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HR Policies–Who’s Got What? And How Do You Measure Up?

Please participate in our brief survey, and see how what you are doing stacks up against what other successful companies are doing. We’ll get answers to these questions and more: What policies do you have? Which ones will you update? Who develops your HR policies? How involved is HR? What sources do you use? How […]

What can I ask on a job application?

by Robert P. Tinnin, Jr. With the national and local economic downturn, an increasing number of unsuccessful job applicants are filing discrimination charges, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and state law enforcement agencies are examining job applications more closely for evidence of unlawful bias. The focus of these agencies has not radically changed, […]

Infographic Examines Performance Appraisal Practices

BLR 2013 Performance Management Survey Reveals Worst Evaluator Mistakes A new infographic puts the spotlight on employer performance management practices—and what HR professionals think of them. The infographic highlights findings from BLR’s 2013 Performance Management Survey conducted among survey participants representing 1,358 organizations.  It includes a “Performance Appraisal Report Card” reflecting participants’ ratings of how […]

HR Managers Are Negotiating 24-7

If you’re in HR, you’re negotiating 24—7 says expert Douglas McCabe, PhD. You’re negotiating contracts, negotiating with peers, subordinates, and bosses. You’d better figure out how to do it right. Negotiators have high status in this country, McCabe says; you don’t put losers on your negotiating team. McCabe, who is professor of management at the […]

Best Practices for Dress Code Policies

Despite the fact that there are no federal laws outlining what employer dress code policies can and cannot do, there are still plenty of ways dress codes can get employers in legal trouble. Legal challenges to dress codes are often based on allegations of gender bias, religious bias, race/national origin bias, or disability bias. To […]

CPI and Help Wanted Online—More Metrics for Comp Managers

Cost-of-Living Index Each month, the BLS collects data on prices of a “market basket” of food, clothing, shelter, fuel, prescriptions, transportation fares, medical fees, and other goods and services that people buy for day-to-day living. The BLS measures changes in these costs and reports them in the form of the CPI. The CPI, as defined […]

Hiring Eagles, Avoiding Turkeys Who Dress Like Eagles

Kleiman, from Humetrics, Inc., offered his tips on hiring the best at BLR’s Strategic HR Summit, held recently in Scottsdale, Arizona. Turkeys and Eagles When a great hire turns out to be a bad hire, a turkey, what do we do? We try to train the turkey. That works about 13 percent of the time, […]

Use Summer to Motivate Employees

McBean, author of The Facts of Business Life: What Every Successful Business Owner Knows That You Don’t (Wiley, October 2012,), encourages employers not to wait until fall to review and adjust company directions. Especially if changes will involve employee training and/or hiring and training new employees. Most business owners probably look at the summer as […]

Are You Taking Advantage of Summer’s Learning Opportunities?

McBean, author of The Facts of Business Life: What Every Successful Business Owner Knows That You Don’t (Wiley, October 2012,) says the reality is that the season is actually a great time to do a half-year review and make some smart moves for your business, rather than indulge in the summertime lull. Take summer’s opportunity […]

The answers are easy!

by Dan Oswald Have you ever faced a problem at work that seemed so overwhelming, so insurmountable that you struggled to even know how to begin to resolve it? And the more you studied the problem, the more convinced you became that the solution must be equally as complex. Your exercise in problem solving became […]