The state of the American workplace is so bad, the US Surgeon General has now stepped in. The same guy who warns us of the deadly consequences of smoking is now saying Americans suffer from mental and physical health problems because of stressful, sometimes hostile, often toxic workplaces.
He cites specific workplace conditions that contribute to […]
Obviously, employees are essential to the success of any company. We need their brains and their hands to develop and build the services and products we sell. That’s why we often say our employees are our greatest assets. But we don’t really think of them as assets. We think of them as expenses, and that […]
We were warned.
For years, companies like Gallup cautioned that the vast majority of our employees were disengaged from their work. Researchers showed us that this lowered productivity and morale, and increased absenteeism and employee turnover. They said that large chunks of our workforce were considering changing jobs or careers.
And they placed the blame squarely on […]
It’s no secret the pandemic brought unprecedented upheaval to the American workforce.
Overnight, many of us had to learn to work from home or take significant precautions at work. Over the first few weeks, thousands lost jobs.
The pandemic shocked us out of our routines and gave us a chance to see our work, jobs, and lives […]
In all areas of life, incentives work really well. They’re easy to understand—if I do this, I will get that—and they focus people on a specific outcome. We start young—eat your vegetables and you’ll get dessert—and we continue to respond to incentives all our lives.
In business, incentives are incredibly successful. Do you want your employee […]
We’ve heard the slogans: “People are our most important asset.” “We want to be an employer of choice.”
And we know most companies fall far short of those aspirations, for lots of reasons.
Sometimes, it’s because their leaders say the words but really don’t understand why they should have an engaged workforce. To them, it seems like […]
Some companies and their employees are going through tough times right now. In some cases, it’s become so bad people refer to companies as “at war” with employees.
Imagine that.
It’s like an auto-immune disorder in which the mechanisms designed to keep the body healthy attack it instead.
The company’s leadership needs employees in order for the business […]
As a manager, your job is pretty straightforward: make sure the people on your team do their work as well and as efficiently as possible.
Good managers accomplish this by putting their team members first, keeping their focus on the business (not on their own ego), communicating honestly and frequently, rewarding success, and publicly promoting their […]
Do you feel pressure to come up with new ideas?
Things change so quickly these days, it seems we need new ideas and fresh thinking just to survive. We need to understand how our customers are changing. Will they still need us a year from now? What should we do to our products, distribution, or marketing […]
There’s no debate that companies with engaged employees and diverse teams are more successful. They have greater profitability, lower costs, and higher stock prices than companies with disengaged, homogeneous workforces. For years, studies and real-world experience have shown this to be true, and yet here we are at the beginning of 2021, not having made nearly enough progress.
Why?
Do […]
