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.

It’s an old adage that “people are your greatest asset” and this has never been truer. Workplaces have changed dramatically in the last eighteen months. Many organizations have struggled but those who have remained successful have one thing in common – they prioritize and recognize their people.

As we enter the new year, the risks of COVID-19 may recede, but the trauma, pain, and disruptions of these past two years will still be with us, affecting our lives and our work. We’ve all struggled, sometimes in ways we can’t pinpoint.

In a healthy company, people regularly talk to their managers (unhealthy companies are a topic for a different post). This is similar to people wanting to know more about your company. The first step is heading to your website. The place they land has headlines that your company thinks are important for people to know.

As we move into the compensation planning season, I thought it was time for a quick reminder to focus on keeping things simple. Over-complicating the basics of pay, can make it impossible to successfully accomplish the most complex things. So many small and mid-sized companies work so hard to make base pay “perfect” that they have no time or energy to build effective short-term incentive plans or rational equity compensation plans.

Whether you have been managing for 25 years or a few months, ask yourself the question – has anyone taught you how to manage or are you trying to figure it out as you go? Managing employees well leads to impressive outcomes and unparalleled team success, but how do you know if you are doing it right?  

What is a team? The classic textbook definition is a group of people working to- gether to accomplish a common goal. That sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?

Claims of sexual harassment or sexual misconduct in the workplace can be found in every industry including small and large corporations in law, education, non-profits and the financial sector. Never happened at your company? Don’t assume it’s not happening just because someone hasn’t complained (yet)!