Unlimited sick leave policies are gaining popularity as a great addition to an organization's total rewards package. However, most employers tend to not implement the policies because of the risk factors. Yes, you might have that occasional employee who abuses the policy, but that can be managed. What I find most of my clients are worried about, is when an employee goes out on extended medical leave, causing them to become responsible for paying their full salary while they are out.

What Organizations Can Do to Reduce the Gender Pay Gap During a recent interview about gender pay equity on Freakonomics with Harvard economics professor Claudia Goldin, she noted that the reasons for the existence of the gender pay gap in the United States are varied and complex. For organizations that are interested in promoting pay equity, it’s important to understand what these varied and complex drivers of pay equity are. My colleague authored a great article that provides additional information about proposed legislation and notes steps organizations can take to create consistent pay practices.

One KPI You Should Be Tracking! Now that the first quarter is almost over, it is time to focus on how the strategic goals set for 2017 are tracking to last year's results. Organizations spend an immense amount of time and resources tracking revenue and retention of clients, as well as the value of each client in terms of spending. Since payroll is the largest controllable expense on almost every company’s P&L, why then aren’t more leaders also tracking the value of their employees?

A Top Recruiting Trend Review A top recruiting trend we're seeing for 2017 at Helios HR is a shift between social media platform used for candidate sourcing. For years, we’ve seen recruiting firms like ours, use LinkedIn as a primary tool to find passive candidates. As this site continues to become more saturated and competitive in the war for talent, we believe recruiters utilize other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat to find passive candidates on a much greater scale.

The Incentive Plan Problem A growing consulting firm with employees across the United States and internationally engaged with Helios HR to enhance their current incentive plan to align with the current and future business strategy. This business had previously designed and implemented a successful incentive program to drive the behaviors of their consultants; and as the business grew, they outgrew the incentive program. They applied the original plan goals and structure to new functional areas of the business and they just simply didn’t marry up anymore.

During the first year of marriage, my wife and I decided to make a gratitude jar; well more accurately, my wife decided that we would make a gratitude jar. For those of you like me, that had never heard of this, it is a simple concept. Every time something good happened in our lives, personally or in business, alone, as a couple, or with friends, we were to write a little note and drop it in the jar. You cannot read any of the notes until the end of the year and if desired can open and read as part of your New Year’s celebration. When she first proposed this idea, I looked at the newly purchased decorative, chalk painted jar, looked at the excited expression on her face, and said, “Well, that sounds like a GREAT idea.” All the while in my mind thinking, “you just wanted to buy a fancy jar from Pier 1, and have somehow turned this into a project for me!” As it turned out though, as with most things in life that I begrudgingly try, I learned so much more than I imagined I would from the fancy jar on the dresser.