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Recommended Reading

Retooling HR: Using Proven Business Tools to Make Better Decisions about Talent by John W. Boudreau 9781422130070 R360.00

HR professionals have made major strides toward becoming strategic partners. But they need to do more - by generating value through savvy decisions about talent. HR leaders typically assume that, to make such decisions, they must develop sophisticated analytical tools from scratch. Even then, the resulting tools often fail to engage their peers.

In Retooling HR, John Boudreau shows how HR leaders can break this cycle - by adapting powerful analytical tools already used by other functions to the unique challenges of talent management.

Drawing on his research and examples from companies including Google, Disney, IBM, and Microsoft, Boudreau explains six proven business tools leaders already use. And he shows how HR can apply these tools to talent management. Examples include:

• Using engineering tolerances to find pivot points that job descriptions miss
• Using inventory and supply-chain analytics to ensure a ready supply of the right talent
• Applying logistics tools to optimize succession planning and leadership development
• Adapting consumer research tools to find untapped value in total rewards

Retooling HR builds on Boudreau's bestselling book Beyond HR, which traces HR's evolution as a decision science. For HR professionals seeking to sharpen their decision-making prowess, this provocative new book blazes an innovative new path."

Meaningful Workplaces: Reframing How and Where we Work by Neal E. Chalofsky 9780470403006 R540.00

The "traditionalist" generation came out of WW II, moved to the suburbs, and pursued jobs and careers that promised a "good living." The Baby Boomers jumped on the same path until they reached midlife and started questioning whether a good living equated with a "good life." Their children, Generation X, Y, and the Millennials, are questioning whether they even want to start down the path their parents and grandparents took, career-wise, and are making different choices about the role of work in their lives.

Drawing from a multiyear study of how a strong and responsive HR function can influence organizational effectiveness, Meaningful Workplaces provides guidelines to build an employee-engaged, high-performance, community-based culture—a place where people want to work. The book addresses the changed nature of work, what constitutes meaningful work, and explores the three key elements of meaningful work: the self, the work, and a sense of life balance and integration. It then explores what organizations need to do to become meaningful workplaces. "First of all, it's not about the perks, it's about the culture," says Neal Chalofsky. Employees of humane organizations are not there just because they have great benefits. The benefits are a result of the work-life culture, because the culture values employees. In turn, employees have an overwhelming commitment to their organizations. In addition, the organization supports the whole person, and the whole person is engaged in the organization. While no organization can be all things to all people, these organizations work hard to recognize and support employees' work, family, leisure, personal, and community needs. Finally, the organization is truly a community. When employees go to work each day knowing that what they do makes a difference, that their voice is heard, that their work is meaningful, and that they enjoy the company of their colleagues, then employees are truly part of a workplace community.

Meaningful Workplaces focuses on building a humane workplace, one that is values-based, employee-focused, creating a workplace community within organizations—and it lays out ways HR professionals can build organizations that align employees' personal values and purpose, the work, and the workplace.

The HR Toolkit: An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist by Denise Romano 9780071700818 R360.00

Address every type of HR issue with more than 100 templates, memos, and checklists

In these challenging times, HR professionals and other managers need to know how to strategically position themselves to gain the respect of leadership, and to positively affect the culture and practices of the corporation. The HR Toolkit is the must-have handbook if you're looking to skillfully identify, diplomatically address, and strategically resolve any issue you confront in the workplace.

Including a handy indexed listing of the most common workplace conflicts and solutions for ease-of-reference, expert author Denise Romano provides practical and actionable ways to empower and educate HR professionals and management.

The resources in this indispensible handbook tackle:

• Conflict resolution
• Performance management
• Job design and employee selection
• Employee handbooks, workplace culture, and codes of ethics
• Medical leave, fair labor standards, overtime, and other government issues
• A realistic framework for addressing workplace dysfunction, along with examples, risk assessments, and timelines

The HR Toolkit is the all you need guide with inside information and proven, successful models to save money and increase profit and productivity by immediately attending to HR issues within the workplace.

The Why of Work: How Great Leaders Build Abundant Organizations That Win by David Ulrich, Wendy Ulrich, Marshall Goldsmith (Foreword by) 9780071739351 R339.00

According to studies, we all work for the same thing--and it's not just money. It's meaning. Through our work, we seek a sense of purpose, contribution, connection, value, and hope. Digging down to the meaning of work taps our resilience in hard times and our passion in good times. That's the simple but profound premise behind this groundbreaking book by renowned management expert Dave Ulrich and psychologist Wendy Ulrich. They've talked to thousands of people--from rank-and-file workers to clients and customers to top-level executives--and synthesized major disciplines to identify the "why" behind our most successful experiences.

Using the model of the "abundant organization," they provide you with the "how" to create meaning and value in your own workplace. Learn how to:

• Ask the seven questions that drive abundance
• Understand the needs of your customers and staff
• Personalize the work to motivate your employees
• Build and grow your business in any economy

By following the Ulrichs' step-by-step guidelines, you will set off a chain reaction of positive and enduring effects. Employees who find meaning in their work are more competent, committed, and eager to contribute—and their contribution will result in increased customer commitment, which delivers a winning performance on the bottom line.

The Why of Work includes targeted checklists, questionnaires, and other useful tools to help you turn aspirations into action. Using the proven principles of abundance, you can coordinate your needs with those of your employers, your employees, and your customers--and create a vision that resonates for years to come. When you understand why we work, you know how to succeed.

To order contact Rachel Ngake on 011 880 8540 or rachel@knowres.co.za

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