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How to Stay Productive During the COVID-19 Crisis

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Remote work isn’t new. In fact, working from home been on the rise since 2010. But this new decade brought with it COVID-19, triggering a complete paradigm shift for remote work, school and life — worldwide. As a result, how we communicate, learn, teach, and conduct business has changed. And staying productive has become a challenge all it’s own.

Back in April, FlexJobs reported more than half of all Americans were working from home. Since then, 65% said their productivity increased. In June, Stanford reported that 42% of the U.S. labor force was working from home full-time, signaling a return to the office for many. But in July, COVID-19 cases soared by more than a million globally. More than half of all states in the U.S. that reopened (or planned to), closed in an effort to curb the virus. Given this ever-evolving context and data, we soon knew it would be a tough summer. 

How Do We Stay Productive?

Now that we roll into the fall, families and students grapple with how to return not just to school, but to some sense of normalcy. At the same time, organizations struggle with re-entry to the workplace. While Twitter says they’ll begin reintegrating employees into their offices soon, major companies like Amazon have decided to remain remote until the end of 2020. Google and Facebook have announce their employees will work remotely until mid-2021. 

So amid this ongoing crisis and uncertainty, how exactly do we keep stay productive? In the workplace, how can we find the balance between completely safe and fully engaged?

For many leaders, these seven strategies now serve as a roadmap that helps teams stay productive during the COVID-19 pandemic…

1. Focus on Priorities

Location shouldn’t matter as long as the work gets done, especially now. Employees should think about what work needs to get done, in what order, and how they should tackle that work. Managers, on the other hand, should think about the work that must be produced today while keeping an eye on what’s on the horizon. Combined, this strategy helps set realistic priorities while reducing stress and burnout.

2. Boost Communication

For a remote workforce to be successful, strong communication is key. So managers must integrate communications technology like Slack, Trello, Basecamp, and Zoom. By leveraging these tools effectively and in a balanced manner (no Zoom calls at 6:15am!), managers can easily check-in with employees – perhaps even more often than they did when sharing an office. The win-win: this boost in communication builds even stronger working relationships across the organization.

3. Adopt New Approaches

As the world of work changes, managers must change their approach. True, we’re no longer in the same office. But that doesn’t mean we can’t continue to build mutually-beneficial, one-on-one relationships. One example is making remote work feel more human. Other approaches range from more informal meetings (just to connect), to co-created checklists and to-do lists (to build autonomy). Bottom line: The same rigid approaches to work we used to rely on may not work well now.

4. Set Clear Expectations

Clearly stating expectations and setting common goals is more important now than ever. Just as vital: A clear of understanding of how work will be measured. This will help ensure everyone understands what productivity looks like. At this time, being autocratic may not be the right answer. So welcome input and questions. After all, when managers encourage curiosity it naturally empowers each of us to do good work.

5. Offer Respectful Radical Candor

Managers and leaders must lead by example. So, no more excuses to others — or ourselves — as to why we can’t get work done. To excel, we must be honest about why we can’t be efficient during these times. Let’s accept responsibility and ditch the lies to hack productivity. Let’s consistently offer respectful radical candor. We can then co-create solutions to the challenges we face. By working together, we can overcome whatever keeps us from being productive.

6. Use Stress to Your Advantage

Not all stress is bad stress. Some stressors actually motivate us to better maintain our focus, stimulating a better work performance with goals and deadlines at the forefront. Of course, sometimes stress becomes too overwhelming. When that happens, take a deep breath. Refocus on the highest priorities. Where possible, reset expectations. By focusing on an employees strengths rather than what feels like a weakness during stressful moments, managers can help reduce the bad kinds of stress. And use the good for good.

7. Employ Empathy

Remote work has always meant a flexible work location, work schedule and dress code. But now, empathy plays a role in flexibility. Today, many of us must think about the pressures of working from home. We must integrate family responsibilities, distance or hybrid learning for children, and other life commitments. Showing empathy, and specifically knowing what each of us might be going through during the COVID-19 crisis, helps maintain – and even improves – our work culture.

Leverage these seven strategies. Help team members and leaders stay productive. Enable a positive company culture. Do it well, and you’ll help everyone feel more at ease during a complex time.

Photo: Markus Winkler

Speaking Emoji: The New Language of Working

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Emojis are both a language and a technology. Cultivate’s recent study into just how we use them shows how creatively we’ve adapted to this hybrid form of communication. In just over 20 years, emojis have evolved from the province of teens to an accepted part of business conversation. Influenced heavily by the presence of Gen Z and millennials, emojis have become a standard way to communicate — faster, more effective, and also, enabling us to communicate with more empathy. 

After 6 months of studying communications over Slack at four enterprise companies — including a total of 83,055 messages that used 101,134 emojis, Cultivate found some interesting trends. 30% of messages used Thumbs Up, while 27% used Mask Face. 

Emoji usage also differs by company: each has their own visual vocabulary based on company culture. And each generation has their preferences. Baby boomers enjoy receiving business texts with emojis, but only in the right context. Gen X appreciates informal channels like Facebook that can still be written professionally. Clearly, the majority of Gen Y (millennials) are obsessed with emojis and quick, digital-first communications like IMs or DMs. And Gen Z loves video formats, apps and mobile-only approaches with filters and emojis. 

In terms of how we use emojis, 16.3% of ad hoc requests were most typically answered with Thumbs Up, 1.31% with Okay Hand and 1.29% with Coffee.  14.64% of responses to completing tasks were followed by the highest-ranking Thumbs Up emoji and 1.13% were followed by the lowest-ranking Prayer Hands emoji 1.13%. 

The study also found that managers speak their own language: the top five emojis used by managers were different from the top five used by employees. The top emojis used by managers include Thumbs Up (in 4.63% of messages), Clapping (in 1.80%), Party Popper (0.88%), Smiley Face (0.53%), and Heart Eyes (0.39%). The top used team member emojis were Check Mark (in 1.83% of messages), Heart (1.35%), Laughing Crying (1.23%), Eyes (0.64%), and Heavy Plus Sign (0.54%).

Moreover, Cultivate found that managers and employees each tend to stick to the same emojis. As a language, emojis create a sense of connection — no matter the age or rank. And they add a personal touch along with a business personality that sets the tone for the work culture. 

Emojis also offer context to a message by bridging understanding with a reaction/emotion, especially for women, as recent research done by psychologists at Southwestern University found women tend to use twice as many emojis as compared to men. They use more emojis in particular to communicate and express emotions to family, friends and colleagues. Of course it depends on who we’re emoji-ing: you may not want to throw a line of crazy faces to your manager in an email. Then again, it might garner a Thumbs Up.

The Secret to Retaining Tech Talent: Give Them Ways to Grow

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If you want to keep that tech talent you invested so much time, energy and resources recruiting and hiring on, put yourself in their shoes. Work is about far more than coding: as employees rise in tech, they may be called upon to make presentations, participate in a conference, lead a team, articulate a complicated process to newbies, troubleshoot with peers — you name it. And employees are hungry to expand their skills. Companies that overlook this reality stand to lose that talent they worked so hard to find. That’s going to impact not just your present, but your future: those stand-out new hires already marked as candidates for succession may look elsewhere for opportunities.

To say this is not an ideal time to be bleeding talent in the tech sector is beyond an understatement. According to a recent survey by the job site Indeed, 86% of hiring managers say it’s challenging to find and hire tech talent. The average tenure in a job in 2016 was 4.2 years according to the BLS. But the average tenure in the tech industry is far lower, according to SHRM — only three years.

The reasons are numerous — including the nature of working in tech itself. Tech talent is by nature hungry to learn — whether or not you’re providing the opportunity, learning is part of their DNA. Many tech companies focus far more on apps and tools than on social and language interaction. But if you had the chance to ask a tech employee, most would readily convey a need to improve their soft skills as well — which is evidenced by the rising popularity of soft skills courses for tech talent offered by giants such as Harvard Extension.

The overall economy and work climate also play a key role:

  • Recent economic shake-ups left many people realizing they need to keep a Plan B in their professional pocket.
  • A thrilling but endless disruption of new innovations and new start-ups are constantly clamoring for tech talent — including your employees. Today, the pace of development and rollouts is generally rapid fire, and the people who work in this climate are used to training and ramping up fast.
  • It’s intensely easy in this digital, mobile and social environment to look for greener grass on the other side.
  • Increased globalization means different cultures, a variety of social behaviors and a range of different languages. To unify a multinational, multigenerational team takes far more than just hiring them.

