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HR News & Trends

Weekly Wrap: Are These Really Things That Bad Managers Say?

by on Sep 30, 2011, 11:55 AM  |  2 Comments
© Thomas Perkins - Fotolia.com

If you know me (or have read me) much at all, you know one thing: I am obsessed with bad management.

It’s probably because I’ve worked for so many of them over the years, from the arrogant and know-it-all guy who had little real experience but loved to dictate to everyone else like he did, to the talentless bully who reveled in glowering over people like he was going to punch them.

It’s also because I have some skills as a manager: a management gene that gives me the ability to get more out of people than others can, and to do it without badgering, browbeating, or being a jerk. I have a track record of getting people to perform better and doing it in spite of some of the bad bosses I’ve had the displeasure of working for. Read more…

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Benefits

Open Enrollment: Don’t Let It Be a Lost Opportunity for Your Employees

by on Sep 30, 2011, 10:47 AM  |  No comments yet
open_enrollment

It’s open enrollment season, and many employees are making the key decisions that will impact both their health coverage and tax situation for 2012.

Commonly, employees are seeing higher deductibles and co-pays, but are still not maximizing their ability to, not only cover this exposure, but to also shelter some of their income from taxes by utilizing a Flexible Spending Account (FSA) or Health Savings Account (HSA).

Case in point: I spoke to Betty last week, a 48 year-old employee who is on a total of 12 different medications and is having a difficult time keeping up with paying for her prescriptions, doctor visits, and medical tests. Her Rx bill alone each month is over $100, plus the occasional $35 co-pay for her primary physician, and a whopping $300 co-pay for her heart specialist. Read more…

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HR Technology

If It’s October, It Must Be Time for the Annual HR Tech Conference

by on Sep 30, 2011, 9:20 AM  |  No comments yet
HR-TECH

HR Tech, one of the coolest technology shows for HR people, opens in Las Vegas Monday. As is always the case, all the biggest vendors and many of the smaller and specialty exhibitors have been releasing — or are readying for the show — new products, updates, or applications.

I’ve had a few briefings, and gotten plenty of PR about what’s to come. So far, no moon shot, but there are some slick new releases. Mobile apps seem to be high on the list, followed closely by improvements in service integrations, SaaS-based tools, and even a few new entrants, who promise a better mousetrap.

In advance of the show, Lumesse, the former Stepstone Solutions, introduced a mobile app for its TalentLink recruitment management software. Lumesse Mobile is available for customer smartphones or tablets in the Android, Apple iOS and BlackBerry app stores.

The company says the app is “optimized for both slow and fast mobile connections and designed to deliver an individual, highly-personalized, enjoyable user experience with data and functionality specific to the role of the user.” Read more…

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HR Basics, Legal Issues

A Toothless Tiger: What You Need to Know About the WARN Act

by on Sep 30, 2011, 8:50 AM  |  No comments yet
Photo by Dreamstime

By John A. Gallagher

The WARN Act is The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. That’s a mouthful!

In general, this statute is designed to require employers to provide employees with 6o days notice of layoffs due to plant closings, sale of business or financial hardship. It is a complicated statute, filled with nuances and exceptions, so click here to read a more complete analysis on the Act issued by the United States Department of Labor.

Here is a general synopsis of the Act, and a few important tips to remember: Read more…

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HR Insights, HR Management

3 Things Managers and HR Pros Can Learn From Moneyball

by on Sep 30, 2011, 7:37 AM  |  3 Comments
BradPittMoneyball

There’s a new Brad Pitt movie out – calm down HR ladies this isn’t your Legends of the Fall Brad Pitt movie – this one is about baseball and he doesn’t take his shirt off! (BTW, my favorite Brad Pitt movie of all time? Meet Joe Black, where he plays the best looking version of “death” that you’ll ever see)

The movie is called Moneyball, and it’s based on the true story of how Oakland A’s General Manager Billy Beane changed major league baseball by focusing on statistics and measures in selecting baseball players instead of the just the traditional baseball selection methods that were subjective, at best.

Beane’s new approach turned the Oakland A’s into a contender, while at the same time, spending less than half as much on salaries as clubs like the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox, and Los Angeles Dodgers.

