Employers, Office Health and Culture

Ready to Spark Joy in Your Office

May 7 | 2019
Ready to Spark Joy in Your Office

The hit Netflix show “Tidying Up with Marie Kondo” has set off a wave of house organization, purging, and general tidying. Many thrift stores and donation centers report being overwhelmed with bags and boxes of items recently filling American’s homes. What, though, of the workplace? Should a similar wave of de-cluttering and cleaning be happening […]

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In Pursuit of a Better Meeting

March 5 | 2019
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
In Pursuit of a Better Meeting

Groans and sighs often greet the ping of a meeting invite hitting an inbox. While it may be impossible to make meetings more fun than the office holiday party, it is possible to lessen the dread, increase morale, and improve the results of a meeting. Complaints about meetings are often justified, including wasted time, the […]

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Culture Question

January 2 | 2019
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Culture Question

With unemployment continuing at historically low numbers, it’s up to employers to win sought-after candidates. During an interview, employers are likely ready for the culture question. When asked about culture directly, according to an article in Fast Company, interviewers are quick to offer pat or polished answers. Interviewees are being encouraged to dig deeper, asking more specific […]

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Giving Thanks in the Office

November 14 | 2018
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Giving Thanks in the Office

While our personal lives may offer plenty of opportunities to give thanks, it’s also important to make a habit of it in our professional lives, according to an article in the Cobb Business Journal. Few people in a study cited expressed gratitude for their work, and that might be because a culture of gratitude needs to be […]

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Be the Boss You Want to See in the World

November 7 | 2018
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Be the Boss You Want to See in the World

An article in the Harvard Business Review suggests that the traits that make someone become a leader aren’t always the ones that make someone an effective leader. Instead, efficacy can be traced to ethicality. Here are a few tips to be an ethical leader. Humility tops charisma A little charisma goes a long way. Too much and […]

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Making a Remote Team Work

October 24 | 2018
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Making a Remote Team Work

In a tight labor market, a candidate’s potential commute can make a job more or less attractive. HumanResources reports that a quarter of employees surveyed had left a job because of the commute. When looking at just Millennials, the number jumps to one third. Employees can be choosy, selecting a job that offers more of what they […]

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Yes, Boss/HR/Your Honor, That’s My Email

October 8 | 2018
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Yes, Boss/HR/Your Honor, That’s My Email

Ever hear of the acronym “CLEM”? That stands for career-limiting email and is a reminder to reconsider sending anything out in writing when a phone call may be the better option. If you have to think twice about hitting that send button, then you shouldn’t hit it. In an article titled, “For God’s Sake, Think […]

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Leveraging Generational Factors for Overall Success

September 27 | 2018
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Leveraging Generational Factors for Overall Success

No matter what your office looks like—in a gig economy or a more traditional one, with or without AI—interviews will be a part of the culture. Learning about best practices benefits everyone, whether you are the interviewer or the interviewee. Especially at busy times, it can be easy to forget that an interview isn’t simply […]

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Solving Problems-While Increasing Employee Satisfaction

August 15 | 2018
By: Bill Olsen
Senior VP, Operations at United Benefit Advisors
Solving Problems-While Increasing Employee Satisfaction

“Design thinking” is a fairly common term. Even if the phrase is new to you, it’s reasonably easy to intuit how it works: design thinking is a process for creative problem solving, utilizing creative tools like empathy and experimentation, often with a strong visual component. The term dates from 1968 and was first used in The […]

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Everyone Wins when Growth is the Goal

July 25 | 2018
By: Bill Olson
VP, Marketing & Communications at United Benefit Advisors
Everyone Wins when Growth is the Goal

It’s a dilemma. On the one hand, today’s buzzing, multifaceted working environments challenge employees more than ever before. On the other, these same working environments are often also overwhelming and stressful. Sometimes it seems like success means mania—but this doesn’t have to be the case. More and more frequently, experts urge offices to focus not […]

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What About Them?

July 16 | 2018
By: Ken Spencer
President & CEO, HR Service, Inc.
What About Them?

