links for 2006-01-29

• Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams
  (tags: Management Leadership Team+Building)

links for 2006-01-28

• Manager Tools » Sample Resume
  (tags: Employment Resume Recruiting)

FREE AUDIO CONFERENCE: Confronting the Leadership Crisis

Hay Group invites you to attend a complimentary Audio Conference

Space is limited, please click below to register now:

http://www.haygroup.com/events/Confronting_Leadership_Crisis

-------------------------------------------------
Confronting the Leadership Crisis: What Works, What Doesn't, and What Lies Ahead
-------------------------------------------------

Hay Group and Chief Executive Magazine partnered to research what the world's top companies are doing to develop their leaders and to identify the best practices that underpin effective leadership development.

Join us for invaluable insights from this study, and to address today's most relevant questions on leadership development:

• What can companies do to ensure a robust leadership pipeline?
• What are the best practices that have the greatest impact?
• Which ones have the least impact?
• Which companies consistently do the best job at spotting and developing their future talent?

Learn what distinguishes The Best Companies for Leaders from the pack.

Please click the link below to enroll:

http://www.haygroup.com/events/Confronting_Leadership_Crisis/

Technorati Tags: Leadership, Training, Development

Populate your workplace with 10 positive roles

From: The Ten Faces of Innovation By Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman

Tom Kelley, general manager of the IDEO design and innovation consultancy, says we need to move beyond the devil's advocate role -- which can be toxic to fresh ideas -- and ensure our workplaces are populated with 10 positive roles that nourish new ventures.

• The anthropologist
• The experimenter
• The cross-pollinator
• The hurdler
• The collaborator
• The director
• The experience architect
• The set designer
• The caregiver
• The storyteller

Read the The Globe and Mail article, Populate your workplace with 10 positive roles

Technorati Tags: Innovation, Recruiting, Staffing, Creativity

Lines to leave off your resume

Reason for Leaving: It had to do with the IRS, FBI and SEC

Free Legal Information

Canadian employment-law firm Grosman, Grosman & Gale have several dozen employment-law articles available on-line, under three categories:

1. Employment Law
2. Discrimination Law
3. Sexual Harassment

Technorati Tags: Employment Law, Discrimination Law, Sexual Harassment, Canadian Canada

Constructive Dismissal -- Advice for Employees

Q: I have been reading about constructive dismissal on the internet. I am convinced that my job has been changed significantly in the last several months. Do I just walk out, and say I’ve been constructively dismissed?

A: No!

Although you don’t say how long you’ve worked for your employer, constructive dismissal is a high-risk alternative. The onus is squarely upon you to prove, on the basis of objective evidence, that your employer has unilaterally and fundamentally changed the existing terms and conditions of your employment relationship. While that may be the case, there may be other avenues worth exploring before taking the “plunge”, accepting that significant onus, walking out and claiming constructive dismissal.

Typically, the employer’s “knee jerk” reaction to someone in your circumstances walking out and claiming constructive dismissal is to take the counter position that you have, in effect, quit, and thereby disentitled yourself to any compensation.

While the internet can be a good source of basic legal information, often a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing (as the saying goes). Be careful, you are playing with your career and, perhaps, significant economic entitlements. Get good, solid advice, and get it soon.

My boss is a bully - workopolis.com.

She's my office wife

Your closest workplace confidant knows you almost as well as your real spouse does. Which can be a problem.

It starts innocently enough. Usually with coffee. Then the occasional lunch, during which you share a few laughs and a bit of gossip. Before you know it, you're shooting cell phone text messages back and forth to one another during meetings and childishly mocking the grease stain on the back of the company hotshot's pants in a secret code only the two of you understand. Sound familiar? Then you probably have an "office wife."

Macleans.ca | Top Stories | Life | She's my office wife.

links for 2006-01-21

• Terrible Job Posting
  Mad Babble From A Church Planter...: I'm not looking for a job....
  (tags: Recruiting, Advertising, Posting)
• When does a company need an HR person?
  Human Resources Community Connection
  (tags: H.R.Management, Human+Resources+Planning, Staffing)

links for 2006-01-19

• Labour Arbitration Bias - Schenk & Associates » Blog Archive »
  (tags: Labour+Relations Arbitration Alberta+Labour+Board)

Be Easy To Work With

Keith has posted some business tips based on lessons he has learned starting a small business. These are tips that can be applied to most types of business/professional relationships. (And most personal ones, as well.)

Be as flexible as possible

Be a good communicator

Be available

Be positive

Don’t be defensive or pushy

Be Honest

Have (and be) fun

Read the entire post: Be Easy To Work With

Technorati Tags: Business Tips, Communications, Relationships, Customer Service

Alberta Provincial program funds thousands of summer jobs

STEP helps students get work experience

Edmonton... Alberta's labour crunch and increasing demand for workers has not-for-profit organizations already looking to fill summer jobs. The Alberta government's 2006 Summer Temporary Employment Program (STEP) creates summer job opportunities and helps not-for-profits fund those jobs.

"Alberta's hot economy demands workers with the right skills," said Mike Cardinal, Minister of Human Resources and Employment. "STEP students get valuable work experience which makes them more marketable in an economy that is yearning for workers."

STEP helps community organizations find top-quality people to work for them. Organizations benefit from the exciting ideas and energy STEP workers bring to their jobs.

Funding priority is given to project-based positions that contribute to a person's future employability. All positions must provide continuous full-time employment of 30 to 40 hours per week for a minimum of six weeks. Workers must be paid at least minimum wage. Funding from STEP provides $6.05 per hour towards the wage costs.