Millennial Culture

Millennials have a core sense of healthy self-worth, and tend to see themselves as consumers of employers and jobs they can pick and choose from. But according to research by Deloitte, they’re also looking for an employer that offers more stability than ever before. And in terms of any career, you have to grow to remain in the same place. So if they’re in a job that doesn’t provide the chance to grow, they’re going to look for one that does. 18-35 year-olds stayed in a job for an average of 1.6 years last year — a trend noted by Lingo Live in their new report on the importance of upskilling for tech employees. Millennials are not only hungry to learn, they’re hungry to land in a place they can.

Align Learning With Working

The bottom line for today’s talent, and today’s digital culture a well, is that they are constantly experiencing new things: new apps, new social media pages, new forms of communication, new emojis, new policies and procedures, new bus routes, new challenges. This is the case at work as well as in life. Add the unique circumstances of any individual — such a software engineer for whom English is a second language or taking a job has meant living in a new country.

Every time our attention shifts to a new task or a new environment, we are thrust into a learning capacity once again. If you don’t provide your people with multidimensional learning and development opportunities, it doesn’t mean they don’t need to find the education and upskilling they need to grow. It just means their learning needs will not align with working for your company.

Instead, create that alignment — and then leverage it to drive engagement and ambition as your employees learn and grow within the context of their employer. Consider the soft skills you may want to offer:

Language skills and proficiency: According to the “Real Benefits” report by Lingo Live, language skills are overlooked by employers but highly valued by employees. In fact, a full 70% of engineers they surveyed believe their language skills play a key role in career advancement in their industry. Especially for tech talent that has been sponsored on a work visa, the challenge of communicating, writing, reading, and even interacting in English can be daunting. It’s a challenge easily remedied with a range of web-based, easily accessed language courses and practice.

Leadership skills: From team management to cultural customs and social etiquette, we expect a lot of our managers and leaders. In fact, the Education Advisory Board pinpointed a need to developed five key soft skills for tech talent, all of which are critical for a successful career trajectory. Rising up through the ranks usually means taking on more responsibility and overseeing employees. Among these key skills STEM fields are facing an increased demand for: creativity, teamwork/collaboration and building effective relationships. All can also be bridged into language development and cultural training, enabling tech talent to gain confidence that they can, indeed, become leaders.

Upskilling your talent is a tangible way to demonstrate that you value your employees not just as present-tense labor, but as future assets to your organization. But the benefits go far beyond the doors of your company and right into recruiting. Your employees will convey your brand whether or not you intend them to, but if they are growing and able to learn and develop within the aegis of your organization, they will let others know — and that makes you an employer people want to work for. For any organization trying to establish itself above the fray in this era of transparency, and be able to truly attract, hire, engage and retain the best tech talent, being able to provide soft skills training is an undeniable plus.

This article is sponsored by Lingo Live. Views are my own.

Photo Credit: Compu-Net Systems, LLC Flickr via Compfight cc

 

Culture: More Than Just an HR Thing

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“Company culture shapes every minute of the workday and every decision that is made.”-Taylor Smith, CEO & Cofounder of Blueboard.

What is culture? I consider it the collective mindset and attitude of your employees about what they do, which manifests itself in how they do things; in other words, their actions and behaviors. These behaviors manifest themselves in their interactions with your company, your customers, and other associates or staff.

This mindset – the one your staff brings to work everyday – determines how they will take care of your customers, how much effort they will put into their work, and whether or not they will stay with you long term.

The mindset and attitude of your employees plays a significant role in how they will perform at work. How someone feels about coming to work affects his or her energy levels and cognitive abilities. The impact of a negative culture is tremendous. It can lead to poor customer interactions, high turnover, underperforming staff, and in turn, reduced profits. Depending on the size of your company the cost could be thousands, millions or even billions of dollars.

The research is clear across industries that when your employees are more positive your company is more productive and profitable. According to a Gallup study from 2012, organizations with engaged employees are:

  • 10% More Customer Service Oriented
  • 21% More Productive
  • 22% More Profitable

When you consider the numbers, culture is the most important consideration in business today. And as a result, we should reconsider the position and idea that culture is only the responsibility of your human resources team. Culture must be the focus and responsibility of every executive, owner, and manager in your company.

I often hear owners, executives, and managers argue against investing in their staff.

Here are a few of the arguments I most frequently hear:

  • We have to remain focused on our customers and their experience –after all we are in the customer experience economy. While customers are important I would argue, we are in the employee experience economy. The talent war is over, talent won, and as a result if we do not take care of our best and brightest people, another company will. And if you take care of your employees and they feel good about whom they work for and what they do, they will naturally take care of your customers, anyway.
  • Employees (especially young ones) don’t work hard anyway so why give them more? The reality is, this generation, just as previous generations, have the capacity to work very hard; it’s just that the new generation of workers don’t see the value in investing in a business that doesn’t invest in them.
  • The employees will just leave, anyway. To this I say, maybe they will, but if you want any chance to keep your best and brightest, then you have to provide them a better employee experience than they received in the past.

If you are focused on profits and productivity (and let’s face it, who isn’t?) then you must be willing to deliver a better employee experience to positively impact the mindset and attitude of your people coming to work. Culture is the most important thing in business today, so every owner, executive, and manager must keep it front and center in everything they do. Remember what author Stephen Covey said, “The main thing is to keep your main thing the main thing.” Make culture your main thing.

Resources:

Understanding Company Culture
How to Understand Your Company Culture

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Seven Keys to Effective Recruiting

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Creating a world-class talent acquisition effort that incorporates cool recruiting ideas may seem unrealistic for many HR departments. After all, the pressure to fill the ever-larger pile of open reqs leaves little time for experimentation. And at smaller firms, where recruiting duties often fall to an HR generalist who has to interview candidates in between many other daily duties, attracting good new hires is good enough, which leaves the absolute best hires working someplace else.

Yet, even if you hire just one new candidate a month, you can leverage many of the same effective strategies as the leading companies in talent acquisition, say the folks who lead them. You simply need to learn about the latest trends, and then strive to incorporate some or all of those efforts into your daily hiring routine.

Most HR specialists agree they want to get better at talent acquisition. In a 2016 SHRM survey of more than 2,300 HR professionals, respondents said recruitment was their top business/HR challenge, ahead of compliance, employee training and compensation/benefits. Finding the time to implement these leading strategies is the bigger challenge. To that end, here are summaries of the seven most meaningful steps to creating a more effective talent acquisition effort, according to a range of leading voices in the field. Many don’t require a major investment of time or money, and instead can be incorporated into the recruiting practices you’re using already.

  • Brand your company as a great place to work. If you don’t tell your story, others will do it for you. Having an attractive career web site was a prerequisite 10 years ago. Now, it’s a basic requirement to manage your brand and, once in place, allows you to focus on what makes you special to potential candidates in your marketing materials, across social media and in person. For example, post written and video testimonials on your web site from current employers explaining why they enjoy their jobs, to create an image among prospective hires of what it’s like to work for your company.
  • Maximize employee referrals. Referrals are still the primary source of new hires. In fact, 96% of all companies with 10,000 employees or more say it’s their No. 1 source of new hires, while that percentage falls to a still high 80% for companies with less than 100 employees, according to a 2016 SHRM Benchmarking survey.

“So why are most incentive payments so low?,” asks Tom Darrow, SHRM-SCP, founder of Talent Connections, an Atlanta-based executive search firm and chair of the SHRM Foundation Board of Directors.  “It’s widely known that employee referrals are the best source for candidates, yet many companies offer pitiful ‘bonuses’ of $500 or $1,000 to their employees, while offering search firms a $20,000+ fee for the same position.” He suggests incentivizing staff to serve as recruiters and encourage them to tap into their networks to help fill open positions.

  • Pay at least as much as your competitors for talent and be transparent about what you offer. Make absolutely sure that your total compensation package is competitive and, if one or more aspects are lagging, tell candidates why. Then work with your senior management team to improve your offerings.

“Create a competitive compensation package that reflects your culture, then put the dollars in front of candidates at the start and you’ll likely have to negotiate less,” says Steve Browne, SHRM-SCP, executive director of human resources at LaRosa’s Inc., a Cincinnati-based restaurant group. “It’s a brass tacks approach, but be sure to supplement the dollar discussion with the other workplace benefits you offer, including flexibility, autonomy, the work space and more,” says Browne, who is a director-at-large on the SHRM Board of Directors. Darrow adds that by highlighting what makes your offer most attractive, you can help deflect attention from what doesn’t.

  • Consider hiring more part-time contributors, and embrace their flexibility. If the full-time talent you seek is too difficult to find or costly to hire, then fill each open position with multiple part-time employees who have embraced the “gig” economy and are willing to share the workload. And don’t punish them if they decide to try something else.

“The biggest shift for us culturally is that we tell each new employee that we’ll enjoy you while you’re here, and that we want to make the time you’re with us be great,” says Browne. “So if you decide to become an Uber driver, congrats! We enjoyed having you while we were here.”

