Managing Employees

How to deploy a remote workforce

Due to COVID-19, companies around the world are suddenly asking their employees to work from home. Of course, you want to ensure your team’s transition to virtual work is as smooth and painless as pos

Will COVID-19 cause a permanent shift toward virtual work?

If you’re sitting at home reading this on your phone, laptop or computer, you’re not alone. Currently, hundreds of thousands of people who’d normally be at their offices are participating in social di

What new tools are available to help navigate these turbulent times?

COVID-19 has all of us practicing social distancing. If you’re one of the many managers working from home until you can go back to the office, you might need some extra help navigating these challengi

7 Ways HR Looks Different in 2020

Thanks to rapid technological advancement, businesses are changing — and so are their skills, needs and work environments. As a result, how and where their employees work is also changing. That means

Levelling the Playing Field for Women in STEM

Despite recent efforts to encourage more women to enter — and stay in — Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, the number of men in STEM fields remains much higher. On top of that, many women who

The Best Bosses in the World Do These 10 Things

Have you ever had a really good boss? Someone who always brought out the best in you, made you feel valued and inspired you to work harder than ever before? Then you’ll understand how much of a differ

Getting ready to hire a college grad? Here's how to set them up for success

With unemployment remaining low, your company might be looking to hire some college grads this summer. Here’s what you need to know to make this strategy a winner. The benefits of hiring college gradu

Employee Appreciation Day

According to the National Day Calendar, the first Friday in March — March 6, 2020 — is Employee Appreciation Day. It’s a day when employers across all industries are encouraged to focus on recognizing

Checklist - Are your employees at the end of their rope?

Have any of your employees become disconnected or less productive than usual?  If so, it might be a sign that they’re at the end of their rope. And frustrated employees are unhappy employees — which i

Keeping your managerial and team resolutions after January

Did you make any managerial or team resolutions for the new year? If so, you might be finding it challenging to keep them as the weeks go by. And you’re not alone: Joseph Luciani reports in the U.S. N

Groundhog Day: Are you stuck in a pattern of hiring the wrong talent?

Hiring the wrong talent is costly. It has an impact on your team’s performance and productivity. Plus, if you have to replace an employee because he or she is a bad fit, it involves more recruitment a

What's your management style?

Do you always listen to your employees’ input before making decisions and assigning tasks or do you rely solely on your own judgement? How you’ve answered this question goes a long way to determining

Stay in the trenches to be a great leader

Do you want to be a truly great manager — a leader your people unfailingly look to for guidance and inspiration? If you’ve answered, “Yes!” to this question, it’s important for you to be in the trench

How to prioritize value over volume

When you need a new smart phone, do you choose the least expensive one so you can buy all sorts of apps and accessories to go with it? Or do you choose one that’s a bit more expensive but that is bett

How to Encourage Better Teamwork

Collaboration is essential to organizational success — and that means your team has to be able to work together effectively. But the truth is that fostering collaboration involves more than simply put

Five Essential Life Skills Managers Need

Have you ever wondered why some managers are just competent and others excel at what they do? There are many reasons for this, including education and experience. But one of the most important reasons

Combining AI with Management

The capabilities of AI are advancing at a rapid pace. Thanks to machine learning and analytics, AI can perform a large amount of data-heavy, repetitive tasks for managers. So how can you adapt and lev

How to Determine Your Next Career Step

If you’ve been in your current position for a few years, you might be looking for a change. But where should you go? We’ll give some pointers for determining your next career step so that when you mak

How to Delegate Effectively

If you’re a good manager, you’re probably always looking for ways to become a great one. Sound familiar? Then read on — this article is for you. According to Michael Schneider in his Inc. article “Goo

Do's and Don'ts of Performance Reviews

Most companies expect their managers to give their employees a performance review once a year. However, research by Gallup shows that only 14 percent of employees strongly agreed they were inspired to

How to Support a Dyslexic Employee

Dyslexia is one of the most common learning disorders, according to a recent report by Dyslexia International. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, workers with dyslexia are entitled to r

How to Effectively Give Feedback

In her Harvard Business Review article titled “Instant Feedback Hurts Our Performance,” Nicole Torres describes a study regarding the effect receiving instant feedback had on the performance of driver

How to Avoid Micromanaging Your Team

Although Millennials enjoy getting feedback, the vast majority of people don’t like being micromanaged. So how can you tell if you’re a micromanager — and if you are, what can you do about it? How to

Five Strategies for Making Your Team More Cohesive

Cohesive teams are the foundation of your company’s success. So how do you turn a group of individuals into an actual team? The following five strategies can help. Set ground rules for communicating. 

