM: November LINE Report

by Jennifer SchrammOn November 3, 2011 0 comments

The Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) Report expects that job growth will be limited in November, as job creation slows and job cuts rise in both the manufacturing and service sectors.

As in previous months, human resource professionals report recruiting difficulty in both sectors; a net of 14.5 percent of manufacturing respondents had increased difficulty with recruiting, an increase of 5.9 points compared to one year ago. A net 7.9 percent of service-sector professionals had more difficulty, an increase of 3.4 points from October 2010 and the highest net for...

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Employee Rants Against Company Strategy

by Kris DunnOn November 2, 2011 0 comments

The internet age is a scary place in a lot of ways related to talent, but I'll focus on one today - employee rants that are mistakenly posted to public sources or leaked out of a company and broadcast globally.  

I've posted a lot of those here - mostly memos from CEO that have been leaked by a recipient in the company.  It's good material to review.  You get a sense for how the leadership of a company is communicating issues that are important,...

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What Does The C-Suite Want From HR?

by Laurie RuettimannOn November 1, 2011 0 comments

I am a very lucky Human Resources professional. I began my career in the glamorous world of administration. I typed up timecards at a candy factory. I completed the VETS 100 and EE0-1 reports by hand. Yes, computers existed back in 1995. No, my employer saw no value in them.

After college, I moved into a world of recruiting and HR transformation. I earned my SPHR in 2001 and bought my SHRM mug. It has been my pleasure to work with amazing and talented CEOs, CIOs, and CHROs during the past fifteen years of my career.

...

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Executive Book Club: October 2011

by SHRM StaffOn October 31, 2011 0 comments

Diversity in business and other organizations has been a goal for more than a quarter of a century, yet companies struggle to create an inclusive workplace. In Reinventing Diversity, Howard J. Ross, one of America’s leading diversity experts, explains why most diversity programs fail and how we can make them work.

Ross uses interviews, personal stories, statistics, and case studies to show that there is no quick fix, no easy answer. Acceptance needs to become part of the culture of a company, not just...

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Time Management in Three Words

by Dan RockwellOn October 28, 2011 0 comments

Everything you need to know about getting a grip on time is contained in three words.

Eliminate … Delegate … Accelerate

Eliminate: Stop unnecessary or low priority tasks.
Delegate: Give tasks to others.
Accelerate: Become more efficient.

All time management tips and principles either, eliminate, delegate, or accelerate.

8 Time Management Tips:

  1. You can’t manage time you can only manage yourself. “One always has time enough, if one will apply it well.” Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. (Accelerate)
  2. Settle. Some tasks don’t need to be done perfectly; they just need
    3. ...
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Remove the Barriers to Raise the Bar

by Robin SchoolingOn October 27, 2011 0 comments

There are many things that great leaders can do to create opportunities for employees to perform at their highest possible level.  Aside from developing and sustaining strong personal relationships built on a foundation of trust, feedback and coaching, leaders have the power to implement workplace initiatives such as flexibility, inclusion and a culture of candid communication.  We all want to have a ‘great place to work’ so we tinker and adjust and align our ways of operating and our workplace values with our goals and strategy.  We speak of empowering our employees so that they can have control over...

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The Essence of Strategy

by John BellOn October 26, 2011 0 comments

I’ve always loved strategy. Maybe it’s because I grew up playing chess; maybe it’s because I can be stubborn. Luckily, good strategists are also stubborn. They have to be, because in today’s “light-speed” business world, most of their business colleagues are anything but strategic. They either believe that strategy is a deterrent to opportunity or they’ve never experienced the strategic disciplines of a prudent mentor. I suspect these folks have never enjoyed the sales and profit rewards that result from rejecting non-strategic opportunities in the name of maintaining...

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Player, Please: Gamification & Social Engagement

by Matt CharneyOn October 25, 2011 0 comments

Lost in all the buzzwords and best practices about social media recruiting is a simple fact: it’s supposed to be fun.  In the olden days of faxed resumes, form cover letters and cold calling, engaging talent could be a chore.  But new methodologies have developed along with new mediums.  As more and more employers are finding out, the business of work doesn’t have to feel like, well, work at all.

One of the emerging new topics in talent acquisition is the concept of gamification, a concept so new it’s not recognized by spell check.  Gamification can...

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