When someone enters your place of employment looking for work one of the first things I like to do is ask them what type of work they are looking for. This will give you a good indication of their temperament and their skills and abilities. If they are not interested in that type of work you have then why would you want to hire them unless you just need a warm body at your business or in my case and my restaurant. I must admit there were times when we needed a warm body and got desperate to hire someone instead of waiting for the right person to come along. The reason why ask him the question about what type of work they want is that will give you good indication of what type of work they like to do. If their artistic and your job is not artistic in any manner they probably won’t enjoy it.

I like to find people who had a history of being employed by another business for some period of time. It all depends on their age but of course if they are yellow and they probably won’t have a long work history. And in that case you’ll just have to take what you get. However if they’re in their mid-20s to 30s they should have a work history that you can reference. If you notice a lot of job changes then they will probably change how your job and into somebody else’s before long. So look for work history and see how many jobs they bounced between.

Finally, I’ll ask them to work for a day or maybe two to see how things work. I will typically pay them for their time and if things don’t work out that we part our ways after a day or two.this trial period of time will give you both a chance to recognize whether or not the new employee is suited for this type of work. If they don’t work out then they are free to go and just simply. If they don’t like the job they’re free to go.

Hopefully these couple of tips will help you in your next hiring decision. But for someone as dedicated and someone who would like the job.

1. Do not give pre-employment tests to every applicant.
2. Most companies test the top 3 – 5 applicants for each job opening.

This article tells you about a quick, 15-minute method you can use to figure out which applicants you should have fill-out pre-employment tests.

RESEARCH THAT HELPS YOU HIRE THE BEST

Research shows pre-employment tests are the most accurate way to predict how a job applicant may perform on-the-job. In contrast, most interviewers make incorrect and subjective judgments about job applicants. And reference checks often prove unreliable and fail to help much.

Reasons pre-employment tests prove highly useful are tests are research-based, objective, and can be custom-tailored for each job in your company. In sharp contrast, interviews are not created from research, horribly subjective and, thus, interviewers usually inaccurate predictions.

With this pre-employment tests able to help you, you benefit from including tests as a prediction method if you crave to hire the best.

PROBLEM: HIRING MANAGERS OFTEN CREATE WASTEFUL MESS

Managers all-too-often waste immense time and energy on applicants they should not even consider.

If pre-employment tests are not given early in the selection process, managers often make this time-wasting, energy-draining, stupid mistake:
1. 30 – 60 minutes – reviewing and thinking about applicant’s resume or application
2. 30 – 60 minutes – discussing applicant with other managers
3. 1 – 2 hours – interviewing applicant
3. 1 hour – thinking about interview
4. 1 – 2 hours – talking about interview with other managers

Total time used or wasted on one applicant = 4 – 7 hours

After investing 4 – 7 hours of expensive management time on one applicant, then the manager might decide to give pre-employment tests to the applicant.

If pre-employment test scores indicate it is a great applicant, then the manager is happy.

But if pre-employment test scores indicate the applicant should not be hired, then the manager suddenly realizes s/he wasted 4 – 7 hours of time on an applicant who was not worth it.

At that point, some managers feel foolish they did not test the applicant earlier, rather than wasting 4 – 7 hours considering a loser.

But other managers get emotionally committed to hiring anyone they spend 4 – 7 hours on, despite lousy pre-employment test scores. They fret, “I spent 4 – 7 hours on that applicant. Plus, I don’t want to find more applicants and then spend 4 – 7 hours on them. So, I think I’ll ’shoot the messenger’ – that is, ignore test scores clearly indicating this applicant should not be hired.”

In either case, managers easily can avoid this quandary – plus avoid wasting 4 – 7 hours considering an applicant who is not worth considering.

How? By giving pre-employment tests early in the hiring process, rather than late in the process.

So, the question arises: How can a manager quickly determine which applicants they should have take pre-employment tests – before they invest 4 – 7 more hours on them?

