How to Engage Employees Through Your Company Vision

How to Engage Employees Through Your Company Vision Picture this. It is 10:24 A.M., Monday. You are going through your inbox typing away replies and setting your priorities for the day. Click.Click.Click Then, one of your employees drops by. An expression of unease displayed on their face. Your initial reaction â€" something’s happened. Work-related. Well, yes and no. They want to leave. Call it quits. Right away, you have to find them a replacement. The team can’t be leaderless. Several thoughts race through your mind: how will this impact our bottom line? What will the team members say about it? How did it happen in the first place? You didn’t pick any signs your star employee has been wanting to quit. But does it matter now? What matters is that you now need to find them a replacement while making sure others won’t leave. And this is what this guide is designed for. Today, you will learn how Zety went from a retention rate of 67% to 87% and how you can do the exact same thing by engaging your employees through company vision. Why Is Employee Engagement Important? If you wish to build a ship, do not divide the men into teams and send them to the forest to cut wood. Instead, teach them to long for the vast and endless sea. The better employees are aware of and align with the vision of the company, the more likely they are to stay on board and get you to the best possible destination helping you reach your true north. Need some proof? Companies that have more engaged employees have 51% higher productivity. Estimates show that turnover due to poor millennial engagement costs the US $30.5 billion a year. Employees that are engaged outperform disengaged employees by 20-28%. People don’t want to work for yet another money-making corporation. People want to work on something that could change other people’s lives for the better. On something inspiring and great. Here is an example to consider from Google. Google’s goal is not to become the fastest search engine on the planet (for one, they are already there). Google’s primary goal is to structure the world’s information and make it accessible to everyone. This is how they hired the best people and empowered them to create great things. The problem is that when companies become larger, it becomes increasingly challenging to get everyone on the same page. Solution? There are several ways you can go about it. But there are 2 essential ways Zety does it. Continually Promote Your Company Vision To keep the entire company unified and moving in the right direction, companies need to talk to the talk and walk the walk on the core values. However, oftentimes, employers have trouble enacting their ideals. You can’t put your companys vision on the poster and expect everyone to follow. At Zety, we strive to continually communicate our mission â€" creating the best career site on the planet â€" through every medium whether it is in person, email, bi-weekly all-hands meetings, etc. And we do it long past the point where it gets boring for our people. We repeat our key strategies, objectives, and priorities, and we take the time to articulate who we are and what want to be culturally on a pretty much daily basis. People perceive information in different ways, so only through constant repetition do people begin to internalize and understand. And if you are a rapidly growing company, constantly repeating your vision will inspire the future torch carriers. Reinforce the Company Vision Through OKRTs The vision of the company needs to be intertwined with the employees’ goals. This ensures that people are working toward the same thing and in end of the day, this is what makes them come to work each and every day. At Zety, we introduced an OKRTs (Objective-Key Result-Tasks) system developed by Andy Grove at Intel, which helps our employees relate more to our vision by defining individual goals weaved in the companys vision. In his book called High Output Management, Andy introduced OKRTs by answering 2 questions: What are my objectives? What key results do I need to stay on top of to make sure I am on track? In essence, these questions are personal in nature pertaining to how employees spend their days at work. And this makes it reasonable for people to set up their OKRTs each and every quarter. However, an important thing to keep in mind is that each staff member needs to tie their individual OKRTs to the team goals, and ultimately, the company’s OKRTs. Such alignment allows for a common vision in mind and efficiency when it comes to achieving it. OKRTs should not be easy to achieve. While setting low expectation can bring in some tangible results, in the end, they might stall the company. Setting unattainable goals, however, may be detrimental, as employees will start to feel demotivated and stressed out. With that in mind, OKRTs need to act as beacons, which can’t be fine-tuned from week to week. They need to be set before the next quarter arrives and stuck to throughout. For example, at Zety, we ask our people to set 3-5 OKRTs for the quarter (adding more would shift the focus and distract them from what needs to be done). We also make OKRTs accessible to all our staff so everyone knows what is on their coworkers’ plates. besides, we encourage each and every employee to challenge each other’s quarterly goals to push them to deliver more than they think is possible. Ultimately, seeing where we are going and seeing a bigger picture keeps employees engaged in the workplace. Adding It All Up Making your company’s vision a focal point is crucial for giving your people a higher sense of purpose, which manifests in engagement. Ultimately, this empowers employers to attract top talent while making sure that everyone is going toward the same goals and feeling the success of reaching those. And if you dismiss the concept of vision as somewhat separate from work, your boat will sink before you get there. About the author:  Max Woolf is a writer. He is passionate about helping people land their dream jobs through the expert career industry coverage. In his spare time, Max enjoys biking and traveling to European countries. You can hit him up on LinkedIn.

