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4 Business Lessons from Walt Disney and Mary Poppins

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t seen the movie and would like to, you might want to stop reading because I’m about to reveal the entire plot. According to the movie, Disney spent more than 20 years pursuing Travers (whose real name was Helen Goff) to obtain the rights to make a film based on her […]

Supreme Court Frees More For-profits from ACA’s Contraceptive Mandate

Closely held corporations with religious objections cannot be required to provide contraception coverage under health care reform regulations because that would violate the owners’ rights under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the U.S. Supreme Court today ruled in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, No. 13-354 (Sup. Ct., June 30, 2014). The ruling could force the Obama administration […]

Do You Use Storytelling in Your Training?

At this year’s annual American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) 2014 International Conference and Exposition—at which the Society changed its name to the “Association for Talent Development” (ATD)—father and son team, Gerry Beamish of Beamish Associates and Jonathan Beamish of Accenture, presented an informative program, “Cave Wall to Internet: Storytelling, the Ancient Learning Art.” […]

High court lets Hobby Lobby, others opt out of contraception coverage under ACA

The U.S. Supreme Court reviewed the Affordable Care Act (ACA) again this term, and today, it held in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc. that the ACA’s contraceptive mandate violates the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA) as it is applied to “closely held corporations.” According to the Court’s 5-4 opinion, the mandate “substantially […]

Feedback

Workplace Feedback—Punishment, Puzzle, or Gift?

By William Taylor People want and need to know how they’re doing in their jobs. Feedback is important to employees, and it’s also an important management tool for improving performance. The thing is that feedback is not always done well, and it is also not always received well. Why? What can companies do to make […]

Dining Etiquette 101: Don’t Talk with Your Mouth Full!

Have you ever been to a business lunch with someone who had poor table manners and thought, “How did they get hired? They can’t even use the right utensil!” We all know they don’t teach practical things like that in college—but that’s not the case anymore!

Do Your Workers Know How to Respond to Workplace Violence?

Violent behavior can erupt anywhere. Consider these statistics: Homicide is the third-leading cause of work-related deaths. According to studies, as many as 1 million Americans each year are the victims of nonfatal work-related assaults. While the highest percentage of workplace assaults are in the service, healthcare, and retail industries, incidents of violence occur in all […]

Your Compensation Scorecard: What to Measure and How

Scorecards are powerful aids for improving pay for performance, reducing entitlement, and, often, increasing employee acceptance of your pay program, says Consultant David Insler. Compensation Scorecards A compensation scorecard is any dissemination of aggregate compensation information beyond the HR organization. There are several types of scorecards, says Insler, who is the senior vice president at […]

Are Your Job Application Procedures Lawsuit-Resistant?

Job applications and interview notes should hold relevant information on the basis of hiring decisions and should document the valid reasons for selecting or rejecting applicants. Read on for more best practices. A best practice for job applications is to require a signed application from all candidates—and not just a submitted resume. This gives the […]