October 2008

Welcome to the second issue of the "News for HR" Newsletter. This new monthly newsletter profiles new products and services in the HR marketplace as well as featured white papers and other related content. All content is reviewed and selected by our editorial committee and is not the result of paid advertising.

The newsletter content comes from our new Human Resources Community - one of the industry's largest and most up-to-date knowledge centers with a library of over 1,000 white papers, webcasts, podcasts, articles and more.

Enjoy the newsletter! And please let us know how we are doing by e-mailing newsforhr@hrmarketer.com

Newsletter Contents:

    Article: Are You Ready for Generation Y?
    Article: How to Motivate and Engage IT Employees
    White Paper: Shared Leadership In Family-Owned Businesses: Trends,
         Typical Structures And Criteria For Selecting The Right Leadership Model
    HR Humor: The Lighter Side of Our Work
    Webcast: To Video or Not to Video: Social and Legal Considerations of
         Video Interviews and Resumes
    Podcast: The Evolving Role of the Chief Human Resource Officer
    HR 180: The Era That Must Not Be Named

  What's New? The Latest in HR Software and Services
    •   Recruitment & Staffing
    •   Compensation & Benefits
    •   Talent Management
    •   Training & Development

Article: Are You Ready for Generation Y?
Author: Garry Flood, CEO

Article: In the 'good old days', men were men, women were women and the average white collar employee was a white middle-aged married man who was sole breadwinner in his household. We're not living in the good old days any more. That may not be news to you, but not enough top management in global enterprises or central and local government have fully grasped the full impact of the changes our society and culture is going through, says Jan K Grude, president and executive managing director of benefits consulting company Buck Consultants LLC, a wholly owned arm of business process outsourcing giant ACS.

Article: How to Motivate and Engage IT Employees
Source: Training Reference

A study by Princeton consultants BlessingWhite has found that fewer than one in four information technology department employees are fully engaged in their work. The State of Employee Engagement 2008 study explores workplace attitudes among employees on four continents and is based on responses of more than 7,500 individuals and interviews with 40 senior human resource and line managers. "Compared with employees in other functions, IT workers are unusually independent, and tend to identify more with their profession than with the organization," said BlessingWhite CEO Christopher Rice. "At the same time, they are achievement-oriented and keen on staying current in their field, and this holds true in all regions studied. So it wasn't a surprise to learn that by a clear margin the opportunity for training and development is the most important driver of increased performance for IT employees."

Featured White Paper: "Shared Leadership In Family-Owned Businesses: Trends, Typical Structures And Criteria For Selecting The Right Leadership Model."
Source: Strategic Designs for Learning

The trend over the last ten years in family business is toward equality, where businesses have a system of multiple leaders and transition control of the business to the next generation in the form of a leadership group. This white paper from Strategic Designs for Learning discusses the typical structures of family owned businesses and criteria for selecting the right shared leadership model. Key topics covered in this report include:

• Management Of Family-Run Businesses: Background, Statistics and Trends
• Three Fundamental Forms Of Family Businesses
• Shared Leadership In Family Run Businesses
• Why Family-Owned Businesses Create Shared Leadership
• Making The Transition To Shared Leadership A Success

HR Humor: The Lighter Side of Our Work
Source: CiteHR.com

Found on real resumes and cover letters:

• "Received a plague for Salesperson of the Year."
• "Wholly responsible for two (2) failed financial institutions."
• "Failed bar exam with relatively high grades."
• "It's best for employer that I not work with people."
• "Let's meet, so you can 'ooh' and 'aah' over my experience."
• "You will want me to be Head Honcho in no time."
• "Am a perfectionist and rarely if if ever forget details."
• "I was working for my mom until she decided to move."
• "Marital status: Single. Unmarried. Unengaged. Uninvolved. No commitments."
• "I have an excellent track record, although I am not a horse."
• "I am loyal to my employer at all costs. Please feel free to respond to my resume on my office voicemail."
• "I have become completely paranoid, trusting completely no one and absolutely nothing."
• "Personal interest: Donating blood -- fourteen gallons so far."
• "Instrumental in ruining entire operation for a Midwest chain store."
• "Note: Please don't' misconstrue my 14 jobs as 'job-hopping'. I have never quit a job."
• "Reason for leaving last job: They insisted that all employees get to work by 8:45 am every morning. I couldn't work under those conditions."
• "The company made me a scapegoat, just like my three previous employers."
• "References: none. I've left a path of destruction behind me."

