Re-thinking Pre-Employment Screenings

I recently attended the first Reentry Leader Conference held in Birmingham along with Mary Ila and Emily. It was a great opportunity to hear from leaders around the state on what employers can do to help those who are justice involved become gainfully employed. As part of the conference, we heard success stories from employers who had programs to employ those coming out of the system. As employers struggle to find talent due to the extremely low unemployment rate, as Governor Ivey stated last week, we need to move to focus attention on the labor participation rate and getting people

Make Space to be Mindful

When my oldest son was in elementary school, he started having some behavioral issues that I had never seen in him before. Like many young children he hadn’t yet learned how to manage his emotions and anger was his downfall. After some trial and error, what I found worked best for him was space. Together with his teacher we taught him that whenever he felt angry and out of control, to step out into the hallway away from everyone else and count until he calmed down and felt more in control of his emotions. It worked. His behavioral issues ceased

5 Steps to Determine the Essential Functions of a Job

As a Talent Management Consultant I work with companies across many industries to help them understand how the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) impacts them. One key component of this is helping organizations create or revise their job descriptions and understand what the essential functions of the roles in their organization are. Often I find that employers don’t connect their job descriptions to their need to comply with ADA and they don’t understand how determining the essential functions of a position plays into that compliance. The failure to understand how to evaluate the essential functions of a role and how

The Speak Out Act – Is More to Come?

Late last year President Biden signed the Speak Out Act into law. This law forbids employers from including sexual harassment and sexual abuse claims in Non-Disclosure Agreements. What many may not know is that the Speak Out bill that passed in Congress was a very different version than what was submitted originally. The original Speak Out bill mirrored the Silenced No More laws that are currently in place in fourteen (14) states, with two more considering similar bills. So why is this important information for companies to know? Take the Washington Silence No More Act as an example, it includes

Celebrate Your Accomplishments

The new year always brings with it conversations of resolutions and setting goals. It’s the chance to look at the year ahead and decide what you want to accomplish in the next twelve months, both personally and professionally. We sit and we write down those goals and we make our checklist. And throughout the year we (hopefully) mark items off that list. But what do you do when you mark an item off that list?  At Horizon Point, we celebrate our accomplishments. Each quarter during our team meeting we go around the table and each team member shares a list