SHRM Blog

Over the past year, I have received calls from many HR professionals who have experienced an increase in managers seeking assistance with mental health challenges among their staff. Employees are sometimes disconnected and disengaged, having unexpected verbal outbursts and being aggressive. 

The impact of the pandemic on mental health has been tremendous to include an increase in depression, bipolar disorder episodes, anxiety behaviors and other mental health issues. According to a recent survey from SHRM, “Nearly half (48 percent) of employed Americans report feeling mentally and physically exhausted at the end of...

The employee attrition phenomenon and its new fear of the “great resignation” might soothe the change resistance at some point. And the trigger could come from our ability to expand the talent pool geographically to new states nationwide or new countries. For most companies, there’s no turning back after this, do it for one new hire, and you have to change your policies and culture forever. But new talents will make the difference and nurture a competitive advantage in the long run.

On the other hand, if you favor local recruiting or...

Why do we have so much resistance to change for the flexible workplace?

Social innovations and the adoption curve

To date, all the surveys and data show that 75% of employees would prefer working from home at least half the time. Even more powerful data underscores that minorities would prefer working remotely to escape tensions at the office.

So, what beliefs could block such social innovation? Why do we still consider risk management for teleworking as high in specific industries such as Finance and even more for the majority of the GAFAM?...

Major crises appear to be on a nearly once-in-a-decade cadence; we experienced the tragedy of 9/11 in 2001, we felt the collapse of the economy in 2008, and now, we’re amid a global pandemic of proportions not suffered through in over 100 years.  Not only has the pandemic negatively affected the health and lives of people around the world, but it has consequently impacted the economy and how companies operate.  As we learned in 2008, it wasn’t necessarily the poor economic conditions that affected employee engagement and sentiment, but rather the actions of leaders and how they led their company...