SOLUTION: GIVE PRE-EMPLOYMENT TESTS TO APPLICANTS WHO EXCELL ON BRIEF BIO-DATA INTERVIEWS

Pre-employment tests, at most companies, are given to the top 3 – 5 applicants for each opening.

You can use a 15-minute brief initial job interview to decide which applicant is worth testing.

What should you ask in this 15-minute job interview? Ask bio-data questions. “Bio” does not refer to biology. Instead, bio in bio-data means biographical information. You want to ask applicants if they have bio-data similar to bio-data of your best employees.

EXAMPLE 1:
A janitorial company asked me how it might decide which applicants should fill-out the dependability pre-employment test. They explained the job is (A) very physical, (B) indoors, and (C) required teamwork. Also, they felt sick and tired of wasteful turnover and absences.

I suggested they start each brief bio-data interview with a polite warning, e.g., “If we hire you, but later discover you gave dishonest information in our hiring process, then your dishonesty may be used as a reason to fire you. Also, you need to tell me names of your boss and boss’ boss for each question I ask about your work history. I need their names, because we may contact them to verify what you tell us.”

Remember, as I repeatedly recommend in my “Hire the Best – & Avoid the Rest” book, that past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior.

I recommended the cleaning company ask these bio-data questions plus more:
1. “What were your previous jobs?” [to see if jobs were indoors, physical, and in teams]
2. “How long did you stay on your previous jobs?” [to look at turnover potential]
3. “Why did you leave each job?” [to gauge turnover reasons]
4. “How many absences did you have in your jobs?” [to check absence potential]
5. “How much pay did you earn in each job?”

The pay question helped them focus on considering only applicants who earned less that the company pays. Why? Because employees who earn more than their previous job are happy with their pay, but employees earning the same or less feel dissatisfied and may turnover.

Pre-employment tests were given only to applicants who had bio-data needed to succeed at that company. Then, if an applicant got wonderful test scores, the company proceeded to do time-consuming prediction methods, e.g., in-depth interview, background checks, job observation, and more.

EXAMPLE 2:
A company wanted to hire great sales reps. I helped managers there fill-out my detailed Bio-Data Questionnaire. I discovered the company’s best reps had bio-data in common, including (1) earned B.A.’s from state universities, (2) had only one or two full-time jobs before applying at this company, (3) those were sales jobs, (4) they stayed in each job over three years, (5) earned less at previous employer, (6) worked part-time in high school and college, and (7) other interesting bio-data.

From this information, I created a custom-tailored brief bio-data interview. It ascertained if an applicant had bio-data similar to the company’s best sales reps.

Pre-employment tests were given only to applicants whose bio-data was similar to the company’s best sales reps.

The pre-employment tests – to make hiring decisions even better – were custom-tailored so the company easily saw which applicants got the same test scores as its best sales reps.

Applicant’s with pre-employment test scores similar to the company’s best sales reps later went through a grilling in a two-hour interview, work observations, role-play, reference checks, and more. Those who did well on bio-data, pre-employment tests and all other prediction methods usually were offered jobs. The result is the company now has a highly productive sales force.

PRE-EMPLOYMENT TESTING FOR APPLICANTS WITH ‘RIGHT’ BIO-DATA

Pre-employment tests should be given to your top 3 – 5 job applicants.

Determine who takes pre-employment tests by starting with a brief, 15-minute bio-data interview. Applicants who have bio-data similar to your best employees are the ones you have take pre-employment tests.

When pre-employment test scores of an applicant are the same as scores of your best employees, then invest hours of your valuable management time in lengthy interviews, job observations, role-plays, reference checks, and other prediction methods.

Pre-employment tests and a 15-minute bio-data interview saves many hours of expensive management time as they help you hire the best.

Whether it is for new hire orientation, skills enhancement, and/or personal development, there is a need for HR training programs. Whatever the reason may be, it is important to have a quality training program. This will keep your staff motivated in learning necessary skills and concepts, which in turn, would increase your department’s and your company’s profitability.

