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Every year for the past ten years, Glassdoor announces the top places to work all across North America and parts of Europe. The most unique part of this award? You can only win the award if your employees say so. Glassdoor's methodology for the award includes a collection of anonymous company reviews where employees share their honest opinion on pros and cons of working for the company, overall satisfaction, the CEO, and workplace attributes. They're also asked if they would recommend their employer to a friend. It's a juicy turn of the tables. Within the top 100 best places to work for, the industries that came out on top were tech, retail, healthcare, consulting, finance, and travel and tourism. The top cities included the Bay Area, Boston, and Los Angeles (just to name a few). So, what does it take to be the top of the top?
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The vast majority of humans throughout history worked because they had to. Many found comfort, value, and meaning in their efforts, but some defined work as a necessity to be avoided if possible. For centuries, elites in societies from Europe to Asia aspired to absolution from gainful employment. Aristotle defined a “man in freedom” as the pinnacle of human existence, an individual freed of any concern for the necessities of life and with nearly complete personal agency. (Tellingly, he did not define wealthy merchants as free to the extent that their minds were pre-occupied with acquisition.) The promise of AI and automation raises new questions about the role of work in our lives. Most of us will remain focused for decades to come on activities of physical or financial production, but as technology provides services and goods at ever-lower cost, human beings will be compelled to discover new roles — roles that aren’t necessarily tied to how we conceive of work today.
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Forget slogans and posters. Forget mission statements. Forget culture decks. A survey of over 400,000 people across the U.S. found that when employees believe promotions are managed effectively, they are more than two times as likely to give extra effort at work -- and to plan for having a long-term future with their company. But wait, there's more: When employees believe promotions are managed effectively, they are more than five times as likely to believe their leaders act with integrity. The result? At those companies, employee turnover rates are half that of other companies in the same industry. Productivity, innovation, and growth metrics outperform the competition. For public companies, stock returns are almost three times the market average.
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It’s that time of year when many of us get motivated to make ourselves better—healthier, wealthier, wiser, or just different—in the new year. Roughly six in 10 of us make New Year’s resolutions, according to a 2016 Harris poll. But following through on those goals isn’t easy. Roughly half of those who are earnestly vowing to make improvements in 2018 are likely dusting off the same list they had last year. So if you want to actually accomplish those goals—or at least make a dent in them—by this time next year, use these five approaches.
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It’s no surprise that Google, now part of Alphabet, loves data, and the company’s execs frequently share the revelations they find, such as their insights on mobile web use. But some of us would be surprised to discover that this unicorn company often turns its eye inward, analyzing information about its people to help improve its operations. A group of employees from Google’s People Operations section, the equivalent of an HR department, decided to complete an analysis to answer one question: What makes a Google team effective? Here’s a look at their approach and the startling revelations they had along the way.
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There’s a lot of discussion about what makes a person successful. Some say it’s the people you know or your network. Others say it’s all about how you organize your day and your priorities. Others say it’s innate personality characteristics. All of the things listed above are extremely important. And, we wanted to know what really creates true greatness in people—where their work is so good that they win awards for it.
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Whenever any new technology emerges that challenges the way people and businesses have been doing things for years or even decades, the initial excitement is often overshadowed by uncertainty and reluctance to try something new. In the early days of the cloud, it was almost inconceivable to think that it would lead to such a profound shift in how businesses operate. More recently, the drive toward digital transformation has caused even greater anxiety in some organizations. In this age of digital transformation, all industries -- from manufacturing and banking to hospitality and retail -- are evolving. This means that decision makers must identify key business issues, not technology issues, that digital transformation can tackle. Companies need to not only harness the power of the latest digital technologies and platforms to stay relevant and competitive but also course-correct their business models based on evolving customer demands. This type of transformation should be seen as a journey, not a destination. It is a cycle of change and progress, both from a technological and organizational standpoint. It’s about constantly reassessing opportunities to do things better, faster and with greater scale in the evolving environment in which one’s business operates.
