Everyone says they want innovation in their organization, but when an ambitious employee offers it, the idea is often shot down. Senior leaders often miss the value-creating potential of a new concept because they either don’t take the time to really listen and delve into it, or the innovating employee presents it in the wrong way.

Considering some alarming recent practices, employers need to understand current U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) actions and trends and what areas may leave them particularly vulnerable to scrutiny.

As a HVAC business owner, you may wonder how much consumers pay attention to online reviews when selecting HVAC and other home services providers. According to a new survey from Software Advice, the answer appears to be: quite a bit.

For employers, a growing number of legal cases demonstrates the challenges with maintaining a safe, efficient workforce amidst the increasing number of states that have legalized medical and recreational marijuana.

In part one of this series, I discussed how Facebook, Google+, Twitter, and Pinterest can help your HVAC business grow. Now that you understand a little more about social networks, I want to take the time to share some general best practices for using social media and some platform-specific strategies that I’ve found work well. 

Navigating the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) has always been a challenge for employers. The FLSA is a comprehensive national statute governing how to properly pay employees, and it has only gotten more complicated in recent years.

After years of hard work, you’ve built the family business into a great success and you take pride in meeting the challenges that each day brings. At some point, though, the day arrives when it’s time to turn the reins over to the next generation.

When employees curse excessively in the workplace, or even a little bit, some companies may want to use their own “f-word” — as in “firing.” Others may barely notice, and some may not want to deal with it. Yet employers need to carefully consider their responses to profane and obscene language in the workplace. 

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed some outside-of-the-box marketing techniques that I have tried with my HVAC business that have proven to be successful. The bottom line is that, whatever marketing techniques you try, you will only find success if you measure these efforts and determine if they are truly helping your business.

When California Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed legislation requiring paid sick days for millions of workers across the state, he declared it a victory for employees. While Brown touted the benefits of the new law for employees, the California Chamber of Commerce named it one of the state’s top “job killers.”