Does 2021 Need a Shot in the Arm? The year 2020 will go down as a year to be remembered – for many reasons. One of the biggest reasons of course, is the COVID-19 pandemic.  During it, we learned to work remotely, social distance, bake bread, and experiment with the […]

Are You Keeping Your Remote Workers Engaged? As the pandemic drags on and the weather turns colder, it is becoming harder to keep remote workers engaged as active participants in our organizational cultures. As we head into the holidays, this isn’t going to get any easier. What can we do […]

Surviving Politics in the Workplace 2020 Style You knew it was only a matter of time and today was the day that you got the call.  Two employees in your organization ended up in a heated argument over the upcoming election.  You know from experience that their political beliefs are […]

Should We Celebrate the Tax Holiday? On August 8th, President Trump sent a memorandum to the Treasury Department allowing for a tax holiday. The tax holiday allows for employees earning less than $104,000 per year to defer paying their Social Security taxes during the months of September through December. This would save […]

Work or Family? Employee Choices During Covid Last week we hosted a webinar about employees with school aged children featuring an interview with local Covid law expert Rebecca Strauss from Miller Johnson.  In the webinar, she referenced a USA Today article that talks about the impact of the pandemic on working families.  […]

Onboarding & Engaging New Employees – Remotely?! Think about what makes your organization special.  You might list your products or services, your processes, and most definitely your employees.   But what is it about your employees that makes your organization special?  It probably isn’t that Bob is such a wonderful […]

Support for LGBTQ+ Employees – Wasn’t This Already the Law? On June 15th, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that LGBTQ employees were protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. “Weren’t LGBTQ employees already protected?”  The answer depends on where you live.  In Michigan […]

Getting the Most Out of Remote Work Picture yourself doing remote work.  Does that picture include working in pajamas and fuzzy slippers?  Not brushing your teeth before noon?  Working while floating in the pool? While employers have offered remote work options in the past, the pandemic has accelerated the move […]

How is Your Culture Weathering the Pandemic? A mentor of mine once said that he liked it when things didn’t go smoothly because it gave the opportunity to show what leadership was willing to do to address challenges. His philosophy always made sense to me, so I was not surprised […]

Are Zero-Tolerance Harassment Policies Effective? Recently, I was facilitating a course on anti-harassment and was asked if I supported zero tolerance harassment policies.  Frankly I think I surprised myself as much as the rest of the class when I vehemently responded, “absolutely not.”   Before we go any further, let’s […]