GreatWork Blog

Building better workplaces through compliance, culture, connection

The holiday season is a time of joy, celebration, and togetherness. As offices across the globe prepare for festive decorations and year-end parties, it's essential to recognize and embrace the diversity that exists within the workforce. This season provides a unique opportunity for fostering inclusion, understanding, and a sense of belonging among employees of various cultural backgrounds, traditions, and beliefs.

Recent law changes require updated employment posters for 2024. At Cascade you can get affordable, all-in-one, commonly required Federal/State employment and labor law posters - approximately 2' x 3' on heavy-duty glossy paper or high-quality laminate.

As part of our commitment to fostering a positive and inclusive work environment, every employee has an obligation to contribute to a culture of respect. One aspect that can undermine this culture is harmful gossip. The kind that is whispered or spoken behind someone’s back. The kind that is hurtful and harmful. Gossip can negatively impact morale, productivity, and overall workplace satisfaction and engagement. Employees have a collective responsibility to interrupt and address harmful gossip whenever they encounter it.

In today's rapidly changing world, embracing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is not just a moral imperative; it's a strategic move that can significantly transform your organization.

We know it’s tough to keep up with all of the changes that happen each year, but now is the time to make sure you’re ready for the new year.  Here are a couple of suggestions as we look at the end of 2023:

In the ever-evolving landscape of today's organizations, change is not just a possibility; it's a constant. Whether driven by technological advancements, market shifts, or global events, change is an inescapable reality for businesses of all sizes. To not just survive but thrive in this environment, leaders must master the art of adaptive leadership. The goal of adaptive leadership is to help organization’s stay resilient in challenging times.

Cascade’s new compensation platform, Payscale Peer, is now open for participation. Payscale Peer is an online compensation platform that collects regional and national data on 5,000 benchmark positions. Payscale Peer currently has 2,200 participants nationwide, representing over 6 million employees.

As you probably already know, Payscale Peer is replacing Cascade’s Regional Pay Survey.  We think you’ll love this new option.  Even better, it further enhances our Compensation Team’s resources to provide exceptional support for your strategic compensation challenges. We’ve been getting questions about how we plan to use Payscale to better help you in your compensation work, so we thought we’d give you some insights around the work our team does.

Cascade’s new compensation data platform, Payscale Peer, is now open for participation. Payscale is an online compensation platform that collects regional and national data on 5,000 benchmark positions. Payscale currently has 2,200 participants nationwide, representing over 6 million employees. This platform will be replacing Cascade’s traditional Regional Pay Survey in 2024.

As we move through 2023, annual reviews may be on the horizon or the current season in your organization's performance management process, which means compensation conversations will need to be held. Money can be emotionally charged and deeply personal.

Every now and then, as a leader, it’s going to be necessary for you to have a corrective action conversation with someone on your team. The very nature of these conversations often makes them difficult. Sadly, for many, the temptation is to avoid them and hope the issues will go away on their own. However, you cannot avoid or sweep corrective action conversations under the rug and hope they will disappear. The truth is that nothing dies under the rug.

We need you! Cascade’s fourth quarterly HR Trends Survey of 2023 is now open for participation. This survey collects data on key workplace issues related to compliance, recruitment and retention, compensation, DEI and leadership, which we track and report on throughout the year. In our latest edition, we are also asking the challenges of Paid Leave Oregon (PLO).

Cascade is partnering with the Employer Associations of American (EAA) to conduct the 2023-2024 National Business Trends Survey. This survey complies data on national, regional, and local business trends, covering issues such as staffing levels, hiring practices, cost cutting measures, and business outlooks. This year includes topical questions on recent business concerns, such as hybrid work policies and AI technology impacts.

Inclusive leadership is important for several reasons, as it fosters a more diverse and equitable workplace or community environment while driving better outcomes for organizations. Here are some key reasons why inclusive leadership is crucial.

Here is something to consider: Would you commit to purchasing an apple at the grocery store that didn't have a price tag? Maybe, depending on how much you needed the apple, or how much money you have to safely gamble on the unknown priced apple. Asking job seekers to search for a role without a salary listed on the job posting is not exactly the same situation, but a similar conundrum presents.

Cascade is excited to announce that the 2023 Northwest Employee Benefits report is now available! This regional survey report is a great resource for benefits and policy data for Oregon and Washington organizations that want to ensure their benefits and rewards are competitive in today’s market.

The 2022/23 Salary Budget Survey is here, and it is time to participate in Cascade’s annual salary increase survey!

