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Employee Wellbeing

Benefits of Hiring Career Counselors to Retain Your Top Talent

A wave of resignations has left employers floundering. With 4 million Americans quitting their jobs in July 2021 alone, it’s hard for employers to keep up with the storm of talent leaving their companies.  The skillset needed to manage career transitions has changed along with the changing landscape of today’s business world; with millennials approaching an average of 6 different jobs in less than 10 years, it’s still harder for them to take a long-term view of career management. For employees, the ability to navigate personal career transitions is pivotal in staying competitive. The problem is that traditional approaches to career management don’t work as well as they used to. High emotional and financial costs associated with job searching, combined with long periods of unemployment between jobs, make investing in a personal plan seem like a risky gamble. The same factors that make an employee feel stuck in their job also apply to employers. The constant fear of losing valuable talent can be paralyzing for management teams. Career transitions are so costly due to the investment made in employees, especially …

How to Create a Compelling Job Advertisement

A job advertisement sounds like an easy and straightforward thing to cook up, right? It can be, but poorly written job ads will only attract applicants of the same level. For recruiters who want to go the extra mile, we’ve compiled some simple but highly effective pointers on creating a compelling job advertisement. The goal is to attract the right candidates who are ready to take on the job. To attract candidates that actually want to add value to the company. Moving on, here are our tips and tricks on making a great job advertisement.   1. Remember to Make It SEO Friendly  Making the job ad easy to find on search engines is one of the main steps to consider before creating the job posting. Make sure to use the right keywords that are related to the job position. It is important to note, however; that recruiters should use the keywords organically, and not forcefully. This will ensure that the listing will rank well on search engines.   2. Find More Insight on the Role Job ads should be …

How to Determine Whether Your Candidate Has These Top 5 Skills before Hiring

Hiring new staff for your business is an exciting time, but it can also be very stressful. The average job post receives hundreds of applications, and sorting through them is a challenge, as is finding the right person for the role. You need potential candidates to be clear about their skills and experience, but you also need to be able to determine the skill levels of each candidate for yourself. Judging candidates simply by screening their CV or a short interview can be difficult, which means many businesses often hold multiple rounds of interviews. This process is very time-intensive, and it doesn’t always yield the best results. A better solution to make the candidate selection process easier and faster is to use pre-employment skills testing. Before you start the hiring process, it’s a good idea to be sure of the type of candidate you’re looking for and the skills they need to thrive in the role. Defining the requirements of the role will help you judge each candidate on the same criteria and give you a better chance of finding …

Looking Beyond the Great Resignation

The Great Resignation, the Great Reshuffle, The Great Migration. The media is awash with coverage about stats that indicate workers are on the move in numbers previously unseen in the U.S. labor market. No matter what it’s called, this workplace trend affects leaders all over our country as employees leave their current employers in droves. What does it mean to managers struggling to maintain staffing levels? Let’s break down this movement called the Great Resignation to help you sort out its leadership implications.  What Is the  “Great Resignation”? The term “Great Resignation” is credited to Anthony Klotz, a professor of management at Mays Business School of Texas A&M University. Klotz used this terminology to describe the large, voluntary exodus of (primarily) American workers in response to a variety of workplace-related concerns and grievances brought on (or exacerbated) by the pandemic.  The Great Resignation is typically framed in terms of economic impacts to employers. But, as Dan Newman writes in his blog post, this trend can also be viewed from the standpoint of  workers seeking better employment (The Great …

Glad to Help

This past weekend our daughter made her first big adult purchase – a new car !! My wife and I drove up to be with her for support and advice if she needed it. We wanted to be there just in case things got challenging, but we expected her to be the decision-maker throughout the entire process. To say she was anxious and excited would be an understatement. It took about 30 minutes to drive from her apartment to the car dealership. That only made her anticipation grow even more. She felt she had prepared for every potential question and possibility. As we arrived at the dealership, she boldly walked in and asked for Chris – who had been her contact for the past few months. He wasn’t there. She stammered and began to have a twinge of doubt about what she had envisioned as a perfect day. “But, I have an appointment at 11:00am.” The person who greeted us was so gracious and told us not to worry. She would make sure to get us someone to help …

How to Test a Leader’s Thinking

Have you ever been in a meeting and the leader of the group says, “Hey, I have an idea!” and then proceeds to outline a suggestion that they clearly think is marvelous. But  you’re not convinced it’s marvelous. So the group sits there in awkward silence, trying to think of a diplomatic way to proceed. This is an opportunity to practice what Phil Buckley, author of Change on the Run calls, “testing a leader’s thinking.” Being able to test a leader’s thinking is a critical people equation skill because in order for your project to move forward, you need your leader’s support and buy-in. And if they’re proposing an idea that will take your project off track, it requires deft communication skills to navigate your way through the conversation.  The greater a leader’s enthusiasm for their solution, the more difficult it is to influence their thinkingPhil Buckley – Author, Change on the Run Phil invited me to join him for a 30 minute chat on his Change on the Run podcast, in which we discussed this very thing: …

Safety in the Workplace – 5 Tips for Creating a “Speak Up” Culture

    Phil is the president of a mid-size company that has a huge safety problem. If you were to tell him this, Phil would scoff and proudly show you his company’s OSHA records. It’s true that Phil’s company does a great job protecting the physical safety of his workers. However, it’s an entirely different type of “safety” in the workplace that’s lacking, and it’s being driven by Phil’s own actions, even though he doesn’t realize it. Sadly, Phil’s behavior creates an environment where it doesn’t feel safe to speak up.  The Story of a Leader Whose Actions Create Silence and Avoidance, Not Collaboration Like many leaders, Phil is constantly on the lookout for ways to improve his company— possible new products, ideas for process improvement and innovative ways to engage his workforce. In fact, Phil likes new ideas a little too much. New ideas represent possibility to Phil and he eagerly listens to anything that may have the promise of bringing in business for the company. When he hears an idea he likes, he immediately dispatches a …

There’s No Shortcut to Success

There’s no such thing as overnight success. You have to put in the effort and hard work, and it doesn’t hurt to have some luck and good timing on your side. “There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” -Zig Ziglar Jackie Hermes (Founder & CEO of Accelity, a company helping B2B SaaS startups and scaleups grow with customer acquisition & lead generation) said on her podcast (The Art of Entrepreneurship) that success requires four things: 1) a smart plan, 2) the dedication to work hard, 3) consistency, and 4) patience. I agree. But, let’s take it a few steps further. Picture a canopy tent. The four tent poles suggested by Jackie (have a plan, work hard, be consistent, and have patience) provide support for the tent top covering (which is where a success definition resides). Thus, in addition to having the four tent poles, I would add …

Change Management: How to deal with a resistant team

Change cannot always guarantee success, however, in the business world, change is essential for implementing organisational growth. Employees who are resistant to change can cause headaches for team leaders, creating the need for change management. “Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future.” – John F. Kennedy In this article, we’ll be looking at how to deal with a resistant team through change management. But before you look to reduce your team’s resistance to change, you need to understand why we resist change in the first place. Why do employees resist change? Change is a natural occurrence in life, yet we all approach it with different perceptions and behaviours. While some members of your team may relish a new challenge or opportunity, others could feel anxious or concerned about adapting to new routines. There are many reasons why employees resist change – some may even be justified, due to poor management or leadership. Other reasons can include: Concerns for job security Fear of the unknown …