Employment Learning Innovations & Workplace Culture Blog

Announcing a New Contest: Best Places to Get Work Done

Stephen M. Paskoff June 17, 2010 No Comments

Do a quick Google search for “Best Places to Work,” and you’ll turn up an astonishing 92 million results, including Fortune Magazine’s Top 100 Employers, Working Mother 100 Best Companies, and Best Places to Work in Federal Government. Scroll down and you’ll see a best companies list for just about every major city in America. For the organizations lucky enough to find a highly coveted

Values Trump Laws for Risk Management

Stephen M. Paskoff June 1, 2010 No Comments

Legal protections and the threat of financial damages clearly were not enough to prevent the recent catastrophic explosions on the BP deep-sea rig and in Massey Coal’s doomed mine. Initially, the penalties imposed on BP were said to be limited to $75 million, a pittance compared to the vast wealth of sea-bottom treasure anticipated by successful drilling. In the case of Massey Coal, the company successfully

How Do We Keep Civil Treatment Alive After Our Training?

Stephen M. Paskoff May 4, 2010 No Comments

Two ELI clients recently asked me, “What does your company offer to refresh the Civil Treatment® learning we’ve just done?” or “What workplace ethics and compliance training should we provide next?” In some cases, these questions are prompted by new regulatory initiatives such as the Department of Labor’s new Plan/Prevent/Protect compliance strategy. For these clients, the immediate solution may be Wage & Hour-FLSA training. For other HR executives, the more

Banish Soft Skills At Work

Stephen M. Paskoff April 26, 2010 No Comments

We need to banish soft skills at work. I’m not talking about the concept but the term. It’s misleading and counterproductive, making the underlying skills sound as if they are pointless, wasteful frills. Yet, any respected leader will tell you it’s the “soft skills” that distinguish effective leaders from outstanding operational producers or, at the management level, distrusted tyrants. Check any of the online dictionaries, and

Shakespeare on Values, Accountability and Leadership

Stephen M. Paskoff April 19, 2010 No Comments

I just read and watched William Shakespeare’s history play, Henry V. The story tells how Henry V led his Army through France in 1415, defeating a much larger force at Agincourt. Written in 1599, Shakespeare did not use the terms accountability, leadership or values; yet we can learn a lot about them from his drama. The good news is that Henry V’s accomplishments — without

Three Pieces to the Retaliation Puzzle

Stephen M. Paskoff April 12, 2010 No Comments

A friend recently sent me a blog post advising employees how to diplomatically raise ethical workplace issues. Doing so may help prevent career damage and, in some instances, allow the problem to be investigated and resolved. The same week, I read an article written by a labor and employment lawyer who discussed how to avoid retaliation claims in terms of what is said and documented,

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Blog

Announcing a New Contest: Best Places to Get Work Done

Values Trump Laws for Risk Management

How Do We Keep Civil Treatment Alive After Our Training?

Banish Soft Skills At Work

Shakespeare on Values, Accountability and Leadership

Three Pieces to the Retaliation Puzzle