There is a lot of debate going on right now around the future of office work. Work from home. Return to the office. Hybrid arrangements.

What will the future really look like?

Slack is a workplace communication tool worth over $20 billion. It's popularity has been largely fueled by its ability to adapt to user needs quickly and its slick, user-friendly design.

Maybe your company just did an employee engagement survey that came back with concerning results. Or perhaps the organization recently expanded, causing a greater need for tracking employee recognition digitally. Whatever your reason is, it can be intimidating when you first dive into the world of employee recognition.

Despite a historically critical attitude towards working from home, remote work has become more and more popular in countries across the globe. Research has shown a huge advantage for remote employees in terms of performance and productivity, with an almost 13% increase in performance over a nine-month period. For years, these studies continued to fuel the trend of companies moving to remote working and more flexible schedules for their employees.

Depending on the nature of the company you work for, creating and maintaining a healthy work-life balance can be extremely difficult. When you work on the clock and have set hours, it's a bit easier to mentally separate time at work and time for yourself. On the other hand, if you're a new lawyer or working at a startup, your working hours are bound to bleed into your personal life.

Employee engagement has been getting a lot of attention recently. From the well-known Gallup survey to articles in Forbes and beyond, it's a topic that has infiltrated the world of business. And for good reason, too.

Engaged employees have been shown to perform better, be less likely to quit, and be happier and more motivated. For companies, this translates into higher profitability with the same number of employees. It's a win-win.

With the frequency that we hear the terms "diversity" and "inclusion" today, it's fair to say these concepts have made their way into mainstream conversation. No longer confined to the Human Resources department, workplace diversity and inclusion are becoming key topics when discussing an overarching business strategy.

Whether you're a business leader, student, or mid-level employee, you probably want to feel confident and be successful. Generally, leaders are already fairly confident and are trying to encourage their teams so they feel more self-assured. On the other hand, many individuals still grapple with a lack of self-confidence.

No matter who you are, understanding the connection between recognition and confidence will help you find success. 

In a rising trend, many Fortune 500 companies have bid adieu to employee performance reviews, deeming them an outdated way to check in with employees. Adobe, GE, and many others have instead moved towards a system of more regular one-on-one check-ins with employees, where they examine their work around specific projects and progress towards development goals. “It’s liberating people,” says Donna Morris, senior vice president of global people resources at Adobe. “It has really helped to create teamwork instead of individualism, which is critical in a creative company.”

It’s an all-too-familiar scenario: a couple of disgruntled employees with a glass-half-empty outlook are constantly poisoning the well and spreading their unhappiness to the other workers. Team members find it difficult to trust one another, projects stagnate (or worse, implode), and productivity plummets.