In my 22 years in Human Resources (HR), I have encountered countless managers, many of whom were natural leaders. As many start to grow in their individual careers, some might start down the management path.

About a year ago, Abigail began her first day on a new job. She was a software engineer, new to the workforce, and eager to make a good impression on her colleagues. At the end of the day, she noticed a fine, jagged line on the floor of the office, stretching the length of the building. She examined it, puzzled. She was pretty sure she hadn’t noticed it earlier, and almost as sure that it hadn’t been there when she’d arrived. For a moment she considered asking someone about it, but she didn’t feel comfortable inquiring about structural integrity on her first day.

It’s Valentine’s Day. School children are passing out cards to their classmates, romantic partners are giving and receiving presents, women are continuing to give “Galentine’s Day” cards to their BFFs, and brands are, well, publishing sappy blog posts. Not us, though. This post will not be sappy. You’ll see.

Employee Appreciation Day is March 4. Celebrate your team by showing your appreciation for their resilience, hard work, creativity, and determination to get the job done.

As we attempt to grow our companies or rehire and recover from the last 18 months, it is apparent employers are all attempting to understand why some of our talented employees are looking for new opportunities. Sometimes, those opportunities don’t appear to be necessarily better as they are offering comparable pay or room for advancement. So why is our talent disappearing?

A widely held belief is that the underlying purpose of a Performance Improvement Plan is to begin the documentation process toward termination. This might be the case. But it may not be.

Employers spend considerable time and money searching for a candidate and even more time and money training that employee to carry out the job responsibilities. Employers generally want to work with employees and try to retain them.

International Women’s Day (IWD) on March 8 is a global day celebrating women’s social, economic, cultural, and political achievements. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating women’s equality.

Download the employee recognition program.

As an American, I am incredibly proud that our Women’s National Team has, once again, won the World Cup. As a compensation professional, I have had enough. When our country’s (and the world’s) best team in one of the truly international sports cannot be remunerated at least equal to a less-accomplished men’s team, we have the foundation of a problem that seemingly only compensation pros can fix. This article is not about facts and figures (there are links to those at the end). This is about what it takes to accomplish gender equity (and what that actually means) even after you have the facts.

Sometimes we need to go back to our roots to be better compensation professionals. I have listed three lessons I learned while serving the public in retail establishments. I didn’t know that these would apply to a career in compensation when I started working about one-hundred years ago.

The benefits of a single glass on an average day seem inconsequential. The benefits on a long, hot day are indescribable. Recognition programs are like drinking water. When you drink enough water, you feel better. You think better. You perform better. You even live longer. Drinking water is such a simple thing and perhaps that’s why so many of us don’t give it the attention it deserves. We know the benefits. We believe in the benefits. We have even experienced the benefits. We still don’t drink enough water.

We love our employees. We all have a statement somewhere claiming they are our greatest asset. We pay people just to attract other people. We study and design programs to keep them motivated. We plan years ahead just to retain them. And we are constantly on the prowl to find new and better ways to engage them. A new study, from Dan Ariely, of “Predictably Irrational” fame suggests that very short-term cash incentives may not be doing what we think they are doing. They may be doing the opposite.

Employee engagement is crucial to the success of your business but what is it and how can you improve it?