Productivity Series [Part 5]: Break Big Tasks into Spall Parts
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes One way we can become more productive is by getting better at something. As we become better, we can do things faster and with higher quality. So far, in our series about productivity, we’ve been talking about improving productivity by: Understanding what’s urgent and important (The Eisenhower Matrix) Doing the […]
Employee Retention Is a Business Metric
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes I’ve been seeing some comments about employee retention being a “terrible HR metric”. IMHO, employee retention isn’t an HR metric at all. It’s a business metric. HR doesn’t have absolute control over the key drivers to employee retention: organizational culture and the employee value proposition (EVP). Yes, HR plays a role […]
Incivility at Work Is a Culture Problem
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes I recently responded to a reader note about how to manage a toxic co-worker. It got me thinking about incivility in the workplace. Sadly, incivility has been around for a long time. According to communications firm Weber Shandwick, 93% of Americans identify incivility as a problem. What’s interesting to me […]
Organizations: Labor Law Posters Could be Different for Your Industry and Location
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes (Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at Poster Guard® Compliance Protection Service, a division of HRdirect, and the leading labor law poster service that gets your business up to date with all required federal, state and local labor law postings, and then keeps it that way — for an […]
Dealing With a Toxic Work Environment – Ask #HR Bartender
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes Today’s reader note is one that some people might identify with – working in a toxic environment. A toxic work environment is a phrase used to describe an organization that’s filled with significant personal conflicts that can impact a person’s wellbeing. The note is kinda long, but worth the time to […]
5 Ways to Improve Employee Morale
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes We’re all reading the same news about layoffs and demands to return to the office. I don’t really want to discuss that today. But I do want to talk about something that might occur when employees aren’t happy – and that’s a decline in morale. Morale is defined as “the […]
Productivity Series [Part 4]: Get Hard Tasks Done First
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes “If it’s your job to eat a frog, it’s best to do it first thing in the morning. And if it’s your job to eat two frogs, it’s best to eat the biggest one first.” – Mark Twain You might have heard this quote from Mark Twain before. The “frog” in this […]
Bookmark This! The HR Strategy Edition
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes Now more than ever, HR professionals need to know how to develop, implement, and maintain strategy. As a reminder, a strategy is defined as a plan of action designed to achieve success. Frankly, strategy work is hard right now because the business world is changing frequently, and the organization is reacting […]
Use Listening Styles to Become a Better Listener
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes I’d like to think we can all agree that listening is an important communication skill. And we’ve talked in the past about active listening and empathic listening. I was doing some office spring cleaning recently and ran across an old ATD InfoLine on listening. This one had a different view on […]
Managers: It Pays to Learn How to Delegate
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes The goal of being a manager is to hire and train your replacement. Managers will not be able to get promoted without someone to take their place. Oh sure, you can get the promotion. But then you will have to do two jobs (while getting paid for one). Managers will […]