HR/Employment Blogosphere Update for September 19, 2005

Rolling on at our new location, here’s a quick Sunday night Blogosphere review.

About.com’s Human Resources has two posts with sample interview questions targeting communication and interpersonal skills.

ContingentWorkforce.org has several recruiting/hiring posts:

“The Essential Elements of Every Great Hire - Six requirements for companies that want to make better hires” (links to article by Lou Adler).

“Why Talent Matters” (links to article by Michael Foster) (”recent data indicates that for Standard and Poor 500 companies, only $1 of every $6 of ‘market to book’ value represents financial or physical assets. The balance, of course, are intangible assets, among which your talent and the market’s perception of your talent are key”).

“Make Believe They’re Coming to Your House” (links to article by Howard Adamsky) (in discussing with clients the importance of “the first impression the candidates get when they come to interview and the overall experience of the interviewing process,” uses metaphor of “candidate as a guest who is coming to your home for dinner on a Saturday night “).

The Edelman Employee Engagement Blog announces the release of a white paper on employee blogging. (”We look at the impact employee bloggers have had (both good and bad), examples of each and how to make internal blogs work for your company.”)

The Future of Work Weblog writes about: “Redefining Retirement” (”Baby boomers are not anywhere near as inclined to want a ‘traditional” retirement’ . . . . Today’s “retirees” don’t want to stop working completely, although they do want part-time work and a great deal more independence, self-control, and flexible working arrangements . . . . And they ain’t going to commute an hour a day each way while paying $5 a gallon for gasoline. That’s a major opportunity for innovative working arrangements, with distributed work being the best all-around solution.”)

HR Blog cites a Harvard article on giving new managers a jump start (”despite the increasing importance of a fast start, new managers face daunting obstacles in getting connected”) and talks about making sure your employees understand the “open door” policy (”Even though most managers have an ‘open door policy’, most people they manage either don’t believe it or feel that they are ‘bothering’ their managers with issues that they aren’t really sure are important to those managers.”).

HR Matters Blog has tips about rest breaks (”You should . . . consider a number of different factors before establishing a policy on rest breaks. These factors include applicable federal or state legal requirements, special employee needs, and differing job requirements”).

HR’s Brand New Experience gripes about government finger-pointing in the wake of Katrina: “Leadership Failure and Incompetence” (”Any leader in the federal government who in any way decides to blame someone else for the Katrina Hurricane and government debacle should be immediately fired for failing to take responsibility. Any leader in the federal government involved in the Katrina Hurricane and government debacle and not fired for failing to take responsibility should be fired for incompetence. “)

Job Blog links to a story about “Young urban professionals seeking a simpler life” (”smaller cities and towns, aided by advances in technology and lower housing prices, are luring away urban professionals seeking a better life”).

Nobscot’s Weblog has an HR joke: “Ask Questions”

Perfect Labor Storm writes of several aspects of coming labor shortages (or at least labor market demographic changes): “Aging Truckers Leaves Industry Short of Help”; “Young workforce declines 1 percent by 2010″; “Restaurateurs Hungry for Workers”;“Teacher Workforce Aging Rapidly”

T&D Blog has its own roundup: “Best you might’ve missed”