​This is our HIHR LLC Team!  We genuinely enjoy one another and have fun together!  Though we do have in-person components of our roles, in general our team is remote.  Keeping up connection and engagement with remote teams is a top priority.  We love when we can be together as a team and always make the most out of it!  When that is not the case, we aim to find other creative ways to stay connected and keep working relationships strong.

Here are 5 ways your team can stay engaged and effectively execute in the world of remote work: 

1. Team Gatherings – It’s absolutely possible to build great relationships virtually, but meeting in person at least once can really take relationships to another level.  Plan to pull the team together in person at least once a year or preferably more, if possible, for a retreat, celebration, training and development, etc. 
   
   
2. Regular two-way communication – Ensuring there are solid communication routines in place from always communicating on video, regular team meetings, team surveys or focus groups, leadership weekly office hours and leading with approachability
   
   
3. Encourage Health & Wellness – Remote workers can miss out on the coffee chats and natural healthy personal interaction.  Encourage team members to find outlets for this in other ways whether it’s supporting some team personal catch-up within work time, community involvement and/or support in-person meetings/events whenever possible for those living in a commutable distance.  In addition, allowing schedule flexibility to promote getting outside/walking/exercise/etc. will benefit the individual and the organization. 
   
   
4. Foster culture of recognition and celebration – Starting meetings out with team recognition is one great way to do this.  There are lots of wins to regularly celebrate progress and this also provides personal connection and relationship building – key to any remote team! 
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5. High Trust & Accountability – Ensure there are core values and behaviors in place that support integrity and trust across the organization.  This is of course important whether remote or not, however, in a remote setting can be even more damaging and more difficult to catch and address if this piece is lacking.  It can be disengaging to strong performers if a team member is taking advantage of the remote arrangement and not adding the same value to the team.  As leaders, it is important that we address these cases head-on through strong policies, goals, communication, performance feedback, ensuring everyone is doing their jobs effectively and adding value to win as a team.  

Working remote has many advantages and putting these practices into place can make it an even more enjoyable and successful team experience. 

Author:
Erika Butler, CEO

DISC is a powerful development tool used all over the world.  We like it because it is simple to understand, easy to apply and extremely practical.  You can put the learning into practice immediately and participants gain more understanding of themselves and those around them.  One of the main take-aways is how to better communicate and work with different personality styles and preferences to gain improved team outcomes - and have more fun along the way!
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On July 7, 2022 The HIHR Team held a DiSC Training supporting 8 organizations and about 70 leaders to promote teamwork, collaboration and communication! 

DiSC is just one kind of Leadership Training we offer! While this training is often used for front-line leaders, the focus is on important foundational principles of leadership. Though this can be customized to meet specific gaps and needs that you are identifying, the recommended additional training sessions are as follows:

• People Leadership Best Practices
• Team Engagement Toolkit
• Performance Management
• Diversity & Inclusion Culture
• Change Leadership

Authors:
Erika Butler, CEO
Aurora Brunovsky, Sr. HR Business Partner
Nancy Southard, HR Coordinator

We have learned that the partners you take and relationships you make throughout your business network are so key to sustain growth and future impact!  Over the last four years we have made some incredible connections of high trust and of value fit with our organization which has been a game changer for us.
 
In our newsletter we have highlighted three investments we have made with organizations that we've had great experiences with!  These partnerships have made us a stronger and more capable organization and we highly recommend them to anyone specifically working to improve their compensation accuracy, recruiting process and their internal team and leadership growth/development!

Author: Erika Butler, CEO

A company's culture is essentially its core values, traditions, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs shared within its workforce. One of the biggest pros of a great company culture is that it will attract the best employees. Companies want the best talent and having a great company culture will help to hold onto these employees for a long time. From hiring the best talented people, to improving employee’s happiness, it’s the foundation of a happy workplace. When people are happy and fulfilled at their jobs, they work harder and are more willing to stay at a job long-term. Improving a company's culture will not only help you see positive results right off the bat, but you’ll attract talented professionals who can help take your company even further.
 
To start, revisiting your company’s core values is a great start toward improving company culture. A strong corporate culture stems from a thoughtfully determined set of values that guide everything from behavior to business decisions.
 
