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Performance improvement plans aren’t just for problem employees
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementFew of us like giving negative feedback. From quick tips to academic research findings, there is no shortage of advice on how to deliver it, though. One aspect rarely discussed is how to share positive feedback, because presumably everyone is good at that. However, in my work I have found that few people are good at giving either kind of feedback. Yet, because positive feedback is so much less fraught than negative, we worry about and discuss it less. Instead, we should focus on getting better at giving positive feedback to improve our ability to give negative feedback. After all, improving performance should not be limited to problem employees.
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Putting ‘human’ back in healthcare human resources
Keith Carlson Medical & Allied HealthcareWhen we think of healthcare industry human resources departments, we may readily think of the processes of hiring and firing, the doling out of benefits packages, and other such responsibilities of HR professionals. In the worlds of healthcare, medicine, and nursing, employees can feel like so much cannon fodder when corporate interests appear to override the personal needs of individual staff members and the public whom they serve. Thus, we need to reevaluate the role of human resources and consider once again reasserting more of the "human" side into the mix.
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How construction contractors can avoid or handle nonpaying customers
Aki Merced Construction & Building MaterialsWhen construction contractors do business with clients, there is a fair expectation of payment for materials, labor, and services supplied. But sometimes, a client is unable to pay due to their financial difficulties and other situations, for reasons honest and otherwise. Regardless of the circumstances, however, not getting paid will hurt any business. Construction contractors need to have a strategic approach to collecting money and preventing nonpayments from constricting their cash flow. Here are some approaches that construction contractors can use to avoid and handle nonpaying customers.
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Opportunity alert: A flurry of OASIS on-ramps
Lisa Pafe Civil & GovernmentAfter several months in a holding pattern due to U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) solicitation protest B-408685.18, the General Services Administration (GSA) issued an update to the long awaited on-ramps to the existing One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Small Business (OASIS SB) pools on April 17. GSA states that they anticipate releasing OASIS Small Business (SB) Pools 1, 3 and 4 and 8(a) sub-pools in late April 2019. Based on GSA Interact OASIS milestones provided in March 2019, the unrestricted on-ramps are likely to follow a couple of months later.
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Are your employees afraid to work together?
Simma Lieberman Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementGender equity and opportunity are still lacking in many organizations. Awareness, strategy and intentional actions to close the gaps are also lacking. Most organizations I've spoken with have statements, posters and resource groups that support gender equity. This is good, but not enough. Without behavior changing at every level, there will be no real lasting change. We need everyone to ensure workplaces and communities practice gender equity and develop strategies that build trust, prevent harassment, and eliminate bias every day. When people don't work with someone from another gender or get to know them, it seeds distrust.
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Congress considers net neutrality, digital divide laws
Michelle R. Matisons Science & TechnologyYour first time logging on to the internet may have been decades ago, but battles over its regulations rage on as the U.S. House just passed a huge hurdle by embracing net neutrality. The Senate is now considering the Save the Internet Act, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has declared it "dead on arrival," signaling that the battle for net neutrality is ongoing. In 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed net neutrality rules established by the Open Internet Order of 2015. The main issue here is equal treatment for all internet data.
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3 steps to impactful sexual harassment prevention training
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk Management#MeToo has had a significant impact on organizational awareness of pervasive harassment issues. The number of states implementing sexual harassment prevention training requirements continues to increase, as does the number of progressive organizations offering training regardless of external requirements. But does all this training do anything to address the problem? Here are three steps to increase the chances it does.
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Are you measuring the right things?
Linda Popky Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementThe good news about today's technology-enabled world is that we have the ability to measure just about anything. And the bad news is that in today’s technology-enabled world, we have the ability to measure just about anything. We are literally drowning in data points — some of them more useful than others, but all of them screaming for our attention. How do you determine on which measurements to focus? Here's the key point to remember: What gets measured gets managed.
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Companies typically underinvest in managers — so invest in yourself
Terri Williams Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementManagers play a crucial role in organizations — in fact, the employee-manager relationship is usually the determining factor in whether an employee is engaged and committed to the organization. And yet, many companies don't invest heavily in training their managers. However, if you want to be a great manager — which can lead to being recognized and rewarded for your efforts — you may need to invest in yourself.
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Can patient-physician recordings be good for care?
Christina Thielst Healthcare AdministrationHistorically, healthcare administrators have been concerned about the risks of patients recording their conversations. Perhaps they should be more concerned about the risks of patients not having a recording of their physician or other caregiver. A recent article in Healthcare Executive examines the issue from an ethics perspective and looks at the benefits for the patient’s understanding of what is being communicated during an encounter. Patients or their family caregivers can replay sessions to clarify information they believe they have received, or simply to reassure themselves.
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