On Retaining Millenials

Whether you subscribe to the idea that there are or are not generational differences in employees, it is important to make an effort to try new methods for retaining employees of all ages. However, when considering the massive ambition that Millenials are said to have, it is hard to ignore that employers are looking for ways to hold onto younger talent that may be likely to leave for advancement opportunities. The following are a few quick tips for communicating with Millenial employees in such a way that they feel valued and empowered to achieve great things at your company. Continue Reading →

Communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Life Cycle, Employee Retention, Employees Leaving, Generations in the Workplace, High Performance, Human Resources, talent management, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Employee Engagement and Work-Life Policies


As we continue to move forward toward a business world that requires longer hours and increased work load, the need for work-life balance becomes increasingly important. Employees want to be able to balance both work and family life in the easiest way possible. Organizations have begun to create policies that allow for employees to establish more flexible schedules. What are these policies and do they work? Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Communication, Employee Engagement, High Performance, Miscellaneous, Time Management, Work Life Balance Shortlink

A 25 Hour Work Week: Crazy or Clever?

Recent news about  a controversial proposal by James W. Vaupel (a Danish professor who is the head of the new Max-Planck Odense Center on the Biodemography of Aging) that a 25 hour work week would be a better alternative to the 40 hour work week has stirred up conversation within the working world. This idea reflects on efforts to improve employee work-life balance while capitalizing on patterns of work productivity. Continue Reading →

Employee Engagement, Employee Life Cycle, Generations in the Workplace, High Performance, Miscellaneous, talent management, Time Management, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

How to Plan an Organizational Change for Improved Work-Family Balance

To develop a plan for organizational change to improve work-family balance, one might want to target the antecedent of insufficient time for the effective completion of one’s responsibilities for both work and family roles.

First, managers within the organization would want to honestly evaluate the current state of affairs regarding the amount of time employees are expected to work. If they realize that many employees feel as if they are expected to work overtime or back-to-back shifts in order to remain in good standing with the organization, this may be a large contributor to the problem especially if these perceived expectations are not actual benchmarks for performance according to the supervisors. Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Communication, Education & Training, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

What’s with millennials anyway?

Guest Author: Maggie Coffey, marketing intern for Hireology

Before you know it, the job market will be replenished with the latest set of recent college graduates. We’re eager, we’re dedicated and we’re picky. Even with a bleak job outlook and the impending repayment of student loans, millennials aren’t going to settle. Continue Reading →

Communication, Education & Training, Employee Engagement, Employee Retention, Employees Leaving, Generations in the Workplace, High Performance, Job Search, Miscellaneous, talent management, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Investments in Employee Education Reaps Great ROIs

by guest blogger Kyle Lagunas, HR Analyst of Software Advice

While there are many potential benefits of tuition assistance programs (or TAPs), the challenge for business leaders is to manage investments in employee education in a way that maximizes returns–both for the employer and the employee. Not only does a TAP need to encourage the development of specific skills in your workforce, it also needs to empower employees to pursue their educational goals.

For companies who want to launch a new TAP—or revamp an existing one—it’s hard to know where to begin. To that end, I connected with John Zappa, CEO of EdLink to identify a few key steps to get you started.

1. Identify Goals, Support with Investments
Work with your senior management team to set quantifiable, measurable goals. Address the question of cost early on, using your goals as a guiding compass. The more critical a goal, the larger your investment in a TAP. Alternatively, you can follow industry standards for less-than-critical goals.

You might consider breaking qualifying coursework into groups. Here is an example:

 

 

 

 

Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Education & Training, Employee Engagement, Miscellaneous, talent management, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

The Juggling Act


It is no secret that juggling work and family is difficult. We all know that trying to balance these two parts of our worlds can be stressful and at times seemingly impossible. How can we improve our work and family life balance? Continue Reading →

Communication, Employee Engagement, Employee Life Cycle, Employee Retention, Miscellaneous, Time Management, Women in the Workplace, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Employee Involvement


It can be difficult as an employee to be in a job where you feel that your input is not recognized. It is also hard to feel loyal or committed to an organization lacks recognition of employee opinions. How can organizations foster a healthy organization and employee decision-making process? Continue Reading →

