On Wednesday, April 21, 2010, from noon until 1:30PM, I’ll be presenting the labor & employment law primer at the Business Connections Luncheon – Best Practices Part 1 for the Lake Zurich Chamber of Commerce & SCORE (Service Core of Retired Executives; www.scorechicago.org).  The presentation format will be largely Q & A with handouts provided.  It’s at Vehe Barn, 23570 Cuba Rd., Deer Park, IL.  For more information visit http://www.lzacc.com/events_calendar.html; to register contact Dale Perrin at 847.438.5572.

On Tuesday, April 27, 2010, from 6PM to 8PM, I’ll be presenting a labor & employment law seminar for the Lake/McHenry Chapter of the National Association of Women in Construction (NAWIC), http://nawic368.org/.  It’s at the Cubby Bear North in Lincolnshire at 21661 Milwaukee Ave.  This presentation is co-sponsored by NAWIC & SCORE.  Registration information is available via Evite here.

On Wednesday, May 12th, from 8:30AM until 11AM, I’ll be part of a panel presentation for Business Network Chicago’s Entrepreneur’s Committee concerning hiring issues for startups and small businesses.  For more information, please contact Susan Barahia at sbarahia@bnchicago.org or 312-371-3786, or check out BNC’s website at http://www.bnchicago.org/index.php.  It’s at Wells Fargo Advisors, 222 S. Riverside Plaza (Adams & Canal), Chicago, 3rd Floor.

On Friday, May 14th at 9:30am, at Chicago’s City Hall, #805, 121 N. LaSalle St., I’ll be presenting a free labor & employment law seminar. Thanks to the City of Chicago’s Department of Business Affairs for setting this up.  This will be largely Q&A & open discussion along with handouts.  If you would like to attend, please contact Alfredo Camarena at 312-744-5344 or alfredo.camarena@cityofchicago.org.

In March, I was elected to the Lakeside Community Committee’s Board of Directors.  For the past 44 years, Chicago’s Lakeside Community Committee, has been committed to facilitating quality foster care and related services for needy children; reuniting biological parents and their children;  and strengthening the social and economic base of Chicago’s Grand Crossing neighborhood and surrounding communities.  Currently, the LCC has about 60 staff members servicing more than 250 children and families.  I remain Vice Chair of the Board and Chair of the Government Affairs Team for the Greater O’Hare Association, one of Chicagoland’s largest business associations; board member for the The Chicago Bar Foundation’s Young Professionals Board; Board Chair for the YMCA Alliance, the adult education and workforce development arm of the YMCAs of Chicago; and Board Member for ChildServ, a 115 year old child advocacy and children’s group home organization.

Starting in March, I became a regular contributor to Slate.com’s small business blog BizBox.  Slate’s BizBox, is sponsored by OPEN from American Express, and serves as a clearinghouse for the latest news, analysis and advice for entrepreneurs and small business people.  Obviously, my contributions relate to labor & employment law & HR management.  I’m part of a panel of four professionals writing on issues affecting small businesses.  Thank to Jerry Kalish of National Benefit Services Inc. for setting this up.  The panel includes Jerry, who works with business owners who want to put more money away for retirement, and companies who want a state-of-the-art retirement program; Chris Cooper, a Program Coordinator at the Small Business Succession Planning Program and The Ohio Employee Ownership Center at Kent State University; and Susan A. Berson, a partner in The Banking & Tax Law Group LLP, www.banktaxlaw.com.

A few months ago, I had the pleasure of meeting Don Paullin the owner and founder of Hiring Firing Experts, Inc., and the author of the book reviewed here Hire Hotdogs, Fire Baloney; Hiring the Best.  Don has 20-plus years of experience in the HR and operations field working for large corporations and now consulting to them.

The book is good and practical, and at less than 200 pages it’s a quick read.  The key element to Don’s approach is to craft a meaningful job description.  Hiring the best is a direct result of the analytical process that goes into the creation of a good job description and sticking to that job description in the hiring and assessment process.  Don also provides hundreds of great real world examples of interviewing questions, criteria and hiring tips.

One of the best things about Don’s book is that it’s common sense oriented and immediately applicable to running a business.  Once you understand the purpose and how to create a decent job description, everything else (e.g., interviewing, hiring criteria, selection, rejection, assessment) is logically based on that job description.

Although I may somewhat differ with Don regarding the job description’s necessity, this difference in approach doesn’t mean that I believe that job descriptions are useless or that any of his other tips are unnecessary.  Instead, my two keys to effective workplace relations is to adhere to the “Golden Rule” (i.e., treat employees well), and pay them on time and accurately (don’t mess with employees’ money).  Both approaches aren’t necessarily inconsistent with one another.  My approach may be more suitable to entrepreneurs, or those who like to go by their gut, and don’t want to deal with employment related issues in any sort of analytical way.  Because Don’s approach is so analytical, some may shy away from that level of analysis because of the fear of bureaucracy and red tape that sometimes inherent with HR practices.

Then again, whereas my approach is based solely on my own observations and opinions, and not on empirical or legal research, and Don’s approach is more grounded in legal and empirical research, from a preventive and proactive human resources perspective, Don’s approach makes more sense, and should help to greatly reduce a business’ employment related expenses and increase profits.

I just updated my Client Testimonials page today.  Julie Savitt, President/Owner of AMS Earth Movers Inc., added her testimonial.  Two very cool things about Julie’s company is that, just yesterday, it was announced they just won a huge technology makeover prize from Chicago’s Women’s Business Development Center (see this blurb at bottom of page), and she was quoted and discussed in yesterday’s Crain’s Chicago Business in an article discussing business in 2010.

On August 5, 2009, I did my 2nd live interview on the Recruiting Animal show on Blog Talk Radio. The interview lasted about an hour & covered such topics as legal issues in recruiting & ruse calling (i.e., using a fake identity to get past a company gatekeeper). You can listen to the interview on the player below, at RA’s page on BTR, or the MP3 here.

The editorial I co-authored and published on Huliq.com and in my prior post (6/10/09) has also been published on Labor Union Report.com.