Blogs

Do you find that you are constantly rescuing employees?

By Darlene Morse posted 20 days ago
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April 3, 2024 Beacon Article , Blog/News By John Henderson, Director of Learning & Development If there isn’t a safety issue nor a deadline that needs to be met – do you, or do you witness others, rescuing other workers? By that I mean doing for others what they can and should be doing for themselves. A successful organization has a team who are accountable to one another. Accountability breaks down when we (or others) overdo the support aspect of relationships or simply cover for others who don’t do their part. A great team ensures that people are being held accountable for their actions. However, sometimes out of our nurturing behavior ...
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Leaders Bringing Humanity Back to the Workplace

By Darlene Morse posted 03-08-2024
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From an earlier Beacon Article - September 27, 2023 - Beacon Article , Blog/News EANE will be hosting a 2 day series - Culture Rise on June 25th and you can find more information here about this but in anticipation I thought I'd re-share this article. EANE hosted the Seneca Leadership Institute on September 19 th that was facilitated by the authors of “ Love As A Business Strategy .” One of the foundational principles discussed during the institute was the need to bring humanity back to the workplace They were not speaking of humans actually returning to the physical office but making sure that your company culture values each and every ...
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Got (workplace) Drama? It’s OK – You’re not alone.

By Darlene Morse posted 03-08-2024
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March 5, 2024 - by Allison Ebner - Beacon Article , Blog/News Well, the old saying that ‘misery loves company’ has never been truer than it is today. Our organizations are distracted from traditional objectives like productivity numbers, strategic goals, providing great service and hitting revenue targets by an overwhelming amount of unrest and disengagement from our employees. High rates of absenteeism, push back on workplace policies and expectations, short fuses when it comes to collaboration and getting along with co-workers, disagreements about political views and national news trends … These issues are prohibiting our organizations from ...
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Is YOUR Own Professional Development passing YOU by?

By Darlene Morse posted 03-08-2024
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March 5, 2024 by Pam Thornton Beacon Article , Blog/New I’m driving to work on Friday morning, after a week that feels like Wednesday could have been Friday and I’m listening to one of my favorite podcasts. It’s Employee Appreciation Day and I can’t wait to celebrate with all of the people that make EANE great! I know it will be one of those days where we will intentionally slow down and have some laughs with each other, starting with bringing in breakfast. It literally brings everyone to the table! Normally the words in the podcast give me spirit and alignment and I’m hanging on to every one of them waiting for the next cool self-improvement ...
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Connecticut and Rhode Island Minimum Wages Rise Effective January 1st

By Darlene Morse posted 02-08-2024
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January 2, 2024 Beacon Article , Blog/News As a reminder to Connecticut employers, Connecticut’s minimum wage has increased from $15.00 per hour to $15.69 per hour effective January 1st, 2024. The increase is tied back to Public Act 19-4 which had indexed minimum wage adjustments beginning on January 1, 2024 and annually thereafter to the percentage change as derived from the federal employment cost index for wages and salaries for all civilian workers, as calculated by the United States Department of Labor, over the twelve-month period ending on June thirtieth of the preceding year, rounded to the nearest whole cent. Based upon this index ...
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OSHA’s Revised Final Rule on Electronic Submission of Injury and Illness Takes Effect January 1st

By Darlene Morse posted 02-08-2024
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January 2, 2024 Beacon Article , Blog/News Effective January 1 st , 2024 employers with 100 or more employees during the previous calendar year in certain high-hazard industries will now be required to not only submit their OSHA Form 300A information electronically but additionally their Form 300 and Form 301 information as well. A listing of industries covered under this new category can be found by clicking here . This new category (which covers several types of manufacturers, transportation and distribution, agriculture, certain wholesalers, certain health care and human service services and more) is in addition to the following employer groups ...
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What is a “people leader” and how do they lead?

