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HR News & Trends

HR News & Trends

Weekly Wrap: Reverse Mentoring Cuts Through the Generational Logjam

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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t understand the generational issues in the workplace that we’re constantly squabbling about.

Many, many times I have written here (and elsewhere) that Millennials get a bad rap, especially when it comes to their workplace ethic. Just late last year I wrote:

The Millennial generation, in my view, is no better or worse than any other generation that came before. Yes, they have their own unique generational issues but in my close experience with them, Millennials reflect what you find in other generations and society as a whole — some are good, some average, some clueless.”

A lot of the negative stuff that Millennials (or Gen Y, if you prefer) get hammered with has to do with the perceived notion that somehow, their workplace ethic is wildly out of whack with what everyone else is doing and that managers need some special kind of coaching to learn how to cope with them. Read more…

HR News & Trends

January Job Growth: One Good Month, or Evidence Recovery is Growing?

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Strike up the band. Break out the confetti. The market’s going to love this. The U.S. unemployment rate dropped to 8.3 percent and non-farm jobs grew by 243,000 in January.

This morning’s monthly report from the U.S. Department of Labor blasted through even the most optimistic of expectations. The jobs gain would have been the largest since May 2010, except that the Labor Department’s data group adjusted 2011′s jobs numbers. Now, only March (+246,000) and April (+251,000) had stronger numbers.

January is the second consecutive month to beat estimates. Economists predicted anywhere from MarketWatch’s tepid 121,000 to the more optimistic 182,000 in the Bloomberg survey. None of the widely reported surveys saw a decline in the unemployment rate. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Talent Management

Super Bowl Hangover? Yes, Employees May Be Less Productive on Monday

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If you’re in the U.S., this coming Sunday may as well be a national holiday. We’ll gather with friends and family, eat and drink too much, and watch football.

It may sound a lot like Thanksgiving, but the difference between that and the Super Bowl is that almost all of us have to go into work the next day.

I know, these are the choices we make. Certainly people can choose not to watch the Super Bowl (and many don’t). What I’m asking is that we stop wringing our hands over the lost productivity next Monday, and instead, start thinking about ways to handle it.

Read more…

HR News & Trends

Facebook Files For a $5 Billion Plus IPO

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Facebook finally did today what everyone expected: It filed for an IPO.

In the paperwork submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission, Facebook said it expects to raise $5 billion from the public sale of its stock. That’s based on the registration fee it paid. The New York Times says it could end up raising much more.

Facebook reported in its S-1 filing that it earned $1 billion on revenue of $3.7 billion, most of it coming from advertising. It reported having 845 million monthly active users as of the end of the year, a 39 percent increase over the year before. In the U.S., Facebook saw a 16 percent bump over 2010, ending last year with 161 million monthly average users, or about half the country’s total population. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Legal Issues

Court Rules That Supervisors May Be Liable For FMLA Violations

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By Eric B. Meyer

In this case of first impression in the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia, which covers Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the court ruled that a supervisor in a public agency may be subject to personal liability under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

The court further emphasized that there is “no reason to distinguish between public agencies and private employers under the FMLA insofar as individual liability is concerned.”

The court also emphasized that Congress intended to include individuals with the scope of the FMLA definition of “employer”: Read more…

HR News & Trends, Recruiting and Staffing

Survey: Employee Referrals Are Really More Effective Than We Think

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Employee referral programs may produce more hires — perhaps many more — than surveys would suggest.

Over the years it has come to be accepted that the average number of new hires coming from employee referral programs is somewhere between SHRM’s 24 percent (for non-exempt positions) to about a third. Some programs do much better.

From CareerXroads now comes evidence that the hires from employee referrals are undercounted.

“Referrals permeate the recruiting process more than we think,” says recruiting consultant Gerry Crispin, a CareerXroads principal. Read more…

HR Basics, HR News & Trends

Labor Dept. Proposes Expanded FMLA Rules for Military, Airline Flight Crews

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By Eric B. Meyer

The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it is issuing proposed rules that would expand military family leave provisions under the Family and Medical Leave Act and incorporate a special eligibility provision for airline flight crew employees.

The DOL press release describes the two proposed changes as follows:

The proposed language would extend the entitlement of military caregiver leave to family members of veterans for up to five years after leaving the military. At this time, the law only covers family members of “currently serving” service members. Additionally, the proposal expands the military family leave provisions of the FMLA by extending qualifying exigency leave to employees whose family members serve in the regular armed forces. Currently, the law only covers families of National Guard members and reservists. Read more…

HR News & Trends, Legal Issues

EEOC: Retaliation Discrimination Charges Continued to Rise in 2011

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Complaints of retaliation by employers trumped race for the second consecutive year, according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC said total new claims during fiscal 2011 were just slightly ahead of 2010. Last year it received 99,947 claims compared to 99,922 the year before. It also reported taking in $455.6 million through its administrative program and litigation.

Released last week, the stats show claims of retaliation by employers against workers who raised discrimination issues accounted for 37.4 percent of the commission’s workload. Complaints alleging just violations of Title VII (discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, religion, and national origin) accounted for 31.4 percent of the complaints. Read more…

HR News & Trends

Survey Points to 5 Critical Talent Management Trends for 2012

123RF Stock Photo

I’m always interested in surveys that look ahead and give some sense of where we might be going, even if they don’t always seem to get the forecast quite right.

That’s why this new survey just released by Taleo caught my eye. It’s called U.S. Talent Trends for 2012 (you can sign up for a copy here), and it summarizes both the 2011 business climate as well as the talent management trends we can expect this year.

The five key findings from the survey are as follows: Read more…

HR News & Trends

Weekly Wrap: Why Are We So Quick to Dismiss the Good, Old Résumé?

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Want some shocking news? The Wall Street Journal reports that, “Many job seekers have long suspected their online employment applications disappear into a black hole, never to be seen again … (and) their fears may not be far off the mark.”

I know; you are probably stunned and surprised that lots of people apply for jobs online and never hear anything back about it. Who knew?

The Journal also published another story (proving that dumb stuff comes in pairs) titled No More Résumés Some Firms Say that uses anecdotal evidence from three companies (yes, 3 is not a misprint) to declare that, “(businesses) are increasingly relying on social networks such as LinkedIn, video profiles and online quizzes to gauge candidates’ suitability for a job. While most still request a résumé as part of the application package, some are bypassing the staid requirement altogether.”

This makes me wonder: what’s wrong with the good, old résumé?

Read more…