Education & Training, Employee Engagement, Employee Life Cycle, Employee Retention, Employees Leaving, High Performance, Miscellaneous, Work Life Balance Shortlink

The “Breadwinner”


The term breadwinner once referred to the male head of the household who provided the income for the family. Now the term is hardly ever used as a shift in family dynamics has changed. Why is it that now most families have two working parents and how does this impact individual employees? Continue Reading →

Employee Life Cycle, Employee Retention, Employees Leaving, Generations in the Workplace, Miscellaneous, Women in the Workplace, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Workplace Bullying Interventions


So your workplace has a bully or two. How are you going to handle the negative impact of a bully on the relationships within the workplace? Some would say it is best to ignore the bully(s), but ignoring the problem does not solve it. When a bully threatens other employees, something must be done. So, what should an organization do to combat bullying? Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Communication, Education & Training, Leadership, Legalities, Miscellaneous, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Non-Traditional Work Hours and Retention


The once traditional work week continues to evolve into extended hours and the addition of weekend hours. Organizations are also allowing employees more flexibility in their work schedules by allowing them to start later and leave later or start early and leave early. While these different work schedules can be beneficial in maintain a healthy work-family balance, some of the work schedules can have an impact on the length that employees stay at an organization. Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Employee Life Cycle, Employee Retention, Employees Leaving, Miscellaneous, talent management, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Wellness Programs and Recruiting

Wellness programs have been all the talk recently as organizations have discovered the true advantages to promoting healthy decisions in the workplace. Healthy employees contribute quality work and experience a higher level of satisfaction. Continue Reading →

Employee Retention, Job Search, Miscellaneous, talent management, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Oh Donuts!

One of my biggest tests of discipline occurs when the beloved treats show up in my office. All it takes is someone to say to me, “Hey Gail, so and so brought donuts” and my stomach can’t seem to resist. The problem is that this occurs too frequently and I often find myself in a battle against my stomach. I don’t keep sweets in my house for a reason; I will eat them. Sweets are my biggest weakness as my sweet tooth is insatiable. So when there are sweets at work, it’s like a field day for my sweet tooth.

Can I resist the sweets? Sometimes yes and sometimes no. I have found that when I come to work prepared, I am less likely to sneak in a sweet. I often keep healthy options at my desk such as a granola bar or fruit. I often get low blood sugar, which forces me to eat every few hours. When I have something in my stomach, I’m less likely to be tempted by a brownie or other sweet. It’s easier to tell myself, “No, I don’t need that donut, I’ve got something to eat right here” then “Well, I don’t have anything at my desk to eat and I am hungry.” I find that when I’m either hungry or forgot to bring a snack that I am more likely to snatch whatever is around the office. Continue Reading →

Health & Fitness at Work, Human Resources, Miscellaneous, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Development of an Organizational Stress Support Seeking Scale

Anyone who has created a scale knows that it is hard work! My peers and I had the opportunity to create a scale for my Testing & Measurement course. We developed the scale, administered it to undergraduate students, and ran analysis to examine the reliability of our newly developed scale.

During stressful work situations, often people seek support to relieve the symptoms of stress. Support can be sought from many different sources. For example, employees most commonly seek support from their organization as well as friends and family. Both forms of social support have been studied heavily in the past. Spiritual support has not been studied in the context of the workplace. Therefore, the purpose of our scale was to examine not only organizational and friend/family support, but also spiritual support.

In creating the scale, an equal number of items involved organizational, friend/family, and spiritual support. In total, there were 27 items. Examples of items include (using a 7-point Likert scale):

When faced with this type of situation, I would…

Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Human Resources, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Women in the Workforce

As mentioned in an earlier post, the number of working women is increasing. Women currently hold more masters degrees than the male population. I read an interesting article in Bloomberg Businessweek that examined another angle of this topic. The article addressed how business women that wish to have a strong career are still able to raise a family and have a relationship with a spouse.