The office team arrives at 8:00 AM and is there every day until 5:00 PM. They work hard answering questions for clients, doing invoicing, and other important administrative tasks. The production team often shows up at 10:00 AM or later, takes a long lunch and quite often is seen leaving at 2:00 or 3:00 PM. […]

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Leadership, Now with More Humility

July 5 | 2018
By: Bill Olson
VP, Marketing & Communications at United Benefit Advisors
Leadership, Now with More Humility

More and more, we are learning that scientists, marketers, programmers, and other kinds of knowledge workers lead office lives very similar to famous innovators like Watson, Crick, and Franklin, who discovered the structure of DNA. How so? All of these people live work lives structured around progress in meaningful work. And when this progress occurs, it […]

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Can You Handle the Truth?

June 5 | 2018
By: Bill Olson
VP, Marketing & Communications at United Benefit Advisors
Can You Handle the Truth?

Direct feedback culture, according to “Mastering the Art of Negative Feedback,” from Society for Human Resource Management means simultaneously challenging someone while also showing you care. Many employees skew toward caring over candor, and that can lead to dissatisfaction. The feedback employees want can be very different from the feedback delivered. Direct, real time feedback is highly […]

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Inclusive Workplaces Benefit Everyone

May 23 | 2018
By: Bill Olson
VP, Marketing & Communications at United Benefit Advisors
Inclusive Workplaces Benefit Everyone

While there’s plenty of talk about work/life balance, many employees want to feel human while at work, too. Being able to bring their whole selves, according to “3 Ways to Create a More Human Workplace,” from Workforce, is an essential piece of a welcoming, inclusive workplace environment. Putting employees first as a defined company value means helping […]

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Your Workplace May Want to Get Moving

May 9 | 2018
Your Workplace May Want to Get Moving

Rearranging workspaces may cause grumbling around the water cooler. The return on employee time and company money invested in reorganizing has long been difficult to prove. But, when Steve Jobs famously centralized bathrooms at Pixar for serendipitous interactions meant to spur innovation, it turns out he really was on to something. In “Why You Should […]

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Why Work? For More than the Money

May 1 | 2018
By: Bill Olson
VP, Marketing & Communications at United Benefit Advisors
Why Work? For More than the Money

Discovering the individualized reasons people work is key to helping employers understand what will motivate employees. According to the article “What People Want from Work: Motivation” on the website The Balance, successful companies need to start with money. Paying employees fair compensation, or ideally more than fair, brings the talent in and reduces the risk […]

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Beware of Tech Overload

April 26 | 2018
By: Bill Olson
VP, Marketing & Communications at United Benefit Advisors
Beware of Tech Overload

Technology has certainly made the workplace faster, smarter and more productive. New apps and systems continuously offer new ways to create, manage and collaborate. However, just as with many good things, workers can get too much of office tech. With each digitization of traditional job and team functions comes a cost in diminishing associated skills. […]

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Dealing with Dementia: Protect Yourself When Dismissing an Employee Because of Mental Decline

March 29 | 2018
By: Wina Sturgeon
Dealing with Dementia: Protect Yourself When Dismissing an Employee Because of Mental Decline

In late 2017, just before his death, news of Gary Ott’s diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease was finally made public. But Ott had noticed symptoms of the disease as early as 2013, and friends and employees began to notice changes in his behavior by 2015. As the illness progressed, a public battle played out over who […]

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2018: The Year of the Flexible Workforce

March 13 | 2018
By: Susan Hornbuckle, Kelly Services
2018: The Year of the Flexible Workforce

Flexible work schedules have been around for decades, at least since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began tracking data for them in 1985. However, 2018 may be the year that the topic of workplace flexibility finally crosses into mainstream awareness. In the last 12–18 months, there has been a definite uptick in attention given […]

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Start 2018 with a Business Checkup

March 5 | 2018
By: Saniel Nordberg
SBA Region VIII Administrator
Start 2018 with a Business Checkup

Making predictions is never easy, especially for small business owners and managers. Unlike their larger counterparts, small firms rarely have the resources to monitor and take corrective action for every new trend and issue. Even entrepreneurs who’ve experienced numerous business cycles face new circumstances that confound their instincts and knowledge. While there’s no crystal ball […]

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