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If you have a love-hate relationship with lists of all kinds, you aren’t alone. On one hand, making a list–whether it’s a grocery list or a to-do list–gives you a single place to keep all your priorities front and center. But that same list can also be a source of anxiety. The longer it gets, the more you may find yourself avoiding it, knowing that the effort it’ll take to cross everything off is going to be considerable. But as it turns out, you’ll be much more productive if you actually read your to-do list regularly–even if you don’t manage to finish every single item that’s on it. Here’s why.
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If you’re constantly frazzled on the job, logging super-long hours with little to show for it at the end of the day, chances are good that you’re mismanaging your time. But the good news is it’s easy (enough) to reorganize your schedule and get back on a successful track, stat! “There’s a lot coming at us: mail–and [all kinds of] paper in general–emails, texts, phone calls, bosses calling for help, deadlines, projects–it doesn’t stop,” points out Felice Cohen, organizer and author of 90 Lessons for Living Large in 90 Square Feet (or More). No wonder so many of us get so behind and feel so exasperated. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. The answer isn’t to do more. “Not everyone can multitask, and most of us who do probably shouldn’t,” says Cohen. Rather, the answer is to do what you do smarter. And here’s how.
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You’re sitting there at your desk with a pit in your stomach. You know you really blew it–and your boss does, too. Maybe you forgot to follow up with an important client and they chose someone else’s proposal. Maybe you didn’t prepare the right documents in time for a super-important meeting. Or a careless typo you made on a spreadsheet or purchase order led to an expensive mistake. Whatever it is, your boss isn’t happy. That’s the bad news. The good news is that you don’t need to start job-searching. In fact, there are a few simple steps you can take right away to rebuild the trust you’ve lost–as quickly as humanly possible. Here’s what to do and when to do it.
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Tis the season for stress. The holidays are crazy enough, but add in year-end deadlines and sales goals, performance reviews, and the news of yet another raise not given, and you can already feel your blood pressure rise. But there’s good news: You can still stay healthy, even when work is insane. It’ll just take a little extra effort. “When stress takes over, often the first things to go are the ones we need the most–sleep, water, exercise, whole nutritious foods,” laments nutritionist Brigitte Zeitlin. “And that can actually compound the issue, leaving you less equipped to handle the stress well.” Here’s exactly what you can do to keep that from happening before work gets really crazy.
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If you’re always working for the weekend, you’re not alone. Just one-third of employees are actively engaged at work, leaving the majority of us unhappy on the job, according to the most recent State of the American Workplace Gallup poll. Instead of keeping an eye on the clock and the calendar, take the reins by creating a career that you love, experts suggest. “People often find themselves on a lifelong career journey without a destination in mind, only to look back at some point and realize they are not where they expected or wanted to be professionally,” says Tom Kemp, MBA executive-in-residence at the University of Richmond’s Robins School of Business. “Often this reflection happens when they either find themselves confronted with a job loss or they simply become so disenfranchised that they quit with little idea or thought about what they want to do next.”
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Successful entrepreneurs have a lot of things in common; one is knowing how to make the best use of their time. When the clock is ticking and they are under pressure to deliver, many have a favourite productivity hack to ensure things get done on time. Here, seven entrepreneurs share their tried and tested ways of being more productive. Create artificial deadlines Business expert and author of The Startup Coach Carl Reader uses a clever technique of creating artificial deadlines to guarantee a productive finish. “One of my favourite tricks is the ‘train journey to nowhere,” he said. “I book a return train ticket, don't take my mobile phone, and set a completion target for the journey. With a clear deadline and no distractions, I find that I often produce more than I would in the office in a whole day. It's great if you can tie this around meetings that you need to travel to, but if not, the productivity boost is well worth the cost of a train ticket.”
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Wasting time is one of the biggest reasons you aren't more successful right now. Review how you've spent your time today, and you'll likely find plenty of unproductive time that you may not have even spent relaxing or preparing to be productive later. Simply planning your day can make a big difference. Science has a lot to say about this. For example, it turns out that our willpower may be better earlier in the day and we need to take advantage of that. The idea is that planning creates a guideline the brain wants to stick to. Here's more on how that helps create success, as well as some other approaches that can help.
