HRMagazine back issues from February 2008:
Management holds key to employee engagement.(From the President)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Finding and keeping the right people with the right skills presents a major challenge for organizations. Engaging those people to voluntarily deliver maximum effort in key strategic areas adds another dimension to the challenge. Achieving success requires the active and willing ...
Build leaders from within.(Executive Briefing)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... That's the advice of company leaders who participated in the IBM Global Human Capital Study 2008, recently published by the technology giant's Global Business Services Human Capital Management practice and its Institute for Business Value. Based on structured interviews with more than 400 ...
Many countries slash unemployment benefits.(Executive Briefing)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Faced with labor shortages and pressure on pension funding due to aging populations, one in three countries have cut unemployment benefits in the last six years to encourage unemployed people to find jobs, according to an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ...
Leading challenges.(Executive Briefing)(Survey)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... IBM researchers asked more than 400 human resource executives worldwide, "What are the most significant capability-building challenges facing your organization today?" Their responses: <Pre> Building leadership talent 76% Fostering a ...
Training becoming more high-tech.(Executive Briefing)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Persistent use of technology best characterized U.S. training and development initiatives in 2006, according to the 2007 American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) State of the Industry Report released late last year. Researchers at ASTD in Alexandria, Va., found that a ...
HR execs vulnerable in hostile takeovers, too.(Executive Briefing)(ABN AMRO Bank N.V. )(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Dec. 21, 2007, was the last day at work for Marie-Jose Velenturf, former head of talent management at ABN AMRO Bank in The Netherlands, her departure part of corporate downsizing following months of uncertainty about the bank's future. Last October, the plucky human resource ...
Rules of Engagement--and disengagement.(Executive Briefing)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Nearly 50 percent of U.S. workers are of the baby boomer or Veteran generation. As older employees get set to leave the workforce, employers desperately search for ways to address the coming brain drain. "Brain drain occurs when an employee with needed knowledge leaves. It also occurs when ...
Still paralyzed and seeking help.(From Readers)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 01, 2008; ... If the author provided help in her article "The Paralysis of Political Correctness" (November, page 68), I certainly missed it. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Valda Boyd Ford lists four fears, any of which are truly potential career-ending situations, then further elaborates ...
Why a small deal was a big deal.(From Readers)(Letter to the editor)
Feb 01, 2008 ... I'm afraid Stephen Miller's article "No Deal! Joe Torre's Executive Comp Woes" (December, page 28) on Torre's departure from the New York Yankees misses the point. It wasn't a case of management miscalculating a salary offer and losing a valued executive. Rather, this was a ...
Unions can be barred from company e-mail.(HR News)(National Labor Relations Board)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) on Dec. 16, 2007, ruled that an employer can prohibit workers from using its e-mail system for union business. The ruling was split 3-2 along party lines. With it, the Republican majority applied a new standard for determining whether an ...
EEOC allows coordination of retiree health benefits.(HR News)(Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)
Feb 01, 2008; ... After years of legal wrangling over whether employers can coordinate retiree health benefits with Medicare coverage, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on Dec. 26, 2007, issued a final set of rules that provide health plan sponsors exemptions from the Age Discrimination in ...
Military family leave becomes law ... soon?(HR News)
Feb 01, 2008; ... A bill including a provision to expand the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) passed the U.S. Senate by a vote of 91-3 on Jan. 22. The provision would extend FMLA protections to the families of U.S. soldiers. The House of Representatives passed the measure a week earlier by a ...
Congress gives older pilots a reprieve: later mandatory retirement age will ease pilot shortage.(HR News)(Fair Treatment for Experienced Pilots Act )
Feb 01, 2008; ... Attempts to raise the mandatory retirement age for pilots from age 60 to 65 have been in a holding pattern in Congress for years and might have stayed there without the effort of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska. A pilot with the "Flying Tigers" in World War II and the Senate's oldest ...
Chertoff promotes national ID cards.(HR News)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Employers likely will support federal efforts to set high standards for a national identification card, despite many states' opposition to the Real ID program, says Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. Some states have voted not to comply with the new standards, and ...
