Shortly after purchasing my first Fitbit, I noticed a change in my airport travel routine. Instead of looking for moving sidewalks or a comfy seat, I walked all over the airport during layovers for no reason other than to amass…
Wellness
Wellness Is Mainstream, Benefiting the Employer and the Worker
If you suspect wellness is something of a fad benefit, just a few minutes of walking around at the Employer Healthcare & Benefits Congress that ended last week would have disabused you of that thinking. It seemed like every other…
Fight Employee Burnout With These Tips
Every job can be stressful in its own way, but burnout takes that stress to an unhealthy, extreme level. The Mayo Clinic defines it as a state of physical, emotional or mental exhaustion combined with doubts about your competence and…
4 Ways to Deal With an Employee’s Social Anxiety
It’s relatively easy to manage the charismatic, sociable employee who gets along with her co-workers and clients. But what about the perpetually uncomfortable, quiet worker who clashes with colleagues and keeps to himself? Many employers might consider cutting their losses…
Court Sends Wellness Incentive Rules Back to EEOC
This week, a federal judge had some scathing words for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission as he tossed back its rules on the wellness program incentives telling it to rethink the whole thing. Remind me: What are these incentive rules?…
How Silent Meditation Helped Me Succeed at Work
In this opinion piece published on the Wharton school website, Payal Sheth, a global marketing manager at the Boston Consulting Group, explains how an ancient meditation technique helped change the way she thinks and engages with people. ∼∼∼∼ Yes, you…
What the Chicago Cubs’ Clubhouse Teaches Us About Building Trust and Chemistry
On their way last year to winning their first World Series in more than a century, the Chicago Cubs did something unusual: They changed the shape of their clubhouse. Instead of stretching across a long rectangular hall, the new Cubs…
Boost Productivity With Fidget Spinners and These 4 Other Ideas
Are you looking to improve employee productivity in your organization? If so, you’ve probably done a lot of research and realized that this performance management consideration is a dynamic field. With every day that goes by, there appear new and…
Will Facebook One Day Monitor Your Employees’ Mood?
Journalist Kari Paul wrote an article in Vice about how creepy it was when Facebook’s analytics decided she was depressed and started feeding her ads on depression. Creepy yes, but if you’re interested in analytics you must have a little…
Stressed Out HR: 7 Steps to Making Things Better
Human resource professionals are the “stress absorbers” for their organizations and often for individuals in the organization. They occupy a special niche in the organizational ecosystem — a critical one for the success of all companies. But how can the…
Stop Wasting Training On Stressed Out Managers
Your employees can be overloaded on training, exposed to more information than they can absorb — especially if they are stressed or burned out. Too much of a good thing can be a real problem. For people in corporate leadership…
Company Chaplains: Help In a Crisis
My first experience in workplace crisis, non-combat related, officially occurred in the spring of 2012. I had scheduled a mid-week meeting with a safety officer, who I will call Mike. It was a 9:30 a.m. meeting, yet by 9:40 Mike…
Who’s Taking Care of HR?
When the you-know-what hits the fan, “HR is expected to be the calm one; to be the voice of reason; to not let it get to us or at least show that it doesn’t get to us.” “Some days we…
Communication Failure May Be Keeping Workers From Wellness Programs
A new study hopes to settle the debate regarding workplace health promotion and whether or not it’s good for employers to get involved with employees’ wellness. Turns out, good or bad, there’s a communication breakdown. Around two-thirds of workers surveyed are happy…
Healthcare Costs and the Collision With Employee Rights
Observing that the U.S. healthcare has been rising at almost twice the rate of the national economy, Tim Coan told an audience of HR professionals, “This is simply not sustainable.” But the question is, ‘What have we done about it’.”…
What HR Will Be Dealing With In 2017
The end of 2016 is near, and for some of us, thank goodness! While we count down the seconds until the crystal ball drops, we can plan for the trends about to hit human resources departments. Keeping an eye on…
How a Small Employer Launched a Big Wellness Program (and How You Can Do the Same)
Wellness isn’t just for big companies. Small and mid-size employers may not be able to afford the kinds of programs their bigger counterparts offer, but that doesn’t mean do nothing. In this five-minute DisruptHR presentation, Kristin Van Horn, describes what…
Well-Being Is a Trend Because It Makes a Difference
High turnover is an issue in any job market — especially in the medical field where time and training really can’t be wasted. It’s critical to understand what’s causing the turnover. The 2016 Well-Being and Engagement Report, by Limeade, surveyed…
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Workplace Benefits
There is a fine line to walk while balancing a company’s bottom line and attracting great talent. Because the employees who work for you are the most valuable asset that your company has at its disposal, making sure they are…
Faster, Cheaper Is Taking A Toll On Your Workforce
Modern global business requires “faster, cheaper” as a way of thinking and working to drive top and bottom line results. Sadly, it’s become table stakes. But is that approach slowly killing your employees, while quietly driving up the costs related…