Businesses are talking about it. People are changing jobs, and even taking on second jobs, in order to access family-building coverage. Talent is looking for employers that offer benefits like IVF (invitro fertilization), egg freezing, adoption and surrogacy, and they are willing to change jobs to find it. The Costs of Offering Fertility Benefits to Workers One in six … [More]
Women Are Changing Jobs Left and Right to Access IVF Coverage
Family-building matters as an employee benefit
Deaf Employees: Headaches or Eagle-Eyed Excellence?
The big issues are deeper than legal rights and workplace accommodation
While the first thought of employers on finding out their new employee or interview candidate is Deaf is usually one of alarm and apprehension, the reality is that many Deaf employees have unique talents to contribute. Our visual-spatial skills are markedly more acute than those of hearing people. Oliver Sachs describes this in his book Seeing Voices as being an extended range … [More]
Private Sector Addresses Arizona’s Homelessness Crisis: Arizona Housing Fund
A successful community is one where the population has access to housing at all socio-economic levels
Bank of America executive Howard Epstein established the Arizona Housing Fund in 2019 to provide a simple way for corporations, foundations and individuals to fund more permanent, supportive, and affordable housing. After decades of serving on nonprofit boards working to address the growing issue of homelessness, it was clear government could not do it alone. It would take an … [More]
How to Stop Corporate Naysaying and Make Progress on Causes That Matter
As a spirit of activism stirs in business leaders, so does a range of anxieties and objections. If you’re thinking like an activist, your eyes are on what needs to happen to create change. But this isn’t easy — and one of the reasons is that you’re in an organization where doing this hasn’t been the operational paradigm. Taking on a big societal issue can bring up real and … [More]
Silent Witness: Safer Communities, Safer Workplaces
Combatting vandalism and so much more
Silent Witness has been successfully solving crimes throughout the Valley since 1979. In addition to helping solve heinous felonies like murder, robberies and hit-and-runs, Silent Witness regularly assists in preventing and solving crimes that affect Arizona businesses through its corporate partnership program. One recent example of this is Silent Witness teaming up with … [More]
Empowered Success: The Female Influence in Courtesy Auto’s Finance Department
An open letter from the all-female Courtesy Automotive Group finance director ‘Dream Team’
Automotive dealerships are dominated by nearly 80% men, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics from 2022, and yet the finance “Dream Team” at Phoenix-based Courtesy Automotive Group is a diverse team of five disparate females. We direct finance department operations across dealerships for a $1 billion dealership group. We believe our success has as much to do with being … [More]
Moving from ‘Fine’ to ‘Well’ at Work
The roadmap to creating a practical wellness plan for the office
Work-life balance. It has been talked what feels like to death in recent years, especially as employees moved from in-person to virtual during the pandemic and are now back in-person full- or part-time. However, the risk factors that come into play when a healthy work-life balance is not maintained are shocking: unhealthy stress levels for prolonged periods of time. The … [More]
Balancing Cognitive Diversity in the Workplace
Tap into the strength of not thinking alike
In the modern workplace, cognitive diversity is highly valued. This refers to the differing styles, viewpoints and skillsets among individuals. Teams that are cognitively diverse can increase innovation, creativity and overall performance within the group. However, there still may be challenges when it comes to communicating effectively, managing conflict and overcoming … [More]
The Future Role of Social Media in Finance
The idea in my book that information is the product comes from the work of sociologists from the early days of social media, including Yochai Benkler, Charles Leadbeater and Clay Shirky, who predicted that the economy would increasingly become a participatory one (Benkler, 2007). Clay Shirky introduced the concept of “mass amateurization,” where platforms turned consumers … [More]
The Secret to Productive Meetings? Fewer, Faster, Focused
Remote and hybrid workforces are additional challenge
Meetings, for many businesses, are a necessary part of the workday. They provide a platform for team members to share information, align on strategy and make important decisions. However, they can also be a significant drain on time, energy, and creativity, with data revealing that many employees spend nearly 24 hours per week in meetings. Long meetings with unclear agendas, … [More]
How Can Business Leaders Show Up for Their Employees Who Get a Cancer Diagnosis?
A survivor’s experience, from the day of her diagnosis and how she shared that diagnosis with her manager and with the wider executive team
After I returned to work, two work friends of mine asked me if I would be willing to talk about my cancer diagnosis at a management training day they were hosting. They hoped that by my speaking publicly about what could be an awkward work situation, they could challenge these people managers to think deeply about how to lead with empathy and human-ness. I was so excited … [More]
Coming Soon: A Nationwide Ban on Noncompete Agreements?
Now is the window to submit comments to the FTC
On January 8, the Federal Trade Commission published a proposal to ban the use of noncompete agreements for most workers nationwide. The proposed rule, entitled the Non-Compete Clause Rule, would prohibit all employers — regardless of size — from imposing covenants not to compete on employees and independent contractors, with no carve-out available that would permit the use of … [More]
Elevate Recruiting Skill with Conscious Curiosity
It’s amazing how connecting dots makes the work of HR and recruiting teams so much easier. Knowing what the business does, how it makes money, and what’s happening in that industry is important. So is knowing what hiring managers are looking for – and how to interact with the right candidates. And yet, many recruitment professionals are not doing these things. The best HR … [More]
The Female Founder Advantage in Startups
Enough about “cracks” in the glass ceiling. We’re wielding sledgehammers; cracks seem beside the point now. Don’t get me wrong. We have a long way to go in a “traditional” sense. Sure, more women are running Fortune 500 companies than at any previous point in Fortune 500 history, but that figure amounts to a paltry 5%. Instead, let’s take a closer look where it … [More]
Using Popularity to Get More Sales
Scarcity is not just an economic principle. It is a psychological principle and one that subconsciously drives many decisions. Scarcity has such a powerful influence on people that it causes them to wait in long lines for hours on end and experience anxiety when they can’t get their hands on a sold-out product or get into a popular restaurant. There are reasons scarcity is … [More]
What Is Quantitative Intuition™ and How Do We Use It?
Quantitative intuition™ (QI)—the combination of data and analytics with Intuition—might sound like an oxymoron at first, but it is actually the key to effective decision-making. Simply put, QI is the ability to make decisions with incomplete information via precision questioning, contextual analysis, and synthesis to see the situation as a whole. So, what is Intuition? In … [More]
Businesses Can Focus on Employee Advocacy
While global efforts to make the world a better place from a culture and climate perspective continue to make noteworthy strides, they have also paved the way for entrance into corporate America, as employees, consumers, investors and communities hold companies to higher standards and expect accountability in business operations. Although each group can have a significant … [More]
Investing in Purpose-Driven Companies
June marked a record-breaking jump in the Earth’s atmospheric greenhouse gas levels with the highest-ever average measurements of methane and carbon dioxide, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. April 2022 was the first month in human history that CO2 levels exceeded 420 parts per million. These sustained increases in CO2 concentrations will … [More]