Words on Wise Management

It may be time to “sharpen your knife” regarding reward systems. Organizational needs and employ­ees’ expectations about work and careers are chang­ing, making traditional job-based pay systems less effective or, in some cases, even obsolete. In a recent article in WorkSpan titled “Refining Rewards for the Millennial Generation,” Ken Abosch, a partner with AON, PLC, discusses some of the following insights:

Relationships—both personal and professional— can be complicated. Just like first dates, job interviews offer candidates the chance to show a prospective em­ployer the best possible version of themselves: smart, charming, funny, and responsible. As an employer, you ask exploratory questions about a candidate’s background, education, interests, and goals for the fu­ture to see if it’s a good fit. If you both agree that it is, you start a relationship.

Breakup options abound

Resilience (noun): the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness; the ability to spring back into shape.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of career resilience and how every single working person will have to show it at some point in their lives. Two years ago this week, at the age of 50, I left a job of 17 years—a job that I loved . . . and didn’t love.

If I had assigned it a Facebook relationship status, it would have been: “It’s complicated.”

2018 has come to a close, and a new year is upon us. As the new year begins, it’s a perfect time to re­flect and reassess personally and professionally. Businesses use strategic planning and budgets to re­flect that same thinking at an enterprise level. How­ever, all too often those choices are rushed—and even forced—based on constraints and lack of time. More importantly, people tend to be considered last on the list.

Recently, a friend called me wondering if her employer could ban Nike apparel at work following the Colin Kaepernick “Just Do It” ad campaign controversy. In the midst of this much politicized time, a photo of a sign outside an unknown employer’s business informing employees of its new zero-tolerance policy banning any Nike apparel from the workplace went viral on social media. Many employees are now asking, “Can my employer really ban me from wearing a brand that I like?”

Should you ban a brand at work?