It’s the first week of May which means that caps will soon be flying in the air and college graduates will be entering the workforce. What these new workers may not know is that employers often have an unspoken expectation that graduates arrive job-ready on day one… Sounds pretty reasonable, right? But with advances in
It’s that time of year… There’s so much going on and it’s becoming difficult for you to stop and breathe. Kids are finishing up school, which entails end-of-year parties, standardized testing, and projects. Businesses are pushing to boost sales as the end of the second quarter quickly approaches. Summer vacations are booked. You may feel a
LeBron James: hate him or love him, you have to admit that he’s a talented basketball player. When he started out his career in Cleveland, he was a promising player. Unfortunately, his gifts were too much for the team since there wasn’t a support system to cultivate his “A” player qualities. After 7 years, James
The Institute of Fiscal Studies authored a study on tax systems in the UK called “Tax by Design: Mirrlees Review.” They concluded that “in the long-run, the tax system should be judged in part on its impact on the sustainable growth rate of the economy… viewing efficiency in a dynamic as well as static sense.” As we
Ever heard the term “margin compression”? Put simply, margin compression occurs when the costs to make a product or deliver a service rise faster than the sales price of the product or service. Hence, putting pressure on profit margins. Causes of Margin Compression There may be many causes of margin compression… Increased competition Internal production
Whether in response to low oil prices or simply in an effort to run leaner, companies across the globe are cutting jobs. Last week, Chevron announced that it plans to lay off roughly 10% of its workforce, roughly 6000 to 7000 workers, in 2016 to deal with the plunge in crude prices. Deutsche Bank recently
Recently, I was visiting with a potential client who had been the victim of fraud. Talking with him brought back unpleasant memories of the first time I discovered that one of my client’s employees had committed fraud against the company. Despite the fact that it happened a long time ago, all of the emotions associated with the
Many of you will recognize this video clip from the classic comedy Cheers where Woody, intending to ask for a raise, gets tricked into accepting (actually demanding) a job title instead. Do Job Titles Matter? So, do job titles matter? Under what circumstances would a sane person accept a title in lieu of a raise?
Seasonality can be brutal. If your business is like ours, summertime is pretty slow. The phones don’t ring, employees and clients are on vacation, nobody is available for appointments and not much happens in general. Even if summertime is busy in your industry, chances are that there are other times during the year that business
A wise man once said… “Life is simple, people complicate it.” The same wisdom holds true for business. If you take a look at the biggest headaches that you have to deal with on a daily basis, chances are good that the majority of them have to do with people. Dealing with People Problems So
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reports that employers are taking longer to pull the trigger on hiring decisions than in years past. According to the article: the average job in 2014 sat vacant for 27.3 days before filled; this is compared to only 15.3 days five years ago the average interview process
The new year is well under way and many of us are working with new, leaner budgets. When we were developing these plans at the end of 2019, it seemed completely realistic that we could cut costs while maintaining our current sales volume. Now that the holiday buzz has worn off and harsh reality has
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