Carnival of Human Resources #2

You go to carnivals at night, right? So, it's acceptable that I'm not posting this until 8:00 at night. Don't say otherwise or I won't host another carnival for two weeks. Or say otherwise and I won't host another carnival for two weeks. Next carnival is Wednesday, March 21--the first day of Spring!

And so welcome to the festivities!

First up is Deb at 8 Hours & a Lunch tells us about the importance of putting people first, not just process. She uses Toyota as an example and writes:

we tend to be great at the continuous improvement part. start a new program, start problem solving with a vengence, and make grand strides. but toyota spends a lot of time and effort on people. they don't just talk about people being their greatest asset. they invest in training programs for all of their employees, extensively developing their skills, building teams, developing future leaders, and even provide training and support to their suppliers.

Next is Wally at Three Star Leadership. He asks "why so many managers do such an awful job of management." It's a problem we HR types are always trying to fix. He gives three reasons:

Reason number one. We promote the wrong people.
Reason number two that we have so many managers doing lousy management work is that managers get little to no training in how to be good managers.
Reason number three that we have so many managers doing lousy management work is that we think you learn leadership and supervisory skills from a book or a class.

It sounds like if Deb and Wally got together they could take over the world. I'll just take a finders fee for suggesting it.

Patrick at Guerilla HR reminds us that it's not blogging that gets people fired. It's the content:

While a quick Google of the web will bring up lots of examples of people claiming they got fired for blogging, the truth is that people dont get fired for blogging; they get fired for what they blog! Now, let me put my HR Wizard hat on - If your company has a policy about blogging, follow it! I know that sounds terribly HRish of me, but believe me - even if the blogging policy is a rag and infringes on your first ammendment rights, you are better off to swallow hard and live with it, because while the ACLU might defend you if you get canned, they won't pay your rent while you are between jobs! In fact, I'll stake my HR secret decoder ring that you won't be fired for blogging about your hobbies (PG-13 or better), your cat, or even something as potentially tricky as management IF you leave out questionable, objectionable, or confidential information. But if you go off on a blog-rant about what an idiot your boss is, the ingredients for your company's new "secret sauce", or how you and the VP of Sales are shaggging..... you will end up on the bad end of the situation - start practicing this pharse in prep for your next job - "Would you like fries with that?"

And speaking of French Fries, they are not healthy. And unhealthy employees are bad for your business. Kris at HR Capitalist tells us about the future of business provided healthcare.

Ever fired anyone for smoking? Scotts Miracle-Gro has. In an effort to push a progressive Wellness Program to the limit, Scotts recently termed its first employee for failing a nicotine test during his probationary period. It's all just a part of the Scotts mentality pushing a Wellness Program to the max to push employees to live healthier lives, and of course, to control the rising costs of providing medical coverage. To be fair, the program cuts both ways - the pressure on employees to live healthier lives has resulted in terminations, but has also saved lives like Joe Pellegrini:

Ha! Now I have you interested and you'll have to go check Kris out.

Finally, since we've talked about employees, managers, blogging and healthcare, we'll focus on something really important: Money. Especially how I am underpaid. Or overpaid. It's hard to tell:

I went to Payscale.com and had my salary evaluated.

You put in your title and it asks questions about your company size, what titles are comparable, your benefits and education, along with your current salary. Then it comes back with a salary range for your job along with where you sit.

Now, go forth and develope your employees and write great posts for the next carnival! And send those posts to evilhrlady at hotmail dot com. And if any of you HR blogging types are interested in hosting, let me know! I'm always willing to spread the joy around.