Onboarding a remote employee requires a plan different from that of welcoming an in-person employee. Steps should include monitoring progress carefully and introducing employees to their team before work begins.

Try approaching your next presentation as "an intimate discussion" by your voice, gestures, eye contact and movement to create engagement and value, writes Stephanie Scotti, who offers 10 areas of potential improvement. "When you step up to speak, instead of trying to be flawless, focus on what's important to your audience and engage them in the conversation," she writes.

Five strategies can turn the move toward hybrid work into a transformation of office culture, experts say. Technological tools, early employee buy-in and tangible metrics are some of the ways "for companies to rethink how they work," says Megan Jarvis, an HR executive in Indianapolis.

Emergency savings accounts have emerged during the pandemic as a new employee benefit trend, with many employers seeking to attract and retain workers by offering incentives, company-funded interest rates or matching programs. Some 26% of employers surveyed by Willis Towers Watson already offer emergency savings accounts in their retirement plans, and 19% are likely to introduce them.

Charts that track different industry sectors are indicating a slackening in activity attributed to the spread of the coronavirus Delta variant. Statistics for domestic air travel, leisure and vacation bookings, restaurant dining, traditional retail sales and applications for jobs that entail close personal contact, such as child care, are showing a downturn.

New York City companies expect just 41% of their employees to be back in offices by the end of September, down from an expectation of 62% in May, according to a survey by the Partnership for New York City. The Delta variant has contributed to 44% of companies delaying return-to-office plans.

Difficult conversations are preferable to avoidance when it comes to race and diversity at work, writes Jill Perry-Smith from Emory University's Goizueta Business School. "Instead of pretending that race does not exist, it's time for business leaders to create environments that encourage authenticity and trust -- and build supportive team cultures that help teams reach these lofty aims," Perry-Smith writes.

While most people are familiar with the story of underprivileged young athletes leveraging college sports to become superstars, the reality is that such stories are few and far between. The reasons are many, but one of them is money. Researchers say kids who come from the top 20% in terms of socioeconomic status are far more likely to compete in college athletics than kids from the bottom 20% of socioeconomic status.