Have you ever known a colleague that never participated in social activities, avoided all group activities, and managed to keep a very "high wall" around their area in the office? It's likely that person was not moving up through the ranks, not receiving impressive peer reviews or performance evaluations, and they were not being recognized for outstanding contributions to the organization. The power of networking should not be underestimated because of the many possibilities it can bring forth in personal, career, and business development gains.

No matter how exciting that new job is, without the proper welcome on the new hire’s first day, it may resemble the first day of freshman year of high school – awkward! Those age old questions resurface and new hires begin to think: Where will I sit? Where will my workstation or office be? Will I fit in? Will my co-workers like me? We all have experienced those uncomfortable feelings at some point in our lives and I think I can speak for us all when I say, let that be history!

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.

Providing employees with a sense of involvement in decision making and an ability to drive results for final outcomes has been proven to increase employee satisfaction. The concept of "employee empowerment" is often defined simply as allowing employees at all levels of the organization to have a part in making business decisions. For instance, share information and give employees the opportunity to make decisions that solve problems, improve service and performance. Empowerment is based on the idea that giving employees skills, resources, authority, opportunity, motivation, as well as holding them responsible and accountable, will contribute to their competence and satisfaction, ultimately leading to achievement of organizational goals.