Month: December 2014

Chicago City Council raises minimum wage

by Steven L. Brenneman With a mayoral election looming and opponents challenging him from the left, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushed through a Chicago ordinance that will gradually increase the minimum wage to $13 per hour by 2019. Currently, the state minimum wage is $8.25 per hour. The new Chicago ordinance, passed December 2, establishes […]

‘Word of the Year’ Has HR Pros Perplexed

The Oxford Dictionary has again issued its annual list of words that have been “significant” for the past 12 months. And this word is one that may have HR pros perplexed, not that the definition is going to help clear up the confusion.

Accommodating service animals in the workplace

by Jodi R. Bohr In recent years, service animals have become the topic of much debate partly because of their expanded use and perceived abuse. If you are confronted with an accommodation request by an employee or a customer who needs a service animal while on you premises, you must handle the situation appropriately and […]

Train Staff to Follow These 3 Steps to Measure the Impact of Your Coaching Program

  Human resources professionals are under ever-increasing pressure to achieve measurable results and return on investment (ROI) from coaching assignments. However, research* suggests that less than 40 percent of organizations review coaching assignments once completed, leaving them with no clear idea of what has been achieved. With budgets remaining tight and development needs still as […]

Learning a lesson in fostering great workers from Google

by Dan Oswald I often talk about the characteristics of the people with whom I want to work. In their book How Google Works, Eric Schmidt and Jonathan Rosenberg talk about the type of people they had at Google. And the two of them should know—Schmidt is the executive chairman and ex-CEO, and Rosenberg is […]

Are You Providing Effective Training for Your Coaching Program?

  Coaching is spontaneous, one-on-one training. Providing immediate, specific feedback and correction is an important tool managers use to improve performance. Furthermore, as a motivational tool, it offers you an opportunity to give personal attention and recognition to your employees, and to gain their participation in advancing growth and achievement. In addition, it establishes you, […]

Ranking the high court

When football season kicked off earlier this year, I took the chance to glean some insights for HR professionals from the difficult job facing the new college football playoff selection committee. Now that we’re coming up on the end of the football season, I’m turning to the committee once more for inspiration. As I write, the […]