By now I’m sure that you’ve seen the MasterCard commercial loaded with cute kids chanting “One more day!” These adorable kids are bringing to our attention that an estimated 400 million vacation days go unused in America every year. This is an astounding and disturbing number that is certain to have [...]
A lot of my family, including myself, lived in Florida over the past 20 years. It’s the land of white sandy beaches, Mickey Mouse, orange juice and snowbirds! Every year after Thanksgiving, retirees would load up their Mercury Grand Marquis, hang their clothing from a rod in the back seat and [...]
The current government shutdown brought my thoughts back to a recent Dulles SHRM meeting that I attended where Misti Mukherjee of Jackson/Lewis spoke about Preparing for and Managing Employee Terminations and Reductions in Force. Not knowing how long the government will remain shut down and what the impact might be on [...]
It’s that time of year again. The leaves are changing colors, children are back to school, and summer vacation is over. For many organizations, this time of year not only means a return to a workplace routine, but it also means it is time for annual performance reviews. [...]
One of the first things we teach our children when they are young is the value of saying thank you. I remind my young boys to say thank you when someone helps them, gives them something they need or compliments them. The list of reasons to say thank you is boundless. [...]
While conducting a recent HR audit, I was reminded of how job descriptions seem to touch and influence many of a company’s successful practices and policies – and indirectly, the bottom line. […]
On May 17th, I presented at the Society for Design Administration Symposium in Williamsburg, Virginia. The topic was on HR Assessments and Audits. One of the questions posed by an attendee was “when do we need an HR Director for our organization?” It was a great question and the answer really [...]
The temperatures are soaring, Memorial Day weekend is behind us and the articles in the paper and on the internet about how to dress casual for summertime in the office abound. However, it occurred to me that although these articles are helpful for employees who choose to read them, there is [...]
Smart companies conduct external surveys to check in with their clients. It's imperative to get perspective on what's happening in the client's world, what's keeping them up at night, trends that they see in the marketplace, as well as gain feedback on performance and how to better serve the client in [...]
Recently I wrote about the importance of defining and measuring employee engagement to an organization’s bottom line. There are a myriad of strategies to keeping employees engaged, but one of the most successful ways is to start with on-boarding on day one. On-boarding is a key strategy to build a culture [...]