Career Tools

Competing for Talent offers a comprehensive, systematic approach to recruiting and retaining the employees everyone wants. Nancy Ahlrichs shows employers how to win the competition for talent by melding management, organization design, human resources, and marketing in a way that turns the company into a magnet for top performers ? an employer of choice. Ahlrichs takes us inside America's most successful businesses to show how employers of choice go beyond compensation and benefits issues to focus on building and communicating a top employer reputation. She offers valuable strategies, action plans, tools, and information that any business can use to become an employer of choice. And she includes a wealth of suggestions that companies can put into place immediately ? including techniques for calculating the costs of turnover, tips on how to use technology to attract top candidates, ways to increase the number of accepted offers, and advice on creating a "Wow!" experience for new employees that decreases new hire turnover.

Few managers dread any task more than the hiring and firing of employees. The hiring process is long and full of unknowns, while the firing process adds layers of personal emotions to an already highly-charged situation. The Complete Book of Hiring and Firing shows you how to take these difficult decisions and turn them into profitable and positive endeavors.

One third of all job applicants lie on their resumes. When these bad apples get hired, it means putting high turnover, low productivity, discipline problems, and legal nightmares on the payroll. This new book is the only comprehensive guide available to the delicate art of reference checking. Managers, small company owners, and human resources professionals can stop troubles before they begin by using this book's dozens of proven techniques for getting at the truth.

As a manager, learn how you can identify your real objective during the performance appraisal based on five personnel-management techniques set forth in this exemplifying video. There are four major steps to conducting your employee meetings. After watching this video, you'll understand how to prepare, meet, document, and follow up after the appraisal using such models as the SMART method and a one-stop-at-a-time formula for making the appraisal both beneficial for yourself and the employee. Plus get time-proven advice on making difficult topics easy to cover.

This audio-cassette is based on the book that is an essential guide for you, if you?re willing to consider the possibility that technology, capital spending, and restructuring alone will not lead to the promised land. The authors have taken pains to explode many of the myths about employee relations, including those based on the notion that ?more is better?, and instead, tried to offer practical, fad-free advice for transforming your workforce--be it a Fortune 500 or a start-up, into a lethal competitive weapon.

This book is an essential guide for you, if you're willing to consider the possibility that technology, capital spending, and restructuring alone will not lead to the promised land. The authors have taken pains to explode many of the myths about employee relations, including those based on the notion that ?more is better?, and instead, tried to offer practical, fad-free advice for transforming your workforce--be it a Fortune 500 or a start-up, into a lethal competitive weapon.

New employees hit your workplace eager to show their stuff and make their marks. Creative New Employee Orientation Programs shows you how to keep their energy levels high with creative orientation activities, customizable worksheets, innovative icebreakers, and more. Many companies have an orientation process that addresses the paperwork issues but does not include vital information about the company's products and services, culture, policies, customers, safety issues, and so forth. This book is designed to help those who are responsible for their organization's orientation process by providing unique and creative ways to make orientation special,memorable,and effective.

Daterviewing: Exposing the Biases That Influence Hiring Decisions explores how interviewing is strikingly similar to dating, and how anyone can avoid the pitfalls of both by using an easy, structured method for finding the right person. The author reflects upon the often emotionally biased dating world and encourages readers to recognize the similar biases that develop when they select employees and candidates for employment.

Business has long struggled with the notion of "human capital," but do companies really know the value of their people? All too frequently, companies lay off thousands of workers to boost share price while, at the same time, their annual reports promise that "people are our greatest asset!" Now, for the first time, human capital experts Brian Friedman, James Hatch, and David M. Walker show how companies can deliver on this promise. They reveal how Arthur Andersen's breakthrough five-stage framework, "Human Capital Appraisal," enables managers to measure, manage, and leverage their companies' investment in people. The authors describe specifically how managers can evaluate the current effectiveness of a firm's human capital strategies and the efficiency of its current Human Resources programs. They explain how to measure the amount of time and money management spends to recruit, develop, and manage human resources. Then they focus on how a firm can assess the return on this investment, minimize risk, and leverage the value of its human capital resources. Finally, the authors demonstrate how such leading companies as Colgate Palmolive, The Chicago Tribune, Mobil Oil, The Body Shop, Holy Cross Hospital, Hyatt Hotels, IBM, and British Petroleum are realizing the value of their people through human capital programs. This unique, proven, and proprietary methodology makes this invaluable book required reading for every chief executive, human resources director, and line manager.