The effectiveness of your program relies primarily on its quality and variety. You could make one laden with valuable information. However, you need to make sure that it is structured in such a way that your staff can and will absorb as much of it as is possible. Let us take, for example, the training program that every company has – new hire training. This is the very first training you give to new employees. It is not limited to orienting your new staff about the company and its existing policies and procedures. This is also where your trainees learn and fully understand their job positions, functions, and how they relate to the organization as a whole. It includes expectations of their jobs, the skills they need to do the job well, and how they affect the company.

Unquestionably, this training is crucial to the successful operation of the company. So, how do you make this program effective? It starts with having an updated training manual. Since this would serve as their visual guide, the manual is vital in preparing your new staff for their position. Keep in mind that the manual is not for you or for your boss. It is for your trainees. Therefore, design it for them. Keep it interesting and easy to understand. If you think it would help, you can even use graphics or language that is not necessarily “corporate”.

Seating a new hire next to a seasoned associate would also be another effective technique in new hire training. Your new staff would see firsthand the many aspects of the job and how the concepts he learned in the initial training are applied. Often referred to as side-by-side training, this would be a good way of introducing the new hires to existing employees. It creates an opportunity for them to develop a working relationship.

There is definitely a lot to learn in this training. However, it is said that a new associate would only absorb about 40% of the information from it. Thus, there is still a need for further training. These are the equally important continuing education programs. It is only logical to first have a goal in mind before making these programs. What do you hope to achieve with this program? Is it to enhance employees’ skills? Is it for their personal development? Or is it a combination of both?

Once you have determined your objectives, you can then design an HR training program that would best meet these objectives. Again, it is important to keep in mind who your participants are for this training. It must be tailored according to their needs. It would also help to keep a diverse group to encourage lively discussions. Always keep your training sessions fun and interesting. After all, technical inputs are important, but they might all just go down the drain if staff members are not excited about learning.

A company’s main asset is its workforce. It goes without saying that when a company needs people, it needs to get the right people. Otherwise, productivity would be compromised and expenditures increased. As it is the HR department’s responsibility to hire people for the company, it is their job to protect the company from these possible losses. The HR recruitment staff cannot just accept nor discard applicants without just measure. Thus, recruitment metrics comes about.

Though there are many different types of metrics, they drive at one common goal. This is getting the right, if not the best, applicant for a job. The process of hiring people in the past has somewhat limited metrics to cost-per-hire and time-to-fill. Cost-per-hire, as its name suggests, looks at the recruitment cost in relation to the positions filled. This is the most common measure in recruiting. Given the many direct and indirect costs involved in recruitment, there is no universal formula in calculating this expense. Though this measure is important, it has one big flaw. It only focuses on the initial cost of recruiting. It does not take into consideration long-term costs, such as whether the recruit will be productive or not.

Time-to-fill, on the other hand, measures how long it took to fill the position from start to hire date. This calculates the costs associated with positions while it was left vacant. As with cost-per-hire, its downside is also not taking into consideration long-term costs. To fill the position faster, HR recruitment runs the risk of hiring the best among their pool of candidates, even if he does not exactly fit the position. In the long run, they may just incur additional costs for hiring the wrong person.

In addition to the basic screening of applicants, a more modern metric takes into consideration the performance and quality of new hires. This is perhaps one of the most important metric when hiring candidates. Quality, in this sense, is not quantitative. The company’s standards for quality have to be clearly established even before recruitment begins. The recruiters and hiring managers should already set the standards so they know exactly what to look for in prospective candidates. However, quality measure does not stop once the recruitment team has hired the best person for the job. Performance appraisal of the new hire on his first 90-180 days in production would also be part of the metrics.

Another important metric that recruiters practice is manager satisfaction. This looks into how satisfied the organization and the hiring managers are with the new hires as well as with the hiring process. This data starts with the managers’ preferences prior to recruiting and are assessed after the employee has been on the job for some time.

There are many other important recruitment metrics that are being practiced today. Among these are source of hire, referrals, and even candidate satisfaction. The first one looks into the percentage and quality of new hires from different defined sources. This metric lets the recruitment staff focus on their sourcing strategy. For the referrals metric, recruiters tap existing employees for referral of new candidates. Recent studies have shown that this generates the best performing hires. Lastly, there is the candidate satisfaction where the focus is on what the applicants think about the quality of service provided by the recruitment team.

