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| Volume 8, Issue 11 |
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In This Issue:
 To create a killer recruiting site, mimic the nation's 25 best
Does your referral program cause illegal 'Inbreeding'?
New interview question: 'What's your favorite color?'
The 6 kinds of terminations … and how to avoid lawsuits for each one
Porn on PCs: How far must you go to block it?
 Leveraging your career web site to deliver the talent brand
 [HR] survey data emboldens cry for recruiting funding
The boom in business coaching
 Mastering failure
 Manager vs. manager [What HR can do]
 The 10 worst job tips ever
Medical bills [your employees] shouldn't pay
 Cushioning the blow of layoffs
How nice guys can get the corner office
The medicinal powers of yoga
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To create a killer recruiting site, mimic the nation's 25 best
When a long-term employee seems to be stuck in a rut or is simply coasting, a few moves by the supervisor can help shake out the cobwebs and rekindle the employee's fire.
Here are 10 simple tips for managers...
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Does your referral program cause illegal 'Inbreeding'?
You view your employee referral program as a hands-down success because it brings in many new hires who perform well and have a tendency to stick around long-term.
But take a closer look at those referred candidates. Do they have the same skills, backgrounds, racial and ethnic traits as the people who referred them? Has that led to a homogeneous-looking workforce? That’s a big red flag. It indicates that your referral program may actually be creating what recruiting consultants call “employee
inbreeding.” Hiring too many near-replicas can undermine long-term business goals and hurt efforts to bring in employees with different skills. Plus, it can create big-time legal trouble. For example...
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New interview question: 'What's your favorite color?'
What do the colors people choose say about their suitability for a certain career?
CareerBuilder just unveiled a...
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The 6 kinds of terminations … and how to avoid lawsuits for each one
Terminations are the spark to many employment lawsuits.
And for each of the six kinds, there are some common steps employers can take to make sure they defend themselves if the termination is challenged in court: 1. NEW HIRES. When new employees are dismissed, their legal claims typically assert...
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Porn on PCs: How far must you go to block it?
Judges are getting impatient with employers that allow employees to be exposed to pornography at work.
Perhaps because controlling Internet access to pornographic images isn’t technically difficult, and because word tends to get around pretty quickly if a co-worker is showing porn to co-workers, courts now are clamping down more on employers that don’t do enough. Recent case: Vicki Criswell that co-workers on three occasions to
online pornographic images. She sued, saying the images were so offensive, they created a sexually hostile environment. She blamed the company for not protecting her. While a lower court dismissed the case, an appellate court took a second look...
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Leveraging your career web site to deliver the talent brand
Recent in-depth conversations with SilkRoad technology's client organizations, along with studies from the industry's top research firms, have engendered a new
understanding of the role of the talent brand, a strategy that promotes the benefits and unique approach of working for an company and how to best communicate and reinforce it.
A strong talent brand is critical to attract top talent. However, during on-boarding — and after — it's easy to assume new hires have accepted the company's value proposition, and organizations often stop or cut down on the activities that won them over in the first place. New hires don't forget this. In fact, if their employment
experience doesn't match up with the talent brand presented to them during recruitment, they are more likely to search for greener pastures by renewing their job search. The best talent brands attract top-quality candidates by highlighting why they should want to work for a company and mesh seamlessly with that organization's actual
employment culture. A corporate career Web site provides one of the most effective channels to develop and maintain a consistent and identifiable talent brand. Best practices to communicate and reinforce the talent brand through an organization's career Web site include:...
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[HR] survey data emboldens cry for recruiting funding
HR executives place a high priority on recruiting but need to build a business case for additional resources to boost efficiencies.
uman resources executives most commonly cite their department’s performance in recruiting and retaining employees as the primary factor in how top management evaluates HR’s contribution to the organization. But despite the importance assigned to recruiting, budgets are stagnant and the systems deployed are often inadequate.
