Your HR Career

9 keys: Convince top brass to support next year’s HR budget

08/31/2009

Ever had the C-Suite rubber-stamp your HR budget with nary a question or challenge? Neither has Valerie Grubb, a trainer, business coach and operations consultant. When budget time rolls around, she says, your most important job is explaining how HR contributes to the organization’s larger goals.

Re-entry! 7 ways to keep work from ruining your vacation

08/11/2009

The worst part of going on vacation is all the work that happens before and after. Here’s good advice to pass on to your organization’s employees—simple tips to make sure the crush of work doesn’t snuff out the post-vacation glow.

HR lessons from unusual places: Put on your leadership shoes!

07/21/2009

Leaders find business lessons every where, even from a shirtless guy at a music festival. See the Youtube video that went viral, and find out why two top business gurus believe that, when in doubt, good leaders just jump in with both feet.

Social media and HR: Managing the legal risks, updating your policies

07/14/2009

Whether they’re shooting off their own tweets or following others, employees using Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and personal blogs are creating liability and PR risks with their online rants, raves and company gossip. We’ve gathered the best of HR Specialist’s recent coverage of social media’s HR implications. You’ll find sound legal advice, and maybe a laugh or two.

4 tips: Don’t let slackers leave you doing all the work

07/07/2009

It’s late, and you’re chained to your desk finishing work your boss needs first thing in the morning. The two colleagues who were helping with the project? Long gone. Don’t get stuck going it alone like that again. These four tips will help you manage co-workers who drop the ball.

10 keys to negotiating your HR budget

07/07/2009

Ever had the C-Suite rubber-stamp your HR budget with nary a question or challenge? Neither has Valerie Grubb, who spent most of her career building and justifying budgets in large manufacturing and entertainment companies, most recently NBC Universal. Here are her 10 tips for negotiating with those who make the final budget decisions.

Monitor your social networks in one place

06/26/2009

More HR pros are turning to social networking sites for professional and business connections. But it takes a lot of time and effort to check your individual Facebook, LinkedIn and other communities. Save time with Flock and Netvibes.

Up ‘shift’: 9 tricks to turbocharge your computer skills

06/16/2009

We all know the “basics” when it comes to computers, right? Not necessarily. One person’s everyday shortcut may be another person’s “Cool! I didn’t know you could do that!” Try these nine keyboard and mouse tricks right now.

How assertive are you? 18 questions test your ability to be positively persuasive

06/09/2009

Giving employees critical feedback, negotiating with vendors, sticking up for your people (or your budget)—they’re all communications situations that require a certain amount of assertiveness. These 18 questions can help you pinpoint areas of weakness in your ability to express yourself. Use your results to figure out where you can improve.

How strategic are you? An 8-question test

06/02/2009

CEOs want their HR leaders to break outside the operational box and become more strategic players. But many HR pros are so bogged down by daily process, they have trouble lifting their heads out of the weeds. Here’s a self-assessment to help you gauge the strategic value you bring to your organization.