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If you’re a working parent, chances are excellent that at any given time, your to-do list looks like the one above — and that it stretches on, and on, and on — an endless, and eternally growing, list of deliverables. Is it any wonder that research shows that most working parents feel stressed, tired, and rushed? Or that when you look ahead, you feel more than a little overwhelmed? As a responsible person and a hard worker, you know how to dig in and get things done. And since becoming a parent, you’ve tried various strategies to keep the ever-more-intense pace: moving paper to-do lists onto your iPhone, reorganising your Outlook “Tasks” section, spending more and more time logged into work each evening, cleaning up the endless queue of unread emails, sleeping progressively less each night. But here’s the good news: There are simple and effective techniques for taming the overwhelmedness — things any working parent can do, starting today, to feel more competent, calm, and in control and to start shrinking that task list permanently. Here are four of the most powerful.
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Here’s a grim stat: More than half of your staff is ready to leave the company, finds a recent Gallup poll. Vacancies impact the productivity and bottom line of your company, but a survey from Globoforce’s Work Human Research Institute uncovered a reason people stick around. When asked the question, “What makes you stay at your company?” the number-one answer, representing 32% of respondents, was, “My job–I find the work meaningful.” “Having a personal sense of meaning in one’s work was even more important than compensation, which ranked as the third most important reason for staying,” says Eric Mosley, CEO of Globoforce, a talent engagement software provider. The trick is that meaning means different things to different people, says Becky Frankiewicz, president of the staffing and talent management provider ManpowerGroup North America. “Our NextGen Work research found that Boomers value being appreciated and recognized, younger people look for purposeful work that contributes to society, while people of all generations desire work that allows them to improve their skills and balance work and home,” she says. “Taking the time to find out what motivates your people individually is the first step to helping them find meaning in what they do.”
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If last year felt like a never-ending avalanche of shocking headlines, push notifications, and crises to react to–plus a big heaping spoonful of mindless distractions dumped on top of all that–well, you aren’t alone. By the close of 2017, some of the most productive CEOs out there told me they’d developed some bad habits as a result of a particularly hectic year. These are some of their top issues, and how they’re planning to cope with them over the next 12 months. BAD HABIT NO. 1: LISTENING WHILE DISTRACTED For Porter Braswell, CEO of diversity hiring platform Jopwell, communicating with others fell victim to the curse of multitasking. We’re all guilty of that once in a while–say, by reading the news, perusing social media, or sending emails during meetings. But Braswell says he’s working especially hard to keep his one-on-one interactions with other people free of those distractions this year. “When I left my job in finance to start Jopwell,” he recalls, “a close mentor of mine gave me a lot of great leadership advice: Always make sure you give your team your full and undivided focus, no matter how hectic it can feel to run a startup. Putting your phone away and ignoring your email for a half-hour while you meet with someone can make a big difference in that person’s experience working with you,” Braswell says. If offering your undivided attention is getting harder than it used to be, that’s all the more reason to commit to it.
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You’re sitting in a conference room with all the big bosses. They’re meeting to discuss the annual budget, and it’s your job to pitch them your case for more money for your team. The problem? While you’re quite confident everyone has a vague idea what your department does, you’re not nearly as confident that everyone sees the importance of what you do or the way you do it. Why? Well, what you do is pretty specific. Maybe so much so that your own friends don’t quite get it. But even if that’s the case, you’re going to have to learn how to get people on board with your work when you’re looking for a cut of the company’s budget, meeting with someone from a completely different field, or pitching an idea to a client. Here’s how to do that:
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We thought 2016 was a year of turning points. But we had no idea how 2017 would shape up to hold far more moments that affected the workplace, from the current administration’s changing positions on labor policy issues, to whistleblowers sounding the alarm on sexism, racism, and other unfair practices, to the shifting demographics of the workforce itself with the first members of gen Z making their entry into full-time employment. Here is a look at some of the more significant trends that will continue to dominate the conversation around work in 2018.
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Behind every great athlete there is an even greater coach. There isn't a top athlete--from Muhammad Ali to Tiger Woods to Serena Williams--who did not need a mentor to help them reach the top of their profession. If you think about it, your business is similar to that of an elite athlete. You may have the drive, the skills, and the vision, but there are times when you need professional guidance to ensure you stay on the right path, and how to best utilize your talents and work on your shortcomings in order to reach your goals. An executive coach can be that person. No matter where you are on your career path--from eager up-and-coming manager to a seasoned senior executive to an entrepreneur--there will be times when you can benefit from some professional coaching.
