Trustworthiness Is the Most Underrated Asset in Business
Eric Ries was at dinner with friends in a city where he didn't live. Someone had recommended the restaurant. They sat down, took one bite, and a...
Employee Spotlight: Sam O’Neil on Problem Solving, First Impressions, and Film
One of my favorite things about our team is that it is full of people who genuinely love solving problems. Sam O’Neil, one of our Employee...
A Big Day for Oregon Workplaces
On May 7th, the Portland Business Journal honored a remarkable group of Oregon employers and HR professionals at its annual HR Leadership Summit and...
What a Productivity Company’s People Strategy Can Teach the Rest of Us
When Mandy Mekhail joined ClickUp in November 2020, the company had fewer than 100 functional employees and exactly two open roles: customer support...
The Creativity Deficit: Why AI Can’t Fix What’s Already Broken
There's a question I keep coming back to lately, one that's been gnawing at me through every AI conversation I've had with business leaders,...
Meet Taylor Monroe, Onsite HR Generalist
Taylor is one of our Onsite HR Generalists, embedded with Wunderland to support their team day to day. What I appreciate most about working with her...
The Skills Gap We’re Talking About Isn’t the One We’re Solving
When I sat down with Krista DiGiacomo, who owns an Express Employment Professionals office in Vancouver, Washington, I wanted a ground-level read on...
The Difference Between Leading on Good Days and Leading on Bad Ones
The day James Ferguson got diagnosed with cancer, he also got a call that he was being let go from his job. Within the first week of his...
On-Demand Pay That Actually Helps Your People
Most employees do not need a raise to feel less stressed about money. They need access to the money they have already earned.
That is the problem on-demand pay solves. And it is one of the reasons we hosted a recent webinar with our partners at ZayZoon to walk through how the platform works, what it costs, and what employers should know before turning it on.
Here is a quick recap of what we covered. The full recording is embedded below.
The Mental Health Advantage: Why Proactive Care Is Becoming a Performance Strategy
For most organizations, mental health exists as a quiet undercurrent. It’s acknowledged in benefits packages, referenced in leadership messaging,...
Meet Alyssa Munoz, Director of Payroll and Tax
Alyssa runs one of the most demanding parts of Xenium, and she does it with steadiness, care, and a good sense of humor about the unexpected path...
Well-Being Is the Strategy: Why Human Performance Will Define the Next Era of Work
For years, organizations have treated employee well-being as a supporting function. It’s lived in HR initiatives, benefits packages, and culture...
Use AI as a Communication Coach, Not a Ghostwriter
AI can help you write almost anything in seconds. That is part of the problem. When it comes to workplace communication, the fastest message isn't...
Why Your Engagement Strategy Isn’t Working
Aoife O'Brien spent 20 years inside corporate organizations. Some of those years were good. Others left her sitting at her desk watching managers...
The Canary in Your Culture: What Neurodivergent Employees Reveal About the Workplace We’ve Built
There’s a moment from a live concert that’s hard to forget. Lewis Capaldi stands on stage at Glastonbury Festival, trying to finish a song. His...
Love Is the Most Powerful Force in Business. Most Leaders Are Designing It Out.
Marcus Buckingham has spent over 25 years studying what makes people thrive at work. He co-created StrengthsFinder, built his career at Gallup, and...
The Overlooked Skill in Leadership Development
Ironically, most leadership failures begin with success, not incompetence. High performers rise quickly because they’re smart, reliable, and driven....
The Labor Shortage Is Here. AI Won’t Fix It the Way You Think.
For years, economists warned that Baby Boomer retirements would reshape the American labor market. Most business leaders nodded along. Then they...
When Success Masks a Struggle: The Rise of High-Functioning Alcoholism
Most people still carry a very specific image of what alcoholism looks like. It’s dramatic, visible, and hard to miss. It shows up in missed work,...
What Leaders Get Wrong About Helping Their Struggling People
Most leaders I know got promoted because they were good at solving problems. They were the ones with answers. The ones who could see what was broken...
The “Beekeeper” Mindset: How AI Is Redefining the Future of Work
Artificial intelligence conversations tend to swing between two emotional poles. On one side there’s excitement about limitless productivity and...
Employee Spotlight: Getting to Know Sullivan Stout
I’m excited to feature Sullivan Stout in our latest Employee Spotlight. As an HR Representative, Sulley is a key part of our Business Partner Team...
What Leaders Can Learn From HR’s Meme Culture
Human resources professionals often find themselves in a unique position inside organizations. Leaders rely on them for guidance, compliance, and...
The Growth Strategy Hiding Inside Delegation
There’s a moment many leaders don’t admit out loud. You’re working harder on someone else’s career than they are, and the more you try to fix it,...
Employee Spotlight: Sarah Short on Accuracy, Teamwork, and Why Payroll Matters
If there’s one thing you quickly learn working with Sarah Short, it’s that payroll is deeply human work. Sarah brings precision, calm leadership,...
The Quiet Crisis No One Is Solving: Leadership Mental Health
There is a contradiction at the center of modern leadership that most organizations refuse to acknowledge. We ask leaders to carry extraordinary...
