On Memorial Day and Why It’s Important to Vote
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on May 27th, 2010
Has anyone else been watching America the Story of Us on History Channel? As a history buff, I think it’s great. It has been spending less time on the “big” events that everyone knows about, and telling more stories about the little events that shaped our country, good and bad. It’s been over 230 years since the original Tea Partiers declared “no taxation without representation.” I wonder how many kids today really understand those words. I wonder how many men, who earned the right to vote for their own government over 230 years ago, or African-Americans, who earned their voting rights 140 years ago, or women, who finally won their right to vote a mere 90 years ago, appreciate what those before us had to go through to win those battles. And make no bones about it – all of those were hard-fought battles.
So this is a good time to take a moment, while you’re rifling through your sample ballot, tuning out the endless campaign ads on TV, or filling out your absentee ballot, that even though we’re only voting in the primaries right now, that men and women have died for your right to have a say in who represents our interests in local, state, and the federal government.
Memorial Day may mean barbecues and the unofficial start to summer, but it’s important to remember why we observe this day, and remember all those who have given the ultimate sacrifice so that you can have a voice in your government. So please, enjoy your family and friends and your day off, and also take a few minutes to remember the brave who have fallen and for what they gave their all.
Carnival of HR: Celebrating American Red Cross Month
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on March 31st, 2010
Welcome to the latest edition of the Carnival of HR. March is American Red Cross Month, and in celebration of both the Carnival of HR making a stop at the Precept Employee Benefits Blog and the wonderful organization that is the American Red Cross, Precept will be making a donation on behalf of all of our wonderful Carnival of HR bloggers!
And now, get ready, because these are all “E” ticket-worthy rides!
Mark Vickers explains how typical succession planning models are flawed and companies should be succession “managing” in Don’t Plan Succession, Manage It.
Jason Seiden shows Why Corporate America Can’t Build a Training Program Worth Squat – it’s because we’re not very good at eating our vegetables, and good training programs are like vegetables – employees may not like them, but they need them, and it’s up to you to make sure they get what they need.
Denise O’Berry hands us the keys to successful delegation in Getting a Delegated Task Back on Track.
Gautam Ghosh says Employee Engagement Should Not be Your End Goal; rather, it should be part of the path to creating driven, successful employees.
Lisa Rosendahl is tired of all the doom and gloom talk about social media. She thinks If Your Sky Falls, It Won’t be Because of Social Media.
Joan Jett doesn’t give a gosh darn about her bad reputation, but Melissa Prusher knows that you should! She gives you the three “M”s of proactive reputation management to help you Seize Control of Your Online Reputation.
So, how do you handle it when your manager is – gasp! – younger than you? Never fear, Evil HR Lady is on the case, answering your question about How to Work for a Younger Manager.
Laura Schroeder has Just One Teeny Weeny Criticism about your employee communication, and it has to do with having the right attitude.
Cathy Missildine-Martin asks, How Good is Your Performance Data? Is it objective? Is it effective? Do you know how to fix it if it isn’t? No problem. She does.
More keys – just think of all the doors you’ll be able to open now! Courtesy of Kevin Eikenberry, here are the Six Keys to Turning Reflection into Action.
Strengths, Weaknesses, Your Team, and You: Wally Bock says it’s not strengths or weaknesses. It’s not individuals or the team. It is about both accomplishing the mission and helping team members develop.
Remember that old saying, you can’t please all of the people all of the time? Benjamin McCall says the Healthcare Argument will not end today! And probably not anytime in the near future, either.
Dan McCarthy gives us Part 4 of 5 Little Thinks that Make a BIG Difference as a Leader: 4 Magic Words. And they are…what, you thought I was going to give away the ending? That would be like telling you Rosebud was the sled!
Kevin Grossman (who is now certified in CPR and first aid by – hey, looky there! It’s our friends at the American Red Cross!) gives us Emergency Preparedness: And now the short fuse of incivility is lit, noting that while it’s important to prepare employees for emergencies like natural disasters, accidents, and workplace violence, but it is just as important to prepare them for a more common workplace disaster: incivility.
Chris Young has come up with A Better Way to be an “Undercover Boss” and says executives don’t need to go undercover to get a better understanding of their front-line employees, they just need to get out there and walk among them. The results may be eye-opening.
Paul Gupta is Now hiring: All slow learners because he wants you to reconsider whether you always want to hire according to a fixed set of attributes.
April Dowling has an important reminder: When it comes to Accountability – Hold Yourself Accountable First. Lead by example.
Strategy Alert: Too Few Workers and Union Activity: Mike Haberman says a union-friendly NLRB and the potential for employee shortage are what the future holds in store. You better start paying attention now.
