More HR pros are turning to social networking sites for professional and business connections. But it takes a lot of time and effort to check your individual Facebook, LinkedIn and other communities. Save time with Flock and Netvibes.

Like people, some workplaces welcome huggers. Others prefer a smartly extended right hand. "To hug or not to hug" is the question ... and here's the answer.

Congress and the Obama administration began laying the groundwork last month for an overhaul of the U.S. health care system. The big question: How to pay for it?

When employees approach retirement, they sometimes go on autopilot, frustrating everyone involved, including co-workers and supervisors. But you can demand productivity from such employees and discipline them accordingly. Just be prepared to take special steps to stay away from age bias claims.

A big management axiom is: “It’s not important for my employees to like me; they only need to respect me.” Not true, says management consultant Mike Winstanley. It’s fine—even important—for managers to be liked by their employees, he says. Four ways that managers can increase their “likability":

In an important employer victory, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June that for employees to successfully bring Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) lawsuits, they must now show that age discrimination was the cause—not just one of several possible contributing factors—of their termination or other adverse job action.

Don’t expect a lot of sympathy from laid-off workers, but a decade-long study says people who conduct layoffs suffer from a higher rate of ulcers, sleep problems and heart trouble.

Attorney Alison West thinks every HR pro should keep a pen and paper with them at all times. “It will help you get into the habit of documenting,” she said at the SHRM Conference in New Orleans. West believes documentation is crucial to keeping a workplace running right—ensuring fairness, promoting good performance and, most important, winning in court if an employee sues you.

In what some employment law attorneys are calling one of the most important employment law cases of the decade, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 29 that the city of New Haven shouldn’t have thrown out promotion test results of all firefighters just because it feared the test would have a disparate impact on black firefighters. What's the practical impact? Read on ...

We look in mirrors every day. They give us a reflection of ourselves. But what about our inner selves—our attitudes and thoughts? How often do we look there? True leaders look inward every day and take stock of themselves. As simple as it sounds, it’s the step most overlooked by managers in their journey to becoming leaders ...

Complicated visuals cause listeners to ignore your voice while trying to decipher the slide. Here are three rules for better PowerPoints:

On June 17, President Obama signed an order that extends certain employee benefits to unmarried domestic partners of federal workers, including same-sex partners.

Surveys of U.S. workers consistently show that employees want more than a paycheck from their jobs—they want to feel safe, secure and appreciated at work. Here are eight guidelines for recognizing and rewarding employees, according to an Adecco management report.

Giving employees critical feedback, negotiating with vendors, sticking up for your people (or your budget)—they’re all communications situations that require a certain amount of assertiveness. These 18 questions can help you pinpoint areas of weakness in your ability to express yourself. Use your results to figure out where you can improve.

Although it may seem counterintuitive, there are many good reasons to launch a one-person HR consultancy as the economy sputters. Despite the layoffs and budget cuts, downsized organizations are still hiring HR consultants and contractors to perform a range of basic services.

Managers aren’t only responsible for an organization’s fiscal assets, they’re also responsible for its human assets. According to a recent Adecco report, here are 13 simple ideas you can implement today to become a more effective manager:

Say a company exec asks you to hire his relative or friend, or he not so subtly urges you to give the application “strong consideration.” You want to reject the candidate because he’s obviously unqualified. But you don’t want to commit career suicide. What do you do?

The baby of the family may get the most attention, but the oldest gets the cash. That’s the message of a CareerBuilder survey that found employees who were firstborn in their families were more likely to earn $100,000 or more annually compared to their siblings.

The recession has plenty of employees distracted and anxious—about their jobs, their 401(k)s and their monthly bills. That’s not good news at a time when you need to squeeze every ounce of productivity from your employees. These 14 tips can motivate shell-shocked employees.

Title VII protects employees from discrimination based on sex, and sexual harassment is sex discrimination. Essentially, the law protects employees from harassment because of sex—and that can include same-sex harassment. But at what point do friendships among co-workers run the risk of slipping into dangerous territory?

While you may not have been partying much at the office lately, some employers see summer as an ideal time for an all-staff get-together. Instead of spending a lot on flowers and glassware rentals, get creative with these summertime themes.

Congress is considering legislation that would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide seven days of paid sick leave per employee per year, an expansion of the FMLA that a coalition of HR and business groups immediately decried.

Being out of a job for an extended period no longer carries the stigma it once did for top managers, says a new Robert Half Management survey.

Surveys of U.S. workers consistently show that employees want more than a paycheck from their jobs—they want to feel safe, secure and appreciated at work. Here are eight guidelines for recognizing and rewarding employees, according to an Adecco management report.

Legislation introduced in Congress on May 19 would require employers with 15 or more workers to provide at least seven days of paid sick leave per employee per year.