So, what can an HR Pro learn from Moneyball? A bunch, but I’ll give you three thoughts (adapted from Fast Company‘s 3 Lessons Every Manager Can Learn from Moneyball): Read more…

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Benefits, Compensation, Global HR

How Bad Reward Decisions Turned Into 70,000 Layoffs

by on Sep 29, 2011, 10:57 AM  |  1 comment
bad-decision

Just pay people enough to take the issue of money off the table!

This seems to be the advice du jour. It is the centerpiece of Dan Pink’s recommendations for a better pay delivery model, it sits at the heart of the much touted membership model of pay and it reflects the concerns of many who believe that employers have overstepped in their move to more variable pay and incentives during the economic downturn.

But there is another side to this story that we’d be well-advised to consider. It comes to us today via the article Compensation: HR’s 21st Century Fuse Box, written by i4cp’s John Gibbons.

Gibbons draws a connection between the massive job cuts across major European banks (Bloomberg reports that over 70,000 bank jobs have been cut from the likes of Barclay’s, UBS and Credit Suisse) and the shift away from bonus to higher base salaries that began in 2009 in response to public criticism of bank bonus practices. Read more…

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Benefits

Need the HR Benefits Person? Check Over By the Office Coffee Pot

by on Sep 29, 2011, 9:49 AM  |  2 Comments
coffee cup and beans

Hey you there. Coffee person. That’s right — you pouring your third cup before it’s even 9 a.m.  You must be the HR benefits coordinator.

How did I know that? Dunkin’ Donuts and CareerBuilder told me. The two of them teamed up again this year to survey workers about their coffee habits. Among other things, they found that HR benefits people are among the professionals who say they most need that cup o’ joe to get through the workday.

Now why would they do such a survey? Well, today, besides being Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is also National Coffee Day. Spend a little money doing a fun survey about coffee, kick it out to us coffee-drenched writers (we rank 4th on the most-in-need-of-coffee list), and voila, a little PR for the two companies.

Why CareerBuilder? They know a ton about jobs and workers. Why Dunkin’ Donuts? They actually have decent coffee and donuts, the staple of employee meetings everywhere. Read more…

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Recruiting and Staffing, Talent Management

7 Recruiting Challenges Your Website Needs To Solve

by on Sep 29, 2011, 9:25 AM  |  No comments yet
hiring_website

Given the uncertainty of today’s economy, recruitment may be the last thing on many employers’ minds. However, the resourcefulness, innovative thinking, and productivity that proven talent brings to an organization are needed now more than ever in any industry.

The question is, how can your organization find this talent?

Many employers need to find the right applicants as quickly as the applicants need to find the right position. A job search of any length can present challenges for both the prospective employer and the applicant. Developing a new corporate career site or refreshing your existing one may be just what you need to grab job seekers’ attention and set you apart from your competition.

There are a number of challenges that an informative and user-friendly career site can address: Read more…

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HR Management, Legal Issues

What You Can Do to Help Bullyproof Your Workplace

by on Sep 29, 2011, 8:50 AM  |  1 comment
Susan Hartung

By Susan R. Hartung

Imagine this: You are the company human resources manager and Sam, a salesman employed by the company, has just come to you in confidence to report problems he is having with a co-worker, another salesman named Jim.

Sam tells you that Jim constantly interrupts him in sales team meetings, regularly disagreeing with most of the ideas Sam shares during these sessions. He has even seen Jim roll his eyes a few times when he speaks.

When they are forced to go together on team sales calls outside the office, Jim dominates the conversations with potential customers and does not allow Sam the opportunity for input. Jim often addresses Sam as “Little Sammy,” and other members of the sales team have followed his lead. Read more…

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HR Insights, Recruiting and Staffing

Buying a Car and Hiring a Candidate: Yes, There Are a Few Similarities

by on Sep 29, 2011, 7:45 AM  |  No comments yet
carbuying

So, my wife and I are looking for a second car.

My last car was wrecked when a 16 year-old smashed into the side of it two and a half years ago. And those who know the lovely experience of shopping for a car, a used car at that, knows the joy that I am experiencing right now.

Perhaps the most disconcerting part isn’t the shopping or negotiation part (I actually love negotiating price), it’s the fact that it is all too similar to something else I used to do on a regular basis: interviewing and hiring.

While hiring people is certainly much more complicated than buying a car, there are some similarities that take me back.

Read more…

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