If you are interested in recruitment metrics, check this web-site to learn more about recruitment roi

Companies spend too much time focusing recruiting rather than on retaining.

The rule is no longer if your employees leave it is now when will they going to leave. How many times have you spent hundreds to thousands of dollars in hiring and training an employee only to discover that they leave.

Why do they leave? Experts in this field will say because…

You can justify your experiences, by the stories other people, or HR will say about it. You can even go online and find the stats that you need to back-up your experiences and how many other companies are going through the same thing.

The truth of the matter is, how much time, money and effort do you put into retaining your employees?

It’s all about the relationship factor you have with them. How much do you really appreciate them?

Staying comfortable in dong what you are doing without any consideration of retaining won’t work if you want to keep retaining your employees. By promoting and selling the concept of more kindness in the workplace. I would help companies create a healthier, vibrant and productive workplace. The reason no one wanted to buy this service was they couldn’t figure out how it would work and of course that meant they would have to change, get out of their comfortable position, of what and how they were doing things. Let’s not change things, let’s wait and see what happens.

It’s no wonder to me, why now (many years later) that employers are having a bigger crisis of not finding enough employees and now being faced with more challenging problems like bullying, misrepresentation of the company, stealing, or inappropriate behavior.

I could say it’s your loss – you missed the boat! I do believe however it’s never too late. It’s the same as Dr. Phil’s philosophy, “It’s never too late to turn around a situation or family.”

In order for change to happen, you have to be willing to try something different or new. Step up to be a leader 1st. Be an early adopter. Don’t wait for someone else to do it first. After all, isn’t this what you would expect your employees to do to move your company to success?

There are other professionals who are selling Kindness. Olivia McIvor of McIvor consulting. She herself was a HR professional for Canada Trust. Olivia wrote out a plan and delivered it to her VP to help relieve the stress and morale issues as Canada Trust was about to be merged with TD.

Her VP gave his approval and she went to work – rolled out the “Kindness to Colleague” program to 52 stores (banks). Overall, it was very successful. Olivia continues to help companies by providing consulting, giving talks and wrote another book.

I now have moved on by providing appreciation gifts for people to give to their employees, clients and to very special people. It’s still about being kind, it’s about showing your appreciation.

Appreciation is the key ingredient in retaining your employees. How do you do this? Try appreciating your employees through art. It’s a very personal gift. that’s what people expect and want from you.

Each gift that each person receives shows and demonstrates that you care for your colleagues, co-workers, bosses and partners.

Written by Mari-Lyn Hudson of Heart@Work a Thought Leader on Appreciation Marketing.

I am often asked if training really works. The answer is yes and no! Here’s why.

1. Sometimes, unless a training is made mandatory, those who need it the most will choose not to attend!
2. 75% of the learning goes on after the employee comes back to the job. Said another way–employees will forget most of what they learned unless it is reinforced on the job after they come back from training.
3. Too often people are sent off to training in the hopes that they will get “fixed” when in fact if the training doesn’t incorporate good adult learning principles and isn’t seen as relevant from the trainee’s point of view, it will fail.
4. Employees are sometimes sent to training for specific skills when the real problem is attitude…ahem…I mean lack of professional behavior problems.

So what can you as a manager do to help ensure that the training you spend your money on will be effective? Have a conference with the employee before he is sent to training or with your group if they are attending and do these things. (This is assuming you have been speaking to your employees and you know what they think their training needs are. In short you have done at least a cursory training needs assessment.)

1. Tell them why you think this will be valuable, what you hope to change or reinforce, and what you expect them to do with the training after the fact.
2. Ask them what they hope to get out of the training. Write those things down.
3. When you and the group come back from the training, gather them together and ask what they did and did not like about the training, what they got out of the training and what they will do differently,
4. Meet again in one week and

• Quickly review the principles that were covered
• Ask each person how they are applying the principles they learned, and whether or not they work in that person’s own particular job.
• Brainstorm with the person or the group on how they could make it work, what would have to change for it to work or to be more effective.

