Human Resources

Influence-Ability: Being The Leader People Want to Follow

Shawn, HR Manager, recently was chosen to lead a special project to streamline all HR processes. Members of the project team include fellow managers throughout the company, including two managers in remote locations. “This project is a nightmare,” Shawn complained. “My team members ignore my e-mails. They ‘forget’ team meetings, or, worse still, they comeRead… Read more »

Top 5 Traits of a Great Infographic

Infographics have become an extremely powerful way for government agencies to quickly and efficiently synthesize complex data for citizens. In terms of data, you typically have people in two camps – the folks who want to see the raw data file and manipulate data accordingly and then the people who want to find information quicklyRead… Read more »

Part-Time Retirement Gaining Momentum?

H.R. 4363 proposes to allow Federal employees to “phase into retirement” by continuing their public service, working up to 20 hours per week while receiving a partial annuity. Phased retirees would come from the Feds’ pool of retirement-eligibles who have worked full-time for at least 3-years immediately prior to entering into phased retirement status. ForRead… Read more »

An Improving Economy Could Mean Loss of Employees. Will They Stay or Will They Go?

When accounting for the costs (both real costs, such as time taken to select and recruit a replacement, and also opportunity costs, such as lost productivity), the cost of employee turnover to organizations has been estimated to be up to 150% of the employees’ remuneration package. In the case of the public sector can, orRead… Read more »

Snip-Snip … More Pay & Benefits Cuts

Posted in the 4/17/2012 edition of FedSmith, Ian Smith shared the Senate’s Budget Committee’s plan. Speaking on the plan, the committee chairman said he would “begin a Budget Committee markup of a long-term budget for the nation. As my Chairman’s Mark, I will lay down the bipartisan Fiscal Commission plan, also known as the Bowles-SimpsonRead… Read more »

WayIn for Human Resources

Way-In enables real-time crowd sourcing of opinion (in a fun way) If you have not yet checked out WayIn, you might want to head over there right now. WayIn allows you to post quick polls and quickly crowd source opinion. While it is still a small service, they have big goals (and the back-end toRead… Read more »

How to Engage your Employee in 10 Easy Steps. Did we miss any?

Engaging your employees can be tough. But it’s essential, think of GSA, right now their employees are being attacked for the work of a few bad apples. Tom Fox is the Vice President for Leadership and Innovation at the Partnership for Public Service and a columnist for the Washington Post. He told Chris Dorobek onRead… Read more »

Training – Online, In-Person, Blended — What works and What doesn’t?

When it comes to training there are a whole bunch of different philosophies: webinars, online and in-person. But one thing is certain government workers need to be in a culture of continual learning. But tight budgets, baby boomers retiring and the GSA conference scandal mean trainings are under more scrutiny than ever. Now there isRead… Read more »

Set up a Firing Squad

Bob Gibson posted an article in the April 16, 2012 edition of FedSmith saying that the best way for employers to prevail if challenged by an MSPB Hearing is to set up Firing Squads. Believe it or not, this is pretty good advice, folks. I’ve seen it in action and it works, provided the organizationRead… Read more »