Employers are currently faced with a job market reflecting low unemployment rates, which means the power has shifted back to the talent. If you’re looking to enlist the hottest new talent out there, you’re going to have to give them what they expect of a modern company: comfort, respect, flexibility, and an ethical approach to … Read full-story
Retaining employees saves a company money, and for bottom-line oriented businesses, that’s reason enough. But a company that hosts a lot of long-time employees can also be assumed to be one that treats its workers fairly, keeps them occupied, and respects their individuality. Job seekers who find that company is known for great retention knows … Read full-story
Ending up with the right kind of culture is the bedrock of everything – and it isn’t always easy. When Reid Lappin, Founder & CEO of Chicago digital innovation agency Vokal, talks about company culture, what is easy to see is that the topic is something he is passionate about and takes seriously. As … Read full-story
Of all the many tensions one has to manage during a work day, the tension between wanting to take a break and not breaking with your work pace is always tricky. Most experts would attest that taking an hour break from your work for lunch is humane, rational, and just the kind of siesta one … Read full-story
A straight definition of mindfulness goes like this: It is “the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to experiences occurring in the present moment.” Not being mindful is an issue that – if one had to guess – only affects human beings. Other animals have no choice but to live in the moment, and it … Read full-story
The scouring of systematic and individual racism from the institutions of America is unfortunately an ongoing process. And racism in the workplace, where personal boundaries are different, is an especially ugly issue. While it feels that progress on this issue is being made in recent years, its clear from the below information that some groups … Read full-story
Many of could us a nap once in a while to recharge our batteries while at work, but it’s hard to find a company in this country where napping is encouraged or where nap spaces are provided. Asian countries seem to have initiated this practice in the popular imagination, but few American companies have picked … Read full-story
For most of us, jobs aren’t just about a reliable paycheck anymore. Increasingly, compensation outside of base salary is what keeps us with our jobs whether or not we feel passionate about the work otherwise. Our jobs pay for our medical bills, feed us, offer daycare for our children – some even give workers time off … Read full-story
An interview is an awfully short time to get a sense of who a job candidate is. And as we all know, simply having the right skills or job experience for the role in question doesn’t paint the picture you need to make a good decision on potential talent. What you really want is to … Read full-story
According to Wikipedia, soft skills are a set of skills that “enable people to navigate their environment, work well with others, perform well, and achieve their goals.” Almost none are taught in school, and almost all are taught by simply living life and noting how others prefer to be treated. Much is said about the … Read full-story
They’ve arrived: With this year’s graduating class, it’s fair to say that the Gen Z workforce is at the door of U.S. workplace culture. And make no mistake, these are not Millennials. In fact – as is often the case with successive generations – they are in some areas diametrically opposed to Millennials. The citizens … Read full-story
One thing we expect from every job we have is an opportunity for some form of advancement. A potential promotion is just the kind of dangled carrot that can eradicate feelings of meaningless and dreary repetition about the daily, weekly, and monthly duties of our current jobs. But not every employer was created equal in … Read full-story
Wanderlust sets in before too long, its part of human nature. Even the best and most satisfying can start to seem stifling to us when we get the idea in our head about the grass being greener elsewhere. It’s up to the company leaders to ensure that enough is done to make sure each and … Read full-story
Workplace culture is such a common concept now in the United States that it can still be bewildering when a workplace goes toxic. Everyone knows the kinds of things that need to happen to keep a happy, productive workforce on their toes, so why would any company fail to supply that groundwork? The answer seems … Read full-story
Most of us spend a large number of our waking hours at work, so the idea that we would let our careers take over any more of our lives than those normal daylight hours can be frustrating. Therefore, a strong work-life balance is always a going concern in the modern workplace. But not all work-life … Read full-story
Remote working will become more and more standard as the U.S. rolls ahead into the 21st century. Managing remote workers can be a challenge, as few of the standard management tactics employers are used to for dealing with in-house employees relate for an employee who is working on their own schedule at their own location. … Read full-story
Job interviews can become airless affairs, where both the person conducting the interview and the person being interviewed can lose track of what the goal is and, at worst, stop treating each other like human beings. Since the actual job – should the potential hire land it – will not resemble a police interrogation in … Read full-story
We all know about the fate of the best laid plans, but what is to explain the fact that the more years of work experience we accrue, the less we feel like we have a clear vision for the rest of our career? Stats below show that workers who had been on the job for … Read full-story
Maintaining a healthy work-life balance is the most important work-related benefit to those who responded to a question about how important that sense of personal equilibrium was when compared to similar benefits of a working life such as compensation, advancement, and stability. 34% of respondents said that a sense of work-life balance was the most important … Read full-story
There’s a difference between being challenged at work and being overwhelmed. We asked employees to anonymously answer the question, “Are you challenged at work?” While one might expect feelings of being challenged to decrease as one becomes accustomed to their role, our data shows that most workers remain challenged by their jobs throughout their careers. … Read full-story
American workers have been hearing rumors for years that automation processes – in other words, robots – were being built that would one day replace them. While we most often pictures automation taking over car production lines and factory machines, a robot could conceivably be built to do nearly anything a human could – although … Read full-story
Getting that initial job interview is a win all on its own. Presenting yourself as a stranger and raising enough interest in your talent to be asked to an interview means you know how to present yourself as a viable candidate to a company with a spot to fill. But how did that first interview … Read full-story
For all the appeal of being placed in the role of CEO, there’s no more visible position in the company – and you’re likely take the fall when and if business goes south. Everyone has an opinion about their CEO, and everyone feels justified in broadcasting it. We asked employees, “Do you approve of your … Read full-story
Artificial Intelligence has been threatening to take over the world for decades now, starting as a academic concept in 1956 and inspiring countless sci-fi stories in the following years. The idea was always that human intelligence is such a graspable system that it should be something a computer can simulate, and in the decades since … Read full-story
How strongly do employees feel that the companies they work for are totally open and honest with them about their financial standings and overall well being? Few would expect to be let in on all their company’s corporate secrets, but financial stamina is directly connected to each worker’s livelihood, so it’s a fair question to … Read full-story
Career satisfaction is a funny thing. Most of us have suspicions about how things might have gone differently for us so far. Most of us also passed up job opportunities at various points in our lives that we sometimes wonder if we should have taken. Until we’ve made it to the very top – if … Read full-story
We don’t just work to make money or have something to do or to fill up our days. We also work to get ahead. Workers tend to feel stagnant when they don’t see the possibility of real advancement up the road. Companies would do well to stoke their employees with that kind of hopeful encouragement, … Read full-story
The cliche goes that we need a job to pay for our lives, our cars, our kids, and our rent, and that in the end what it is we actually do at work – or what it is the company we work for actually produces – is a secondary concern for most in the blinding … Read full-story
No necessary element of our workday is potentially both less productive and more infuriating than the commute to and from the office. For some employees, a long commute may stack the deck against choosing a future with a particular company more than many other more traditionally accepted factors, like benefits and salary. We asked employees, … Read full-story
Being fired is a trauma that only the most hardened slacker could ever get used to. In your work life, being fired takes the place of that boogeyman who you were sure was hiding under your bed when you were a kid. It’s also a black mark on your record that you will have to … Read full-story
