Managing People At Work

About time: Scheduling is key when managing hybrid teams

March 20, 2023
It’s really hard to claw back something—remote work—that people now see as the norm. Making the return-to-office decision requires recognizing that remote work didn’t just change where people work. It also changed when people work.

New danger: Huge fines for gagging departing workers

March 20, 2023
Chances are, you conduct routine exit interviews for most terminations, whether employees are quitting or have lost their jobs in a layoff. You might also commonly offer severance pay in exchange for employees signing an agreement not to sue or making some other promise about their future conduct. But beware! If you make employees promise to tell you about future investigations, expect a fine from the SEC.

Is March Madness unproductive? You bet! Embrace it anyway

March 15, 2023
March Madness is back for 2023, reviving annual concerns that the games—and associated bracket-pool betting—will distract employees and sap productivity. Is filling out tournament brackets and obsessively tracking game results a massive waste of time? Of course it is. Should employers crack down on office betting pools and tell everyone to get back to work? Maybe not.

Poll: 70% say financial stress harms work performance

March 13, 2023
Seven in 10 workers surveyed by insurance company YuLife believe their own financial worries negatively affect their on-the-job performance.

It’s about time … to consider switching to 4-day workweek

March 6, 2023
A recent experiment sought to test whether a four-day workweek at full pay would be popular with employees and their employers. The results are in.

Should that Zoom call really have been an email?

March 2, 2023
With all the options, existing workplace etiquette and conflicting preferences, it can be surprisingly difficult to decide the best way for an admin to get in touch with their executive and colleagues. These tips will let you know the best communication method for each workplace situation to help admins save time.

Are your employees happy?

March 2, 2023
Tomorrow is Employee Appreciation Day! So it’s a good time to assess whether employees are happy. Not skipping down a rainbow happy, but happy at work and with their work. Maybe happy-ish would be a better description. If you want to know whether employees are happy, ask them.

4 steps toward more flexible time-off benefits

February 21, 2023
Work flexibility and time off are more important to employees than ever before. Many employers made changes on the fly to their time-off programs during the pandemic. Now is a good time to take stock of your programs and policies and look for opportunities to improve competitiveness and ensure compliance. Here are four things employers can do to add flexibility to their time-off policies right now.

Revise handbook to address remote harassment

February 21, 2023
If you haven’t reviewed your employee handbook in the last year or so and updated it to reflect new laws and important HR trends, you should do so soon. Otherwise, you’re probably working with an outdated and legally risky document that may do more harm than good. Here are some proactive handbook changes to consider making now to address harassment issues that can arise when employees work remotely.

Keep it Legal: Train managers on military service

February 17, 2023
Employees who are current or past military members are protected from discrimination based on their past, present or future service under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act. Including information on USERRA in management and supervisor training is essential.