7 Ways Your Company Can Lead by Example by Supporting the Lives of Others
Be a business the gives back. In this article, adventure into some great ways to support your community and be a charitable employer.
Business moves the world. So how do you want your company to contribute?
To one degree or another, many of us feel the world today lacks quality leadership. But what better way to fight against that trend than by inspiring greatness in our future leaders? It all begins with leading by example. That’s a tall order, though, and not very specific — so let’s explore seven ways your company can assume thought leadership in the ongoing search for a better quality of life for all.
- Giving Back to the Community
If no person is an island unto themselves, that goes double for companies. We tend to think of our careers as somehow separate from the rest of waking life, but the truth is that communities and businesses are very much intertwined. Communities are responsible for the growth and success of businesses — and the other way around, too.
So? Give back as often as you can to the community that has made your business what it is today. We’ll talk in greater detail in a moment about what corporate citizenship should look like, but just getting that sentiment into your corporate culture and set of values is a great place to start.
- Be a Better Global Citizen
Making your business the source of positive influence in your community is one thing. But how are you being a global citizen?
Some folks in America seem to believe globalization should be feared and fought against, but rational business leaders know better. As the world draws closer together, we’ll be better prepared than ever to tackle some of the problems that affect us all in equal measure. But first we have to recognize our place in the larger global community.
One example would be The Exterior Company, based in Lancaster, PA, which recognizes their role on the global stage by contributing some of their profits to organizations committed to raising the standard of living in the poorer parts of the world.
- Know Your Values
Let’s get philosophical. Do you know what you value, personally? Would an onlooker identify your company as a “principled” one, even if they might not agree with the principles themselves?
The world needs businesses and leaders who know what they believe in. Not so we can blindly agree with them, but because all viewpoints help make the conversation a richer one. Even Hobby Lobby helped improve the conversation surrounding LGBTQ rights in America — even if they are, manifestly, and according to most Americans, standing on the wrong side of the issue.
American consumers wish for and respect companies that take the time to craft cohesive and forward-thinking sets of values. Why not show thought leadership here, and in the process, improve your company’s standing in the public eye?
- Donate Your Time
Money is a very valuable resource. But to many folks who don’t come from privilege, time is an even more precious commodity.
You can help support the lives of others — and lead by example in the process — by committing some of your free time to pro-social pursuits. Think of what would happen in the world if every employer allowed and encouraged their team members to commit some of their billable hours to charity work or another kind of community service.
Think of it like this: Corporate America boasts some of the most gifted and thoughtful people in the world. Folks for whom problem-solving comes naturally. What a shame and a waste it would be if all that talent were used merely to generate profits for private enjoyment.
- Raise the Standard of Living
If you’re new to business, you’ll recognize quickly that the conversation around workers’ well-being has changed in recent years. For example, global competition has thrown into sharp relief the ways that American corporate culture lags behind the rest of civilization. We have not yet joined the consensus on the fundamental right to paid sick leave and parental leave, for example.
There may be no better way to lead by example than to demonstrate how worthy your employees are of living high-quality lives. Your workers are your brand ambassadors — you want them to be able to go out into the world and proudly say their needs are taken care of. This improves the quality of our conversation everywhere.
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- Raise Your Employees’ Awareness of the World Around Them
With FX Builds, we’ve helped establish a culture within our organization that ties daily excellence to funds-matching for charitable giving. We’ve already helped break ground on schools in distant countries where public education isn’t something that can be taken for granted.
The point, simply, as it is with other entries in this list, is to make your local team more aware of the larger world and to look for ways to live more fully and conscientiously within it. It’s probably easier than you might think. And if you do it thoughtfully, you can leverage the passion your team already brings to the table.
- Focusing on Sustainable Living
According to the scientific community, Earth is experiencing its sixth major extinction event even as we speak. Is that enough of a wake-up call?
It is clear that the individual has failed planet Earth. None of us could reuse enough plastic shopping bags in fifteen lifetimes to reverse the climate change that is already making life difficult in the poorer parts of our planet. And nothing about this is going to improve until we admit there’s a problem and agree on who’s in the best position to make a difference.
That means business leaders must actually lead by example, doing the heavy lifting the individual cannot on their own. It means taking advantage of cheaper-than-ever solar power everywhere you can afford to have it installed. It means not using more paper or other finite resources to do your work than is strictly necessary. It means turning off the computers in your office overnight.
