Recent Articles
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What systems do you need?
Deborah Ike Religious CommunityWhen you work on the back-office aspects of running a church, you tend to manage several different functions. You may have inherited those from your predecessor, or perhaps you initiated them as the need arose. Whatever the case, occasionally it’s helpful to evaluate what systems you need to have in place versus what you’re already doing. Here are a few systems to consider improving or implementing.
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Getting ready for ‘show’ time
Susan Mulholland Interior Design, Furnishings & FixturesDesign is all about the next big thing. We are all obsessed with the idea that there is something new or better out there, and we just have to find it. This is where interior decorators’ and designers’ true passion resides. If you don’t believe me, just go to any of the design conferences listed in the professional interior design trade magazines. I have been practicing professionally for two-and-a-half decades, and I can tell you that no matter how many emails you get from manufacturers telling you about their latest product introductions, nothing beats going to the shows and seeing them in person.
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Managing millennials: Under 35 and changing the warehouse
Julie Bernhard Distribution & WarehousingEasily identified by their smartphone obsessions, tech savvy and attention deficit disorders, millennials are bombarding the recruiting offices — occupying all surrounding office and warehouse space. In fact, last year, the Census Bureau stated that a quarter of the U.S. population is now made up of 83.1 million millennials, those born between 1982 and 2000. During a session of WERC 2018 at the Charlotte Convention Center, conference attendees discussed how this specific generation is impacting the warehouse and logistics industry.
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How to give a more humane evaluation
Lisa Mulcahy Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementFew face-to-face meetings are more nerve-racking for employees than biannual or annual evaluations. Because of this fact, it's key for a manager to understand that even if the criticism you must dispense during these meetings is constructive, a nervous worker will most likely hear your words as coming from a negative place, and this can instantly foster distrust of you as a supervisor. How can you provide your employees essential feedback with the utmost humanity and respect so they will feel supported and ready to implement your instructions for their work without any hard feelings?
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Is California’s healthcare system broken?
Michael Monasky Healthcare AdministrationIn a series of seminars April 26 in Sacramento, politicos, industry lobbyists and state bureaucrats weighed in on two factors beleaguering the current healthcare system in California; cost and access. The tone of the event ranged from apologia to outright hand-wringing, with insiders even confusing themselves about the 2015 Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act federal health funding bill and cheat sheet workarounds for its subprograms.
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Solving the opioid crisis by empowering students
Brian Stack EducationIn 2016, New Hampshire had one of the highest national opioid death due to overdose rates, a whopping 39 per 100,000 people. For a state with roughly 1.3 million residents and fewer than 100 high schools, this means that virtually every school community has, in some way, been impacted by this epidemic. As a principal in a small suburban New Hampshire community, I am starting to lose count of the number of funeral services that I have attended for students and former students from my high school community.
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Millennials take ‘unplugging’ trend to new level
Bambi Majumdar Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementA 2017 survey found that 73 percent of social media users find it annoying when they see other people's vacation photos online. These people want authentic experiences shared and not the perfection of moments. As a result, more users are opting out of social sharing and looking to connect with the real world. We find that millennials are looking to unplug with a vengeance, even though they are a generation that sports the highest number of social profiles and knows only the "connected" world.
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Facebook’s newest big features unveiled at developers’ conference
Emma Fitzpatrick MarketingWere you worried people were really going to #DeleteFacebook? Well, let go of that fear because it looks like the company is in the clear. So far in 2018, Facebook has kept gaining, not losing, users. In Q1 2018, Facebook added 48 million daily users and 70 million monthly active users, a 3.28 percent growth from Q4 2017. "Despite facing important challenges, our community and business are off to a strong start in 2018," announced Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO. In the meantime, Facebook announced lots of changes at F8, its annual developers’ conference.
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Employers add 164,000 jobs in April; jobless rate down to 3.9 percent
Seth Sandronsky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementEmployers added 164,000 new nonfarm jobs in April vs. 103,000 hires in March, as the unemployment rate dipped to 3.9 percent after holding at 4.1 percent for six straight months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Employment growth led the way in healthcare, manufacturing, mining and professional and business services. The number of long-term unemployed was unchanged at 1.3 million in April, matching March’s total.
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Getting the training right for flammables
Andrew Gaved EngineeringAs any reader of past columns will know, the ongoing mechanism of the F-Gas regulation, with its emphasis on moving the industry to lower-GWP refrigerants via bans and quota reductions, has caused European cooling businesses to do a lot of soul-searching. Now, the urgency of the message appears to be percolating through the industry. But, the advent of lower-GWP refrigerants also brings with it serious longer-term considerations. The fact that the majority of alternatives in the future will have some degree of flammability has given rise to concerns that the current engineering base does not have the right skills to handle them.