  • Build strong talent networks. Learn to develop relationships with potential new hires long before relevant job openings are posted. One approach is to create “communities of engagement” online through social media where candidates can learn about your company and see how current employees have an opportunity to make a difference.

“Too often I see companies aren’t hiring the best of the best; they’re hiring the best of who they stumble on based on their poor sourcing strategies,” says Darrow. He advocates using social media and networking to build a deep pipeline of potential candidates who you may not have jobs for today, but who you can tap into when appropriate openings emerge down the road.

  • Learn and implement predictive analytics. The role of HR metrics has grown dramatically. While you may not need to hire a full-time data analyst, you (or your vendors) should have the ability to measure the effectiveness of all aspects of your recruiting efforts.

“Employers have to be able to assess the probable yield of a recruitment ad in a certain location, among a certain demographic or at one salary point vs. another, and then instantaneously measure the results and make changes to that ad placement and content on the fly,” says Peter Weddle, CEO of TAtech.org, the association for talent acquisition solutions in Stamford, Conn. By managing your recruitment marketing efforts this closely using analytics, you’ll optimize the results and lower your cost per hire, he adds.

  • Simplify job applications. Poor completion rates for online applications results in the loss of top talent, poor word-of-mouth from candidates frustrated with the process and wasted spending associated with abandonment in cost-per-click recruiting models.

About 60 percent of all job seekers quit in the middle of filling out online job applications because of the form’s length or complexity, according to CareerBuilder. Conversely, companies can increase the rate at which candidates will complete an application by more than 300 percent by reducing the length of the application process to five minutes or less, reports Appcast, an online recruitment service. “You have to make applying simple, fast and mobile friendly, or you won’t attract the best candidates,” says Darrow.

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#WorkTrends Recap: Workplace Democracy

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As U.S. voters exercised their democratic right in last month’s Presidential election, the practice of democracy in rapidly spreading to all areas of life, most notably in the workplace.

Companies are beginning to offer employees the power to vote on various workplace amenities such as snacks in the breakroom, or even the location of the next company outing… but what if employees had the power to make more significant and impactful decisions like voting to keep or fire their CEO?

This week, Meghan M Biro was joined by Haufe CEO Kelly Max to discuss what a workplace looks like where the employees have the power.

Kelly had to run for election as CEO of Haufe so he had a lot of insights to share. Here are a few key points:

  • Transparency is key for employees to make better decisions,
  • CEOs need to listen to employees. It’s their job as a leader. It makes people have a voice.
  • The fact that employees are now heard gives employees so many more opportunities

Did you miss the show? You can listen to the #WorkTrends podcast on our BlogTalk Radio channel here:  http://bit.ly/2gfobXe

You can also check out the highlights of the conversation from our Storify here:

Didn’t make it to this week’s #WorkTrends show? Don’t worry, you can tune in and participate in the podcast and chat with us every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). On Dec 14, I will be joined by my former co-host Kevin W Grossman, to discuss the candidate experience.

Remember, the TalentCulture #WorkTrends conversation continues every day across several social media channels. Stay up-to-date by following our #WorkTrends Twitter stream; pop into our LinkedIn group to interact with other members; or check out our Google+ community. Engage with us any time on our social networks, or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

photo credit: kennethkonica The message is #VOTE and I plan on it! via photopin (license)

#WorkTrends Preview: Workplace Democracy

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As U.S. voters exercised their democratic right in last month’s Presidential election, the practice of democracy in rapidly spreading to all areas of life, most notably in the workplace.

Companies are beginning to offer employees the power to vote on various workplace amenities such as snacks in the breakroom, or even the location of the next company outing… but what if employees had the power to make more significant and impactful decisions like voting to keep or fire their CEO?

Join Meghan M. Biro and Mr. Kelly Max, CEO of Haufe on Wednesday, December 7 at 1pm EST, as they discuss this intriguing and cutting-edge topic.

Workplace Democracy

#WorkTrends Logo Design

Join Kelly and me on our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, Dec 7 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.

Immediately following the podcast, the team invites the TalentCulture community over to the #WorkTrends Twitter stream to continue the discussion. We encourage everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are the advantages of creating a workplace democracy? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q2: How can transparency encourage employees to have a voice? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q3: What steps can leaders take to create continuous employee feedback? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Don’t want to wait until next Wednesday to join the conversation? You don’t have to. I invite you to check out the #WorkTrends Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community LinkedIn group, and our TalentCulture G+ community. Share your questions, ideas and opinions with our awesome community any time. See you there!

Join Our Social Community & Stay Up-to-Date!

Passive-Recruiting

photo credit: Phil Roeder Mock Election Day via photopin (license)

Why You Should Let Employees Pick Their Job Titles

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Traditional job titles are like business meeting jargon—they’ve become meaningless and have tended to make my eyes glaze over. As positions evolve thanks to changes in technology and workplace dynamics, it’s time for employers to let individuals choose job titles that reflect what they actually do.

Think about it: Wouldn’t you like to have a desk plaque that says Chief Happiness Officer? Or how cool would it be to have a business card that said Software Ninjaneer or Master of Storytelling? And doesn’t Director of First Impressions sound way cooler than receptionist?

For some fortunate professionals at forward-thinking companies, creative job titles are all the rage, and experts are finding it can have a positive impact on employee happiness. As reported in the Harvard Business Review, a London Business School professor who conducted research on this trend found that once some of the formality is removed, cool job titles helped inspire creativity, and even empowered some workers to triumph over workplace stress. Other research suggests that letting employees choose their own job titles can even serve as a top strategy for retaining talent since it gives them a sense of autonomy. In fact, it could be part of a larger cultural trend in which more than half of employees say they’ve gained more influence at work over the last five years, according to Staples Business Advantage Workplace Index 2016 report.

Giving Employees a Title Shot

Companies that have had success with this approach include Disney and the Make-A-Wish Foundation. At Disney, employees are known as Imagineers and Cast Members. The Make-a-Wish Foundation has rebranded all its job functions into inspirational titles, which includes the CEO who has become the Fairy Godmother of Wishes, and the PR team now referred to as Magic Messengers and Heralders of Happy News.

Still need convincing that a job title can have that an effect on performance and employee happiness? Here are a few more compelling reasons why it’s worth trying in your organization:

It’s a perk. In an age where raises, bonuses, and promotions aren’t always available to offer, providing fun perks can serve to keep employee morale high. The ability to choose your own job title can help give your team a sense of validation.

It’s indicative of a fun work culture. Giving your employees the ability to introduce themselves to potential clients or customers using a unique job title will not only be a great conversation starter, but it will illustrate the “human side” of your company. People will genuinely want to know more about the “cool” organization behind the original job title.

It gets employees excited and motivated. In the Make-a-Wish case study, about 85 percent of the employees surveyed said their new job title helped them cope with the sometimes emotionally draining aspects of the job, as reported in Fast Company.

It can add a little flair to a potentially nondescript position. There’s no getting around the fact that some job titles sound dull. However, being called a Genius (like Apple store employees are) rather than service technician can jazz things up.

If you’re thinking of letting employees pick their own job title, you should set some boundaries. Here are a few to get you started:

Make sure the chosen titles fit in with your company culture. You want the new position names to continue to convey the values of your organization. That’s why Make-a-Wish went the inspirational/magical-sounding route. Does IT Jedi or Marketing Maestro make sense in the context of your company?

It should be meaningful to the role. Queen of Awesome sounds, well, awesome, but it doesn’t say anything about what that employee does. On the other hand, it’s not too much of stretch to infer that Brand Champion is a marketing position.

It should be the employee’s choice. That’s the whole point here, isn’t it? On the other hand, if an entire department is rethinking its titles, it can be a fun team exercise to brainstorm new titles together, and then take a vote.

Ultimately, even though allowing employees to pick their own titles is more of a symbolic gesture, it can demonstrate that the company values its workforce. Plus, leaving a little room for lightheartedness, even in a serious industry, is an excellent way to help workers feel relaxed. Take it from this Blog Writing Aficionado—a change in job title can be more meaningful that you’d think.

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#WorkTrends Recap: Modern Compensation: Putting People First

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When companies start to work on their compensation plans, they often do so with spreadsheets and formulas, far removed from either the people impacted by compensation or the organizational objectives. Modern compensation brings people front and center in the pay business, creating a win/win situation between organizations and individuals.

On today’s  #WorkTrends show, we were joined by special guest Tim Low from PayScale. We discussed the idea of putting people first in compensation plans and why that makes a difference in business.

Here are a few key points Tim shared:

  • How to use modern compensation practices to engage, motivate and reward top people.
  • How compensation can be a team sport, communicated transparently across the organization.
  • Why compensation should be a win/win, not a battle, between employee and employer.

