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Employee Relations

Why your best talent is leaving, and 4 ways to win them back

04/06/2017

An interesting phenomenon occurs in most organizations. On day one, most employees are fully engaged as these fresh hires are excited to begin a new experience. And yet, according to Metrus Institute, engagement levels drop considerably during the first few years, and often far more than you would expect after a honeymoon period. Clearly something is going on, and most organizations need these four key actions to minimize this degradation of engagement and reboot it to formerly high levels.

St. Paul business executive cops plea for felony theft

03/29/2017
Former St. Jude Medical executive Bryan C. Szweda will pay $117,090 in restitution to the St. Paul medical devices company following a plea deal in which he admitted to stealing $35,000.

Use last-chance agreements to show you’re fair about making termination decisions

03/29/2017
Sometimes, it makes sense to use a last-chance agreement in which an employee agrees that one more violation of a company rule will mean immediate termination.

Being placed on improvement plan isn’t automatic proof of poor performance

03/29/2017
Don’t expect a court to simply take your word for it that an employee was doing a poor job.

Patience makes discipline bullet-proof

03/29/2017
Courts like to see that employers gave employees a chance to improve before firing them for performance problems. That’s why it’s smart to exhaustively document your effort to correct poor performance.

New retirement plan: Baby Boomers seeking flexible work environment

03/27/2017

Oh the times they are a-changing. As Boomers begin to age out of the traditional workforce, Millennials are moving up the lines to take their place in leadership positions. An interesting trend is beginning to emerge.

Quiz: How to track employee performance and behavior

03/23/2017
Not only will good documentation help you provide more direct feedback to employees, your copious records could help save the organization in case of an employee’s lawsuit.

Performance falling short? Offer second chance with new boss before terminating

03/22/2017
The employee will have a hard time winning any subsequent lawsuit, since he had an additional chance to prove himself.

After the honeymoon, how happy are your employees?

03/12/2017
Professionals with between one and two years on the job are less happy, less interested in their work and more stressed than those still in their first year.

The management lesson taught by greedy athletes

03/09/2017

Team management wants to pay a football star a crazy number of millions of dollars per year, but his agent would like just a smidgen of an increase over that already astronomical amount, or the man with the golden arm walks. How many times have you shaken your head over the greed displayed in a situation like this? But if you were that football player, you’d likely make a similar demand.