The world of Human Resources can be daunting. It may seem like a new issue comes up every 5 minutes, you're always running around preventing and putting out fires. You may not get much time to yourself, but guard your lunch with your life, grab your grub, and sit down with one of these books or podcasts to keep your skills sharp and learn about creative solutions to issues you may be dealing with right now in the world of healthcare benefits, wellness, workforce engagement, and more.

Looking for tips on how to retain talent in your workplace? Click here for ideas.

Book Recommendations

The Innovator’s Prescription: A Disruptive Solution for Healthcare
by Clayton M. Christensen. (Buy on Amazon)

If you are going to take only one thing away from this list, let it be this book. You will be hooked within the first few pages. According to Dr. Kenneth M. Riff, V.P., Medtronic, "The book presents an astonishing way of deconstructing and visualizing the fundamental business model problems [within healthcare].”

Description from author's site:

"A groundbreaking prescription for health care reform - from legendary leader in innovation.

Our health care system is in critical condition. Each year, fewer Americans can afford it, fewer businesses can provide it, and fewer government programs can promise it for future generations. We need a cure, and we need it now.

In The Innovator’s Prescription, Clay Christensen applies the principles of disruptive innovation to the broken health care system with two pioneers in the field—Dr. Jerome Grossman and Dr. Jason Hwang. Together, they exhaustively examine the challenges facing health care today and propose a set of clear, innovative, and actionable solutions that will both reduce the cost of health care and lead to improved health outcomes for millions."

The CEO's Guide to Restoring the American Dream
by Dave Chase, Tom Emerick, Brian Klepper. (Buy on Amazon or IndieBound)

Even though the title of this book is CEO's guide, it is really for anyone that has an impact or is impacted by the health benefits industry, including HR professionals, employers, union workers, it's for all of us. Book contributor and Former head of benefits at Walmart, BP, & Burger King, Tom Emerick, had this to say, "More and more C-suite executives see health benefits a major liability, not an asset. The CEO’s Guide to Restoring the American Dream is a life saving guide to provide employees needed healthcare in way a your CFO and CEO will applaud.."

Description from book:

"Most CEOs, HR leaders, and others have been led to believe that controlling health benefits spending is impossible. The CEO’s Guide to Restoring the American Dream shows how this just isn’t true. It's an inside look at how public & private employers and unions across the U.S. are reducing their spending by 20% or more by applying simple, practical, and proven approaches. A field guide built on the real-life examples and successes of top performers, opening the door for any company, union, or public employer to replicate the results."

Is your benefits package able to grow with your company? Here are 5 tips to make sure it can scale with you.

Podcasts Recommendations

Workforce Health Engagement
by Jesse Lahey

Culture is of massive importance to many companies, they want to ensure employees are happy, values are understood and upheld, and that everyone operates from a strong base, collective understanding. One sometimes overlooked aspect of culture within the workplace is a culture of wellness. A focus on overall wellness benefits every individual employee as well as the bottom-line for your company's healthcare offerings.

Description from iTunes:

"Workforce Health Engagement is a show exploring strategies to improve your employees’ health and productivity – and to protect your bottom line. Join us as industry experts discuss how to engage employees in population health management, wellness, and healthcare consumerism. Workforce Health Engagement is a special series for CEOs, HR executives, and other business leaders about creating a culture of health and building on the latest trends in areas such as communication, epidemiology, disease management, benefit plan design, worksite clinics, price transparency, and more. Over the long term, a “program of the day” won’t help you boost employee health, productivity, and your bottom line. For sustainable success, you need an integrated approach to workforce health engagement."

HR Happy Hour
by Steve Boese

Feel like losing yourself in everything that is HR? Need a little help getting past a current issue in the office? There are nearly 430 episodes of HR Happy Hour with new episodes coming out weekly to keep you up to date on the latest and greatest in the world of HR.

Description from iTunes:

"HR Happy Hour, the longest running and top downloaded HR podcast, focuses on human resources, management, leadership, and workforce technology. The show is hosted by Steve Boese, the Co-Chair of the HR Technology Conference."