Managing Social Media in the Workplace

The impact of social media in the workplace is growing.  Time is being wasted, employees are 'friending' each other and liability for these issues is a litigation attorney's dream come true.

RSJ/Swenson has prepared a special report on Managing Social Media in the Workplace, based on Eric Swenson's recent presentation at the CalCPA Employment Practices Conference.  You can download the report here.

And bosses & managers: Don't "friend" your employees!

Management & Leadership Trends 2nd Half 2009

Last week, I gave a presentation in Las Vegas on what I perceive to be the significant trends for managers and leaders during the last half of this year - check it out!

Management Leadership Trends 2nd Half 2009

View more OpenOffice presentations from Eric Swenson.

Workforce Training Myths

A terrific list of workforce training myths from Vince Grassi, the director of global learning and knowledge management at Air Products, as quoted by John Teresko in Industry Week:

Myths of workforce training:

1. If you build it, they will come.
2. When times are tough, training is the first thing you should cut.
3. Just build Web-based (e-learning) courses. It's cheaper.
4. All training must be done in an instructor-based classroom setting in order to be valuable and important knowledge.
5. Once learners go through training, the manager never needs to find out how they are applying what they learned.
6. It is always better to look for your own local vendor. National, regional or global contractors involve too much internal bureaucracy, and they don't understand your special problems.
7. Sending people on a training course will solve all performance problems and development needs.
8. It will be obvious to a skilled trainer what each class participant needs so there is no need to discuss it in advance.
9. I've done presentations. Professional trainers make out that it is far more difficult than it really is.
10. We don't need a university -- we have a learning management system.

The most important part of workforce training - whether you conduct it in-house or use a consultant - is to understand that training is not an event, it's a process. A training course by itself cannot provide the sustainability needed to allow the trained concepts to fully integrate throughout your organization. Follow up is always needed.

How to Silence Workplace Gossips

This month, I'll be conducting a nationwide audio conference on issues and solutions to Gossip in the Workplace on behalf of my friends at BLR.com.

I hope you can join us.

The nationwide audio conference is on Monday, November 17 at 10:30am Pacific. To sign up, click here.

There's also a California specific conference through the Employer Resource Institute on Friday, November 21 at 10:30am Pacific. To join us, click here.

I sincerely hope you can join us!