HR [careers] hit hard Find out how hard HR professionals have been hit by recession layoffs due to labor costs.
HR professionals -- especially those in recruiting and training functions -- have lost their jobs during the recession. While the economy -- and hiring -- may be picking up, it is still a buyer's market. Companies looking to hire are taking their time and looking for exact matches.
Even as HR professionals have been delivering news of layoffs at their organizations, they, too, have been hit hard by the recession. "A lot of jobs were lost in HR and even the budgets for areas like employee relations and training and development -- all of those have been slashed in this recession in many cases," says
John Challenger, CEO of Challenger Gray and Christmas, an outplacement firm based in Chicago. "It's hit HR very hard and it just seems like there are -- more than I have ever seen -- a large number of really good HR professionals out looking and having a hard time; people who would ordinarily not have a hard time are still out there
looking." And some of them are exuding a "sense of desperation," says Greg Hessel, senior client partner for the HR Center of Expertise at executive recruiter Korn/Ferry in Dallas. Because of that desperation -- because they've been out of work too long or their severance is running out --some HR executives are becoming
much more willing to open up their search parameters, Hessel says. They now, for example, will consider...
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Recovery bound [strategy] HR’s tough job: How to increase employee-engagement using tools such as trust and fair compensation in this post-recession environment.
The most pressing post-recession task for HR leaders at the nation's largest companies will be to provide highly engaged workers able to execute new business strategies.
So you thought the economic downturn was tough? Get ready for the next big challenge for HR: the post-recession. As companies ramp up production and put new business strategies in place to compete in a changed landscape, they'll need the best employees, all at the top of their games. Yet the recession has taken a grievous
toll on many organizations. Those who have survived rounds of layoffs often feel beaten down and stretched too thin for too long. The number of disengaged workers has doubled during the recession -- to a startling...
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Holding down healthcare costs by intensifying efforts to change employee behavior requires HR leaders to articulate what's driving cost, what the opportunities are for improvement, what needs to change and how success will be measured. Here are some of the important elements of a successful employee-engagement approach.
While comprehensive healthcare reform in the United States won't take effect earlier than 2013 -- if at all -- organizations still battling the recession must continue to make significant healthcare cost reductions in the face of uncertainty. Past recessions gave rise to innovative, often untested, new solutions such as
point-of-service plans and managed care. The ongoing economic crisis is a genuine opportunity for more innovation. One emerging concept is to intensify efforts to change consumer behavior as a means of driving down healthcare costs. Indeed, the concept goes well beyond the educational efforts many employers and health plans
have initiated, now that leading-edge employers have seen the link between behavioral change and improved outcomes for quality, cost efficiency and individual risk. And so their strategy is to provide more aggressive incentives for behavioral change. Encouragingly, a recent Mercer Survey on Recession and Reform noted an
uptick in the percentage of employers considering a variety of ideas that would change behavior. Among the initiatives employers said they are likely to adopt for 2010:...
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[Legally] searching for candidate information Federal and State regulations vary in anti-discrimination statutes and laws. Read about some of the allegations that can be generated by using social networks for making employment decisions.
There seems to be a wave of optimism for 2010 -- a hope that we will see an upsurge in the economy and employment. Because of this, many companies are preparing to hire again and will need to brush up on their screening practices to ensure that, when the time comes, they remain compliant with the laws related to the process. Question: Can you provide the parameters for HR in the use of information discovered on the Web, such as Facebook, as it applies to job applicants?
Answer:
Social networks and blogging sites can provide an inexpensive and easy way for employers to gather a plethora of information about potential job applicants. However, employers should think twice about using information found on social-networking sites to make employment decisions because the use of such
information could lead to the potential risk of employer liability. This is because these sites contain...
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There’s a famous quote by a criminal who said he robbed banks, “Because that’s where the money is.” In the same way, employers seeking Internet-savvy candidates have been flocking to social media sites in the past year because that’s where the web-smart candidates are.
But employers (and their lawyers) are discovering a hidden problem in that recruiting-by-Facebook strategy: Depending too much on the sites could leave your organization vulnerable to age and race discrimination lawsuits. That’s because heavy use of social networking sites may skew your job applicant pool to contain few minorities and older people.
Social media users: young and white
Statistics show that sites such as Twitter and LinkedIn tend to have relatively few minority users. For example,...
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The interview remains a hiring manager’s most effective tool for evaluating job candidates. Unfortunately, managers too often rely on a list of standard interview questions for which most applicants have canned responses. The message:
Ask generic questions and you’ll get generic answers. Here are five common questions to avoid, according to an OfficeTeam report, as well as suggestions for more productive queries that will help you make the correct hiring choice:...
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Starting Feb. 1, the IRS will begin intensive audits looking into employment tax compliance of 6,000 randomly selected employers. The audit project, which was quietly announced by the IRS in October, is the tax agency's "most significant audit initiative in decades," according to a report by the Morgan Lewis law firm.
These National Research Program (NRP) audits will generate the IRS’ first statistical snapshot of employment tax compliance since 1984. According to Morgan Lewis, the audits are expected to initially focus on the following four areas before expanding to other issues:...
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5 steps for complying with new GINA law "The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA) took effect on Nov. 21, 2009." New laws about how genetic testing can and cannot be used by insurance companies and employers...
You probably don’t check up on most employees who call in sick because they do it infrequently and most likely are being truthful. However, every organization has its share of workers who abuse sick-leave policies.
About one-third of U.S. employees (32%) called in sick when they really weren’t in 2009, according to CareerBuilder’s annual absenteeism survey of 4,700 workers. Most employers take excuses at face value, but 29% of the 3,100 employers surveyed by
CareerBuilder said they’ve checked up on an employee who called in sick. The tactics among those who check:...
