HRevolution 2012-Sponsors, Dress Codes, and More

We’re just a few short days away from HRevolution 2012 in beautiful Chicago, and we have a few announcements to make as we gear up for yet another fabulous event.

Best. Sponsors. Ever.

First off, thank you to our awesome sponsors. We truly appreciate each of you helping to make this event a success. Please check out our sponsors page and see if one of the sponsors offers something that is right for your business. They are the reason we are able to put this event on at such a low cost, and without them HRevolution just wouldn’t be the same.

To our supporters and friends at Aquire, Ceridian, Pinstripe, and SilkRoad, we are all grateful for your support!

The pre-show show Continue reading →

Why I Run (Race Report + Wellness Insights)

Okay, so I am dying to talk about the race I did last week, but I don’t have a good place for sharing running/race reports. So I’ll talk a little about the “why” and try to connect that back to wellness initiatives (or something). :-)

bourbon chase 2012

Me, Duke, and Tina looking very fresh before our first set of legs

What is the Bourbon Chase? 200 miles. 12 runners. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

When the gun went off last Friday afternoon for our team to start Leg 1 of the Bourbon Chase relay event, I honestly didn’t know what to expect. What I got: sleep deprivation, sore muscles, new friends, and loads of fun and memories as a member of team Modern Bourbon Warfare IV.

I was runner #5 in our van of 6 runners. The way the relay worked was one van is active on the course at a time, so runners 1-6 would run a leg, then that van would go “inactive” for 5-6 hours while van #2 and runners 7-12 ran their portions (approximately 33 miles were covered each time a van was active). Each runner ended up with three legs to run, averaging anywhere from 13 to 19 miles total per person. My own total was 18.3 miles, and even though I’ve run that far on plenty of previous occasions, it still hurts a good bit when you run each leg as hard as you can. Continue reading →

Entry Level HR Jobs-The Ultimate Guide

Welcome to the Entry Level HR Jobs Ultimate Guide! Feel free to share this post on Facebook, Twitter, via email, or by renting a plane to carry a banner proclaiming how much you love this guide. If you’re not already on the email list to receive free updates, here’s how you can do that. Now, let’s get on to the content!

Entry Level HR Jobs

  1. Places to find jobs
  2. Job descriptions
  3. Salary Ranges
  4. Tips from the Pros
  5. Career Resources Continue reading →

Flexible Schedule Policy vs. Core Business Hours

flexible work schedule policy

Wishing I was this flexible

I have a lot of things I’m proud of accomplishing at work, but it’s the sum of them and the trust that my leaders and staff place in me that have the most impact on me. Below you’ll learn about one recent example of how I was able to stand up for our staff and keep a misguided manager from implementing a decision that would have had a negative impact on the culture and employees. It’s the little things like this every day that make me glad that I’m in HR.

Recently we had a discussion about moving from our current flexible schedule policy to a core business hours work arrangement. Some of our management team looked at the decision as a way to force everyone to be in the office at least part of the day in order to make sure everyone is staying on task and accomplishing their work. (Click here for the tools I use for work/life flexibility.)

However, I was more than a little bit perturbed by the idea.

See, I have this funny, old-fashioned notion that managers are there to… well, manage. Continue reading →

Crafting a Welcome Letter to New Employees

new employee welcome letter companyI ran across this new employee welcome letter example from some old files and had to share. The creator (Antoine) was the best manager out of dozens at a previous employer, and it was little things like this that made his people love him. I had no idea he was providing these documents to his staff for quite a while, but I ran across a copy one day and was astonished at the level of care that he put into being the best leader he could be for his team. (By the way, if you are looking for great ideas to develop or enhance your current onboarding and new hire orientation process, be sure to check out the free new hire orientation eBook!)

A great example of a new employee welcome letter

Dear Keshia,

Welcome aboard our team! I am pleased to have you working with us. You were selected for employment due to the attributes that you displayed that match the qualities I look for in a great employee. Continue reading →

Turn The Ship Around! (Book Review)

I was very excited to read my copy of�Turn the Ship Around! How to Create Leadership at Every Level by L. David Marquet (here on Amazon). I actually found out about the book through a random link that I followed on Twitter. The link led me to a video interview of the author, and it excited me enough to hunt down the publisher and request a copy of the book.

At its core, this book is about changing the leader-follower model to a leader-leader model. It’s written by a man who spent years in the military (which is probably the most pervasive user of the leader-follower model of any organization you’ll find), so it instantly sticks out as an innovative idea.

A sampling of ideas from Turn the Ship Around Continue reading →

Jolt (Book Review)

When I ordered a copy of Jolt: Get the Jump on a World That’s Constantly Changing from BookSneeze (here on Amazon), I didn’t know what to expect. I ended up with a book containing an interesting blend of leadership, change management, and religious topics.

I’m openly and unabashedly a Christian, so that last part wasn’t really an issue for me, but I know that some people are not big fans of that sort of thing. That said, there were a few parts that I did enjoy.

What I liked Continue reading →