Steve Boese wants to know: Are you telling a story or acting in one? Celebrity endorses often get ignored because we just don’t believe they are authentic and sharing their real stories. The same could be said of employment and recruitment messaging. It is important to know the difference between telling a story, and simple acting a story.
Susan Heathfield warns you to proceed with caution: with the high levels of unemployment, the massive response to every job posting, and the number of seemingly qualified candidates for every job, Employers: Beware and Check.
Marsha Keeffer know that a happy boss cuts your stress, is good for your career and lengthens your employment. It’s all to your benefit, so she gives you 9 Ways to Make Your Boss Happy.
Naomi Bloom begins her series on the characteristics of great HRM software. And what better way to begin than with HRM Saas InFullBloom vs Everything Else: The Musical!
Speaking of musicals, Heather Stagl wants you to stop singing “Sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down you’re rocking the boat.” She says that when Implementing Change from the Inside, Watch Out for Blind Spots. Change can be a good thing, people!
Contrary to some opinions, Michael Krupa thinks that SaaS does not require just as much IT support.
Mark Stelzner is up on the roof, and he’s shouting You Have All the Answers! You just may not know it yet. It’s up to you to take the time and effort to get out there and learn from others to find solutions to your problems. You may end up helping someone else, too.
And finally, mark your calendars, because Ben Eubanks gives just a few reasons Why You Have to Come to HRevolution 2010. It’s going to be totally awesome and you would be a total square not to register right now! Oh, and something about a monkey.
And there you have it, folks! I hope you enjoyed our show today. Thank you to all of the great bloggers who sent in posts. Tune in next time when the Carnival of HR makes a stop at the I’m So Corporate blog on April 14th.
Also, if you have anything to do with employee benefits, take some time out of your busy day on April 6th to celebrate National Employee Benefits Day!
March 31 Carnival of HR Call for Posts
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on March 24th, 2010
Courtesy Loren Javier's Flickr Page
The next Carnival of HR will be held right here, in this very blog, next Wednesday, March 31st! To celebrate American Red Cross Month, we will be donating $1 for every post we receive for the Carnival. There is no specific theme for this Carnival, so come one, come all!
If you would like to submit a post, please email it to lruben [at] preceptgroup [dot] com by Monday, March 29th.
Prohibiting Office Pools: Taking the “Mad” Out of March Madness
Posted by Richard Manning in HR Management on March 19th, 2010
For two days every March, offices around the nation find themselves clutched in the grip of the annual fervor of the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. Frankly, it’s easy to see why, as even people who carry a general malaise toward undergraduate roundball get inevitably sucked in to the bevy of Cinderella stories and emotionally charged moments that the tourney consistently brings. Of course, since the opening (and most exciting) round of the tournament occur during business days, stories lamenting productivity loss and compromised job standards during that time is about as routine as a pre-game layup drill. Now, these tales are either the gospel truth or downright hokum depending on where you source your media, but whether or not you believe that a severe decline in work occurs during the tourney or not merely scratches the surface of a potentially larger issue. That is, if your company feels the need to ban the creation of the in-house office pool that has long been associated with March Madness, how can you implement the policy without looking like an utter killjoy?
The secret behind putting the kibosh on an in-house tournament lies in the realization that a healthy chunk of your employees are still going to be invested in the tournament in one way or another. If you forbid the creation of a tourney pool, do not be naïve to the fact that some of your staff will be involved with a tournament or two in their own personal life. And with the proliferation of the internet and social media, expect a hoop-centric buzz to emanate throughout the office anyway. In fact, even if you have stringent anti-surfing computer technology loaded into your network, people will still find ways to get updates throughout the day. For example, I used to work at a company where cell phones were banned from workstations and whose internet access was limited to federal and state government sites, Mapquest, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (I still have never figured out how or why we were granted access to the latter site). Yet every time March Madness rolled around, some of my former co-workers still came up with ways to conjure up ongoing results and funnel them throughout the office. The lesson derived from this anecdote is simple; if you are going to try and prevent people from periodically checking in on tournament action during the first round, be prepared to fight a losing battle.
And therein lay the best way to handle the tournament if your company feels the need to prohibit an office-wide pool. Acknowledge the fact that in-house intermittent score-checking will occur during the first round of the tournament, and don’t make too big of a furor about it when it happens. The key to that statement is “intermittent;” if an employee does nothing but constantly surf the net looking for scores and updates, then there is an obvious problem. That exception aside, if you allow your employees to occasionally carve out a few seconds to obtain scores without calling them to the carpet, your staff will be much more at ease with your no office pool mandate. Plus, this small act will serve as recognition of your staff’s interests outside of work, which is something that typically goes a long way. In other words, you will create a winning situation, which is more than I can hopefully say about Duke this year.
Carnival of HR – Kiss Me, I’m Irish!
