100+ Brilliant HR Blogs to Follow

Human resource management allows us to manage the daily challenges in the workplace to help the business perform better and employees excel professionally. Challenges come from all sides, in; recruiting and retaining talented employees, workplace diversity, compliance with laws and regulations, understanding benefits packages, adapting to innovation, workforce training and development, leadership development, management changes, and compensation are just some of the everyday challenges HR professionals face today. As you probably already know all too well, HR is a rapidly changing world that requires us to continually learn and improve our own skills so that we can provide value, both to the businesses we work for and the employees that we serve on their behalf.

This is no easy task…

Recruiting and retaining talented employees is one of the most challenging tasks for any HR department. Everyone knows you really only meet someone’s representative during an interview, so it’s your job to weed through the dishonest and unqualified. Once a qualified person is hired, it’s important to remember that a person is only as faithful as their options. Steve Martin said it best, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” If management has their ducks in a row, people will not only beg to work for your company but also have the longevity a company seeks from their employees.And we all understand the value of diversity in the workplace, but it undoubtedly has its challenges. When people from different backgrounds are forced to work together it’s not always rainbows and lollipops. Creating an inclusive environment is vital in today’s competitive business world because the key to innovation is understanding that great ideas can come from anyone.

Keeping up with with laws and regulations isn’t always exciting, but for some reason, everyone thinks they’re an attorney after watching a couple seasons of Law and Order. For example, one that I hear often is that it’s illegal for employers to drug test employees in states where marijuana is legal. Fortunately for employers, and unfortunately for drug users, that is completely false. When an employee makes a decision based on false information, they put both the company and their own job at risk. It’s our job as human resource professionals, to make sure the employees have a clear understanding of the laws and regulations to ensure their success, protecting both them and our employer.

Effective HR requires careful leadership development as well. Molding an employee into an effective leader can be difficult, because you’re dealing with multiple personalities that react differently to different types of leadership. Finding someone that can encourage, strategize, inspire, and discipline may often seem like finding Waldo. But once you’ve found and trained that person, it reduces employee uncertainty, and the rules, expectations, and standards are understood and appreciated.

It also requires tackling the thornier subjects, like drug testing and sexual harassment, both of which have received a lot of attention lately and have a tremendous impact on workplace productivity, safety, and morale.

Along the way, it’s important to realize that no matter how well-intentioned your ideas are, you will likely face resistance to your efforts to create a better workplace. President Woodrow Wilson famously said “If you want to make enemies, try to change something.” Adapting to innovation, changing management, implementing new technology or strategies are often met with skepticism by employees, and every company goes through growing pains. It’s critical to have a solid plan in place from HR on how to help employees adjust to any changes that may be coming up.

But that doesn’t mean you have to make it boring! All too frequently, people have similar opinions as Michael Scott from The Office.” Toby from HR was boring and sucked the fun out of the office.”

In reality, HR can be fun and rewarding, but is often an under appreciated part of the success of a company. That’s why it’s vital that we as HR professionals are always striving to improve. Evaluate yourself as well as your employees. When we can objectively look at the job we are doing and assess our strengths and weaknesses we will be able to effectively plan for success and overcome all of the challenges in the workplace.

Ultimately, it’s our responsibility to not only understand the changes in our industry personally, but also understand how those changes will affect the workplace. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of some of the top HR blogs to help continue your education and stay at the top of your game. We are not just professionals—we are also teachers, and if we don’t continually advance, we aren’t doing our job! So check out these awesome HR blogs, put the information you learn there into practice, and if you’ve found this article and list useful, share it on social media!

Top HR blogs to follow

Ready to learn more or schedule a test?

Find a drug testing location

About David Bell