PTSD: Challenging, But Manageable

It's Easier Than You Might Think

By Tripp Ritter, PayScale.com

A movement has started to inform employers that the dangers and frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are often overstated. According to researcher Dr. Harry Croft, medical director at the San Antonio Psychiatric Research Center, whose views on hiring veterans were covered in an earlier post “The Right Reason to Hire Veterans,” "Not only are the rates and severity of PTSD  lower than many assume but, when understood, the impact of PTSD in the workplace can be managed."

Poll: What Is Your Company's Maternity Leave Policy?

Paid Leave Makes A Difference

By Tripp Ritter, PayScale.com

Do you want to make sure your pregnant employees remain loyal employees and stay at work long after they give birth? If so, you might be wise to focus on whether or not any leave you provide is paid, according to a new research study. Researchers from Bryn Mawr College and Rutgers University found that women who take paid maternity leave are more likely to still be working a year after they give birth than those who take no leave at all.

Essentials for Incentive Plans

On Your Mark, Get Set, Wait… Before You Go:
Essentials for Incentive Plans

Before you add an incentive plan, there are several considerations to address to get ready. Answer these seven questions to assure you achieve success.

Employee Retention and Engagement

Be Bold and Reward Only What You Want

It’s challenging to design an incentive program that actually rewards top performers, and only top performers. But, it is more expensive, in the long run, to leave them under-rewarded. If you don’t believe that is true, keep reading. If you are afraid you don’t have the time and resources to reward their success, keep reading, too. In business, you will pay when you reward them or pay when you lose them. You decide.

Examining the Adverse Impacts of Layoffs

Think Before You Fire: Designing an Adverse Impact Analysis

In our tough economy, laying off employees has become a knee-jerk reaction when budgets get tight. But, what are the true effects of employee layoffs and how might choosing them wreak havoc later on? Losing a skilled, experienced and loyal employee can hurt your bottom line over time.

In this post we’ll discuss how you can help your managers and the leadership at your company make smart choices about staffing so that the company stays healthy long term.

How to Calculate Employee Turnover

Costs of Employee Turnover - Part 2

In our first post on the costs of employee turnover, you learned why hanging onto your employees is important to the financial well-being of your organization, as long as those employees are a good fit.

In part 2, I will show you some twists and variables on those calculations that you must make to see the full picture that employee turnover in your organization is telling you. I will also cover a few of the many variables that can affect your turnover rate and affect how you choose to interpret results of your employee turnover calculations.

The Costs of Employee Turnover

Cost of Employee Turnover - Part 1

Many of us have a vague sense that there are things we must do. We must eat our vegetables, floss, and make payroll. Then we have a sense that there are things we ought to do. We ought to invest for retirement, volunteer with a community service organization, or learn a language. Into which category do we place “hang onto my employees better?” It might be the former, once you find out in this blog how much employee turnover costs.

Strategies for Difficult Employee Communications

How Do Companies Communicate with Employees in Difficult Times?

In my experience, there are two main schools of thought on how companies should communicate with employees during a recession.

1) It is better to wait to communicate with employees until you have all the information you can gather. Otherwise, employees may ask questions you cannot answer and you may look bad from their perspective.
2) We all live in a world of uncertainty and waiting before presenting information will only stimulate the rumor mill and employee anxiety.

This blog post will summarize why I prefer the latter approach. I will use as an example the situation I wrote about recently, of having to layoff or terminate employees as a last resort to get through a recession.

Variable Pay Compensation

Implementing a Variable Pay Compensation Strategy: What to Beware Of

How do you reward top performers and keep employees loyal during tighter times? In a previous post I suggested a variable pay program as a way to incentivize your employees to stay with the company and help it reach its goals. From profit-sharing to discretionary bonuses, there are a variety of options.