To be perfectly honest, company leaders don’t have to look very far at all to lead the way in sustainable living. And if we can do it in the fight for sustainability, we can do it in every venue that requires decisive, progressive-minded leadership.
If every employer in the world used their resources and influence to help solve this and other crises we face in the world today, the future would be very bright indeed. Word is getting out that pro-social companies — being, after a fashion, like families themselves — are in a truly unique position to change life as we know it for the better.
Read the original article.
Source:
Craig W. (5 December 2017). "7 Ways Your Company Can Lead by Example by Supporting the Lives of Others" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.forbes.com/sites/williamcraig/2017/12/05/7-ways-your-company-can-lead-by-example-by-supporting-the-lives-of-others/#786463064bbe
Building A Diverse Workforce In A Small Business
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There can be little argument against the value a diverse workplace. It’s a critical element of driving innovation, increasing creativity and securing market share, but diversity also makes growth and recruitment more manageable and helps to limit the word all employers want to avoid -- turnover. Diversity is significant enough that two-thirds of people polled in a Glassdoor survey said the level of diversity was important when evaluating job offers. This can prove to be a difficult task for a small business in the tech industry.
So what is workforce diversity? It’s more than simply not discriminating based on race, gender, national origin or disability. Diversity offers an alternative view or difference in opinions. Hiring employees with differing backgrounds in religion, from varying age ranges, sexual orientation, political affiliation, personality and education can become invaluable to an organization.
That being said, it can be nearly impossible to implement or force onto a set of employees. According to Harvard Business Review, researchers examined the success of mandated diversity training programs. While it’s simple enough to teach employees the right answers to questionnaires on bias or and appropriate responses for a given situation, the actual training rarely ever sticks, not more than a few days anyway. There have even been findings that suggest these mandated diversity training courses actually have adverse effects.
In the same article from HBR, managers said that when diversity training was mandatory, it is often met with confrontation and even anger. Some, in fact, reported an increase in animosity toward a minority group. On the other hand, when workers see the training as voluntary, the result is improved attitudes and an increase of 9-13% in the hiring of minorities five years from the training.
So if diversity is crucial to the success of a company or organization, but it's also something that can tough to implement, how does an employer ensure that they are fostering a work environment that is diverse? There are a few things employers can consider when they want to step up their game in building a more well-rounded and diverse workforce.
Evaluate The Hiring Process
Assess the level of diversity in the company. Does it reflect the general workforce of the industry or of the community? Figure out which departments are behind or lacking and what the source might be. Is a team diverse in most areas but still behind in management positions? Are managers hiring based on personal biases?
Top leadership needs to be an advocate for diversity in all hiring decisions, from the entry level to leadership positions. If there is a hiring test, see that managers are adhering to it. The HBR articles noted that even when hiring tests were in place, they were used selectively and that the results were ignored.
Having a hiring panel, or a system of checks and balances, would ensure that no one person would abuse the hiring process to lean too much on their own biases. Employers should also seek out new methods or places to network.
Mentoring Programs
Implementing a mentorship or sponsorship program will create a casual relationship between employees that will help alleviate some biases a manager might have and vice versa. Providing an opportunity for stewardship and responsibility allows the mentor to bestow knowledge on their mentee as they watch them grow.
Mentees will see the value in this experience and come to respect their mentor, laying away any preconceived biases or prejudices. They will become more invested in their work and the organization. Much like training programs, mentoring programs should be optional, not mandatory.
Inclusion
Similar to soldiers who serve together on the frontlines, employees who are part of a self-managed team and working as equals who work to complete projects will learn to dismiss biases on their own. Fostering an environment where employees can connect and collaborate increases engagement and allows for more contact than they may make when left to themselves.
In order to succeed in a global market, a tech organization must move past using "diversity" as a meaningless buzzword and step into action by developing and implementing an equal opportunity employment policy, following the Federal EEOC guidelines. Building and maintaining a diverse workforce is essential to growth and innovation in any industry, especially tech. But when handled poorly, or forced upon employees, it will cause more than a few headaches or even lawsuits. It requires change, a new take on leadership and creating a company culture based the business or service rather than a culture based on individual preferences or ideas.
Read the original article.
Source:
Cruikshank G. (4 December 2017). "Building A Diverse Workforce In A Small Business" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/04/building-a-diverse-workforce-in-a-small-business/#2b42986a4250
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Employers using fast-feedback apps to measure worker satisfaction, engagement
In this article from Employee Benefit Advisors, we take a look at measuring worker satisfaction and engagement through the use of feedback applications. Let us know what your verdict is!