Reenergize Your Team After a Failure

It happens to even the best teams — a project doesn’t pan out, a potential client chooses a different provider, or the higher-ups aren’t pleased with your results. So how can you help your team recove

Top Ideas for Team Outings

Summer’s a great time to treat your team to an outing. The weather’s mild or even warm, the days are longer, and your team members are generally happier and more energetic. If you need some help comin

Tips for celebrating Take Your Dog to Work Day

Friday, June 21st is Take Your Dog to Work Day! This special day was first celebrated 20 years ago, in 1999, to highlight the fact that dogs make such great companions — and to encourage people to ado

Managing neurodiverse employees

Neurodiverse people are individuals who display neurologically atypical behaviour, thought or patterns, such as people with autism spectrum disorder, ADHD or dyslexia. And there are a lot of neurodive

Benefits of establishing an office email newsletter - and how to do it

Do you find it time consuming to keep calling your team together for weekly updates and news items? Are you tired of sending out short emails whenever something comes up that you have to share with yo

10 Traits of A Good Manager

Behind every successful team, there’s a good manager — someone who motivates his or her employees and guides them towards the company’s objectives. Of course, if you want to enhance your managerial ab

How to Keep Top Performers Engaged

Your top performers play an important role in your team’s success. But in today’s labor market, opportunities are plentiful — making it easier than ever before for top talent to go elsewhere. Whether

Having a Bad Day? Here's What to Do!

Everyone has a bad day now and then. But even if you get stuck in traffic on your morning commute, your computer freezes, and a client has some complaints, you can’t let it all impact your performance

Tips for Developing High-Potential Employees

As a manager, you’re responsible for your team’s collective accomplishments — but you’re also responsible for the individual team members’ development. And it’s not uncommon to recognize that some emp

How to Help Your Interns Advance

With spring just around the corner and summer not too far away, you might be considering offering a summer internship to one or more students. Of course, the quality of your internship program contrib

How to Give Feedback to Your Employees

Feedback. Comments. Constructive criticism. Whatever you call it, when you have to tell an employee that his or her work isn’t up to par, it’s often an uncomfortable feeling for both parties. In these

Sabbatical - Take It or Leave It?

How would you like to spend six weeks, three months, or even a full year pursuing an educational experience instead of your job? Or how would you like to spend that time traveling the world? If you th

Employee Appreciation Day: Six Ways to Celebrate Your Team

Friday, March 1st is Employee Appreciation Day — but what exactly is it, and how can you honour your team on this date? What is Employee Appreciation Day? Employee Appreciation Day is an unofficial ho

Career Opportunities? They're in Your Network!

According to Roy Maurer in his SHRM article “Employee Referrals Remain Top Source for Hires,” employee referrals accounted for 45 percent of internal hires and 30 percent of overall hires in 2016. Cle

Tips for Becoming a More Innovative Manager

Innovation is key to progress. It sparks new ideas that can streamline how you work and help your company save money. In addition, it can lead to the development of new products and services that enab

Set Yourself Apart from The Competition

If you’ve been in your current position for a few years and want to move on to middle management, you’re probably competing with others in and outside of your company for any open positions. Yet with

How to Lead More Effective Meetings

Meetings can be time-consuming and even boring — and many people consider them a waste of time. Yet sometimes you need to call your team together to review where you are, set new goals, or brainstorm

The Importance of One-on-One Check-Ins with Your Supervisor

As a manager, it’s your daily duty to oversee the overall progress of your team — as well as the advancement of your individual team members. However, it’s just as important to monitor your own progre

Pitch in and Help Your Team

Is your team falling behind on a project? Is the time crunch putting you at risk of missing an important deadline? If this sounds familiar, then it might be time to pitch in and help your team out in

Four Tips to Help Struggling Employees

Sometimes, employees struggle at work. Maybe a new hire’s having trouble adjusting to your company’s processes, or perhaps an existing employee is challenged by a stretch assignment. Whatever the situ

How to Manage Interpersonal Conflict in Your Team

Diverse personalities, backgrounds, and beliefs can create a certain amount of conflict within a team — and interestingly, that can drive creativity. According to research cited by Darko Lovric and To

How to Boost Employees’ Confidence

One of your employees has worked hard over the past year, and you believe he’s ready to take on more responsibility. Unfortunately, he’s not as confident about his abilities as you are. So how do you

What Managers Need to Know About Industry 4.0

Smart factories with systems that monitor when raw materials are low and trigger new deliveries. Machines that are equipped with sensors that alert maintenance technicians when parts are worn or need

Open-plan Offices vs. Telecommuting: Which Work Environment is Better?

