Employee Communication Skills and Company Success
They are referred to in different ways – communications skills, personality traits, soft skills. But whatever they are called, recent studies have shown that they are just as important to a company’s success as other more quantifiable business skills. About 75 percent of those surveyed identified these employee skills as necessary to success. These skills Read more »
Why the “Overqualified” Candidate May be Your Best Candidate
If you are an employer and, in the course of your recruiting, you come across applicants who seem to have more education and experience than are required for the job, don’t reject them out of hand. As a matter of fact, give them serious consideration. As much as this seems to intuitively go against the Read more »
How to Handle the Office Party
The office party. It’s meant to help boost morale and help people get to know each other better. But it can also present challenges – a tricky maze to navigate. What workers should always keep in mind about the office party is that it is another aspect of the workplace, and they should act with Read more »
U.S. Firms Lag in Assisting Employees with Work/Life Balance
Companies in the United States do well in handling problems of discrimination in the workplace, but they don’t rate quite as well in aiding employees’ family life. That was the result of a recent study that compared U.S. companies with other firms in 173 countries on their guidelines for working families. The study used information Read more »
Market for Online Learning Growing
The market for online learning — where users go at their own pace and on their own schedule — has been growing constantly, led by the corporate sector, one of the top users of online training. Small- and medium-size businesses also are using online training much more than in the past. According to a recent Read more »
Health and the Workplace
According to a recent survey on employee health, workers could do more at work to eat better and be more active, while employers could improve workers’ health by doing more to encourage healthy lifestyles. The issue has become important because about three-fourths of Americans will be overweight by 2015, according to healthcare experts. And the Read more »
Changing Careers
Taking on a new career path is more prevalent now than in the past. Different reasons have been given for this – the rise technology, the pace of change. The days when someone spent their entire career at one company or in one job are certainly becoming less common. People change jobs for many reasons. Read more »
E-mail: Gossiping and Wasting Time at Work
Waaaay back in 2007 (remember those halcyon days, pre-recession?) a survey by the company MessageGate, Inc. found that employees considered e-mail systems the most important “corporate workflow tool.” Still, it also was a tool that helped employees “exercise poor judgment in its use,” and increased costs as well as business and legal risks. We can Read more »
Creating a New Year’s Career Resolution and Following Through
With the new year just begun, many people may have made a career resolution or two: “This year, I’ll get at least a five percent raise.” “This year, I’ll go to my boss before June and ask for a promotion.” And, while these certainly can be worthwhile plans, resolutions of any type too often fall Read more »
Perk Power
On-the-job perks can be very powerful when it comes to recruiting and even retaining employees. Let us count the ways: 1) When employees feel they are being “taken care of by their employers” (more on this in a moment) the more likely they are to recommend your company to their friends, neighbors and former colleagues. Read more »