The days of employers conducting employee engagement surveys once every year might be coming to an end.
Thanks to “fast feedback” applications, employers can conduct quick online surveys of their employees to measure how engaged they are at their jobs. The data from these polls is then collated and presented, often in real time on dashboards, to employers to show their workforce’s level of engagement and satisfaction. Some of these web-based programs also can present CEOs with steps they can take to improve their environment and culture.
These tools are available from Culture Amp, Glint, TINYpulse, PeakOn and others.
One of the main benefits of fast feedback, according to Glint CEO Jim Barnett, is that it cuts down on “regrettable attrition,” which occurs when talented employees leave for better jobs.
Glint customers include eBay, Glassdoor, Intuit, LinkedIn and Sky Broadcasting. These clients send out e-mail invitations to workers and ask them to take a voluntary survey, which can feature either stock employee engagement questions or queries that can be fine-tuned for a specific workplace.
Glint recommends 10 to 20 questions per Pulse — what it calls employee engagement survey sessions — and results are sent back to the employer’s HR directors and senior executives. According to Barnett, the Pulses are confidential but not anonymous. Barnett explains that while anonymous surveys do not record the respondent’s name and job title, a confidential survey means that only Glint knows who took the Pulse. The employer is only presented data from specific job groups or job descriptors within an enterprise, such as a production team or IT support.
This month, Glint announced two new capabilities to its real-time employee feedback program, called Always-On and On-Demand Surveys. Always-On allows workers to express their concerns at any time and On-Demand Surveys gives managers and executives the opportunity to perform quick, ad hoc surveys of staffers.
“Some of our companies use the Always-On Survey if they want people on their team to give feedback at any time on a particular topic,” he says.
Firms also use fast feedback for onboarding new hires, Barnett says. Companies have set up Glint’s program to gauge new workers at their 30 and 60 day-mark of their employment to “see how that onboarding experience impacted their engagement,” he says.
Culture Amp also provides fast feedback tools via a library of survey templates that cover a range of employee feedback topics including diversity and inclusion, manager effectiveness, wellness and exit interviews. Culture Amp’s clients include Aligned Leisure, Box, Etsy, McDonalds, Adobe and Yelp.
“We encourage customers to customize surveys to make the language more relevant, and to ensure every question reflects something the company is willing to act on,” says Culture Amp CEO Didier Elzinga.
Culture Amp presents its survey results to employers via a dashboard that displays the top drivers of employee engagement in real time. “Users can then drill down to understand more about each question, including how participants responded across a range of different demographic factors,” Elzinga says.
Sometimes CEOs are presented with news they were not prepared to hear, according to Elzinga. Some customers take to the employee survey process with the mindset of ‘myth busting,’ he says. “They want to know if some truth they hold dear is actually just a story they’ve been telling themselves. Every now and then, an employee survey will provide surprising results to an HR or executive team,” he says. “Whether people go into a survey looking to bust myths or gather baseline data, the important part is being open to accepting the results.”
Glassdoor takes the pulse of its workforce
Glint customer Glassdoor, the online job recruitment site that also allows visitors to anonymously rate their current employer’s work environment, compensation and culture, not only urges its employees to rate the firm using its own tools, the company also uses Glint’s software to view employee engagement at a more granular level.
Glassdoor conducted its first Glint Pulse in October 2016 and has rolled out three since then. The next is scheduled for January 2018, according to Marca Clarke, director of learning and organizational development at Glassdoor.
“We looked at employee engagement and the things that drive discretionary effort [among employees who work harder],” Clarke says. “This is strongly correlated with retention as well.”
Clarke said that one Glint Pulse found that the employees’ view of Glassdoor culture varied from location to location. Of its 700-person workforce, people working in the newer satellite offices were happier than the employees in its Mill Valley, Calif., headquarters. She speculates that this response could be due to newer, more eager employees hired in brand new, recently opened offices.
“People think culture is monolithic that should be felt across the company but we could see that there was some variation from office to office. With Glint, we were able to slice the data not just by region and job function but [we could] go to the manager level to look at how people with different performance ratings think about the culture,” she says.
Recent research from Aon Hewitt found that a 5% increase in employee engagement is linked to a 3% lift in revenue a year later. According to Barnett, Glint clients that regularly conduct surveys and take steps to engage their employees often see a boost in the price of their company shares.
“Companies in the top quartile of Glint scores last year [saw] their stock outperform the other companies by 40%,” he says. “They now have the data and can see that employee engagement and the overall employee experience really do you have a dramatic impact on the result of their company.”
