SHRM Blog

#NextChat Success - A Recap of our Twitter Chat on Social Media

by Mary Kaylor, SHRM-CPOn February 15, 2012 0 comments

There’s no denying that social mediais changing the way we work. From its emergence in the recruitingsphere to the way it is redefining workplace culture and flexibility, organizations and HR professionals are quickly adapting and growingwith each and every innovative step that social media takes.

As social media continues to grow, so does We Know Next. Last Wedesday, @weknownext jumped into the world of Twitter chats and along with special guest Matt Charney @MattCharney, we hosted our own #NextChat conversation to discuss social media’s impact and role with HR and recruiting.

Nextchatters agreed...

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Failure and Learning Through Leadership

by Jessica Miller-MerrellOn February 15, 2012 0 comments
Achieving milestones within a department or an organization is a process that involves a clear strategy, research, team members, and the flexibility to change and adapt along the way.  Just like leaders, a company’s culture or environment doesn’t just happen.  Great cultures are made from the top down and the down up.
 
The key in creating a corporate culture focused on high achievement doesn’t come from the learning curve employees and their teammates face but in how they learn and work together during their failures.  It’s the low points, not the high points that create a...
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I Love You

by Jonathan SegalOn February 14, 2012 0 comments
It is 9 am.  The secretary reports to her desk.  Waiting for her is a sealed card.
 
The secretary opens the envelope and it is a Valentine's card from her manager.  Having undergone sensitivity training, the manager signs it "fondly" as opposed to "lovingly."
 
The employee is creeped out and goes to HR.  HR talks with the manager based on a script we had prepared together.
 
HR asks the manager if he knows why the card is inappropriate.  He responds "no."
 
HR asks the manager to whom...
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Jobs Blog: When Demand Is Low, It's Time to Train

by Joe CoombsOn February 13, 2012 0 comments
Much has been said about the contribution of the “skills mismatch” to the United States’ elevated unemployment rate. Even President Barack Obama weighed in during his State of the Union address, calling it “inexcusable” that there are job openings in many industries that can’t be filled while millions
of Americans are looking for work.
 
Although most economists argue that joblessness is largely a function of lowered demand at the moment, simple math says there’s also something else going on: There are 13 million people out of work, yet 3.2 million jobs are available. Recruiters...
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From Idle to Innovative: 8 Ways to Ignite Managers in the Middle

by Ann TardyOn February 10, 2012 0 comments
2011 Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X Challenge
 
The Cleanup X Challenge offered $1 million to the team that could invent an oil-recovery system able to recover oil from the surface of the ocean at a rate two times the industry standard. The building and testing of such a device was already an improbable feat, but the stakes were raised even further: contestants have 90 days to complete it. 
 
Team Elastec met the challenge 
 
When Donald Wilson, the CEO of Elastec, the largest manufacturer of oil-spill-cleanup equipment in the US, read...
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Where do you marinate from 9 to 5?

by Kevin KennemerOn February 9, 2012 0 comments
When I was a teenager my parents told me to be careful about the character of my circle of friends.  Positive friends make good friends and will likely improve your quality of life and decision-making.  Negative friends, on the other hand, will have the opposite effect. Before you know it, toxic friends will craftily lead you to make poor decisions, ultimately directing you to a bad place in life.
 
You are eventually the product of your environment. That’s why I highly recommend you surround yourself with good, smart and honorable people.
 
When I...
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Diversity and Inclusion: Getting It

by Joe GerstandtOn February 8, 2012 0 comments

What will you do?

If your team or organization is going to get serious about pursuing additional value or advantage associated with diversity and inclusion this year, it will likely be because you decide to make it so. I spoke to a lot of HR professionals in 2011 and one of the things that I heard a lot, goes something like this …
 
“I am totally on board Joe, but ________ just does not get it.”
 
They. Don’t. Get. It.
 
Your supervisor, your peers, your senior leadership team is...
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Does a Mentor have to Breathe?

by John BellOn February 7, 2012 0 comments

To most of us, mentors are people of experience and knowledge who help the less experienced advance their careers and/or their education. There are plenty of well-known examples throughout the course of history; Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great, Laurence Olivier mentored Anthony Hopkins and Freddy Laker mentored Richard Branson. 
 
In the early days of my 40 year business career, I was lucky to work under two gentlemen who instilled several critical success factors that guided me from Brand Manager to CEO. One of my mentors was brilliantly creative, the other skillfully strategic. But when...
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Next Generation Leadership - Have You Talked to a Customer Today?

by Ryan EstisOn February 6, 2012 0 comments
Did you talk to a customer today?
 
Simple yes or no answer.  
 
According to Frank Pacetta (a hero of mine) and his Blueprint for Success a “no” gets the leader or manager (CEO especially) an immediate failing grade.
 
 
Today’s leader is charged with navigating through chaotic and disruptive times.  Employees are anxious, overwhelmed, exhausted, uncertain and have far less trust in senior leadership.  Customers have an evolving set of
...
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Social Media for HR and Recruiting

by Matt CharneyOn February 6, 2012 0 comments
French novelist Alphonse Karr once wrote, “the more things change, the more things stay the same,” which might explain why this same phrase shows up in Zeppelin lyrics a century after Karr’s death.  
 
And nowhere is that more true than HR, which as a function seems often to be the business equivalent of the Amish – a quaintly anachronistic sect who shuns modern technology (with the possible exception of cute cat videos on YouTube, which, as we all know, really never gets old).
 
This is probably why we’re still talking about building...
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