Recruiters are showing the strain. Early-stage recruiting tasks such as sourcing and screening chew up too much time and pull recruiters away from key later-stage tasks such as interviewing and onboarding. This suboptimal state is reflected in the results of two new studies from BNA and ADP that offer benchmarks for recruiting performance
and essential feedback from HR executives and recruiting directors. Closing the gap between what recruiters have and what recruiters need means...
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The boom in business coaching
Companies are investing in coaching in an effort to develop a new generation of leaders to replace retiring baby boomers. The ones that use it most effectively develop specific performance goals, financial measurements or other tools to determine what they want the end result of their coaching program to be.
Access Development is a prime example of why business coaching is booming. Over a recent 18-month period, Access Development’s affinity marketing business grew so quickly that the Salt Lake City company tripled its workforce, to about 150. But many new hires were young, and many of the company’s two dozen managers didn’t have much—if
any—experience overseeing other people, according to Access COO Jim Elliott. On top of that, executives were frustrated because managers weren’t putting into action skills they’d been taught in two extensive leadership training courses the company put them through. So Elliott and Access’ president and CEO put their heads together and came up
with a plan: use a business coach to help train managers be better at their jobs. It’s now nine months into Access’ coaching experiment, and so far, so good. "It’s one of the best decisions we’ve ever made as a company," Elliott says. "I wouldn’t go back."
Although Access is relatively small, the company is dealing with the same problems facing companies of all size...
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Mastering failure
Myra White teaches managing workplace performance and organizational behavior at Harvard University and is a clinical instructor at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of "Follow the Yellow Brick Road: A Harvard Psychologist's
Guide to Becoming a Superstar", a book based on her research into how over 60 well-known people became superstars.
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No one likes to fail but it is part of being human. While people who become superstars may seem immune to failure, my research shows that they take the same amount of wrong turns as everyone else. What distinguishes them is that they don't let
their failures interfere with their pursuit of success. They accept failure, objectively assess their options, and take constructive action.
Most of us are taught in school that failure should be avoided at all costs. Teachers make it clear that failing grades are unacceptable and is often our own fault because we haven't studied hard enough or simply don't have the proper brains. An even more insidious message that circulates among students is that people who fail are losers.
Many people take these ideas about failure that they learn as children with them into the workplace. They continue to believe that failure is 1) an indication that there is something lacking in them; and 2) a sign that they are a loser. These ideas are an over-simplification and can leave people paralyzed in the face of failure. When a
person believes that workplace failure is due to an inner flaw and makes them a loser, it can have devastating psychological effects on them and profoundly affect their feelings of self-worth. [Superstars don't let failure master them. They master it. They do this by:]...
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Manager vs. manager [What HR can do]
Employees worried about their jobs because of the tough economy are competing against each other in unhealthy ways. But HR executives can mitigate such problems in several ways, including making people feel more appreciated.
As the economy falters, it's more of a dog-eat-dog world than ever -- and your best managers and executives may be the ones snapping at each other's throats. Executive coaches and others say that high anxiety in corporate America is causing co-workers to be more competitive, often in harmful ways. "August is the biggest month I've had in
25 years," says Anna Maravelas, a coach and author of How to Reduce Workplace Conflict and Stress. "I've had human resource directors calling me up, they were hyperventilating over the state of their executive teams. They say, 'Our teams are dysfunctional, the executives are hostile to each other.' " Maravelas, founder of the
St. Paul, Minn.-based firm Thera Rising, which focuses on team building, conflict resolution and leadership development, says co-worker competitiveness has significantly increased over the past year -- a situation she attributes to the downturn in the economy. "When people's economic security is at risk, their behavior
deteriorates," she says. Among the most serious problems among managers and executives are...
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The 10 worst job tips ever
The world abounds in bad advice for job-seekers. Here are some spectacularly unsound directives. Nearly every day, someone sends me a bit of astounding job-search advice from a blog or a newsletter. Some of this advice seems to come directly from the planet X-19, and some of it seems to have been made up on the spot.
