How to Talk So Employee Performance Produces Results: Dr. Barbara Brown says that if you want to improve employee performance, think about your daily conversations with employees. No better opportunity exists to reinforce and help refine excellent employee performance. You discuss new projects, talk about overdue assignments, give updates about completed tasks, and more.

Use these conversations to reinforce the importance of doing a great job. How? Link the employee performance to a workplace result.

Her thoughts have a lot in common with my often repeated thoughts about employee recognition. Provide recognition because you genuinely want to reward and recognize employee contributions. But, at the same time, understand the power of recognition in shaping positive employee performance.

If you want to see a particular performance from an employee, nothing is as powerful as recognition. Daily conversations and your effective performance development process help, too.

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_{Image © Barbara Brown}

Poll: Will the Minimum Wage Increases Adversely Affect Your Company?

The increase in the federal minimum wage on July 24, 2008 from $5.85 to $6.55 an hour, is expected to have minimal impact on most employers nation-wide. According to the CCH Internet Research Network, part of Wolters Kluwer Law & Business, many states have already established minimum wage levels higher than the new federal level. Take a look to see your state's minimum wage and the impact of the increased federal minimum wage, if any.

Additionally, as employers seek to attract talented employees, the unavailability of qualified employees has caused many employers to raise wages beyond both their state and federal minimum wage requirements. In fact, in one poll cited in The Impact of the Minimum Wage Increase, the majority of small business owners did not know the minimum wage required in their state.

The minimum wage will increase again to $7.25 per hour on July 24, 2009. The increase in the minimum wage last July was the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade.

Please vote in my poll and add your comments below.

A Policy or Sample a Day

A charge of sexual harassment, whether it is formally documented or the employee just hints about a problem, must be investigated. There are specific steps that must be taken to legally and ethically examine the charges, and to support a positive work environment for your employees. The investigation must also guarantee the employee making the complaint freedom from retaliation. Find out How To Address an Employee Sexual Harassment Complaint.

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