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The cost cutting and staff reductions may not be completely over, but as the economy begins its recovery, HR will be dealing with new challenges in 2010.
Still, the flush workplace of 2006 isn’t likely to rush back into vogue. In fact, the historic recession has made a lasting impression on many organizations, which could hang onto the lessons they learned while surviving lean times. Here are 10
trends to expect in the coming year, plus tips and tools to help you respond to each:...
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Managing Motivation The recession has caused a widespread loss of employee engagement that can cripple your company. Learn how to motivate through it.
Four years ago, we launched a study of sixty extraordinary groups. We were curious about what makes some groups fantastic while most are ordinary. Or worse. Our study led us to a number of conclusions and a book. We will share some of what we learned here.
We focused on extraordinary groups of two to twenty people and what makes them so wonderful. We interviewed members of great groups, figuring why not learn from people who have lived through an extraordinary group experience. Four years later, we reached conclusions based on hearing stories from one to two members in each of
sixty groups. We learned about what motivates them to participate, how they feel about that, and what they actually did. This article describes eight performance patterns common to great groups. The more of these eight patterns are present, the more likely the group is to deliver amazing results...
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[Recruiting Gen X & Gen Y] back to the future When looking to the future, companies need to look at new recruiting strategies and benefits to recruit and retain the talent they need when they need it most.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, 40 percent of America's workforce will be eligible to retire. Unfortunately, most employers have overlooked this threat to their future workforce.
Talent and workforce development have taken a backseat in this challenging economy, which is a dangerous move considering the projected shortfall of 10 million workers that talent leaders will have to contend with in the next few years. No matter what the state of the economy is, we can't stop people from aging. We are on the brink of
the largest turnover of human capital in history. Now, more than ever, it's important to continue recruiting efforts to maintain a pipeline of prospects and to heighten retention efforts to keep young employees challenged, motivated and dedicated to their jobs. A combined demographic of 120 million people, Generation X
(1965-1981) and Generation Y (1982-1995) count some of today's top performers among their ranks. They are also the most restless:...
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Talent management is still an emerging field, and there are as many untruths floating around the industry as there are verifiable facts. To advance the profession and reap the organizational benefits therein, it is necessary to weed out dated myths and adopt new perspectives.
As we look to the future of talent management, it is important to examine concerns and issues, including common myths about talent and succession management that may be limiting, and provide new ways of thinking through these issues and moving forward with best practice ideas...
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Harman International: High-fidelity HR Talent management and workforce performance; the development of a performance appraisal process and succession planning in an interview with John Stacey...
Harman International is an international audio equipment company that is considered one of the heavyweights in the field of stereo manufacturing. The company designs, manufactures and markets audio products for use in home theaters as well as automobiles, selling audio systems through car manufacturers, including
Mercedes-Benz, Toyota and Lexus, BMW and General Motors. In designing and selling products to such a wide market, the company has to maintain serious attention to quality control, which extends to workforce development.
As chief human resources officer for Harman International, John Stacey directs the talent management of more than 10,500 employees. Stacey joined Harman in February 2008, and in the nearly two years since has been actively developing the company's talent management processes...
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Locking in loyalty How to earn employee loyalty and foster a loyal environment:
Employees, particularly high-potential talent and pivotal leaders, are important to any company's success. However, many organizational leaders fail to recognize how to foster employee loyalty.
Once company executives recognize how essential their top employees are, they often rely on monetary rewards or promotions to keep them on the job. These traditional tactics alone won't work as we emerge from the recession. An innovative strategy to
retain top talent centers on the concept of employee loyalty, but not in its traditional sense:...
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Bringing a weekend mindset to work Well-being is more favorable on the weekends - How you can bring healthier employees into your working environment.
New research by the University of Rochester suggests that employers can improve their work-life balance initiatives by studying the moods of their workers during the weekend.
In the study, which focused on workers’ physical and mental well-being during Friday evenings to Sunday afternoons, researchers found that employed adults experience better moods, greater vitality and fewer aches and pains during the weekend. “Workers, even those with interesting, high status jobs, really are happier on the
weekend,” says Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. “Our findings highlight just how important...
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Laying the groundwork for HR outsourcing HR Outsourcing (HRO) is here to stay; make yours more operationally efficient, optimized, and improve service delivery!
The second decade of HRO begins with a much more balanced perspective of outsourcing and a clearer understanding of its strengths and limitations. But if the promises of outsourcing are to be achieved, there are a few important considerations that should guide its use. Successful outsourcing begins with internal processes,
including HR transformation, pragmatic scoping of the HR outsourcing project, gap analysis and change management.
The past 10 years have been an epic journey for companies outsourcing HR and for the providers of those services. Both endured significant challenges as they labored to find formulas that worked. In the end, the struggles yielded two important truths:...
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The scales can lie: Hidden fat Body fat is not measured in a body mass index (BMI): "New Study Argues Even Thin People Can Face Health Risks From Fat; It's 'Normal Weight Obesity'"
Can you be normal weight and fat at the same time? That's the implication of a provocative recent report from the Mayo Clinic, which suggests that fat in your body can get you and your heart into trouble even if you don't look fat and if the scale tells you you're healthy.
The Mayo researchers, led by cardiologist Francisco Lopez-Jimenez, have coined a term for the phenomenon: normal weight obesity. In a study that looked at data from 6,171 Americans with normal body size, as measured by body mass index, those with a high percentage of body fat were at significantly greater risk of future heart
problems than those with low amounts of fat. Their bodies "behave like they are obese, but they are not," Dr. Lopez-Jimenez says. People don't have to be overweight to have excess body fat. Instead, these people have...
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