Here is the December e-news. My greetings for  Merry Xmas to those of you celebrating Christmas and Happy Holidays and a very Happy New Year to the rest of you .

This was the month when I and my family finally got a chance to see the Taj Mahal and the beautiful places of Rajasthan in India.

Here is this month’s e-news:

The book by Leo Babauta talks about the fine art of limiting yourself to the essential, both in business and life to take charge of our lives. It outlines simple and practical ideas on how to do less and yet get more done. In the days of the Black Berry and I Phones taking over our lives, this book offers simple, concise steps for increased productivity and efficiency. He sets the six principles of simple productivity:  Set Limitations, Choose the essentials, Simplify, Focus, Create habits and Start small. Visit him at www.ZenHabits.net

It is performance appraisal time and Jack Welch’s formula of 20-70-10 to differentiate the A players, the B players and the C players takes center stage.  The need to weed out the bottom 10% is often a hotly contested topic prompting some to call Jack Welch cruel. To me, the cause of poor performance is not always the performer. It could involve several variables – the system, the process and the person. Yet, we cannot avoid the fact the individual plays an important role in performance. Is he or she making the effort or are they contractual. How do we keep the middle 70% - the B players engaged? Differentiation is important but needs to be done in a transparent and objective way. To learn more about engaging B players email lily@smrhrgroup.com

A new chief executive has been announced for the skills body that will succeed the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in the United Kingdom. Geoff Russell will take up the position as the first chief executive of the new Skills Funding Agency as he was the CEO of the LSC.  Kevin Brennan, the Minister for further education, skills and apprenticeships, lauded the SFA’s potential to drive the UK’s economy.  The Skills Funding Agency is expected to have a strong focus on supporting the skills the UK economy needs to compete globally. The SFA is expected to be at the heart of the economic recovery, delivering a skilled workforce for the 21st century, responding effectively to demand and supporting achievement, innovation and enterprise in the UK.

With appraisal time around the corner, you may want to test out our web based appraisals software to fast track the performance management process.  Our 2010 training calendar is out, please visit www.smrhrgroup.com. Our Executive Search team ia also in place, for your staffing needs please contact lily@smrhrgroup.com

While unscrupulous elements continue to shamelessly misrepresent themselves as the Asia HRDCongress, we continue our journey in helping people learn and perform through the presence of several gurus at the 2010 event.

The Asia HRDCongress™ 2010 scheduled at Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia between July 6th to 8th is honoured to confirm the presence of two outstanding speakers: the guru and legend Thiagi as a speaker and the awesome and inspirational genius Jim Smith Jr. For more details please email karina@smrhrgroup.com and visit www.hrdcongress.com