The net revenues of Wall Street’s seven biggest firms collectively fell 6% last year. Sub-prime mortgage-related losses at the biggest firms totaled $55 billion and erased more than four times that amount in shareholder value.
However the workers that prowl the halls of these seven firms pulled in $122 billion in total compensation and benefits, up […]

Maybe it is a son-dad thing.  Our conversations are short, and to the point, whatever that point might be.
Marc:  “Hey dad, how you doing?”
Dad:  “Fine Marc, how are things with you and the family?”
Marc:  “They are great dad.  How you feeling today?  The nurses treating you OK?  Sleeping enough?”
Dad:  “Everything is good, no complaints.  OK, […]

I’m getting ready to conduct my next national benchmark study on employee engagement.  This will be the third since 2004, and I’m not expecting the results to be startling, nor surprising.  I’ve got a bet with a colleague to see if engagement drops below 40% and if the level of Unengaged workers rises above 40%.  If […]

Another study, another indictment on supervisors and the (lack of) training and development they receive… And another reason why Employee Hold’em Boot Camp makes such good sense…
According to a study conducted by Florida State University:

One quarter of employees said their supervisor blamed others to cover up their own mistakes
One quarter believed their supervisor had invaded their […]

According to Dictionary.com, the word “boomerang” has two different meanings:
1) To come back or return
2) To cause harm to the originator; backfire
Let’s talk about the benefits of the first one and how to avoid the second. 
I often use the phrase “boomerangs” as it relates to employees who quit their company and then at some later […]

My “little boy” is going to be 21 tomorrow. 
He’s graduating college in less than four months.  He’s not planning on living at home.  I didn’t throw him out of the nest, the baby bird figured out how to jump out on his own.  When he was 17 he started going east a few hundred miles to Denison University and […]

I’ve been invited to participate in a forum on February 1 here in Indianapolis.  The title of the program is Workforce Development for a New Economy.  I’ll be speaking with Dr. Stephen Hundley, an Associate Professor of Leadership at IUPUI (and my co-author) as well as Teresa Linn Voors, Commisioner of Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development. Yup, […]

The Pareto Principal states that 80% of a company’s revenue comes from 20% of its’ customers.  The same principal holds true for many companies in relation to their employees…  20% of the employees do 80% of the work.  More and more companies are recognizing the importance of these superstar employees to their bottom line success.
As […]

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has published a list of occupations expected to shrink the most from 2006 to 2016. Cashiers, stock clerks, and baggers are the occupations expected to shrink the most. Each occupation is expected to shrink by more than 100,000 positions. Other occupations that will suffer losses include farmers, sewing machine operators, […]

I often call mid-career employees Wallflowers.  They blend into the background, doing their thing, taking care of customers and supporting other staff.  These folks may not to get a lot of attention from management (who are watching the new employees and trying to “fix” the bad ones) and may not receive new training and development.
According […]