As human capital consultants, we receive a lot of calls from CEOs asking us if we can help with Employee Engagement. And we, of course, love working with our clients to identify ways to get their employees wanting to come to work every day and thinking of retention strategies for the long term. It’s important to note though that employee engagement can have several different interpretations depending on who you are talking to, so let’s address the first question.

On January 18, 2013, Executive Order (EO) 13495, Non Displacement of Qualified Workers under Service Contracts went into effect. If you aren't familiar, this requires federal service contract workers the right of first refusal for employment with the successor contractor, who would otherwise lose their jobs as a result of the competition or expiration of a contract. Who Does This Regulation Apply To? The regulations apply to both prime and subcontractors above the simplified acquisition threshold (currently $150,000) and their solicitations, except those excluded that succeed contracts for the same or similar services at the same location. The regulations also excludes certain types of contracts and employees, as well as giving the head of a contracting department or agency the flexibility to exempt contracts from the regulations if it finds the requirements would not serve the purposes of the EO or would impair the government's ability to procure services economically or efficiently.

Deciding to expand your business to international markets can be both exciting and intimidating. In this three part article series, we will discuss topics organizations need to consider when venturing outside their country of origin for business. For Part 1, let's discuss why organizations decide to expand internationally.

At Helios, we often talk about 'building a culture of intention'. We coach our clients on being more intentional, we honor and award organizations who do (i.e. The Helios Apollo Awards), and we even wrote a book compiled of interviews we had with local leaders on how they build these 'cultures of intention'. We were delighted to read a blog post by our friends at Inspirion today that shed light on giving feedback intentionally. Here's CEO Misti Burmeister's advice: “If your intention in giving someone feedback is to judge or criticize, you’ll fail to inspire a shift in their behavior.” — Misti Burmeister

Recognizing Washington Employers Who Grow, Develop and Engage Their Employees

The Washington, DC market has been particularly focused on the impact of pending sequestration outcomes. In October, I participated on a panel addressing preparations for sequestration and our conversation then included topics like triggers of the WARN Act (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification), ensuring you have a budget prepared that takes into account program losses, determining the impact on employee compensation and benefits, and conducting scenario based planning to mitigate your risk.