It’s performance evaluation time, and everyone knows these conversations can sometimes be difficult. Whether you’re measuring engagement, presenting feedback, or conversing with your youngest employee, some scenarios will be new and unpredictable.

How excited are you when someone says they want to "give you some feedback?" Or what about when you hear that it’s time for a Performance Review or Appraisal?

Buzzwords in business are overused to the point of becoming fads at times. We hear phrases daily such as “culture”, “engagement”, “wheelhouse”, “synergy”, “incentivizing”, “strategic”, and the list goes on and on. When these buzzwords become so common in our workplace, it shouldn’t be surprising to hear so many managers and executives misusing these terms to suit their own agendas, while confidently speaking as experts on achieving each.

I'm certain that, in your business, you have probably given a fair amount of thought to what percentage of salary increase to give employees. You've probably also had conversations with managers on how much to offer a candidate they want to hire, or what a new salary should be for someone who moved to a new role internally. These are all common compensation conversations that happen throughout the year in business.

Employers that offer health benefits to their employees may also offer wellness programs to contain health plan costs, help employees stay healthy and increase employees’ knowledge as health care consumers. Wellness programs also referred to as: disease-management programs, employee wellness plans or programs, corporate wellness programs, or a range of other names, take many forms.

Paid leave is traditionally an employer optional benefit – but, arguably the most important and beneficial employee benefit a company can offer.