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HR Management

Yes, Teams Still Matter in the Era of “A” Players

by on May 31, 2010, 4:00 AM  |  No comments yet
LeBron

Have you heard the latest human resources guru tell you how you’re going to regret everything unless you hire and keep your “A” players at your company? Have you heard how all of your top performing employees are just anxious to jet out of organizations they’ve stagnated in, and that it might mean the end of your business as you know it?

Baloney.

This whole idea that there are entire organizations made up of “A” players is grade “A” bull. Anyone who is half honest with themselves knows it.

So why do we keep talking about “A” players when there are plenty of “B” and “C” players in highly successful organizations?

Read more…

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Benefits, Legal Issues

How to Navigate the “Immediate” HR Issues from Health Care Reform

by on May 28, 2010, 6:15 AM  |  No comments yet
Examination of a patient’s dental X-Ray to check for cavities.

Editor’s Note: Arnold V. Pamplona, a partner in the Health Practice Group of global law firm McDermott Will & Emery, counsels health care providers regarding administrative appeals, Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement regulations, federal and state securities laws, and laws governing health care fraud and abuse.

Here he writes about the immediate impact of health insurance reforms from the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the PPACA, and referred to as “the Act”), which affect group health plans and insurers offering group or individual health insurance, and becomes effective for plan years beginning on or after September 23, 2010.


Among the more popular reforms included in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, as amended by the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, are the “immediate health insurance reforms.” These provisions, which affect group health plans and insurers offering group or individual health insurance, become effective for plan years beginning on or after September 23, 2010. Read more…

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HR Insights, HR Management

What HR Can Learn From American Idol

by on May 27, 2010, 12:13 PM  |  5 Comments
Idolwinner

I’m not a big fan of American Idol, but like a lot of people, I find I get sucked into the competitive aspects of taking a group of talented people and publicly narrowing it down until you have a single “winner.”

This got me to thinking: what can we take away from this kind of competition? Have we learned anything after nine seasons of watching a singing champion chosen this way?

Well yes, there are some pretty big lessons we can take away from American Idol – especially if you’re in human resources.

At its core, American Idol is all about finding and promoting the very best talent – something that HR leaders do for their organizations every single day. But, how the show ultimately goes about finding and promoting the best talent leaves a lot to be desired, and it raises some issues that every HR person should think about in their own talent development process.

So, here are three talent management takeaways I gleaned from Idol:

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Benefits

ObamaCare Update: It Won’t Cut Costs, but Few Plan to Drop Coverage

by on May 27, 2010, 12:11 PM  |  4 Comments
healthcare-dollars

Controlling health care costs may be a big goal for employers, but few really believe that the recently passed government health care legislation will actually help do so, according to a survey this month of 661 large employers conducted by the global consulting firm Towers Watson.

But the survey—“The Impact of Health Care of Employers” — also found that despite their lack of faith that the recently passed Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the PPACA, known more popularly as ObamaCare) will actually help control health care costs, some 74 percent of employers plan to continue to offer subsidized health care coverage for their workers.

“Employers are currently weighing the short-term challenges and long-term opportunities of the new law,” said Mark Maselli, North American Health and Benefits Group Leader for Towers Watson. “While many employers have not yet assessed the full impact that reform will have on their businesses, they do realize the responsibility to hold down costs will fall primarily on their shoulders.” Read more…

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Global HR, Training & Development

What do the British Know About Training That We Don’t?

by on May 27, 2010, 12:00 PM  |  No comments yet
London

Training and travel are two areas that most organizations cut deeply this past year during the recession, but here’s an interesting finding – British companies only cut training half as much as American companies did.

According to a new study by Bersin & Associates released earlier this month, organizations in the United Kingdom. cut their training and development budgets by 4 percent in 2009 compared to 11 percent by organizations in the U.S. This begs the question: so why the big difference? Read more…

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Legal Issues

California’s Supreme Court Takes up Age Discrimination at Google

by on May 26, 2010, 11:48 AM  |  1 comment
Google

For better or for worse, California is one of those places that always seems to be on the cutting edge of workplace issues. And, that’s why a lot of people will be watching carefully this week as the California Supreme Court takes up an age discrimination case against tech giant Google.

As the San Jose Mercury News reports , the case against Google by Brian Reid, a 54-year-old engineer who was fired back in 2004 because he was not a “cultural fit” for the company, “has attracted attention from employers’ and workers’ rights groups across the state because it could help define how much evidence is needed to press an age bias lawsuit.”

“The justices are reviewing a San Jose appeals court’s conclusion,” the newspaper says, “that Reid is entitled to take his case to trial because he’d presented enough evidence for ‘a fact finder to conclude Google engaged in age discrimination.’ “

The Mercury News story lays out the details behind the alleged age discrimination against Reid, but the more interesting part of the story is this: what if the alleged discrimination is part of a high-tech culture that no longer exists? Read more…

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Benefits

The Cost of Obamacare: One in Four think it will be 3% more in 2011

by on May 20, 2010, 2:30 PM  |  2 Comments
Health care reform has been a key initiative of President Obama's administration.

One of the big questions everyone has about the new health care mandate coming out of Washington, is this: how much is it all this going to cost – especially for my company? Well, here’s what businesses expect – an additional 3 percent added to their regular increase next year.

According to a new study of nearly 800 employers released today by Mercer, a global consulting firm, one in four employers expect new requirements stemming from government-mandated health care reform to add 3 percent or more to their 2011 health care cost increase. And, “the cost increase will range from moderate to severe, depending on the employer’s circumstances,” the report said.
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