The 5 most-clicked links in SmartBrief on Workforce this past week:

• The firing of Shirley Sherrod: An HR “fiasco”
• 3 body-language tricks every executive should know
• At Zappos.com, happiness is the key to wellness
• The key to better hiring? Behavioral interviewing
• How you’ll know when it’s time to cut someone loose

I reported live from the SHRM annual conference out in San Diego last month, where I had the opportunity to talk with Eric Winegardner, Monster’s vice president of client adoption. Eric is a veteran of eight SHRM conferences. I sat down with him to talk about how this year’s conference was different.

• Recovery is in the air. SHRM had a sense of cautious optimism this year, Winegardener notes. That’s led to a new focus on education and rebuilding.
• Social media is all the rage. Social media was prevalent in the sessions and between conference attendees.
• Community is on the rise. Social tools make it easier for attendees to stay in touch after the conference is over, strengthening the networking opportunities.

Watch the full video here, as well as other conversations with HR thought leaders from Smartbrief’s video series with Monster.com.:

SmartPulse — our weekly reader poll in Smartbrief on Workforce — tracks feedback from leading managers and HR practitioners. We run the poll question each Wednesday in our e-newsletter.

Last week, we asked: Have you ever had an employee incentive program that backfired?

• Yes, and it wasn’t pretty – 50%
• No — we try to catch that before it happens – 27%
• I don’t know – 22%

Back in a previous job, I was part of creating a sales incentive program that backfired big time. We ended up losing about 5% of our clients because they weren’t buying the products that made our sales representatives the most money and thus were not getting serviced. In principle, it was a good idea but we sat too long waiting for it to improve before we finally scrapped it and started over. Many of us have been in that situation and the best thing to do sometimes is to cut the program sooner rather than later.

Lance Haun is community director for ERE.net, the main guy over at Rehaul.com and a member of the SmartBrief on Workforce Advisory Board.

Todd Owens is the general manager of employment at screening-solutions provider TalentWise. Here, he shares his perspective on how social media is changing recruiting and screening of talent.

How is social media changing the way employers screen candidates?

Social media — especially the more popular social-networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn — have created a new and rich information source for HR, staffing, and recruiting practitioners screening candidates. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted by executive search firm ExecuNet, 77% of the respondents indicated that they use the web for screening potential job candidates.

Social networks offer a fast and free way to verify a candidate’s résumé claims, unearth undesirable behaviors and gain insight into a candidate’s skills, personality and potential cultural fit. While bringing substantial benefits to employers, social media as a screening tool does create new legal concerns and should be used wisely to avoid potential pitfalls. (read more…)