Read the original article.
Source:
Albinus P. (5 December 2017). "Employers using fast-feedback apps to measure worker satisfaction, engagement" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.employeebenefitadviser.com/news/employers-using-fast-feedback-apps-to-measure-worker-satisfaction-engagement?brief=00000152-1443-d1cc-a5fa-7cfba3c60000
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7 Ways Employers Can Support Older Workers And Job Seekers
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With the unemployment rate (4.1%) at its lowest since 2000, employers are struggling to retain their best workers and attract qualified new ones. Although their efforts are often directed at Millennials, in places where people in their 20s and 30s are increasingly hard to find, employers are equally focused on people in their 50s and 60s.
For example, in May, more than 170 New England employers, policymakers and business leaders came together for an event notably titled, Gray is the New Green: Unleashing the Power of Older Workers and Volunteers to Build a Stronger Northern New England. And at a recent Manchester, N.H., workforce strategies event, AARP-N.H. State Director Todd Fahey urged HR professionals to talk with older employees about the possibility of continuing to work on a flexible basis after they hit the traditional retirement age of 65.
As a boomer and a career coach, I’m heartened by this turn of the events. Of course, I’m not so naïve as to think age discrimination is over. I agree with what Chris Farrell just said in a Next Avenue post: “Older workers still face a serious uphill climb in the job market in many respects.”
So how can employers do a better job of finding, retaining and supporting older job applicants and employees?
To find out, I interviewed Greg Voorheis, the mature worker program coordinator and Governor’s Award coordinator for the state of Vermont. I also watched a video he conducted with executives from the 2017 Governor's Award winner, Chroma Technology Group, a manufacturing firm in the biotech space, based in Bellows Fall, Vt. Incidentally, workers 55 and over currently make up nearly 30% of Vermont's workforce.
7 Tips for Supporting Older Workers and Job Seekers
Here are seven tips from Voorheis and Chroma:
1. Advertise job openings in newspapers in addition to online outlets. “One of the things we’ve learned over the years is that the mature population still really likes written material, like newspapers,” says Voorheis.
The Chroma Technology Group advertises its openings in print and welcomes hard copy applications to accommodate people who might not be comfortable applying online.
2. Display photos and videos of older people in recruitment marketing materials. That helps make it very clear that all ages are welcome to apply.
3. Cut down on ageism by using a group-interview model. HR departments are often staffed by younger workers, and that can result in unnecessary age bias — conscious or otherwise. This is why Chroma uses teams of four to eight people to do its hiring. “That way, no one person’s perspective carries too much weight. And if there are biases, they are minimized,” says the company's HR director, Angela Earle Gray.
4. Encourage mentoring. When older workers mentor younger workers, that helps the employees and it’s good for the company, too.
“Experience is an important thing to pass on,” says Chroma President Paul Millman. “Work habits, ways of doing things, and attitudes towards work all mature over time.”
Chroma uses peer work trainers to both help onboard employees and to continue mentoring them until they’re able to demonstrate competency in their new roles.
5. Provide ample training for older workers. Experienced employees are usually eager to get training that will keep their skills sharp and make them more employable. Yet sometimes employers hesitate to provide it because they worry about the return on investment for workers who might retire soon. Chroma takes a different tack by encouraging all workers to seek training opportunities.
“If you can show us how that is going to benefit you, we’ll find a way to get you that training, or something similar,” says Gray.
6. Offer flexible work arrangements.Voorheis says seasonal work, such as the snowbird programs offered at IBM, can be especially attractive to older workers.
Even though Chroma prefers employees to work full-time, it offers telecommuting and flextime to accommodate workers’ needs. And when staffers have needed to go part-time for a stretch, the company has tried to make that work. “We’re not fond of ridding ourselves of employees,” says Millman.
Sabbaticals are another popular option at Chroma. Long-term employees have the option to take an extended leave, for up to 11 weeks. The leave is unpaid, but the company continues to pay for medical and dental coverage.
7. Provide a wide range of benefits. Chroma also offers generous retirement benefits, company stock and a variety of wellness programs, including reimbursement for gym memberships and fitness programs. It runs monthly employee education programs, too, on topics like retirement planning, wellness and advance-care planning.
“We take very good care of mature workers at Chroma,” says Gray. “But it was never a conscious choice to do that. The conscious choice was to take very good care of all our employees.”
