The Conundrum of Incentive Pay

I know of two people who have left their job in the last year because they felt like they were slighted when it came to how their company handled incentive pay.  Both of them- one working for a global behemoth of a company and one working for a family start-up- were promised things when it came to incentive compensation and then the rules were changed on them in the middle of the game, thus slighting them in pay they felt they were entitled to. And I can think of one company owner who is a friend that has tried and

4 Reasons Why Job Hopping is a Good Thing

In my first gig out of college as a corporate recruiter, I had responsibility for the grind of hiring classes of customer service reps. Volume recruiting at its finest.   When I was trained by a co-worker on the company’s process for screening applicants, my fellow team member told me that the process used to include screening people out who were “job hoppers”- those that shown through their resume- couldn’t seem to stay at one job for more than a year or two at a time. Then the lawyers got involved and told us we couldn’t screen people out for that. 

The Best Way to Show Your Employees the Love on Valentines Day- And Every Day

Ahh, Valentine’s Day. The day of love and all things chocolate. Is it a special day for you at the office or just another work day? I hope you place a special emphasis today, and really any working day for that matter, on loving your employees and coworkers in the agape love kind of way. That servant leadership kind of love (not the sappy romantic kind that could lead to a sexual harassment complaint) that helps you achieve positive organizational results. As I think about the best way to show employees love, I’m reminded of the high of my work

What the Legislative Landscape Means for Day-to-Day HR

I had the opportunity to spend time at a SHRM Regional Business Meeting this past weekend.  The best speaker I heard was SHRM’s VP of Governmental Affairs, Mike Aitken.  And I don’t even like hearing about legal issues! If you are in the Southeast, he is coming to Montgomery, Alabama to speak at the ALSHRM Legislative Conference this week- February 16th.  Register here if you want to go; I would highly encourage it. He covered how the current legislative landscape will most likely affect HR day-to-day. Here’s a recap of what he said: Immigration Increased I-9 scrutiny. Make sure you

Don’t Set Goals if You Don’t (Have a) Plan to Act

There’s some great methods out there for setting goals: Are Your Goals Comfortable, Delusional or Somewhere in Between? A Holistic Goal Setting Method A Simple Goal Setting Method And based on how a method’s strengths and weaknesses relate to your own personality and preferences, you can find a method out there that is right for you. But don’t do it if you don’t: Have a plan to act Plan to act Goal attainment doesn’t happen through osmosis.  It happens through a process I like to look at this way: MISSION/PURPOSE -> GOALS -> ACTION PLANS -> TASKS -> BEHAVIORS Breaking