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on March 17th, 2010
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, everyone! Jessica Miller-Merrell at Blogging4Jobs has conjured up a plethora of Irish goodness in the latest Carnival of HR! So head on over and maybe, just maybe, you’ll catch yourself a leprechaun! (And if you don’t, all those great posts are almost as good as a pot of gold!)
And don’t forget – the March 31st Carnival of HR will be held right here! So mark your calendars now, because you won’t want to miss it!
Unusual Benefits – What Perks Do You Offer?
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on March 15th, 2010
Your benefits package is a key component to attracting and retaining the best talent for your company, no matter what industry you’re in. In this market, with high unemployment, health care costs, and tight budgets, it takes a little creativity to make your benefits stand out.
When you look at Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Companies to Work For, the list of unusual perks offered by the top companies is idealistic at best. Most companies just don’t have the resources to offer things like concierge services and a 15% match in employee 401(k)s.
So that got me to thinking – what kind of unusual benefits do companies offer that don’t cost a lot? Do you allow your employees to bring pets to work? Time off for volunteer activities? Offer on-site yoga classes or chair massages? Sound off in the comments below, and tell us what creative benefits you offer and how that’s affected your business (more engaged employees, lower turnover, better health, etc.).
Carnival of HR: The Hangover Edition
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on March 4th, 2010
The latest HR Carnival is up over Talented Apps. Check it out!
And don’t forget – the March 31st HR Carnival will be right here, at this very blog, and we have something very special planned. You won’t want to miss it, so mark your calendars now!
What HR Can Learn from the Olympics
Posted by Lexi Ruben in HR Management on March 2nd, 2010
The 2010 Olympics are over, and you can’t help but feel just a little bit of a loss. The pride and patriotism that comes with rooting for Team USA – even if you have no idea what curling is or why it’s so darn popular in Canada – fills us up for 17 days every two years. Now that they’re over, though, we can look back and see what lessons can be learned.
- Follow through on new projects is very important – NBC’s inexplicable decision to cut away from the closing ceremony abruptly to air a new show would lead one to think that NBC didn’t feel the closing ceremony for the Olympics – the world’s chance to get closure on an extremely emotional event – was important. If you are implementing a big project or process, and you put a lot of time and effort into the launch, you need to keep up the momentum. If you abruptly move on to the next thing, employees are going to perceive it as insignificant, and all the hard work you put into it will have been for naught. Or, even worse, make you look bad.
- It really is all about your people. As Dan Wetzel points out, the Olympics weren’t great because of the logistics; they were great because the Canadian people embraced these Olympics like they had never embraced the Olympics before. You can market your brand or your project all you want, but at the end of the day, your people have to embrace it to really make it successful.
- Forget Employee of the Month programs. Recognize amazing employees when they do amazing things. Joannie Rochette won the bronze medal in figure skating just days after her mother passed away suddenly. Petra Majdic won a bronze model in cross-country skiing with four broken ribs and a punctured lung. Bill Demong became the first American ever to win a gold medal in the Nordic combined. Shaun White and Torah Bright pushed snowboarding to new limits. The list goes on and on. You know you have employees who are amazing and go above and beyond every day, but never get the recognition they deserve. Remember, these are the employees who make your company great, and you want them to go on keeping your company great.
- Treat everyone equally. Jacques Rogge, IOC president, shows favoritism to athletes from the powerhouse countries. So when Evgeni Plushenko showed poor sportsmanship after Evan Lysacek won the gold medal in men’s figure skating, Rogge stood up for Plushenko. However, when Usain Bolt showed poor sportsmanship when he won a gold medal in Beijing, Rogge verbally flogged him for it. Employees know when you play favorites, and it creates poor morale in the office. You should always make sure that all policies are applied equally and fairly.
Sure, I won’t miss the continuing saga of Lindsay Vonn vs. Julia Mancuso, or the antics of Evgeni Plushenko. But at least by remembering all of the great things that took place during the last few weeks and trying to keep that spirit alive until London in 2012, we can hold onto a little piece of the awesomeness that is the Olympics.
What Did You Think About the Bipartisan Health Reform Summit?
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on February 25th, 2010
Did you watch today’s marathon health reform summit? What did you think? Vote below and then head to the comments to give us your thoughts.
Bipartisan Summit on Health Reform Thursday, February 25
Posted by Lexi Ruben in General on February 24th, 2010
Reminder – President Obama’s bipartisan summit on health reform will be held tomorrow, February 25, 2010, starting at 10:00am EST/7:00am PST. You can watch it live at whitehouse.gov/live (link is also on the Precept website). Check back here afterwards, as we should have lots of great thoughts and we will most definitely want to hear your thoughts on what went down.
Recent Comments