Several years ago, I became unpopular. Yes, I did what I always do. I stirred things up again. This time it was the generational pot. Five years ago, Millennials was a bad word. Five years ago, I would get my fair share of pushback from some attendees as I began to do what few were doing at the time: flying Millennials’ flags high, showing why they were so important (and upsetting some Boomers and Xers along the way).

According to a 2017 report by Global Workplace Analytics and Flexjobs, the number of remote workers has increased by 115% since 2005. Telecommuting is indicated as the fastest growing form of commute. So, what does this mean for the establishment and maintenance of company cultures? Specifically, is it possible to have a strong company culture when a large portion of your workforce is remote? The answer is “Yes!” In my experience, a company with about 40% of its workforce consisting of remote employees was able to establish a strong culture. Let’s talk ways to make that happen.

One of the most frequent questions I am asked is: “How can I motivate my employees?” There is no simple answer to this question, as individuals are motivated intrinsically and extrinsically by many different factors. Therefore, what I believe leaders are really asking is: “What actions can I take and what environment can I create that will unleash my team’s potential and create positive energy?” Now, I have many suggestions to answers that question. As a matter of fact, I have ten of them:

DISASTER CAN STRIKE AT ANY GIVEN TIME. SOMETIMES THERE’S A warning, such as in the case of a hurricane that is going to hit your region. Other times, a disaster could happen in the blink of an eye like the Las Vegas mass shooting. Knowing that your employees are safe is information that is key to your organization. Do you have a plan in place for how to react and obtain what you’ll need in a time of distress? Having a plan in place can put your employees at ease as they’ll know what to do in times of emergencies, which should also help response times during an emergency.

THINK ABOUT YOUR ORGANIZATION’S CURRENT HIRING PROCESS. Are applications/resumes reviewed and interviews conducted? What if you have 500 applicants and only have 10 positions to fill? How can you systematically screen out applicants in this situation without having to interview all 500? One avenue for screening out job applicants is to use an assessment or a battery of assessments. Assessments allow consistent decision standards in evaluating every candidate in the applicant pool. This consistency is unparalleled by any other type of selection procedure (e.g., unstructured interviews) and makes assessments an attractive option for a low-resource cost, predictive, and fair selection process.

In 2015, ManpowerGroup surveyed 41,700 hiring managers to identify the proportion of employers having difficulty filling positions, which jobs are difficult to fill, and why. Two of the three hardest-to-fill jobs were skilled trades and engineers.

It’s no secret that America has a health insurance problem. Rising health care costs and declining health has left companies struggling to provide the kind of health insurance employees had ten years ago.

One of the most critical success factors regarding how a company is run is dictated by the quality of human resources services.

Staff burnout, low morale and high turnover have been an ongoing challenge across all industries for years.

Employee engagement and culture issues are the number one challenge companies face around the world.