economy

It feels like considerably more than three months since the last HR Star Conference in San Francisco, and if you are anything like us it is probably because of the many ups and downs in the market and the starts and stops while trying to move ahead.

Jobs are still getting filled in spite of the alarmist headlines.

So first time unemployment claims go up for a week. What doesn't get reported is that the four-month rolling average shows a decline in claims.

Assisting in the development of tomorrow's scientists and engineers all the while helping retain and energize vital teachers in our schools sounds like a pretty tall order, or an impossible dream in today's economic environment. But that is precisely the mission of Industry Initiatives for Science and Math Education (IISME)

The folks at The Future of Work Unlimited recently published an interesting article on the changing nature of employment

Not all of the shoes have dropped in the suspenseful experience of recovering from the recession, but many indicators point to continued better times ahead as we began to see even in the late months of last year.

It is an exciting, challenging, anxious time to be in HR.

We've heard most of this for some time — but you have to start fully embracing it if you are serious about being in human resources management, convinced your professionalism is a necessary ingredient for business success, and you are doing everything you can to contribute to that.

The heartbreaking stories from the devastating earthquakes across the globe recently — Haiti, Chile and China — invariably talked about the increased destruction and loss associated with poorly constructed commercial buildings, schools and dwellings. Absent well-designed and constructed foundations and infrastructure, these structures collapsed or at a minimum experienced far greater damage than the rest. A clarion call for building structures securely in the first place and for avoiding the misery that can ensue otherwise.

I think this is a great metaphor for businesses.

A strategic move today for some companies that are anticipating more aggressive business levels as the recovery progresses is proactive use of mentoring programs to enhance the development of current talent and enrich jobs.

We have talked about "flexible staffing" as a business concept for years — primarily because we are in the talent management business and have long understood the blend of contract, temporary, regular fulltime positions and use of consultants to be one of the most powerful and efficient approaches businesses can take to fill human capital requirements for business strategy and goal attainment.

Change when it comes suddenly and uninvited is often quite difficult for most of us.

At the same time, life becomes more difficult than it needs to be when change is overdue.