Here are 10 of my favorite pieces of atrocious job-search advice, for you to read and ignore at all costs: 1. DON'T WRAP IT UP The Summary or Objective at the top of your résumé is the wrap-up; It tells the reader...
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Medical bills [your employees] shouldn't pay
Glenn Siglinger fought a surgeon who overcharged for treating his daughter, Allison. Jennifer S. Altman
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In a controversial practice known as "balance billing," health-care providers are going after patients for money they don't owe. Editor's note: For a CBS Evening News report on balance billing that was made in collaboration with BusinessWeek, go to:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/29/eveningnews/main4398133.shtml.
As health-care costs continue to soar, millions of confused consumers are paying medical bills they don't actually owe. Typically this occurs when an insurance plan covers less than what a doctor, hospital, or lab service wants to be paid. The health-care provider demands the balance from the patient. Uncertain and fearing the
calls of a debt collector, the patient pays up. Most consumers don't realize it, but this common practice, known as balance billing, often is illegal. When doctors or hospitals think an insurer has reimbursed too little, state and federal laws generally bar the medical providers from pressuring patients to pay the difference. Instead,
doctors and hospitals should be wrangling directly with insurers. Economists and patient advocates estimate that consumers pay $1 billion or more a year for which they're not responsible. Yolanda Fil, a 59-year-old McDonald's (MCD) cashier in Maple
Shade, N.J., got tangled up with balance billing after gall bladder surgery in 2005...
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Cushioning the blow of layoffs
In May, Portola Packaging announced it would lay off 78 employees at its upstate New York plant. Last week, the company sponsored a job fair with about 20 area employers. The goal: to get those downsized workers new jobs.
Getting laid off is never a good thing, but smart companies know there are ways to cushion the blow. "Many of the people there had extensive service time with us, and we wanted to make sure they were treated with dignity and respect," says Jeffery Swoyer, chief human resources officer at Portola, a Batavia, Ill.-based manufacturer of
plastic beverage caps. Portola isn't the only employer helping its laid-off workers. Other companies offer outplacement services and some even reimburse downsized employees for the cost of getting retrained. The advantage to employees is clear, but
employers benefit too. Helping downsized employees cushion the blow of getting laid off...
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How nice guys can get the corner office
No one wants to be labeled the "nice guy" in business, the pushover, the people-pleaser who finishes the race last, as the saying goes.
A new book, How Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office: Eight Strategies for Winning in Business without Being a Jerk, outlines how the nice guy can be just as effective and powerful as the thrusting businessman who usually places much higher in that race. This isn't a lesson on getting tough. It's a set of guidelines for anyone wanting to
shake off the nice-guy moniker by becoming more assertive while remaining likable. "I just saw people struggling, including myself," said co-author and business consultant Russ C. Edelman. Edelman and his co-authors Timothy Hiltabiddle and Charles Manz
surveyed 350 executives for the book on the effectiveness of leadership, specifically about classic nice-guy behaviors...
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The medicinal powers of yoga
About six years ago, Sharon Gutterman hit a rough patch. Gutterman, then 60, a West Hartford, Conn.-based consultant who teaches wellness workshops for resident physicians, went to the doctor's office to discover that her blood pressure was high.
On top of that, she was feeling a lot of anxiety, so her physician wrote her a prescription for an anti-depressant.
But, before getting the prescription filled, Gutterman did some reading and decided she could probably start feeling better not by popping pills, but through practicing yoga. Gutterman's experience is becoming increasingly common, experts say, as patients continue to feel dissatisfied with the effectiveness of conventional medicine and look
for new ways to take control of their health. In 2004 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that up to 62% of U.S. adults had used some form of complimentary and alternative medicine in the previous year, including yoga, most often to treat problems such as back pain, colds, neck problems, joint stiffness and
anxiety or depression. But medical research that's been accumulating over the past 10 to 15 years is showing that yoga can provide health benefits that many people may not realize, positively affecting conditions such as...
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