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| Volume 9, Issue 9 |
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In This Issue:
 What the CEO wants from HR
The 30 highest-paid human resources leaders
[How] HR [becomes] a change agent in the downturn
 Smart presentations: So what do you practice?
 Pay scales for 20 different job descriptions
 Twitter for talent?
 Seven ways to contain business health-care costs
 HR & the recession: 7 trends, 7 solutions
DIY health care reform: Create inexpensive, effective wellness programs
Recession revisited: Is it time for cautious optimism on pay?
Free handout for managers: 9 strategies for unleashing employees' creativity
How to silence 7 common employee gripes
The 9 rule changes rocking the FMLA world
 How to do performance reviews right
The 'new' sexual harassment
 Dividing [temporary vs. permanent employee] lines
Will you be my [Facebook] friend?
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What the CEO wants from HR
At successful global corporations, the CEO wants one thing from the top hr officer: a strong pipeline of high-level leaders that will drive business growth.
At successful large companies, interaction between the CEO and the chief HR executive revolves around building and maintaining the very top layer of corporate leaders—and little below that...
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The 30 highest-paid human resources leaders
As the economy goes ... so goes the payday for the executives on Workforce Management's list of the top-paid human resources leaders, who saw their average compensation fall 20 percent in 2008. The evaporation of bonuses is partly to blame.
Reflecting the down economy, compensation for the top-paid HR leaders dropped in 2008—and experts say that the trend has gotten even worse in 2009. The average compensation for executives on the list has dropped 20 percent since 2007, says Deborah Nielsen, director of data operations at Salary.com, which compiled the data
for Workforce Management. The list is compiled from companies' proxy filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. A 20 percent drop in overall compensation is in line with what has occurred with other top executives' pay, Nielsen says. The majority of executives listed on Workforce Management's annual list of the 30
highest-paid HR leaders are different from those who were on last year's list. Among those appearing on both years' lists are...
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[How] HR [becomes] a change agent in the downturn
In today's recessionary environment, it is very tempting for organizations and employees to feel as if they are victims, carried away by macroeconomic events that they cannot influence.
But HR can arm itself with data for a different approach one that involves taking control and helping to turn things around. APQC, a benchmarking organization, offers three suggestions for how to begin...
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Pay scales for 20 different job descriptions
Talent may be cheap right now, but if that new hire works out, don't expect the bargain to last.
Even in a weak labor market, salaries rise--often steeply--as employees gain experience. Inc. asked PayScale, the Seattle-based salary and compensation data provider, to calculate the annual increase in employee compensation, based on seniority, for 20 different job descriptions, from office manager to Web developer...
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Twitter for talent?
Given the popularity of Twitter and Facebook, savvy companies capture employees' online community efforts and use them to better understand organizational talent. But it's not as easy as it sounds.
There are challenges as well as benefits to integrating social networking, informal learning and knowledge exchange into formal talent review processes. In June, Time magazine did a cover story on Twitter, clearly signaling that technology-based social networking has gone mainstream. Facebook has more than 250 million active
visitors. MySpace claims nearly 130 million monthly active users. Even upstart Twitter has more than 40 million visitors. While the most frequent visitors are in their teens or 20s, people of all ages enjoy the personal connections social
networking provides to keep up with friends and family. Social networking has emerged as a mainstream business tool as well, particularly for...
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Seven ways to contain business health-care costs
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Even if Congress comes to a consensus on the issue in time for President Barack Obama to sign a bill into law this fall, the legislation's main provisions -– the employer mandate, a federal health insurance exchange, subsidies and a public option -– wouldn't go into effect until 2013.
In the meantime, health-care costs are projected to rise. In 2010, U.S. employers are expected to see a 9% jump in their health-care costs, according to a recent PricewaterhouseCoopers survey of more than 500 employers and health insurers. To help soften the blow of a health care price hike, small businesses should weigh
their potential cost saving strategies today. For companies with a Jan. 1 renewal date, the rest of the year is prime time for negotiation, says Joan Smyth, a principal at Mercer, a health and benefits consultancy in New York. "We are in the thick of it," she says. "At every renewal, the employer considers plan changes to
mitigate the renewal increase." On that note, here are seven strategies to contain health-care costs:...
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HR & the recession: 7 trends, 7 solutions
If you read only headlines, you may think U.S. employers are slashing employee benefits to the bone. Not so.
“In contrast to media attention on the most severe cutbacks, most companies are staying the course in the benefits arena, with very few taking precipitous action right now,” says a new Towers Perrin survey of 500 firms. One reason: Over the past decade, rising costs have forced employers to tighten their benefits belts and
institute more employee cost-sharing. But the weak economy is forcing organizations and their employees to make some tough choices, particularly in compensation and benefits. Here are seven key HR trends to look for, plus tips on how to respond:...
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Do it yourself health care reform: Create inexpensive, effective wellness programs
Look for "Checklist: How individualized is your wellness program?" at the end of this article!
Issue: More employers are warming up to wellness programs to help reduce health care costs.
Benefit/risk: Wellness works, but choosing the wrong pieces of the wellness puzzle can lower your ROI dramatically.
Action: Focus your program on efforts that create the greatest cost savings for the least investment, starting with the following five. Lincoln Industries' $245,000 investment in a comprehensive wellness program resulted in savings of $2.7 million, mostly in health care costs. And the Nebraska-based metal finishing company
paid health insurance premiums for its 450 employees at nearly half the national average. Lincoln Industries may be a model for wellness success, but it isn't the only company reaping the rewards. An Aon Consulting study says 43% of employers have established a disease-management and health promotion/wellness strategy, while
another 19% say they're looking into starting a wellness program. Wellness programs not only cut costs, but they show top execs that HR specialists can create and lead big-picture strategies that directly affect the bottom line.