You can modify these for individuals who are sent to training. Without this reinforcement you will be loosing 75% of the value of the training. But you will get your money and time’s worth if you continue the learning on the job.

Rewarding your employees is one of the most effective motivators. I invite you to CLICK HERE for a FREE copy of 21 Great Ideas For Rewarding Employees That Are No or Low Cost. These are easy, simple things that make a big difference. Norma Smith Davis has 20+ years of management consulting. Reach her at http://www.KeyManagementSkills.com.

Companies may wonder why they should hire an hr consulting firm, i.e., a temp agency, to locate quality employees.

In a highly competitive corporate world, knowledgeable help can mean the difference between a constant influx of clients and bankruptcy. Statistically speaking, every disgruntled customer that leaves your establishment equals seven or more people who won’t give you a chance based on word of mouth.

That is why it is very important to locate individuals who are not only skilled technically but have a great work ethic and understand the value of supplying quality service.

When a company endeavors to locate these people themselves as opposed to hiring a human resource consulting firm, they have a hard time finding quality workers. The reason for this is multifaceted, but can often be attributed to.

- Lack of time – when a company looks for “grade A” assistance, it is often because they needed them yesterday. This can make them hire on someone who may have certain skills but could be lacking in other valuable traits, like interpersonal skills.

- Inexperience – although you may realize what you want, you may not have the ability to acquire it. People will say just about anything to obtain a job, and résumés are often padded to make them sound better than they really are. To truly screen applicants, you would need to do an in depth assessment that you may not have time for, especially if you are in a fast paced work environment.

- Hiring family members or acquaintance – It can be very tempting when we are in a pinch to hire on people you know. The problem with this is that our affection or relationship with the individual makes it impossible to be objective as to their suitability for the job. This can also lead to a ticklish situation if you need to fire them for their ineptitude.

What a reputable temp agency can offer

On the opposite end of this spectrum, an experienced temp agency knows how to expand the job pool. They usually have a team of specialized recruiters who weed out potential employees by a highly stylize criteria. By having a larger pool of candidates and a selective process, you are more assured to find a qualified match for your job.

Temp agencies can also provide:

- Greater productivity – because you are not taking time out of your valuable day to interview all potential hires, you can get more work done. This increased productivity will greatly aid your business growth.

- Employees who are tried and tested – when businesses try to hire employees they have no real way of seeing how well the applicant truly performs in a work environment. Recruiting agencies do, with tailored skill assessments, like WMP or ten key punch tests for data entry that can reveal a workers strengths and weaknesses. They also offer training facilities for applicants to improve their abilities and learn new skills that will help them in the job market.

- Employee resource – No matter how organized an office is, if someone leaves or get sick, it can disrupt the office routine. Temp agencies can replace sick individuals, those on maternity leave or who don’t work out. You can also hire on temps for seasonal work, as many organizations see increased workloads around Holidays or summer months depending on the nature of their business.

It can end up costing you more in the end to not go with an established recruiting agency. If you start weighing the pros and cons of looking into human resource consulting, remind yourself that the time you spend working as opposed to worrying over the exhaustive hiring process is more time spent building your business up. When one considers the above facts, then the benefits of hiring workers through a temp agency is worth its weight in gold.

Temp agency provides temporary staffing, permanent recruiting, and human resource consulting. When looking for information on temporary staffing, consider Drake International

Sexual harassment is defined as unwelcome advances, verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature, seeking sexual favors, or inappropriate sexual interference of a person’s workplace or work performance.

What Law Says

Legally, sexual harassment is a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – it is a form of a sexual discrimination. The act applies to a workplace where more than 15 employees work; this includes local, state, and federal workplaces as well as private sector businesses.

Part of doing business in civilized society requires that all employees have an understanding of responsibility in regards to appropriate behavior in the workplace. Harassment of a sexual nature can be curbed substantially-if not entirely eliminated-from the workplace by having complete and adequate knowledge and training.

