What’s your culture? Community better than family

For years it seemed the catch phrase organizations used most often to describe their culture was “we’re like a family.” But if we look deeper to identify the true goal of culture, I’d challenge that thinking. If I say “we’re like a family” what comes to your mind?  Organizations use this to describe staffs that […]

Honesty best policy for employee engagement

As human resource professionals, our jobs revolve around the people in our organizations. During this time of pandemic precautions and a return to work, we must re-evaluate how we engage with our teams, employees and even job applicants. What’s more, organizations must formulate plans for employees to return to work and what that looks like. […]

Educational assistance and workplace flexibility hot legislative topics

I recently attended the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) volunteers leadership summit in Washington, D.C. The summit affords an opportunity for human resource professionals such as myself to talk with lawmakers about legislation affecting the workplace. Nearly 400 HR professionals met with lawmakers to discuss two important issues: employer-provided education assistance and workplace flexibility. […]

Communication key to employee engagement

Organizations are always looking for new and innovative ways to attract skilled workers. But at a time of low unemployment, organizations also must focus on retaining existing employees. Organizations compete for applicants actively looking for jobs as well as those who have jobs, but could be considering new opportunities on a passive basis. Add to […]

Skill assessments useful addition to employee evaluations

The debate over the usefulness of performance evaluations has raged on for a long time. There’s one argument performance evaluations don’t provide relevant information to determine if an employee is succeeding or failing. The other argument poses a legitimate question: If no performance evaluation is completed, how do you really know how an employee is […]

Avoid risks in hiring: Evaluate only skills and abilities

Most business professionals have heard of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and know it’s unlawful to discriminate on the basis of race, sex, color, national origin or religion. In recent years, other categories of people have found protections for age, disabilities, political affiliation or beliefs and sexual orientation. While it should […]