Be a Bit Better at HR by the end of the day: Blog Posts You Should Read

Here are links to six blogs I think you should read. Aren't I nice for saving you the time of finding the good ones? LOL

1. Seth Godin, When Smart People Are Hard to Understand. Great advice on making yourself smarter when you don't understand something said. Clue: Acting like you know is not it!


2. Kris Dunn at the HR Capitalist, If you think HR owns turnover, you are already dead. Great story of what should be said to a manager who want HR to take ownership of the manager's problem.


3. Ann Bares at Compensation Cafe, The Excuses you may NOT use to defend gender pay disparities. With equitable compensation so prominent in the news these days this is an important tidbit of information.


4. Michael Moore at The Pennsylvania Labor and Employment Blog, Employment Law Implications of obesity and BMI after the ADA Amendments Act. Michael discusses some of the technical implications of being considered "overweight" and makes a prediction on whether or not obesity becomes a protected catagory or not. Wanna make a prediction on his prediction???


5. KJK, The Ohio Employer's Law Blog. 3 Lessons in handling workplace harassment. Harassment, especially sexual harassment, is still alive and well in the workplace. Here is a case and the lessons that can be learned from it.


6. Cathy Martin, Profitability Through Human Capital. Hey HR, please no more TABLE talk. If you have been in HR for any period of time you will get this one and agree. Time for action not talk.

Well that is enough for one Friday. There are about another 25 I could (and probably should) include on this list. But if you read these today you will be a better HR person at the end of the day.

"Sticky" Supervisory Training: It Has To Last To Make It Work

Attorney Mindy Chapman, who writes for HR Specialist, uses the term "click and stick" to describe what supervisory training in HR must be like. I love that term! Supervisors must understand why it is important to be trained in human resources. They have to sit down at the training table and understand that they are the first line for potential problems. Companies suffer as a result of the actions of supervisors and managers. If they understand this then you have the "click" part of training.

However, most times supervisors only get periodic training. If they are lucky they get it annually. Most get it ONCE in their supervisory career. This violates the principles of reinforcement theory which says that if you want to get behavior you have to consistently reinforce that behavior. This means that if you want training to "stick" HR has consistently reinforce supevisors doing the right HR stuff. Lack of harassment complaints, discrimination complaints, lack of turnover, etc. should be a integral part of a supevisor's performance evaluation. Without this constant reminder the training given on one day will not "stick" very long. Parents with children in potty training age understand this principle. One sit down session does not do it. There has to be consistent and constant reinforcement of the desired behavior of clean pants. So set the goal of "no messy diapers" for all your supervisors.