We are advocates of celebrating new hires, however we have never given much insight on what to do when someone leaves the company. We recently had one of our most charasmatic employees leave the 'ville and  couldn't let her leave without throwing her a little shindig! Readers, meet Brenda: she wanted to share with you what her and her fellow team members did to celebrate their manager's last day!

July 20-26, 2014 is National Independent Retailers Week. This is a fancy name for the locally-owned businesses in your town. It's the general store down the street, the bakery around the corner, your favorite boutique or gallery to visit for just the right gift. Oftentimes you can count on speaking with the owner or seeing him or her getting their hands dirty to bring you the best product and experience you could hope for when you visit. 

Baudville is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan . If you've never been to Michigan's west coast in the summer, I highly recommend it as a summer vacation destination. We've got some of the best fresh water beaches, great dining, and some fantastic boutiques!

Given that it's so awesome outside, it's not easy to spend the few weeks of sun and fun that we have sitting behind our desks! Much to our surprise, a few weeks ago our CEO announced that we are going to pilot a summer hours program in order to enjoy a little more outside time with our friends and loved ones!

Our SHRM booth team continues to download their learnings from this year's annual conference, and the next big takeaway is that everyone is tired of the same old, same old. Managers are tired of giving worn out, dated recognition, employees are bored of receiving it, and HR leaders are exhausted cheerleading for it.