Employee Retention 5 Ways to Keep Your Best Talent

Employee Retention 5 Ways to Keep Your Best Talent In my last blog post, I talked about employee tenure, and how it has changed over the years. What was once looked upon as job-hopping is now widely accepted as just another step up the corporate ladder to better opportunity and more money. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, from August to September of 2014, the number of people who quit their jobs jumped from 2.5 million to 2.8 million â€" the highest the number has been since April of 2008. Knowing what we now know about tenure and the growing acceptance of job-hopping, the impetus now falls on employers to provide enough incentive to convince their top performers to stay. But with the allure of raises and promotions coming from all directions, what can an employer offer his or her employees that will entice them to stick around? Let’s look at some options. 1. Promote from within: According to a Gallup poll, the most common reason why people quit their jobs is career advancement or promotional opportunities. While it may be difficult for a manager to watch a top employee move on, it’s certainly better to see them transition into a new role at the company where they will be successful than watch them leave the company altogether. In order for an employee to flourish, he or she must feel challenged and be fully invested in his or her job duties. If the employee has remained in the same position for a period of time and no longer feels challenged or engaged, they may start looking to make a move. Providing them options to grow within the organization can allow them to flourish in another area of the business. While the manager will still need to recruit and train a replacement, the original employee may serve as a resource for training the new hire, as well as eliminating the need for recruiting a candidate to fill their new position. 2. Show them the money: This may be the most obvious and goes without saying. The Gallup poll mentioned above states that “pay and benefits” are the second most common reason why people leave their jobs. No matter what other perks an employer offers â€" telecommuting, flexible hours, paid time off, a great company culture â€" none of these things will pay an employee’s mortgage or put food on the table. Employers are always looking to cut costs â€" that’s a given. But there comes a point when they must weigh the cost of increasing a top employee’s salary or offering a bonus against the cost of searching for and recruiting a replacement. Once a qualified candidate is located, he or she must be interviewed, hired and trained, all on the company’s dime. Finally, the employer must take into account the lost revenue for the time the position goes unfilled, or is covered by another employee whose work responsibilities may suffer as a result. 3. Hold retention interviews: Far too often, employers aren’t aware of what needs improvement in their organization until their top employees have already left. Traditionally, interviews are conducted when an employee begins a job, and occasionally when they leave a job. Retention interviews are a perfect opportunity for employers to sit down with their top employees and find out what’s going on â€" what’s working, and what’s not. Are they happy, and if not, what needs to change? Hindsight is 20/20. Why wait until the best employees are gone to find out what it would have taken to make them stay? Giving employees a voice may be all it takes to not only mend tears in the corporate fabric, but to empower employees enough to make them feel like they’re making a difference. Retention interviews can prove an ideal way to find out what needs to change in a company or department before it’s too late. 4. Develop a culture of trust and recognition: It’s been said many times that people don’t quit their jobs, they quit their managers. The simplest way to prevent that is to make them feel  appreciated. Every employer should view their employees as their most valuable asset, and employees should know this. Credit should be given where credit is due, and individual and team victories should be celebrated. Also, employees should be trusted to work independently, without micromanagement. When employees know they have their managers’ trust, they’re motivated to work that much harder in order to not lose it. A truly productive team is one who knows their value to the company, and values being a part of it. 5. Give employees the freedom to soar: Nearly all companies require growth to remain profitable. Growth requires change, and change requires ideas. Often, these ideas are generated by creativity. All successful companies employ creative people in some form or another, and these creatives keep the company moving ahead. But creative people don’t work well when confined to a box. They need the freedom to spread their wings. Management should encourage employees to explore new ideas and share them with the team, then build off of what works and what doesn’t. 3M’s Post-it notes and Amazon’s Prime loyalty program are two examples of hugely successful ideas thought up by creative employees. If an employer stifles their employees’ ideas, another company will eventually benefit from them. In today’s job market, employees have options. The more unique and in-demand their skill set, the greater the number of options from which they can choose. But employers have options too. The challenge for employers lies in choosing the right option before their employees begin exploring theirs. Failure to do so can result in numerous recruiting costs, as well as time spent filling positions of departed employees. A top performer can be difficult, if not impossible to replace. Are you doing everything you can to keep yours from leaving? RELATED: How In-House Recruiting Saved Epsilon £430,000 Improved Staff Retention

Interview Outfits on a Budget and My Interview Tips on San Diego 6

Interview Outfits on a Budget and My Interview Tips on San Diego 6 So excited to be asked to be on another news segment yesterday morning at San Diego 6 News.  This one was a lot of fun.  I collaborated with Nubry.com, fashion and lifestyle bloggers in San Diego, to come up with some cute interview outfits for professional women. I also give you my best interview tips to figure out what to wear for your next interview and gave a shout out to my fabulous partners at Dress for Success San Diego. Click here to watch the video.

