Productivity / Performance

PIP: Offer chance to improve before firing

08/05/2021

Smart employers make it a standard practice to establish performance improvement plans before terminating employees who can’t do their jobs properly. PIPs can help turn around an underperforming worker. They also demonstrate your good faith to courts, assuring them that a subsequent firing was because of a performance problem, not discrimination.

Help teleworking parents remain productive

07/29/2021

The consensus seems to be that productivity did not take a big hit when employers sent workers home last spring in response to coronavirus-related lockdowns. However, one worker cohort reported struggling with working remotely: working mothers.

How to keep remote workers engaged

07/22/2021

If you have any employees working remotely, it’s vital to take proactive steps to keep them engaged and connected to the organization. Here are steps that software provider Neocase implemented to help keep their remote employees engaged.

7 considerations for creating hybrid work environments

07/20/2021

After a year and a half of coronavirus compromises, forcing everybody to suddenly return full-time to the office is foolish. The next challenge leaders face in a post-covid world is creating functional, hybrid environments in which some employees work remotely, some work on site and some do both.

Help hard-working staff recharge this summer

06/15/2021

Last summer there was nowhere to go and no one to go with. Thanks to vaccinations, things are looking up this summer. Make it easy for your employees to disconnect, whether that’s to take a much-needed real vacation or just leave work on Friday afternoon so they can enjoy the weekend with friends and family.

Humdrum job? Show the value

05/28/2021

Face it: Not every job is exciting. Most tasks can be repetitive and lull your employees into complacency. Here are a few suggestions for keeping spirits high in what a worker may call a monotonous job.

Get back to normal, minus the telework stigma

05/18/2021

Telework saved countless organizations during the pandemic. Remote work shed its occasional stigma as a privilege or a grudging accommodation of special-case employees. But as the covid crisis winds down, backlash against telework has begun to surface again.

Steady the ship when employees lose their balance: 3 tips

05/12/2021

Employee disengagement or burnout isn’t always apparent, and some employers may be in for a surprise if and when the COVID-19 pandemic winds down. Leaders need to learn how to recognize when the people around them—peers, colleagues, but especially subordinates—are out of balance or are heading in the wrong direction.

Here, there, everywhere: Foster harmony and productivity with a hybrid workforce

04/22/2021

Flexible, hybrid arrangements allow for better safety precautions and relieve some of the chaos experienced by working parents with children e-learning at home. For managers, however, the set-up can prove a major headache. How can leaders improve the harmony of a hybrid workforce and perhaps save their own sanity?

As pandemic eases, which employees should you bring back into the workplace?

04/15/2021

Many employees who were sent home at the start of the pandemic are in no rush to return to the workplace full time. The “when” and “who” and “where” of returning your workers requires looking at these key questions, according to attorney Jon Hyman.