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Tips for Preparing for the R.E.T.U.R.N. to In-Person Work
If I could pick a theme song for this summer, it would be “Welcome Back,” a song by American rapper Mase. As vaccine rollout continues across the country, many professional organizations have been developing return-to-the-workplace plans and communicating to employees their plans that focus on office space, scheduling, and safety. That’s good news for people…
Three Rs of Creating a Strong Remote Culture
Although businesses are reopening at full capacity, the sudden shift to remote work due to COVID-19 has left a lasting impression on organizations. There are many benefits to remote work1 and a Gallup survey2 revealed that 59% of employees would like to continue working remotely. Leaders learned the importance of having an agile workforce and…
The Importance of Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace
With one in five U.S. adults experiencing mental health disorders in a given year, it’s important for organizations to understand how mental health impacts employees and the steps that can be taken to create a work environment that is supportive of mental health.1 Mental health and mental illnesses aren’t often talked about or addressed in…
FMP’s 30th Anniversary: Interview with the Owners
This year, FMP Consulting (FMP) is celebrating its 30th anniversary! To celebrate, FMP’s owners, Erin Pitera, Sherean Miller, and Carolyn Kurowski, sat down for a virtual interview to reflect on FMP’s journey and discuss what has led to FMP’s success over the past 30 years. What do you love about the work FMP does? What…
Blog Spotlight: Caren Young
Caren Young is the founder and president of The Professional Adult, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I) consulting firm, based out of Chicago, Illinois. Caren has been working with FMP over the past few months to evaluate our DE&I efforts, identify gaps, and provide recommendations for success. We recently sat down with Caren to discuss…
The River at Thirty
As we celebrate FMP’s 30th Anniversary, we’re sharing a number of different blog posts that reflect on our work, culture, and history. In this special post, Tim Barnhart, the founder of FMP, shares his perspective on FMP, past and present. I live in the Shenandoah Valley, with its beautiful, meandering river. Several decades ago, I studied philosophy. When I began to pull my thoughts together about…
Flashback February: A Journey to the ’90s
As you may have read in our last blog, this year marks FMP’s 30th anniversary. In preparation of celebrating this great milestone, we’re spending some time reflecting on the past. Before we had our open-layout office (which we miss dearly) and a growing workforce of 70+ employees, we were a small consulting firm of just…
What We Learned in 2020
At the end of a year, many organizations reflect on their work and their accomplishments. Some publish annual reports filled with tables, graphs, and stories describing their impact. They go into the new year excited to use new insights to do bigger and better things. But 2020 brought lessons that went deeper than the projects we worked on and our accomplishments. Amid the chaos, challenges, and grief…
The Importance of Celebrating Company Anniversaries — Kicking Off FMP’s 30th Birthday
As we begin the new year—especially this new year—we are looking forward to many things. A particularly exciting event here at FMP is our approaching 30th anniversary on March 4th. As the date nears, we’re reflecting on the importance of celebrating an anniversary, and what all that entails. Anniversaries are more than opportunities to recognize…
Flexible Paid Time Off: Before, During, and After COVID-19
Fall 2020 marked year four of flexible paid time off (PTO) at FMP Consulting. However, having begun my career at FMP in March 2017, I’ve never experienced anything different during my employment here. First, you may ask, ‘what is flexible PTO?’ I describe it as a type of PTO that gives employees the freedom to…