Filling The Gap, Job Descriptions, Obama's Healthcare Plan, etc.

We're reading all the articles so you don't have to...

-BizTimes talks about Human Resources filling the gap with interim executives

-Vault has job descriptions. They're not as good as the ones we do at Astron Solutions.

-WebProNews says that Yahoo! is putting a new spin on the recruiting process by launching pay-per-candidate for their Yahoo! HotJobs

-Workforce Management talks about how an economic crisis is creating an opportunity for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). "As companies slash payrolls and tighten their belts in other ways that squeeze employees, the association is trying to make itself indispensable to HR professionals."

-Lastly, the Chicago Sun-Times talks about President Barack Obama being pressed on healthcare during his ABC special by an Human Resources executive:

One questioner -- Marisa Milton, vice president of health care policy for the HR Policy Association, a public policy advocate for human resource executives -- said that "other industrialized nations provide coverage for all their residents" with "high quality care" without spending more money.

"A lot of those countries employ a different system than we do," the president said. "Almost all of them have what would be considered a single-payer system in which the government operates what is essentially a Medicare for all."

The president said he didn't think it wise to attempt to "completely change our system root and branch" since health care is one-sixth of the U.S. economy. It "would be hugely disruptive," he said, arguing that citizens would be forced to change their doctors and insurance plans "in a way I'm not prepared to go."

End-of-life issues were raised as well; right now it is estimated that nearly 30 percent of Medicare's annual $327 billion budget is spent on patients in their final year of life.

Jane Sturm told the story of her nearly 100-year-old mother, who was originally denied a pacemaker because of her age. She eventually got one, but only after seeking out another doctor.

"Outside the medical criteria," Sturm asked, "is there a consideration that can be given for a certain spirit & and quality of life?"

"I don't think that we can make judgments based on peoples' spirit," Obama said. "That would be a pretty subjective decision to be making. I think we have to have rules that say that we are going to provide good, quality care for all people.

"We're not going to solve every single one of these very difficult decisions at end of life," he said. "Ultimately that's going to be between physicians and patients."

What I’m Hearing…Redefining Yourself

Before I get into my blog post for today, I want to apologize for not having posted in a while! Business activities to successfully navigate these challenging economic seas have kept me going an average of 14 hours a day. And I have found Twitter to be quite fascinating. However, further excuses will only slow down my latest post, so on with the show!


Yesterday I was part of an HR/NY panel discussion on “Overcoming the Fear: Strategies for Success in Today’s Economy.” A good part of the discussion was on personal branding. Do professionals think of themselves as the composite of all their varied skills and experiences, gained through work, volunteering, recreation activities, and the like? Or do we box ourselves into categories: I am a recruiter. I am a trainer.

The consensus among the panelists, as well as the audience, was that in order to be successful, viewing yourself in small tight compartments aren’t going to work. Now or in the future. If you want a job as a trainer, that’s of course OK. However, you may need to repackage yourself to highlight the complementary skill set that an organization needs. Is training moving more towards on-line media? What experiences do you have in this area that you acquired through volunteer work?


A former student of mine, who was heavily focused in recruitment, was recently downsized. After reflection on his experiences, he realized that his skills were as useful in the corporate and non-profit worlds as they are in a university setting – focusing on student enrollments. A whole new world has opened for him by taking the chance to think differently.


It can be scary to think of yourself as something different than what you’ve always been. However, each of us is unique and possess many skills and talents, many of which we probably take for granted. When was the last time you took a personal inventory to determine all the wonderful things you are? Refreshing your résumé after that inward look may result in a whole new series of doors opening for you.

Banning Social Networking?

If you're thinking of banning social networking from your company, you may be making a very costly mistake according to employee evolution: click here

If you're thinking of skipping those MBA recruiting sessions, you should read this Wall Street Journal article about more and more people who are doing just that: click here

If you're getting ready to retire, you should read this Journal article about planning your exit strategy: click here

If you're worried about whether you need to have a required lunch break, read this Q&A from the Human Resource blog: click here

If you're wondering the best way to leveraging talent into your company's competitive advantage, read this book review from the HR Practitioner: click here

If you're trying to figure out what the role of Human Resources should be in employer branding, read this PUREcommunications article: click here

And if you're looking for an HR job, who are we to ignore social networking after we talked about it's importance, so here's a LiveJournal entry on a website for HR jobs: click here

Declining Value of a College Degree

Think that your $160,000 private school degree is setting you light years apart from others? Think again says the Washington Post who say that the value of a college degree is declining: click here

From the RecruitingCenter Blog, an entry stating that all we really have is our reputation: click here

Eccentric Employment is a site worth checking out if you're looking to get away from the boring 9-5 (including taking care of a monkey): click here

Word from TalentSpring that and amazing 39% of employees wanted to quit if their employers blocked Facebook: click here

Lastly, the Recruiter Guy gives a list of 100 Niche Job boards: click here

More recruiting articles...