Secondly, addressing and evaluating the company's current culture is important. There are a ton of creative ways to evaluate this but taking a look at your employees and how they are working together is a good start. This means checking for low employee engagement, gossip, high turnover rates, and poor teamwork. When looking into turnover, it’s important to really look for trends. Examples of trends can be losing first year employees vs. more tenured employees, losing a certain demographic, etc. One notable way that our company implements this is by conducting an anonymous employee survey. These surveys really help to gain a sense of how the employees feel about the company, the culture, leadership, and overall work experience. These surveys are an eminent strategy for companies to find out what is working well and what needs to be improved especially when working to improve their organizational culture.
 
From this step, be prepared to make improvements and then track your progress.
 
Overall, a good company culture involves trust, respect, and the opportunity for employees to participate in shared values and love what they do. It truly sets the foundations for actual business growth. Start envisioning a celebrated workplace supported by active and continuous growth now. 

Author: Jani DiNapoli
​HIHR Intern

Happy World Health Day! World Health Day is a great opportunity to discuss and engage your employees with health-oriented activities and tips. Workplace wellness promotes health promotion activities and or organizational practices or policies designed to support healthy behavior in the workplace. Whether you are working in the office, or working from home, here are some helpful tips to help keep your mind and body healthy while working.

• Follow a Routine
  • Plan ahead for the tasks you need done for the week, take lunch at the same time every day, and eat a healthy balanced lunch.
• Outdoor Activity
  • Soak in some sunlight and breathe in some refreshing air daily. Taking a morning walk before work, during your lunch break, or an afternoon walk around the neighborhood. This is an easy way to boost your mood and overall mental health.
• Eat a well-balanced lunch
  • Eating a well-balanced lunch along with drinking a lot of water not only provides your body with the fuel it needs to finish off the day, but it feeds our mental health too.
• Get enough sleep
  • Sleep and quality job performance go hand in hand. When you get sufficient sleep, your health, well-being, and work improve.
  • Sleep also helps improve your mental health, mood, and brain function. When you have appropriate quantity and quality sleep, you awake feeling refreshed and energized.
• Keep your workplace area clean and organized
  • An organized environment can reduce stress by removing clutter, being more efficient, and staying on top of tasks.
  • A clean environment can improve health issues. It’s not uncommon for physical health to have an impact on mental health. By removing allergens and other debris and contaminants from surfaces and the work environment, workers can feel physically better, and be in a healthier state to take care of themselves.
• Exercise 3-5 times per week
  • People who are physically active for about 150 minutes a week have a 33% lower risk of all-cause mortality than those who are physically inactive.
  • Physical exercise stimulates the development of new mitochondria within your cells, meaning that your body will be able to produce more ATP over time. So not only does this give you more energy to exert yourself physically, but it also means more energy for your brain, boosting your mental output for each workday.

When people are healthy, they feel better, their quality-of-life increases, and they live longer. This is why workplace wellness is so important and should always be a priority.

Author: Jani DiNapoli
​HIHR Intern

, f pay is not able to be competitive with the market, there needs to be additional strategy of other creative offerings that matter to the group of employees.  For example, offering more flexible work options or increased benefits such as more PTO.  One innovative and cost-effective way to do this is offer what is known as VTO (Voluntary Time Off).  The way this can work is an employee can elect to take up to one more week off in the year but forfeits the pay (a small % each week) that is taken out in account for the extra week of PTO.  This can be meaningful to many employees, but they still keep their regular paycheck and do not have to go without pay those days.
 
In addition to this, many employees (especially the highest performers), are not just looking at their current salary but also increased responsibility and the potential of development and salary growth in the coming years.  It is important that organizations can communicate a path forward as well as offer career development opportunities to achieve this.  This does not have to cost a lot but can even include offerings such things as a mentor program, career development focused lunch and learns, leadership book study group to name a few. 

By providing fair pay, flexibility and a strong development culture a company will be well on their way to continuously engaging and retraining their talent!   

Author: Erika Butler, ​CEO

Author: Erika Butler, ​CEO