Things to Keep in Mind While Doing an Internship - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Things to Keep in Mind While Doing an Internship - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Doing an internship is a great opportunity to see what it is like to work in that position and company. It helps you to understand whether you are a good fit for the position and whether you want to do this as a career. However, there are things to keep in mind while doing an internship and below you can find them: Be Professional: You are not in a school setting anymore and your coworkers are not your friends. Those are your colleagues. Thus, you need to be professional. This doesn’t mean that you need to be unfriendly. However, there is a fine line between friendly and professional and you should know how to draw that line. Don’t Be Lazy: You are not the CEO of the company. Therefore, you may not be the busiest person in the office but this doesn’t mean that you should sit and hang around all day long. Even if you don’t have anything to do, you can volunteer to help other people or at least you can watch what others are working on and try to learn their daily tasks. This way, next time people can give you work to do and you feel productive and useful. Don’t Take Days Off: You are there for only a short period of time. For this reason, it won’t be appropriate for you to take days off. If you have any vacations planned long before you found your internship, you should mention this to your manager in your first day so your manager can be prepared and it won’t be a shock for him/her. Don’t Over Expect: As an intern you should know your place and don’t over expect. Be realistic in your expectations. For example, don’t expect to attend a strategy meeting with the CEO or fly to another city for a client meeting. If you gain the trust of your manager and show that you are eager to work, s/he can let you attend regular staff meetings and give you tasks to complete but don’t expect more than that. Don’t Complain: The worst thing you can do is complain about the company or your coworkers. You should be grateful that you found an internship position. Even if you hated the place, don’t express this. Keep it to yourself. Ask Questions: Don’t afraid to ask questions, if you don’t understand something or don’t know how to do a certain task. It is much better to ask questions and learn rather than do something that is completely wrong. Asking questions also shows that you are interested and want to learn.

Three specific ways to improve your social skills

Three specific ways to improve your social skills Now that I do a lot of public speaking, I am flying a lot two or three times a month. There are a lot of perks to travel, like expensive hotel rooms and a break from my kids. But my favorite perk is meeting sales guys. Warning: here come generalizations with no data to back them up. Most people who fly on Sunday night and Thursday night are consultants all those young people who clawed their way to the popular starter jobs at Deloitte and Ernst Young. But most of the people flying during the week are speaking or selling, and the people in those careers who travel a lot are men. So its no surprise that Ive been meeting a lot of sales guys. Its great for me, because I was not born with good social skills, Ive learned them. So I see the time on the airplane as a time for learning specific tips from people who make a living from having good emotional intelligence. Here are three things Ive learned from the sales guys Ive met. 1. Count how many times you interrupt someone. If you ask a sales guy why they are good at sales, they always say they are good listeners. And then, in fact, they display those skills during the flight. I am not a good listener. I spend the flight hearing myself interrupt. Constantly. It sounds like a moment that is bad for my emotional intelligence work, but really, its good. Its good because it allows me to go to the next step, which is asking myself why I am so reluctant to wait to hear what someone has to say. Thats where I am now asking myself that. And I think Im on the right track, because I think better social skills come from asking yourself better questions about why you are the way you are. 2. Learn to read very specific types of language. Last week I was having lunch with a guy I met on a plane. He will have a fit when he reads this because the first thing someone with high emotional intelligence tells me when they sit down with me is that I cant write about them in my blog. We were talking about what his company could do for a blog strategy, and I was thinking about how I could convince him that his company should pay my company to do something. And Mr. Salesguy asked me a question, and I didnt like what the answer was going to be, so I started trying to think of another answer. And he said, Hey, are you going to lie to me right now? I said, What? I tried to say it in an incredulous way, but in hindsight Im sure I just sounded panicked. He said, When you ask someone a question, if they are right-handed and they look to the left before they answer, then they are trying to recall the information. If they look to the right then they are trying to make up something new. You looked to the right. It was so smart of him. Because for the rest of the lunch I was very honest. Not that Im not honest in general, but I basically gave the first answer that came to my head for everything because I was so nervous that I wouldnt be able to control my eye movement. Its a great way to get the upper hand in a conversation. I cant wait to catch someone else in this act. 3. Stop thinking your situation is special. Its not. Rules are useful to everyone. Heres another thing I learned from sales guys. They ask the same questions everyone else asks on the plane, like, Are you going home or leaving home? I would feel stupid asking that, because its so conventional, but it works as a way to start a conversation. Every time. These routine conversations are just social conventions to allow strangers to start talking. Which drives home to me that social conventions are there to help. Take something as simple as holding a door for someone. Social convention says do it if someone is right behind you. But the rule is actually just there so the door doesnt slam in someones face. A lot of times, people think that their particular situation is so complicated that you cant have rules you just have to wing it. This is where having a threesome comes in. I get a lot of books in the mail from publishers who want me to write a review. When I got The Threesome Handbook by Vicki Vantoch, I thought the publisher had gone nuts. But I noticed she is a sex historian and she writes for the Washington Post. So I took a look at the book. And it turns out that a threesome is actually a very complicated social situation, and the best way to make sure everyone stays happy is to have rules that people follow. Im not going to into the intricacies of negotiations, but chapter four is called Strategies for Navigating Freak-outs, Jealousy, and General Messiness. And, winging it actually means guessing what people want. But guessing is hard. So asking for rules is important, listening is important, practicing very specific skills is important. Also, making a public commitment to having better social skills is important, which is why, I think, I blog about this topic so often.

