ASTD Economic Survival Guide
If you're an ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) member, you can download their first edition of the ASTD Economic Survival Guide for free. The guide has T+D magazine articles and Infolines that relate to leveraging human capital, surviving layoffs, managing tight budgets, and proving learning's value in the organization. The regular price is $59. You can download your copy at http://store.astd.org/Default.aspx?tabid=143&action=ECDProductDetails&args=20315
BusinessWeek Says More HR Doing Digital Data Mining
With all the websites you visit and accounts you've created, you leave quite a digital data trail. Human resource departments are now using that information to calculate a return on investment for each worker. An employee retention program developed by SAS analyzes data on employees who have quit in the past five years, including their skills, profiles, studies, and friendships, and finds current employees with similar patterns to prevent them from leaving as well. Such models could eventually project how much workers will produce over the course of their careers and enable companies to perform cost-benefit studies on recruiting, training, and employee retention.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_12/b4124046224092.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story
Free Career Factbook for Learning Professionals
The Career Factbook for HR and Learning Professionals was recently released by Bersin & Associates and is free to download.
The Factbook is an in-depth analysis of the demographics and characteristics of today's human resources and learning profession. "Surprisingly, the biggest challenge facing HR and L&D leaders is not a lack of resources, but rather, the lack of support and engagement from business leaders. The biggest challenge to the profession is building strong business alignment, credibility throughout the enterprise, and business acumen within the HR and L&D ranks," said Josh Bersin, president.
Following are representative findings:
HR and learning professionals are highly motivated by a desire to help people, improve their organizations, and gain the respect of their organizations. Compensation is a relatively low driver of job satisfaction in most areas of the profession.
Experience, rather than education, is the biggest differentiator between executives and practitioners in the HR and learning profession. Most executives have line-of-business experience and emphasize skills such as planning, communication, and budgeting.
The profession is comprised of highly educated individuals. Thirty-four percent of respondents have bachelor's degrees, 51 percent have master's degrees, and 7 percent have doctorate degrees. Generally, individuals are highly tenured. More than 40 percent have fifteen or more years in the profession; 66 percent have ten years or more. Sixty-two percent of individuals in the profession are female; yet senior HR and learning executives are more likely to be male.
Average compensation ranges $67,381 for those with two to five years of experience to $115,200 for those with 15 or more years of experience. Managers can expect to earn 7 percent more than non-managers, directors can expect to earn 42 percent more than managers, and vice presidents and other senior executives can expect to earn 25 to 30 percent more than directors. But, it's important to note that compensation is near the bottom of the list of motivators for those in the HR and learning profession.
Professionals highly value talent management software, learning management software, assessment solutions, and executive coaches as important support resources for their organizations. Applicant tracking systems, HR technology consultants, and strategic HR consultants were rated lowest in perceived value.
The Factbook can be downloaded for free by visiting http://marketing.bersin.com/HR_Career_Factbook.html.
