We are proud to welcome Beth Rivchin to the unmatched team of KI Consultants and the Knowledge Infusion family.

Beth has over 14 years of experience in the HR industry, and was most recently at Destination Hotels & Resorts as a Corporate HR Technology Manager. She began her career at Time Warner Cable where she was promoted to various HR positions over a nine-year period.  Some of those positions included People Development Consultant/Project Manager, Human Resources Information Systems (HRIS) Trainer, HRIS Administrator and Human Resources Generalist. Beth was also a consultant for SPECTRUM where she managed client implementations.

Beth has hit the ground running, already making a significant impact in client engagements.

Welcome Beth!  YOU are KI!

Today Knowledge Infusion made a donation of $1000 to the non-profit organization Doctors Without Borders, http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/.

Doctors Without Borders, a Knowledge Infusion client, has done extraordinary things to help the people in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. They have given primary care to an estimated 3,000 people in the capital and performed more than 400 surgeries over the past week. They have begun to build an inflatable hospital with two operating theaters and 100-bed capacity in an open field not far from the airport.  You can follow their reflief efforts around the world on Twitter @MSF_USA

Our continued thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti and the volunteers supporting relief efforts.

It is with great pleasure we welcome Steve Boese to the Knowledge Infusion family.

Steve will be leading the product strategy, tools, and thought leadership for the forthcoming KI OnDemand service. Steve will play a critical for Knowledge Infusion to transform the advisory and consulting market by developing knowledge, tools, insights, and an open innovation community.  

Steve comes to Knowledge Infusion with an extensive background in HR, payroll, financials and procurement applications consulting. He has led implementation teams deploying technology solutions including Oracle iRecruitment, Self Service, General Ledger, and SAP R/3. More recently, Steve has done an amazing job building the HR Technology program as a professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Steve is recognized as a leading voice in the HR technology community through his blog, Steve Boese’s HR Technology and other social media channels such as Twitter: @steveboese.

Steve is based in Rochester, NY and is a graduate of the University of South Carolina. He is also a fan of great BBQ if you are looking for good BBQ techniques.

Welcome Steve. YOU are KI!

Since its modest beginnings with just 30 employees and first year sales of $152,678 in 1957, McCain Foods has grown to be a household name – a multi-billion dollar multinational leader in frozen food products creating thousands of jobs and feeding families around the globe.

Today, McCain sells hundreds of products to the consumer through retail stores and supermarkets, and to food service operations such as restaurants, catering companies and others. The company makes a broad range of French fries and potato specialties as well as frozen pizza and pizza snacks, frozen green vegetables, desserts, oven dinners and entrees, specialty meat products, juice, punches, other beverages, appetizers, and other products.

McCain's goal is to "consistently win with customers and consumers by making them smile."

You have made us smile by joining the KI family, and we hope we do the same for you.  YOU are KI!

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Welcome Guitar Center to the Knowledge Infusion family.

The Guitar Center story began in 1959 when Wayne Mitchell purchased a small appliance and home organ store in Hollywood, California. By 1961, he'd changed the name of the company to The Organ Center. By the late sixties, it had become evident that the future of musical instrument retailing lay in guitars and amps, not organs, and The Guitar Center was born.

Today Guitar Center includes hundreds of stores across the United States. Check out the full Guitar Center history.

Knowledge Infusion is proud to rock with Guitar Center.  YOU are KI!

Meijer began in In 1934 when a modest local barber in Greenville, Michigan had a need and saw an opportunity. It was the middle of the Great Depression and groceries were scarce. In an effort to take care of the customers who visited his barbershop, Hendrik Meijer purchased $328.76 worth of merchandise on credit. Together with his 14-year-old son, Fred, they opened North Side Grocery.

Since then, Meijer has always been a leader in finding and using new technology, this included everything from the introduction of checkout scanners in the 1970's to the decision to open 24 hours in the 1980's to the launch of Meijer.com in the 1990's. Meijer is always continuing to develop newer and more innovative ways to serve customers.

Their commitment to innovation and taking care of customers has led to continued growth throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. From the 1960's when the company had 26 stores and 4,000 team members in Michigan, to the more than 180 stores and 60,000 team members in five states that make up today's Meijer, the company continues to do business based on the simple philosophy that led Hendrik Meijer to start his business in 1934—meeting the needs of customers, team members and communities.

Welcome Meijer to the Knowledge Infusion family.  YOU are KI!

Labor Day is one of my favorite holidays.  Most of us probably think of Labor Day as the last party weekend before the end of Summer.  One of the last chances to take that trip to the lake, hang out at the beach, or barbeque/picnic with our extended families.   But Labor Day is a different kind of holiday.  It’s the only holiday that’s celebrated in some form across the globe that is not a religious holiday. It’s not celebrating presidents or generals or the military exploits of one nation over another. 

It’s about normal people.  It’s about the value and dignity of work.  It’s about building things.  We work hard at the Factoid.  As we reflect on our labors of the past year, here’s a brief history of Labor Day.

Labor Day: How it Came About; What it Means

Labor Day, the first Monday in September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic achievements of American workers. It constitutes a yearly national tribute to the contributions workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country.

Labor Day is observed as a legal holiday on the first Monday in September throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. In Australia, Labor Day is called Eight Hour Day, and it commemorates the successful struggle for a shorter working day. In Europe, Labor Day is observed on May 1, also known as May Day.

Founder of Labor Day

More than 100 years after the first Labor Day observance, there is still some doubt as to who first proposed the holiday for workers.

Some records show that Peter J. McGuire, general secretary of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners and a cofounder of the American Federation of Labor, was first in suggesting a day to honor those "who from rude nature have delved and carved all the grandeur we behold."

But Peter McGuire's place in Labor Day history has not gone unchallenged. Many believe that Matthew Maguire, a machinist, not Peter McGuire, founded the holiday. Recent research seems to support the contention that Matthew Maguire, later the secretary of Local 344 of the International Association of Machinists in Paterson, N.J., proposed the holiday in 1882 while serving as secretary of the Central Labor Union in New York. What is clear is that the Central Labor Union adopted a Labor Day proposal and appointed a committee to plan a demonstration and picnic.

The First Labor Day

The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday just a year later, on September 5, 1883.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a "workingmen's holiday" on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

A Nationwide Holiday

The form that the observance and celebration of Labor Day should take were outlined in the first proposal of the holiday — a street parade to exhibit to the public "the strength and esprit de corps of the trade and labor organizations" of the community, followed by a festival for the recreation and amusement of the workers and their families. This became the pattern for the celebrations of Labor Day. Speeches by prominent men and women were introduced later, as more emphasis was placed upon the economic and civic significance of the holiday. Still later, by a resolution of the American Federation of Labor convention of 1909, the Sunday preceding Labor Day was adopted as Labor Sunday and dedicated to the spiritual and educational aspects of the labor movement.

The character of the Labor Day celebration has undergone a change in recent years, especially in large industrial centers where mass displays and huge parades have proved a problem. This change, however, is more a shift in emphasis and medium of expression. Labor Day addresses by leading union officials, industrialists, educators, clerics and government officials are given wide coverage in newspapers, radio, and television.

Hmmm....Food for thought...

Have a Great Labor Day Weekend Everyone!!