Last year, Ingrid Wu didn’t have the usual in-person discussion with her manager as part of the annual review process at her job at the Law Society of Upper Canada. “It’s kind of nerve racking,” says Wu, a membership services representative at the regulatory body, about the annual review process. “I would get all of […]
Overseeing a team serves up its share of challenges, from personality clashes to deadline crises. But as companies increasingly outsource work to independent contractors, there’s a new challenge emerging: managing workers they never see. That’s where hiring a chief freelance officer comes in. That person can oversee all aspects of working with independent contractors—anything from […]
Don’t want to participate in a Secret Santa at work? You’re likely not alone. In a November 2015 U.S. survey, a majority (70%) of employees reported feeling pressured by compulsory gift giving at work. Of that 70%, 23% detest “white elephant” gift exchanges, 21% don’t like Secret Santa, and 22% are unhappy they’re expected to […]
Will there be more employees working abroad on assignment next year? It seems so. More than half (56%) of multinational companies expect to increase their use of short-term assignments in 2015/16, reports a Mercer study. Over the next year or two, companies expect to increase their use of the following: permanent transfers (54%), developmental and […]
Did you make this year’s list for best employers?
Seems like rewarding employees for doing a good job is waning. While a majority (89%) of working Canadians say they appreciate when they get a reward for doing their job well, the number of Canadian businesses using rewards to motivate employees dropped to 61% in 2015, down from 69% last year, reports Berkeley Payment Solutions’ […]
When Morgane Oger started her gender transition several years ago, she couldn’t find work in her preferred field—freelance IT consulting. “Nobody wanted to hire a transgender person in early transition,” she recalls. “There was a two-year period when I was untouchable.”
Sure, working remotely makes life easier for lots of employees. But when these employees need to be terminated, things can get complicated. Twitter recently announced it would let go about 300 full-timers—and one of them, a remote employee, got the news in an unpleasant way, Quartz reports. The employee, a software engineer, was suddenly locked […]
Annual performance reviews aren’t frequent enough to provide an accurate assessment, a Bloomberg story argues. The piece examines the case of Instacart, a grocery-delivery service. The company requires employees and managers to provide performance feedback in real time, all the time. The article argues that constant, real-time feedback provides a more accurate assessment of performance […]
David Heather describes Cisco's reverse mentoring and flexible work schedules.