With the growing popularity of remote and hybrid work, leaders need to understand how remote work can affect team building and learn about activities that can strengthen relationships. Leaders must create a virtual culture that encourages employees to build authentic connections and an environment where employees are excited to come together and collaborate, no matter their time zone and geographical area.

Soon, it will be 2023, and with it comes deciding on employee benefits that not only help you attract new employees but retain your current ones. Your peers and colleagues are keeping this top of mind, as a study shows that 53% of small business employers and 70% of large business employers are already planning to up or enhance their benefits offerings.

Here are five benefits trends to keep an eye on in 2023.

A toxic work environment can hit any business with lethal force, driving up turnover rates, reducing productivity, and damaging reputation. Despite our best effort, toxic behaviors can often creep into our teams unnoticed. They can be subtle—even unintentional—but their existence will only solidify if they aren’t addressed. One of the most impactful things you can do to maintain a positive company culture and work environment is to address it consistently.

Whether you're a B2B or B2C company, you've got customers and an audience. And it's their happiness, satisfaction, and loyalty that will ensure your long-term success. You've got a great product they love and great sales and services teams, but that isn't enough to ensure your customer has a good experience with your company.

All too often, the person on the other side of the phone, screen, or table is inundated with unnecessary, complicated, confusing, and overwhelming information. And this can happen without you ever knowing it. Scary!

"Quiet quitting" is the hottest new buzzword and trend. You see articles written about how more and more employees are quietly quitting and how employers are concerned about this "new trend" and its effect on their business.

But quiet quitting isn't new. It's a new term for an old behavior.

When it comes to risk management, most small businesses are primarily concerned with labor and safety compliance. They take steps to ensure their workplace is free of harassment and damaging practices, ensure their employees are paid correctly and treated fairly, and keep their workplace safe. But in today’s highly digital world, it’s just as important to take risk management into the digital sphere.

A good indicator of a strong workplace culture is its commitment to diversity and inclusion, where your employees feel comfortable coming to you to voice their opinions and concerns. When employees work in an environment where they feel valued, productivity increases.

Employees with disabilities contribute to the workplace in many ways, and National Disability Employment Awareness Month recognizes this.

In a work culture where one out of three people don’t trust their employers, it shows that trust is hard to build and easy to destroy. But what is trust, exactly?

Employees are the fuel that runs your business. If you want your company to run well, you need to be able to recruit talented employees and keep them happy. And while this might seem like a significant investment of time and resources, it's nothing compared to the cost of caustic employees and constant turnover. And if that's not enough of a convincer, consider this: Companies with happy employees have happier customers.

When employees thrive, the company thrives – making it critical that leaders put their people first. After all, people are at the heart of every organization!