If leaders feel stretched today, it's only going to get worse in the future, indicates new research by the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). Finding structural efficiencies by expanding spans of control has become a necessity in the current economic climate. However, the i4cp study shows that flattening organizational structure doesn't necessarily result in a competitive advantage. While there are advantages, ...

Many years ago I was quoted in the infamous Fast Company article "Why We Hate HR." Even though the article is 5 years old, I continue to see a chorus of authors and HR naysayers who essentially say the same thing: HR is not strategic. Despite the negativity, all of these articles make note of the fact that organizations today are ...

A little while back, I talked about how transparency seems to have faded from our conversations both on and off social media. One of the reasons for this could be that we don't really know what to look for in terms of transparency. It got me thinking. How do we know if an organization is operating in a transparent manner? So ...

This post is written for the everyday manager, HR manager, coach, or consultant that doesn’t have the time or interest to learn about validation, reliability, confirmatory factor analysis, correlation coefficients, and adverse impact. However, you’re using assessments, and you know just enough to be dangerous. Oh yeah, that pretty much describes me. Maybe you too. I’ve written about assessments for leadership ...

You remember transparency, don't you? Sure you do! Everyone was talking about it several months ago. It came right along with being on social media and operating openly in our communications. The idea was, to be successful, particularly on social media, you needed to be transparent – or, open, honest, and respectful in your interactions with others. Funny thing, though . ...

i4cp member Fidelity Investments, a leading provider of employer benefits, announced this week that a survey it conducted in June found that most U.S. employers (84%) "…expect to revisit their health care benefit strategy this year, following the passage of health care reform legislation." That's not surprising in light of the persistent annual double-digit increases in health care costs and the ...

We need to talk. Can there be any more gut-tightening phrase in our language? Just ask anyone who's married. Or in any sort of relationship, personal or professional. Any employee summoned to his supervisor's office with that phrase probably shows up simply because there's no handy exit between his desk and the manager's office door. Why do we put off honest ...

Maybe you're proud of the sheer productivity of your HR department. Your ratio of HR pros to employees is lower than the industry average, most transactional HR activities are delivered via self-service, and you have a finely tuned shared-services center. Generally speaking, your HR function is a lean, mean efficiency machine. Good for you. There's just one problem. By itself, it's ...

I've been in business for 13 years and have seen my share of mistakes made by business owners - many that certainly could have been avoided if they'd had a great human resources specialist to guide them. Here is my top 10 list of worst mistakes business owners make, along with advice on how to avoid following suit. 1. Failure to ...

My buddy Chris Ferdinandi and I chat throughout the day about what's going in HR, social media and the world. Now I don't know about anybody else but I work from home. So I've got a crew of co-workers, colleagues and friends that I keep in touch with throughout the week. Chris is on that list for sure. We always talk ...

An often cited rationale for hiring interns is the prospect of having someone around to handle the grunt work no one else wants to do. But these days, many companies have more strategic goals in mind for their internship programs. The latest study from the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) - the world's fastest growing and largest corporate network focused on ...

The new talk on the street is that the number of people quitting their jobs exceeds the number of layoffs. I wonder if this is the first signs of the double and triple digit turnover that’s been predicted as the economy starts to improve. Any talk about employees quitting always prompts a conversation about the different kinds of turnover. Bad turnover is the ...

In the human resources world, we sometimes get on this kick about recordkeeping. It's boring, tedious and can translate into being labeled bureaucratic. But I read an article this weekend that reinforces the need for paperwork and proper recordkeeping. The article was titled, "The Fisherman and the Tax Man." It's about British Petroleum (BP) requesting tax records from fisherman seeking compensation ...

The recession turned practically every carrier into a low fare airline; fancy flying was one of the first items chopped from businesses budgets. But the economy is finally turning around. And in an effort to bounce back from billion dollar losses, airlines are offering all kinds of extras to woo corporate fliers. So which perks would persuade you to pick one ...

This is a story of four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was asked to do it. Everybody was sure Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, ...

There have been some very good posts written on the subject of onboarding. You can check them out here, here, and here. Some people think of orientation and onboarding as the same thing. I view onboarding as a longer process which includes orientation. Unfortunately, in many companies, orientation has become that half-day event where employees sign paperwork and review the employee handbook. That’s ...

For HR professionals who suspect that the never-ending quest for the proverbial "seat at the table" is an unattainable objective, there are a growing number of examples of HR executives who have not only gained entry to the inner circle but have leveraged positions of significant influence within their organizations with great success. Such wins give those still wrestling with the ...

A reader writes: Our office has a number of staff that travel to our various satellite offices – most of the travel is same day (home to office back to home)(no overnight stays). There are a few staff members that feel like they need to be reimbursed for breakfast and lunch and sometimes even dinner (if they leave after 5pm) from ...

Cool HR readers, this one's for you! I asked a question, "What's so cool about HR?" and you answered. On the Twitter front,@adowling says making offers to qualified job candidate & letting frustrated employees vent is cool and @beneubanks says it's finding, developing, motivating, rewarding, & retaining talent- this ain't your daddy's personnel department! There is tons of coolness in the ...

Don’t think about it. Just answer me quickly: Is HR fatally flawed? How many of you answered yes? When I first started writing this in April, I said yes too. Yes, this has been on my mind since April, sitting in my draft folder waiting for me to answer the question. And I can tell you, if I waited until I ...