The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) adopted the Darden 1 factors in 2014, to assist federal contractors in determining whether certain types of employees should be included in a federal contractor's Affirmative Action Plan. While these factors do shed some light on determining whether someone is an employee or a contractor, it has limited application for positions held by students at academic in...

My job is to find community employment for adults with disabilities. I work for an agency in the Chicagoland suburbs and when talking with others about what I do, I frequently get asked, 'Why would your clients want to work? They receive disability benefits and don’t have to do anything for it.' This comment always troubles me. People with disabilities have hopes, dreams and goals for their future, just like anybody...

Many companies today are worried they don’t have the right leadership to succeed in the digital and disruptive age. Maybe they’ve got it all wrong. What if they actually have the right leaders—but they’re being held hostage by the same old expectations, metrics, and rewards? Here’s the problem. The very nature of business is continually evolving. Consumer needs fluctuate. Technology keeps...

Everything in life is about communication and messaging. How are you going to present your new idea? How are you going to position your background so that it is relatable to the role for which you’re interviewing? How will you articulate your differing perspective to a potential client? We all want the communication “magic bullet.” That’s why there are so many different classes and books out there on...

Surveys and studies indicate global job dissatisfaction is at a two-decade high. Disengaged employees account for nearly 70 percent of the workforce, which significantly affects the bottom line, according to data from Towers Watson. They cause corporate income, earnings and profits to suffer to the tune of $500 billion each year. Comparative surveys also indicate that leaders believe engagement is higher than it actually...

Last year I started answering common questions I hear from my consulting and speaking clients about Millennials in the workplace. Here I’ve collected the best of this advice into a handy “Guide to Managing Millennial Employees in 2018” that I hope is helpful for all generations. Question 1: Why are millennial employees such slackers? They don’t seem to want to work as hard as I did.” Fi...

Lighthouse Research Principal Analyst Ben Eubanks hammered home the importance of culturally embedded diversity and inclusion practices. According to Deloitte, employees that rated their employers highly for both diversity and inclusion were 80 percent more likely to say their organization was high performing. Corporate boards with three or more women have 50 percent higher return on equity, and 40 percent higher return on...

Most employees favor consensus-run organizations, where a leader uses inclusion and feedback to manage democratically. A consensus-style leader is a refreshing alternative to the tyrant who issues stern orders. But democracy, taken to an extreme, creates numerous frustrations for direct reports. Leaders who advocate for consensus want everyone to feel valued and happy. These apparent benefits may be dwarfed by their inhe...

ITM President and HR Bartender blogger Sharlyn Lauby recently discussed the current war for skilled talent. “It’s a candidate-driven market,” she said. “Finding the right people for the job is becoming increasingly difficult. The worst situation is when a company gets a new piece of business, but doesn’t know if it can deliver the service because it isn’t staffed appropriately.”...

A reader said on a recent webinar: My company is scared of people analytics. What if the results show that something is really wrong? People analytics involves the practice of extracting information from existing data sets in order to determine patterns and predict future outcomes and trends. It’s now possible to examine data regarding recruitment, performance, employee mobility, and other factors, and use it to...