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Employees often view HR departments as where to go to get a form or a question answered about  benefits.
By HR can actually help you develop your career by:

• Providing suggestions of how to make contacts with those in the organization who may help you  advance your career
• Supply ideas of alternate career paths when one road is blocked
• Offer opportunities for coaching and mentoring
• Be an avenue to showcase your accomplishments and how you have contributed to the organization
• Mediate issues between you and your manager

I often encourage my clients to go to HR for help, even when the company has hired me to work with an individual in either a performance improvement, leadership development or outplacement role. But HR’s first allegiance is to the organization, not the employee.

HR can advocate for the employee by providing management training on  conducting performance reviews and  developing employees. But it is the responsibility of HR to help protect the organization from potential lawsuits, and to enforce directives from the management team.

A properly ...

The only thing we can count on today is change. Our workforces are constantly evolving.  People leave our organizations voluntarily, they are let go based on poor performance,  they are no longer a good fit based on the needs of the job and the organization,  or perhaps  they are not representative of the population served.

Whenever this happens, it is the right opportunity to evalute the department needs and stragically hire for the current and future needs of the organization.  Letting someone go ...

According to  the Society of Human Resource Management’s (SHRM)  Leading Indicators  of National Employment’s (LINE) Report,  manufacturers and service-sector companies plan to increase hiring in February compared with the previous year. Few employers in both sectors reported increased recruiting difficulty in January, but it has become more challenging compared with a year ago. There were mixed results for new-hire compensation in January. While fewer service-sector companies increased new-hire compensation, the rate rose on an annual basis for the first time since ...

According to Workplace Visions, a publication of the Society of Human Resource Management, hiring expectations for the manufacturing and service sectors for January 2010 surpassed hiring expectations for the same period in 2009. 39% of survey respondents were somewhat optimistic about job growth in Q1 2010, although 25% were somewhat pessimistic.

Hiring fell  30% from 2006-2008, and employee turnover dropped from 16% in 2007 to 8% in 2009.
As the recovery continues, turnover is expected to increase as high performers leave those organizations whose financial ...

Debbie Brown, MBA, MSW Earns Certification as a Senior Professional in Human Resources

Atlanta, GA  December 22, 2009 — Debbie Brown, President of D&B Consulting, Inc. a human resource and career management consulting firm, recently earned certification as a  Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR).

The certification, awarded by the HR Certification Institute, signifies that Debbie possesses the theoretical knowledge and practical experience in human resource management necessary to pass a rigorous examination demonstrating a mastery of the body of knowledge in the field.

“Certification ...

From The SHRM ( Society of Human Resource Management) Leading Indicators of National Employment  Report

Employment Expectations for  Manufacturing and Service Sectors

Hiring will surpass layoffs in November in both the manufacturing and service sectors. +15.3 for manufacturing and for +5.9 for service

Recruiting Difficulty for Manufacturing and Service Sectors

In October, both sectors reported increased recruiting difficulty for highly qualified employees for the first time since January 2007.  +2.8 for manufacturing and +13.0 for service.

In the last entry we talked about Strategic Career Planning.

Once you have determined where you want to go by completing a strategic career plan, you need to go through several steps.  The first is to do a thorough assessment which identifies where you are now:  your skills, talents, abilities, knowledge, values, and lifestyle.

You can start with some standardized assessments ( MBTI, Strong Interest Inventory, CPI 260,) and other career assessment tools.  A career coach can help with the assessment process, since this person ...