This past week I had been invited back to a MBA Leadership class to discuss the topic "Who Am I: The Role of Human Capital within the Global Workplace.I spent about 40 minutes discussing the new roles of human capital within our organizations and then asked if their were any comments.
By now, who hasn’t heard about retailer Abercrombie and Fitch getting in trouble for allegedly requiring their employees to wear less, rather than more, clothing? All summer, reports kept popping up about the EEOC taking action against Abercrombie for purportedly terminating an employee who refused to remove her hijab. Allegedly, Abercrombie did not accommodate the employee’s religious beliefs and allow her to wear her hijab on the job.
Various sources define a hijab as the traditional covering worn by Muslim women that hides their hair and neck. A hijab has also been defined as the Islamic practice of dressing modestly in clothing that covers most of the body.
Read more: But what if she had worn a mini-skirt with her hijab?
When we talk about communication in the form of feedback at work, both managers and employees tend to get anxious and basic conversations quickly become burdensome and uncomfortable.
In my post, Did you mean to say it that way? I wrote about how we communicate and the importance of being genuine vs. scripted.
As of September 2011, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 14 million people are unemployed. At this rate, an employer can easily receive hundreds of responses to a single job posting. While a large applicant pool certainly gives the employer a wide variety of choices, it also makes background checks an important tool to be able to choose the most qualified candidate.
Read more: Could You Survive a Social Media Background Check?
In today’s economy, when budgets are still being cut in some industries, we are looking for any way we can to stop the bleeding and consolidate our organizations. Even after business has picked up steam again most executive management is even hesitant to take the risk of adding to their workforce just yet. In fact, they kind of like keeping their belt tightened as profits rise at the expense of our overworked employees. While that is a balance between keeping the employees happy and keeping profit margins maximized, it is also taxing our human resource departments.
