Mark LeBusque is a champion of humanizing the workplace. He spoke on how to purposefully create workplaces where people feel like they belong. Here were my 3 key takeaways.

When discussing enrolling in a retirement plan, it's incredibly important to speak in terms that will resonate with everyone in the room. Without universal appeal, you risk being a roadblock to someone's retirement. 

"Let's put it this way: if employment is a product, then what would the candidate want to buy?" said Juan Pablo Gonzalez, who works with companies to design compensation packages, among many other things, at Axiom Consulting Partners. He may have implied at a dinner party that a match or a retirement plan may not be the best investment for an employer's dollar...and I may have been mildly offended at first!

In 2012, one of my clients had asked everyone to take a pay cut, had discontinued their match, and was just trying to keep the doors open until the recession waned. Let’s talk about how culture helped them stay afloat.

I love working with the Jones Company of Tennessee! In January I was fortunate to attend their company-wide meeting to hear how 2014 closed out and how they were preparing for 2015. I always root for my clients' success, but it was great to hear how this business had managed to wait out the recession (with every employee job retained no less) and was coming back with a vengeance.