Sharon Armstrong interviewed for Yahoo! HotJobs article: "After the Fall: Preventing Employee Exodus When the Job Market Picks Up"

January 2010, Yahoo! HotJobs — “Whether the economy roars back in 2010 or slowly climbs out of the hole, HR professionals are anticipating fewer layoffs, more hiring, and, in some cases, a rush to the exits,” writes Yahoo! HotJobs reporter Larry Buhl, who interviewed DC human resources expert Sharon Armstrong.

Armstrong said: Conduct “stay” interviews. Too many companies only learn about employee gripes at exit interviews. Sharon Armstrong, an HR consultant in Washington, D.C., and author of The Essential HR Handbook, recommends surveying employees now. “But employees shouldn’t feel like there will be a ‘gotcha’ when they have complaints. These ‘stay interviews’ should be conducted by a third party, not the manager, or HR could hold focus groups in a safe setting.”

Examiner.com columnist reviews The Essential HR Handbook: HR handbook helps all managers

January 13, 2010, Examiner.com — In Monday’s Washington Examiner, Kansas City Leadership Columnist Eric Jacobson featured The Essential HR Handbook as One of top 235 recommended leadership books from various LinkedIn members.

In today’s newspaper, he reviewed the book and its authors, noting:

It’s unfortunately too common for an employee to be promoted into a management position with little to no Human Resources (HR) training. Similarly, many small business owners don’t have a dedicated human resources person so they end up muddling their way through critical human resources issues while wearing the HR hat.

These are some of the reasons authors Sharon Armstrong and Barbara Mitchell wrote the book “The Essential HR Handbook,” described by them as “a quick and handy resource for any manager or HR professional.”

If you don’t have the time or funds to attend HR training at a nearby educational institution or if there is not within your workplace a qualified and seasoned mentor to teach you HR skills, this book provides the novice manager important basics, accompanied by real-world examples and templates that you can readily use as you lead your team of one or more employees. It’s also an excellent refresher for managers who need to hone their hiring, onboarding, and performance evaluating capabilities.

The Essential HR Handbook goes into its second printing

WASHINGTON DC, December 1, 2009 — Sharon Armstrong and Barbara Mitchell, co-authors of the popular human resources book, The Essential HR Handbook (www.theessentialhrhandbook.com), got word today that their 2008 book is so successful that it will go into its second printing later this month.

Nearly 6000 copies have been sold to date, an impressive amount for a business book, explains the publisher, Career Press. It plans to print 2000 more copies just in time for the holiday rush.

While many of the books are sold at national retail bookstore chains such as Barnes & Noble, the majority of books are sold through Amazon.com. In addition to being available in paperback, the 224-page book is one of fewer than 300,000 titles that were selected to be compatible with Amazon’s Kindle e-book reader.

“We couldn’t be more excited that the book is doing so well,” says Armstrong, who is also the author of Stress-free Performance Appraisals, which is also in its second printing. Her next book, The Essential Performance Review Handbook will be published in the spring of 2010.