Sunday, December 29, 2019

Providing a Lactation Room for Nursing Moms

Providing a Lactation Room for Nursing MomsProviding a Lactation Room for Nursing MomsA lactation room in its simplest form is a private space where a nursing mother can express breast milk for her baby. In some companies, working moms use their private offices as lactating rooms, and either lock their doors or put up privacy signs so nobody walks into the room while the womans breasts are exposed. In others, the employer creates a separate space where new moms can pump breast milk in private. This may be due to the predominance of cubicle farms among that employers workforce, or simply for the convenience of employees. Under U.S. law, employers must provide a lactation room for a new mother to use for pumping breast milk. A bathroom isnt suitable for this purpose it simply isnt sanitary to express milk alongside toilets and all the germs they contain. Moreover, the lactation station must be private and shielded from view of other employees or the general public. Additionally, employ ers must give breastfeeding mothers appropriate breaks from their work day in order to travel to the lactation room and take the time needed to pump milk. Typically, a new mom returning to work with an infant at home needs to express breast milk two or three times in every eight-hour period of the day. As your baby grows older and begins to eat solid food, you most likely will pump less milk and be able to go longer between pumping sessions. In order to further assist nursing mothers, support can be provided through literature in this room or even better, direct access to anInternational Board Certified Lactation Consultant (IBCLC) who is a credentialed health professional specialized in breastfeeding.They could answer any breastfeeding questions the new nursing mom may have or even speak with someone who is pregnant. A lactation room should contain a comfortable chair for the nursing mother to sit in and a flat surface to place a breast pump upon. While not required by law, employe rs might also consider providing an electrical outlet, a breast pump, a sink, a small refrigerator for storing breast milk, and interior decorations that create the relaxed environment that nursing moms need to let down their milk and experience a productive, full pumping session. If there is a large number of nursing mothers, a schedule can be made so that no one tries to access the room while its already in use.A whiteboard could be posted in the room, a private online calendar could be created, or an email alias could be used in case someone needs to inform others of their changing pumping needs. If you work for an employer with more than 50 employees, by law you are entitled to access to a lactation room if you are breastfeeding a baby. Perhaps you are the first woman to give birth since the law changed requiring lactation rooms. You can be a necessary agent of change by raising the issue in a positive way and helping your employer set up a lactation room that serves the needs o f the employer, employee, and infants, both yours and those yet to be born.

Tuesday, December 24, 2019

Employment Verification and Sample Policy

Employment Verification and Sample PolicyEmployment Verification and Sample PolicyAn employment verification is a response to an inquiry by a prospective employer, a government agency, or an outside entity, such as a lending institution, that the current or former employee is or was employed by your organization. In most cases, the requesting organization wants to verify dates of employment,salary information, andwhether the individual is still employed by your organization. In the case of employment verification requests by prospective employers, information about the employees performance and potential rehire are often requested. It is also not unusual for the employment verification to request the employees specific history of job responsibilities, title, and salary history, in addition to the current / most recent employment information. It is up to the employer how much information to release, but an employment verification policy, that is consistently enforced, should exist. It is important to practice consistency when dealing with employment verification requests. Your managers and staff members need training in how to respond to an employment verification request as well as how to respond to mora lengthy and detailed requests at the point when employers do background checking. Government agencies and other entities such as lending institutions will not seek the detailed reference or background checking information that prospective employers want to obtain. Employment Verification Sample Policy All employment verification inquiries from current or former employees, prospective employers of current or former employees, governmental agencies, or other organizations such as a financial or lending institution, should be directed to Human Resources for an official company response. Under no circumstances is any other employee authorized to provide a written or official employment verification response for the company. Your Human Resources staff are traine d in responding to employment verification requests. They will also know whether a signed permission to release information, from former employees, is on file. All requests for employment verification must contain the employees or former employees signature authorizing the release of information. In the case of current employees, as a courtesy, the HR office will notify the employee whenemployment verification informationis requested. When the permission signature is present, generally, your company releases this information about current and former employees whether the individual is currently employed at Your Company,the employees current or last job title,the dates of employment at Your Company, andthe current or final salary paid to the employee. Depending on the circumstances of the request, and input from the past or current employee, the company might releasesalary history, job title history, and whether the company would rehire the employee. Exceptions to this policy must be approved by the President of (Your Company).