The Biology of Trust at Work with Dr. Paul Zak
Most leaders say they value trust. It shows up in mission statements, leadership principles, and internal messaging. But when trust breaks down,...
Why Your Best People Are Burning Out (and What Leaders Can Do About It)
Guy Winch is a licensed psychologist, author, and one of the most-watched TED speakers on emotional health. His latest book, Mind Over Grind: How to...
Designing Meetings That Actually Get Work Done
Meetings are supposed to be where work happens. Decisions get made. Priorities get set. Alignment either clicks into place or quietly unravels. And...
Service Excellence Is Earned, Not Claimed
Each year, I remind our team of a simple truth. How our clients feel about working with us matters. A lot. That belief is why I’m incredibly proud...
Employee Spotlight: Claire Tangvald on Human Connection, Adaptability, and Growth
Claire Tangvald brings calm, care, and clarity to some of the most personal moments our clients and their employees experience. In her...
The Magic of Imperfection: Why Three-Quarters Baked Work Unlocks Innovation
Perfectionism has a good reputation in the workplace. It signals high standards, discipline, and care. But in practice, it often does the opposite...
Giving Feedback to Your Manager With Clarity and Confidence
Giving feedback to your manager can feel awkward. Power dynamics are real, and when trust is still building, it is easy to second-guess yourself or stay quiet. But healthy working relationships require open dialogue in both directions. Upward feedback is not disrespectful. It is often necessary.
In this installment of the Transform Your Workplace video series, we focus on how to give your manager feedback in a calm, clear, and collaborative way. The microlearning video embedded below walks through a simple approach to help you prepare and speak up effectively.
Why People-First Leadership Still Works in Brick-and-Mortar Retail
When Brianne Mees started Tender Loving Empire in 2007, she spent most days behind a small retail counter, learning in real time what it meant to...
Using Curiosity to Navigate Difficult Conversations
Let’s start with a simple truth. A difficult conversation is not just one that feels uncomfortable. It is one in which understanding, or the...
The Quiet Work of Human-Centered Leadership
Nae Hakala works as an HR business partner here at Xenium and consults with organizations navigating complex people challenges. Over the course of...
Why Compensation Structure Isn’t Optional Anymore
For years, many organizations have gotten by making pay decisions on the fly—reacting to what candidates ask for, matching counteroffers, or relying...
How to Prepare for Difficult Conversations Using the PACE Framework
Let’s be real. Difficult conversations are part of leadership. Whether you’re advocating for your team, negotiating a role or pay change, or giving...
Employee Spotlight: Kasey Miller on Consultative Sales, Variety, and Growing Xenium’s Reach
If you’ve ever wondered how a company first gets to know Xenium, chances are the conversation starts with Kasey Miller. Kasey has a rare...
How to Build a Future-Ready Organization
Jacob Morgan hadn’t planned to write a new book. Instead, he’d planned an update of his 2017 book, The Employee Experience Advantage. When Wiley...
How to Build a Human-Centric Culture in High-Performance Workplaces
Kate McKinnon has spent her career inside organizations where culture doesn’t get the luxury of being theoretical. These are environments where...
The Case for Curiosity: Why Wonder Might Be the Most Undervalued Skill in the Modern Workplace
There’s a quiet truth about adulthood that rarely gets said out loud. Most of us stopped being curious a long time ago. We traded why for...
Employee Spotlight: Annie Oxenfeld
When I sat down with Annie Oxenfeld, I was reminded why her perspective carries so much weight at Xenium. With over a decade of experience here and...
Return-to-Office Can’t Fix Broken Work
For the past few years, leaders across industries have clung to a deceptively simple idea: if people just come back to the office, innovation,...
Catching People Doing Things Right: The Leadership Legacy of Ken Blanchard
When I sat down with Martha Lawrence on the day she launched Catch People Doing Things Right: How Ken Blanchard Changed the Way the World Leads, it...
When Caregiving Comes to Work: What Leaders Need to Know About Alzheimer’s, Dementia, and the People They Impact
For most of us, Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia exist at a distance until the day they don’t. A parent repeats the same question three times...
Why HR Leaders Are Burning Out—and How to Stop Absorbing the Shock
Human Resources has shifted from an administrative oversight role to a strategic partner, and now, amidst economic and workforce shifts, HR leaders...
Leaders Who Ignore Their Inner World Eventually Hit a Wall. Here Is How to Change Course.
Most leaders burn out not due to lack of skill or ambition, but because they stop listening to themselves. They trade intuition for output,...
Designing in Layers: How an Architect-CEO Builds Creative, High-Growth Organizations
The Art and Architecture of Leadership When Larry Armstrong talks about leadership, he doesn’t reach for a spreadsheet or an org chart. Instead, he...
Employee Spotlight: Leading with Precision and Purpose — Meet Our Director of Business Operations, Dena Laws
When you think of the engine that keeps Xenium running smoothly behind the scenes, you’re thinking of Dena. She leads with a calm, analytical...
Out of Sight, Still Essential: Reconnecting with the Frontline Workforce
When communication strategist Victoria Dew discusses workforce communication, she describes two parallel realities that rarely intersect. During...