Descriptions Now is the all-in-one job description and hiring solution that will help you hire the right people and provide a solid basis for managing performance in your workforce.

Recruiting for hard to fill positions involves more than just finding and compensating the right talent. As this groundbreaking book emphasizes, it requires important changes in the attitudes of recruiters. Successful recruiting requires recruiters who understand the psychology of the job. Most important of all, the recruiter must believe that he or she can make the seemingly impossible become a reality and over time, change the very nature of the organization by hiring high-quality employees.

"You can't do that!" the staff member yelled. "I might have to talk to my lawyer." Darren didn't think his employee would really go that far, but later he looked at his file. The documentation was shaky. Maybe he hadn't clearly outlined the employee's offenses. But what should he say and what should he leave out? Discipline was too important to take chances! Managers can protect themselves and their organization against legal action...if they get incidents on paper. This important resource guide provides steps to ensure solid, consistent documentation procedures throughout the entire organization. Managers will also learn how to correct performance problems with progressive discipline.

In the next 20 years, citizens over the age of 65 will outnumber children for the first time. America's labor force is not only growing older, it's also ushering in a whole new set of work force issues to tackle - including an impending labor shortage. By 2010 there will be 169 million jobs in the United States, but only 159 million workers to undertake them - a 10 million worker shortfall! Exhaustively researched, masterfully written, and extremely informative - this book candidly and comprehensively lays out the statistics of the graying labor pool, the implications for business organizations, and suggested solutions and strategies. It helps organizations plan and position for the changing labor market, offering strategies to help companies effectively compete for the best and the brightest of the shrinking labor pool. It also explores how to leverage the strengths of older workers, slowdown strategies, phased retirement, rehiring, and much more. It's a must read for business owners, executives, HR professionals, consultants - any anyone responsible for staffing and business strategy.

When key employees and executives move on -- whether expectedly or unexpectedly -- organizations had better have a good succession plan in place. The most comprehensive and authoritative book on the subject, Effective Succession Planning has helped countless companies develop strong succession programs and avoid major disruptions. Thoroughly revised to reflect the latest trends and best practices, the book presents strategies for identifying competencies, clarifying values, assessing current and future needs, and creating a complete, systematic succession planning program.

Electronic Recruiting 101 is the industry's most extensive, up-to-date guide on Internet recruiting, with full coverage of all the latest trends, tools, and tricks of the trade. Newly expanded and updated for 2005, this resource guide contains valuable electronic recruiting tips that will help you recruit smarter, faster, and better. And unless you want to pay for expensive training seminars, it's the only place where you'll find all the detailed information and training you need to bring your Internet recruiting skills up to speed ? whether you're a beginner who wants to learn the basics or a pro who needs quick access to all the latest resources in one book.

A unique publication covering the full range of policies included in personnel handbooks. A one-step reference for personnel policies with guidelines on how to draft policies and avoid common pitfalls. An essential reference tool for every personnel director, labor relations consultant, payroll manager, and EEO coordinator. A non-technical guide to laws and regulations applicable to handbooks and personnel policies.

Competition for skilled employees is fierce! This book provides comprehensive, practical advice to employers to get and keep the people they need. It covers such vital topics as what workers want?including a sense of making a real impact in their jobs and getting learning opportunities; why workers leave?sometimes just because they can (it?s so easy to find a new job), often because they feel undervalued or bored where they are; and what best-practice companies are doing to attract and retain the talent necessary to remain competitive.

The Internet has become savvy headhunters' sharpest tool. The bad news is that employers are paying thousands for a service that should cost $200 or less. Here's the first, comprehensive guide to provide employers with everything they need to mine this rich resource.

Explains discipline and termination procedures; identifies federal and state tax considerations; discusses wage attachments, assignments and garnishments; covers workers? compensation laws and claim procedures; clarifies sex discrimination ambiguities. This helpful guide also includes information regarding employee handbooks, evaluations and personnel files, explains employer liability to third parties, and helps reduce the risk of lawsuits from employees.

This is every job seeker's key to the Hidden Job Market online. With hundreds of new sites listed for the first time, it is the most complete and up-to-date "Internet address book" of job boards and career portals available anywhere. Organized by career field, industry and geographic focus, the Directory is a "job seeker friendly" resource for tapping into the best opportunities online. In addition, free updates to the Directory's listings are provided all year long at WEDDLEs.com. If you're looking for a dream job in the United States or anywhere around the world, this book will help you find the sites where it's posted. While everyone else is using the same well-known job boards, you'll be searching the Hidden Job Market online!