Soft skills are essential for successful professional development. According to Stanford Research Institute International and the Carnegie Mellon Foundation, 75% of long-term job success depends on soft skills.

It can be a daunting task if you are looking to implement a new background screening program or seeking a new background check provider. A Google search on “background check providers” produces 229,000 results. That’s a lot of potential companies!

At this point, you may already be familiar with popular virtual assistant technologies such as Siri or Alexa. These Artificially Intelligent (AI) virtual assistants can do an array of tasks in an instant. Checking the weather, playing music, finding directions, and reading the news are all tasks that can be done simply by prompting the tabletop device in your home. Which brings the question, if these devices can help people every day in their homes, what are the ways they can bring AI into their workplace?

Despite ongoing delays in getting Ohio’s medical marijuana program up and fully functioning, the question of what the introduction/implementation of medical marijuana laws in 26 states requires of employers has loomed large in HR departments across the country. ERC recently conducted a brief poll in order to get a pulse on what steps employers are really taking, or not taking, to adjust their organization’s drug policies under these laws.

Developing an annual HR budget may become monotonous when line items stay the same year after year. Shake things up and give your budget the refresher it so desperately needs. Reexamine your budget with a new mindset and ensure it includes your actual departmental needs.

Below, Tara Motheral, HR Advisor at ERC, discusses medical marijuana and its impact on workplaces throughout Ohio.

Every year, nearly 2 million American workers are reported victims of workplace violence. Workplace violence covers a wide range of acts or threats that are disruptive to the inside or outside of a workplace. Exposure to workplace violence or a lack of security may lower employees’ morale, leaving them feeling disengaged and unproductive. This is a rapidly growing concern for organizations worldwide, and we encourage seeking proper training to prevent and protect employees from possibly hostile situations.

With recruiting talent constantly on the do-list for most organizations, the laundry list of recruiting tools in Figure 1 below probably looks familiar. In short, employers are most likely using a healthy combination of online recruiting, relationship based recruiting, and connections to the career services centers at higher education institutions to search for their talent.  

Editor's note: This article was originally published in February 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.