Your goal:...
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Recession revisited: Is it time for cautious optimism on pay?
We had good news and bad news this summer on the compensation front.
The bad news: Average corporate salary increases will be just 2.2% next year, the lowest in at least 3½ decades. The bright spot: That might be rock bottom, as HR execs are projecting a 2.8% increase in...
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Free handout for managers: 9 strategies for unleashing employees' creativity
True or false: Employees are either creative or they’re not—creativity isn’t a skill you can teach.
The answer: False. Some employees are more naturally creative than others. But managers can play a key role in creating an environment in which employees will want to look for...
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How to silence 7 common employee gripes
A recent study says that 40% of managers in the United States are considered “bad bosses” by their employees. Yet most managers assume that their relationships with their employees are running smoothly.
Obviously, some of those bosses are wrong … and that can create major problems for a business. A Gallup poll says organizations are 50% less productive—and 44% less profitable— when serious boss-employee conflicts exist. According to a new book, 30
Reasons Employees Hate Their Managers, some common employee complaints about management, plus ways managers can silence them, include:...
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The 9 rule changes rocking the FMLA world
For the past 15 years, complying with the FMLA has been complex, but at least the law (once you figured it out) stayed the same. But in January 2009, that all changed when the first major overhaul of the FMLA took effect.
“The new rules drastically change the way much of the FMLA works,” said Matthew Effland, an employment law attorney with Ogletree Deakins in Indianapolis. “Some changes favor employers by offering greater flexibility in administering leave. But it’s imperative that HR professionals move quickly to update their policies so they
don’t inadvertently violate the law.” Here are the most important changes in the new FMLA regulations:...
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How to do performance reviews right
Above all, don't rely on employees' self-evaluations.
With summer upon us and the year half over, many managers and employees are engaging in that oft-criticized, much maligned, but still necessary exercise: performance evaluation. Yes, formal evaluations generally happen at the end of the calendar year, but many companies require their managers to conduct midterm evaluations as
well, to help avoid year-end surprises. Be it at mid-year or year end, a common component of these evaluations is the employee's self-assessment. In some cases, these self-assessments just amount to the employee submitting a list of accomplishments to his or her manager. Increasingly, though, they're
institutionalized as part of a company's formal performance evaluation document. For every performance criterion, there's space for the employee's rating and comments as well as for the manager's. In theory, self-assessments serve a useful purpose. They give employees an opportunity to objectively reflect on their performance, to
consider what they've done well and where they've fallen short, and then to share their perspective with their manager. And, in theory, the manager captures the employee's perspective as one of many data points that shape the ultimate evaluation. But it's not like that in reality...
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The 'new' sexual harassment
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Sexual harassment isn't about being chased around the desk anymore. It's about flirtation, subtle power plays, retaliation and, of course, text messages.
The past decade saw the explosion of wage-and-hour class actions brought under the Fair Labor Standards Act. This very technical and complex statute requires an analysis of an employer's business and employee-job requirements to ensure proper compliance. Therefore, smart employers gladly commit the necessary recourses to
wage-and-hour audits and training because failing to do so invariably leads to devastating legal consequences -- especially in light of Labor Secretary Hilda Solis's recent announcement that she is adding more investigators in the DOL's Wage-and-hour Division to seek out and prosecute noncompliance. Because
misclassification of employees for wage-and-hour purposes is a prevalent employer problem, in addition to answering the specific wage-and-hour reader questions this month, I have included (within the limited space allotted) more detailed information to help you tackle this often confusing legal issue...
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Dividing [temporary vs. permanent employee] lines
Maintaining the differences between temporary workers and full-time employees has implications for the Family and Medical Leave Act, Fair Labor Standards Act and union-organizing. This month, we also explore when interns need to be paid for attending mandatory training sessions.
Budget-conscious employers have been utilizing less permanent ways to staff workplaces and outsourcing positions traditionally filled by full-time employees with temporary employees provided by staffing agencies. Also, the number of workers looking for unpaid job opportunities in the hopes of building their resumes to
position themselves for future employment opportunities is on the rise. This month's article addresses questions pertaining to how to reduce employer liability for both temporary as well as unpaid workers...
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Will you be my [Facebook] friend?
Executives may want to think twice before extending or confirming Facebook "friend" invitations with colleagues. It can lead to awkwardness and shedding more personal insight than is helpful for working relationships. Experts offer some suggestions on ways to deal with the issue.
The notion of "friending" your boss on Facebook, or accepting a "friend" request from someone who works for you, may seem like a good idea in today's wild world of social networking. But think twice, say some social-networking experts. And apparently some executives are doing just that. A recent survey by OfficeTeam, a
Menlo Park, Calif.-based staffing service firm, found that executives are uncomfortable being friended by the employees they manage (48 percent) or by their bosses (47 percent). Conducted by an independent research firm, the survey is based on telephone interviews with 150 randomly selected senior executives at the 1,000
largest companies in the United States. "The line between personal and professional has grown increasingly blurred as more people use social-networking Web sites for business purposes," says Robert Hosking, executive director of OfficeTeam. "Although not everyone is comfortable using sites like Facebook to connect with professional
contacts, it's wise to be prepared for these types of requests." Hosking says executives -- and all employees -- should familiarize themselves with the privacy settings on Facebook and create different friend lists to control how -- and with whom -- information is shared...
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