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Resources at Your Fingertips for HR Professionals

Last Updated on April 25, 2023 / HR Compliance

by Linda Gravett, PhD, SPHR and Robin Throckmorton, MA, SPHR

“Where can I find information about…???” This is probably the most frequent question both of us receive from HR practitioners.  Therefore, this article is dedicated to sharing with you as many resources as we can think of that you may find helpful now or in the future.

Human Resources Management Books

Have you read any of these?  Many of these human resources management books will be helpful to you in no matter what type of organization you work:

        1. Built on Trust by Arky Ciancutti and Thomas Steding
          • This book describes how a high-trust organization can achieve competitive advantage. Techniques are provided to move the culture away from one in which managers rule by fear. 
        2. Creating a Culture of Competence by Michael Zwell
          • This book addresses concrete ways to assess an organization’s overall level of competence in relation to strategic objectives.  The author shares methods to ensure that employees and managers are working at full capacity to achieve the organization’s mission.
        3. All Crisp Publications
          • These are the “50-minute” series that provide content, worksheets, exercises, case studies, and more on any topic you could imagine ranging from multi-rater feedback to performance management to retention to selecting and working with consultants.  For a complete list, vist their website here.
        4. First, Break All the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
          • This totally irreverent book will shake up traditional management paradigms.  The authors describe characteristics and approaches, which are common to all great managers.  The approaches usually fly in the face of conventional wisdom.  The book is based on two Gallup studies that spanned 25 years.
        5. Fish!  A Remarkable Way to Boost Morale and Improve Results by Stephen Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen
          • This unique book tells the leadership story as a fable, describing a workplace where employees have energy, passion, and joy.  The authors provide some common-sense ideas to help people really get connected to their work, coworkers, and customers.
        6. HR Champions by Dave Ulrich
          • This is the ultimate tool to help you strategically align your human resources function with the business.  Ulrich provides many tools and case studies throughout the entire book to help you deliver a value-added human resources function.
        7. HR How-to…Employee Retention by Jennifer Carsen, J.D. 
          • This is a wonderful, easy to read book with TONS of ideas and suggestions for retention, recruitment, work/life balance, employee opinion surveys, and much much more. 
        8. Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
          • If you haven’t read this book, you must.  It’s a quick and easy way to help your organization effectively deal with change in a productive and successful manner.
        9. Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?  Inside IBM’s Historic Turnaround by Louis Gerstner
          • This account of IBM’s strategy for becoming a real player in the world of technology in the 1990’s is excellent.  The author describes how IBM went from being a comfortable but inflexible giant to a company with organizational agility and vision.

General HR Online Resources

You will find these general human resources websites contain a great deal of information including facts, best practices, tools, and more:

      1. Better Work Place Now
        • This site provides ideas and tools for creating workplaces that truly bring out the best in people.  If you haven’t seen Tom Terez’s work, you need to check out his website.  There are many free tools and resources to help you with your workplace.  Plus, his monthly newsletter is wonderful.
      2. Crisis Management International
        • This site will help you in identifying foreseeable risks, preparing for threats and hazards, and responding if an incident occurs. 
      3. Strategic Human Resources, Inc.
        • Quick, customized, answers to your human resource management questions in seven key areas:  Management Practices, HR Audits/Startups, HR Development, Managing Diversity, Compensation, Executive Coaching, and Employee Relations.  This is a fee service but your first question is FREE.
      4. Fast Company
        • On this website, you will find articles and resources on leadership, strategy and innovation, Internet and technology, education and resources, careers, human resources, marketing and branding, and sales and customer service.
      5. HR.com
        • This is a very comprehensive site containing information, resources, products, and services to help you with your human resources issues in eight areas:  Compensation and Benefits, HR Information Systems, HR Management, Labor Relations, Legal, Organizational Development, Staffing, and Training and Development.
      6. HR Guide
        • This site provides you with a magnitude of links to other human resources websites.
      7. HR Hero
        • This will become an excellent employment law resource for you with quick answers to your employment law and management questions as well as news, laws, advice, and tools.
      8. HRM Guide
        • The HRM Guide Network includes free articles and features on key human resources issues, research, and books.
      9. HR Next
        • This site provides free access to hundreds of informative articles and useful tools.  Plus, if you select to be a paid subscriber, there are even more resources available to you.
      10. HR Tools
        • This is a virtual human resources department providing a number of online resources including news and toolkits for staffing, HR Compliance, training and performance, benefits and compensation, and safety.
      11. Inc.
        This website contains articles and resources on business management.  They also offer many free email subscriptions that include excellent tips and resources sent directly to you if you subscribe.
      12. My Work Tools
        • Do you need a business tool?  This site provides sample business tools to help you complete specific business tasks related to human resources (i.e. performance reviews), marketing, legal, finance, training, and more. Plus, you can submit your tools and earn a profit when someone buys them.

