Wednesday, August 30, 2006

And you can not deal with pressure...

According to the Washington Post, the pressure is going up in the cabins of Northwest Airlines as yet another airline is moving towards cutting jobs...an interesting non-strike idea is proposed there...one that, while may be considered less than a strike, and may never materialize, is an interesting one in today's economy, especially in the airlines: click here

Next from MarketWatch, a study from Careerbuilder.com that says that while most managers expect people to negotiate on salary, most candidates rarely do: click here

And one person's definition of what a "Cohert Human Resources Strategy" sounds like...is it anything like yours? click here

Monday, August 28, 2006

Wages, Wages, and More Wages

First an article form the New York Times that say that real wages are failing to meet a rise in productivity. With higher living costs and energy costs, this could become a huge problem in the US: click here

Next from the Washington Post an article about how women in top positions are pulling up the wages for all other women...an interesting half-dilemma: to have more women making less or for a few women to become pinacles of the industry...no reason there can't be the elimination of both many say: click here

And, as reported on MSNBC, a Forbes article about the 25 most generous companies: click here

Enjoy!

Two for Tuesday

Two HR articles from the New York Times to get you going this morning...

First advice you can give young workers about how to recover after screwing up a big presentation in front of the boss...good advice for all: click here

And a look at the unemployed who can't turn to their familes for help are now turning to each other: click here

Enjoy!

Sunday, August 27, 2006

We're back...

...And better than ever. After a brief hiatus, the Astron Solutions blog is back.

Here are some great human resource articles to get you going on your Monday morning:

Can your employees interact very well with their computers but have no clue what to do when they have to interact with real people? Amy Joyce talks about a class that may help that out in the Washington Post: click here

Also from the Washington Post, some career tips that you may want to follow to get ahead in today's tough job market: click here

The best advice I ever received is mentioned in this article. When I asked my boss why he would wear a suit even though he didn't have to he said: "You dress for the job you want, not the one you have." Great advice.

Lastly, an interesting article from the United States about Africa and why they don't train more nurses with such a nurse shortage: click here

Tuesday, August 08, 2006

All Good Things Must Come to an End

As the summer winds down, we have a cornucopia of articles for the HR Professional

First comes from the New York Times and talks about resignation letters. They suggest not doing a Jerry Maguire, "Who's coming with me?"-type exit and talks about what should be in the resignation letter: click here

Next, from the Washington Post, an article which says that more time off can justify taking a lower salary for some workers: click here

From Reuters, a study by Mercer showed that Director pay growth slowed last year...but larger companies still pay more: click here

And lastly, from Monster.com, an article that techie's have a new job qualification in today's world...working well with others. No longer will Jimmy Fallon's SNL character Nick Burns survive in today's job market: click here

This will be my last blog of the summer...hope you enjoyed all the HR news...look for more exciting things to come on the Astron Solutions blog and subsequent issues of Astronology. This is Andrew Katz signing off. Good night, and good luck.

Monday, August 07, 2006

From Wall Street to India

Welcome to another week of Astron Solutions' blog...

First up, from the New York Times, an interesting article about Wall Street Women who face a fork in the road. On one side is a highly demanding career which has been dominated by men and on the other side is raising a family...a tough choice for many women. Also tough is business school and an interesting graphic below provides more details on that: click here


From the Washington Post, an article on the same lines that say that women are greatly underrepresented in top corporate leadership positions. The number of 16.4% of corporate leadership positions is a little scary for women who strive for the top positions in their organizations: click here

Also from the New York Times, an article about a potential pension overhaul that Congress never got passed due to too many escape clauses and problems with the bill: click here

And from SiliconIndia, an interesting article on the strategic role of Human Resources Management: click here

Friday, August 04, 2006

TGIF

It's another Summer Friday and whle the temperatures are supposed to be cooling down across the country, we're just heating up...

From the New York Times (click here) and the Washington Post (click here) news of the Wage/Estate Tax bill being blocked in the Senate. This is going to be a hot-button issue for the upcoming midterm elections and you should prepare, as a Human Resource professional for the possibility an increase may come soon after.

Next an article from Yahoo! Finance on how commuting is a drag on the economy. If you take public transportation, you probably noticed a recent spike in the number of people using it with you. With energy prices conitnually rising, this is a trend bound to continue for some time: click here

And lastly, advice from Monster.com to get more training. Is this something a potential applicant should do before applying or is this something that employers should provide for its employees? That's where the big divide lies: click here

Enjoy and stay cool this weekend :)

Thursday, August 03, 2006

Hitting the Job Market

Want to position yourself for a great chance at getting a job? Well Astron Solutions has some advice for you on this Thursday...

From the Washington Post, we have Top Tips From the Hiring Squad, where career experts share proven approaches for applying to, interviewing for, landing and getting the most out of a new job: click here

One way you can position yourself is as a middle manager which the Dallas Morning News claims are being highly sought: click here

Next, 5 strategies from Monster.com of what to do when moving without a job: click here

Lastly, back to the Washington Post, we look at the labor gap that exists in the auto market between a few of the big car makers and the United Auto Workers union: click here

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

And so does Astron Solutions on this Wednesday for its blog articles...

The first is the issue which could be one of the biggest ones for Republican incumbents in the upcoming election: minimum wage. One of the issues being debated in this is the issue of tips as described in this Washington Post article: click here

Now I think that a lot of the real reason this issue has become a big issue is misunderstood. It's not merely the fact that minimum wage hasn't changed in about a decade, but it's more the fact--as the graph below from the Economic Policy Institute shows--that the real value of the minimum wage has dropped over a dollar since the last hike.



That's a big problem, especially with rising gas prices, rising consumer costs, and growing inflation.

One place this issue should be addressed is in the Labor Dept.: click here

Stephen Barr believes that the Office of Personnel Management should recruit more Hispanics: click here

And one issued tied closely to that and the minimum wage and immigration and every hot-button issue of 2006 in the job market are Household Employees and according to this article, they're fighting for their own Bill of Rights: click here

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Heat Is On

It's going to be 100 degrees here in the North East and the pennant races are heating up after the trade deadline, but we're just getting warmed up on Astronology day here at Astron Solutions.

Word from the Washington Post that FOX has agreed to settle their sexual harassment lawsuit in New York: click here

If you want to know more about the EEOC or the new EEO-1 guidelines (including what the heck those abbreviations mean), go to our website and check out the Astronology for the week.

From the Philadelphia Inquirer, an article about some who fear that employees who receive medical help at work will lose some of the privacy afforded to them: click here

The article includes this interesting graphic:













And lastly, from the Sydney Morning Herald, an interesting article from Australia about who Human Resources Professionals owe their allegience to: the company or the staff? The article says the company...let us know if you disagree: click here

Keep cool

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