Voorheis echoes that sentiment, saying: “Good behaviors and programs that benefit mature workers benefit workers of all ages
Read the original article.
Source:
Collamer N. (27 November 2017). "7 Ways Employers Can Support Older Workers And Job Seekers" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.forbes.com/sites/nextavenue/2017/11/27/7-ways-employers-can-support-older-workers-and-job-seekers/#443ed6745ff0
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: How To Earn Respect At Work
It's important to feel respected in the workplace. Here are some helpful tips for keeping and earning respect at work.
Someone I was coaching recently wrote in their development plan that one of their goals was to “earn the respect of more people at work.” I thought that was an interesting goal and asked her to tell me more about her comment. She said, “I just don’t feel like people respect me so I want to earn more respect.” When I asked her specifically what behaviors she thought she needed to exhibit in order to earn respect, there was a long pause and she gave me a blank stare.
You’d be surprised how many times I go through this same “respect” discussion. So here’s the deal…respect is something you have to earn – it’s not something handed out free on a silver platter. If you want to earn respect then you need to ask yourself this question, “How can I change my behavior to earn more respect from others?”
Here are some of my personal suggestions for earning respect:
- Use active listening skills – really listen and hear what people are saying.
- Treat others with dignity and courtesy at all times.
- Keep all your commitments – and never make a commitment you can’t keep.
- Be patient with people; realize that most people want to do what’s right.
- Treat others as they would like to be treated; in other words, learn to flex your social style so you can work better with others.
- Don’t state your opinions unless you can back them up with data. And be sure you fully understand the situation before you comment on it.
- Be sincere.
- Be generous.
- Be humble.
- Be confident, but exhibit confidence without arrogance.
Sometimes I think we speed through life so quickly that we don’t take enough time to really hear other people. To do so takes the ability to be patient, generous with your time, and sincerely care about others. These are all behaviors that will lead to earning more respect from co-workers.
Read the original article.
Source:
Quast L. (27 February 2012). "R-E-S-P-E-C-T: How To Earn Respect At Work" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisaquast/2012/02/27/r-e-s-p-e-c-t-how-to-earn-respect-at-work/#164b42015749
The 10 Smartest Things To Look For In Every New Hire
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If you’re hiring a new member of your team, congratulations. You have a business that is thriving enough to need more hands. But be prepared, as the shortage of highly skilled workers means finding and retaining quality, creative employees, which can be pretty tough.
According to a 2017 Creative Group study:
• 41% of surveyed advertising and marketing executives say it’s challenging to find creative talent today.
• 52% of advertising and marketing executives say they are concerned about retaining their current creative staff in the next 12 months.
For any company, especially companies that do creative work, the people you hire are your most important asset. So how do you hire the right ones (and avoid the wrong ones)?
It can be easy to become overly focused on things like previous employers, degrees and awards — the stuff that may pique a hiring manager’s interest during the applicant-screening process. But in my decade of experience hiring people for our creative agency, I’ve learned that the key to hiring the right people is starting with a clear understanding of the attributes you want in a new hire: the values, characteristics, personality traits and beliefs that will make them an active agent, not a passive employee.
When you hire someone, you aren’t just adding a body. You are introducing a new element to your culture, your work and your skillset. They will become a conduit for your company’s vision and values, and they will influence — and be influenced by — the people around them, for better or worse. That’s why finding people with the right foundation is everything.
After hiring many roles, both successfully and poorly, I’ve distilled the 10 traits that I think are most important for a new hire — beyond their resume.
1. Hunger: Experience is important and necessary for most roles you hire for. However, you don’t want people who have already accomplished everything and are just looking to coast. The best people want to grow, no matter where they are.
2. Humility: Accomplishments are impressive, but they become less so if someone constantly brags about them. You want to hire team players who want everyone to get the glory (and don’t leave passive-aggressive notes in the kitchen about how the dirty dishes in the sink inconvenienced them). Also, look for people who understand the difference between humility and false humility. To quote C.S. Lewis, real humility is someone who “will not be thinking about humility: he will not be thinking about himself at all."
3. Intelligence (Intellectual And Emotional): Book smarts are good. Street smarts are better. Both are ideal. The best employees have not only the technical ability but also the intuition and common sense to get things done — without oversight — under what are sometimes very stressful circumstances.
4. Self-Awareness: Self-awareness is vital when interacting with other people, whether it’s clients, coworkers or colleagues. Understanding your actions and how they are interpreted and make others feel, is often the difference between being someone who is a pleasure or a pain to work with. The good news is this trait is pretty easy to assess in an interview.