In the past few years, a growing number of organizations have adopted open-plan offices — offices with fewer spatial boundaries such as cubicles, walls, and doors. At the same time, more and more comp

How to Foster Innovation in Your Team

It’s common knowledge that innovation is critical to sustainable business success. As Theodore Henderson points out in his Forbes article “Why Innovation is Crucial to Your Organization’s Long-Term Su

Celebrate Stress Awareness Day with Your Team

All of us experience stress at some point in our professional lives. Sometimes it’s about finding a new routine when going back to work after maternity or paternity leave. Other times it’s about putti

How to Learn From Your Team

When you’re responsible for managing a team, it’s important to understand that to achieve great results, you need to foster a culture of continuous improvement — one where everyone, yourself included,

How to Create an Effective Onboarding Plan

Hiring new employees is often a time-consuming, costly endeavor. Yet it’s important to understand that once you’ve found the right talent, the real work begins — with your onboarding process. Why? Bec

How to Become a Better Communicator as a Manager

Are you a good communicator? Or is there room for improvement? If you’ve answered, “Yes!” to the second question, you’re not alone. According to a survey conducted by Workopolis, communication skills

How Learning Another Language Can Help You Advance

Have you always wanted to learn how to speak Spanish, Chinese or Russian? If you answered sí, shì, or da respectively, then now’s the time to do so. Increasingly, companies are looking for managers wh

Quiz: Are You Ready To Be A Mentor?

If you have a mentor, you know from experience how much his or her insights benefit your career development. And now you might want to pay it forward by becoming a mentor yourself. But are you ready t

What Does It Really Mean to be an Intrapreneur?

One of the latest buzzwords in management is “intrapreneurship.” But what does being an intrapreneur actually involve? What are the traits of a true intrapreneur? And how can being one help you advanc

Five Tips for Welcoming a New Employee to Your Team

Welcoming a new hire to the team is an exciting opportunity for everyone involved. After all, this person possesses knowledge, skills, and experience that can help drive your company forward. That’s w

Quiz: How Well Do You Know Your Inspirational Quotes?

It’s no secret that some of the best leaders get their inspiration from quotes — in fact, perhaps you do, too. But do you know who said them? Test your knowledge in this fun quiz… and get inspired alo

Quiz: How Eco-Friendly Are You at Work?

Do you care about our planet? If you’re like most of us, you’ve probably answered, “Yes!” Well, the good news is that there are plenty of ways you can go green at work — even if you’re not the manager

How to Recognize Burnout in Your Employees

Has a usually stellar employee suddenly become negative and unproductive? If so, then he or she might be dealing with burnout — an increasingly common problem among workers. So what exactly is burnout

Where Great Leaders Get Their Inspiration

Do you want to be not just a good, but a great manager? Then it can help to emulate great leaders. And there’s one thing that they all have in common, regardless of their field: They’re all inspired t

The New Rules of Meeting Room Etiquette

Whether you like them or not, meetings are a necessary part of every manager’s life. Yet with the proliferation of devices, as well as the trend to more casual and collaborative work environments, mee

What to Do If a Key Employee Leaves

We all know there’s never a good time for a key employee to give his or her notice. Perhaps you’re working with a skeleton team and the employee’s exact skillset is critical to meeting your goals. Or

How to Do a Working Lunch Right

Is your team on a hard deadline — and time is running out? Or maybe you’re just starting a new project and you want to come up with some innovative ideas. In both cases, organizing a working lunch can

Four Tips for Maximizing Your ROI on Employee Training

Many companies are having to retrain and upskill workers due to digital transformation, as well as the adoption of new technologies that are changing workers’ responsibilities.  Of course, when your c

The Value of Your Company's Mission Statement to Motivate Your Team

Do you know what your company’s mission statement is?  The odds are great that you’ve answered, “Yes” to this question. But now ask yourself, how clearly is that mission pursued in the daily work that

Is Your Workplace Intern-Ready?

With spring approaching, the time to welcome a new intern to your team can sneak up on you before you know it. That's why you should spend a few minutes and take our informative quiz that will quickly

Earth Day: Inspiring an Environmentally-Responsible Workplace

On April 22nd, this year's Earth Day will focus on ways to curb the growing pollution problem caused by disposable plastics. What better way to inspire a healthy working environment for your team than

Inspiring a New Direction: Managing Change in Your Team

From the impact of disruptive technology in the workplace to the realities of an evolving workforce, change management is a hot topic for many managers. But when change is critical to the success of y

Checklist for Managing International Virtual Teams

When you're tasked with managing people virtually, there are many things to consider — not least of all, whether your team clearly understands its mission and goals. Now, if your virtual team is compr

Do's and Don'ts of Fostering a Culture of Collaboration

As a manager, you’re probably familiar with current research that states collaborative workplaces are more engaged and productive. But when it comes to the actual nuts and bolts of fostering a positiv

How Being Calm Helps You Be a Better Leader

Every manager has his or her own personality and management style. Yet regardless of whether you’re a thoughtful, methodical person with a hands-off management style or a high-energy, hands-on manager