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HR News & Trends

Feds Will No Longer Require Written Essays When Applying for a Job

by on Oct 29, 2010, 11:27 AM  |  No comments yet
Photo by Dreamstime

Editor’s note: Weekly Wrap is on the road traveling, so there’s no wrap up this week. Look for Weekly Wrap again next Friday.

Monday will mark an event so momentous it took a presidential order to make it happen. On Nov. 1, the Office of Personnel Management — the U.S. government’s HR arm — will no longer require written essays to apply for a job.

A cover letter and resume will be enough to make a job seeker an applicant for federal employment. That’s not to say an essay will never be required — just not as part of the initial application.

The Center for Human Capital Innovation thinks enough of this step that it’s hosting a “Hail and Farewell” ceremony and reception to mark the day. The director of the OPM himself, John Berry, will lead the event. Read more…

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HR Basics, Recruiting and Staffing

How to Find and Recruit the Best Hourly Employees

by on Oct 29, 2010, 9:45 AM  |  5 Comments
Kronos front cover large

By Mel Kleiman

If you’re having a difficult time attracting enough quality front-line workers and retaining them long enough to realize a return on their investment, you’re hardly alone. Hourly employee turnover rates historically run from 70–120 percent per year in most industries.

As an employer or hiring manager, you may wrongly assume that there is nothing you can do to control or mitigate the enormous drain on profitability caused by turnover. This chapter will provide suggestions on how you can reduce turnover by recruiting and hiring the best hourly workers.

The best employees don’t just walk in and ask for a job — usually because they’re already working. If you want the best, you have to know what you need, where to look, and how to recruit them. Read more…

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HR Insights, HR Management

Five Reasons Your CEO Doesn’t Care About Employee Engagement

by on Oct 29, 2010, 7:57 AM  |  14 Comments
engagement

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard about employee engagement at various webinars, lunches, and conferences. We talk about ways to improve it, ways to measure it and ways to sell it up and get it implemented.

Wait a second, strike that last one. We never talk about why having strong employee engagement (a no-brainer in most progressive HR circles) doesn’t resonate with the CEO.

Don’t get me wrong, she might shake her head agreeing with you or he may say everything your saying is right on. They might even believe it (or believe they believe it). And everyone knows they like to talk it up too, especially to new employees.

But then comes the time to take action. Whether it is developing or moving a manager who shouldn’t be in their role, managing your compensation, or changing the tiny pieces of your culture that robs engagement, there is resistance. And while it isn’t explicit, there are five reasons your CEO rejects improving employee engagement.

Read more…

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Benefits, HR Insights

Four Signs To Help Encourage Employee Wellness

by on Oct 28, 2010, 11:35 AM  |  2 Comments
Photo illustration by Dreamstime.

There’s no doubt that we have a lot of unhealthy people in the U.S. workforce — and more set to enter it at some point.

Disease management, acute risk and wellness efforts are trying to tackle the situation with services that require employees to make major adjustments to their day-to-day routine.

I sometimes despair over the effectiveness of these efforts. I’m not sure that they alone can do the trick. What’s needed, really, are seismic environmental and social changes.

But we can’t wait for that. So, I try to think small — and across boundaries. What’s working elsewhere that we can co-opt? What do we know works but we’re not doing? Today’s post is a glimpse into my wondering if we can make headway with the simple, ordinary sign. Here are some examples: Read more…

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HR trends, Talent Management

From the Energy Files: A Little Bit of Direction Goes a Long Way

by on Oct 28, 2010, 9:47 AM  |  1 comment
HR Blog on TLNT: From the Energy Files

This edition of “From the Energy Files” comes from data we have been collecting in the Leadership Pulse™ project. Since 2003, we have been sending short pulse surveys out to a sample of leaders around the world.

The pulsing work started with the alumni from the University of Michigan’s Executive Education program, and since our beginning, new leaders, and managers have joined, changed jobs, and continued to engage in the sharing of information for the purpose of learning.

