Blog 5 - Integrity

As our society moves forward in this era where we have already become global, competition is fierce, and organizations are leaner.  I see an issue relevant to many new human resource managers involve the integrity of employees as well as managements handling of new workforce challenges. Human Resource managers are involved in a broad spectrum of activities that include;

• Salary and compensation
• Workplace training
• Staffing
• Recruitment
• Workforce diversity

In the mist of the above components lies integrity. Corporations invest lots of money into building their brand and after it is build, employee are the number one leaders of that represent that brand. They live it day in and a day out, how they treat contractors, vendors, competitors and the importantly customers, all of which who eventually validate the brand. Continued integrity by all is what will sustain any corporation as a global leader in tomorrow business environment.

In the past many checks and balances were in place to protect employees and customers from unscrupulous companies who main objectives were to grow profits, regardless of who and what got its way.  Businesses eventually started to become managed in ways lacking integrity from the top which eventually worked it way to lower levels of the workforce.

Enron Corporation, WorldCom Inc. and many others caught in financial scandals lead to the creation of new legislation, such as the Sorbanes/Oxley Act. The fast pace of today’s business environment lures some to embellish, misinform and exploit markets, I believe Human Resource managers are front and center in incorporating within their platforms, which include salary and compensation, workplace training, staffing, recruitment, workforce diversity a strong conversation of not only building a strong brand, but one that is based on integrity through out.

Blog 4 - human resource development

As the economy slowly begins growing, many area companies will start to hire new employees. My article discusses the issue that in 2010 Lehigh Valley area companies finally stabilized employee hiring to meet the demands of a declining economy.

Being aware of their local labor market will direct human resource managers in a direction of where to seek new employees. In doing so, companies have an opportunity to engage new employee with an orientation process. Of the many forms of training employees, orientation offers an opportunity for new employees to become comfortable with becoming part of the company.

In some instances these companies have realized that they need to start hiring again to replace retirees, and basically stabilize their staffing levels.

While these companies begin recruiting again they can attract employees by using internal recruitment which can boost morale for existing employees. Provide ample job postings, and use employee referrals to ensure good employees are attracted.

Human resource managers in addition to approaching colleges can consider other recruitment  methods as well as focus on workplace training to invite new employees and stop good employees from leaving the organization.  Diversity awareness at this point will also ensure the mix of employees resembles the market being served, for example generation y and baby boomers both have something to offer as well as having differing styles in delivering the same product to its customer base. Wise human resource managers will not only ensure the right people get on the bus, but guarantee that those new employees are in the right seats on the b
http://www.mcall.com/business/mc-allentown-big-employers-20110219,0,4202466.storyus.

Blog 3: Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment selection will be a major challenge for many companies in the next few years. One of the challenges in recruitment is for companies to be aware of their local labor market. As the forces of demand (employers looking for people) collide with that of the availability in regional labor markets, many of these growing companies must figure out ways to create opportunities to create the needed skills for its future workforce.

My article focuses on these very challenges for three companies, Ricardo and engineering firm in Detroit seeking qualified engineers in a city with an unemployment rate of 13.3%. Out of desperation it put out a billboard featuring a sexy-looking sports car with the tag line “Why you became an engineer” on the advertisement is a web address for job seekers.

Others such as General Electric, located in Louisville, Ky., they are in the middle of expansion for 1,300 new jobs as they establish “centers of excellence” in refrigeration technologies. And lastly firms like Deloitte is going into a hiring mission. Deloitte is the world’s largest professional-services firm. They are scouring college campuses for fresh brains. The firm is seeking tax, specialist, lawyers, auditors who can solve the planets new challenges as business is done globally and old markets are being transformed.

Although new fresh minds are being sought out to tackle these challenges, grown-ups with actual work experience are seeing more daylight as they have much of the experience needed in these jobs.  These dynamics provide interesting challenges as corporations consider internal versus external recruitment. The use of executive search firms, virtual job fairs and special inducements such as relocation aid, signing bonuses in attracting new employees into geographical areas that are beginning to bound back from this great recession, where many jobs were exported and or destroyed. 

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,2040964,00.html

Blog 2 Assignment

The proliferation and growth of social media is continually growing in acceptance. (page31) Many politicians are beginning to use social media. Some use it get a pulse on their specific constituency needs, other use them to promote their areas of empowerment. Yet others have considered using them as they hire employees in doing back ground checks on potential hires.

As incumbent leaders attempt to utilize these new trends they need to be patient and be aware of possible issues that may lie in the way of successful implementation of these new practices. For example HR policies may conflict with the type of question asked of a potential hire. Consider the question of age, what happens when you go to a face book page on a potential hire and see their age, which is clearly a questioned not asked during an interview. Will the HR manager have to prove later on that knowing the age of a potential hire, influenced him or her in making a decision?

As news is disbursed into the community, what happens when you consider the digital divide of who has access and who doesn’t? In an attempt to better communicate with your constituency you maybe actually creating a better informed group of constituents versus another.

It is going to be a careful balancing act for many official’s who head in this direction, especially when you consider the various groups in the workforce today. You have the traditionalist, the babyboomers, generation x, and finally the newest group, generation y who come with an outlet ready to plug in anywhere, anytime.(page 26) Moving forward comes with many caveats to consider from HR departments as they consider the array of twitter polices, facebook policies, linkedin policies versus the growing array of government policies and HR practices.

See article on this subject at Government leaders use social media to reach their constituents - February 2, 2011 at 4:25 pm by Jamie DeLoma