Poll finds mistrust among racial groups.(HR News)(Survey)
Feb 01, 2008; ... A multilingual poll of black, Hispanic and Asian Americans suggests considerable tensions exist among these ethnic groups, including mistrust and stereotyping--feelings that may spill over into the workplace. The poll found that friction among ethnic and racial groups clearly ...
Ethics, schmethics, U.S. teens say.(HR News)(Survey)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Succeeding at all costs seems to be a goal of more than one-third of 726 U.S. teens surveyed, even as a majority of them say they're prepared to make ethical decisions in the workforce, a Junior Achievement/Deloitte & Touche USA LLP survey found. Lying, cheating, plagiarizing or ...
Pick and choose what is outsourced: different companies get different results, efficiencies.(HR News)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Human resources is still among the most outsourced functions within an organization. But one solution does not fit all. And so HR managers need to be cautious in relying solely on outsourcing for productivity improvements, according to benchmarking firm Best Practices LLC in its study ...
Web 2.0 and HR.(HR News)(Survey)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... In December 2007, content security specialist Clearswift released the results of a poll of nearly 700 HR decision-makers in the United States. The findings showed that despite the rise in popularity of so-called "Web 2.0" social networking sites--and the business applications Web 2.0 ...
Environmental awareness gains ground.(HR News)(Survey)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Half of HR professionals surveyed say their organization has a formal or informal policy on environmental responsibility, and another 7 percent plan to adopt a policy in the next 12 months, according to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) online survey. "The impact of ...
Ishimaru reappointed to EEOC.(More News Online)(Stuart J. Ishimaru appointed at Equal Employment Opportunity Commission )(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Stuart J. Ishimaru has been reconfirmed by the Senate as a member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). First appointed to the EEOC in 2003, Ishimaru, a Democrat, now begins ...
DOL seeks $1,000-a-day fine for lack of retirement plan disclosures.(More News Online)(Department of Labor )(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a regulation that would allow it to assess fines of up to $1,000 a day against retirement plan ...
D.C.: transsexual applicant may bring 'sex stereotyping' claim.(More News Online)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... A job applicant who, after interviewing as a man, was offered a position but was rejected after disclosing her intent to ...
Report paints bleak retirement picture for young workers.(More News Online)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... More than a third of workers born in 1990 likely will have no 401(k) savings when they ...
Leap year can add interesting wrinkle to payroll planning.(More News Online)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Leap years can create real consternation for payroll managers. By adding an extra day onto the calendar, the odds that a business will have an additional payday during the course of the year increase ....
Holiday pay, new hires, U.S. laws abroad.(HR Solutions)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Q All employees at my company must complete 90 days of employment to be eligible for a paid holiday. May I make deductions from a newly hired exempt employee's pay for a holiday that occurs before he or she becomes eligible for paid holidays? A Probably not. While there is no ...
Welfare-to-work: a work in progress; In 1996, legislators sought to 'end welfare as we know it.' More than a decade after reform, the program serves as a conduit to employment.
Feb 01, 2008; ... If you're on welfare, we think we know all about you," says Julie Kirksick, executive director of the New Hope Project in Milwaukee, a nonprofit organization that helps welfare-to-work participants and other hard-to-place workers find jobs. Welfare myths tend to have a long ...
Sign in the name of love: can 'love contracts' decrease an employer's litigation risks and keep office romances in check?(Employee Relations)(Survey)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Lynn D. Lieber, an employment law attorney and founder and chief executive officer of Workplace Answers, a San Francisco-based provider of legal compliance education via the Internet, tells the story of a company she represented whose president was spending three to six hours with a ...
By the numbers: Isaac E. Dixon mixes people skills and metrics in a recruiting role at Oregon's Providence health system.(Profile)(Occupation overview)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Soon after his father retired from the Army and settled the family in Los Angeles, Isaac E. Dixon received a lesson in the importance of numbers. Ten-year-old Dixon and his younger brother started a lawn-mowing business, signing a contract to make monthly payments on a mower they bought ...
Ground rules on background checks: members of the background-checking industry strive to implement standards for quality and ethical operations.(Pre-employment Screening: SPECIAL REPORT)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Human resource professionals responsible for pre-employment screening soon will have a yardstick to help them in their research and selection of background-screening partners. The National Association of Professional Background Screeners (NAPBS), an industry group based in Morrisville, ...
