As you ask it , I wrote a comment on Elisabeth’s blog.

On this link you can find it:

http://elisabethtran.wordpress.com/2009/01/13/french-negotiation-stereotypes/

So first of all , we need to understand what empathy means.

A formal definition of Empathy is the ability to identify and understand another’s situation, feelings and motives. It’s our capacity to recognize the concerns other people have. The metaphor language for empathy includes “putting yourself in the other person’s shoes” or “seeing things through someone else’s eyes”.

Secondly , some of you will ask me , but ” how do you recognize the concerns other people have ?”

Here are some tips which might help you:

1. Listen to people. Listen with your ears , eyes and heart.Pay attention to other’s body language, to their tone of voice, to the hidden emotions behind what they are saying to you , to the contextual aspects.

2. Don’t interrupt people. Don’t dismiss their concerns offhand.Don’t rush to give advice. Don’t change the subject and allow people their moment.

3. Increase your ability to understand other’s non-verbal communication because often people don’t communicate openly what they think or feel.

Do you know that the things we say only account for 7% of the total message that people receive.The other 93% of the message that we communicate when we speak is contained in our tone of voice and body language.

4. Use people’s name.Remember the names of people’s spouse and children so that you can refer to them by name

5. Be fully present when you are with people .For example do not check your email, look at your watch or take phone calls when a direct report drops intoyour office to talk to you.Put yourself in their shoes.

6. Smile at people, a bit sunshine makes people feel moe confortable.

7. Encourage people,particularly the quiet ones, when they speak up in meetings. A simple thing like an attentive nod can boost people’s confidence.

8. Pay attention to what people are doing , give genuine recognition.

9. Show people that you care by taking a personal interest in them .Show genuine curiosity about their lives.If you don’t want to do because you not feel that you can be sincere , just do not do it.Otherwise ask them questions about their hobbies ,their challenges, their families, their aspirations.

12. Spend time with the people who work for you. Get out from behind your desk and walk around and meet in their turf.The goal is to better communicate between employees, read an intersting article about the communication at work:

http://www.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?articleID=99104&ml_action=get-article&print=true

13. Be sensitive to diversity .Make an effort to understand constituents of different cultures.

14.Finally when you want to become a good HR recruiter , hire as much as you can people who are empathic.Indeed empathy is an emotional muscle that becomes stronger the more we use it.

Lastly, do not get too much involved in what people are telling you. I mean One hand it’s important to pay attention to what people says and to show them that you are fully attentive. But on the other hand too much implication in the conversation specially if you do not know very well the person might be calamitous. For example if someone tells you that someone in his family is critically ill and you answer .. “oh yes I fully understand what you feel” but it’s not true because nobody is critically ill or was in your family, you just look like a fool or worse a dishonest person.

In conclusion in my opinion empathy is one of the key of a good recruitment .With empathy you are able to define better the personality of the people sit in front of you. So you reduce your risk to take on the wrong person. Moreover I am convinced that to employ someone who has empathy improves the relations between employees at work.

“A recruiter is someone who finds people who are happy with their jobs, shows them why they are unhappy, and then makes them happy again.” – Anonymous

Today as I was looking for a new article on HR I found this one: http://www.recruiter.co.uk/analysis/secrets-of-hr-recruitment/331059.article which is very useful because it mentionned what are the required qualities to become a good HR recruiter .This is the type of article I am looking for because later in a near future I hope I want to become in charge of the recruitment .

In the article , good HR recruiter are dynamic , HR needs movers and shakers, not just people with best practice manuals.

First thing which is good , I recognize myself in the description so I really glad when I read this article. Moreover what the article claims is totally true in my opinion. Nowadays the companies have to face big challenges because its live and expand in a world where efficiency and cost reductions are the two leitmotiv that companies need to implement. So every year the companies need to rethink to their strategy and in this case to their HR strategy , how can we employ people rapidly ? How can we find the right people .In order to do that  companies need to find recruiters who understand their matter, dynamic recruiters who are able to adapt to any situation , movers and shakers recruiters who will give an impulse to the company, who will increase the performance and the image of the company thanks to their vivacious personality.

But what does it mean exactly an HR recruiter?

In their day-to-day life activities, human resources recruiters draft and list job postings on web sites and in newspappers.They screen potential job candidates, scanning their resumes for keywords and phrases that in-person interviews with company staff.Recruiters may also be involved in crafting a job offer for a candidate, basing it on a candidat’es professional experience and salary history, and job requirements.

Anyway I think I don’t teach anything new with this but it’s important not to forget it

So when I came back in France for christmas holidays ,I decided to work again for this association. With other volunteers we took part to a giant christmas meal specially made for the armest people. Among the different tasks, we set the table, brought the meal, did the dishes etc.Besides the work itself , it was really a fruitful experience because you have the possibility to share a bit humanity with those people who know most of the time better than us what the word humanity means.

In order to illustrate this experience, I am pleased to show you some pictures of me and my colleagues in action the night of Christmas.

One of the most famous Salvation Army traditions is that William Booth concluded his last address in the Royal Albert Hall on 9 May 1912 with these words.

While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight;

while little children go hungry, as they do now, I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight-I’ll fight to the very end!

