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Communication

Job conflicts are major cause of lost sleep

05/22/2008
Common job-related problems—such as conflicts with bosses or co-workers—are more likely to cause poor sleep than even long hours, night shifts or job insecurity. That’s the conclusion of a new University of Michigan study of 2,300 adults who were followed for a decade …

17 Questions to Determine if Workers are Fully Engaged

05/22/2008
Don’t think you can pick out disengaged workers from a lineup. Employees usually check out mentally long before you spot the obvious signs—poor productivity, absenteeism, lousy customer service. Find out whether your employees are fully engaged in their work by asking them these 17 questions.

5 survival tips: Seek employee help to weather the recession

05/20/2008
It’s not easy for employees to hear that economic tough times mean they’re not getting a pay raise or that their jobs are in jeopardy. Having to deliver the bad news may be almost as hard. Here are five ways to make the most of a difficult situation—and invite employees to be part of the solution.

Of MySpace & Money: Don’t try to muzzle millennials’ salary talk

05/13/2008

You’d never discuss how much money you make, right? Dude, that attitude is so 20th century! The 20-somethings you work with eagerly dish about salaries, bonuses and other work topics you might consider taboo. Managers tempted to forbid such talk? Don’t let them! Here’s why.

Election ’08: What you need to know about what workers think

05/06/2008
Election year politics has a strange way of focusing employers and employees on the larger issues—such as jobs, wages and the economy. HR pros should pay attention to election year buzz. Knowing what’s on employees’ minds as they go to the polls can help savvy employers get a glimpse of the future workplace.

Kids will be kids: Inappropriate workplace behavior and teenage workers

05/06/2008

Q. Some of our employees are teenagers who work part time while they go to school. Often, this is their first job. Some of them don’t seem to understand proper behavior in the work environment. They usually are OK with customers, but when they are interacting with each other, they give each other a hard time. Verbal put-downs and even physical acts are common. Does this create any potential problems? …

Tailor benefits messages to employees’ ages, circumstances

05/02/2008
When it comes to effectively communicating benefits messages, one size does not fit all. Employees have different benefits needs at different stages of their lives. Make sure your print and web-based benefits communications efforts take those differences into account …

Notify employees every time you plan to charge time off to FMLA

05/02/2008
When employees take leave to deal with serious health conditions, inform them that you plan to charge that time against their allotment of unpaid FMLA leave. If you fail to do so, it will be relatively easy for her to sue and show she was harmed by the lack of notice …

Consulting firm keeps young workers with ‘Short’ hours, communication

05/02/2008
Censeo Consulting grooms young employees for long careers with the five-year-old Washington, D.C., company through frequent feedback and flexibility. Managers do their best to tailor the jobs so they suit the talents and career goals of each of the company’s 40 employees.

Sailing builds bonds among employee ‘Crews’

05/01/2008
The owner of document management firm Laserfiche figures the staff that sails together stays together. The Long Beach, Calif., company started a competitive sailing team of employees last summer …