5. Curiosity: An unknown source once said, “Knowledge is having the right answer. Intelligence is asking the right question.” To grow, improve and work more efficiently, you need people who are interested in challenging old paradigms, testing, experimenting and learning. That all comes down to interest and curiosity. Great hires will proactively ask questions and seek out information to make the right decisions or suggest new ideas.
6. Scrappiness: Our company was a bootstrapped startup founded by three broke 20-something guys, so scrappiness is built into our DNA. But it’s an employee trait that benefits any organization. You want people who can get stuff done when things aren’t easy, who can always find a way and who don’t need you to hold their hand.
7. Resilience: Failure and frustrations are inevitable in creative work — even on a daily or weekly basis. People who have defied odds, made interesting career switches or taught themselves new things already come equipped with demonstrated resilience. When you go through a rough patch, as every company does, you’ll be grateful that you have people who are willing and able to weather a storm or two instead of jumping ship at the first sign of difficulty.
8. Flexibility: People who are willing to embrace change, who can dig in and help others out — even when a task isn’t technically in their job description — are the secret to helping a company evolve. At our company, we have many people who’ve held several different positions, some of which span across multiple departments, in just a few years. Their flexibility and knowledge benefits each new team and makes us stronger as a whole.
9. Kindness: No one wants to work with an unpleasant person — even if that person is highly capable. Note, however, that being kind is different from being nice. According to Merriam-Webster, "nice" is defined as: "1. pleasant; agreeable; satisfactory. 2. fine or subtle. 3. fastidious; scrupulous." The same source defines "kind" as: "having or showing a friendly, generous, and considerate nature. Affectionate; loving." Being nice is fine; being kind is absolutely necessary.
10. Passion For What We Do: A truly successful company, no matter the size, is full of people who are invested in the cause, vision and values. Even if you’re a small operation without the same financial resources as your competitors, the only way to build a healthy, happy organization is to hire passionate people who share your vision.
To quote Shafqat Islam, the CEO of NewsCred, in the company's public culture document, under the "People" section, he writes: “This is the only thing that matters — we can screw up in everything else, but if we hire the best people, things will work out. A great team with a bad idea can still execute and make it work. A bad team with a great idea will fail every time.”
Read the original article.
Source:
Ritchie J. (6 December 2017). "The 10 Smartest Things To Look For In Every New Hire" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2017/12/06/the-10-smartest-things-to-look-for-in-every-new-hire/#30d66c776704
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Health Resolutions You Can Stick To In 2018
We ask the experts which resolutions we should be making this year, and how we can actually stick to them.
Whether it's giving up smoking, exercising more, or getting our 5-a-day, most of us have usually given up before January ends.
But with a little help from the pros, you can live a happier, healthier life in 2018...
1. Drink more water
Health and fitness mentor Sarah-Anne Lucas (birdonabike.co.uk) says starting a daily ritual is the answer to New Year resolutions. She suggests drinking more water: "Water intake is massive. Most people do not drink enough, but what we'd all like is more energy. That comes down to what you put in, so increase your water intake. It's the first thing you put in your body in the morning. Go and get yourself a minimum of 100ml water and get it into you. To progress that practice, add lemon, to make the body alkaline. Lemon water is amazing, it also adds a bit of flavour."
2. Learn to meditate
Life-coach and mindfulness practitioner Dr Caroline Hough (aspiring2wellness.com) says we can train our minds to reduce stress, making us more likely to achieve our goals: "It involves sitting and meditating for 20 minutes. Bring yourself into the moment and be aware. That's an awareness of your external environment, so just looking at the flowers and the trees and the sunshine and appreciating it instead of rushing through life. Be aware of your internal environment, by noticing if you're very stressed, for example if you're clenching your muscles. We tend to live our lives at a level of stress which is unhealthy."
3. Start self-watching
Professor Jim McKenna, head of the Active Lifestyles Research Centre at Leeds Beckett University, advises we record our successes to motivate ourselves: "Whatever you want to do, whenever you achieve, write it down. You're trying to achieve it every day, so it needs to be nice and small, and all your job is then is to keep the sequence running. It's really as simple as that. What you're capitalising on there is positive self-regard, but also the fundamental process of self-watching. There's a lot of success in seeing your own achievements. When you collect all that up, you can start saying, 'Actually I've got nearly 10 occasions there when I did well, I'm doing well, I'm someone who can change'."
