Make Communications Clear & Understandable From the Start!!!

I thought I would post a comment on communications. For those in HR who read my blog, you will undoubtedly understand the meaning of clear and concise communications. So I thought I would tell a story on how potentially unclear communications can ruin a friendship or change the course of a relationship, be it at work or in your personal life. 

A friend of mine decided to move to a new location where an old friend of his lived. They were best of friends in college and each working in different fields. My friend decided to pull up stakes where he currently lived to move to the town where his friend lived. His friend said he could move in with him until he got settled and found a job. What a great thing. 

He moved in and about a month later his friend said, why don't we just be roommates and split the rent. Even better right? So to top it off, my friend got a job within a a month and started work. They had a great time doing things together in their off time until 1 day my friends friend said, " I think you should find your own place". This isn't working out. What a surprise to my friend. Hurt was not the word for his feelings and especially when his friend said "find your own place". 

You can imagine the wedge that is now between these two people. one feeling like he is getting thrown out, and the other feeling his best friend really didn't hear what he said initially when he moved in. You can figure this complex issue out but the moral of the story and especially for HR practitioners is "make sure your communications is clear, concise and that people understand at the outset what you mean". If not, you will have many problems with your constituents. 

SortBox Replaces Email As A New Way To Review Job Applicants

With a down economy, and an overwhelming number of job applicants to any open position (well, maybe not in tech startups, but everywhere else), there’s a real need for tools that help businesses better sort through their over-crowded inboxes to find the best candidates from among thousands of emails with attached files, photos, resumes and cover letters. A new company called SortBox wants to help address that problem by getting rid of the email inbox altogether. Instead, it’s offering a simple, customized inbox designed just for the purpose of moving through job applications quickly.

The SortBox inbox was created to be very easy to use, however it joins a crowded market of companies innovating the talent acquisition/hiring space : there’s The Resumator, HireRabbit,Firefish Software, Jobvite, Ovation, and Sendouts, to name just a few, and Oracle acquired top competitor Taleo at the beginning of the year.

But a lot of the companies that are designing tools related to hiring are offering something robust, with a lot of features and configuration options. Obviously, that serves a need in this market, but SortBox wants to provide an alternative for businesses that don’t need that level of complexity. Its target market is not the enterprise, but rather the mom-and-pops, the small businesses, recruiters, and yes, even startups who are just looking to keep their actual inbox clutter-free.

Explains SortBox founder Justin Sherratt, “we purposefully removed many features, both on the scope and even commented out code because we wanted to come to market with an MVP product that was super easy to use,” he says. “In time we are going to add products and functionality.”

And you can really fly through the job applications, thanks to SortBox’s color-coded “Yes,” “No,” and “Maybe” buttons at the top of each application. The system also supports multiple SortBoxes so you can advertise for more than one position at a time, and keep everything related to hiring in one central resource. Currently there’s no auto-posting feature included, but companies can post the custom link SortBox generates to places like Craigslist, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter on their own. In the future, support for auto-posting will be added.

SortBox was founded in April 2011 during Sherratt’s participation in the Founder Institute program in NYC. His background includes time spent at startups (RxCentric.com, 300 Monks, NinjaFinder), at recruiting agencies, and in film (producing, directing, and cinematography). Having been involved with the hiring process directly in many of these efforts – and even building tools like NinjaFinder to fix the problem of finding creative talent – he knew first-hand how difficult the current hiring process is today. This experience inspired him to build a tool that could simplify the process for any industry.

Prior to today’s public debut, the company has been running a private beta test with under 50 customers, which included startups like Wello.co and Kindara.com, and restaurants like Mixt Greens and Split Bread. Pricing for SortBox has not been worked out, but it will be a freemium-based service. You can try it for free from here now.

by Sarah Perez - Sarah currently works as a writer for TechCrunch, after having previously spent over three years at ReadWriteWeb. Prior to becoming a professional blogger, Sarah worked in I.T. across a number of industries, including banking, retail and software.

Stress Relievers

The information below was provided by guest writer Rob Geller and is helpful information in managing stress in the workplace. 

