Leaders can glean lessons on managing through crisis from the 25-year-old Thai soccer coach who was trapped in a cave with his players, Brenda Barbosa writes. The coach taught the boys to remain calm, took responsibility for his actions and sacrificed his food and water to keep the boys nourished, Barbosa writes.

Vendors are trying to make background checks more efficient while meeting regulations by integrating with client systems, speeding up the process and keeping job candidates updated. "The patchwork of regulations has heightened the environment of lawsuits and litigations, and employers are looking for more guidance from their providers," says Dawn Standerwick of Employment Screening Resources.

Unintended but unfair bias in pay can slip into a company's payroll unnoticed. Many companies, however, are taking steps to stamp out bias, and experts recommend ways to guard against it.

Improve your employee-referral program by offering a mobile experience, automating bonuses for referrals and making it easy to share job postings, writes Kes Thygesen, head of product at RolePoint. "The success of your program depends greatly on sending updates to employees about where their referred candidate is in the hiring process," Thygesen writes.

John Schnatter, founder of Papa John's, has resigned as chairman after using a racial slur during media training with the company's marketing agency. Schnatter admits using the slur while defending himself against backlash he received when he opposed NFL players' protests.

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