5 Sacrifices Made On The Road To Entrepreneurship - Classy Career Girl

5 Sacrifices Made On The Road To Entrepreneurship So, you’ve chosen to follow a career in entrepreneurship? Starting your own business can be, without a doubt, a very profitable and fulfilling venture in the long term. But you need to be aware of the five risks that many best-selling multi-millionaire biographies often fail to mention. And the harsh truth is that the first few years are going to be tough. You will either borrow or invest your own money. Relationships will be put to the test. Time will be scarce. Chronic fatigue will become the norm. Comfort will turn into a luxury. All of which are hurdles that take many budding entrepreneurs by surprise. Often, they end up throwing in the towel and calling it quits. On the bright side, you will have the grand opportunity to do the things you love for a living. You will also get to be your own boss! Finally, you will lead a comfortable life that many could only dream of. Just remember that entrepreneurship is a two-way street, so the more time and effort you put in, the more your sacrifices pay off. But let’s start from the beginning. 5 Sacrifices Made On The Road To Entrepreneurship 1. You Will Keep a Low Financial Profile To the uninitiated, entrepreneurship may seem like an easy way to make money. Unfortunately, during the first couple of years, you will be mostly treading on thin ice. One of the first sacrifices that every entrepreneur eventually makes is giving up their stable, nine-to-five job. Without a steady source of income, your only options are to either seek out investors or resort to personal and/or family funds in order to get your business up and running. Once you get the ball rolling, your next step will be to generate sales to get that income back. And here is where things get a bit tricky. Starting a business from scratch means you have to cover many operating costs without seeing a return on investment for weeks or even months. To avoid this pitfall, you need to do solid research and come up with a plan that will push your product or service on the market. Having a money reserve large enough to sustain your company during the initial months is key. Preferably, you want one that can last you an entire year. 2. Your Social Life Will Take a Hit As an entrepreneur, you will often find yourself hard-pressed for time. With your predictable daily schedule gone, you will rarely have an opportunity to hit the gym, watch a movie, or hang out with your friends. Your family will also grow tired of you constantly dropping valuable time together in favor of urgent business matters. As the balance between work and social life slowly slips away, you may be tempted to let family matters take a backseat only to end up deeply regretting your decision later on. While it takes true effort to kickstart a business, that doesnt mean that you should keep your closest people in the dark. Explain to your friends that this is only temporary and that youll make it up to them as soon as you get back on your feet. Tell your family that you are doing all the hard work now so that all of you can enjoy a much better life later. In short, do whatever you can to earn the support of the people you rely on. Let them know that everything will go back to normal once your business sets sail. [RELATED: Time Management: 7 Ways To Simplify Your Life To Grow Your Business] 3. You Will Have Little to No Free Time As you know from experience, the world of business is an extremely competitive place to be in. To gain an edge over the competition, you often spend your downtime honing or learning new skills to help you promote your products or services better. At other times, you invest those extra minutes or hours off work catching up on administrative work or planning your business agenda for months ahead. Couple that with the standard 14-hour shifts that entrepreneurs usually enjoy and you have a recipe for a burnout, no matter how passionate you feel about work. And once your motivation falls apart, your business is sure to follow. To avoid overworking, make sure to set a date where you dedicate your free time to unwind and recharge your mental batteries. It could be a passive type of entertainment like watching TV or some work-related hobby, minus the actual work. Feeling rested will allow you to easily tackle tomorrow’s challenges head-on. 4. You Will Get Out of Your Comfort Zone When you run your own business, multitasking becomes second nature. You have to do all the work that would be normally handled by employees and make split-second decisions that can make or break your company. Entrepreneurship is often times unpredictable. You will have to leave your comfort bubble multiple times a day and think creatively to deal with obstacles. A classic case of decision-making comes when your company inevitably grows in size. It falls on your shoulders to carefully weigh the pros and cons of either hiring employees locally or outsourcing the work overseas. The pricing of your products or services is another conundrum that only you can solve. So it always helps to have a well thought-out plan. To avert a potential crisis, try to predict where your business is headed and brainstorm for solutions. You want solutions that apply to every outcome you can think of, whether positive or negative. 5. You Will Be Under a Lot of Strain Entrepreneurship requires many things done then and there and, unfortunately, you are the only person who can make those happen. As your business evolves, you often end up burning the midnight oil to meet harsh deadlines that you’ve set yourself. Caffeine will become your best friend and your bed will turn into yet another convenient place to read your emails instead of one where you can have your good night’s sleep. You may even receive business calls as late as 2 a.m. that you, of course, will need to promptly answer. This push-it-to-the-limit, “you snooze, you lose” attitude that so many entrepreneurs adopt can quickly take its toll on your health. It can potentially lead to anxiety, insomnia, or even chronic depression. It can also limit your productivity and you will feel dissatisfied with your work. A good way to prevent this is by setting a sleeping schedule (preferably between 7.5 to 9 hours) and vigorously sticking to it. This will prohibit you from sabotaging your natural circadian rhythm and help you recover faster from you last all-nighter. A Few Final Words The way of the entrepreneur is rocky and riddled with what may seem like insurmountable challenges. You need to learn how to make the most of your limited resources, find a delicate balance between business and life, make difficult decisions on a day-by-day basis, and sleep as much as possible to protect your body and sanity. Above all, you need to tap into your passion that sparked your entrepreneurial spirit in the first place. What you do is not only beneficial to your clients  but to your family and personal growth as well. None of the world-famous millionaires, not even Henry Ford or Steve Jobs, enjoyed an overnight success without going through countless hardships first. But this is just a part of the learning process. With enough dedication, your children may one day inherit a legacy that they (and perhaps the entire world) can be truly thankful for.

