The HIRE Act, an $18 billion dollar bill that was passed by the Senate today and the House in February, will provide incentives to those organizations that are looking to hire in 2010.

The Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act will offer tax credits and exemptions to companies in an effort to reinvigorate the workforce. Here is a summary of what will become a law once President Obama signs the legislation:

• Employers who hire people who have been unemployed for at least 60 days will get an exemption from Social Security payroll taxes through December for each of those workers.
• Employers can take an additional $1,000 tax credit on their 2011 tax return for every new worker retained at least 52 weeks.
• Small businesses can write off $250,000 of the cost of new equipment purchased this year, instead of having to depreciate those costs over time.

Do you think the HIRE Act will be a positive change to our economy? How do you think this will effect your hiring decisions?

Be someone who makes recommendations on how to accomplish organizational goals.
Example: Downsizing? Review candidates targeted to leave and provide opinions on the best use of their skill sets to filter and keep the best talent in-house.

Recognize what people do best in your workforce and reward them.
- Be willing to educate yourself in the ways of your organization
- Select, mentor, train and develop great people

Be someone who volunteers to work on special assignments. Stay attentive to changing strategic goals.

Be someone who understands the competitive space in which the organization works.

Understand the risks and liabilities involving your workforce and recommend actions to avoid them.

Be someone who doesn’t think of HR responsibilities as just a calendar of events – think about matching up results from workforce reports, designed to track those events, with the objectives of the organization.

To be sure you “Get It”, know it’s not about tasks – it’s about selling products and providing services to customers. Don’t bog down the process with requirements, which slow workforce progress.

Explain clearly the benefits and priorities for any actions which take time away from productivity.

• We have a company site on LinkedIn. From our company page, you can connect to each of us!

• We’ve partnered with others to create an “Alliance for Workforce Management”. Join our discussion group.

• Follow us on Twitter.

• We also have a YouTube channel, where we discuss Abra and provide tutorials.

How are you using Social Media?

As I travel along the webiverse, I always look for ways to better the advancement of Social Networking in organizations. Truth be told, Social Networking is here to stay, and unfortunately the majority of companies in the U.S. are not harnessing the potential power of Social Media.

Manpower Research released a terrific whitepaper that outlines research on social networking, and itemizes positive business uses for this emerging technology.  The whitepaper suggests that organizations should develop policies that, rather than controlling employees social networking behavior, channel social media in positive, creative ways that can help both the employee and the company. They provide a number of business uses for social networking, each with examples of Fortune 500’s that have moved in this direction.

You can download the whitepaper here.

Social Networking is an ever increasing subject for Human Resources professionals. I am speaking to various local SHRM organizations throughout the year on this very topic, and hope to educate, enlighten, and enrich organization’s capabilities in this arena. HR departments, now more than ever, need to embrace this major shift in the way we do business in order to increase value to employees, provide increased knowledge to those that need it in the organization, and become more efficient at their jobs.

As I continue my research on social media in the workplace (this thing evolves daily!), I am continually amazed at the speed of growth of social networking sites. There were 250 million Facebook users in September 2009, today there are over 400 million. And what these users say about companies and their brand determines who will win and lose in this experience economy. Whether people like it or not, the future is here – social media is as big a business revolution as the industrial age.

You might tell already I’m a social media activist. I enjoy visiting organizations of all sizes and discussing this topic, and as I question them on their current social media strategy, I sometimes hear a pang of disbelief to the pro’s of social media in the workplace. “Is social networking really necessary in the workplace?” “Won’t social media hurt an organization more than it will help?” “How can I deter the plague of social sites from our company?” Yes, there are potential negative side effects to social media, but when harnessed properly, social media is a very powerful and useful tool.  In reality, whether you like it or not, your company’s customers and employees are already using social networking. What are they saying about your brand?

Throughout the next few months, I’m going to leave tools, tips, and advice on social networking in HR. Hopefully as you read my commentary on the subject, you can take at least one idea and begin implementing it immediately.

In the meantime, test your initial knowledge on social networking sites. Can you name the nine social sites from their icons at the top of this entry?

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn.

4. Ascertain and understand the risks – what is the financial condition of your workforce costs. (For a list from HRMG Solutions of Key Performance Indicator Reports go to http://www.hrmgsolutions.com/white-papers.asp. For assistance to compile reports using your Sage Abra data, contact us at 610-941-2119).

5. Know Which Indicators Are Most Important – Discuss with your C team which KPI numbers are the most valuable for your organization and be proactive in communicating unfiltered information.

