Stay Current

As the field of employment law is ever changing, it is very important for Human Resource professionals to stay up to date. One way to do this is by obtaining a subscription to HR-specific publications. A great way to access such publications would be by first obtaining a membership to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). According to the SHRM website, Human Resource professionals have a variety of publications and resources available to them with their paid membership. The website itself offers many suggestions including subscriptions to newsletters, which are available to all SHRM members. The most useful of those listed on the website would have to be Legal Report, Managing Smart, HR News, and HR Magazine.

Legal Report is a quarterly newsletter that "provides in-depth analysis of current legal issues affecting HR management" (SHRM.org, 2012). This subscription is available online and has previous publications available through the online archive system. This newsletter is easily accessible and would allow our team to stay up to date on all legal issues. The next newsletter mentioned, Managing Smart, focuses on ensuring that managers are able to do their jobs effectively and in a legal manner. The useful thing about this publication is that it also provides advice on complying with employment law. HR News also focuses on providing up-to-date information on various issues for HR professionals in various HR disciplines. Finally, HR News is a monthly publication that also provides a variety of information such as "leadership development; labor relations; new strategies for healthcare; compensation and retirement security; and global organizational change" to its subscribers. In fact, the magazine claims that every "issue contains extensive legal coverage by lawyers and editors on SHRM's staff, along with some of the nation's top employment attorneys" (SHRM.org, 2012).

Staying current with new laws and court decisions may seem like a task for an attorney but it is imperative for HR professionals to stay current as to ensure they are providing the best advice to the people they serve. The Society for Human Resource Management can be a vital place to learn about new laws and laws. Under the legal issues portion of the site there are three sections listed that can be very helpful for human resource professionals.

The first section focuses on various employment law areas such as benefits, business leadership, compensation, consulting, diversity, employee relations, ethics, safety and security, organizational and employee development, staffing management, and labor relations (SHRM.org, 2012). Under this section one can select the desired area of employment law, for example benefits, and obtain access to links to various articles on the topic. The next section covers federal resources. Under this section one will find analysis of federal employment law, federal court report, federal legal news, federal legislation, as well as federal statutes, regulations, and guidance. In addition to SHRM offering a general overview of laws, the site can also link a professional to their state