A couple of different families were profiled in this article and discussed how their families are able to function with a career driven woman in the family. In most cases, the man stays at home and cares for the children. The article made it appear that all the men were okay with being stay-at-home dads rather than pursuing their own career. The men all appeared to be very supportive of their wives’ choice to have a very strong career. Continue Reading →

Communication, Miscellaneous, Women in the Workplace, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

What’s in Your Coffee Cup?

If you’re like me and have trouble waking up in the morning, coffee is a must. While coffee in moderation is generally okay, many of us drink too much. Before I have a paper due, it is inevitable that I will go through a pot of coffee while I’m working on the paper. Sometimes I don’t even realize I have just had an entire pot until my hands start shaking. Am I am productive and able to focus with the coffee? Yes, but the feeling I typically experience afterward is all but productive. I typically experience a caffeine crash that leaves me feeling more tired than before I started having coffee.


One of the places I go when I need to be really productive is to a coffee shop. I spread out on a table and am able to work for hours on homework and other responsibilities. Continue Reading →

Health & Fitness at Work, Miscellaneous, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Are You A Workaholic?

There are employees that work the bare minimum and there are also employees that cannot seem to step away from work.  While it is not a crime to work extra hours, there can be negative consequences such as an increased amount of stress and decreased work-life balance. Researcher Fassel (1992) identified four different categories of employees that are putting forth a bit too much into his or her work.  Could you fall into one of the categories?

The first category is known as binge workers, who work excessively when necessary especially to finish a project.  These workers have intervals of working excessively followed by regular work hours.  Because there are “rest” periods in between binges of work, the employee may not experience significantly negative effects from this pattern of work. Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Generations in the Workplace, High Performance, Miscellaneous, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

The Impact of Our Commutes to Work


While most of us wish our commute to work was ten minutes or less, the truth of the matter is that is unrealistic. Depending on the city in which you live, you may experience a longer or shorter commute. The average commute for Americans is about thirty minutes or an hour total in a day. With a commute of about an hour every day, there are observed consequences. Our health, mentally and physically is negatively affected by the amount of time most of us are driving to work. There is also the impact on family life that research has not examined as in depth.

A couple of summers ago I interned at a company about forty-five minutes from my apartment given there were no accidents or heavy traffic. I had to be at work at 7:45 a.m., which meant I had to leave my apartment at about 6:50 a.m. in case there was bad traffic on the way. As a female, it takes a bit of time to get ready in the morning and sneak in breakfast, so I was getting up very early. As I mentioned in my night owl post, I am not a morning person. Continue Reading →

Health & Fitness at Work, Job Search, Miscellaneous, Relocation, Women in the Workplace, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

Work Values: How Do We Differ?

Everyone thinks about work in different terms and this is in part due to individual value systems. What exactly are values? Values are the standards of desirability in terms of which people evaluate aspects of their world and make choices between options. I, for example, know that working is a necessary part of life for me to make a living. However, I place higher value on my family and friends than work. While some work overtime at work to get ahead, I don’t ever see myself placing that much value on my work.

Individual work values significantly shape employee behavior. Depending on the level to which we value our work will guide how we behave in the workplace. Have you noticed a coworker who leaves every day at exactly the end of day? Typically, this employee places higher value on something outside of work. Maybe this employee has children and races out the door every evening at 5 p.m. to make dinner for their children and spend time with them. There is nothing wrong with situations in which an employee places less value on work as long as performance is not impacted. If this employee completes all of his or her work on time and produces quality work, Continue Reading →

Behavioral Science, Employee Engagement, Generations in the Workplace, Human Resources, Miscellaneous, Women in the Workplace, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

What is your ultimate dream career? What is your passion? Is your current job fulfilling this? If not, ask yourself why not?

It is never too late to change your career. Today’s society allows us all the opportunity to change our work situation if we are willing to invest in our future. Unfortunately, most people unhappy in their current situation are subject to excuses. The idea of changing careers is too scary to most people and they are afraid they will end up in a situation worse than their current one. But, until you take that leap of faith, you cannot change the present. Continue Reading →

Generations in the Workplace, Job Search, Job titles, Miscellaneous, Relocation, Work Environment, Work Life Balance Shortlink