Statistics Speak

Statistically, in 2007, 12,510 cases were registered, which resulted in $49.9 million dollars monetary benefits (not including monetary benefits obtained through litigation), according to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Researchers have proven that organizations who participate in the sexual harassment training and seminars have a low ratio of the harassment cases as compared to those who do not conduct the harassment training.

In 2007, according to the EEOC, more than 80% who filed lawsuits were from women. This shows that women are more vulnerable as potential victims of the harassment. Men are also subject to a harassment of a sexual nature, usually, by a female superior, but this is not as common of an occurrence. Regardless of the gender of a victim, it is safe to say that if an employee does not feel comfortable as a result of a harassment of a sexual nature, he/she is likely to leave the job and/or file suit against the employer. In the end, it is both the employee and employer who lose.

Vicarious Liability Rule

Harassment by supervisors based on color, race, sex (regardless of its sexual nature), national origin, age, disability, religion, or protected activity come under the vicarious liability rule. Under this rule, employers can be held for what his subordinate did.

Significance of Training

Harassment of a sexual nature is an unethical and illegal act in all types of industries/institutions. Employers are held for their subordinates’ actions. Records show that employers had to bear heavy financial as well reputation losses in the past.

Hence, it is imperative to understand the importance of the training. Employers should prepare (a written document) and communicate anti-harassment policies and complaint procedures of all types of illegal harassment to all employees. The policy should identify at least two or more individuals where any harassment complaint can be submitted.

Employers should ensure that every employee is aware of the sexual harassment policy; they should arrange seminars and training sessions for his/her employees.

If an employer establishes the harassment policy as per the standards, convey the policy to all employees properly regardless of their designations, and arrange seminars and training sessions, the ball is in the employer’s court in the event of a harassment lawsuit.

In a nutshell, sexual harassment training plays a pivotal role in preventing this type of harassment incidences in all types of organizations, as well as providing an environment of protection for the company and the victim. Ignoring the importance of the harassment training could lead an employer to financial as well as reputation losses.

Syed Rehan is associated with Learn2Serve.com that offers Sexual Harassment Training Protect your staff. Protect yourself.

Anyone engaged in business today recognizes the rising costs of labor as one of the major hindrances to expansion. While there are several ways that this issue is being addressed, one of the most viable is by hiring expat workers.

There are numerous advantages of having expats in your workforce. The first is that they are not difficult to find. There are now, in such countries as New Zealand Canada, Japan, the United States, several thriving expat communities. Undoubtedly there are also several more in other nations.

There are several reasons for this growth; one of them is that while several come in with the intention of only studying in a university, they end up staying because they fall in love with the place, or get married. As such, it presents a great opportunity for an entrepreneur to find and hire educated and qualified workers.

Aside from being skilled, the other major advantage of the working expat is that you can often have them for a much lower cost. You maintain the quality of your service, but you end up saving money. Even communication costs have been significantly reduced by the Internet, so it will not be a problem regardless of your location relative to your workers.

Where to Find Expats

The expanding expat communities, coupled wit the rise of communications technology, have made it easier than ever to get in touch with those communities. You can just enter “expat community” plus the name of the country in a search engine and you will get plenty of hits. In fact that that may not even be necessary as foreign universities and newspapers can provide the information you are looking for.

Potential Savings

The cost of stateside labor goes up because besides the salaries, one also has to pay pensions, social security, allowances etc. These are expenses that will not be incurred with outsourcing, so you can expect savings from 30 to 70 percent.

Of course, it should be stated that the salary demands and expectations of working expats, while not as high as those stateside, will still vary. You should attempt to strike a balance between managing your overhead costs and also having highly qualified personnel. However, for the greater part, you will still end up saving a considerable with outsourcing your work.

ECA International

There are several human resources organizations you can turn to, and one of the most respected is ECA International, with over 4,000 HR centers spread over several countries across the globe. ECA has been a leading provider for software solutions, HR and consultancy for over 30 years. Their clients include several Fortune 500 companies, and aimed at professionals and executives.

