Piece it Together
There’s always something to talk about, so pull up a chair and let’s Piece It Together. Through articles written by our consultants, we share with you our take on the latest news, trends, and changes in HR, leadership and the workplace.
Read our latest posts or peruse our past articles. Please let us know if you have any comments or want more information on how we can help your organization.
Remembering Your Remote Workforce This Holiday Season
Wow. I can’t believe another year is in the books. With the holidays in full swing, I’m sure many of you have been intimately involved in your organization’s holiday planning. I was reading this month’s edition of HR Magazine and there was a short article by Susan Milligan on including your remote workers in your annual holiday celebrations that caught my eye.
She has some great suggestions including leveraging tools like Skype or WebEx to include your remote employees in festivities or paying for them to travel to HQ for parties. She also suggests personalized gifts and notes that let your remote employees know […]
Riding Off Into the Sunset in Style – Ensuring Smooth Knowledge Transfer and Retention for Retiring Employees
My husband recently retired and his firm held a lovely party to send him off. It was a wonderful event and he was deeply touched for the recognition that they showed him for his years of service to the company.
As we were driving home, I began reflecting that many friends and colleagues will be attending these parties over the next few years as the Baby Boomers finally decide to retire.
As an HR professional, I’ve been involved in reviewing, writing and implementing various retirement and recognition policies over the years. Many firms have rewarded their employees’ long-term service both when they leave and while they’re still employed. Some firms […]
A Moment of Thankfulness
It’s hard to believe that the holidays are here again. It seems with every passing year, the season creeps up on me faster than the year before. and faster. Heck, I’m expecting my children to walk through the door at any moment from college for their Thanksgiving holiday.
This is the time of the year where businesses often focus on “giving back” and it’s a popular time for food and gift drives, community service and other activities to make a corporate impact. These are all terrific activities, and I absolutely believe that businesses do have social responsibility. However, I was reflecting the other day on how these activities shouldn’t […]
Agile Goal Setting
I have a colleague that works in the tech industry. The other day, he and I were chatting about the intersection of technology and HR and he asked me if I ever heard of agile software development. I had not, and frankly, when he first started explaining it to me, I was completely at a loss. However, as he started to explain it in layman terms, I realized he had some interesting and relevant points as it relates to HR.
So what is agile development? I’m not a techie, so forgive the somewhat rudimentary explanation. When developers are creating a software application or a website, they have sets of […]
Possible Changes in Workplace Law Under the Trump Administration
This has been a long and bruising election season, there’s no other way to describe it. Many are outraged, calling it an anomaly, some are calling it a game-changer and/or transformational, while many individuals, including myself, are simply hopeful that we can just get back to business as usual. However, there’s a lot of uncertainty of what “business as usual” will look like in the new administration.
I’ve had multiple conversations over the past few months with both clients and colleagues about encouraging employees to keep the election, especially this election, out of the workplace. With today’s always-on media and amplification caused by social media, it was a difficult […]
Open the Door to Change
Change has a funny way of catching up to you at times. My children recently started their first years of college and high school respectively. Summer gave way to fall and the elections are just around the corner. I know I’m not alone in thinking that sometimes we just want to hit the pause button and slow things down.
In the workforce, change can equally be as powerful and impactful as in our personal lives. As HR professionals, it is our duty to help our colleagues navigate change.
There are plenty of examples that create temporary or permanent changes in an organization’s cultural environment. For example, the desire to hire new […]
Fantasy Football and the Modern Workforce
I don’t know about you, but it seems that everyone around me is in a fantasy football frenzy. Everywhere I look folks have their heads buried in their phones and are watching football all weekend. They’re seeing how certain players do against certain defenses, deciding who has advantages at home or away, the significance of injuries or a myriad of other statistical information to determine how to set their lineup.
Now, I don’t actually play, but w hat struck me as interesting about fantasy football that it is a game of constant evaluation. You don’t just evaluate your team at the end of the season to see how you did, […]
Getting Over the Dog Days of Summer
The dog days of summer are upon us. The temperature is rising and employees are either on vacation or daydreaming about the ones around the corner. While taking a break from work can be crucial for employee productivity, at times, these lulls in energy can impact the office. It happens every year, so what can an organization do to overcome this? The answer – inject a bit of fun in the office space!
According to author Gary Keller, “studies over the last two decades” have revealed when workplaces make fun a factor, it creates happier employees that feel more satisfied and ultimately better at their jobs. Fun in the […]