This survey gauges pay adjustments – actual for the past year and projected for the upcoming year – for Oregon and Washington organizations. As employers focus more on employee retention and recruitment, now is the time to find out how other organizations are handling salary increases.

As employers continue to struggle to attract and retain employees, more and more are looking at their benefit programs and are getting creative. When Cascade started digging into this topic, a recurring question kept coming up: How can employers provide better support not only for current leaders and employees but also for employees who are brand new to the organization? 

The journey of pay transparency is a buzzing topic online these days with articles, including news briefs, thought pieces, opinion articles, and more. Pay transparency as a mandate has rapidly expanded into new local and state legislation, organizational best practices, and more in the last five years or so.

In the dynamic landscape of the modern workplace, feedback plays a critical role in fostering growth, enhancing performance, and nurturing a culture of continuous improvement. The exchange of feedback between managers, leaders, and employees is instrumental in unlocking untapped potential, aligning goals, and cultivating a collaborative environment.

The 2023 National Executive Compensation report is now available to purchase! A great source of national compensation data for executives across the United States, this report is a valuable resource for HR and compensation professionals in organizations with multiple locations or recruiters searching nationally. With employees being able to work remotely across the country and with the large hiring market, it is more important now than ever to make sure your compensation packages are not just competitive locally, but nationally too.

I was a participant in a coaching workshop the other day where the facilitators, while encouraging skill-development and coaching, kept referring to High Potential Leaders. You know, the HIPO folks, those with ability, engagement, and aspiration to rise up and succeed in more senior, critical positions. Are you targeting your HIPO people for growth and development? We certainly hope so.

You may be asking, “How can we spot and measure high potential? Do these HIPO employees look and act differently?”

Here are a few characteristics that you may observe:

• Require little direction.
• Produce high-quality work.
• Seek leadership responsibilities.
• Take initiative.
• Are invested in company goals.
• Have positive relationships.
• Are highly adaptable.
• Exhibit a competitive attitude.

Welcome to the final week of Membership Appreciation Month! Our Membership Trivia activity is just one of many ways you can earn entries in our month-end drawings, including a Grand Prize of a two night stay at The Atticus Hotel, a luxury lifestyle hotel in downtown McMinnville (a valued Cascade member), plus $100 Gift Certificate to Nick's Café.

The 2023 Northwest Employee Benefits Survey is here, and it is time to participate! Previously known as the Regional Benefits Survey, this Cascade survey is an in-depth review of organizations’ benefits and policies.

With the continued challenges related to recruitment and retention, access to reliable benefit data is more important than ever to make sure your benefit packages and organization policies are remaining competitive in a market where employees are expecting more.  

Welcome to week two of Membership Appreciation Month!

Our Membership Trivia activity is just one of many ways you can earn entries in our month-end drawings, including a Grand Prize of a two night stay at The Atticus Hotel, a luxury lifestyle hotel in downtown McMinnville (a valued Cascade member), plus a $100 Gift Certificate to Nick's Café.

This is the second of four weekly trivia activities. All answers can be found on our website (just a bit of hunting involved). As a bonus, here is a link to help you find the answer to the first question. Good Luck! 

Welcome to week two of Membership Appreciation Month! Our Membership Trivia activity is just one of many ways you can earn entries in our month-end drawings, including a Grand Prize of a two night stay at The Atticus Hotel, a luxury lifestyle hotel in downtown McMinnville (a valued Cascade member), plus $100 Gift Certificate to Nick's Café.

Welcome to week one of Membership Appreciation Month! Our Membership Trivia activity is just one of many ways you can earn entries in our month-end drawings, including a Grand Prize of a two night stay at The Atticus Hotel, a luxury lifestyle hotel in downtown McMinnville (a valued Cascade member), plus $100 Gift Certificate to Nick's Café.

The answer is simple: by belonging to Cascade Employers Association, or another HR consulting association, those in HR and leadership roles gain an advantage over others in the same roles elsewhere, because they have access to ongoing expertise and accurate guidance when they need it: in real-time, from familiar consultants, on a variety of subjects, and from a perspective that takes into account their specific industry and location(s) of doing business.

The 2023 Regional Pay Survey reports are now available! This year, 318 organizations participated from across Oregon and Washington, representing data for 24,353 employees.  From that data we were able to report on 377 positions overall.  Of the 318 participants, 113 were nonprofits, which resulted in 113 positions being reportable in the Nonprofit Report.