Friday, December 20, 2019

The best resume template based on my 15 years experience sharing resume advice

The best resume template based on my 15 years experience sharing resume adviceThe best resume template based on my 15 years experience sharing resume adviceOver 1 mm people have used our free, powerfulResume Reviewer, and 91% say they found it useful. Our reviewer is based on our 15 years experience of reviewing, writing, and perfecting professionals resumes, and weve collected even more good feedback and insights in the past year.Ive also recently published Ladders 2018 Resume Guide, the 1 selling job-hunting book on Amazon.What makes a good resume? Ive written this simple 8-minute guide to walk you through the steps. Itll take you 8 minutes to read, probably an hour or two to do, and provide years of benefit in reducing your resume anxiety.My recommendations below are for a professional with 10 to 25 years experience. For those with fewer than 10 years, youre likely better off with a 1-page resume, for those with more than 25 years and at very senior levels, three may sometimes be appropriate. (But seriously, if thats you, you shouldnt be relying on your own typing skills to market yourself.)As with any do-it-yourself project, the key to success is to leid get in over your head. So the instructions below are a simplified version of my best advice, tailored to be achievable by you on your own. If youve got the commitment, moxie, and willpower for do it yourself, here goes .Resume GoalFirst, the goal of your resume isto get you an interview for the job. You may believe your resume has other purposes -To showcase your every achievement -To justify why youre changing jobs -To explain why youve left so many, or so few, jobs in your career -To mention when you received promotions, awards, or recognition -To describe the size of organization or team or budget you had responsibility for -To land you a job offer without an interviewTrust me, none of those are the goals of your resume. Actually, dont trust me.Read our research on how long recruiters spend on your resum e. The answer is 6 seconds for the first pass.The goal of your resume is to get you the interview.You get the interview by persuading 3 layers of HR people that time spent with you will be worth more than time spent with another candidate. Ill describe below who these 3 layers are - screeners, recruiters, and hiring managers.Youll persuade those reviewers by providingquantifiably proven resultsthat you can do the job very well.Resume length and structureYour resume will be 2 pages total. (Again, if you have less than 10 years experience 1 page only.)Your resume will be composed of a professional summary and a chronological detail of your professional success. You should have your contact information at the head of the resume, and your educational background at the bottom of the resume.Professional SummaryYour professional summary is a separated list of two or three lines that summarizes your professional ambitions, background, and talents. Youll include 12 -15 phrases of two or thr ee stimmt genaus each in this section. On your resume, you should begin this section with the three or four job titles you want most, and then intersperse the skills and successesJob titleslist 3 to 5 job titles of jobs you would actually accept as your next job. By clearly identifying the title you want next, recruiters and HR people begin seeing you in that role, and that helps give context to a diverse work history.It does not matter that you have never actually had this job title in the past, but it is important that it is a plausible next step in your professional career. A job search that includes both small and large companies will have a broader range of job titles than one specifically focusing on, say, the Fortune 500.Examples VP, Marketing Director, Marketing Brand Marketing Leader CMOProfessional competencieslist 4 to 6 core competencies that you possess that are important to your success in the jobs outlined above. They should be skills you currently possess and shou ld be level appropriate. I.e., dont list competencies that are obvious or would be assumed for your level. If youre applying for C-suite jobs, listing time management or presentation skills would be far too junior to mention in your summary.Examples Agile Development Software Architecture Engineer Recruiting Technology InnovationDescriptions of your past successlist 3 to 6 phrases that describe your demonstrated past success. Any type of achievements or attributes for which you have received recognition are appropriate.Examples Presidents Club Top-producing Saleswoman Exceeds Quota Consultative Selling ExpertChronological detail of your professional successIn this section you will provide a chronological detail of your professional success, starting with your most recent job first. Notice the word choices here, please. We aredetailingyoursuccess. We are not listing your past job titles or duties. We are not describing your staff composition or budget size or administrative sys tems used.Again, your resume is a marketing document and needs topersuadeyour reviewers that time spent with you will be worthwhile, so we are going todetailyoursuccess.Youll have about 30 40 bullet points across all your current and past positions, and each of these will be a marketing bullet point that will make one persuasive argument on your behalf.After you list company name, employment dates, and your title for each role, the bullet points will be distributed as follows -Your most recent, most important, job