Employers who monitor workers’ electronic communications cannot discipline workers for using company email off hours for non-business-related purposes, according to a ruling issued last December by the National Labor Relations Board. The new ruling (361 NLRB No. 126) states that employees with access to employer email systems “in the course of their work” must, in most cases, … [More]
Passion Fires Sustained Performance Improvement
Companies need passionate workers because these workers can drive extreme and sustained performance improvement. However, a mere 12 percent of the United States work force exhibits all of the attributes that define the “Passion of the Explorer,” according to a new report from Deloitte’s Center for the Edge entitled “Passion at work: Cultivating worker passion as a cornerstone … [More]
Hiring on the Right Side of the Law
The gamut of issues businesses must properly navigate when bringing on a new hire ranges from background checks and social media history to drug testing to treatment of disabled and other specific classes of workers — and the correct approach is not necessarily intuitive. In some cases, the law is downright confusing, such as the rules around E-Verify. This national database of … [More]
Hiring Practices Face Emerging Challenges
“If you’ve been convicted of a felony, you need not apply.” This type of hiring policy has long been accepted — but such blanket policies are now starting to come under scrutiny by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The issue of blanket hiring policies, from education level to criminal history, is on the EEOC’s hot list, says Lisa Coulter, an attorney in the Phoenix … [More]
Employee Engagement Lies in the Little Things
True employee engagement needn’t be expensive or difficult to implement. Engagement is really just another word for on-the-job happiness, and we intuitively know that happiness is connected to the simple things in life. So why not apply that principle to the workplace? Over the years, I’ve found that simple things like gratitude, respect, and autonomy make people far happier … [More]
Cost and Effect of Employees’ Bad Internet Behavior
Information technology managers report a high incidence of troublesome habits among office workers using company computers, according to a U.S. survey recently released by TeamViewer, a leading provider of remote control and online meetings software. The survey was aimed at determining how big an effect common “bad behaviors” have, both on the IT department and on the company’s … [More]
Collaboration Challenge: ‘Playing Nice’ Can Be the Enemy
Collaboration is the buzzword of today. Right along with creativity and innovation, everybody’s talking and writing about it, but what does it really mean for business? While it may be a great concept, the real challenge — and the enormous business opportunity — is to learn to collaborate in a way that makes a positive difference to the business. An organization may attempt to … [More]
Are Teams Obsolete?
Ten years ago, the business world couldn’t stop talking about teams. Remember all those slightly cheesy posters that showed rowers rowing in perfect sync or maybe just close-ups of interlocked hands? As we saw it then, teams of smart, innovative people were how work would get done in the “organization of the future.” Well, here we are in the future, and teams — at least as we … [More]
The New Employee: Veering from the Traditional
As businesses have begun ramping back up into a slowly recovering economy, expanding their work force is often a top priority. Filling job positions, however, is turning out to be a challenge as employment has come to encompass myriad aspects of culture, values, training and aspirations. “It’s gotten much more competitive for the employer to find the most talented … [More]
Create a Workplace that Meets Three Powerful Human Needs
Employers may be clear on what they need from their employees: hard work, efficiency, innovation, motivation, results. But what do employees need from their employer? To answer in practical terms — a steady paycheck, a quiet workspace, more training — is only partly right. Before they can meet the employer’s deepest needs, the employer must meet theirs. Psychologist Abraham … [More]
