It’s been a hot summer — a record-setting one, if you live in New York — but we turn the corner after this long Labor Day weekend and head into the busy Fall season.
Have you been busy this past month with summer activities? Maybe you have, but the world of talent management and HR rolls on even if you have been too busy to really notice.
And, that’s where’s TLNT’s Weekly Wrap comes in. Every Friday I summarize and link to some of those workplace news items you may have missed while you were out doing summer stuff. These are things that I find interesting and newsworthy, and it’s just my little way of keeping you updated and informed.
As you know, I really think this roundup is useful, but I have been asking each week how all of you feel about it. I’ve gotten some nice, encouraging comments — and I thank all of you who so graciously took the time to send them along — but I really want to know how more of you in the TLNT audience feel about this feature. Does it serve a purpose, or is it just a warmed over waste of time? Please me know with a comment here, or send it directly to me via e-mail (john@tlnt.com). I’d like to hear what you think.
Yes, this is a weekly round-up of news, trends, and all sorts of information from the world of HR and talent management. I do it so you don’t have to: Read more…
Ever since the recession started, we’ve heard the same things about work/life balance:
- Jobs are more important than work/life balance;
- We can worry about work/life balance once we’re back to full employment;
- The unsaid threat of pushing hard to help an employer out or else; and,
- Work/life balance may be a myth (maybe a post for another day).
Balance has gone out the window in companies that have struggled in the last few years. The word has been survive. And I think many of us who cover the employment space thought that since work/life balance was out of the mind of employers, it was also out of the mind of employees.
Not so fast.
Read more…
* See updates below
When I wrote this week about the SHRM Board of Directors quietly and secretly raising the amount of the “honorarium” it was paying itself, I mentioned that I had e-mailed a list of a half-dozen specific questions about the Board’s recent actions to the SHRM public affairs staff. I hoped that the Board, and Chair Robb Van Cleave, would answer some or all of them.
No such luck, of course, but one of the questions I asked was this: “Is SHRM planning to raise membership fees in the near future? I have heard from a number of sources that they believe it is going to happen.”
Of course, SHRM didn’t respond to ANY of my questions and gave me the famous “SHRM doesn’t want to be part of the story you’re doing” line instead.
Well, today my question to the SHRM Board about membership dues comes up again because Chief Global Membership Officer Janet Parker (a former SHRM chair and Board member who replaced China Gorman in June) just sent an e-mail out to volunteer leaders of SHRM announcing a $20 per year hike in dues –from $160 to $180 annually. Read more…
The annual Kaiser Family Foundation Employer Benefits Survey is out, and to absolutely no one’s surprise, it shows that health care costs and coverage increased in 2010.
What I do find a little surprising is that the total premium amounts for employer-sponsored health insurance (the total of what both employers and their employees pay for coverage) went up a lot less than most people expected – 5 percent for individual coverage and 3 percent for families. Given all the talk about health care increases approaching double digits (or more), that’s a fairly reasonable increase.
But, workers on average are paying a much greater share of the overall costs (nearly $4,000) toward the cost of family health coverage – an increase of 14 percent, or $482, above what they paid in 2009, according to the benchmark 2010 Kaiser/HRET Employer Health Benefits Survey. In comparison, total premiums for family coverage, including what employers themselves contribute, rose a modest 3 percent to $13,770. Read more…
Although a lot of us might be winding down to the big Labor Day weekend, the ongoing consolidation in the HR software space doesn’t stop, as Taleo today announced that it is acquiring learning management provider Learn.com for approximately $125 million in cash.
As with yesterday’s announcement of software maker Kenexa buying compensation specialist Salary.com, the deal highlights the continuing move by software providers toward a broad and integrated talent management platform and away from the “best of breed” approach.
“The official combination of Taleo and Learn.com is part of a growing trend away from the standalone, one-size-fits-all LMS (learning management system),” said Josh Bersin, president of Bersin & Associates. “This acquisition reflects the corporate need for an integrated and comprehensive approach to talent management and learning.” Read more…
I read an article the other day titled “Older Internet Users Take Shine to Social Networking.” By older, they mean as in over 50, according to the study.
The Pew Research study showed that social networking usage among this age group (people 50 and older) has nearly doubled — from 22 percent in April 2009 to 42 percent in May 2010. During the same period, social networking (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook) use among web users ages 50 to 64 grew by 88 percent overall, from 25 percent to 47 percent, while use by people ages 65 and older doubled, from 13 percent to 26 percent.
