GreatWork Blog

Building better workplaces through compliance, culture, connection

With some of the lowest unemployment rates in history, the job market is a highly competitive one. This competitive market can increase confidence among workers about changing jobs. With wages continuously increasing due to the tight labor market, it is imperative to ensure that companies are paying market competitively to retain and attract top talent.

Whoever coined the phrase “where there’s a will, there’s a way,” obviously knew something about the power of human determination, and perhaps knew the “founding mothers” of Willamette Humane Society. Did you know…

Gallup’s Q12, a twelve question survey administered to employees to measure engagement, has been around since 1996. Since that time tens of millions of employees from 195 countries have taken it. Every single question focuses on managerial or team soft skills rather than salary or benefits.

This Tillamook, Oregon employer produces over 100 varieties of top quality meat snacks, trail mixes, roasted nuts and candies. 

In an ongoing effort to provide valuable, relevant, and comprehensive market wage data within the Oregon Regional Pay Survey, Cascade is excited to share a few recent survey changes.

Nudges are a small feature in the environment that attracts our attention and influences our behavior. Nudges are everywhere.

With small and large group health insurance premiums continuing to rise, savvy employers look for ways to control costs while maintaining benefit value for their employees.

Conflict. Just the word itself is enough to make many of us feel uncomfortable. It conjures images of yelling, hurt feelings and damaged relationships. However, not all conflict is bad.

At Cascade Employers Association we don’t sell mattresses, but we make the same promise of a better night’s sleep. Feedback from our members (executives, supervisors and HR professionals) tells us that they simply sleep better than non-members.

“After all this time as a manager you would think I would be better at managing transition. After all, I have been through about a million changes.”

For 110 years, Tillamook County’s largest employer has stood behind the honest values of their farmer-owners. It’s from them they’ve learned passion can’t be faked, hard work can’t be outsmarted and real food is worth fighting for.

No matter your age, you probably have lots of questions and concerns about saving for retirement. How to save for it, what options are available, and, most importantly, how much money should you be socking away?

One of my favorite concepts regarding leadership development is about the interrelated concept of power. Leadership and power go hand in hand.

We are at a time in history where we no longer need to “create” jobs for individuals with a disability. There are business needs that already exist in our communities. And statistically, people with disabilities stay at their jobs longer and have better-than-average attendance.

Our doors are open today but the phones are quiet. Call us!

There is a local healthcare facility we know of that has been training all of their managers in Collaborative Problem Solving – a popular model for helping groups understand and solve problems. 

Considering that most of us spend more than 2000 hours per year at our jobs, it would be great if we loved what we did. “Doing what you love” is typically at the heart of those who choose to work for nonprofit organizations.

It’s all the rage in the world of human resources . . . Pay Equity! You have heard about it. Stressed about it. Maybe even cried about it. By following some consistent steps, you will get through this with flying colors.

I’ve been taught to ask extra questions to get to the core of workplace issues. Sometimes I forget.

The last year had its share of dark times, but periods of volatility, poor returns, economic downturns, and geopolitical chaos are inevitable and, in the end, create the opportunities that allow fundamental strategies to work. Just like water doesn’t instantly vaporize, but instead needs to first boil and churn to transform into rising steam, transitions in capital markets are painfully chaotic in the short term. But this “phase transition,” to borrow a term from physics, is ultimately necessary to move us to a new state. 

Over the years in our Train the Trainer sessions we have had some of the most remarkable and fun sample trainings. 

Nearly one hundred executives throughout Oregon recently provided their business projections for 2019 in the National Business Trends Survey. The preliminary results show a mixture of confidence and anticipated business challenges, with the majority of executives reporting optimism for the New Year.

Resolve this year to improve the quality and effectiveness of your workplace conversations by challenging everything. Well, don’t challenge everything. That would take too long. But it may really pay off to work with your supervisory team to improve critical thinking.

This sixth generation farm is located in the Silverton Hills of Oregon. Did you know…