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Intellectual Humility: The Essential Virtue to Navigate Today’s Workplace

“I don’t know!” “I was wrong!” These phrases are rare gems that remain hidden in an overconfident world: today, admitting mistakes is mainly considered as impotence and failure. As proof, common synonyms for the word ‘humility’ are ‘abasement’ or ‘submissiveness’ – hardly desirable traits. But our tendency to reason and speak in order to be […]

Bridge The Gap: Treat Employees as Your First Customers 

We’ve all heard the popular business slogan “the customer is always right,” a phrase that highlights essential customer-first cultures implemented in almost every organization. This is how most businesses approach their operations, prioritizing customer satisfaction and retention to drive profitability. But a lesser-known fact is that a great employee-first culture also drives success, and retaining […]

Back to Normal: Ending COVID-19 Tolling of COBRA Deadlines

Getting “back to normal” as the COVID-19 pandemic has eased has not been simple for anyone. In terms of plan administration, the continued tolling of employee benefit plan deadlines, including those related to continuation coverage under the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (COBRA), has kept plan administrators firmly planted in a “COVID-19 world,” even as […]

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Inflation Is on the Rise–What About Salaries?

Escalating inflation has employers and compensation managers puzzling over their compensation strategies. Cost of living, cost of labor, minimum wage, living wage, recruitment, retention, compression—they’re swirling around in our heads like uninvited confetti! The annual inflation rate for the United States was 8.5% for the 12 months ended March 2022, according to the U.S. Labor […]

Give Your Employees the Gift of Stress Management Training

  The latest StressPulse report by ComPsych, a provider of employee assistance programs, found that 64 percent of employees report high levels of stress. Noted ComPsych CEO Richard A. Chaifetz, Psy.D, “Sustained, high levels of stress have a deleterious effect on work product as well as physical health.” He said proactively addressing the issue is […]

Using Storytelling in Workplace Training

Chances are, when you hear the word “storytelling,” you think of something like children’s bedtime stories or even someone fabricating a story for some type of gain. But the term has other meanings, too. Using the art of storytelling is actually a type of communication that can be quite effective. If you think about people […]

employer

Continuing Pandemic Blurring the Line Between Furloughs, Layoffs

Back in the spring when businesses across the country first fell victim to COVID-19, many employers chose to furlough workers temporarily rather than lay them off permanently. But now, with the pandemic dragging on, some furloughs are extending much longer than originally expected, triggering employer obligations under federal and state laws.

Pay Budgets for 2013–What’s the Plan?

Take the 2012-2013 pay budget survey now. For years, BLR has surveyed HR, compensation, and benefits professionals to get an accurate gauge of pay budget planning. We want to find out how companies like yours are planning for compensation this year and next. Please help by filling out our brief survey; we’ll share the results […]

Courage Is Critical at Work

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by those you did.” Mark Twain Ever find yourself at work wondering whether or not to speak up in a meeting? You have an idea that you think might really make a difference, but you’re unsure how it might […]