Compensation & Benefits Online Resources
Too often, we need quick access to compensation and benefits data for comparison purposes.   Below is a list of online compensation and benefits resources:

  1. Benefits Link
    • Benefits Link provides employee benefits compliance information and tools.
  2. Benefits News
    • This is another great employee benefits site for news, links, and more.
  3. Economic Research Institute
    • This site offers many salary surveys, software, and other products.  Also, if you select “free analyst resources” on the top navigation bar, you’ll be taken to page of free information including links to MANY other free and paid “salary sources and surveys”. 
  4. National Compensation Survey
    • This website is a summarization of the annual survey by the US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics including data on local, regional, and national occupational earnings; quarterly changes in employer costs; annual employer cost levels; and incidence and provisions of employee benefits.
  5. Salary.com
    • This website provides compensation information including the ability to request the average salary for a title in a specific location.
  6. Wage Web
    • This is another good site for salary data.  Some of the information is provided for free, but you can subscribe to get even more data.
  7. World at Work
    • This is the website for the professional association for compensation, benefits, and total rewards.  In addition to membership, this site provides links, resources, and news related to compensation.

Human Resources Development Resources

When you need assistance with a training and development project, you may find some of these resources beneficial:

  1. American Society for Training & Development
    • This is the website for the professional association providing resources on workplace learning and performance issues including information, research, conferences, publications and more.
  2. HR Hub
    • This is an excellent resource for human resources related products, suppliers, and news including free newsletters, free trade publications, and online training.
  3. Performance Assessment Network
    • This is a web-based system that you can use to assist you with the distribution, administration, and analysis of professional assessments, tests, and surveys.
  4. International Telework Association Council
    • This site provides research, educational events, publications, and information about telework. Plus, the organization assists businesses and the public in optimizing the advantages of working remotely.

Legislative Online Resources

“Is it legal to…?”  When you have a legal question, you may find some of these resources helpful in determining the solution to your issue:

  1. AHI Employment Law Resource Center
    • This is a compliance resource center that includes publications and reports on various legislative issues.
  2. Employment Law Information Network
    • This is a free legal resource that contains information on federal and state laws including news, articles, forms, policies, an employment lawyer directory, and discussion forums.
  3. Fair Measures 
    • On this site, you will find management law training programs and online policies and checklists to help both employers and employees avoid costly lawsuits.
  4. Job Accommodation Network
    • This site provides free information about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) including job accommodations and the employability of people with disabilities.
  5. Legal Information Institute
    • This is a collection of state legal materials for the fifty states, District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico including constitutions, statutes, regulations, and judicial opinions.
       

Recruiting Online Resources

This number of recruiting resources available online is unlimited and constantly changing. Below are a few sample resources that you may find helpful if you have any recruitment needs:

  1. Advantage Services, Inc.
    • This site provides pre-employment background checks for large and small companies in the U.S. and Canada including verification of employment, education, references, professional licenses, driving records, drug screening, credit history, civil history, criminal background checks and more.
  2. CareerBuilder
    • This site contains a job posting board and resume bank.
  3. Dice
    • This site contains a job posting board and resume bank for technical positions.
  4. Flipdog.com
    • This site contains a job posting board and resume bank.
  5. Human Resources Careers
    • This site contains a job posting board and resume bank for human resources positions.
  6. Monster.com
    • This site contains a job posting board and resume bank.
  7. Recruiters Network
    • This site contains multiple free resources to help you with recruitment.
  8. Recruiter Resources
    • This site provides a comprehensive list of job posting boards and resume banks plus multiple other resources to help you in recruiting.
  9. Search Firm
    • This is a free directory of executive search firms around the world specializing in over 50 particular areas of interest, including biotechnology, legal, healthcare, technology, marketing and telecommunications.

As we learn everyday, the resources available online and in print are growing and changing daily.  Hopefully, this list will give you a start to some of the available resources.  You may want to save a copy of this list and continue adding to it as you identify more resources.

Robin Throckmorton, M. A., SPHR, a Senior Human Resources Management Consultant is President of Strategic Human Resources, Inc. (www.strategicHRinc.com). Dr. Linda Gravett, Ph.D., SPHR is with Gravett & Associates (www.Gravett.com). If you have any questions or wish to share your comments, you can contact Robin at Robin@strategicHRinc.com.