All posts by katherine

How to Resolve Employee Conflict Quickly and Confidently

August 5, 2025

Employee conflict is inevitable, even in the most successful companies. Differences in personality, communication styles, and expectations can quickly turn minor misunderstandings into major workplace disruptions. And without effective intervention, these conflicts can quietly erode the morale of your team. As a small business owner, you probably dread these situations, and you might feel frustrated, overwhelmed, or unsure about how to resolve employee conflict. Perhaps you’ve even tried ignoring the…

Why HR Has a Bad Reputation and What Can Be Done to Change It

June 10, 2025

Your human resources (HR) department is intended to serve as a crucial bridge between you and your employees. Among other things, it helps to ensure that employees feel supported and policies are enforced fairly, while making sure your business is running as efficiently as possible. But despite this critical role, HR departments often find themselves grappling with a persistent image problem. And if you want to solve that problem, and…

Upskilling vs. Reskilling: Which One Is Best for Your Business?

March 21, 2025

One of the biggest headaches for business owners today is figuring out how to keep their employees’ skills fresh and relevant. And in a world where it seems like a groundbreaking technological advancement is happening at each and every moment, this isn’t getting any less important. What’s more, the pace of this change is not going to slow down – at least not anytime soon. That being said, one of…

How to Create a Culture of Continuous Learning in the Workplace

February 24, 2025

As a business owner, building a solid team, and keeping employees engaged, are some of the most difficult things to do. And many business owners don’t want to be bothered, so they’ll just hire whomever, leave them to their own devices, and hope everything works out for the best. But after working in HR for the last four decades, and having seen the often-disastrous results that this approach can produce,…

How Strong Leadership Skills Drive Employee Performance and Business Success

January 16, 2025

If you want your business to succeed, and your employees to perform at their best, you’ve got to have strong leadership skills. Skilled leaders at all levels can help set the tone for a positive company culture, inspire your employees to be as productive as possible, and help guide you through challenges and opportunities alike. On the other hand, those whose leadership skills are lacking can ruin everything by fostering…

The Dos and Don’ts of Employee Performance Reviews

December 4, 2024

As an employer, you want to make sure your employees are performing at their best. And one of the best ways to do that is by conducting employee performance reviews. But if these kinds of performance evaluations aren’t done properly, they can end up doing more harm than good. In any case, getting this right is incredibly important, as employees already tend to look at performance reviews in a decidedly…

9 Hybrid Workplace Best Practices That Every Business Should Follow

November 6, 2024

Over the last several years, most workplaces have changed dramatically. And one of the biggest changes we’ve seen is the increase in people working from home, either fully remotely, or on some sort of hybrid work schedule. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the percentage of full days worked from home has quadrupled, going from 7% in 2019 to 28% in 2023. Unfortunately, despite this massive growth, hybrid…

Why Personalized Professional Development Plans Are One of the Best Things for Your Business

October 7, 2024

Over the last several years, retaining employees has become increasingly difficult, and that trend doesn’t look like it’s likely to change any time soon. Employers have tried a ton of different tactics as they try to get people to stay, including everything from offering remote and hybrid work options, to better employee benefits, increased compensation, and more. But creating a personalized professional development plan is an option that often gets…

What You Can Do to Build and Maintain a Strong Remote Work Culture

August 7, 2024

With everything that’s taken place over the last few years, remote and hybrid work is becoming increasingly common, and that trend is not going away anytime soon, if ever. The pandemic set the precedent for this way of working, and as a result, many job seekers now expect to be able to work from home at least a couple of days per week. But having a workforce that’s remote,…

How to Stop Harassment in the Workplace Before It Starts

June 26, 2024

As an employer, you’re expected to provide your employees with a safe place to work. Whether it’s doing background checks, offering safety training, or encouraging open communication, you have a lot of responsibilities in this respect. And that means you’re going to have to do whatever you can to prevent harassment in the workplace, or risk facing the consequences. In my experience, for whatever reason, many employers tend to overlook…