Missed the show? You can listen to the #WorkTrends podcast on our BlogTalk Radio channel here: http://bit.ly/2afsbcO

You can also check out the highlights of the conversation from our Storify here:

Didn’t make it to this week’s #WorkTrends show? Don’t worry, you can tune in and participate in the podcast and chat with us every Wednesday from 1-2pm ET (10-11am PT). Next week, on July 27, host Meghan M. Biro will be joined by Chris Voss, former FBI Lead International Hostage Negotiator, who will help us explore and understand the art of negotiation.

The TalentCulture #WorkTrends conversation continues every day across several social media channels. Stay up-to-date by following the #WorkTrends Twitter stream; pop into our LinkedIn group to interact with other members; or check out our Google+ community. Engage with us any time on our social networks, or stay current with trending World of Work topics on our website or through our weekly email newsletter.

Photo Credit: reputationtempe via Compfight cc

#WorkTrends Preview: Modern Compensation: Putting People First

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When companies start to work on their compensation plans, they often do so with spreadsheets and formulas, far removed from either the people impacted by the compensation plans or the organizational objectives. Modern compensation brings people front and center in the pay business, creating a win/win situation between organizations and individuals.

Next week on the #WorkTrends show, we will be joined special guest Tim Low from Payscale to discuss the idea of putting people first in compensation plans. Here are a few things Tim is expected to share:

  • How to use modern compensation practices to engage, motivate, and reward top people.
  • How compensation is a team sport, communicated transparently across the organization.
  • Why compensation can be a win/win, not a battle, between employee and employer with fair pay.

Modern Compensation: Putting People First

#WorkTrends Logo Design

Tune in to our LIVE online podcast Wednesday, July 20 — 1 pm ET / 10 am PT

Join TalentCulture #WorkTrends Host Meghan M. Biro and guest Tim Low from Payscale as they discuss how to put people first in compensation.

#WorkTrends on Twitter — Wednesday, July 20 — 1:30 pm ET / 10:30 am PT

Immediately following the podcast, the team invites the TalentCulture community over to the #WorkTrends Twitter stream to continue the discussion. We encourage everyone with a Twitter account to participate as we gather for a live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1. What are the benefits of a people-focused compensation model? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q2. What are some signs that a modern compensation model is in demand? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Q3. In what ways can compensation be a win/win for employees and employers? #WorkTrends (Tweet this question)

Don’t want to wait until next Wednesday to join the conversation? You don’t have to. We invite you to check out the #WorkTrends Twitter feed, our TalentCulture World of Work Community, LinkedIn group, and in our TalentCulture G+ community. Feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!

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5 Ways To Keep It Real At Work

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Many people have their “real” selves and their “work” selves. We pack away certain parts of our personalities and slap on our game face when we go to the office. Even ask yourself why? In some ways, this is well and good. We don’t want to bring that fight with our spouse or rage against our noisy neighbor into work. But it’s a fine line – the darker experiences and emotions we all experience are part of who we are. It’s what makes us more interesting.

Organizations and leaders that create cultures that deny the dark side that pretend everything is up-up-up all the time, often end up stifling employees and performance. You get (ostensibly) cookie-cutter employees who deliver cookie-cutter (aka mediocre) results. Who strives for this? It’s not ideal.

There’s a better way. Driven by social media, people are blurring the lines between their public and private selves. We want to be known and recognized for who we really are, quirks, faults and all. When people put their pain, disappointments and depression out into the public square, the shame diminishes. Hiding and pretending waste a lot of time and energy, and stifle talent and creativity. The very things smart leaders want to unleash when hiring and retaining top talent – this includes “best fit” workplace culture talent.

Here are 5 Ways to Build a More Open, Exciting, Creative and Productive Workplace: 

1) Get Real. It’s not always necessary to play Pollyanna and pretend that everything is sweetness and light at your office. First of all, no one believes it. Second, it’s simplistic and insulting to your people, who are complex, with light and dark moods, and want to be treated as well-rounded individuals with lives and stresses outside the workplace. So keep the rah-rah to a minimum. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be positive and upbeat, but keep it honest and leaven it with an understanding that we all carry some baggage.

2) See The Whole Person. This is particularly important for HR Technology that can be utilized during the hiring process (and after as well). Social media and Big Data gives leaders amazing new tools for understanding people in all their complexity. It’s not just a resume and an interview anymore. You can Google anyone and get a much more well-rounded, 3-dimensional understanding of who they are. You’re not looking for perfection, you’re looking for specific talents, the right attitude, the ability to work well with others and deliver results. If that brilliant software engineer has a second life as a lip-synching karaoke singer, hey, how cool is that? Celebrate it!

3) Talk Their Talk. Leaders and managers must learn to customize their communication. The more you know about a person, the more effectively you can talk to them. There may have an employee who suffered a recent trauma or depression, such as the death of a parent or spouse, or a recent triumph, like running a marathon. In addition to specifics, people just generally listen and process information differently. Some leaders “get it” with just a few words; others need a detailed explanation. This talent for talking calls upon emotional intelligence, patience, and a little homework. HR can help here by compiling a personality or Big Data profile map on employees.

4) Be Yourself. This goes for everyone in an organization. The more true you can be to yourself, the better you will perform and the happier you’ll be. This doesn’t mean you broadcast your political views or court controversy or ignore manners and consideration. It does mean, to the greatest extent possible, that you are relaxed, open-minded, and comfortable in your own skin at work. If you’re a little bohemian, fine. If you’re straight-laced, that’s fine too. There’s no right or wrong when it comes to the human animal. There are only our true, wondrous, idiosyncratic, sometimes-up, sometimes-down selves. Bring it on – and bring it into work.

5) Caveat: Set limits. The workplace is not the place to exercise your id. Certain subjects are and should be off limits – like sex and off-color jokes. There are limits of course. Leaders, managers, and HR teams should set their own limits on the information they cull about people. If someone wants to hold onto a rigid work persona and it works for them, let it be.

The bottom line here, as always, is performance. Results. The good stuff. Bringing out, and bringing in, our best selves. So encourage everyone to be themselves. It’s about unleashing talent and true potential. Freedom to be who we really are is a beautiful, liberating thing – even at work.

And Remember – People Hire People – They Do Not Hire Resumes.

A version of this post was first published on Forbes.

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How to Attract and Retain the Best Employees in 2016

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As colleges crank out more graduates, our economy’s pool of potential employees grows. Selecting and enticing the right ones are going to be paramount to any business strategy in 2016, especially because the pool is diluted to the brim with mediocre to average prospective hires. Many business are going to need to brush up on hiring and retention strategies if they want to attract and retain the best employees in 2016.

Polish That Glass Door

It wasn’t long ago that employers began carefully scrutinizing their prospective employees Facebook profiles to determine more about them than they may be letting on in the first interview. It didn’t take long for potential hires to turn the tables. Websites like Glassdoor offer a place for employees around the world to review their places of work, list pro’s and con’s, and rate the company’s CEO. It’s basically like Yelp! for the job-seeking world. Building up your talent brand means ensuring that your organization is represented in the job market as the employer of choice via online profiles and employee reviews. This also includes social media, as sometimes Facebooking and Tweeting employees serve as your best talent brand ambassadors.

Prepare, and Be Snappy

You think you’re the only business looking to hire talent? Businesses are going to be competing for the best all throughout 2016, so make sure yours is snappy. Demonstrating that you respect their time and gather as much information as you can in a short amount of time via personality tests and video conferencing. On the flip side, if you are looking to get to know your employees a little better before you hire them full time, consider establishing internship programs. Not only does this gain you the ability to observe somebody’s work before hiring them, but it also gives you an edge with the first pick of the best college students before they even graduate.

Offer a Partnership Instead of a Job

Two-thirds of companies will face an internal skills shortage in the next three to five years, and only 30% of employees are satisfied with the future career opportunities within their organizations, according to Eremedia.The solution to this is not to offer “jobs” to candidates, but instead to offer a partnership, or a trade of sorts.

In return for their hard work (and their paycheck of course!), explain to your prospective hire what types of skills they will be learning that will make them more employable in the future, either for positions they may obtain via internal promotion, or at another company. It’s ok to recognize that your employee might not stay with you forever, and most potential hires will probably appreciate the honesty.

Recognize that no candidate is perfect, but that they can be trained to get pretty close. This type of flexibility and willingness to up-train a bit will also help fill the hard-to-hire positions left void by the STEM skills gap. Also, recognize that attitude and soft skills can be more important than having all of the hard skills. What is important is the career aspiration and that you have a candidate that’s looking toward their future. Those candidates are the ones that want to better themselves, which will, in turn, better your business.