We're not ready to call it a weekend just yet...

Rosie left us a comment on the last post with two great website links: click here and here

Work blogging has everything from cyberslacking to an upgrade for the Steelworker union: click here

Recruiting Nevada gives readers a little bit of everything as well from resumes on job boards to using Google: click here

The Windmill has alternatives to salary negotiations and advice on how to get hired by the Best companies: click here

How about some tips from/for the top recruiters? click here

And, lastly (and most importantly) go to our main website at Astron Solutions and find out more about what we do and who we are: http://astronsolutions.com

Bloggerific Recruiting

Taking you around the world of HR on this Summer Friday with some great Human Resources articles/blogs, mostly having to do with recruiting (with some props given to Jim Stroud of the Recruiters Lounge--click here--where we found a bunch of these)

First we start with "Invested, innovative, brilliant: Improving the recruiting experience" blog with articles on Gen Y and Facebook among other topics: click here

Riveting Rosie also has some ideas on reaching Gen Y'ers: click here

Personnel Today has an article on Video Game developers bring in HR to help with recruiting problems: click here

The Boston Herald has new on the in demand job perk that is helping to ease commuting pains and recruit more employees: click here

HR Files has a little bit of everything: click here

Recruiting Trends does also: click here

Lastly, ESPN.com has five new trends in recruiting...for top high school football candidates: click here

Have a great weekend and we'll be giving you more and more HR recruiting resources real soon

Blogroll Pt. 2

We're on to part 2 of 3 of reviewing our Blogroll here at Astron Solutions World of HR blog...

We start with Jim Stroud who changed the name of his blog from JimStroud to "The Recruiters Lounge" and has a new look and a new address but the same great information: click here

Also in recruiting is the Recruiting Fly Blog which today gives some diversity resumes and interview advice: click here

We have another WorldAtWork blog here for Ryan Johnson who has a lot of interesting topics including this one about Performance Reviews from a few weeks ago: click here

The HR Capitalist has a lot of interesting topics (Human Resources and not), but this recent one provides a scenario if the author had a few million dollars...they would aggregate references of a candidate: click here

And last on this list is the Industry Radar which has given us a few nice links on their website and has some great HR news on Benefits, Retirement, Health, among other topics: click here

Saluting Our Blogroll Pt. 1

It's time to take a look at the fellow bloggers we link to on the right and give you a little idea of what they're writing about...

Blogs for Job hasn't had a post in a while, but shows that employees can be found in odd places (including one who just left a comment): click here

We realized we had an error in the address for Cara Welch's Public Policy Perceptions blog for WorldAtWork so we've relinked to there (click here) and ask you to check out her Earth Day article on Earth Day 2008: click here

Cheezhead talks about a theme we discussed recently and takes you in their latest article beyond Facebook and MySpace recruiting: click here

CollegeRecruiter.com has a great humor article today about 10 ways that the job market resembles Matzah: click here

Which reminds us...Happy Passover!!!

George's Employment Blawg touches on a subject we'll be getting into in a later post...but with the job market how it is, internships are becoming more and more important: click here

HR Web Cafe give you a full menu of articles about everything from spear phishing to bring-your-gun-to-work-day (or permanently): click here

Lastly for today, we go to HR World who asks if male and female owned businesses differ? click here

We'll be back with more tomorrow...enjoy!!!

More links!

Yeah...we got more links for you...

First a blog about the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM): click here

Next, from Boston Globe, Monster.com, HiringHub, word on finding the best talent: click here

HR Daily Advisor has 7 stupid things that supervisors say and then get sued: click here

From SHRM, word on what that blogger was talking about above: click here

ITtoolbox has some advice on what every IT manager should know about HR: click here

MSNBC says don't wear blinders when dealing with your boss: click here

HR Daily Advisor is back with 3 vital things that supervisors should say: click here

Lastly, the Business Review of Western Michigan (via Michigan Live) has an article about getting and recruiting talent from elsewhere: click here

That should last you for a while ;)

Strike 3

The Baseball Analogy is key today on the day of the Mitchell Report release which tells you not to turn a blind eye on bad things going on within your organization....