Top 5 Psychometric Tests for Your Career Success

Top 5 Psychometric Tests for Your Career Success To make a successful career change, you have to know what type of career is going to suit your personality. Psychometric tests are a quick, convenient way of “personality typing” getting an idea of which specific personality group you fall into in terms of skill sets, ambitions and aspirations. Once you know which group you fall into, it’s easier to assess what type of career might be suited to you. Personality psychometric tests are not to be confused with the psychometric tests employers use to test candidates’ ability. These are usually taken in exam-like conditions and involve numerical and verbal reasoning exercises that assess a candidate’s ability to do the job. Although personality psychometric tests such as OPQ32 are used by managers and businesses to evaluate an individual’s behavioural style, there are many online personality psychometric tests that you can take yourself, in your own time. Here are five of the most popular free tests doing the rounds at the moment (the headers are hyperlinks): 1. Jung Typology Test According to the thinking behind this test, personality typing involves classifying the individual according to four criteria: extroversion/introversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving. Different combinations of the criteria determine a type. For instance, if you are an Extrovert Intuition Feeling Judging, you are imaginatively called an EIFJ. According to which type you are, the test not only feeds back a list of suitable career options, but also some educational institutions that can give you the relevant skills training. 2. Career Psychometrics: How to Land your Ideal Job You have 2 minutes 45 seconds to answer a short series of questions asking you to what extent you have certain personality traits. After you’ve completed it, you get a free Personality Report that explicitly tells you not only what type of job is for you, but also what type of job isn’t for you. The only catch is you have to give them your email address to get the free report, and then they send you some spam for a few days. 3. Finding Potential: Individuals’ Personality Questionnaire This test takes around 15 minutes to complete and gives you a 15 page report that shows you the personality traits you scored higher and lower on; gives you a detailed breakdown of these traits; and then matches work preferences and possible jobs to you according to whether you scored high or low on each particular trait. 4. SimilarMinds.com: ‘What Career Suits Me’? This is slightly different in that, for some reason, it first asks you what your ‘current or desired’ career is before you take the test. It then gives you a list of statements and you have to indicate to what degree each statement is true of you. In the results it categorises you as a certain type of person such as an ‘Idealist’ and then gives you a list of possible professions. Of course, one of these professions is the one you put down as your ‘desired career’. 5. PersonalityType.com: ‘Discover Your Perfect Career’ Quiz This uses the same criteria as the Jung Typology Test, except you yourself have to decide whether you are an extrovert or introvert, sensor or intuitive, etc. by reading bullet point descriptions of each pair of qualities and then picking which of the two qualities is most like you. After you’ve chosen from the four categories, the test identifies your personality type as the conventional Jung test does and then gives you a list of suitable careers. Obviously none of us are going to choose our next career exclusively on the back of a traffic-coaxing online test, but they are useful tools for seeing if you’d really be suited for that career move that’s recently caught your imagination. And if you have no idea what you’d like to do, it’s a fun way of getting a few suggestions you might never have thought of by yourself. Related: Top 5 Most Commonly Misunderstood Interview Tips. Nisa Chitakasem is the founder of  Position Ignition  â€" a careers company dedicated to taking you to the next step in your career. Nisa is passionate about helping individuals find the right career path for them whether it involves finding a more rewarding career, making a career change, figuring out the right career plan or being creative about career directions.

