Personnel policies

The ROI data will surprise you, and the softer evidence may inspire you.

You’ve decided to start a company. Your business plan is based on sound strategy and thorough market research. Your background and training have prepared you for the challenge. Now you must assemble the quality management team that venture investors demand. So you begin the search for a topflight engineer to head product development and a […]

Companies just need the right programs.

Visit our special section on Health and Well-Being, created in association with Harvard Health Publications, and focused on one of the most important topics facing executives today: their health. Tense negotiations have been under way for three hours without a break, and they aren’t over by a long shot. By the end of the day, […]

The personnel benefits outweigh the financial costs.

No doubt about it, the top managers in this fictitious case study agree, Wellington Associates is a great place to work. Analysts at the high-tech consulting...

A study found it increases the employee's well-being and productivity.

In these days of low unemployment, many corporate and other organizations find it necessary to track the whereabouts and profiles of underused sectors of the labor pool. One sector seldom tapped by business has an unemployment rate as high as 70%—even though the advent of new data-processing technology has opened a window of opportunity for […]

Trans people often experience stigma and discrimination, hostility from others, and pressure to "manage" their identities in social settings, including...

A wounded-but-wiser AT&T veteran recounts how one of the world’s biggest and best-known companies became one of its most battered—and explains how others can avoid that fate.

We have an opportunity to recalibrate our work-life expectations.

Agile isn't just for tech anymore--it's transforming how organizations hire, develop, and manage their people. The lead article in this package discusses...

Only 20% of employees with disabilities feel that their workplace culture is fully committed to helping them thrive and succeed, according to a recent...

More than two decades have passed since affirmative action became law, thrusting the issue of racial diversity in the workplace into the open—and often into the crossfire. Today both government statistics and anecdotal evidence suggest that people of color make up a larger percentage of senior managers than at any point in the past. […]

Walmart has embraced a new approach to improve the quality of care and lower costs. The results have been dramatic.

At age 74, Yoshiko Shinohara is a towering figure in Japanese business. She has created a wealth of job opportunities, including many for women, by founding the temporary-staffing agency Tempstaff and lobbying to strike down laws that stifled the temp industry. Tempstaff now has approximately 3,300 employees and is a public company. For the past […]

Language pervades every aspect of organizational life. Yet leaders of global organizations--where unrestricted multilingualism can create friction--often...

As organizations continue to explore a variety of flexible work options, one promising avenue is the four-day workweek: The standard 40 hours per week...

The debate over ROI has overlooked chronically ill and at-risk employees.

Working parents aren’t the only ones who need flex time.