The Most Popular Emerging Employee Benefit is…

I remember thinking, how am I going to do this? I had just started my first full-time job out of college, and I was getting married that year.  I had been given two weeks of vacation for my first year that I had to earn throughout the year. If I wanted to take a honeymoon and be off a day or two before the wedding, I really had almost no time left to take off.  And a couple of my good friends were getting married that summer too, and I was in their weddings out of town. Was I going

The Office Design that Promotes Productivity, Collaboration, and Cost Savings

Much has been said about the open office floor plan.  The concept arose out of Silicon Valley and became a popular way to supposedly create “collaborative” work environments where innovation happens.  Oh, and as an added bonus, companies saved a lot of money designing office spaces as open.  I’m not sure which came first, the chicken or the egg- the realization that money could be saved this way, or that “collaboration” and therefore innovation would thrive in this type of design.   But in many studies, including this one: The impact of the ‘open’ workspace on human collaboration, it was found

Is Your Workplace Full of Facts or Opinions?

You can find me most afternoons between 3:30 and 4:30 pm working on 2nd grade homework. While I work until the normal quitting time of 5:00 pm one to two days a week (thanks to grandparents), my schedule at least three days a week revolves around being done in time to pick up kids and start what often seems to be a harder job than what pays the bills- getting my 2nd grader through 2nd grade. One interesting assignment he had in his homework packet a couple of weeks ago was to identify whether a list of statements was fact

Building Culture When There’s No Building: Remote Workforces

Even with today’s technology, many people have a hard time wrapping their minds around the concept of a virtual company. When someone asks me where Horizon Point’s office is located and I respond that we are a virtual organization, I often get some puzzled looks. Their first question is usually “If you don’t have an office, where do you work?” And that’s often followed up with something along the lines of “Don’t you miss interacting with other people?” Truthfully, I’m always interacting with people, including co-workers, clients, fellow HR professionals, and other members of the community. I just don’t do

Forget the 401K Plan, Does Benefit Package Address Getting Rid of Debt?

“According to Make Lemonade, there are more than 44 million borrowers who collectively owe $1.5 trillion in student loan debt in the U.S. alone. The average student in the Class of 2016 has $37,172 in student loan debt,” sites a June 2018 Forbes article. Furthermore, check out the consumer debt picture (this is separate from student loan debt) in America from Business Insider: The debt issue is a problem on so many levels, but for employers, it is impacting thoughts and decisions about what a desirable benefits package looks like in order to recruit and retain employees. Is the savings piece of your benefits