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You can’t pick up an HR magazine, check a website, or attend a conference without hearing the phrase “big data.” And not just once, but multiple times. It’s not only the latest HR buzzword, but the meaning behind it, if not the term itself has permeated the social consciousness so thoroughly that Google reports there are 22 million searches a day on the term.

But what is “big data” and how is it different from other kinds? Read the rest of this entry »

Do you know what job you need to fill? If you’re pulling it from the skills list a hiring manager put together without really understanding exactly what the job is, you might end up sourcing from only a part of the field, and missing out on some great talent because of it. Sourcer Ryan Phillips points to searches for “cocoa programmers” as an example of a search that would miss 80% of the potential field. “Immerse and educate yourself in the industry you are recruiting for,” is her advice. ERE

Seven occupations accounted for more than 400,000 job postings last month, about one-sixth of all the new jobs that went online in February. These occupations, ranging from accountant to paralegal, are also those that will be among the fastest growing between now and the end of the decade.

The number of jobs for accountants will grow by 16%, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The need for paralegals will grow 16%. But the bigger winner will be medical assistants, where demand will increase a whopping 31%, or 163,000 new jobs .

Rounding out the seven are: Read the rest of this entry »

Love is all around us today. And not just in the hearts and flowers and balloons that today festoon countless offices.

CareerBuilder says there’s a pretty good chance some of your co-workers are dating each other. Four in 10 workers have had — or are having — an office romance, according to the company’s annual survey of 4,216 workers. And 30% of them have married an office mate.

For human resource managers, such news is more heartache than heart throb. Read the rest of this entry »

Image courtesy of FrameAngel / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What’s ahead for Human Resources in 2013? That’s one of those questions that has no shortage of answers — or more properly — no shortage of predictions. Some, like the expansion of social media for recruiting, are easy to see. Others, such as the tightening demand for HR professionals with business savvy and financial know-how, are just beginning to become clear.HRNewsDaily looked into its crystal ball to come up with five HR trends that will have an impact on both the profession and business practices generally next year. Technology is part of the picture, but also making the list is social media as a performance management tool, and a sharper focus on employee engagement. HRNewsDaily

If you’ll be looking for tech workers or accountants next year, you’ve got plenty of company. Software developers, computer systems analysts, and accountants and auditors top the list of the most in-demand jobs in the year ahead. Forbes published a list of the “Top Jobs for 2013.” Six of the 18 of the fastest growing jobs that made the list are in tech. Compiled by CareerBuilder and Economic Modeling Specialists Intl., the list also includes two engineering jobs — industrial and mechanical. In addition to accountants, financial analysts and personal financial advisers also made the list. Sales, especially those in wholesale and manufacturing and in technical and scientific fields, came in at number seven. Also there, human resource professionals and HR trainers. Forbes

Of all the developments and trends in human resources, what would make your list?

Would strategic HR be there? How about outsourcing; or should that be in-sourcing? Does employer branding and the “war for talent” belong there? And where would technology fit in, especially the trend away from so-called best in class components and toward integrated systems?

Not an easy call is it? Just since the start of the recession in late 2007 human resource departments, and the profession itself, has seen a remarkable shift in both function and practice. Strategic HR, a concept that began to percolate about the same time companies changed the personnel division to the HR department, got jumped into the C-suite consciousness shortly after the layoffs began. It was helped along by the angst created earlier by Keith Hammond’s wake-up call to the profession, “Why  We Hate HR.” Read the rest of this entry »

For years now teachers, lawyers, finance professionals, even young sailors have turned to mentors for professional development, career advice, and help with the sticky issues that crop up in every business activity.

For administrative staff, mentoring programs are rare.  Rather than having an experienced professional to turn to, most new admins turn to a colleague when questions arise. This is more impromptu on-the-job training, and not genuine mentoring. Read the rest of this entry »

Business leaders are widely unhappy with the support they get from human resources, and say they are most dissatisfied with the department’s collaboration and sharing of knowledge.

Leaders of finance, IT, procurement, and other units of some 145 major global businesses blame HR for providing such a low level of service that it is worsening talent and skills shortages. Read the rest of this entry »

There’s a new HR term to know: Contingent Fringe.

Coined by Steve Youll, strategic planning analyst at Greif, (with a little help from Kris Dunn, the HR Capitalist), the term describes the collective population of those now working as temps, contractors and freelancers, plus those currently employed who would join the contingent workforce if their full-time job were to go away. Says Dunn: “The percentage of the total workforce on the contingent fringe, as you might have guessed, is only going to get larger over time.” HR Capitalist