Remember These 8 Things You Were Scared of in School

Remember These 8 Things You Were Scared of in School If you are now beginning to look for a job, you may have a mixed feeling of excitement and fear. You feel excited because you are not any more studying, and you are a little scared because this stage in your life is something new. This is the beginning of real life outside a campus. On the other hand, this is also a stage where you will be missing your school uniforms a lot. You will feel nostalgic about the past and will tend to reminisce over all the good things you have gone through. You will remember not only the good things but also the scary moments you had when you are still in school. Do you still remember such moments? Here are six things you may remember you were scared of in school: Math If you are not a fan of Maths subject, you will surely not forget how scared you were whenever your Maths class would start. You may have forgotten the mathematical formulas your teacher taught you, but you will always remember your face even though you didn’t look at yourself during such moment. Numbers can really scare anyone, especially when they appear with alphabets and parentheses. Terror Teacher Teachers in general are not actually scary. Only there are some teachers who can effectively scare students. It is their style, and it must have been the method which was used to teach you. This is why you still remember the face of your terror teachers until now. Perhaps, you felt like being electrified whenever your terror teacher spoke. It was very effective though. Examinations Examinations may scare anyone depending on the type of student. If you were the type of student who was very studious, you would always get excited about exams. However, if you were a happy-go-lucky student, examinations might have always been a nightmare for you. The scariest of all exams is when you have failed to review before it, let alone waiting for the results. Homework It is not your homework that might not have been scary. In fact, this could be your relief when your teacher told you and your classmates that your current activity could be sent home. What probable made your homework scary was when you failed to do it at home, and your teacher was about to check it. In the end, it all depends on a teacher. Grades to be Checked by Parents When you were very young, your mom or your dad might have been monitoring your school reports. At first, you would probably perform well. Sometimes, you might have failed to deliver on their expectations. Perhaps, you got a warning. The scary thing was when you failed again, and you didn’t want to see their reaction. Bullies Every school has bullies, but not all students have similar experiences. In your case, you might have experienced being bullied. This could be another scary thing you would surely not forget. However, if you were one of the bullies, you might have been scared of being reported. And Dont Forget Monday Many students are excited whenever weekend approaches. You were probably the same. Perhaps, Monday scared you the most especially if you really had fun during the weekend. Time flies so fast. You will suddenly realize you are no longer in school. However, there are things you won’t forget, especially the things you were scared of in school. You may or may not have overcome such fears yet. Nevertheless, these are the things worth remembering. You can also share such stories with your children in the future. Image credits. Main.   Grades.  

What to Look For in Food Service Resume Examples

What to Look For in Food Service Resume ExamplesThe use of food service resume examples are essential in developing a successful and relevant resume. There are many things to consider when creating a resume and applying for jobs and having an example of the proper format can make your job search much easier. As mentioned before, a poorly prepared resume can mean the difference between getting the job and not being offered it.However, food service resume examples aren't all that easy to come by. While there are countless books, online databases, and other resources available to you if you're looking for examples, these often don't work well in making your resume better. Because of this, many people continue to send out their resumes to companies that they know nothing about or aren't even sure if they are interested in hiring them.The best way to ensure that you receive high quality food service resume examples is to create your own. With all of the great information on the internet, you should be able to find numerous examples for almost any career field imaginable. Take time to research your career interests and find the jobs that are most relevant to your future career. Remember, the best food service resume examples are the ones that display you as you really are: enthusiastic, passionate, creative, and fit for the position.When searching for food service resume examples, try not to get overly anxious. It is easy to panic and get wrapped up in trying to find examples of every career you can think of. You shouldn't feel this way because it will just give you a bad impression of yourself.Start with a larger search term, such as 'food service resume examples' and narrow down the results that appear. This allows you to more easily find examples that match the needs of your career. If you need to see examples for fast food restaurants, you may want to look at local newspaper ads.Don't go to the local newspaper or call the company directly. There is no point in wa sting your time. Instead, go to a site that will send you a single resume example per month.One benefit of this is that you are likely to have access to many more opportunities than if you were submitting one resume. If you don't receive a good deal of responses, try sending different variations of your resume to different companies. This way, you will receive several responses to all of the places you submit your resume. Eventually, you will notice trends in which places are responding best to your resume.After you begin looking for food service resume examples, be sure to organize your search based on your career goals. Some of the examples you may find include cookbooks, culinary schools, catering businesses, food trends, and more.

