Talent Acquisition is a strategic approach to identifying, assessing, and acquiring new employees for a company. It is a planned and structured complex set of actions our consulting firm must do to locate dependable high-potential employees.

Effective on-boarding includes a focus on compliance, clarification, confidence, connection, and culture. Organizations that focus on these five attributes demonstrate better on-boarding and business outcomes than those that do not.

Encouraging mentorship, as well as sponsorship opportunities, is a great strategy to retain diverse talent. Studies have shown that a history of five or more years of service with one’s previous employers, along with a formal mentor-mentee relationship leads to increased rates of promotion and the likelihood of staying at the company.

Performance management is a continuous process, not an annual review activity. High quality performance management involves agreeing on SMART objectives, a personal development plan, a review of the employee’s job requirements, and updating the performance appraisal at 3, 6, and 8 months so there are no surprises at the end of the 12-month review cycle.

A compensation structure is the strategy you use to determine how each employee in your company is paid. It considers information like the length of employment, industry minimums and maximums, and merit. A great compensation plan not only sets the value of what you are paying (compensation bands), but also defines roles and levels and outlines how performance will be evaluated.

Leadership sets the tone and direction for an organization, while organizational development ensures that the company has the necessary structure and processes in place to support its growth. Organizational development is essential for any company that wants to scale up its operations.

Employee training is a program that helps employees learn specific knowledge or skills to improve performance in their current roles. Employee education is more expansive and focuses on employee growth and future performance, rather than an immediate job role. It is the strategic act of building education initiatives for employees to reach a specific business goals, for example, increasing revenue, reducing customer churn, and/or improving employee retention.

Employee relations deals solely with companies and their employees while Labor relations is the relationship between unions and employers. These two terms are at times used interchangeably, but it is important to understand the fundamental differences. Employee and Labor Relations work together to assist both employees and supervisors on the interpretation and implementation of policies, procedures, and the union contracts and employee handbook directives, as well as investigating and responding to grievances and other complaints.

Detailed preparation for collective bargaining helps the process go more smoothly, efficiently and promotes better outcomes. Preparation should begin three to six months in advance of collective bargaining. Companies should factor bargaining into business planning and budgeting cycles. Additionally, train the management negotiating team on its legal obligations, review experience during the life of the last CBA to predict the unions’ proposals and to develop the company’s proposals, review previous negotiations, take the bargaining unit's composition into account, and prepare a wage and benefit analysis.

The union and employer must bargain in good faith about wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment until they agree on a labor contract or reach a stand-off or “impasse.” If negotiations reach an impasse, an employer can impose terms and conditions so long as it offered them to the union before the impasse was reached. Take your time early on; don't rush the process. Take your time before, during and after the negotiations. Plan to complete research and required documents well in advance of any meetings or negotiations. Avoid making hasty decisions during the process and appoint one management chief spokesperson at the bargaining table who can ask for a caucus to speak to the other members of the management committee about a hot issue.

Well-written policies and procedures do more than help supervisors and managers make complex decisions and enforce rules. They provide the framework and background for such decisions, so that supervisors can explain to their subordinates why a certain action or decision is the right one under the circumstances. Establishing the expectations and consistency outlined above allows leadership to ensure the company communicates all laws and regulations to employees. Plus, it ensures employees both understand the policies and know how these policies apply to their day-to-day jobs. Company policies serve to formalize expectations for employee behavior, actions, and processes. They provide a written guide for how various scenarios should be managed within the company, promoting consistency, legal adherence, and fairness.

Employment related audits and legal compliance is an objective examination of your business's HR policies, practices, and procedures. The goal is to look for trouble spots and/or identify ways you can improve. When you hire an outside company to perform the audit you ensure an unbiased opinion concerning what needs to be improved. Audits can help identify whether a company’s specific practices or processes are adequate, legal, and effective. The results obtained from this review can help identify gaps in HR practices, and HR can then prioritize these gaps to minimize lawsuits or regulatory violations, as well as to achieve and maintain world-class competitiveness in key HR practice areas.