At the other end of the spectrum, social networking use among users ages 18 to 29 — the so-called Millennial Generation — grew from 76 percent to 86 percent overall.
I also came across an equally compelling conversation from a group of senior level HR professionals talking about the primitive steps they are taking in getting on the Social Media bandwagon. The conversations centered around getting a “handle” on Facebook and how to “really” use LinkedIn. There was no comment, or shall we say, I did not hang around long enough to hear their thoughts on Twitter. I walked away shaking my head. Read more…
As a crazy cynic (yet grudgingly a realist at times), there is a certain disdain I have for wellness programs.
Could it be that “Big Brother” vibe I get from the wellness leader every time I take my Burgerville lunch to my desk to work over my prescribed hour break? Or perhaps griping about the fact that companies shouldn’t even be in the business of health care in the first place? Maybe it’s the lame programs that don’t provide meaningful change? Or just maybe, it’s the sheer audacity that something like this is necessary but just not well executed?
So when Tanya Barham, CEO of Portland based Recess Wellness, came to our meeting, ordered a coffee and danish and inhaled it before we could even get the pleasantries out of the way, I knew this wasn’t going to be the same old wellness talk I was used to.
Read more…
By Richard Darwin
Non-compete agreements have been held invalid and unenforceable in many states, leaving employers to struggle with crafting an agreement that complies with the law and still protects them against unfair competition by departing employees.
Accomplishing this has become increasingly difficult in light of recent developments in the law regarding non-compete clauses, non solicitation agreements, and trade secrets.
In 2008, the California Supreme Court held that all non-compete and non solicitation agreements run afoul of the state’s public policy favoring employee mobility, regardless of whether those agreements are narrowly drawn. (See Edwards v. Arthur Andersen LLP, 2008).
Further, even the “trade secret” exception to the prohibition on non-competes has been called into question and appears to be falling out of favor. (See The Retirement Group v. Galante, 2009). Solicitation of customers using a trade secret customer list “is enjoinable not because it falls within a judicially created ‘exception’ to section 16600′s ban on contractual non solicitation clauses, but is instead enjoinable because it is wrongful independent of any contractual undertaking.” Read more…
* See update below
HR software maker Kenexa will have a lot to talk about at its annual Kenexa World Conference later this month in Philadelphia.
That’s because Kenexa announced today that it has agreed to acquire compensation specialist Salary.com in an all cash offer for $80 million, or $4.07 per share.
According to a press release from Kenexa, “The agreement has been unanimously approved by the board of directors of both companies, and Salary.com’s board intends to recommend that the Salary.com stockholders tender their shares in the offer.”
Salary.com, based in Massachusetts, makes software that helps businesses and individuals manage pay and performance, and, is very well-known in the HR space. Kenexa says that it expects to close the transaction for Salary.com in the fourth quarter of 2010. Read more…
I am always talking about “adding more value” or “working at a higher level of value.”
How do you know if what you are working on is valuable? Are some jobs more valuable than others?
One of my favorite stories I read in a book long ago, was about a a CEO of a bank who walked in one day and saw a young intern looking dejected in the bank lobby.
He asked the boy, what is it you do for us here? The boy replied, I have a stupid job… I was told to make sure that the containers for the deposit slips are never empty, and that the pens always have ink in them. Read more…
“Interesting and amusing. All Individuals choose where to place priorities. We also choose where to focus blame. "Work" can be whatever . . . ”
— Dan Collins on Why Are We So Mixed Up About Work/Life Balance?, 10 minutes ago
“Solid post, Lance. The problem with the work/life balance issue is that it isn’t being looked at through a consistent . . . ”
— Murphy on Why Are We So Mixed Up About Work/Life Balance?, 28 minutes ago
“great article lance... way to go... btw, i wrote a blogpost for Trish McFarlane (www.hrringleader.com) early this year if anyone . . . ”
— William Tincup on Why Are We So Mixed Up About Work/Life Balance?, 1 hour ago
“I am stuck on the quote "Work/life balance is important to more people than . . . [just] mothers and . . . ”
— Erika on Why Are We So Mixed Up About Work/Life Balance?, 4 hours ago
“I love the idea of work/life integration. I don't like the idea of "going to work" if it doesn't make . . . ”
— Eva Rykr on Why Are We So Mixed Up About Work/Life Balance?, 5 hours ago