Google.org Fellowship is an initiative that lets employees take paid sabbaticals, up to six months, to work with nonprofits on special projects. The first formal fellowship class will work with Goodwill Industries to create a data strategy that helps identify effective programs operating within the organization's various chapters.

Hiring from within your organization is a good way to nurture retention and encourage employee growth, KiSSFLOW CEO Suresh Sambandam writes. Sambandam outlines three steps leaders should take when looking to make an internal hire, including talking one-on-one to employees about open positions and why he or she might be a good fit.

An increasing number of employers are offering to contribute to paying on employees' student loans, from $50 a month at Alabama Credit Union to $2,000 a year at Aetna. With companies struggling to find qualified employees, student loan debt payoff has become an attractive benefit to help reel in quality workers.

The Associated General Contractors of America is launching a nationwide campaign to bolster diversity in the construction industry by providing more vocational training for high-school students and mentorship programs for college students. Part of the challenge the industry faces is the perception of vocational careers as "less than optimal," says Mike Elmendorf, president of AGC of New York State.

Managers connect people to an organization's goals by following a modified version of the SMART criteria, writes Burl Stamp, a consulting firm president. Project goals should be specific, meaningful, agreed-upon, realistic and tracked, and he offers an example of each quality.