Innovative Salary Programs

Using Variable Pay - A Compensation Strategy in this Current Economy

So there you are in the CEO’s office presenting your recommendations for next year’s salary budget. You have done the analysis, you have all of your facts lined up and your market data to support it. “The costs,” you say, “for next year’s salary increase budget will be … a gazillion dollars.” Well that’s not what you said, but that’s what the CEO heard! In fact, this is probably the fourth meeting that day going over all of the expenses that are needed to run the business and all that person sees is spending more money and an eroding margin. They ‘d probably rather hear about some low-cost salary programs.

Different Types of Motivation Theories

Employee Motivation in the Workplace: Different Types of Motivation Theories
Part 3

Does money motivate people effectively? In part 1 of this series on HR theories of motivation, we answered that question. No.

Well, if not money, how do we create an environment where people are motivated?
Check part 2. The key: create productive work relationships.

But people are different; so how do we build productive work relationships with all types of people? In this last installment on workplace motivation, we’ll cover some of the main theories for how various people motivate themselves.

Recognizing Employee Value

The Importance of Recognizing Employee Value

In the world of work, what is “adding value”? And, as an HR or compensation practitioner, why should I care? How does recognizing employee value help me do my job better?

Motivation in the Workplace: Top Employee Motivators

Employee Motivation in the Workplace: It’s Not About Money. It’s About Productive Work Relationships.

Part 2

 

“I’m learning recently, you can’t motivate people. You’ve got to provide the work environment that’s going to make them want to do a better job. You just can’t make them do a better job by paying them more money.”
– Company owner*

Employee Retention Tips for Managers

Why Good People Quit and How to Keep Them: Employee Retention Tips for Managers

Think about a job that you left where you were a rock star. Now think about one you left where you were simply, purely, competent.

Why did you leave in each case?

That question is especially important in today’s economy, where motivation in the workplace may be more critical than ever as we seek to keep both our rock stars and our reliable, fully-competent performers. These two groups will do much of the heavy lifting to keep our organizations alive until times improve.

Identifying High-Potential Employees

How to Recognize the Characteristics of a Good Employee

Among the handful, or perhaps hundreds, of employees at your company, it can sometimes be tough to identify who are the high-potential employees that are really making a difference in your overall success, and who are the employees that are simply at or below average.  You want to know who your high-potential employees are so you can reward them and make sure they stay in your organization. What exactly do top employees offer, and how can you identify the characteristics of a good employee?

Q&A Session - Employee Retention Ideas and Suggestions

PayScale’s Most Frequent HR Questions - Employee Retention Ideas for Retaining Top Performers

Questions and Answers from Our Employee Retention Webinar

The following is a transcript of the question and answer session that followed PayScale’s webinar, Employee Retention: High Impact Performance Management for Engaging and Retaining Your Top Performers. The main topics covered in these questions are evaluating employee performance and pay-for-performance programs. Answers are provided by PayScale’s webinar leader and director of customer service and education, Stacey Carroll, M.B.A., SPHR.

Employee Retention Tips

Employee Retention Tips for an Economic Recession

By Stacey Carroll

Of all the threats and challenges your company can face in this economic downturn, losing top performers can be one of the most damaging.

As your workforce becomes more lean, top employee retention becomes more important. The quality of the people you have on the front lines determines your company’s survival. It is said that 20 percent of your workforce does 80 percent of the work. At this point in time, it’s possible that those 20 percent make up most of your team, and you want to keep them around.

Employee Turnover Causes

Employee Turnover Causes and the Role of Compensation: Two Opposing Viewpoints

By Barry MacLean and Stacey Carroll

In today’s unstable marketplace, retaining your most seasoned and talented employees helps ensure your organization’s strength. It’s more important than ever to put strategies in place to avoid the overarching costs of employee turnover causes, and keep skilled, high-level producers motivated and invested.

But, which strategies will provide the results that you want? Barry MacLean and Stacey Carroll share their opposing viewpoints on the role of compensation in employee retention and employee turnover. Barry begins with his perspective and then Stacey responds. Let’s see what these experts think.