(Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, workforce management, and culture cloud solutions. Newsweek named UKG for the second consecutive year to their Greatest Workplaces for Women. Congrats to them and enjoy the article!) I belong to a couple of online human resources groups. I’m sure you do too. One of the questions I’ve noticed coming up a lot lately in these groups is where human resources professionals can find free, quality professional development programs. Today’s article answers that question.  Th ..read more

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes Last year, I wrote an article about how “Quitting is Not a Sign of Failure”. I hope you’ll check it out when you have a moment. It’s okay to quit and it’s okay to fail at something. Today I want to talk about something related to quitting and failure. It’s when we set a goal and don’t accomplish it.  This applies to both individuals and organizations. Companies set goals all the time – revenue goals, quality goals, etc. Sometimes they meet those goals and sometimes they don’t. Same for us as individuals. We set goals to get a certification or maybe write ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes Years ago, I worked for a company that was obsessed with productivity. Every month, the corporate offices would produce a report listing each location and their productivity scores. The person who produced this report – let’s call him Mr. Lumbergh – would put a line in the report. Eventually, it became known as the “Lumbergh Line”. The locations above the line were considered to have good productivity and the locations below, well, weren’t.  Today’s reader note touches on an important aspect of productivity – managing time.  Is it appropriate for a ..read more

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes (Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at HRdirect, a trusted source for employee-related compliance, administration, and motivation tools. They serve as a one-stop shop to make employee management easier. Enjoy the read!) I recently published an article about the importance of having a labor law posting strategy. In it, Lillian Chavez, Esq., managing legal research attorney at ComplyRight mentioned that there are on average more than 200 mandatory federal, state, city, and/or county posting changes each year. And with each ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes I’ve mentioned a couple of times that I switched planners this year and I’m using a Hobonichi Techo. This year, Hobonichi celebrated a big milestone of selling more than 10 million copies (all-time sales). To celebrate this achievement, they are creating original stationery and have been documenting the process. The reason I’m bringing this up is because in a recent update, they talked about the group working on the stationery project talking to their “super advisors” for input. The concept of a super advisory is intriguing. If we think of common ac ..read more

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes The New York Times recently published an article about “Who Still Works From Home?”. While the majority of workers are back onsite, there are still a small percentage of people who work a hybrid schedule or fully remote. The article is an interesting look at what types of jobs are more likely to fall into the category of remote and hybrid work.  Regardless of where a person works, one thing is important to all workers … and that’s teamwork. Being able to participate in a team matters, even when you’re an individual contributor. And, being an effective te ..read more

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes I recently published an article about the “10 Work Skills Every Employee Should Have Today” so I thought it would only be fair to talk about manager skills. Managers can learn a lot of things on the job. For example, how to approve timecards or the steps to conducting a legal and effective interview. But there are some skills that organizations want to see in managers before they get the promotion.  So, if you’re an HR professional trying to communicate performance expectations for the management team, this list might be helpful. Or, if you’re an individ ..read more

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes There was an article recently in The Wall Street Journal titled “How Bosses Can Stop the ‘Meeting After the Meeting’”. It’s an interesting read because 1) The meeting after the meeting does exist. It’s not an urban legend. And 2) I’m not sure if the goal should be to stop it or leverage it? The meeting after the meeting (or let’s call it the MATM for short) can actually be more important than the original meeting. Many people might view it as a really big gripe session about the meeting. But a true MATM is very important – it often provides ins ..read more

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes I mentioned a few months ago that I switched planners this year and I’m using a Hobonichi Techo. Absolutely love it. When I first started using it, I joined some communities to learn how others were using their planners and get some overall ideas of how to make the most of it. Fortunately (and unfortunately), I learned about washi tape as a way to both decorate and organize.  The reason I’m sharing this story is because a while back, I ordered some washi tape from a small business. The product was lovely, that wasn’t an issue. It did take a while to ..read more

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes (Editor’s Note: Today’s article is brought to you by our friends at Poster Guard® Poster Compliance Service from HRdirect, the leading labor law poster service that gets your business up to date with all the required federal, state, and local labor law postings, and then keeps it that way – for an entire year. Enjoy the article!) While most employers know they need to have labor law postings, I can see organizations forgetting to take the extra caution necessary when it comes to unique employee groups, different industries, and employee handou ..read more