As the new business year begins, Daily Advisor Managing Editor Jay Schleifer takes a moment to thank you for your past support and to let you know about some significant improvements in our program.
First and foremost, Happy New Year!
As 2008 opens, there are developments to report. Today, for example, marks the start of the new IRS mileage deduction for business use of your personal vehicle … always a popular subject with our audience. It’s up a piddling 2 cents, from 48.5 cents a mile to 50.5 cents in 2008, despite the huge jump in gas prices. Maybe the government needs the money more than you do.
But before we dig any deeper into this year’s “HR tips, news, and advice,” we’d like to take a moment to share some news on what we’ve been up to here at Daily Advisor.
First, a Thank You
Since our start in July 2006, we’ve been growing steadily. We now e-mail well over 100,000 professionals a day, and your response has been terrific.
Several of Bob Brady’s Friday e-pinions have drawn over a thousand responses, and our editorial survey process shows that nearly 90 percent of you would recommend Advisor to a colleague—a huge honor in our book. We’re also one of only 4 newsletters in the nation to receive a Grand Award from the Awards for Publication Excellence (APEX) program, the “Academy Award” in our industry. You can see their mark of excellence in the lower right corner of each issue.
None of this would be possible without your support, and for that, we thank you.
We’re not, however, resting on our laurels. We’ve added a new editor, Steve Bruce, who also is the longtime editor of our sister publication, HR Manager’s Legal Reporter, and a 20+ year veteran with BLR. And as you can see, we’ve revised our format.
Check Out Our New Digs!
That revision wasn’t just for appearance (although one wag jibed that it was nice to finally see some humans in a Human Resources publication!). Several key functional improvements have been made:
–Resource Center. Check out the tabs at the top of the page … the ones reading “Job Descriptions,” “Policies,” etc. Each leads to a bank of BLR resources for that particular topic. Just click and select the ones that meet your need of the moment, usually on a no-cost, trial basis. Give it a try!
–Featured Product. You can now see the product that addresses the issue we’re talking about in our daily article atop the right column, as well as read about it.
–Best Sellers. We’ve always listed these classic HR solutions at the bottom of our page. Now we’ve moved them up “above the fold” for easier visibility, with links to more detailed descriptions, which also include photos.
Each best seller is a highly prized HR helper for thousands of professionals like you, and almost all are available for a no-cost trial in your office. (We even pay return postage.) Order some, and see how they can do for you what they’ve done for so many others.
–Website. Have you visited the HR Daily Advisor website? It’s loaded with additional resources, including 10 different categories of archived articles that deal with almost any HR issue you can name. And it, too, is dressed up with a new look and vastly expanded functionality.
So much for what we’re pleased to deliver to you the first workday of the new year. From here, it only gets better. With the election, the red-hot immigration dispute, several key court cases, and the usual menu of business and employment crises on tap, this promises to be an eventful year.
We’re committed to making Daily Advisor your best resource in HR every working day of this year, and we’re asking your help in doing so. E-mail your ideas, reactions, story ideas, and preferences directly to me at jschleifer@blr.com.
And for all of us at HRDA, best wishes for a “Great ’08!”