Archives

Jack Welch: ‘HR, Get Out of the Picnic Business’

"How many out there (of perhaps 6,000 HR managers in the audience) are perceived by your organizations as equal in importance to the CFO?" Jack Welch asked.  About 10 percent believed they were. “That’s not enough,” he said. Welch, former head of GE and a great supporter of HR, offered his tips for HR managers […]

Favre Fumbles When It Comes to Leadership

I’m going to admit it upfront — I’m a huge Green Bay Packers fan. I grew up in Wisconsin and followed the Pack since I was a boy. I was in diapers when they won the first two Super Bowls and then suffered through some pretty lean years in the ’70s and ’80s. But the […]

Employer’s Guide to Writing Employee Handbooks

by Peter M. Panken An employee handbook tells workers what they’re getting, instills a team spirit, and lets people know what the rules are. It should emphasize the employer’s fair treatment and how it provides significant benefits like vacations, holidays, health insurance, and retirement benefits. It lets the workers know they can grieve to get […]

iPhone Apps Break into Human Resources

by David Kaufman In April, a Connecticut teenager downloaded the billionth application from Apple’s iTune App Store. An “app” is an application or program that allows a user to play a game, surf the Web better, keep track of caloric intake, or tens of thousands of other things. In just nine months, Apple has created […]

New Haven Firefighters Supreme Court Decision: Perfect Storm?

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady Several years ago, the HR department of the city of New Haven, Connecticut, was presented with a very difficult choice: It could accept the results of a recent promotion exam and risk the ire of the majority of city residents, or ignore them and risk a lawsuit by […]

Online Resources for Information on Health Care Reform

You may feel as if you can’t get away from discussions and debates on health care reform. When you turn on the TV, browse the Internet, or listen to the radio, you may be inundated with the latest challenges, fights, and screaming matches over the subject. Although health care reform has become one of the […]

Accommodation: ‘Sometimes it Can Be Overwhelming’

Accommodation. “Sometimes it can be overwhelming,” concedes the Job Accommodation Network (JAN). But a good job description is a “constructive tool” for focusing on reasonable accommodations. JAN is a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. JAN offers the following accommodation scenarios to show how to match job description requirements […]

Financially Stressed Employees–Neither Happy Nor Productive

Businesses aren’t the only ones stressed and anxious about these difficult economic times. Employees (and their families) are also feeling the effects—and many employees are facing very serious financial problems such as burdensome debt, lost income, bankruptcies, and foreclosures. Employees experiencing increased financial stress at home are likely to have a hard time keeping their […]

Instant Turnaround: Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and Working Hard

HR practitioner Cheryl Stone reviews Harry Paul and Ross Reck’s book Instant Turnaround!: Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and Working Hard. Looking for a way to turn around employees overnight that is easy to implement, costs nothing, and where everybody wins?  Check out Instant Turnaround!: Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and […]

Write Fed-Friendly Job Descriptions

How should you go about writing your job descriptions? Consider this four-step process from the fed’s Job Accommodation Network (JAN)—likely to pass muster during any agency inspection. JAN is a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy. JAN’s program consists of the following steps: Step 1: Perform a Job Analysis […]