First, on our strike theme, the Christian Science Monitor has an article about France and Germany swapping Strike Tactics: click here

Also from CS Monitor, word that workplace attitudes are changing to include more "face time": click here

Lastly, from Systematic HR, a resource for recruiters and applicants alike: a recruiting cheat sheet: click here

De Paris

Women and Minorities Targeted to Fill Executive Suites, According to International Executive Search Organization

Industry Experts Recently Met in Paris to Discuss the Anticipated Executive Shortfall Crisis Throughout the World Due to Baby Boomer Retirement

PARIS – Women and minorities are the coveted demographic for executive search firms throughout the world to help meet the critical talent shortage at the top due to Baby Boomer retirement, according to industry experts who recently met in Paris to discuss this burgeoning issue.

More than 50 delegates from IMD International Search and Consulting, an organization of boutique executive search firms with locations in 25 countries across Europe, the Americas and Asia, gathered for a biannual conference in Paris in late November, where they discussed the phenomenon.

“In terms of age, origins, gender… there is a need to open the doors to new profiles and how organizations will manage to deal with the problem,” said Albert Hiribarrondo, chairman of the IMD International board, representative from France and managing partner of Sirca/IMD.

As the critical talent shortage worsens and nearly 80 million Baby Boomers in North America alone enter their retirement years, executive search leaders from throughout the world discussed the pressing question: Who will take their place in the executive suite?

“We must find ways to bring more women and minorities into management ranks, mentor them and give them the ability to then rise in upper management positions. Again, 30 percent of the current executive suite will be retiring within five years, it is a huge percentage, and we don't have anyone replacing them,” said Thomas Fuller, one of IMD International’s seven board partners, director of the Americas and general managing partner of Epsen Fuller/IMD based in New York.

The Paris conference included a dual celebration and gala dinner in honor of IMD International’s 35th anniversary and the 30^th anniversary of the host firm, Paris-based Sirca/IMD.

The critical demand for senior level executives led these industry thought leaders to meet and discuss how the corporate world will deal with changing demographics, organizational transformation, talent acquisition and diversity in the executive suite.

“To win the talent war we need to explore targets previously untapped. One of the largest targets is the female in management. Only two percent of the CEOs in the UK are female,” said Sherilyn Shackell, CEO of Highfield Human Solutions/IMD of the UK, and IMD Board partner.

“There must be an evolution in minds, in families and in society. Mothers must educate their daughters and tell them that things are open for them. The first step is the awareness that things have to change in order to tap into this phenomenal potential. My daughters grow up with this belief that they can behave the way men do, expect what they do, and be just as influential,” Shackell added.

Just 10 of the CEOs among the Fortune 500 companies were women in 2006, and only 20 Fortune 1000 companies had women as their leaders.

“Japan is notorious for not promoting ladies,” said Katsusuke Yokota, executive managing director of Human Associates in Japan. “Nevertheless, more talented women are now joining international companies that treat them more and more equally.”

While the lack of women at the top was echoed by the IMD partners from Italy, Japan, Korea and Germany, others said the trend seems to be moving toward more females in the executive suites in Spain, Denmark and Mexico. In Finland, the numbers are equal.

“In Finland women are considered as equal. Lots of money is put into the education system, in society it is normal that men help at home, but we still don't have enough women at top management positions, maybe because women are different in their behavior, they are not into competition as much as men, a female network is mostly composed of females,” said Mimma Silvennoinen, managing partner of IMS Talent in Finland.

At the Paris conference, IMD International announced the launch of a new global survey, “The Changing Face at the Top,” which will be released at its spring 2008 conference in New York as a follow up to its 2005 survey, “Mobility of Managers.” The survey will poll senior executives from the global 1,000 companies.

The baby boom generation is generally defined as the population born between 1946 and 1964. Employees in this demographic group range in age from 43 to 61, and are expected to begin leaving the workforce in 2008, as the first wave of boomers turn 62.

Paris was selected for the conference because IMD International’s Paris office, Sirca, is celebrating its 30^th anniversary and because of the city’s location at the center of Europe, where growth due to a robust economy is forcing corporations to confront the challenge of attracting talent to the executive ranks in the face of the world’s fast-changing demographics.

U.S. CONTACT: PARIS CONTACT:

Rosa Cirianni Estelle Carrere

rosa.cirianni@beckermanpr.com ecarrere@sirca.fr

(908) 781-6420 +33 1 44 55 33 55