Getting facts fast: technology reduces the complexities and shortens the elapsed time in the screening of job candidates.(Pre-employment Screening: SPECIAL REPORT)(Continental Airlines Inc.)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Dawn Murphy spends a lot of time checking on people. As manager of staffing administration for Houston-based Continental Airlines, it's her job. In the current security-conscious environment, every candidate for every position at the airline goes through background screening. Depending on ...
First-person account: automation makes a difference; Speeding up pre-employment steps eases relations with line managers and makes the manufacturing process smoother.(Pre-employment Screening: SPECIAL REPORT)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Day after day, employees at Wilcox Farms tend the lines in our fluid-milk and egg packaging plants, producing a range of dairy and egg products for retail customers in the Northwest. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Managers on this 1,800-acre farm in rural Roy, Wash., near ...
Case closed. Now what? After a workplace investigation, help heal lingering tensions or hurt feelings.(Employee Relations Agenda)
Feb 01, 2008; ... A workplace investigation can be stressful for all involved, disruptive for the organization and grist for the rumor mill. But when it's over, it's over--right? Not necessarily. When an investigation leads to termination, reassignment or a lawsuit, remedial actions can help ...
Be an insider on social responsibility: leading the movement at your organization can benefit your career.(Career Development Agenda)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Human resource professionals can tie what they do to business strategy, impact the bottom line, gain respect of the C-suite and boost their careers with three little letters: C-S-R. Corporate social responsibility (CSR), also called sustainability or citizenship, contributes "to ...
Nice work: employers seek employees who are nice by nature and get help from technology to find them.(HR Technology)
Feb 01, 2008; ... At Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, caring and nurturing don't just happen while interacting with patients. "Our CEO [James E. Tally] says that no one in the organization is more than three people removed from the bedside," says Linda Matzigkeit, senior vice president of human ...
On the brink of failure: keep your team from going over the edge by diagnosing the problem and taking these steps to fix it.(Management Tools)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Supervisors may want to throw in the towel if they are in charge of a group filled with interpersonal conflict, misaligned talent or organizational structures that lack efficiency. But don't give up just yet. When such a situation rises to the level of an urgent distress call, you can turn ...
Plan language trumps HR's misstatements.(Court Report)(Quaker Oats Co.)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Kannapien v. Quaker Oats Co., 7th Cir., No. 06-2543 (Nov. 14,2007). Despite oral misstatements about how benefits would be calculated and a clerical error in a written benefits estimate, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that an employer was not liable because the ...
Complaint mechanism must be clear to teens.(Court Report)
Feb 01, 2008; ... EEOC v. V & J Foods Inc., 7th Cir., No. 07-1009 (Nov. 7, 2007). The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a fast-food company with many teenage employees was obligated to formulate employee complaint procedures that could be understood by the average teenager. V ...
WARN 'employment loss' defined.(Court Report)(Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Long v. Dunlop Sports Group Americas Inc., 4th Cir., No. 06-2143 (Oct. 29, 2007). When an employer offered to pay employees their wages and benefits for a period of 60 days or until they accepted a job with a successor employer, there was no violation of the Worker Adjustment ...
More than the math: CFOs should be 'people people' too.(Legal Trends)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Corporate governance and proper disclosure have become of paramount importance in today's business world since the enactment of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX) in 2002. In the SOX legal landscape, companies need well-rounded, interactive and accessible--as well as technically ...
Getting ready for the world of work: SHRM-Atlanta prepares students for internships.(Inside SHRM)
Feb 01, 2008; ... For the past three years, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin has sponsored a program matching Atlanta public high school graduates with paid internships in the metropolitan region. Called the Mayor's Youth Program, the initiative gives the teens money for living expenses they'll incur as they ...
Meisinger to retire from SHRM.(Inside SHRM)(Susan R. Meisinger resigns from Society for Human Resource Management)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008; ... After more than 20 years working for and leading the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Susan R. Meisinger, SPHR, announced that she will retire from her position as president and CEO in June. Meisinger became SHRM's CEO in March 2002. She was the executive vice ...