4. Look after your skin
Louise Thomas-Minns (uandyourskin.co.uk), celebrity skin therapist, recommends we pay more attention to protecting and caring for our skin: "Wash your skin nightly. Not removing make-up, daily dirt, oil, grime and pollutants from the skin every night will result in infections and outbreaks. Your skin regenerates at night too, so give it a helping hand. And don't pick! Picking at your skin will result in scarring and create more spotty outbreaks. Wear SPF every day to slow ageing and protect from the harmful effects of UV rays. Find out your skin type from a skin health expert, so you stop wasting time and money on incorrect products."
Read the original article.
Source:
Go Active (6 December 2017). "Health Resolutions You Can Stick To In 2018" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://www.goactiveincumbria.com/get-started/other/article/Health-Resolutions-You-Can-Stick-To-In-2018-e9f9d40d-ca39-48ed-be2e-b2f88f4061eb-ds
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9 things to leave off your LinkedIn
In our rapid-fire digital age, the Internet has completely revamped the way we traditionally look at recruiting. Resumes are sent as PDFs, online portfolios reign supreme, and LinkedIn has become the new Facebook for recruiters in every industry.
Wondering what you shouldn’t include on your LinkedIn profile in order to appear as marketable as possible to potential employers? Read on to find out.
1. Job titles that don’t say what you really do
When trying to describe your previous positions, it works to your advantage to be as precise as possible. That way, recruiters know exactly what your skillset is, and how it might fit into their company.
2. Your age
Unfortunately, some people have reservations hiring someone they think is either too young or too old. Don’t get knocked out of the running for a job by including school graduation years or other age identifiers.
3. Bad spelling, punctuation, and grammar
When writing up descriptions of your responsibilities in each job, take care to avoid punctuation, grammar, or spelling mistakes. Look at it as a test of your writing and communication abilities—highlighted for everyone to see.
4. A goofy profile photo
Unfortunately, some people don’t seem to realize that LinkedIn is not the place to put a goofy or odd profile photo—unless you’re looking for a job at the local comedy club. Spend a little money on getting a quality headshot that will impress those who see it, not make them wonder if you’re a serious candidate.
5. References from previous positions
There’s no reason to include references with phone numbers or contact information on your LinkedIn page. If an employer is really interested in hiring you, they’ll contact you for them directly. However, do encourage people you’ve worked with or for to leave recommendations for you on your LinkedIn profile page. They can really make you stand out from other candidates.
6. Salary or pay
One of the most unprofessional things you can do is include your salary for each position you held at various companies on your LinkedIn profile page. Unless you’re asked, it doesn’t make sense to disclose such personal information on such a public platform.
7. High school jobs
Unless you just graduated from high school, then jobs you had in high school (or earlier!) don’t belong on your professional LinkedIn page. While you may have enjoyed your summer job flipping burgers or mowing lawns, it’s not going to make much of an impression on someone who’s doing the hiring for a position with much greater responsibilities. It’s much better to put your best foot forward by showcasing standout roles in more recent jobs.
8. Personal information
Refrain from adding information about your ethnicity, religious affiliation, political party, or other potentially sensitive or controversial information. Regardless of how open-minded your recruiter may be, saying less is definitely safer than saying too much when you don’t know your audience.
9. Unprofessional posts or memes
Don’t forget that your LinkedIn profile and any posts you make on LinkedIn are potentially going to be viewed by the very person who is going to interview you for your dream job. What do your posts say about you? What about those funny memes (silly cat photos and so forth) that everyone seems to be passing around today? Will they make the interviewer even more excited to make you a job offer, or stay far away?
Read the original article.
Source:
Economy P. (4 December 2017). "9 things to leave off your LinkedIn" [web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://workwell.unum.com/2017/12/9-things-to-leave-off-your-linkedin/
No mat needed: Yoga at your desk
A sticky mat seems de rigueur for modern-day yogis, but that doesn’t mean a long piece of rubber is required to take part in the ancient practice.
Yoga first and foremost is about being present, and it starts with attentive breathing. You can do that anywhere and without props.
Once you’ve got the hang of steady breathing, matching inhales and exhales to movements helps your body relieve tension and your muscles wake up. In fact, the key to the physical practice of yoga is matching conscious breath to movement. It’s also a big part of what makes yoga feel great. Without it, you’d be doing calisthenics.
We’ve rounded up a few yoga exercises you can do easily and safely at work. All require standing – good news, given sitting is pretty bad for us. It’s best to do them with your feet flat on the ground.
