Good news for home sellers in many parts of the US. It’s time to “appreciate your appreciation,” if you are thinking of selling your home. Being a homeowner, these days just might make you feel like a terribly savvy investor, especially in the western US. Home sellers are realizing a sizable return on their investment according to ATTOM Data Solutions. Those who sold their homes in the first quarter of 2019 made a 31.5% return, pocketing an average gain of $57,500. “While home seller gains are down from Q4 2018’s $60,000, they are still up year over year, when price […]
What Kind of Manager Are You?
I’ve had occasion to watch managers in action over my career. I think we can all agree that managers display many different styles, from completely hands-off to overly involved, and somewhere in between. What is most interesting for me as an HR practitioner is to monitor the impact the varying styles have on employees. When I say “management style,” I’m referring to the way a manager makes decisions relating to their subordinates. The wrong management style demotivates employees, kills productivity, and causes employees to disengage and leave. One successful management style is known as the “democratic” manager. These managers are […]
Proactive HR
There is a big difference between good HR and proactive HR – the difference between HR being important versus worth its weight in gold. We tend to think of HR as practical and reactive to standard issues. Recruitment, retention, employee relations issues (discipline, grievances), pay and benefits, all spring to mind. Certainly, getting these fundamentals right is always critical. But proactive HR requires a deeper level of understanding and a more collaborative approach to these issues. The positive impact it can have on your business is significant. HR policies and procedures often times seem fairly black-and-white, while business certainly is […]
The Equality Act Comes Closer to Reality
The Equality Act is an important topic for our readers. Over the course of the last four years, there has been a significant increase of Congressional support, jumping from 178 members to 239. In addition to this support, some large corporations have publically come on board as well. When first introduced in 2015, only Apple, Levi-Strauss, and Dow Chemical had supported the Equality Act. Joining this group are Google, Facebook, General Mills, and American Airlines. As of now, there are over 150 companies that support this bill. The Human Rights Campaign organized this corporate push with its Business Coalition for […]
Workplace Safety
Preparing for workplace safety has been top of mind for many employers. While in the past the focus had been on Occupational Health & Safety (OSHA) i.e., providing a work environment free from safety and health hazards that could cause physical harm, nowadays there is increased emphasis on workplace violence. How do we define workplace violence? This definition will be organization-specific, but for the sake of this article, I will define it as deliberately causing physical injury to another person, such as shooting, hitting, and other forms of physical abuse, as well as threats of violence (including emails, texts, social […]
Drug Testing in the Workplace
Now that some states have legalized marijuana use, it is a good idea to take a look at where things stand legally when it comes to it’s use in the workplace. Company leaders have had discretion when deciding whether to subject employees to drug testing, either pre-hire or during employment. Recently, a federal court affirmed this when it found that a New Jersey company did not have to waive a post-accident test for a worker who was a registered medical marijuana user. This decision means in the state of New Jersey, businesses can still dictate the terms of employment to […]
It’s a New Year: Reflect and Resolve Ten golden rules
The end of the year is a good time to reflect on your business’s progress over the past 12 months and a good time to plan business goals for the New Year. It’s a great time to ask and answer questions, such as, do you want increased success in the coming year, or more chances to enjoy success you may have achieved? These top New Year’s resolutions are designed to help you do both: strike a better work-life balance and increase business success in the New Year. 1) Learn to delegate, and do more of it. There are so many […]
Planning for the End of Year Party
As we embark on December’s festive season, many of us in Human Resources prepare for traditional year-end holiday parties. Given the multi-cultural mix of employees in most organizations, for some, these holiday celebrations can leave some folks feeling negative, left out and unhappy. Given the backdrop of our political climate, tension and emotions are high, and the opportunity for misunderstandings increase tenfold. Some employees will embrace the idea of a more inclusive approach to the holiday party, and some will not appreciate this approach at all. Although the US population continues to grow more diverse, Christians still make up about […]
Consider The Weekend
Human Resource management must carefully monitor the labor relations and regulations in all of the geographic regions where they hire. A trade union or labor union is an organization dedicated to promoting employee rights and improving employee welfare in a given organization or industry; it’s the fulcrum of labor relations. It is imperative to closely monitor changes in labor relations, both to understand the most recent hiring practices and to ensure compliance with union rules and regulations. The prevalence of unions, both from a geographic and industry standpoint, often significantly impacts the welfare and wage positions of a substantial number […]
The Ethical Workplace
What makes a workplace an ethical workplace? “Ethics” invokes thoughts of someone knowing and acting on what is right or fair. This is true even when thinking about an organization. The concept of ethics sits on a basis of common understandings of four areas: Transparency, Honesty, Confidentiality, and Protection of Rights. Transparency deals with the level of trust in the stakeholder / organization relationship. Being transparent means a company is committed to releasing detailed information about their processes and transactions to stakeholders: those individuals who have an interest in the company’s performance. A natural progression of transparent actions and communications […]