Mark Rettberg's blog

Financial stress is a sadly widespread experience. According to the American Psychological Association, 8 out of 10 people identify money as a significant source of stress in their live. This is extremely significant because financial stress is linked to health problems like ulcers, depression and sleeping problems.  With the recent recession, the rising cost of fuel and food, the housing market and mortgage crisis, many employees are feeling the crunch of financial stress.

As HR leaders continue to be more and more important in driving organizational change, the need to have useful human capital analytics is critical.  This ability to look at effectiveness and efficiency in human capital is going to further HR within the c-suite.

I was reading a recent article by Andrew R. McIlvaine, who had interviewed Dave Ulrich, a leading authority on strategic human resources.  During the interview, one question and response really seemed to strike a cord with me and my interactions with HR leaders over the past 7+ years.  

The question and response by Ulrich are below.  

If you are considering using pre-hire assessments as part of your employee selection process, here are 5 things you should know about assessments.

1. How widespread is assessments?

Here are several tips to help you with developing and executing an effective Financial Wellness program.  

1. Unbiased Information

To be most effective, employee financial education must be presented by professionals who are unbiased in their recommendations. Employees want solid and unbiased information and do not want to attend workshops that are merely sales presentations for insurance or investment programs. 

Over the past few months I have personally spoken to roughly a hundred different leaders in human resources, and its clear that stress over money and finances is impacting employees. 

Does this sound familiar? You’re trying to find ways to use technology to drive key benefits to employees, but you perception of employees is that they still use paper and pencils.  Heck, if they knew how to access their voicemail, that alone would be an earth-shattering event, right!  

But if you could just automate a few things, maybe like open enrollment, it would have a profound impact on HR and free up hours to invest elsehwere, like succession planning.  So what’s holding you back?

I have to say I don’t think I noticed more articles being released in a single week, then this week alone...about how organizations need to treat its employees in order to retain them.

"Do you know what unappreciated people do? They walk."  (Why Your Employees Are Leaving)

 Amy Chulik, a Careerbuilder writer, recently posted a strong article called "Gen Y's impact in the workplace."  It highlighed some great insights into how this new generation is entering the workforce and their impact.

"Do not doubt that this generation will change the face of the American workplace as their parents did."  "In the next five to 10 years, the number of Gen Yers in the workforce will increase dramatically."

In today’s current market and with so many looking for employment, it’s safe to say that hundreds of interviews are happening every hour. Job interviews can be tough for both the interviewer and the interviewee. Job candidates aren't completely sure what the prospective company is looking for and those doing the interviewing aren't sure how to figure out what kind of candidates they're really talking to. While looking at a perfectly prepared resume isn't going to answer those questions either!