Tips For Writing a Resume Headline

Tips For Writing a Resume HeadlineIf you are writing a resume, you should consider the tips for writing a resume headline as part of your resume writing process. The headline of a resume can dramatically affect the impression a recruiter gets from your resume. Your resume will come to represent you, so it is important that you make a strong first impression.To begin with, you want to make sure that your resume is optimized and that it contains all the keywords required by the resume services you are using. You want your resume to be a reflection of you. It has to give the recruiter a clear picture of who you are. In the end, this will reflect in your resume.Tip number one is to ensure that your resume is simple to read. You want to avoid any words that look like abbreviations or grammar mistakes. If a recruiter sees any of these on your resume, it is unlikely that they will hire you.Tip number two is to find a good font that makes the text legible. There are a lot of fonts that look nice but have annoying mistakes in them. Make sure that you keep this in mind when you are selecting a font.Another tip is to use numbers sparingly throughout your resume. You don't want to overload the reader, which means you want to avoid numbers in particular. Instead, think about the layout of your resume and then find ways to highlight the relevant information.When you are preparing your resume, think about the main points of the document. Don't repeat the same information in your resume. Take a look at some other resumes out there to get ideas. This is the most common mistake made by students and professionals when writing their resumes.Tip number three is to write your resume to format the way you would want to be presented. You should not use fonts that have special effects or make your eyes bleed. It is much easier to have a designer type up your resume than to write it yourself. In the end, you will still have the final say in your resume design.A resume is a great way to get a job. If you follow the tips for writing a resume headline, you will be able to write a compelling resume. When you find the right person, your resume will showcase your potential and get you the position you have been applying for.