How to Ensure Stress Relief at the Office 
When the level of stress in your office is weighing heavily on your mind, it will no doubt affect your overall health. Unfortunately, people have allowed unreasonable levels of stress affect them, so much so that in some cases, it can become irreparable. If you need to ensure that you are not experiencing too much stress at the office, you may need a new plan for stress management. It may take a good bit of effort, but it can be done. More importantly, it will keep you much healthier while working. 

Disposable Jobs
It is very important to to understand that all jobs are disposable. If it’s not this job you have now, it can be a different job. Tell yourself that your health and your personal mind are not disposable. You need to take care of your mind and health first, even if that means quitting a job.

Power Breaks
During your workday, stop and take a nice power break. If you are experiencing a work overload, or if a something at work is stressing you out, take a break. If you go outdoors and walk for 15 minutes, or go the break room and lay your head down for 15 minutes, or even take a 15 minute nap, it will likely help exponentially. Before letting it get to you, always walk away from stressful situations for a few minutes.

Working EnvironmentIf things just aren't working for you, then change or modify the environment you work in. Try to change whatever you can to ensure that you can handle it. Perhaps turn on some music, or invest in a new chair. Bring in pictures of loved ones. Don't forget to ask permission about some of these though, and also be sure that you're not distracting or otherwise affecting those around you. 

Organized Space
You may find this hard to believe, but the more organized and clean your working space is, the lower your level of stress will be. Organize the space you work in so that it’s never cluttered. You will be amazed at how much less stressed you feel when you do. 

Positive Attitude
A positive attitude while at work is often  the key to less stress. Always remember that you have a life outside work. You have a home, a sanctuary. You also won't work here forever. There are many things to look forward to, both big and small. Trust me, this is my favorite technique in combating stress.

Setting GoalsMake sure you only set only practical goals for yourself at work. Make sure they are realistic so that if you fulfill them, it will give you that extra confidence and boost to do much better again. Taking on a challenge is great, but don’t let them get you worked up and stressed. 

Humor 
Have a little bit of humor at the office. Humor plays a big role in reducing stress. Be sociable and laugh with your co-workers and have some fun. Cultivate good relationships with those you work with and smile often. You will be amazed at how less stressed you feel when you do. Don't be afraid to ask your co-workers if they want to spend a night on the town on Friday, and always say yes to social invitations!

It might be hard to believe, but Stress CAN be managed at work and YOU can be the one to manage it. Try some of the above tips when you are feeling stressed at work and see how much you can change it!

Rob Gellar writes about stress, management & more at www.grouphealthinsurance.org.

Salesforce.com To Debut 'Work.com' At Dreamforce

IDG News Service -  Analysts expect an initial product launch will be followed by a broader strategy for HR software.

Salesforce.com is planning to up its stake in human resources software with the unveiling of a new service called Work.com next month during the Dreamforce event in San Francisco.

The news first emerged in a Bloomberg profile of the company published on Thursday. A Salesforce.com spokeswoman confirmed the story's accuracy but declined to provide additional details.

Salesforce.com's interest in cracking the human resources software market is hardly a secret. Last year, the company purchased a startup called Rypple, which focuses on employee performance management. Fitting in with Salesforce.com's general theme of "social" enterprises, Rypple uses a social network-like approach that allows managers and co-workers to give ongoing feedback and recognition, in a departure from the traditional annual or quarterly review process.

But performance management is a fairly safe area for Salesforce.com to begin with in HR software, since it isn't subject to the same sorts of regulations and legal hurdles as areas such as payroll, benefits and training.

Work.com is likely to be a combination of Rypple's capabilities and the corporate-perks functionality Salesforce.com gained through the recent acquisition of ChoicePass, according to Forrester Research analyst China Martens.

That matches up with the Bloomberg report, which said Work.com "will let managers set organizational goals and recognize employees."

But it seems likely that Salesforce.com has bigger plans in mind as well, and will reveal them at Dreamforce.

"They're really trying to pull out all the stops and establish themselves credibly as doing something in [HR software], and they sort of have to," said analyst Naomi Bloom, managing partner of the consulting firm Bloom & Wallace.

It's not surprising that Salesforce.com is interested in this market, since HR applications reach many more potential users within a company than the CRM (customer-relationship-management) software that has made up Salesforce.com's core business since its inception.