Employers wanting to apply for STEP funding must submit an application by February 28, 2006. This year, program coordinators expect about 1,600 organizations to apply for STEP funding, and over 3,000 people to be employed under STEP. Eligible employers for STEP funding include registered not-for-profit community organizations, First Nations bands, Métis settlements, municipalities, regional health authorities, regional school divisions and post-secondary institutions. This year's program runs from April 24 to September 1, 2006.

Applications for 2006 will be mailed to employers who previously applied for STEP. Program information and application forms are also available online at www.gov.ab.ca/hre/step or by calling the STEP office at (780) 422-5082 (to call toll-free within Alberta dial 310-0000).

Technorati Tags: Alberta, Employment, Students, STEP, Summer+Temporary+Employment+Program

Top 10 Most Popular Topics

Susan Healthfield lists the 10 most popular topics at the About.com Human Resources Website.

1. Twelve Tips for Team Building: How to Build Successful Work Teams

2. Tips for Minimizing Workplace Negativity

3. What Great Managers Do Differently

4. Performance Appraisals Don't Work

5. Build a Strategic Framework: Mission Statement, Vision, Values ...

6. Top Ten Ways to Show Appreciation

7. How to Retain Your Best Employees

8. Bad to the Bone: Dealing With a Bad Boss or Bad Managers

9. How to Demonstrate Respect at Work

10. How to Make a Potential Employer Fall in Love With You

Most Popular Topics at the Human Resources Website

links for 2006-01-12

• 8 Tips for Landing Your Dream Job in a Web 2.0 World - jobster blog
  (tags: Job+Hunting Web2.0 Technology Search Recruiting)

Unlicensed employment agency fined $3,000; pays restitution

Edmonton... An unlicensed employment agency that attracted clients seeking employment in Alberta's red hot economy was fined $3,000 in provincial court on January 10, 2006 and has made restitution of more than $11,000.

That Recruiting Company Inc., formerly of Calgary, pleaded guilty to operating a direct selling business without a licence as required under the Fair Trading Act and operating an unlicensed employment agency.

"In light of Alberta's booming economy, the province is becoming the location of choice for job seekers from across the country and around the world," said Government Services Minister Ty Lund, responsible for consumer protection legislation. "We want those people to have confidence in our employment agencies if they seek those services."Under the Fair Trading Act, it is illegal for an employment agency to ask for money to find employment for a person. An employment agency may charge for writing resumes as long as it is not a condition of obtaining employment services.

Victims alleged they were pressured to pay a fee for employment services and were guaranteed a job interview as soon as the fee was paid and a job shortly afterward. The victims all cancelled their contracts when the services were not provided. The victims claimed the agency refused to refund their fee if they were not satisfied with the service as guaranteed in their contracts.

The agency's owner has agreed to get the required provincial licences if it plans to operate in Alberta in the future. Technorati Tags: Recruiting

Blog Roll

My Current Human Resources Reading List:

Technorati Tags: Human+Resources+Blogs

Test Post

Posting via e-mail from my Blackberry.

Western Canadian Privacy Forum Announced

Calgary... The Information and Privacy Commissioners of Alberta and British Columbia are jointly sponsoring an educational forum for businesses in 2006. Customers, Employees and Privacy will take place April 26-27, 2006 at the Westin Hotel in Calgary.

The forum's focus is on practical solutions to privacy compliance issues. Delegates will be able to attend sessions from three separate streams. The first addresses the challenges of collecting and using customer information in ways that promote customer trust and create brand loyalty. The second stream of concurrent sessions focuses on the collection and use of employee information, including employee surveillance and workplace investigations. The third stream provides tools and resources for privacy compliance including how to investigate and resolve privacy breaches.

"As the regulatory body responsible for overseeing compliance with our provincial private sector privacy law, I want this law to work, for both business and the people of Alberta", said Information and Privacy Commissioner Frank Work. Since the Personal Information Protection Act ("PIPA") arrived in Alberta and British Columbia just over two years ago, the Commissioner's offices have gained considerable experience and expertise in private sector issues of all kinds. Frank Work and David Loukidelis, Information and Privacy Commissioner of British Columbia stated: "Our work has also made us aware of challenges private sector organizations face under these laws and some of the solutions businesses have developed to meet these challenges." This is the first time the two offices have co-sponsored an event.

For up-to-date conference information and registration details, see the conference web-site at: www.pipa2006.ca

Western Canadian Privacy Forum Announced Technorati Tags: Human+Resources, Privacy, Forum, Training, Development

STRANGE TALES FROM THE EMPLOYMENT WORLD

Published on Thursday, December 29, 2005

To end off the year I enjoy looking back at some of the weird, but true, occurrences in the world of employment. Here are some of the best of 2005.

Pushor Mitchell LLP - Publications.

links for 2006-01-08

• The 6 Myths Of Creativity -Fast Company-
  A new study will change how you generate ideas and decide who's really creative in your company.
  (tags: Creativity Organization)

links for 2006-01-07

• Unemployment rates edge up as job creation lags
  The Canadian economy stumbled in December, losing 2,100 jobs and nudging the national unemployment rate to 6.5 per cent from 6.4 per cent in November.
  (tags: Unemployment Canada Statistics)
• County employee fired over sensitive documents found in trash bin
  A county Office of Education employee has been fired following an investigation into alleged mishandling of sensitive information belonging to hundreds of welfare-to-work clients, an official said Thursday.
  (tags: Privacy Termination)
• Schenk & Associates » Blog Archive » British (Columbia) Video Surveillance
  (tags: Privacy Cams Video Surveillance)
• Avoid age bias in the workplace- The Economic Times
  (tags: Discrimination Human+Rights)
• HRO Strategy Guide systematicHR - Human Resources Strategy and Human Resources Technology » Blog Archive »
  (tags: Human+Resources HRO Strategy)