Author Archives: Ben

Employee Engagement eBook

how to employee engagementEmployee engagement. What is it? Why should you care? Studies show that employees that are “engaged” in their work perform significantly better than those who are not. The problem is finding real, tangible ways to make that happen. Good thing there’s a book for that.

Recently I reached out to a few people to see if they wanted to contribute to an eBook to help HR pros, managers, and business leaders learn more about this topic. The response was a good one, and today I’m happy to share the free eBook with you. It’s titled “All together now! A guide to employee engagement.”

There are personal stories about engagement and what it means, tips for companies on communication and culture, and some really great, specific how-to content.

Special thanks to Shauna Moerke for helping me to promote the guide through the HR Carnival channel. I also want to thank the contributors for offering up some great, useful content: Nathaniel Rottenberg, Chris Ferdinandi, Paul Smith, Laura Schroeder, Dwane Lay, Dave Ryan, Krista Francis, Jennifer V. Miller, Lisa Rosendahl, Keith McIlvaine, Karen Seketa, Tamkara Adun, Cori Curtis, Lance Haun, Robin Schooling, Susan Heathfield, Stuart at 1.00 FTE, and Tanmay Vora, . You can find links to each of these contributors’ websites within the guide.

Click here to download All together now! A guide to employee engagement

 

Wanna Join the Rock the PHR Email List?

If you’re interested in getting certified with your PHR or SPHR (or heck, even your GPHR, we don’t discriminate over here at upstartHR headquarters!), then I have a tool you might not be aware of. For the past year, I’ve been writing a monthly email newsletter and sending it to HR pros who are prepping for their certification exams.

The emails usually go out on the first day of the month, but February’s shortened calendar always screws with me, so this one will be a day or two late. :-)

As a bonus, there’s an exclusive 3 part video series I put together on why I help people get certified, how to get your employer to pay for your materials, and what to do with it once you have the certification.

If you’re one of those great (great!) people who purchases the Rock the PHR study guide, you get access to the entire archive of the newsletters back through January 2010. I consistently hear back from people who pass the exam telling me they really appreciate this tool keeping them motivated and on top of their studies.

Now, I know that certification isn’t for everyone, but if you would like to get on the list, here’s a snapshot of a recent email newsletter. If you’d like to sign up, just click the image! Did I mention it’s free?

 

Referrals-good for both sides

Recently I posted about a neat recruiting referral bonus program I heard about. Then I heard about another referral program a little closer to home and wanted to share. Members of NASHRM who refer others to become members in the coming months will get a chance to win a handful of cash. Here are the details:

Drawing #1 January – May

Drawing at June Meeting

  • 1st – $100.00
  • 2nd – $75.00
  • 3rd – $50.00

Drawing #2 July – November

Drawing at December Meeting

  • 1st – $100.00
  • 2nd – $75.00
  • 3rd – $50.00

For every person that you refer your name gets entered into the drawing for the cash prize. For example, if you refer one person, you get your name into the drawing once. If you refer ten people, you get your name in the drawing ten times, greatly increasing your chances of winning!

Why should you refer others to join NASHRM?

There are some great benefits to being a member of the North Alabama Society for Human Resources Management, including volunteer opportunities, a larger, more robust local network, and discounts on our programming for local HR pros.

Many of the people I know locally in the HR industry have either found their jobs through a connection they made at a NASHRM event or they found it through a friend-of-a-friend (so it’s still based on professional networking). You’re doing a favor for your friends by helping them to get involved, and you’re getting the chance to win something special for yourself. What’s not to like?

If you have questions about the program (or if you’re a volunteer with another local SHRM chapter who is interested in the inner workings of this initiative), feel free to reach out to our Membership Director for more info.

Recruiting via Referral Bonuses ($12k sound good?)

I love the idea of referral bonuses as a recruiting tool and I have a proposal in the pipeline for our leadership team to offer referral bonuses for each position (not just “key” ones). I’ve always wanted to write on them but this great post I saw the other day combined two fun topics for me: social recruiting and referral bonuses.

Here’s a word for word snag from the post. If every job ad looked like this, the world of recruiting would be wildly different.

—–

It’s our belief that growth is limited only by how much we can surprise, delight and reward our customers with software that rocks. We want to build more, faster and that’s why today, we’re announcing a new effort in bringing talented software engineers to the SEOmoz team.

Have Engineer Friends? Send ‘Em Our Way

Why should you send your engineer friends to SEOmoz? Three big reasons:

  1. They’ll be joining an amazing team at a great company earning top salaries at a place that values their contributions (see below)
  2. You’ll get $12,000 in cash* (OK, probably a check, but still!)
  3. They’ll also get $12,000 in cash**

We’re seeking 4-5 very talented engineers (possibly more) with experience handling large-scale problems like machine learning, web crawling, building and optimizing web services (APIs), coping with large quantities of data and dealing in massively distributed systems. You can learn more about the job requirements here.

Engineers: Challenging Problems, Brilliant Co-Workers & Some Cool Bonuses Await You, Too Continue reading →

How to become an HR leader

leading othersI enjoy reading and learning about leadership, and I love meeting HR leaders. Last week I ran a fun series over on upstartHR. It was all about the five most valuable competencies for a senior HR leader to have. Some of them might surprise you, and others are definitely staples of every leader’s toolkit. Check them out!

HRCP Contest Winner (February)

free hr practice examRemember that contest a few weeks back for someone to win a free HRCP practice exam? Well, the entries were sorted and a winner was randomly chosen from the group. Congratulations to Kellee! I’ll be getting her in touch with HRCP to get her contest prize.

Stay tuned for more contests throughout the year sponsored by HRCP.