Give Better Perks Than Coffee

Traditional benefits packages include health insurance, 401k, a of couple vacation hours, and probably free coffee on the jobsite–but traditional benefits packages aren’t enough to attract the best and brightest anymore. Millennials, the majority of your incoming workforce, are changing the way the workforce views perks. More laid back dress codes and flexible work hours fall in line with the new Generation’s valued self-expression. More flexible work hours and work-from-home options highlight your understanding that they place just as much importance on spending time with their families and their pursuing their passions as they do on working for your business and earning money. Make sure that your employee is happy, and your employee will make you happy.

Encourage Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose

Business author Daniel Pink believes that all workers actually want only to be provided three things: the autonomy to do their jobs, however they have to, the opportunity to master their trade, and that purpose beyond earning a buck is inherent in their work. The workplace is changing to reflect these realities is apparent, as more people are being offered flexible scheduling, up-training, and the chance to work for companies that better the world and do more than just “make money.” Initiatives as simple as going green at the office can provide that purpose. These three principles show that even employees that don’t have all of the hard skills can be guided to learn them because inherently people want to be good at what they do. If you provide an environment in which an employee can excel by giving them those three basic things, they’ll better themselves, they’ll better your company, and they’ll stick with you for as long as they can.

By adhering to these principles and preparing for the new generation’s wants and needs, you’ll be attracting top talent throughout 2016. Miss any essential tips that I missed? Comment below.

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Don't Believe The Hype: Unlabeling Millennials

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Ever since the CoBies — Google’s multidirectional Conference Bikes that transform going for lunch into a team-building exercise — the image of millennials in the workplace has turned into a kind of perpetual second-guessing. So young, so self-possessed, so smart, so not into phone calls! So what else do they want?

This kind of approach is both fascinating and frustrating to HR in general and thought leaders especially (Ahem). It’s also beside the point. I’m not one to place labels on people. The “new generation” customarily befuddles the older; the older generation usually wants to take it upon themselves to school the younger. One difference here: millennials’ facility with digital, mobile and social means that they tend to be the teachers. But that same digital dimension also stimulates a vexingly stubborn case of us and them.

Get over it

Yes, millennials did seem to arrive fully dressed (in extremely skinny pants), with tools — as if born texting, that first infant cry a hashtag. But that’s just confluence. And taking to mobile and social like fish to water? That deserves credit, not headshaking.

The very term millennial has marketing-ploy written all over it; and that works contrary to the role of HR, which is to recruit talent. Here’s the basic premise to recruiting talent: Recruit talent. The best candidates for the position, not generations, not mystique. Hu-mans. Also, it’s a recruiter’s or hiring manager’s job to see past hype and stereotype in order to create an authentic and constructive relationship between candidate /new hire and company. So let’s look at two millennial trends and see what they really mean.

Millennials don’t care about money

A recent Case Foundation study found that 55 percent of millennials are influenced by cause work when deciding to join a company. Meaning and mission clearly play a role in their employment choices.

Look again: That doesn’t actually mean they don’t care about money. Yes, many millennials are concerned with causes, and given issues like climate change, that’s not surprising. Nor are millennials the only generation to consider the ethical value of work.

But this may be a savvy adaptation on the part of these here kids. Studies show that millennials are on track to be the most educated generation to date, according to the Pew Research Foundation. They’re also saddled with debt: a White House study puts outstanding student loan debt at over $1 trillion by the end of 2014 — partially due to greater enrollment among millennials. And despite the job market heating up, millennials are still underemployed, and making lower starting wages since the economy’s tumble. This puts looking for work with more than just a crappy salary in a different light. Sort of a silver lining, look at the bright side kind of light.

Millennials want to know the Big Picture

When interviewing and talking to recruiters, millennials want to know more than just the nature of their particular job. They want to know about how they can grow, what they can expect to accomplish, and how they can fit into the mission of the company.

In truth, transparency is always better: it’s far more productive in the long term for a recruiter to paint the whole picture, not just the small stuff. This promotes a better fit for candidate and company, which leads back to a holy grail in HR: retention.

Even from a company perspective, big picture conversations offer far better indicators for a good ROI. But here’s another point: given that millennials came of age and streamed into the job market at a point when jobs were drying up and the economy was tanking, there are plenty of practical reasons to want to be informed about growth and the potential for accomplishments.

Again, look at the economy: The job market is improving, but there’s a new kid in town, Generation Z. Actually, as a recruiter, I’d take the millennial request for the bigger picture as a plus: it speaks to commitment. Which refutes the “job hopper” mis-label that sometimes gets stuck on millennials. It also makes them more like everyone else, not less; the quest for engagement and growth at work is not unique to people under the age of 34. This is an everybody issue.

Soon enough, millennials will be the new normal; they now comprise a solid one-third of the workforce not yet hitting retirement age. High time to consider talent the fulcrum, not generational trends. Yes, each generation offers a skill set and a mindset more suitable to certain positions or purviews than others. But that’s a sweeping overstatement. No matter the organization, mission or corporate culture, whether employees travel on wacky team-building googlecycles or in drab shuttles, whether in Silicon Valley or Duluth or Madras, different generations all contribute their part to a workforce, and each individual employee is what matters. The sooner we stop trying to get the label to stick, the better our chance to not become unglued in the process.

Picture: thestocks.im

A version of this article has been published on MillennialCEO on 4/20/15

Those Employees With Financial Wellbeing Keep The Workplace Pumping

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“Big money got a heavy hand
Big money take control
Big money got a mean streak
Big money got no soul…”

—Rush, Big Money

Throughout commencement on that warm May morning over two decades ago I thought, I did it. Not the traditional seamless timeline of 4ish years, but I did it nonetheless. The first one in my immediate family to do it in fact. I did it and received a Bachelors of Arts degree in psychology with a minor in anthropology from San Jose State University. I financed most of it myself, working full-time at SJSU during the latter half of completing my degree.

But there were loans involved in bankrolling my degree. Not an excessive amount, but somewhere north of $15,000 worth of loans during those frenetic college years. In economic comparison, the full time job I had at the time with the university paid about $30,000 annually.

The future looked brighter than ever. I had my degree, I left the university job for one in the exciting world of high-tech marketing and the dot.com boom – all was well in my world.

Until it wasn’t and I was swimming in other debt plus the student loans and lots of other life choices hitting the skids.

As the saying goes – life happens and not all the choices we make work out – but I made it and fortunately many people with similar stories did and do as well, especially since we’ve had two economic busts within the booms since. But today student loan debt had increased dramatically. With smaller savings (if any) and continually rising tuition, there are over 40 million Americans with at least one outstanding student loan, which is up from 29 million consumers in 2008.

Of those, the average student loan balance is about $30,000 per borrower. For those who finish graduate school the total can be over $80,000. Medical school debt is twice that or much more. Today the nationwide student loan debt is at an all-time high of over $1.2 trillion, an 84% jump since the great recession, according to a study from Experian, which analyzed student loan trends from 2008 through 2014.

Plus there’s the fact that “student loans surpassed home equity loans/lines of credit, credit card and automotive debt.” Yet, for the millions who struggle with student loan debt, not many loan relief and repayment programs have been available to these borrowers, unlike those with underwater mortgages over the past seven years.

There is the Federal Student Aid website that provides resources and recommendations on how to manage and repay federal loans, which accounts for the majority of student loans, but otherwise repayment and refinancing programs have been limited.

Dan Macklin, co-founder and vice president of the nation’s second largest marketplace lender called SoFi, told us on the TalentCulture #TChat Show that the student-lending market is a very strange one indeed. When he and his co-founders started SoFi about four years ago – which offers mortgages, personal loans, student loan refinancing and more including free services for employers and employees – they looked into the market and there was no one refinancing federal student loan debt at the time. In fact, they almost didn’t launch the company because they thought there must be a reason there weren’t any lenders offering these services.

Financial wellbeing has finally gained traction in the workplace and I’ve had the opportunity to work with a few startups in the space years ago, GuideSpark being one of them. According to a survey by benefits consulting firm Aon Hewitt, more than 90 percent of 250 large employers said they want to introduce or expand their financial wellness programs this year. These programs have been on the rise and help employees understand and manage their personal finances, save money for emergencies and employ strategies for dealing with economics ups and downs.

The impact of debt can be overwhelming. Add to that the instability of the job market and the world of work and life become a pressure cooker affecting productivity, psychological and physical wellbeing. Too many student loan debtors are delaying saving for retirement until they’ve paid off their debt, which seems like it’ll never happen and exacerbates helplessness exponentially.