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As the scale and complexity of the cyber threat landscape is revealed, so too is the general lack of cybersecurity readiness in organizations, even those that spend hundreds of millions of dollars on state-of-the-art technology. Investors who have flooded the cybersecurity market in search for the next software “unicorn” have yet to realize that when it comes to a risk as complex as this one, there is no panacea — certainly not one that depends on technology alone. Spending millions on security technology can certainly make an executive feel safe. But the major sources of cyber threats aren’t technological. They’re found in the human brain, in the form of curiosity, ignorance, apathy, and hubris. These human forms of malware can be present in any organization and are every bit as dangerous as threats delivered through malicious code.
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What do people want out of work? More than money, more than benefits, much more than job security, a recent survey says, they want to be treated with respect. If that sounds like you, how can you increase the respect you get each day at work? It turns out that there are specific habits you can cultivate that allow you to train the people you work with to treat you respectfully each day. Here are 33 of these proven habits that can help, if you're willing to stick with them. Implement a few, take inspiration from the others, and you'll likely see dividends quickly.
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If you’re interested in behavioral economics, then you probably heard that Richard Thaler, one of the discipline’s founding fathers, was recently awarded the Nobel prize in economics. You might also be sold on how insights from behavioral science can make a big impact in your organization. You may even have piloted a couple of nudge-based interventions in your organization and are now asking yourself, “What’s next?” You aren’t alone. Increasing numbers of companies are looking to build a behavioral science team — one that is located at the very center of their business and that the whole organization can benefit from. This makes sense, because the alternative is for behavioral insights to be tried out by individuals or specific departments, and their knowledge and skill are likely to vary: Someone in marketing might use their behavioral knowledge to develop more-effective campaigns, while at the same time someone in HR uses theirs to focus on employee engagement. Sales could be developing a behaviorally informed strategy, while operations looks for ways to cut costs.
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We all want to learn and grow. Improving our skills and being exposed to new ideas not only makes us better at our jobs but makes us happier and more engaged at work. But with a full-time job, it can be tough to find the time and resources to dedicate to personal development. Some people, like me, are lucky to work for companies that encourage and even fund classes, sabbaticals, or fellowships. But if you work for a company that doesn’t have an official policy, how can you make the case to your manager (and the necessary higher ups) to support you?' Identify how you want to learn and grow. If you don’t yet have a clear picture of what you want to develop, spend time honing in on exactly what you need. Do you want to build your emotional intelligence skills to be a more attuned business leader? Are you interested in going on a yoga or meditation retreat? Set aside a specific period of time, such as one evening or even a week, to explore ideas and research what appeals to you. Write down what you want to learn and how you would grow from the experience you’ve identified. Research shows that the physical act of writing has a neurological effect on the brain which tells the cerebral cortex to “wake up and pay attention.” Writing stimulates a bunch of cells in the brain called the Reticular Activating System that plays a key role in being more conscious and alert. The more you can write down, the more aware and real your ideas become.
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Let’s not waste any time. The simple solution that we’re all looking for: It doesn’t exist. Want your business to thrive like Amazon’s? Want to emulate Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? Follow the road map of Nike or Warby Parker to build the next brand that matters? Sorry, it doesn’t work that way. What succeeded for them may not work for you. Too bad. Get over it. One-size-fits-all strategies just aren’t effective in today’s age of flux (and maybe they never were). That’s one of the insightful messages in senior writer Austin Carr’s feature The Future of Retail in the Age of Amazon. It’s become common practice to refer to billion-dollar startups as “unicorns,” but there is no more one-of-a-kind business than Amazon: hard-driving, customer-focused, yet broadly directed, from books and groceries to entertainment, consumer electronics, and web services. Carr explains that competing with Amazon today–trying to beat it at its own game–is largely a fool’s errand. Instead, what increasingly defines retail success, and points the way toward the businesses of tomorrow, is a bespoke model, one that is crafted to deliver on a focused need, proposition, or brand essence.
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To be a desirable place to work for, making employees feel valuable and providing a competitive salary is only part of the equation.