Over fall break, I had the chance to walk to the park with my five year old. On the first day, he decided he was going to search for “treasures” on our walk. He found flowers and rocks and leaves and sticks that he thought were “beautiful”. I couldn’t help but notice things I wasn’t noticing but he did. With every stop and examination he made, he did in fact find lots of beautiful things. On our walk the next day, he decided it was time to pick up the trash. He noticed some along the roadway when he was
When you think of a sabbatical from work, what comes to mind? I took a few minutes to write the first words that came to my mind. They were: breather, time off, soul rest, work-life balance and creative restoration. As the newest member of the Horizon Point team, I was not as familiar with the term sabbatical like the rest of the ladies. Rumor has it that in 2021 everyone was on Mary Ila’s back porch in a Monthly Mingle meeting, distracted, busy and burned out. A couple of our team members had been to the hospital with chest pains,
I was recently asked to speak at the Alabama SHRM Employment Law & Compliance Conference on the topic of violence in the workplace. A 2022 joint study by the Department of Justice Statistics, Bureau of Labor Statistics, and OSHA showed that while occurrences of workplace decreased 58% between 1994 and 2014, it is once again on the rise. And data published in February 2024 by Valentis, shows that 68% of workers feel unsafe at work. So what can employers do to ensure the safety of their people? First, it’s important to understand what workplace violence looks like. It’s much more
Last week I joined Mary Ila at the AARC Annual Conference and had the opportunity to speak to leaders about recruiting and retaining talent in today’s workforce. Recruiting has changed drastically over the last few decades, from candidates having to convince an organization why they’re the best person for the job, to organizations having to convince candidates why they’re the best company to work for. Candidates today aren’t just interested in the money, but are looking at the employer’s overall Employee Value Proposition (EVP) or what the company can offer them that makes them an employer of choice. An EVP
I’m speaking today at AARC’s Annual Conference. We’ve had the privilege of speaking at this annual conference for the last several years. We love all of the Regional Council on Governments and Planning Commissions that partner with us across the state. As I speak on “Leading in the New Normal,” I’m reminded of all that has shaped this “new normal”. Shifts in the economy and technology, the pandemic, generational differences. Even Surgeon General’s warnings. But as I begin to unpack these influences imparting a new workplace paradigm, has leadership gotten easier or has it gotten harder? Most would say