4 Reasons to Engage in the Beauty Industry - CareerAlley

4 Reasons to Engage in the Beauty Industry - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. The beauty industry is such a celebrated culture that many people are actively engaging in every day. Not only does it provide a vast avenue for the development of their creativity, but it also helps people experience grand challenges that make them grow as artists. A lot of people who decided to follow this path mainly came from an artistic background. These people, more or less, have spent many years in the academy, taking up different fashion courses T.M.Edit to improve their skills and talent. Starting a career in the beauty industry will be very challenging as it involves extensive planning and is a grueling process. However, the truth is everything will be worth the effort, and here are the reasons why: It is extremely self-fulfilling People who have an arts background would have beautiful beginnings as an art explorer. It does not matter if its cooking, drawing, or fashion. Exposure to any art builds the desire to learn more and develops a strong passion for the enterprise. Starting a career in the beauty industry will be very challenging as it involves extensive planning and is a grueling process. However, the truth is everything will be worth the effort, and here are the reasons why Tweet This For people who only develop the liking in the beauty industry late in their lives, their pursuit is also valid. They, too, have a beautiful path ahead of them. Nothing is too late when it comes to embracing the art of fashion and cosmetics. Have you ever experienced doing your makeup? By merely applying your creative process on yourself, you will be able to feel instant gratification. How much more if youre running a beauty salon? Also, when you share your talent with other enthusiasts, youre taking your creativity to a different level. It maximizes an artists talent and skills When artists take up fashion courses from T.M.Edit, they are opening doors to countless opportunities as these help them become acquainted with new techniques necessary for the industry. And when it is coupled with first-hand involvement, you will have an enjoyable learning experience that you would not find anywhere else. Since serving different people means meeting diverse needs, you may have found an opportunity to expand your skills, and at the same time, help a lot of people feel good about themselves. One moment, youre doing a keratin treatment, and after that, you can be doing a debutantes makeup. You can never really tell what service youre going to offer every day. The beauty industry is a million dollar market that likely isnt going anywhere anytime soon. This is great news for those who wish to embark on a career in this field. Whether you want to be a hairdresser, makeup artist, or nail technician, with a little ambition, creativity, and experience, you can create a career that youll be proud of. Before entering the beauty industry, however, there are some things youre going to want to know. Working in the Beauty Industry You will meet people from different walks of life The arena of beauty industry provides artists with an opportunity to meet a lot of wonderful people that they can work with. If youre running a salon, there is a high probability that you will interact with a mixed bag of professionals. This experience gives a fresh and exciting spice in your career as an artist. One minute you could be doing celebrity faces, the next moment you could be working with a politician. Some of your clients could even inspire you to keep working hard because of their positive reviews of your services. Job security In a world where beauty is always cherished and celebrated, you can build your economy. The more impact you have on your clients, the stronger your job security will be. With the myriad of occasions happening all over the world, odds are, people are always in search of the best services that will help them feel confident in the most significant event of their lives. With the demand being on the rise, the beauty industry will always prosper. Worthwhile experience Some people take this art as a way of life. Their reasons range from personal to economic. But whatever reason you may have, the beauty industry will always be a fulfilling experience that will help you influence and change a lot of lives. You will find a deeper meaning and purpose in this trade. What's next? Ready to take action? Choose the right tools to help you build your career. Looking for related topics? Find out how to find the opportunities that help you grow your best career. Subscribe and make meaningful progress on your career. It’s about time you focused on your career. Get Educated Contact Us Advertise Copyright 2020 CareerAlley. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy + Disclosure home popular resources subscribe search

A Lesson in How to Get Fired

A Lesson in How to Get Fired Ive been dealing with the phone company for over a week trying to get a problem with my business line resolved. After rearranging my schedule to accommodate theirs for the past five days, listening to their lame excuses, and giving them more than their fair share of chances, I am about to terminate my service.   Because there are plenty of other carriers out there who would love to have my business. And because I have choices. Here are the reasons I am firing my phone company.Not showing up for work. I was promised a service call on Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday. The one day I wasnt promised a call and was told was not an option was Wednesdaya day when I was unavailable and the only day I received a call that they were on their way.Coming to work unprepared. The first technician that came to look at my phone line over a week ago failed to troubleshoot all of the technical issues he should have, which is why I am now waiting for another service call.Blaming others for the teams errors . The next representative that contacted me was quick to point out all the errors the first technician had made and assigned blame rather than focusing on resolving the issue.Not communicating with others. Since my phone fiasco started I have received phone calls about my issue from at least six different company representatives. Each of them knows that my phone isnt working properly, but none of them have any documentation on the history of my issue or the series of bumbling mistakes that each company representative has made.Telling the boss (me) you couldnt get a project done because it was understaffed. The next representative I spoke to told me that the reason that the technician didnt get to my ticket yet was that they had so many other jobs to take care of and were severely understaffed.Asking for a raise before you have proved your value. In the midst of all this, I have received not one but two calls from this phone carrier asking me if I want to upgrade my services.I know y ou all realize that any of these mistakes could get you fired from a job and Im not telling you anything you dont already know. Its funny how my phone company hasnt made the connection yet between their poor performance and my decision to terminate them.I do think however, that many employees have been coasting in their positions for years. And Im wondering if the free ride is going to end soon. According to CareerBuilders 2010 Jobs Forecast a trend for 2010 may very well be replacing lower performing employees and taking advantage of the large percentage of top talent in the labor force to strengthen their work force. Because in this economy, employers have choicesand there are plenty of job seekers out there that would love to be employed by them.