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart. Inhale as you bring your arms overhead. Keep your chin level with the ground. Exhale as you soften your knees and twist your torso to the right, letting your head follow and dropping your arms to shoulder-height. Inhale as you turn back to center, lifting your arms overhead. Do the twist to the left. Repeat this pattern several times.
Benefits: Strengthens abdominal muscles, shoulders and upper arms. Stretches back and chest. Lubricates joints of the spine, including in the neck, and shoulders.
Chair
Stand with your feet hip-distance apart, arms at your sides. Inhale as you lift the crown of your head. Exhale as you bend your knees (typically you want to track each knee over the middle of its corresponding foot), like you’re sitting back in a chair. Hinge at your hips, tilting your torso forward up to 45 degrees. Lift your arms to a comfortable height. Inhale as you return to standing, crown lifted, arms lengthening down. Repeat several times.
Benefits: Strengthens front thighs, buttocks, core, upper back and upper arms. Stretches calves and side torso. Lengthens spine. Lubricates joints of the ankles, knees, hips and shoulders.
Triangle
Stand with your feet slightly wider than hip-distance apart, toes pointing same direction as your chest, then turn your right foot 90 degrees to the right, and your left foot about 15 degrees to the right, making sure your left toes point the same direction as your left knee. Inhale as you extend your arms out from the shoulders and lengthen your spine. Exhale as you tilt your torso to the right, releasing your right arm toward your right leg and your left arm up to a comfortable height. Don’t turn your chest toward your right leg. Drop your gaze to the ground if you feel tension in your neck. Hold for several breaths, and repeat with the left leg.
Benefits: Strengthens front thighs, buttocks, side torso and neck. Stretches calves, back thighs and side torso. Lubricates joints of the hips and shoulders.
You can read the original article here.
Source:
Malek M. (2 May 2017). "No mat needed: Yoga at your desk" [Web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://worklife.coloniallife.com/2017/05/no-mat-needed-yoga-desk/?utm_sq=flegx3i374&utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=WorkLifeTweets&utm_content=Articles
Benefits to plants at your desk
Leaves on trees have turned, and a walk to the office often feels like a walk through an icebox. Open windows are a thing of months past. Cooped up, breathing dry indoor air, no one could blame you for feeling down.
But you can brighten your mood and boost your health by adding a plant or two to your workspace. You don’t even need much natural light or a green thumb.
Plants bring a bit of nature inside, along with other good stuff.
They make people happy, and taking care of them can make people even happier. That’s especially true if you’re digging in a garden – horticultural therapy helps sharpen memory and cognitive skills – but desk-side pruning can do wonders for your mental state too.
Plants are also terrific air purifiers.
The air in your office (and home) might be more polluted than air outside – especially if you’re in a big city. Furniture, carpet, plastic items and other synthetic materials are to blame, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Plants help by wicking away airborne chemicals and the carbon dioxide we puff out, and then give us oxygen, research from NASA shows.
Four decades ago, NASA scientists found more than 100 volatile organic compounds floating through the air of the Skylab space station. The bad stuff came from synthetic materials off-gassing low levels of chemicals such as formaldehyde, benzene and trichloroethylene – known irritants and potential carcinogens that are in earthly buildings too.
When the chemicals are trapped in an area, people breathing within that same area can get sick because the air isn’t getting “the natural scrubbing by Earth’s complex ecosystem,” as NASA puts it.
Hail plants.
Here are two that demand next to nothing and tolerate very low light (but are just as happy with lots of it). Expect them to live for years and years, without repotting. I speak from experience, but you’ll also find them on plenty of lists and in lots of books about easy-care plants that are good for your health.
Snake Plant or Mother-In-Law’s Tongue (Sansevieria trifasciata)
A sturdy plant with upright and stiff leaves. Ideally, its soil should dry out between waterings. It will grow bigger and look better if you water it as soon as the soil dries (not wait forever) and if it’s in medium light. But it still will live for months if you ignore it, and spring back to robust happiness when you give it a little love.
Pothos (Epipremnum aureum)
A flowing plant with vine-like stems that can easily take over your desk. Ideally, its soil should stay a little moist. But if you let the soil dry out completely, you can jolt the plant back to life with watering. It’s perfectly happy with all kinds of lighting, including florescent, but it will be fuller with better color when it gets decent natural light.
Read the original article.
Source:
Malek M. (4 December 2017). "Benefits to plants at your desk" [web blog post]. Retrieved from address https://workwell.unum.com/2017/12/3255/