Human Resources

An Alternative to ‘Work-Life Balance’

Originally posted on ImprovisingMe.com Let me start by stating I HATE the phrase ‘Work-Life Balance’!!! NOTE: My apologies, in advance, to my mother, for she never liked us using the word “HATE”, but let’s just say “strongly dislike” doesn’t emphasize the point well enough in this case. ‘Work-Life Balance’ or some VERY similar phrase, getsRead… Read more »

How Public Safety Agencies Can Use Social Media to Engage Their Employees

The Los Angeles Fire Department is a pioneer among public safety agencies and emergency responders in the usage of social media. The Department’s initial social media efforts began in 2005 and have since garnered recognition nationwide. LAFD’s presence is spread across multiple social media channels including Twitter, Facebook (look up the group “Los Angeles FD),Read… Read more »

Demystifying Virtualization: Dramatically Reduce IT Energy Consumption, and Improve the Business of Government

Did you know that the average desktop computer uses almost as much power when idle as when it’s active? And the problem isn’t just restricted to the desktop. There are literally thousands of data centers across the globe stacked to capacity with inefficient, underutilized computer servers. In 2006, in the United States alone, datacenters consumedRead… Read more »

On My Transformation from Social Worker to Public Servant

I read somewhere that the (median) average age of entry into the Canadian federal public service is 34 years old. That fits me reasonably well; this is my second career. For my first 10 years of “professional” employment I was a social worker, and my speciality was child and adolescent mental health. It was theRead… Read more »

My Mother Always Told Me to Be Well Rounded: Do Employers Think the Same?

Growing up my mother made sure that I was exposed to culture, art, music, and science. I was almost as diversified as you could possibly get for being a “small-town” kid. When the time came for me to head off to college and pick a major, I followed these same adolescent teachings. Not wanting toRead… Read more »

War on Talent? Really?!

I recently read an interesting article on the recession and its effects on an employee’s relationship with their employer. The findings they released last week are thought provoking to say the least. A little about the study – it was a global study (Global Workforce Study from Towers Watson which concluded January 2010) of overRead… Read more »

Gen Y Recruiting Tips: The Candidate Perspective.

Job ads for recruiters and HR Generalists are on the rise. I’ve seen many open roles in government recently as well. This is a good sign that the economy is starting to improve in both the public and private sector. As Gen Y are an ever growing part of the applicant pool organizations and agenciesRead… Read more »

Giving Employees Incentives for Innovation

Calls for more government efficiency come not just from the public, but also from the public servants who make government’s day-to-day operations possible. Some of the best ideas come from the people who intimately know the processes that could be improved. However, implementing those ideas often requires jumping several, tall hurdles. In an unfortunate caseRead… Read more »