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Barbara Mitchell, "The Essential HR Handbook"

COLUMN = HIRING + HUMAN RESOURCES

Barbara Mitchell is a human resources and organization development consultant who is an expert in the areas of recruitment and retention. She has experience in both for-profit and not-for-profit sectors and has consulted to a variety of organizations around the world.

She served in senior human resources leadership positions with Marriott International and several technology firms in the Washington, DC, area before co-founding the Millennium Group International, LLC (TMG) in 1998, which she sold in 2008.

She recently served on the Society of Human Resource Management’s Special Expert Panel on Consulting and Outsourcing in recognition of her expertise and long service to the HR profession. Barbara is a graduate of North Park University, Chicago, IL, with a degree in History and Political Science and has taken graduate-level courses at UCLA. Contact Barbara by email.

ABOUT THE ESSENTIAL HR HANDBOOK

This 250-page reference guide, published in the fall of 2008 by Career Press, is a must-have for everyone who deals with employees on a daily basis, believe Mitchell and Sharon Armstrong, who wrote the book to shed light on the issues that keep managers up at night.

With this easy-to-read paperback, you’ll learn how to effectively and efficiently:
• Individually manage each employee, starting on his or her first day.
• Manage a multi-generational workforce.
• Appraise job performance.
• Coach and counsel.
• Provide equitable pay, benefits, and total-rewards strategies.
• Minimize legal risk.

WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING

“Finally, a complete, clear, and concise book that covers every essential element of that mix of art and science we call HR. It’s 100% applicable to the real-world challenges faced by today’s HR manager or business owner.” — Joe Calloway, author of Work Like You’re Showing Off.

“This should be required reading for all owners of growing businesses and new managers launching their careers. Seasoned HR professionals will also find value in this quick guide to the essentials of managing people.” — Stephen J. O’Connor, senior director of staffing, ESPN Inc.

“This book is easy to use, and full of solid advice and information from diversity to interviews to legal issues. If you are an HR professional, you should have this book at the ready every day.” — Chester Elton, co-author of The Carrot Principle.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

– Nelson Mandela

The less effort, the faster and more powerful you will be.”

– Bruce Lee

Entrepreneurs willingly assume responsibility for the success or failure of a venture and are answerable for all its facets.”

– Victor Kiam

Try not to become a man of success but rather try to become a man of value.”

– Albert Einstein

No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth.”

– Martha Beck, from "Leaving the Saints"

Passion makes perfect.”

– Eugene Biro

I’m not afraid of storms,
for I’m learning to sail my ship.”

– Louisa May Alcott

Whatever you do may seem insignificant, but it is most important that you do it.”

– Gandi

Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same.”

– Francesca Reigle

Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.”

– William Butler Yeats

Things don’t change. You change your way of looking, that’s all.”

– Carlos Castaneda

There’s nowhere you can be that isn’t where you’re meant to be…”

– John Lennon

Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

– Basil King

It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.”

– J. Kristnhamurti, The First and Last Freedom

If people like you they’ll listen to you; if they trust you, they’ll do business with you.”

– Zig Ziglar

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.”

– Thomas Edison

Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly. Hold fast to dreams, for when dreams go, life is a barren field frozen with snow.”

– Langston Hughes

Think of yourself as on the threshold of unparalleled success. A whole, clear, glorious life lies before you. Achieve! Achieve!”

– Andrew Carnegie

Permanence, perseverance and persistence in spite of all obstacles distinguishes the strong soul from the weak.”

– Thomas Carlyle

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.”

– Henry David Thoreau

Who cares if my glass is half empty or half full; I still have something to drink.”

– Optimism rules

‎The biggest flaw in our existing theory of capitalism lies in its misrepresentation of human nature.”

– Muhammad Yunus

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible, and achieves the impossible.”

– Helen Keller

I may not be able to change what takes place, but I can always choose to change my thinking.”

– Michelle Sedas

Normal day, let me be aware of the treasure you are. 
Let me not pass you by in quest of some rare and perfect tomorrow.”

– Mary Jean Irion

Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true.”

– Leo Jozef Suenens

The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.”

– Marcel Proust

If you look at what you have in life, you’ll always have more.
 If you look at what you don’t have in life, you’ll never have enough.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.”

– Edgar W. Howe

When you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, ‘Certainly I can!’ Then get busy and find out how to do it.”

– Theodore Roosevelt

It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”

– Alfred Adler

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

– Audre Lorde

Practice kindness all day to everybody and you will realize you’re already in heaven now.”

– Jack Kerouac

You must have chaos within you, to create a dancing star.”

– Frederic Nietzsche

Don’t follow your dreams. Chase them.”

– Richard Dumb

Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

– Robert Frost

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

With ordinary talents and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.”

– Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton

What would you attempt to do if you knew you could not fail?”

– Magical

If you do work that you love, and the work fulfills you, the rest will come.”

– Oprah Winfrey

If your success is not on your own terms, if it looks good to the world but does not feel good in your heart, it is not success at all.”

– Anna Quindlen

Sometimes the dreams that come true are the dreams you never even knew you had.”

– Alice Sebold, The Lovely Bones

Do you believe it is important to give back some portion of your wealth to support charitable causes?”

– Steven Schussler

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read.”

– Groucho Marx

We are not meant to resolve all contradictions, but to live with them and rise above them.”

– William Blake

If it isn’t good, let it die. If it doesn’t die, make it good.”

– Ajahn Chah

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing.”

– Maya Angelou

The goal of Life is to make your heartbeat match the beat of the universe, to match your nature with nature.”

– Joseph Cambell

Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”

– Benjamin Disraeli

As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.”

– Brihadaranyaka Upanishad