Month: April 2008

Incentives or Disincentives? More Mistakes That Send Salespeople Packing

Salespeople need incentives, but it’s all too easy to “incent” your top performers out the door. Today, more common mistakes and an introduction to a compensation management program that can answer all your comp questions. Yesterday’s Advisor detailed 6 sales force compensation strategies that actually work against your company’s best interests, according to Alan McAnally, […]

HOT LIST: New York Times Bestselling Business Books

The following is a list of the bestselling business books as ranked by the New York Times on April 28. 1 Women & Money: Owning the Power to Control Your Destiny, by Suze Orman. How women can achieve financial security. 2 Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions, by Dan Ariely. An M.I.T. […]

How to Incentivize Your Best Salespeople … to Leave

Sales compensation should be easy, but it’s often done wrong, says Alan McAnally, president of SalesComp America. He highlights the compensation mistakes that actually encourage the best salespeople to leave. Is your sales compensation program actually sabotaging your results? It probably is, if it’s guilty of the frequently committed faux pas detailed below. They’re recounted […]

Night Out

This week’s episode raises some interesting issues for employers. The one that first comes to mind is whether an employer should host internal social networking websites for their employees. Frankly, I’ve got mixed feelings about it. On the one hand, social networking websites are great for recruiting, communicating information, answering employee questions, and allowing employees […]

What Motivates an Employee’s Lawyer?

by Jeff DeGraffenreid Recently, I met a plaintiff’s lawyer during a particularly expansive mediation. He was on the opposing side, and after we were through, I had the chance to sit down with him over a beer and pick his brain. I’d gone in with the notion that he was “in it for the money.” […]

Making Technology Improve Work, Not Create Distraction

The capabilities of the devices the average employee brings to the workplace these days are amazing. At any given moment, every one of your employees probably has the ability to make a phone call from anywhere in the building, record a conversation, and take pictures of your most sensitive work secrets — and that’s just […]

Readers Pose Job Interview Questions for the U.S. Presidential Candidates

By BLR Founder and CEO Bob Brady BLR founder and CEO Bob Brady’s epinion in last Friday’s Advisor generated a flood of responses. A surprising number of readers jumped at the chance to put their interviewing chops to work, questioning the presidential candidates. In last Friday’s e-pinion, I suggested that if we took a standard […]

Tattoos, Body Jewelry, Religious Accommodations, and the EEOC

In yesterday’s Advisor, we considered accommodation requirements when safety and religion conflict. Today, more EEOC guidance on religious accommodation and dress codes, along with a program that has your dress code policies … legally reviewed … already written. Q. Is it okay for a company to explain that someone has received a religious accommodation; for […]

The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America

Employment law attorney Michael Maslanka reviews the book The Good Black: A True Story of Race in America by Paul M. Barrett. Review follows book’s description of a real-life story of an African-American who went from motivated employee to suing his employer for employment and race discrimination. Ever wonder how a once successful and motivated […]

Are Your Vacation Priorities in Order? 5 Strategies

According to the results of a new survey, 31 percent of employees won’t use all of their vacation days this year, and the average U.S. adult will leave about three vacation days on the table. The survey, conducted by online travel agency Expedia, found that work stress is driving the trend toward foregoing all available […]