By Darlene Morse posted 02-08-2024
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February 5, 2024 - Beacon Article , Blog/News by John Henderson This morning my colleague was chatting about a conversation she had with her husband. The marketing piece for EANE’s Leadership Summit arrived at their home and he asked her “what is a ‘people leader’?” He had never heard the term people leader. This made me pause and wonder – what truly is a people leader and how do they lead? The traditional concept of leadership was defined by the outcomes and results a leader was able to achieve coupled with the level of authority (job title) they had. A people leader, however, true focus is on the success of their entire team. So, how does ...
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Penalties are on the rise in 2024

By Darlene Morse posted 02-08-2024
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February 5, 2024 Beacon Article , Blog/News We know individually how inflation has affected our lives: rising prices on food, fuel and more. We also see it affects our cost of benefits, and even our pay (as employers provide pay increases to keep pay levels competitive). The point is that inflation can change the value of the almighty dollar. It is based on this reality that Congress had passed the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 2015 which requires federal agencies to adjust their civil penalties annually to account for inflation. Customarily, those adjustments are released no later than January 15 th to be applied for ...
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Top HR Priorities in 2024

By Darlene Morse posted 12-11-2023
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November 30, 2023 By Allison Ebner Beacon Article , Blog/News A recent Gartner survey of more than 500 HR Leaders from across 40 countries and all major industries has identified 5 top priorities for HR in 2024: Leader and Manager Development Organization Culture HR Technology Change Management Career Management and Internal Mobility In terms of what is driving these priorities, they found four specific areas of concern that I think many of you can relate to: ‘Unsettled’ employer-employee relationships due to productivity anxiety, mistrust and issues around lack of flexibility Persistent and systemic skills ...
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People Leaders Transforming Company Culture

By Darlene Morse posted 12-11-2023
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November 30, 2023 Beacon Article , Blog/News , Resources Merriam-Webster defines culture as “the set of shared attitudes, values, goals and practices that characterizes an institution or organization.” Or for a more simplistic definition let’s use Gallup, Inc’s “How we do things around here!” A company’s culture is truly everyone’s responsibility – to define it, to embrace it and to model it. In year’s past culture may have been seen as the sole responsibility of the CEO who would then pass the responsibility along to the Human Resources Department to implement and monitor that cultural decree. A top-down approach to defining a company ...
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Leveraging Your Onboarding Program to Create Accountability

By Darlene Morse posted 10-25-2023
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September 28, 202 Beacon Article , Blog/News Accountability Meets Onboarding We’ve been orienting new hires for decades. Over time, HR Professionals have seen the value of shifting from orientation and paperwork necessities to developing a comprehensive onboarding plan that decreases the new hire learning curve and creates immediate engagement within organizations. Strong onboarding programs include HR follow up. We routinely meet with our new hires in the first six months to ensure the new hire has successfully acclimated to our culture, all our tools are working properly, productivity is rising, training is on track, and we have the same ...
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FLSA Salary Proposed Rule Officially Published – Employers Can Submit Comments Until November 7th

By Darlene Morse posted 10-25-2023
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September 28, 2023 Beacon Article , Blog/News In following up on our EAlert from August, the United States Department of Labor (DOL) has officially published its proposed rule in the federal register to change the salary threshold requirements under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). Among the “highlights” include: Increasing the FLSA regulations’ standard salary level from $684 per week ($35,568 per year) to $1,059 per week ($55,068 per year) for Executive, Administrative or Professional (EAP) positions; Increasing the total annual compensation requirement for Highly Compensated Employees (HCE) from $107,432 per year to $143,988 per year; ...
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EEO-1 Portal to Open October 31st!

By Darlene Morse posted 10-25-2023
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September 28, 2023 - Beacon Blog/News The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that the EEO-1 portal will be open starting on October 31 st and will remain open until December 5 th . As a reminder, this reporting applies to: employers with 100 or more employees; federal contractors or first tier subcontractors with 50 or more employees and have a federal contract, subcontract or purchase order amounting to $50,000 or more; financial institutions with 50 or more employees that serve as a depository of Government funds in any amount; or financial institutions with 50 or more employees that issue or redeem U.S. ...
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Pregnant Workers Fairness Act Guidance Proposed Rule Published

