Having to let an employee go can be painful. After all, at one point they were hired with excitement and made valuable contributions to their team. But, somewhere along the line, something happened. In some cases, the situation can be avoided with a performance improvement plan, yet, sadly, sometimes termination may be the only viable solution.  Regardless of the reason for letting go of staff, handling this process with care and professionalism is essential. Firing an employee can be difficult for both parties involved, but there are steps you can take to ensure a respectful and smooth d ..read more

As a human resources professional, you’ve probably encountered a situation where you need to decide whether you should hire either an independent contractor or an employee to complete work that needs to happen. And you probably know the basic differences:An employee is someone who works for your company on a full-time or part-time but regular basis. An independent contractor is usually temporarily contracted to work on a specific project or for a specific period of time.  But how do you decide which set up is best for your current needs? What are the regulations surrounding each employmen ..read more

Having a child is an incredible, life-changing, and exciting experience. But for parents in the U.S., this magical time can be marked with overwhelm and stress — America has one of the largest happiness gaps in the world between parents and non-parents. Parents in the U.S. are 12% less happy, on average, than their childness peers, according to a study of OECD countries. This same study found that “more generous family policies, particularly paid time off and childcare subsidies, are associated with smaller disparities in happiness between parents and non-parents.” This makes your company’s pa ..read more

Learning is a life-long process. Especially with how quickly the world moves today, people have to continually invest in keeping their skills and knowledge up-to-date. While upskilling can happen during on the job and staff training, some employees want to take this to the next level by going back to school. Tuition reimbursement plans can be a powerful way for companies to support employees that want to continue their education. Especially as tuition costs continue to rise in the United States, it can be an enticing benefit that helps your organization stand out from other employers in the co ..read more

A human resources department with clear expectations and processes is going to find it easier to be effective and accomplish its goals than one where nobody’s totally sure who’s responsible for what and are hazy on the company’s best practices. That’s where HR department structure comes in handy! An HR department structure shows everyone how all of the different HR functions and roles fit together. A defined setup determines, for example, if one person makes decisions or if decision-making is spread out among multiple people. It also helps the HR department prioritize work and ensure everyone ..read more

A human resources (HR) department has a lot on its plate at any given moment. From managing employee relations to keeping those steps and health programs running, from answering email inquiries about insurance and open enrollment to overseeing recruitment — on some days it might feel like things are all over the place! But the heart of it all is one thing: Taking care of people.  That’s right. HR is all about the people. When they’re hiring, HR is about recruiting the people to do the best job. When they’re thinking up a benefits plan, it’s about helping the people on the job feel appreci ..read more

Pay gaps are the discrepancies that exist between the earnings of different groups of employees in an organization. Unfortunately, these gaps often occur along lines of race, gender, and ethnicity, and have persisted for decades.  The gender pay gap in the U.S. remains an issue, according to the Pew Research Center, with the average working woman often earning 82 cents for every dollar earned by a man as of 2022. This disparity is even greater for women of color, with Black and Hispanic women who work full-time, year-round making only 56 cents for every dollar earned by white, non-Hispani ..read more

With five different generations currently in the workforce, HR managers and recruiters have a unique handful in trying to find and keep top talent across them all. One of these challenges is understanding the separate needs of the youngest generations in the workforce — Millennials and Generation Z. Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) are the largest generation in the workforce right now. Gen Z (people born between 1997 to 2012) is gaining traction as they graduate college and their first jobs.  Both Millennials and Gen Zers have a lot in common in how they communicate, use te ..read more

The COVID-era regulations that have shaped employee benefits for the last few years are coming to an end on May 11, 2023. That’s the ‘official’ end of the pandemic in the U.S., according to the resolution President Biden signed on April 10 announcing the end of the Covid-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE). This ushers in yet another ear of change as employers reassess their benefits plans. What pandemic-era benefits do they keep by choice, and which should go the way of the elbow-bump hello? As with everything when it comes to COVID and work, nothing is settled in stone — but here are five chang ..read more

How effective is your organization? How do you know? The definition of ‘effective’ is different for every company. Choosing an organizational effectiveness model that corresponds to your objectives, industry, and culture is key to accurately measuring and improving your team’s performance. After all, if you want to reach a goal, you need to know where the goalposts are!   What is Organizational Effectiveness? Organizational effectiveness measures how well an organization achieves its desired outcome through alignment of its mission, goals, and objectives with its strategy, structure, proc ..read more