6. HR must not be a disconnected department, separate from the rest of operations -
To become a trusted partner, get away from process orientation.
Don’t be just a calendar of tasks and events.
Example Story from one of the panel members: The organization was starting an exciting new international venture with all divisions working overtime to make it a success. At the same time, the HR department insisted on sending all senior officials through routine safety training sessions, which indicated a lack of understanding of the needs of the organization.

Yes, according to a recent study conducted by Microsoft.  In the study, Microsoft surveyed 2,500 HR Managers and Recruitment Professionals, and 70 per cent of responders said they rejected a candidate because of their online behavior. 28% said they terminated an existing employee due to content found on a social networking site.

However, responders also said that building a strong personal brand on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn can help candidates. Peter Cullen, of Microsoft, said: “Your online reputation is not something to be scared of, it’s something to be proactively managed. These days, it’s essential that web-users cultivate the kind of online reputation that they would want an employer to see.”

“Eight-six percent of HR professionals believe that online reputation has had a positive impact on an applicant,” said Cullen. “Having a positive online reputation can be just as influential [as having a negative one].”

How do you manage your online reputation? What have you done to build your personal brand?

10 Things Which Raise “C” Level Respect for HR – Part 1

1. Support your organization’s bottom line goals. Attend executive meetings or ask to read meeting reports to get a clear understanding of the current goals.

2. Understand what generates revenue for your organization.

3. Learn the business
Who is the competition?
What are the biggest risks and liabilities?
Find out what makes your business tick
Find out what you don’t know about your business
Volunteer to go out on a sales call or visit departments to understand the goals of the “C” team.

Part 2 – Coming Soon – Ascertaining Your Organizations Risks and How HR Can Help

There will be a significant change in how workers learn on the job in the near future, according to experts leading a webcast presented by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

The “Future Trends in Training and Development” was led by Don Cook, Senior VP of Learn.com; Paula Ketter, Editor of T&D Magazine; Pat McLagan, Chair and CEO of McLagan Internationaland; and Marc Rosenberg of Marc Rosenberg & Associates.

The experts said that in the future, there will be a change in who is in charge of training. In the past, learning involved 1) a professional who managed learning and 2) a learner who implemented it, McLagan said. In the future, the learner will manage the learning and the professional will support the learner.

Rosenberg identified 6 future trends that will change how employees learn on the job:

1. Learning will evolve beyond training. Under the current paradigm, the training instructor is the center of information (typically in a classroom setting) and every worker learns in the same environment. As training evolves, the focus will shift to the employee as the seeker of knowledge, with learning taking place at the moment of need. Employees will draw on many sources for their learning needs (see next item).
2. Blended learning will be redefined. Traditionally, blended learning was simply a combination of online training and classroom training. The new definition will involve using a variety of sources, including online training, classroom training, mentoring, communicating with experts, knowledge repositories, etc.
3. Learning will move to the workplace. In the past, training often involved many disruptions of work as employees left their work space or workplace to complete it. The new scope of learning will involve only minimal time away from work combined with work-based learning and support.
4. Learning and e-learning will be less course-centric and more knowledge-centric. Instead of relying on courses alone, training will include multiple sources of knowledge, including experts, virtual communities, live events, webcasts, and information repositories to go alongside of online and classroom courses.
5. Learning strategies will adapt differently to different levels of mastery. A novice and an experienced employee have different learning needs. A novice will need a more structured training format and will benefit from classroom and online learning. An experienced employee, who may even be an expert, will benefit from an informal, on-the-job training, and will use knowledge management, collaboration, and performance support. A learning program needs to be able to accommodate these learners and everyone in between.
6. “Web 2.0” will revolutionize learning. Web 2.0 will make learning more interactive and personal.

To help our customers better align with these trend HRMG is launching Express Training in January 2010. Express Training  is comprised of knowledge centric, 5-10 min videos, which are task specific.

Express Training In Action!

The Social Security Act provides that Social Security and Supplemental Security Income benefits increase automatically each year if there is an increase in the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) from the third quarter of the last year to the third quarter of the current year.  This year there was no increase in the CPI-W from the third quarter of 2008 to the third quarter of 2009.  In addition, because there was no increase in the CPI-W this year, under the law the starting point for determinations regarding a possible 2011 COLA will remain the third quarter of 2008.

Some other changes that would normally take effect in January 2010 based on the increase in average wages also will not take effect, even though average wages did increase.  Since there is no COLA, the statute prohibits an increase in the maximum amount of earnings subject to the Social Security tax as well as the retirement earnings test exempt amounts.  These amounts will remain unchanged in 2010.

This fact sheet provides more information on 2010 Social Security changes.