Training magazine
"..a handy guide to the various facets of Human Resources administration."


Book Description
The HR Answer Book addresses 200 questions that every employer needs to deal with, from recruiting and hiring to discipline and termination, compensation and benefits to training and employee relations. Accessible and concise, this on-the-job companion offers expert guidance on all types of "people" issues, enabling managers and human resources professionals to: * Save time, money, and trouble * Increase employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention * Attract and hire the best candidates while avoiding the inferior ones* * Handle tough issues like sexual harassment, Internet and e-mail usage, performance problems, and more -- fairly, sensitively, and legally. The HR Answer Book is an easy-to-use problem solver that can be read cover-to-cover or as a quick reference in specific situations. An appendix of tools, templates, and lists of additional resources completes this excellent and valuable guide.


About the Author
Shawn Smith (Harrison, NY) is an attorney, former corporate executive, and the founder of Next Level Consulting, LLC. Her articles have appeared in numerous legal and business publications. Rebecca Mazin (Larchmont, NY) is cofounder of Recruit Right, an HR consulting firm, and has held key positions at organizations including Hyatt Hotels, Owens Corning, and the National Labor Relations Board.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Whether you're a human resources professional or a harried manager in another area -- juggling policy and people issues along with the duties of your "real job" -- there's a lot of HR-related information you need to know. If you lack that information, or misunderstand it, you and your organization could end up in a lot of trouble. What you need is an expert you can call upon any time -- and that's what you'll find in this book. In fact, you'll find two experts. One is an attorney with a corporate background who specializes in employment law. The other is a recruiter and former HR manager with strong experience in every aspect of the field. Together, Shawn Smith and Rebecca Mazin are here to help you navigate the tricky and ever-changing terrain of people management. Better yet, they do it in plain English.

Written in question-and-answer format, this essential reference book addresses more than 200 areas of concern. It gives you a crash course in all the key areas: employee selection, policies, performance management, training, employee relations and retention, compensation, benefits, major employment laws, termination, and tough stuff such as e-mail monitoring and workplace violence. The next time you need to write a help-wanted ad...orient a new employee...get the facts on The Family and Medical Leave Act...deal with a suspected substance abuser...or conduct an exit interview...you'll be prepared to act. You'll even find a special section of ready-to-use Tools and Templates, including a Job Applicant Flow Log, Sample Health Plan Comparison, and Employment Reference Request. For dependable answers to real HR situations, this is the book you'll rely on. It's free of fads and frills -- and packed with solid guidance you can use and trust.

FROM THE CRITICS

Training magazine

"...a handy guide to the various facets of Human Resources administration."

Soundview Executive Book Summaries

What Human Resource Managers Should Know
HR managers and other professionals in the field need to know what to do in sticky employee situations, whether they involve compensation and benefits, or discipline and termination. To help those in human resources deal with the tough questions that frequently come up during the course of their work, attorney and consultant Shawn Smith and HR expert Rebecca Mazin have compiled 200 questions and answers to some of the most vexing problems in HR today.

The HR Answer Book tackles numerous employee issues in a format that poses a question, then answers it with professional guidance backed up by several bulleted points highlighting the specific elements of the solution. Within those points, the authors present questions that should be asked and ideas that should be taken into consideration. What results is a well-rounded description of a complete HR response, which includes reflections on greater issues that comprise the problem as well as straightforward advice from professionals who have used the strategy in their work.

Worth Repeating
Along with the questions, answers and points that comprise these words of guidance, the authors also present several boxed sidebars that put their solutions into perspective. For example, when discussing an organization's need for a mentor program, the authors offer a boxed paragraph called, "Worth Repeating: Mentor Up." In it, the authors write that "Intel Corp. and some other large companies have instituted mentor programs that encourage learning relationships up the hierarchy. Senior managers can find out firsthand about new levels of the organization, and gain the confidence of the next generation of managers." These types of real-world examples provide HR managers with standards by which they can balance their own business practices.

Another type of boxed sidebar that appears throughout The HR Answer Book is a "Better Forgotten" story that describes an HR mistake made by a company that should have chosen a different tack when making a crucial management decision. In the boxed story titled, "Better Forgotten: 'What Were Those Survey Results?'" the authors describe a scenario where a midsized employer hired an outside consultant to design and administer an employee opinion survey. After the results were compiled, sent to key managers, and a committee was formed to create action plans, nothing was done. Later, when another survey was distributed around the company, only 5 percent of employees responded.

When discussing employee recruitment, the authors provide HR managers with detailed descriptions of the best ways to find candidates, conduct interviews, test prospects, and make job offers.

To help HR managers create an effective employee handbook, the authors present their readers with extensive lists of relevant topics from which they can choose policies for employment and compensation, equal employment opportunity, time off, employee benefits, safety, discipline and termination. After providing the options that are available, the authors describe the ways language and tone can make the handbook even more accessible and useful for employees.

Other helpful bits of advice in The HR Answer Book include when to use an attorney, how to develop a performance management system, how to keep good employees, how to make a benefits package competitive, and the best ways for handling violence and substance abuse in the workplace.

Additional Resources
Not only does The HR Answer Book provide numerous guiding examples of sound HR management principles, but it also contains a lengthy resource guide that holds dozens of addresses, Web sites, and telephone numbers of the agencies and organizations that can be invaluable in the quest for a successful HR program.

In addition to these links to the current universe of HR experts, the authors also provide readers with a section filled with tools and templates, including questions HR managers should ask candidates before scheduling an interview, an application flow log, a trainer's checklist, an exit interview questionnaire, several sample forms, as well as many other helpful documents that can serve as a starting place for a comprehensive HR management system. By presenting so many tools and strategies in a single resource, The HR Answer Book serves as a convenient reference book that can provide any HR manager with the knowledge and know-how to navigate through the many expected and unexpected situations that can arise during the course of managing an organization's employees.