In each of the Leadership Pulse surveys, we ask respondents to report on their energy at work and then discuss one other topic. The key topic changes with each rendition of the Leadership Pulse. Read more…

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Recruiting and Staffing

Should You Be Using Facebook For Recruiting?

by on Oct 28, 2010, 7:57 AM  |  6 Comments
facebook

One of the interesting things I’ve heard over the last few months as I’ve talked to different people and companies is how they couldn’t imagine using Facebook for recruiting.

LinkedIn they got. In fact, give it up to HR and recruiting folks. Most of the people I talked to had either made a connection that led to a hire or made a hire directly off LinkedIn. Many organizations, even smaller ones, didn’t seem to mind forking over money for it.

Twitter was a little less clear. Most of the crowds I talked to weren’t super engaged with Twitter as a recruiting tool (or as an anything tool). But once explained, there seemed to be some connections made that it could be useful.

So why the push back on Facebook?

Read more…

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Legal Issues

The FMLA Challenge: Reinterpreting the Law for a Diverse World

by on Oct 27, 2010, 11:07 AM  |  1 comment
Attorney Bill Hanna

By William R. Hanna

Nothing in the world of employment law remains static and unchanged – least of all, the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Since 2008, both the U.S. Congress and the Department of Labor (DOL) have wrought significant changes to the 17-year-old law. In large part, these developments embody attempts by lawmakers to address issues important to families affected by military service and diverse or “non-traditional” families.

These recent amendments (impacting both the FMLA statute and associated regulations) and administrative interpretations underscore the importance to employers of ensuring that human resources personnel and leave administrators are fully aware of the changes and clarifications and that FMLA policies are updated and current. Read more…

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HR Management, Training & Development

How to Talk (or Sell) to Executives – and Get Invited Back, Too

by on Oct 27, 2010, 9:15 AM  |  No comments yet
Executives

Most companies I work with want to sell higher value deals to higher level executives. The problem is, their sales force doesn’t know how to talk to executives.

Also, many people I work with are concerned about their executive presence. When they get near big executives they get intimated and freeze up.

I think we tend to build this up in our minds to be more mysterious and harder than it actually is. We think we are not worthy, or that we don’t have enough value to add. Read more…

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HR News & Trends, Training & Development

Survey: 70% of Businesses Don’t Have a Strategy for Developing Women

by on Oct 27, 2010, 7:59 AM  |  8 Comments
WomeninBusiness

Does your organization focus on women when they talk about having a more diverse workforce?

Some do, of course, but the vast majority of businesses — 70 percent — say they don’t have a strategy for developing women leaders, according to a new survey by global consulting giant Mercer.

The Women’s Leadership Development Survey, conducted in September by Mercer in conjunction with Talent Management and Diversity Management magazines, surveyed human resource, talent management, and diversity leaders at a broad cross-section of more than 540 organizations throughout the U.S. Read more…

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HR Management, HR Technology

10 Ways to Develop High Quality Human Capital Metrics

by on Oct 26, 2010, 11:27 AM  |  4 Comments
Illustration by Dreamstime

Today, HR practitioners and senior executives are continuing to recognize the growing importance of metrics in effectively shaping the strategic position of an organization.

What once was used for simply measuring more traditional operational issues, such as time to hire and cost to hire, strategic measurement now gives HR a strong viable position at an organization’s leadership table. Long-term measurement of critical HR issues including employee engagement is vital to the culture and sustainability of an organization.

And while some organizations are still only employing traditional HR metrics and debating strategic HR measurement, successful organization have learned how to leverage these tools to transform their businesses from me-too organizations to market leaders.

But what if the metrics behind the dashboards aren’t right? Poorly designed metrics can do serious damage to a business. HR managers responsible for recruiting, employee engagement and compensation can be distracted from what really matters: overall human capital performance that increases the bottom line. Read more…

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