Category: Engagement

As the labor market tightens, it’s natural for business chiefs to focus on attracting and keeping Generation Y, which at once has become both the most numerous population of working Americans and the most influential in many ways. But they also should strive to manage effectively their oldest generation, boomers, who comprised the previous largest generation and whose skills, preferences, strengths and weaknesses largely have shaped the modern economy.

The new CEO of global food company, Danone, the French parent of Dannon USA, ground operations almost to a halt recently for a 90-minute all-company meeting that was attended in person or via video by an estimated 75,000 of the yogurt maker’s roughly 100,000 employees worldwide. Emmanuel Faber’s ambitious gambit to get their attention was a stunning move from which other chiefs could learn.

Instilling fear of failure can tear down your team. Rather, communicating in a positive way that values people’s expertise can inspire trust and increase productivity.

One of the nation’s toughest jobs in human resources has got to be heading up Walmart’s workforce of 1.3 million people, America’s largest roster of commercial workers. But as executive vice president of people for the vast chain, Kristin Oliver is focusing on the new opportunities inherent in a culture-driven transformation of the giant retailer rather than by the struggles of the past.

At the 2015 Smart Manufacturing Summit in Indianapolis, attendees participated in an exchange of ideas and best practices on Engaging the Millennial Workforce. Their ideas and experiences are shared here.

The biggest reasons strategic initiatives don’t get done is the enormous amount of energy it takes to run daily operations. Between serving a customer and working on a strategic initiative, which one is your team going to work on? Every time, it will be the day-to-day work. So now that we know what the issue is, how do we fix it? Here are 4 steps that can help.