Our upcoming international keynotes and workshops - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Our upcoming international keynotes and workshops - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Wow I cannot believe how many fascinating international events we get invited to speak at. While most of our speaking gigs are for client companies and therefore limited to only their employees, we also speak at?open events. If you want to see me speak about happiness at work, these are my upcoming international speaking gigs that are open to the public. Brussels, February 15: Keynote?at?Council of British International Schools Eindhoven, March 13+14:?Keynote+workshop at Eindhoven Happiness Week Miami, March 16-18: World Happiness Summit Ho Chi Minh City, March 22+23: Keynote + workshop at Vietnam Best?Places to Work Event Istanbul, March 29+30: Keynote+workshop with Power of Happiness Beirut, March 31: Keynote at Lebanon HR Summit Dubai, May 1: Keynote at 12th Human Capital Forum And of course dont forget our own International Conference on Happiness at Work in Copenhagen on May 18+19. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Bouncing Back after Your LayOff

Bouncing Back after Your LayOff Bouncing Back after Your LayOff Bouncing Back after Your LayOff August 25, 2016 by Career Coach Sherri Thomas Leave a Comment It’s natural to sit back and think that others have it easy in their career. A free pass to a cushy career. A continuous flow of promotions, status, influence and money. But what I’ve learned as a leading Career Coach is that nobody has a free pass. Nobody. Everyone has breakdowns, meltdowns and throwdowns. But I love the quote by Zig Ziglar, “It’s not how far you fall, but how high you bounce that counts.” So how can you bounce after you’ve just been laid off? My last article in Huffington Post, 2016 Best Career Apps and Websites to Land Your Dream Job, helped many of you find your dream job. Now let’s focus on the next step which is how to land your dream job, even after you’ve been laid off. Here are 3 tips from my book, “The Bounce Back“ 1. You are the storyteller of your own career. The way you think is everything. Getting your next job heavily depends on your mindset and how you frame your career story. If you’re sending the message that you’ve been short-changed, passed over or stepped on in your career, then hiring managers are sure to see you as someone who gets short-changed, passed over and stepped on. But if you send a strong, clear message that you’re a key contributor with some big successes under your belt, then hiring managers and Sr. leaders will take notice. Write down 2-3 of your biggest achievements over the past three years. Now, practice saying out loud in a sentence or two how you contributed to those successes and what the impact was to the organization. For example, “I was the technical lead for a new internal tool that was launched on the SAP platform. The tool is now saving the organization $500,000 a year.” Or, “I was on the creative marketing campaign for the XYZ product which gained 3% more market share and generated one million dollars in new revenue.” Quantify your results in terms of dollars, numbers and percentages. The key to getting more job offers, leads and opportunities is talking about your results and accomplishments. Nobody will hire you unless they know what you can do. 2. Network strategically. You may feel like crawling under the covers, but now is the time to get out and start talking with others. Eighty percent of jobs are going to those job candidates who have a referral within the organization. That means, you need to know someone inside the company who can put their stamp of approval on you. Who do you know who could recommend you to the hiring manager? Start by re-connecting with past managers, colleagues and customers. Networking isn’t one-sided. It’s two-sided. It’s about having a professional relationship that is mutually supportive of each other’s career. Ask how you can support them. Offer to send those in your network information that might be helpful in their job, write a recommendation for them on LinkedIn, or connect them to someone in your network who could potentially become a new client. I understand that you had a setback, but that was just one experience with a small handful of people. Connect with others you have worked with who know the value and impact you bring to an organization. Ask if they would write a recommendation for your LinkedIn profile, or send a letter of recommendation to a hiring manger. Ask if they know of any job leads they could give you. Building a strong network of supporters will pave the way to landing your next job. 3. Framing your story after a setback. Earlier in my career I was laid off at a small advertising agency, and within a few months bounced back as the new Regional Marketing Manager for a Fortune 100 finance company. I believe that a large part of the reason I was hired was because of the way I told my career story to the Vice President. During the interview, the VP asked why I left my last company. I talked about how it was a great company and how much I loved my role and responsibilities. Then, I addressed the reason for my layoff which was, “I didn’t realize when I took the position that I was expected to fill the shoes of two employees. Even though I had some big results and was good at my job, I just simply couldn’t fill both of their shoes.” That was it. Enough said. Calm, confident and succinct. The VP didn’t ask any ?? â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€" Sherri Thomas is a Career Strategist. She teaches others how to think differently and more proactively in their career. Her book, “The Bounce Back â€" personal stories of bouncing back higher and faster after a layoff, re-org or career setback” was named “Best Career Book” by the Indie Book Awards. Her first book, “Career Smart â€" 5 Steps to a powerful personal brand” has been #3 on AMAZON’s TOP 10 LIST for personal branding books. As the Founder/President of Career Coaching 360, Sherri teaches training professionals, managers and executives how to change, reinvent or advance their career. Sign up for her new 3-part free video training series “15 Clever Ways to Get More Job Offers” at CareerCoaching360.com