By Darlene Morse posted 09-20-2023
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To remain on track with its responsibility to publish a final rule within a year after the passage of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has published a proposed rule concerning the PWFA’s implementation. In certain aspects, the proposed rule ( which can be found here ) builds upon the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) principles. For instance, the EEOC lays out in its commentary that the PWFA borrows the definition of “reasonable accommodation” and “undue hardship” from the ADA and uses the same interactive process as commonly used under the ADA as well. Yet, there are other instances where the ...
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Get a Full Development View with 360° Feedback

By Darlene Morse posted 09-20-2023
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Feedback is a valuable part of any leadership journey. When used as part of a development plan, feedback is a tool that helps leaders identify competencies, behaviors and skills they want to build for short-term and long-term growth. 360 ° feedback is an opportunity to gain a holistic, well-rounded view and gather developmental information. This information gives a leader a chance to understand how they are perceived by the circle of people they work and interact with: their leader, their direct reports, their peers, and other key colleagues/partners/customers. The 360 ° Feedback process involves anonymous feedback from a group of raters: ...
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What Message is Your Organization Sending About Mental Health?

By Darlene Morse posted 09-20-2023
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(Written by Kevin Joly) With mental health awareness becoming increasingly prominent, employers need to reevaluate what message they are inadvertently sending to their employees regarding their support of mental wellness. Even without explicitly saying it, employers can mistakenly portray that they do not recognize or take mental health issues as seriously as conditions they can physically observe. Approaching such conditions with skepticism could be seen as a lack of trust in their employees or a lack of empathy. Both can be huge concerns for employee morale and employer reputation. When an employee gets hurt or has a physical injury, we as employers know ...
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Summer Staff Rewards

By Darlene Morse posted 07-07-2023
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Article contributed by Allison Ebner, EANE Looking for the perfect way to celebrate your staff this summer? Here are a few ideas (for every budget!) that might help you keep the employee engagement buzz going during the summer months: Food, food and more food Who doesn’t love a great BBQ on a hot summer day? Grab a grill and have your managers and leadership team grill up a fantastic lunch! I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! This one can get tricky in the summer but an ice cream treat or popsicles on a hot day is a sure way to cool off the staff! Worried about melting? Look up the nearest ice cream food truck in your neighborhood! ...
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Self-Awareness at Work

By Darlene Morse posted 07-07-2023
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Article contributed by Valerie Harlow, EANE Have you found yourself struggling to connect or relate to someone? Are you apprehensive working with some people because your style just doesn’t jive with theirs? Often as we go through our day, we are not aware of our impact on others or why we don’t connect well with certain styles/people. There are a few techniques that can help us build self-awareness: uncovering blind spots and understanding our style priorities. Blind spots are those things we don’t know about ourselves, but others know about us. A technique to help uncover blind spots and help us to be more self-aware is: Start, Stop, Continue. Start, ...
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Have You Checked Your Bulletin Boards Lately?

By Darlene Morse posted 07-07-2023
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Article contributed by Mark Adams, EANE Maintaining company bulletin boards can be a tedious task. After all, it is not like all of your federal and state agencies are on the same page when it comes to pushing out updated posters. Yet for employers, the responsibilities for keeping bulletin boards current still apply. On a federal level, the US Department of Labor updated their Fair Labor Standards Act poster in late April while the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated their Know Your Rights poster on June 14. On a state level, Massachusetts updated their Paid Family and Medical Leave in June as well. And Connecticut employers can’t forget ...
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Updated FLSA Salary Threshold Rule Pushed Off Until August

By Darlene Morse posted 07-07-2023
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Article contributed by Mark Adams, EANE Employers have been waiting for some time on what the United States Department of Labor was going to do with “modernizing” their salary threshold rule under the Fair Labor Standards Act as the current threshold of $684/week has been in place since January 1, 2020. Previously scheduled to be released in October 2022, the United States Department of Labor punted it to May 2023 when they had published its semi-annual regulatory agenda for 2023. When May came and went without any fanfare, many wondered if another delay was coming and sure enough – there is, as now we are looking at an August release . How high will ...
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