You have an exciting work environment...people are running around like crazy, lots of energy and enthusiasm all over the place, and everyone is having a great time...except for one employee who doesn’t “get into that”. This employee is sitting at the desk, quietly doing his/her work. And you notice when you are in meetings, this employee rarely speaks up. Do you see them as a hindrance to your organization? Hopefully not!

Many of us in the DC metro area experience the stress of dealing with the daily traffic congestion and long commutes in order to get to work on time, and I don't even need to describe what happens during a snowfall. Due to these stresses we face as well as the increasing number of millennials in the workforce, many employers are looking more seriously at telework options. This is an area gaining in popularity for various businesses and industries, and its usage is expected to grow. With the new technologies available to us, working from home is becoming a more viable alternative without the risk of employees losing touch with their employer and customers. Some employers do not realize there are also cost effective reasons for initiating a telework program. Listed below are four cost effective reasons for considering a telework program in your organization.

As a consultant, I often go to organizations and provide advice and counsel to leaders at varying levels in the organization. For a good number of clients, that advice is at the management level and higher, and I don’t have regular communication with non-supervisory employees. So while visiting a client site a few days ago, I was in the break room getting something to drink, and happened to strike up a conversation with an [non-supervisory] employee about the political primary. We held a pretty robust conversation for a few minutes, and near the end, he looked at me and said, “Who ARE you”? It caught me off guard, and frankly I found it quite amusing. But in thinking back about the conversation, I realized that this is a question that people struggle with all of the time. So it got me thinking about human communication, and what we are REALLY saying when we communicate.

The Cultural Problems of Reclassifying Exempt Employees to Non-Exempt under FLSA In June 2015, the Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a key change to the provisions for determining exemption from overtime by raising the minimum standard level for salaried workers from $455 per week ($23,660 per year) to $970 per week ($50,440 annually). While the rule is not yet final and is not expected to be in place until 2016, organizations all over the US are preparing for the impact, both financially and culturally. Many times the latter is overlooked.

We’ve all been there... You filled out your annual self-evaluation. Your manager reviewed it. Your manager reviewed your performance and sent their review and your self-review to your second level manager for review and approval. You have a meeting with your manager to review the appraisal. You sign off on the appraisal. Your manager signs off on your sign off. Your second level manager signs off and finalizes the appraisal.

Human capital is your most important asset. A lot of organizations talk about this in executive speeches, marketing materials and advertisements. If you are one of these organizations, what are doing to support this statement?