Organizational leaders that I’ve worked with have always had an innate understanding of some of the basic rights of their employees. What I’ve found to be less well understood, even among some in the HR field, are additional rights that employees have which are less intuitive. A number of these un-intuitive rights are derived from the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) interpretation of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (NLRA).

Regardless of the nature of the transaction, during a merger or acquisition, all employees find themselves surrounded by change, impacting everything from organizational culture to the snacks in the kitchen. From here it is an exercise in simple logic - with change, comes uncertainly - with uncertainty, comes attrition. Is there no way to interrupt this equation?

Globally, the workforce is getting older while also getting younger, creating the perfect conditions for leadership challenges. And that means, no matter where an employee works around the globe today, they probably work for an organization struggling to retain its talent. According to Deloitte’s Human Capital Trends 2016 report, 28% of companies reported weak or very weak leadership pipelines, only 7% believe they are “excellent” at building Millennial leaders and only 13% report they are “excellent” at building global leaders. From the workforce perspective, 63% of Millennials say their leadership skills are not being developed, and in the next year, 66% of employees from this same generation expect to leave their jobs.

White-Collar Exemption Changes Are Here Last March, I wrote an article when the topic of the DOL FLSA White Collar-Exemption change was being discussed. At that time there was a lot of uncertainty about what the new minimum salary threshold would be; when this rule would take effect; and how much supervisory responsibility an employee would have to have to be considered exempt. Well, wait no more because effective December 1, 2016, the new rules go into effect.

As a consultant in the field of Human Resources, I am often approached for guidance on how to conduct a difficult conversation in the workplace. I’ve had COO’s come to talk through how to share with their CEO (and boss!) that their contributions in staff meetings are negatively impacting employee morale and undermining their position as COO. I’ve had employees come to me and ask how to talk to their manager about why they feel overwhelmed and underpaid in their role. I’ve had friends call me up and ask about best practices for approaching their manager to let them know they will be resigning from their position. These topics, along with a number of other topics in the workplace, are never an easy conversation to approach and I have found myself consistently providing the following advice in each scenario. Added bonus, these tips apply to those not-so-easy conversations at home as well!

The Trillion Dollar Jackpot Lurking in HR Companies, large and small alike, are always trying to find ways to increase bottom line results and return profits to the organization, shareholders and employee base to signal healthy business operations and strong leadership. I cannot name one client of mine who is not laser focused on some form of growth or revenue strategy to either sustain or grow their footprint within a given region or industry. In fact, most of my compensation related engagements center on the design and implementation of incentive plans to motivate employees to either capture more revenue or enhance business operations in an effort to optimize business and financial results. In most cases organizations achieve better business results by expanding product offerings, cutting expenses or deepening its expertise in a particular area. I can vouch that the aforementioned measures usually do result in improved fiscal and operational results; however there is one place many decisions makers are overlooking to unlock financial gains and operational efficiencies…..you guessed it, Human Resources.