Employee referrals are the #1 source of quality candidates for the most successful organizations, resulting in faster hires, improved employee retention levels and higher profitability. While this might seem like common sense, employee referral programs are typically under-invested in when compared to other sourcing channels.

Businesses have long recognized the importance of delivering a differentiated and engaging experience for their customers. But as Millennials have surpassed Generation X to become the largest share of the American workforce, companies are now applying the same philosophy of creating memorable customer experiences to keep their own employees engaged and happy.

The right to marry a same sex partner in the U.S. is a fantastic development, but there are many more challenges ahead. You’re out in your personal life, but not at work and unfortunately this is commonplace as a leader in the business world. According to a 2014 study conducted by the advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, 53% of LGBT employees in the U.S. are closeted at work, and in terms of leadership, there are only a few openly gay executives and CEO’s, and Tim Cook is the only openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Admit it–you’ve never been quite sure if your time spent on LinkedIn was worth it. You keep your profile updated because everyone else is there, and you don’t want to miss out. But can you identify a single example of a substantive, tangible benefit you’ve received for all your efforts? Maybe you’ve made some contacts here and there, and maybe one of them indirectly led to something, but who can say for sure?

HackerRank, a fast-growing Palo Alto, Calif., company that helps corporations find top technical talent, is widening its global reach by attracting a $7.5 million infusion from the venture-capital arm of a major Japanese human-resources company, Recruit Holdings.

Job-seekers need great stories to tell at job interviews! Your interviewers will remember your stories way more than they’ll remember anything else you tell them. Your fantastic, evocative stories will keep you in the interviewer’s mind when their memories of other job candidates fade away.

At Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, NJ, the undergraduate class of 2014 did very well on the job market. Nearly three quarters of its 563 graduates are employed while 15% are in graduate school. The majority who’ve found jobs landed impressive starting salaries. Computer science majors, on average, were hired at $71,500, while the high salary for that major was $102,000. Chemical engineers also did well, with average starting salaries of $72,100 and a high of $100,000. One reason Stevens students get such well-paying jobs: almost the entire class majors in some subset of engineering or computer science.

A handful employees who perform at their peak is better than a dozen employees who operate at 50% efficiency. Yet, motivating employees to perform at their peak can be one of the biggest challenges business leaders face. I checked in with four successful CEOs to learn how they keep their teams productive. Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of research that supports their insights into workplace motivation.

Would you be surprised to find that one of the most important elements for improving recruitment, skill-building and operational efficiency in your startup or small business is the element of fun? As more and more companies make gamification a part of how they work, having fun—in the context of game playing—is becoming a big part […]

HR is experiencing a watershed moment. It’s not like the massive shift from virtual punchcards and e-forms to Cloud-based applications and analytics. It’s not the sudden appearance of millennials texting in the staff cafeteria, or the first Internet conference call. It’s the shift to a new paradigm: HR and Technology is essential to the success […]

For states looking to land on the positive end of this annual ranking, the lessons are simple: Offer healthy wages, manageable taxes, a low cost of living, and safe working environments. No extra points will be awarded for scenic beauty. “The big picture is good–the job market is getting better these days, we’ve even seen wage growth start to tick up. But it kind of breaks down a little when you start to look state by state,” said Richard Barrington, senior financial analyst for MoneyRates.com and author of the study.

In the rush to grow your startup, finding and hiring a great team is vital to its success. Execution is everything. My experience from Due, as well as the investments I have made, have taught me a lot about hiring for startups. Anyone who has ever directed or even gone through the hiring process knows it can be time-consuming and paper-intensive, often using up way more resources than necessary.