HR software "touches everybody," Bloom said.

Salesforce.com will need to make serious investments in its underlying Force.com platform, given the complex requirements of HR software, according to Bloom.

Dreamforce showgoers can expect Salesforce.com to lay out "a fairly ambitious, interesting, new-age agenda" for HR software, but it's not likely the company's strategy will attempt to take established players like Oracle, SAP and fellow cloud vendor Workday head-on, Bloom added.

Martens sees a number of potential scenarios playing out.

For example, Salesforce.com could make a major acquisition, "perhaps picking up Saba, which is struggling with financial woes at present," Martens said.

The future might also see Salesforce.com build out a full-blown "HR cloud," with a combination of home-grown development, acquisitions and partner-built applications, according to Martens.

Dreamforce starts Sept. 18 in San Francisco.

Chris Kanaracus covers enterprise software and general technology breaking news for The IDG News Service. Chris' email address isChris_Kanaracus@idg.com

The Business BYO Craze: Has It Gone Too Far?

by SHARLYN LAUBY on AUGUST 12, 2012

One of the workplace trends being talked about is BYO (aka Bring Your Own). I can see where it can make a lot of sense…when it comes to certainthings. For example, given the popularity of smart phones, it could be a win-win to ask employees to bring their own. The company saves money by not buying a bunch of phones. They could give employees an allowance to cover a portion of the cost. Employees don’t have to carry two phones. And they use a phone they’re already familiar with.

I’ve also read a few articles about the changing face of education. The first was from Mashable “How Tech Will Transform the Traditional Classroom”. It’s a forward-looking piece about using tablets in school and how it will change teaching and even activities like homework.

The second was on The Huffington Post – “Technology in Schools: In Some Cash-Strapped Districts, Kids Bring Their Own Devices”. The article is exactly what you’d expect. Budget constrained school districts don’t have money to buy computers, so kids bring their own. On one hand, this is creative. On another, it’s setting a dangerous expectation that kids live in households that can afford tablet computers. I could understand if we were talking a $20 Texas Instruments calculator. But tablets aren’t cheap.

Now, there’s talk about Bring Your Own Learning (BYOL). Jane Hart penned a piece about developing a BYOL strategy since “smart, social, autonomous workers are already doing their own thing and solving their own learning and performance problems much more quickly and more easily by using their own tools and devices.” I found Jane’s post to be really thought-provoking and it brought back what I had been reading about BYO from others.

As a training consultant, I have to bring my own devices to my client engagements. And I have to figure out my own professional development needs along with making learning opportunities happen. So I get itconceptually. But it seems like the only way BYO initiatives will really have impact is if they are scalable. One school doing BYO is good – but entire school systems doing BYO is great. Scale offers the opportunity to create strategy.

Which raises bigger questions: Are individuals ready to accept responsibility for bringing their own? Has the education system taught people the principles so they can be successful bringing their own? And are corporations supplying the resources – both financially and otherwise – so employees have the means?

Talk about business BYO needs to be more than a “trend of the day” conversation. And it should center around more than just “technology is our future”. In order for it to be successful, there are serious questions to be resolved.

Image courtesy of HR Bartender

Talent Turnover is Increasing - What Are You Doing to Stop It?

Well it is beginning, the talent turnover cycle again. Why, because there are more opportunities out there today than there has been in the past three(3) years for talented and highly skilled individuals. The voluntary turnover rate from 2010 to 2011 increased from 7% to 8.2% according to Pwc Saratoga reports.  What that means is there has been a latent urge for top performers to leave their current companies. 


I would guess based on the report that you will see an increase from 2011 to 2012 as well and my projection is 9.0%. So what will you need to do in the meantime you ask?

• check on your employee engagement
• do a internal survey to really get the pulse of the population
• invest in training and development
• don't over engineer your performance management system. Make it simple and employee friendly
• review your spot bonus and incentive awards programs
• make sure you are challenging your Millennials and Gen Y population
• make employee more visible and connected to the business

I hope these ideas and your current practices get a fresh review and since it is close to 2013 budget time make sure you plan for these and other employee programs that engage your talent pool.