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Business Success and Making Sacrifices

by Sharlyn LaubyOn October 24, 2011 0 comments

One of the sessions I really enjoyed at this year’s SHRM Annual Conference in Las Vegas was presented by Sue Meisinger, former CEO of SHRM, on the “10 Things Your CEO Will Never Tell You, But HR Needs to Know.”  If you missed the session…well, that’s a bummer but Sue did mention a report you might find interesting.  Booz & Co. compiles a CEO study each year that offers some insights about the role of the CEO in today’s marketplace.  It's an interesting read and you can find a copy here.

In reading the report, one thing...

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Work/Life Balance - Are we Kidding Ourselves?

by Susan AvelloOn October 20, 2011 1 comment

Since October is National Work and Family Month, it’s a good time to discuss work-flex.

I love how Jason Seiden described “work/life balance” recently at Illinois SHRM: “We talk of it as something we separate by a slash and then hope we can balance everything in between. Trying to package them and keep them separate doesn’t work…There is no rigid separation.”

More and more, we seek a middle ground between what works for us, our organizations, and our employees—whatever their stage of life. But does a flexible workplace really benefit everyone, or are we...

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Creating a Red Rubber Ball Moment in the Workplace

by Jessica Miller-MerrellOn October 18, 2011 3 comments

Have you ever had a red rubber ball moment?  Kevin Carroll, author of the Red Rubber Ball Book Series describes these as when play transform even tense, high-stakes moments into pure fun and result in deep connections formed that can last a lifetime.

My first experience in a post-college and professional environment was while working for Target Corporation as part of the company’s store management team in an HR capacity.  My official title was Executive Team Leader of Team Relations or ETL-TR for short.  While I worked exhausting...

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SHRM's Shirley Davis: A Woman to Watch

by Amy ThompsonOn October 17, 2011 0 comments

SHRM is proud to congratulate our very own Dr. Shirley Davis for being named one of Profiles in Diversity Journal’s “100 Women Worth Watching” for 2012.  As SHRM’s head of Diversity & Inclusion initiatives, Shirley has been instrumental in advancing the D&I field – and has become a leading voice on the challenges and complexities associated with managing diversity in a global workplace and marketplace.  While she’s helping organizations and business navigate this advancing field, on a more personal level, she’s been an inspiration to many, including her 325 colleagues...

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8 Ways to Feed a Need and Stifle a Fear to Innovate from the Middle

by Ann TardyOn October 13, 2011 0 comments

Flight Attendant vs. Consultant

“They paid some consultant millions of dollars to figure out how to load this plane. They should have just asked me. I’ve been a flight attendant for 22 years.” I overheard this on a recent flight when the boarding process caused a traffic jam of people.

Office Managers vs. Corporate Headquarters

“They said they wanted to ‘empower us’ to come up with our own ideas for developing our agents, and so we did. We actually got excited about the opportunity to do something different, but when we submitted our proposals to them,...

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Cool Tools HR Tech Wrap-up 2011

by Craig FisherOn October 12, 2011 0 comments


There I was, at a steak house on the Vegas strip, with 4 Brits and a German who couldn't pronounce Mojave.  They had, as I had, driven into Las Vegas from Los Angeles, through the mountains and desert, a couple of days prior for HR Tech 2011. 

That dinner was one of many highlights for me during a few days spent speaking at HRevolution and covering the HR Tech 2011 Conference.

I was very impressed with the unconference conversations and sessions at HRevolution.  The...

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Experimentation and Discovery: How Science can Help you Transform HR

by Jason LauritsenOn October 11, 2011 0 comments

For being a profession with heavy detail and conformity requirements, I’ve always wondered why we aren’t better at using the rigor of science within our work in Human Resources.  It would seem to me that the structure and process of the scientific method would appeal to us since we spend much of our time working with structure and process all day long. 

And yet, when we look at how we approach our work in HR, there’s not as much science involved as there should be. Science, afterall, is really the practice of studying the nature and behavior...

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The Future of the Evolving Workplace

by Kevin KennemerOn October 10, 2011 2 comments

Few would argue the pace of change is increasing, especially in business and technology, along with their impact on the workplace. Wise company leaders sense these changes, and adjust, adapt, plan and execute. Each day brings an evolving convergence of many external influences that shape upcoming days, weeks and years. The workplace is greatly impacted by this convergence of external influences.

In the past, employees resisted organizational change initiated by leadership. Now that technology is causing seismic changes in how, when and where we perform work, it is leaders who are resisting the evolving, 24/7, distributed workforce.

...

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SHRM: October LINE Report

by Jennifer SchrammOn October 6, 2011 0 comments

According to the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM) Leading Indicators of National Employment (LINE) Report, hiring will come to a near standstill and compensation will inch up during the month of October.

Employers in the manufacturing sector report a virtually unchanged annual hiring rate increase of just around 1 percent while those in the service sector anticipate a year-over-year 10 percent decline. 

Both sectors continue to report recruiting difficulty, which may be attributed to new or enhanced skill requirements for recently created high-level jobs. A net...

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Profits Down? Your Risk Aversion May Be High.

by Jonathan SegalOn October 5, 2011 0 comments

There has been an astronomic increase in employment litigation. The result is that there is almost an apoplectic fear of litigation. Indeed, because the cost of litigation can be so high, sometimes we try to avoid risk at all cost.

But we cannot avoid risk. It is not a question of risk avoidance, but rather risk selection.

In my experience, here are the top three mistakes that are sometimes made in managing risk and can result in buying one risk to avoid another.

  1. Failure to distinguish between what is illegal and what has legal implications. 

    2. ...
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