Training Course: Expat Staffing

The Australian National University offers a course for International Human Resources Management. It covers the subject of HRM extensively, and among the subject matters covered are labor costs regulations, recruitment, globalization, expatriation, repatriation, and several other issues that are pertinent to expat staffing.

Moreover, the course also offers a wide ranging study and analysis of HRM with regards to its international context and how it is developing worldwide.

Peter Garant is writing articles for an Expat Staffing guide for a site about Expat Jobs.

As we see every day companies spend huge amounts of money trying to be socially responsible. My first consideration is concerned about why companies are “socially” and “ethically” active and what are the main issues involved in corporate social responsibility (CSR).

There are many references to corporate social responsibility, sometimes referred to as corporate citizenship, in our workplaces, in the media, in the government, in our communities. Companies can be socially responsible in different dimensions: Environmentally, economic contribution to community, having progressive stakeholders relations such as commitment to consumer safety or demonstrate respect to human rights.

CSR means a commitment by a company to manage its roles in a society in a responsible and sustainable manner (Akgeyik, 2005).

A number of events in recent years, such as the highly publicized financial scandals of Enron and WorldCom, sweatshop labor by retail clothing and sports shoe manufacturers and the “under-the-table” deals that companies have received. As a consequence now, reputation, brand, integrity and trust are increasingly considered important measures of corporate social responsibility.

The main CSR issues, that companies are taking seriously, are those related to Reputation and Brand Enhancement, Accountability and Transparency, Risk Management (Managing investor confidence is another factor supporting the business case for CSR) and the “Talent War” based on labor shortage in the next 10 to 25 years cause that companies do special efforts attracting, developing, motivating and retaining. In addition, the talent war is evidenced by an influx of “best places to work” awards. Thus, a strong argument for CSR is talent management in both the short and the long term

Correspondingly, CSR influences a company’s competitive advantage today through two key value drivers: 1) company reputation and brand; and 2) human capital (Paul Lee, 2008) HR leaders have begun to assume leadership roles to address both areas.
For instance, Enron and Worldcom incidents would be averted if the recruiting process would be identified and dropped in advanced those managers who breach legal duties and were caught on corruption behaviours?

HR has an important role in companies in order to achieve CSR standards. HR leaders can influence three primary standards of CSR-ethics, employment practices and community involvement-that relate either directly or indirectly to employees, customers and the local community.

Which kind of employment practices can be promoted in companies to become more CSR? Human resource management practices promote personal and professional employee development, diversity at all levels and empowerment. Another HR practices are: consider employees as valued partners, with the right to fair labor practices, competitive wages and benefits and a safe, harassment-free, family-friendly work environment.

What HR leaders can do to track HR scorecard on CSR? Some ideas that will be used as a checklist according to recent studies (Fenwick, 2008 & Lockwood, 2004)

• Create a strong organizational culture around core company values.
• Scan the environment to identify potential threats (e.g., competition for talent within the organization’s industry sector).
• Build personal and professional capability of the workforce (e.g., expand intellectual capital within the organization and in collaboration with other organizations).
• Include ethical concerns in staff performance measures.
• Support participative decision-making.
• Ensure highest standards in workplace health and safety.
• Encourage active engagement in community activities.

References:

- Akgeyik, T. (2005) The human resource management dimensions of corporate social responsibility in Turkey: a survey. Journal of the Academy of Business and Economics, Jan, 2005.

- Fenwick, Tara and Bierema, Laura (2008), “Corporate Social Responsibility: Issues for Human Resource Development Professionals”. International Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 12, Issue 1, pp. 24-35, March 2008.

- Lockwood, N. R. (2004). Corporate Social Responsibility: HR’s Leadership Role. SHRM, December. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/Research/quarterly/1204RQuart.asp#summary.

- Paul Lee, M. (2008). A review of the theories of corporate social responsibility: Its evolutionary path and the road ahead. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(1), 53-73.

- Trudel, R., & Cotte, J. (2008 5). Does Being Ethical Pay? Wall Street Journal Online, Page R1.

Carlos Marti Sanchis