SHRM Blog

Diversity in business and other organizations has been a goal for more than a quarter of a century, yet companies struggle to create an inclusive workplace. In Reinventing Diversity, Howard J. Ross, one of America’s leading diversity experts, explains why most diversity programs fail and how we can make them work.

Ross uses interviews, personal stories, statistics, and case studies to show that there is no quick fix, no easy answer. Acceptance needs to become part of the culture of a company, not just...

There are many things that great leaders can do to create opportunities for employees to perform at their highest possible level.  Aside from developing and sustaining strong personal relationships built on a foundation of trust, feedback and coaching, leaders have the power to implement workplace initiatives such as flexibility, inclusion and a culture of candid communication.  We all want to have a ‘great place to work’ so we tinker and adjust and align our ways of operating and our workplace values with our goals and strategy.  We speak of empowering our employees so that they can have control over...

Lost in all the buzzwords and best practices about social media recruiting is a simple fact: it’s supposed to be fun.  In the olden days of faxed resumes, form cover letters and cold calling, engaging talent could be a chore.  But new methodologies have developed along with new mediums.  As more and more employers are finding out, the business of work doesn’t have to feel like, well, work at all.

One of the emerging new topics in talent acquisition is the concept of gamification, a concept so new it’s not recognized by spell check.  Gamification can...

Since October is National Work and Family Month, it’s a good time to discuss work-flex.

I love how Jason Seiden described “work/life balance” recently at Illinois SHRM: “We talk of it as something we separate by a slash and then hope we can balance everything in between. Trying to package them and keep them separate doesn’t work…There is no rigid separation.”

More and more, we seek a middle ground between what works for us, our organizations, and our employees—whatever their stage of life. But does a flexible workplace really benefit everyone, or are we...