Employee Relations

3 ways to make silence speak

04/22/2020

Let’s face it: Some employees love to participate during meetings and conference calls, and others don’t. The trick is to give everyone a chance to make a real contribution—and to establish a value for silence, too.

Here’s how to review remote staff performance

04/21/2020

Performance reviews—often difficult and stressful, always important—pose special challenges when not conducted face-to-face. When it’s time to have those critical performance conversations, these simple tips can help you make the most of virtual meetings.

Document, date every disciplinary detail

04/16/2020

Workers who suspect they are about to be fired may try to short-circuit the termination process by claiming discrimination, harassment or retaliation. It’s an intimidation tactic. Fight back with documentation of every step of the disciplinary process, with dates when key events occurred.

To Zoom or not to Zoom: Videoconference security issues addressed

04/14/2020

Increasingly, organizations are turning to Zoom to enable the necessary videoconferencing capabilities that make recent shifts possible. But, is that the right move?

CARES Act offers 2 more employer-relief measures

04/09/2020

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, signed March 27, is best known for providing a $2 trillion stimulus jolt to a coronavirus-stunned economy. However, the CARES Act also contains two provisions intended to help employers keep from having to lay off employees.

Good ideas? Follow up with 4 questions

04/08/2020

Once your group has brainstormed and come up with ideas to solve a problem, develop a product, etc., you need a way to identify the most profitable suggestions and start developing them. Hold a follow-up session to explore four questions adapted from the techniques of innovation expert Rolf Smith.

With virus, handshakes are so 2019

04/08/2020

What was once a standard and reflexive way to meet, greet, part ways, close deals and congratulate may now be coming to an end.

Help staff tackle tough projects

04/07/2020

Working with your group on a kind of project you’ve never done before presents a special challenge. One way to cope is to use your project status meetings to speed up the learning process for you and your project team—to benefit from your learning as you learn it. Here’s how.

Performance measures steady despite coronavirus

04/07/2020

Only 5% of employers have eased the performance standards they expect employees to meet because of coronavirus-related workplace changes, according to a WorldatWork survey.

It’s your call: You decide which rules are critical

03/26/2020

A basic principle of employment law is that employers—not employees—get to decide how workers are supposed to do their jobs.