Productivity / Performance

Managing people with limited professional experience

03/28/2025

Dealing with employees unfamiliar with workplace norms takes patience. But just as you would help someone lacking technical competencies get up to speed, guiding a worker to a higher level of professionalism proves a worthy endeavor. Here are five strategies to try.

Demotion or termination? How to make the call

03/19/2025

If you’re faced with an employee who isn’t a good fit with his or her current job, is termination the answer or is demotion a better alternative? The answer is, of course, it depends.

Toxic positivity: How HR can foster an authentic culture

02/26/2025

Toxic positivity functions as a destructive force in workplace environments. When employees express legitimate concerns, toxic positivity responds with empty platitudes: “You’ve got this!” “Stay positive!” These responses invalidate employees’ experiences and suggest that their struggles stem from poor attitudes rather than real problems.

Embrace return-to-office as an opportunity to collaborate

02/20/2025

As the pendulum has shifted from a fully remote workforce to a more hybrid or full in-office arrangement, now is the time to evaluate how to create a workplace experience that fosters engagement and productivity.

Writing and giving job reviews: 8 do’s and don’ts

01/23/2025

Anything less than a completely honest performance appraisal will only cheat the employee out of personal development, plus it could set the stage for a discrimination lawsuit. Here are eight important do’s and don’ts.

Gallup: Employee engagement hits lowest level in 10 years

01/21/2025

Employee engagement in the United States dropped to 31% in 2024, a 10-year low, according to research by the Gallup Poll. Declines since 2020 alone mean about 8 million fewer engaged employees, including 3.2 million fewer than in 2023.

7 tips to make your meetings more productive

01/13/2025

Between vague agendas and never-ending Zoom sessions, meetings have become a waste of time for many. Here’s how to structure huddles to make them productive and run more smoothly.

Measure productivity loss when tallying health costs

01/13/2025

The costliest illnesses to insure aren’t necessarily the ones that take the biggest chunk out of your bottom line. When measuring how much money your organization sinks into employee health, don’t stop once you’ve calculated your share of employees’ insurance premiums.

Weigh pros and cons before you approve a performance-improvement plan

12/23/2024

When performance-improvement plans work, everyone wins. But when PIPs are used to justify terminations, they sometimes cause more problems than they solve. Poorly applied, they create legal liability.

5 strategies to make on-site return-to-office mandates work

12/09/2024

Today, just 34% of the workforce is in-office for most of the week. Less than half of employers —48%—require staff be on-site for two to three days a week. Only 4% require employees to be on-site four days a week.