More and more companies obviously do great things (and creative things) around 401K, retirement planning, financial wellbeing and other healthcare benefits, with HR taking the lead here. Cost-benefit analysis of higher education aside, the reality is that when you come out of college with tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of dollars of student loan debt, you’re probably more worried about that for the first few years or even decades and getting that off your back until you’re really able to think about starting a family, buy a house, retirement and so on.

Big money may have no soul, but it’s always been a means to beginnings, middles and ends. Those employees with financial wellbeing keep the workplace pumping.

Keeping Staff When Your Employee Benefits Don’t Cut It

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Attracting good employees as a small- or medium-sized business can be tricky. To get around it you hire inexperienced graduates and train them yourself, only to seem them walk off to a larger company with shinier benefit packages as soon as you give the qualifications they need to get in. It seems to be the way things are: you train fresh talent, and then bigger, wealthier companies with life insurance, an incredible insurance plan, and more paid vacation than you can afford poach them. The costs of training new employees and the constant hemorrhaging of your best employees drives down the quality of your work and prevents you from becoming a major player. So what can you do to hold on to those people so that you can grow your business?

Screen Your Hires

Big businesses can offer better pay and better benefits than your business. They offer stability and great wages to people who are trying to maximize their income, but they also tend to be rigid and very unadaptable. As a smaller business you should focus on hiring people who are unlikely to fit well into a large, slow-moving organization. Ask interviewees about their future plans, and take in those who are well qualified but also planning on pursuing further education, gathering new skills, taking care of children, or possibly even moving.

Be The Most Convenient Option

Offering work to these individuals makes you a convenient option for skilled workers who might otherwise be forced out of the job market. Accommodate them by offering flexible work hours and telecommuting options, in conjunction with a steady paycheck. This creates a favorable work-life balance for employees and makes it easy for them to stay on board while also putting them in a position where they would have to give up a lot of freedom if they wanted to work at a more established business.

Maintain Good Morale With Great Leaders

Running any team of professionals is tricky, and doing it with employees who have flexible schedules, or who work from home, is even more difficult. This puts an incredible strain on your leadership team, who will have to work very hard to keep their respective teams cohesive and on the same page. There are a lot of important characteristics that go into an excellent manager, and it’s especially important to screen potential leaders for their communication skills, their ability to motivate people, and their ability to inspire good cooperation and coordination between employees.

Work To Keep Individual Employees

Every employee has different needs, and when someone is looking for greener pastures it’s important to know why, and what you could do about it. Have an answer ready for what your employees can do to earn raises or promotions, offer training to develop employees professionally, and deal with interpersonal conflicts in the office. Never try to bully an employee into staying, and always be the one to offer solutions to a potentially departing employee rather than getting defensive.

Small- and medium-sized organizations have an uphill battle to retain skilled employees, but it is a battle that can be won. By carefully screening potential new hires, offering flexibility, maintaining good leadership, and determining why individual employees are leaving, you might be able to hold onto employees a little longer. Chances are they might leave down the line, but the company will have at least recovered the money spent to hire and train the individual.

About the Author: Samantha Stauf works in the marketing department of a start-up. She recently became a regular contributor at Ms Career Girl and Social Media Today.

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4 Ways Other Countries Are Closing The Skills Gap

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Although unemployment in the U.S. has been steadily decreasing, taking a closer look at the numbers uncovers a scary gap: of the 9.5 million unemployed, there are still 4.6 million jobs open.

This is largely driven by a growing skills gap we are facing in trade professions. According to a study by CareerBuilder, 54 percent of employers are sitting with open positions that they can’t find qualified candidates for.

This challenge isn’t just plaguing the U.S., though. According to a study by McKinsey, one-third of employers across Europe have said that lack of skills is causing major business problems.

As a result, countries around the world are taking a close look at how they can close this gap. Here are some of the things they are doing:

Apprenticeship Programs

An article in The New York Times cites that 868,700 people in Britain completed apprenticeships last year, which was up 77 percent from three years ago. About half of the programs were designed for 16 to 18-year-olds.

The challenge in finding individuals to take part in these programs was a result of the negative reputation that apprenticeships have. During the peak of apprenticeship in the mid-19th century, programs expanded from artisan trade to industries like engineering and manufacturing. However, the introduction of accessible full-time education began to paint the picture of apprentices as people who didn’t have the intelligence or resources to go to a real university.

Germany, however, still places a lot of emphasis on apprenticeship programs. The country requires every trade worker to undergo a three-year apprenticeship. According to an article in NPR, they work for three or four days a week at a company and then go to school for the other one or two days. The Chamber of Commerce awards the certificates and set standards for what is taught in these vocational schools.

With the government involved, companies are guaranteed a fully skilled and qualified trade worker. This in turn increases the validity and value of these workers.

Equal Importance: College Education and Skilled Workers

Today’s society — in the U.S. and abroad — views a full-time college education as a much more acceptable and even required step to take before entering the workforce. This has greatly hurt the skilled trades area, which is generally not part of a four-year college degree.

However, with very successful entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg making bold statements that college isn’t necessary to be successful, young students are starting to change their mindset on the importance of a college degree. This is great news for the skilled trade professions.

Germany has done a great job assimilating trade skills within their culture and placing validity on this type of education with strong apprenticeship programs. Additionally, companies in countries like Vietnam are training individuals who feel these trade skills will provide a good future.

Similar to the importance that has been put on STEM degrees in the U.S., companies need to play a role in bringing more validity and importance to skilled trades. Talk to students about the need for individuals with these skills and the type of career path they could have with it. For students, not having to leave college tens of thousands of dollars in debt can sound very appealing if they know they can still have a good future ahead of them.

Open Discussions to Close the Gap

According to the McKinsey report, employers, education providers and young people do not understand each other and operate in “parallel universes.”

To put things into perspective, in Europe, 74 percent of education providers were confident that their graduates were prepared for work, but only 38 percent of youth and 35 percent of employers agreed. Germany and the United Kingdom reported that most employers communicated with education providers at least several times a year, but only employers in Spain reported their interaction with education providers were effective.

Within the U.S., employers must start having much more open dialogue with those responsible for educating youth and the youth themselves. Everyone should understand the needs of today’s workforce so society can work toward the same goals. Getting students involved in programs in high school or college to get them excited about certain areas of work is a great way to do this and to help them understand what skills are truly needed in the professional world.

Company-Run Universities

Company universities not only allow companies to align their employees with their strategic vision and initiatives, but they can also ensure all employees have all the appropriate training needed. Putting more emphasis on this type of education that more closely involves the business sector can help to shorten the skills gap and train young professionals on these trade skills.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, Vietnam-based IT company FPT introduced the FPT University, which has expanded its facilities to become the country’s biggest IT university. The university has been steadily growing as more students come in with a career aspiration to be an IT technician because it is seen as a stable career path. The country’s IT infrastructure continues to grow, and U.S. tech companies like IBM and Apple have started to partner with companies like FPT to recruit their skilled workers.

The skills gap is not only affecting our country, but the entire world. With our ability to connect to anyone anywhere, we need to begin learning from each other’s successes and failures and finding a solution to this problem. If we don’t, we could face a very unstable and uncertain future.

Apply Now

(About the Author: Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video interview solution used by more than 2,000 companies across the globe. Learn more about using video interviewing to jump the skills gap and connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.)

photo credit: Βethan via photopin cc

#TChat Preview: The HR Whine & Dine Networking Movement

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about how we can identify, survive, or leave a poor company culture, and this week we’re going to talk about why HR and Business pros need to support each other and help each other thrive.

HR and Business professionals spend a lot of time taking care of the people within their organizations, but so many fall short on supporting themselves and others within the space. In some ways it’s like the cobbler is good at his job but forgets to make shoes for his own kids.

Unfortunately HR can be an obstacle, not a conduit to accomplishing things for the organization, the employees or each other. Practitioners are focused on jobs versus careers. Beyond certification (controversial as it is now), HR and Business pros don’t take enough time to network and help one another, but they can and should.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about how HR and Business pros need to support each other and help each other thrive with this week’s guests: Keith Bogen, HR pro and chief networking officer of Whine & Dine Networking; Ed Han, wordsmith with a passion for networking and helping people put their professional best foot forward, especially on LinkedIn.

Sneak Peak

Related Reading:

Kathy Rapp: Scrap The Cat Pics If You Want To Be Taken Seriously

Meghan M. Biro: Networking: The Path To Becoming A Brand Ambassador

Robin Schooling: Will We Be Able To Make The Case For HR De-Extinction

Jabbar Saddar: What Will The ‘Next Generation’ HR Function Look Like

Abhijit Bhaduri: Who Will Disrupt The HR Function?

