At a company with a 150-year history, its culture, tradition, and values inform everything HR does. For a company with a 150-year history that includes five generations of family of the original founder, George Garvin Brown, Brown-Forman Corporation, based in Louisville and best known for its flagship Jack Daniel’s Whiskey, is all about values and…
As historically low birth rates combine with increasing life spans, America finds itself in the midst of a unique demographic shift, resulting in an older society. The labor force of older workers is growing much more quickly than that of younger workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and 80 percent of workers intend to work even after retirement…
CHRO Roxanne Lagano had two main challenges when her company spun off from Pfizer: Easing the transition and handling a big layoff. When Zoetis, the world leader in animal health, spun off from Pfizer, they had the third-largest IPO of 2013. Although the company had more than 60 years of experience delivering a diverse portfolio…
Harvard Business Review released the findings of their study of thousands of teams across all industries, sectors, and geographies to learn what makes some teams successful while others fail. What it boils down to is the quality of the team’s relationships. If you’ve got a supportive team, you’re set for success. But just one toxic team member…
So you’ve found an amazing job at a great company and you’re ready to sign an employment agreement, but there’s one thing holding you back: the office space. Work environments and office orientations vary in countless ways, and if you’re going to spend a minimum of 40 hours a week in a given place, you’d…
Creating one culture and one team from a siloed group of acquired companies was a challenge for Lisa Paul at Oclaro, but HR made it happen. When Lisa Paul signed on to take the helm of Oclaro’s HR department after some 30 years in HR for firms like Cisco and others, she knew the company…
If you think about all the time you spend with your colleagues, you will often discover you log more hours with them each week than you do any other person, even your spouse and children. This isn’t necessarily a negative, as coworkers can serve as a pseudo second family. Of course there’s work to be done,…
Human resources professionals commonly turn to assessments to evaluate job candidates, or to help guide the development of current employees. But assessments can also be a powerful tool for building and developing a team, and the information they glean can help team members better understand how to work together optimally. “One common staffing challenge is…
Human resource departments are only beginning to use hyper-personalization in their recruitment efforts. By taking a deep dive into their candidate engagement strategy…
Becoming unemployed is one of the greatest traumas of life, so there seems to be a very common desire to soften the blow when terminating an employee. You’ve heard all the euphemisms before, “We have to let you go,” “the job was eliminated,” “we’re downsizing,” but no matter the situation or phrases you choose, the person is still out of a job. And as an HR professional, your job is to do whatever you can to help them get back into the workforce.
Open office settings have taken over corporate America over the last decade. In fact, about 70 percent of U.S. offices have no or low partitions, according to the International Facility Management Association. Silicon Valley has been the leader in this trend, touting that lack of walls increases collaboration, creativity, and innovation. And after all, who wouldn’t want…
Diversity and inclusivity: two things organizations strive for, but few actually achieve. In fact, according to recent research, 71 percent of organizations aspire to have an inclusive culture, but only 12 percent have achieved this objective. The new “High-Impact Diversity and Inclusion: Maturity Model and Top Findings” report from Bersin by Deloitte finds that companies need to go…
Is your workplace toxic? The question might sound like it’s coming from Captain Obvious, but a culture breakdown can sneak up on you, little by little, until it begins to feel normal. But it isn’t. A nest of weeds can sprout from a garden like that, and those weeds can grow to choke your company’s bottom…
In the wake of recent, high-profile workplace sexual harassment scandals in Hollywood and in corporate America, HR pros in companies of all sizes are rethinking their policies on workplace dating. Should you? That depends. Banning dating in the workplace is the safest way to avoid trouble if a relationship goes sour, but is it realistic…
anti harassment policyHarassment headlines hit newsfeeds on a weekly basis. For example, accusations about Hollywood elite like Harvey Weinstein were quickly followed by a host of other big entertainment names that continue to drip into newsfeeds today. Not confined to the entertainment industry, harassment can happen at any time and at any place of work. This is the…
Harvey Weinstein. Ben Affleck. Russell Simmons. Kevin Spacey. Matt Lauer. Al Franken. President Donald Trump. Those are just a handful of names from fourth quarter 2017 of powerful people connected to sexual scandal. Time magazine even named “The Silence Breakers” as the 2017 Person of the Year, at least partially thanks to the viral #metoo movement, where people…
The first step is admitting there is a problem. The next step is figuring out how to tackle it. Apparently when it comes to assessing gender equality in the workplace, we have a big problem with perception versus reality. The World Economic Forum says the global economic gender gap is widening. Considering common hurdles such as women getting paid…
The companies of Silicon Valley tout being some of the most progressive and forward-thinking organizations in the world. However, when it comes to the gender pay gap, it might be all lip service. According to Inc., Salesforce, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, and Google are among the Silicon Valley companies that say they have no gap. Yet the recent U.S. Department of Labor investigation into…
HR professionals from coast to coast are crunching their benefits numbers and creatively brainstorming to come up with new solutions to attract and retain talent. Many industries and locations faced recruiting challenges and skills shortages last year that have seeped into 2017. Salary is just one tool to attract talent. A noteworthy benefits package can…