Is Twittering a Productive Use of Work Time?
I was torn. On one hand, I was skeptical about Twitter. Despite its growing popularity as a social networking site, it struck me as superficial and geared toward narcissists. After all, users can post messages of no more than 140 characters, so they often wind up posting mundane details of their...
So How Do You Really Feel About Management?
Full disclosure: I'm a manager, and there are days when I wish I were nearly anything else. So it was reassuring to see a recent i4cp survey - to which there were 675 respondents - showing that most folks agree that being a boss is tough. What wasn't so reassuring is that a lot of employees just...
Don't Be Like Brett Favre
In the classic comedy There's Something About Mary, Ben Stiller's character asks Mary, played by Cameron Diaz, about her former love interest. "What about Brett Favvvvv...ruh," he asks in a memorable line, butchering the pronunciation of Favre's last name (pronounced "Farve"). In...
Time to Tighten Your Social Networking Structure?
Most organizations see the potential of social networking technologies, but they also face concomitant risks - risks for which they may not yet be adequately prepared, suggests new research conducted by i4cp. Yes, social networking can be a boon to an organization by encouraging knowledge sharing,...
Living Up to Your High Potential(s)
We didn't expect it. After all, who has time to worry about high-potential employees these days? It takes considerable effort, patience and planning to focus on HiPos, and a lot of companies are otherwise preoccupied with the day-to-day urgency of surviving in a tough economy. But good companies...
Forget One-Size-Fits-All HR
One-size-fits-all HR is a thing of the past. A new study from i4cp indicates that HR functions are adapting to today's global business environment and morphing to meet their organizations' unique needs. So, what's the one best way of structuring a company's HR organization or of formulating major HR...
Labor Initiative Gains Momentum Under New Administration
"Everything old is new again" may be considered an appropriate catchphrase for the Obama administration's labor policy. During his first few weeks in office, President Obama voided three of President Bush's executive orders pertaining to labor, and more sweeping changes are on the horizon (...
Staying Well While Waiting for the Healthcare Revolution
Get 100 or so people in a room and ask them for their opinion on an issue. You're likely to get 100 different opinions. After all, we're human and all have our own ways of looking at things. But when it comes to the U.S. healthcare system, various studies indicate there's general agreement on one...
Swine Flu: From Pandemic Panic to Workplace Preparedness
Considering all the global and economic crises in recent weeks, the initial reports were overshadowed and even easy to ignore. That was especially true for busy managers preoccupied with the current economic downturn. Local officials in the Mexican town of La Gloria declared a health alert because...
Gen Y, Which Will Rule the Global Workforce Tomorrow, Takes Lumps Today
Today's economic mess is a watershed for workers in every age bracket. But for Millennials (aka, Gen Y) - those born from about 1980 to 2000 - this crisis is more than a time of joblessness. It coincides with their coming of age, setting the blueprint not only for individual lives and careers but...