Webcast: "To Video or Not to Video: Social and Legal Considerations of Video Interviews and Resumes"
Carol Miaskoff, assistant legal counsel for coordination, US EEOC

In the area of recruiting, the use of video resumes is a tremendous change. Carol Miaskoff, assistant legal counsel for coordination, US EEOC; John Chun, partner, Summit Law Group; Colleen Aylward, Interview Studio.com." discuss the legal considerations of this new recruiting tool.

Podcast: The Evolving Role of the Chief Human Resource Officer
Jeff Schwartz, principal and global practice leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Jeff Schwartz, principal and global practice leader, Deloitte Consulting LLP There's a sea change coming to the C-suite, and the Chief Human Resources Officer - or CHRO - is emerging on a wave of new challenges that will transform how companies reinvent themselves in their quest to increase profits and compete in the global marketplace. Shifts in work force demographics have encouraged companies to be more analytical and strategic about recruiting, retaining and managing talent. Accounting and management scandals have intensified the need for a compliance and governance adviser. Increasing globalization is creating offshore labor markets and the need to adopt appropriate programs to capitalize on these markets. These and many other demands have elevated the HR department - and the people who lead it - to new levels of importance. The head of HR increasingly is required to act as both steward and strategist, a leader who not only oversees the day-to-day HR operations but also helps shape and implement overall strategy. Listen to Jeff Schwartz, principal and global practice leader of People and Change for Deloitte Consulting LLP, discuss how today's CHRO is evolving from manager and administrator of HR functions to both strategist and steward.

HR 180 (Interesting News Unrelated to HR – Take a Break)
The Era That Must Not Be Named
Wallace Baine

Ten years ago, the world was freaking out about Kosovo, the "millennium bug" and the end of "Seinfeld," though not necessarily in that order. The Clinton/Lewinsky scandal made water cooler conversations extremely awkward. Gas sold for about $1.15 a gallon (Aaargh! Why didn't I stockpile?). Google was still a hipster's secret. No one had ever heard of a hanging chad, a freedom fry or a bridge to nowhere. It was also a time when there was a lot of vacuous pop-culture speculation on what the next decade - the one we're living through right now - would be called.

What's New? The Latest in HR Software and Services

Recruitment & Staffing:

HR XCEL Unveils New Workforce Communication Tool. A workforce communications tool designed to help mid-market companies deploy Human Resources and Benefit solutions more effectively, the new HR XCEL InfoSource solution provides employees on-demand access to information about organizational policies, procedures and benefit plans. For more information click here.

Compensation & Benefits:

Workscape introduces OBA-Express, an outsourced benefits administration solution for mid-sized companies; HR Central, which provides employees and managers with a single point of online access and communication for all HR applications (including non-Workscape solutions). For more information click here.

Talent Management:

WFD Consulting and ClearPicture Corporation announce the release of FlexMetrix, a program developed to help organizations better track the use and effectiveness of flexible work practices. FlexMetrix also features an ROI calculator to quantify the value of the company's investment in flexibility. For more information click here.

Training & Development:

In one of the most difficult economic environments on record, American workers are struggling to achieve career success with half their brain tied behind their backs. That's the provocative claim by Peter Weddle, the author of an innovative, new business fable entitled Recognizing Richard Rabbit. Weddle's new book, Recognizing Richard Rabbit (ISBN 978192873444-4, $11.95), is designed to correct that shortcoming. It's a fable, like the bestselling book Who Moved My Cheese?, but while that story focused on organizational effectiveness, Weddle's fable explores the secret to personal effectiveness. For more information, click here.