2009's first Carnival of HR!

Namaste and welcome to the new year's first Carnival of HR!

We've had some great entries for the Carnival, which proves that bloggers might go easy on blogging during the vacations, but the quality of their posts stays the same :-)

Without further ado let's jump straight to the thought provoking posts that talent bloggers from across the world have been posting about :-)

• Mark at Inlexion Point has some predictions for HR for 2009, drawing on the Chinese zodic sign of the Ox!
• Wally Bock at the Three Star Leadership blog focuses on a topical issue - drawing attention to the layoff survivors - and what organizations and HR groups should do to help them.
• Picking up the thread Rick at Flip Chart Fairy Tales (love that name!) asks if HR professionals are ready for the recession.While Rick's data looks at the UK - the lessons are relevant for all HR professionals in economies (like India and US) where we focused on 'development and recruitment' thanks to the earlier 'war for talent'.
• Moving on to Leadership, Nina wonders whether some leaders have leadership pheromones. What do you think? I think those pheromones reside in the behaviors that leaders exhibit and I guess Nina means that too :)
• Chris Young at the Maximize Possibility Blog reminds leaders that succession planning is a fiduciary responsibility. Whether it is Apple's Steve Jobs, or the top leaders of Unilever India caught in the terrorist attack in Mumbai, succession planning as Chris mentions is their responsibility to the shareholders.
• Dan McCarthy at the Great Leadership blog looks back at Best Leadership and Management Development books of 2008. Great list there, and reminds us that we should all take time out to read everyday!
• Continuing with the Leadership theme Denise at Team Doc shares how to fix problems on the leadership team.
  
• Anna at the Engaging Brand reminds us that creating new ideas should be what we do everyday.
• On the other hand, HR Minion would rather call them Goals than Resolutions because it adds structure, are attainable and have steps to achieve them. 
  
• Paul Hebert from the Fistful of Talent blog reminds us that to build organizational culture it's important to sweat the small stuff.
• Alice at the Taleo Blog reminds us that talent pools are no longer be constrained geographically, so is your firm ready to look at hiring people at a global level?
• Amit Avasthi at HR Bytes looks at Talent Management across a group of companies (a conglomerate) and the issues of different HR processes, systems that might impede standardisation.
• Ann Bares at Compensation Force recommends Variable Pay as the best way to build partnership between the organization and its employees, if it is done right. And she has the answer how it can be done right!
• And continuing with the compensation theme Abhishek Mittal has ideas for a benefits market within an organization. Interesting!
  
• And Jon Ingham points us to Strategy guru Gary Hamel's thinking on Management 2.0 and implications for HR folks.
•  Rowan from Fortify Your Oasis reminds us that 2009 would not be such an easy year, if you are job hunting (or even hunkering down and working) and I guess we should fortify our own selves and brace towards it :-)
• However Susan Heathfield of About HR reminds us that in turmoil lies opportunity and that we should continue to focus on the important things.
  

How's that to start off some food for thought to start the new year with?
Have a great 2009 people!