Karthik Chakkarapani: Employee Communities: The Exciting Future Of HR

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: The HR Whine & Dine Networking Movement

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, August 27 — 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show with our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman, as they talk with our guests 

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, August 27 — 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What’s right and wrong with HR today and why? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: Do designations and certifications give HR credibility and elevate the profession? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: In what ways can HR pros better support each other in real life and in online interactions? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

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#TChat Preview: Surviving A Bad Workplace Culture

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, August 20, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about how data and the right analysis can help companies of any size understand and measure company culture, and this week we’ll extend that conversation to how we can identify, survive, or leave a toxic company culture.

Of course company culture and cultural fit have a huge impact on day-to-day happiness. Being able to identify when a culture is turning bad, and what we can do about it, are obviously critical skills for managing our career happiness.

Culture originates with leadership values and the core business mission, and then emanates outward with what people inside an organization do with all of that, and eventually with what meaning is attached to all those continuously evolving behaviors.

When the accepted collective behaviors lead to conflict and strife, we’ve got a bad culture on our hands. Lots of things that can create a bad culture, but all of them can be summed up by three factors we’re going to discuss this week on the show.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about how to identify, survive, or leave a poor company culture with this week’s guests: Anuj Shah, Co-Founder of Traba; and Michael Flynn, Head of Marketing at Traba. Traba mentors know how companies choose candidates and walk you through the best way to tell your story for landing interviews and jobs.

Sneak Peak

Related Reading:

Evie Nagy: How A Balanced Workplace Culture Can Support Your Mission

Meghan M. Biro: Dear Leaders: Please Revisit Your Corporate Culture

Sylvia Pennington: Seven Reasons Why Your Staff Walk Away

Graham Winfrey: 7 Keys To Creating The Best Work Environment (Infographic)

Jane Porter: Enough With The Ping Pong Tables – Creative Perks That People Actually Care About

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: Surviving A Bad Workplace Culture

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, August 20 — 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guests Anuj Shah and Michael Flynn.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, August 20 — 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are primary indicators of a bad company culture? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: In what ways can employees improve a company culture? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How do people maintain relationships with mentors at work when they know they’re leaving? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

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#TChat Preview: The Talent Science Of Cultural Change

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, August 13, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about passive recruiting strategies, and this week we’re going to talk about how data and the right analysis can help companies of any size understand and measure company culture.

There it is again — company culture and employee engagement. But mercy we must keep working towards the goal of improving it. According to Strategy & of PWC, 96% of employees have stated a ‘culture change’ is needed at their company. Only about half of all employees say their leaders treat culture as a priority on a day-to-day basis. Fewer still say culture is effectively managed at their companies.

But culture goes deeper than a workplace flexibility, pizza lunches and ping-pong tables. In fact it should drive most every aspect of business – from customer relations to internal practices.

This week we talk “Talent Science” — the science of using quantifiable data to find and hire employees that will be most engaged with the company, therefore contributing more to the bottom line.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about how data can change company culture with this week’s guests: Brent Daily, Founder of RoundPegg, employee engagement software that increases business performance through applied culture science; and Natalie Baumgartner, a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology with a specific focus on assessment and additional training in strength-based psychology.

Sneak Peak

Related Reading:

Brent Daily: Talent Science: Leveraging Medium Data

Meghan M. Biro: Big, Bad Data: How Talent Analytics Will Make It Work In HR

Dr. Tomas Chamarro-Premuzic: Should We Get Excited About New Assessment Tools?

Ji-A Min: Why Job Matching Works: Ideal Candidate Explained

Emily Gordon: 7 Talent Acquisition Metrics Your CHRO Really Cares About

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: The Talent Science Of Cultural Change

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, August 13 — 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guests Brent Daily and Natalie Baumgartner.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, August 13 — 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are the best strategies for changing company culture perceptions? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How are data and analytics helping companies improve hiring and engagement? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How do company buzzwords impact & influence employees & potential employees? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

 

#TChat Preview: Passive Recruiting With Conversation-Based Content

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about about workplace bullying, and this week we’re going to talk about passive recruiting strategies.

Converting job seekers into job applicants via relevant career content is easy when they’re looking for a job. But what about those who aren’t?

The elusive passive candidate — that’s where you have to be smarter and engage them in conversations around relevant career content, but not literally job-specific content, at least not all at once.

According to this week’s guest, after a 90-day case study on social media content, conversation-based content increased response rates by 54%.

We should teach recruiters and sourcers how to engage prospects in real conversations. Whether it’s on a forum, user group, blog, simple email or any social network, the conversation should always be the goal.

How do you get the passive ones to start a conversation with you? Strike up a conversation as you would face to face. Talk to them about things they care about first.

Recruiters should always know their market and their talent. Recruiting is only human and all about relationships. Always.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about passive recruiting with this week’s guest: Bryan Chaney, a Global Talent Sourcing and Attraction Strategist and Sourcing Executive at IBM.

Related Reading:

Lou Adler: Use Benchmarking To Build A Passive Candidate Recruiting Machine

Meghan M. Biro: Smart Recruiting Strategy Drives Relationships and Conversation

Charles Coy: 5 Stellar Strategies For Recruiting Passive Candidates

Lisa Jones: Passive Talent Is The New Black

Glen Cathey: Building Talent Pipelines vs. Lean/ Just In-Time Recruiting

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: Passive Recruiting With Conversation-Based Content

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, August 6 — 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Bryan Chaney.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, August 6 — 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What are the best strategies for engaging passive candidates today? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: How should recruiters and sourcers initiate conversation-based content? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can recruiters gauge success based on the conversion of conversations to hires? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

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How to Build a Solid Foundation for Better Work Relationships

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Search any of the top business, leadership, or HR blogs and you’ll find that one of the key drivers to employee engagement is clearly communicated expectations. You know this old song and dance; if employees know what’s expected of them and understand (and value) how they fit into the big picture, then they’re likely to be highly engaged. And engagement equals productivity, satisfaction, and longevity.

Communicating your organization’s goals and providing clear direction is essential to engagement. But what about communicating the everyday stuff with your employees? What about understanding how your employee actually works? How they problem solve, what frustrates them, what motivates them, and how they prefer to communicate?

I once had a manager who I felt utterly and completely out of sync with. He’d send me a task over email, I’d write back with my results, he wouldn’t reply. I’d email suggestions for departmental improvements, I’d receive no response. He’d tell me, “You don’t collaborate well,” and I’d scratch my head in confusion. Finally, one day I had a list of follow-ups to do in person. He reviewed my list and explained for each item, “for these types of requests, I like in person discussions better. And for that type of suggestion, I recommend you just go ahead – I’m not into those types of details.”  

Well, had I known four months ago that he preferred face to face over email, I would have held more meetings. And, if I had known he wasn’t into certain details, I WOULDN’T HAVE SENT THEM. {Face Palm}

Establishing boundaries, guidelines, and exchanging mutual expectations in any relationship is critical – work relationships aren’t exempt! Learning communication preferences from the desired medium to the preferred level of detail, understanding workplace frustrations and motivators, to learning what energizes (and deflates) your employee…. All of this needs to be standard information gathered from the onset. Think of it as building the relationship foundation.

To set up a solid relationship foundation, facilitate an open conversation with new employees and set the stage for understanding each others work styles. Here’s a format you can follow to set the groundwork for a positive working relationship:

  • How do you prefer to communicate? [Oral, Written, Instant Message, Text, etc.]
  • How do you like to receive feedback? [When, Where, Using which Communication Tool]
  • Do you like public recognition? How does it make you feel?
  • What motivates you? What energizes you?
  • What’s important to you in a work environment?
  • What are your personal values?
  • What frustrates you?
  • What makes you feel unmotivated?
  • What do you expect from your leader?
  • What can I expect from you?

Start out using these questions as a loose guideline and adjust them according to your company culture, environment, and so forth. The goal is to understand how your employee works so that you can define how you work together.

(About the Author: Writer, connector, collaborator – Gabrielle Garon is an enthusiastic HR pro on a simple mission to be a person of value, not of success. Gabrielle got into HR because she really liked helping others and soon found an overwhelming curiosity for behaviour, motivation, and how it all intersects with business. Gabrielle loves to talk! Her favourite topics are performance management, training & development, culture, and employer branding. Connect with Gabrielle here: @GabrielleGaron or gabriellegaron.com)

To discuss World of Work topics like this with the TalentCulture community, join our online #TChat Events each Wednesday, from 6:30-8pm ET. Everyone is welcome at events, or join our ongoing Twitter and G+ conversation anytime. Learn more…

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday. To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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#TChat Preview: The Legal And Moral Implications Of Workplace Bullying

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 30, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about the state of HR Technology, and this week we’re talking about workplace bullying and the legal and moral implications.

Wow. According to one recent study, 96% of American employees experience bullying in the workplace, and the nature of that bullying is changing thanks to social media and online interactions.

