A Company’s Process Improvement Efforts and Human Resources

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A representative from human resources needs to be on any performance improvement team that is worth the name, according to business analyst Brad Power. In addition to people who know how things work, and people who know how to make them work better, Power says that there also should be on the team people who… Read more »

Improve Coaching for a Better Bottom Line

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Recent signs are showing that companies that develop a culture where coaching is encouraged and practiced well by everyone have better bottom lines. This may be something for human resources departments to think about and to get involved in creating such an atmosphere. A recent study by the California-based advisory firm Bersin and Associates showed… Read more »

Obesity and Lost Productivity

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A recent Gallup poll has revealed that workers who are overweight or obese miss 450 million more work hours each year than workers who are normal weight. This absentee rate has lead to about $153 billion in lost productivity each year. Less than 15 percent of the workforce is not overweight and does not have… Read more »

Human Resources and Improving a Business

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Human resource departments are not doing enough to get out in front and help their organizations change and improve the way they work, according to business consultant Brad Power. Some business leaders see their human resources department more as a bureaucracy where innovative thinking is not encouraged. Others say human resources is not used enough…. Read more »

The Changing Workforce and Worker Classification

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As changes in management techniques, the economy and technology lead to changes in the workforce, employers are struggling to keep abreast of guidelines on worker classification. Because of this, the Society for Human Resource Management has called on the federal government to clarify the statutory and other regulations that classify workers as employees or independent… Read more »

Human Resources’ Evolving Role

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A recent study by the firm of Towers Perrin on the human resources function in business came to the following conclusion – that the role of human resources is changing from a more isolated, independent department to one that is now more integrated with the other areas of the company, and one which works with… Read more »

How to Handle Resignations

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As with any business, occasionally you will have employees resign for any one of a number of reasons. When this happens it raises issues with how to handle the resignation, such as how to announce it, and when. If the employee has not submitted the resignation in writing, you need first of all to get… Read more »

The Strategic Use of Contingent Labor

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In the past, contingent workers were looked at as last-minute, stop-gap measures, something to plug a hole to keep things running. But that is not the case any longer. Companies are using contingent workers in increasing numbers for all kinds of jobs, integrating them into their business operations like never before. As this process has… Read more »

Finding the Best HR Practices for YOUR Firm

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Sometimes when the HR department at your company tries to apply a best practice in use somewhere else, it doesn’t seem to work out quite the way the department had planned. That was the experience at one HR shop, where they were having trouble with succession planning and talent management. Human resources managers had spent… Read more »

Knowing When to Pull the Plug

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In business and elsewhere, we sometimes get into a situation where we find that the methods or strategy we are using aren’t working. When this happens, it is often difficult to admit failure and try something different. This has been evident with the military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan, where inappropriate strategy led to cries… Read more »