I really like this text.I found it after having done some research about William Booth and the Salvation Army. If you want to learn more about him or the Salvation Army,here are some websites links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Booth

http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=j9e0AFcsMyI

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REbooth.htm

I enrolled the Salvation Army this summer and I have done some voluntary work in the 18th arrondissement in Paris. My work consisted in giving food 2 or 3 days per week to poor people and immigrants.Usually the team was made of 5 to 7 volunters and 1 to 2 employees working at the Salvation Army.

I will be pleased to illustrate my work after having made some pictures when I go back to France in december.

Let´s go back on the text. This message is full of humanity and hope.As long as the years go, this message is having more and more importance. Nowadays I think that people are too individualists.I mean my purpose is not to say : ” Oh look what I have done it´s great and you should do the same”. No not at all but I really believe in Humanity even if it´s sounds a bit stupid. I just think that people are becoming more afraid to express their feelings,more afraid to live their life entirely and also afraid of having the courage and the tenacity to reach their goals.

William Booth reminds us the importance of the life and specially the one of the others.

http://sebmusset.blogspot.com/

Why is it an original man? Because he is really good in what he is doing and he is doing it with a lot of humor , dark humor we will say most of the time and also because he uses a poetic language yes and sometimes there are some french words that I really don’t understand but anyway I know it does exist. His writing is really different from what you can find on others blogs, sometimes a bit complicated as I said but it’s worth while to have a look on it.

Why is it an original blog? Because the blog contains a lot of fruitful articles.The content of the articles is intelligent, does not follow the general opinion, is critical regarding some burning topics .All these reasons made the Seb Musset’s blog interesting to read for people who want to be aware of what is happening in our society and better understand the ins and outs of any topic.

So ready to read one.. I suggest you the one about Gaza.

HR has a fuller part in the business , it faces strategic decisions and involves more efficiency which means that decisions have to be taken more quickly with shorter lines of communication.

In comparison with the HR of the 80′s or the 90′s which had especially an administrative role , the HR of this century are more services oriented. Under services we have to understand the fact that the big companies call on consultants to help its in the long and tough  process of recruitment.

For example ,I will do my next internship in a company which is doing some head-hunt business and I can already tell you that the process to find the right executive requires al least 5 months.Just for one person! But it’s fully understanble because if you made the wrong choice , you will get into trouble.

So conclusion:

The all HR department is changing and will continue to change.

I remember that I was quite young when I asked to my father if he could buy me a book about greek mythologie(I let you imagine the reaction of my father .. like any father would have reacted.”Oh great my daugther reads Mythologie…!!”

Anyway this fascination for reading stops here with also an interest for the fantastic literature such as Maupassant, Gautier, Garcia Marquez but this is another story.

Anyway I just love reading all the fabulous legends from the greek mythologie and I can also spent hours telling /realtingto others people one of the story. Among my favourite stories, Ulysse,Persée,Zeus and all his conquests…Of course more than the legends ,the interpretation of the myths is really interesting.I think it’s also the reason why I like very much those legends because its existed since a so long time but at the same time you can interpret the myth at any century , it always have a signification.Those myths are universal and timeless.

Those myths are also a way to escape from my daily ,a way to rethink the world ,a way to dream just like Alice in Wonderland did it.

Due to this fascination for the myths ,I have been writing some poems(just a few…) and I decided to show you one of those poems. Even if you don’t like it it’s a way to illustrate and to explain better why I like greek mythologie.

This was a poem dedicated to my grand mother (it’s in french):

Andrée

Une grand-mère aux doigts de fée

semblabes à ceux de la magicienne Circée

Une grand-mère qui m’a enchantée

bien plus que ne le fit Orphée

Une grand-mère qui est partie s’en reposer

d’un repos bien mérité

Une grand-mère qui boit peut-être

désormais du thé avec la douce Hébé

ou encore admire les Champs Elyséens

Que d’endroits sacrés ou tu es conviée

et moi je vais m’en retourner

pour ne jamais t’oublier

Toi ma grand-mère adorée

I hope you liked it.

As the teacher required it , I found a text about the field which interests me.

It’s an article about Human Resources and more precisely about the fact that sometimes Managers tend to employ clones at work. Because they recognize themselves in the people they interview, they hire them and forget the corporate culture as well as the diversification as it is written in the text.

This text might be irrelevant for someone who is not interested in this field but the fact is that this typical manager’s behavior can led to conflicts between employees in each type of department.

If everybody looks like each others,I think the same it’s impossible to assert itself and the consequences can be only negative.

You will find the article on:

http://blogs.bnet.com/teamwork/?p=247&tag=content;col1

http://hregypt.blogspot.com/

This blog relates the career,the experience of a man named Ashraf Al Shafaki who works in the Human Resources Management in Egypt. He created this blog to show his daily activities,be they volunteering,work related or just thoughts.

The particularity of this blog is the fact that it is not only about Human Resources job,experience,career or whatever. Indeed after having spent one hour trying to find a decent blog related to Human Resources,I came across this one.

Clear,simple and original. Ashraf Al Shafaki dedicates one or two pages related to his work and the rest relates all his social activities. This man has 32 activities and it’s all volunteer work. I think it’s all credit to him.

Moreover some pictures and comments illustrate his work and people can pay more attention to what it is written.