Interested in HR internships?(Inside SHRM)
Feb 01, 2008 ... The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is sponsoring internships, posting internship opportunities on the SHRM web site, and recommending that ...
Councils open communication lines.(Inside SHRM)(Thomas L Mobley, Lisa A. Charnitz and Joan E. Berry Kalamas)(Society for Human Resource Management)
Feb 01, 2008 ... The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) announces the 2008 Membership Advisory Council (MAC) and Regional Councils. As a part of the SHRM volunteer leadership structure, the Regional Council is composed of state council directors or co-directors in each of the five ...
Upcoming.(Calendar)
Feb 01, 2008 ... March 3-5 SHRM Business Education, Atlanta. March 3-7 Center for Creative Leadership: Leadership Development for HR Professionals, Colorado Springs, Colo. March 4-7 Diversity Train-the-Trainer, Atlanta. March 5-7 Global Certification ...
Principal Financial Group.(Dental Benefits)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... The Principal Financial Group has added new ways to identify dental health risks before they become more serious. In just minutes, individuals can visit the Principal dental coverage web site, click on Principal Dental Edge and complete a dental risk assessment. The assessments will show ...
Ameritas Group.(Benefits Administration)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Ameritas Group has announced a new line of dental plans called Sensible Choice. The new plans feature benefits that are easy for members to understand and use. Reimbursements are based on the dollar amount of expenses instead of benefit types or procedure categories. The plans also feature ...
Lighthousel.(Benefits Administration)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Lighthousel has launched its OnDemand HSA Solution, a new software tool designed to offer employers and health plan sponsors a flexible health savings account administration platform. Lighthousel OnDemand is built directly into an organization's consumer-driven health care (CDH) ...
MullinTBG.(Benefits Administration)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... MullinTBG has introduced IDP Select, a new tool designed to help small and medium-sized companies implement deferred compensation plans for their highly compensated employees. IDP Select allows executive and highly compensated participants to determine how much compensation they want to ...
Canopy Financial.(Benefits Administration)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Canopy Financial has launched a new HSA market suite for the consumer-driven health care market. Canopy's HSA Marketing Suite is designed to assist major financial institutions and health care companies in marketing to and educating consumers about the benefits of HSAs. Canopy's new ...
TALENThire.com.(Staffing)(launched recruiting and talent management platform)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... TALENThire.com has announced the launch of version 2.0 of its award-winning recruiting and talent management platform. Major enhancements to this online recruiting resource include an internal messaging system, which allows a better and more secure communication flow. The system also ...
TowerGroup.(Training And Development)(employee training program by TowerGroup)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... The TowerGroup has created a new and innovative training program that is designed to explore and explain the connections between the financial services industry and key business drivers. The Financial Services Industry Training program offers organizations a blended approach to training by ...
Right Management.(Training And Development)(Right Management Consultants Inc. launched a tool that can improve candidates interviewing skill)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Right Management has announced the launch of iView, a new career development tool designed to help job candidates dramatically improve interviewing effectiveness. This new program is a web-based interviewing practice technology which, when combined with personalized coaching, can help job ...
SmartDraw.com.(Workplace Management)(introduction of presentation graphics software SmartDraw 2008)(Brief article)
Feb 01, 2008 ... SmartDraw.com has released its newest software, SmartDraw 2008, designed to help computer users create presentation-quality business graphics and organizational charts in just minutes. With SmartDraw 2008, users can create organizational and workflow charts with a series of simple ...
Training & development buyers' guide.(employment services)(Directory)
Feb 01, 2008 ... Company listings do not imply recommendation or referral by SHRM. ASSESSMENT PreVisor, Inc. 1805 Old Alabama Road, Suite 150 Roswell, GA 30076 770-650-8080 Fax: 770-642-6115 www.previsor.com ...
Regaining the edge.(Future Focus)(human resource directors must manage to traing employees and give education)
Feb 01, 2008; ... Human resource professionals are acutely aware of talent shortages in various business sectors and regions of the country, and they're likely to become increasingly involved in working toward solutions. HR leaders, policy-makers and education experts voiced concerns about the ...