Even though the employment world is already heavily regulated, one major gap remains: workplace bullying. No state prohibits bullying, unless it relates to a protected group (such as race, sex or disability).

But workplace bullying has harmful, reverberating effects, not only on the victims, but also on the witnesses. The good news is that we don’t need to wait for a law to be enacted to prevent and respond to bullying.

Progressive employers who want to be successful ensure their cultures are bully-free. This week’s guest will talk about how.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about workplace bullying with this week’s guest: Jonathan Segal, an employment lawyer and partner with the international law firm Duane Morris LLP, as well as an active TalentCulture #TChat community member.

Sneak Peek: The Legal And Moral Implications Of Workplace Bullying

We spoke briefly with Jonathan Segal in our video preview to learn more about this week’s #TChat topic. Check out our YouTube Channel for the full video!

Related Reading:

Jonathan Segal: Bullying At Work: Hard To Define, Even Harder To Ban

Meghan M. Biro: The Real World Implications Of Workplace and Cyberbullying

Emily Thomas: Being Ignored At Work Can Be Worse Than Being Bullied

Andrew Brushfield: Are You A Bully Boss?

Naomi Shavin: What Workplace Bullying Looks Like In 2014 — And How To Intervene

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: The Legal And Moral Implications Of Workplace Bullying

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, July 30 — 7 pm ET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Jonathan Segal.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 23 — 7:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What constitutes workplace bullying both legally and morally? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: If you witness workplace bullying or know of someone being bullied, what should you do? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What steps can business leaders take to ensure bully-free cultures? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

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#TChat Preview: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 23, 2014, from 7-8 pm ET (4-5 pm PT). The #TChat radio portion runs the first 30 minutes from 7-7:30 pm ET, followed by the #TChat Twitter chat from 7:30-8 pm ET.

Last week we talked about values based leadership and this week we’re going to talk about the state of HR Technology with a co-chair of Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology® Conference and a technology editor for LRP Publications. He also writes an HR blog and hosts the HR Happy Hour Show, a radio program and podcast.

Yeah, that guy — Mr. Steve Boese.

Employee engagement and recognition, company culture, cloud computing, HR data management, talent analytics and integrated HR and talent acquisition and management systems continue to be hot trends in the HR tech space, not to mention social collaboration and video (from recruitment to onboarding to core talent management).

And a better user experience to boot is what it’s all about today. There’s a renaissance of new edge applications improving recruiting, learning and talent engagement, and HR buyers are more sophisticated that ever before.

And we have a bonus round. Our #TChat community members can get $600 off of the HR Tech Conference full rate (expires August 4). Pssst…the secret code is TW14 (case sensitive).

This year’s HR Technology Conference & Exposition is coming up fast (October 7-10), so join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about the state of HR technology with this week’s guest: Steve Boese, a co-chair of Human Resource Executive’s HR Technology® Conference and a technology editor for LRP Publications.

Sneak Peek: The Hot HR Technology Trends of 2014

We spoke briefly with Scott Boese in our video preview to learn more about this week’s #TChat topic. Check out our YouTube Channel for the full video!

Related Reading:

Steve Boese: Which Tech Advice Is Good Advice? #SHRM14

John Sumser: Find The Thread In HR Technology

Meghan M. Biro: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

Stephanie Reyes: HR Technology – From Thought To Action

Trish McFarlane: HR Technology: Little Training, Big Regrets (KnowledgeGraphic)

Todd Raphael: More Alphas, More Betas, More Vegans In The Recruiting Technology Startup World

Sneak Peek: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: The Hot HR Technology Trends Of 2014

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, July 23 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Steve Boese.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 23 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What’s new or interesting in HR technology today? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What are the reasons why recruiting and learning technologies are in high demand? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What are key HR buyer questions about technology and implementation? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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#TChat Preview: The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 16, 2014, from 7:00-8:00 pm ET (the radio show followed by the Twitter chat).

Last week we talked about amplifying the talent engagement experience, and this week we’re going to discuss values based leadership.

Leadership development isn’t anything new, but it’s is clear that people today care about different things and their expectations from business in their roles as employees, customers, investors, and community members are rapidly changing.

For organizations to keep up, leaders have to go first; the culture of any organization is an extended shadow of leadership. For business leaders to successfully transform themselves and bring others along with them, they must come from a place of passion, purpose, competency and authenticity.

There are those words again, but unfortunately businesses are not keeping up and still use old school leadership mind-sets and skill-sets of the past. The squandering of the extraordinary potential that lies largely untapped in our employees and organizations is painful to witness, but there is hope.

This week’s guest calls it Values Based Leadership, similar styles include Authentic, Servant and Truly Human Leadership.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman  as we learn more about values based leadership with this week’s guest: Mark Fernandes, Chief Leadership Officer of Luck Companies, a global Values Based Leadership (VBL) organization.

Sneak Peek: The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership

We spoke briefly with Mark Fernandes in our video preview to learn more about this week’s #TChat topic. Check out our YouTube Channel for the full video!

 

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: The Extraordinary Potential Of Values Based Leadership

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, July 16 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Mark Fernandes.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 16 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: What does values based leadership mean to you and why? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: Describe how an organization’s culture is an extension of it’s leadership. #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: What three take-aways would you give people who are looking to become a great leader? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!

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#TChat Preview: It’s All About The Talent Engagement Experience

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The TalentCulture #TChat Show is back live on Wednesday, July 9, 2014, from 7pm – 8pm ET. Join us for our first 60 minute show as we begin with the #TChat Radio show from 7pm ET to 7:30 pm ET, and our Twitter #TChat remains in the same slot from 7:00 pm ET to 8 pm ET.

Before the 4th of July break we talked about how organizations can and should differentiate, and this week we’re going to talk about the benefits of true talent engagement.

Unfortunately talent management strategies of the past no longer work. Today people work differently, are motivated differently and are engaged differently. Millennials may have pushed all the employer flexibility buttons, but now every generation is demanding more.

For example, employees want ongoing growth opportunities, workplace flexibility, tools and systems that encourage collaboration, and commitment to a reciprocal climate of support and encouragement, all of which lead to payoffs in employee retention, satisfaction, and overall business performance.

The key, today, is to drive a higher level of contribution and deeper engagement through a better “people management” experience that can lead to better and more lucrative business outcomes. Companies that demonstrate consistently high engagement scores are gaining an advantage with fully immersed employees who are committing to their organization by contributing to, both, a healthy culture and bottom line.

Join #TChat co-creators and hosts Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman as we learn more about improving the talent engagement experience with this week’s guest: Jeff Carr, CEO and President of PeopleFluent.

Related Reading:

Jeff Carr: The Death Of Traditional Talent Management

Meghan M. Biro: Communication Equals Love: A Missing Link In Your Hiring Process

Kevin W. Grossman: How To Improve Recruiting With An Employee Engagement Program

Josh Bersin: 21st Century Talent Management: Imperatives for 2014 and 2015

Veronica Scrimshaw: Independent Recruiters: How About A Little Candidate Love?

Lance Haun: Keep it Relevant: What Candidates Expect In The Application Process

We hope you’ll join the #TChat conversation this week and share your questions, opinions and ideas with our guests and the TalentCulture Community.

#TChat Events: It’s All About The Talent Engagement Experience

TChatRadio_logo_020813#TChat Radio — Wed, July 9 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Tune-in to the #TChat Radio show Our hosts, Meghan M. Biro and Kevin W. Grossman talk with our guest Jeff Carr.

Tune-in LIVE online this Wednesday!

#TChat Twitter Chat — Wed, July 9 — 7 pmET / 4 pm PT Immediately following the radio show, Meghan, Kevin and our guests will move to the #TChat Twitter stream, where we’ll continue the discussion with the entire TalentCulture community. Everyone with a Twitter account is invited to participate, as we gather for a dynamic live chat, focused on these related questions:

Q1: Why do talent management practices of the past no longer work? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q2: What does talent engagement mean to you and why? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q3: How can orgs create workplace cultures that empower talent engagement experiences? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q4: Why is the candidate experience so critical to talent engagement today? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Q5: What are the obstacles for developing talent analytics that measure and predict engagement? #TChat (Tweet this Question)

Throughout the week, we’ll keep the discussion going on the #TChat Twitter feed, and in our new TalentCulture G+ community. So feel free to drop by anytime and share your questions, ideas and opinions. See you there!!

TalentCulture World of Work was created for HR professionals, leadership executives, and the global workforce. Our community delves into subjects like HR technology, leadership, employee engagement, and corporate culture everyday.

To get more World of Work goodness, please sign up for our newsletter, listen to our #TChat Radio Channel or sign up for our RSS feed.

Do you have great content you want to share with us? Become a TalentCulture contributor!