gets 8 bullet points. -Your next job also gets 8 bullet points. -Your next two jobs get 4 bullet points each. -Everything else - all of your past jobs together, even if they were your favorite, most nostalgic, most enjoyable times in your life - get just ten bullet pointstotal. Nobody is hiring you today for the job you had a decade ago.Its important to note that this distribution is across each job or title, not company. So if youve been at the same shop for 20 years, you should be splitting up your 30 bullet points across the different job levels and titles youve had.The basic structure of a marketing bullet point is asuccess verband anumber.Every bullet point in your success resume must include anumberexpressed in dollars, percentages, or a simple, plain old, straight-up number.Importantly, every bullet point in your resume must include asuccess verb. These are verbs that show success - something got better. So verbs such as increased, decreased, improved, reduced, etc., are what we are looking for. Explicitly forbidden are static verbs - managed, my responsibilities included, I was hired to, etc. Verbs that merely describe a fact of the matter rather than show you in a heroic light.Rather than leave you wondering what success verbs might be, Ill give you a precise list of 24 verbs you can use on your resume. The simplest way to do your resume right is to use these,and only these, verbs.This seems boring, but it really doesnt matter. Unless y ou are applying to be a thesaurus writer,nobody cares how clever your success verbs are. The millions of hours lost each year to professionals like you looking up synonyms for improved is a complete waste of time - none of the three layers of reviewers are grading you for verbal facility.List of Success VerbsAchieved Added Awarded Changed Contributed Decreased Delivered Eliminated Exceeded Expanded Gained Generated Grew Improved Increased Introduced Maximized Minimized Optimized Produced Reduced Saved SoldSo your typical 8-bullet point job achievements on your 8-minute resume will read like this -Increased x by % -Decreased x by % -Improved x by $ -Reduced x by $ -Introduced new x that led to more. -Eliminated old x that led to less -Successfully added new x. -Achieved the removal of new xx can be profits, costs, clients, vendors, products, practice areas, strategies, risk, volatility, etc.And, of course, its important to have a number, dollar, or percentage increase / decrease mentioned in each bullet point. Youll be surprised at how many you can write using this template, and how this process jogs your memory for all the great stuff youve done -Increased new customer visits by 17% without increasing ad budget. -Decreased AWS bill by 42% through improved architecture (vs. 19% industry average). -Improved revenue per SaaS client by $4,250 through consultative sales training. -Reduced cost-per-hire by $7,010 through employee referral program -Introduced 2 new products that led to 2,500,000 increase in MAUs. -Eliminated old systems that led to a 75 FTE reduction in offshore headcount. -Successfully added 3 productive warehouses to our nationwide network. -Achieved the removal of 5,000 external firm billable hours per year by reorganizing internal staffing.But, you might say, I brought amazing non-quantified value to the organization I introduced Agile Development, led a huge bond offering, brought innovative logistics strategies to bear, or reorganized our selling methodology.Yes. I agree those are impressive and important achievements.But they are only impressive and important to the extent they are quantifiable. New methodologies, exhibiting leadership, or bringing innovation to a company are interesting to your bosses bosses only to the extent they improve,quantifiably, the outcome of the company - more users, more revenue, faster turnaround, higher client satisfaction.Ideally, every bullet point has a number. Id strongly prefer if you had 100% of your bullets quantified. During the past year, Ive seen a lot of Members struggle with this advice, so lets say this about numbers in bullet points -100% isideal-66% is pretty good -50% of your bullets quantified isminimumMost everybody is able to achieve at least half of their bullet points mentioning a number or a percentage or a dollar sign, so Im pretty confident you can get there.Overall, the above outline is remarkably simple because the job search process, despite all the anxiety and confusion, is remarkably simple. You want to do work similar to the work youve done before but at a new place and a new level. To do so, you need to explain to new people what can give them confidence that you will be able to contribute to the new team. The easiest way to do that is to share numerical data that show you have contributed in the past and can, therefore, contribute in the future.Your audienceYour resume is a marketing document that needs to get past three people to get you your interviewAjunior resumescreener who is comparing your resume to a list of skills, titles, or companies that he or she is given by the recruiter. Overly clever resumes or cutesy positioning can really kill you with this person, because they dont understand the nod and the wink that comes with writing Chief Bottle Washer when you really mean Co-Founder. For these reviewers, the choice of phrases in the professional summary is especially important.Arecruiter, whether internal or external, who, on average, will give your resume 6 seconds first screening. And then, later, another 23 minutes to make sure youre worth presenting to the client or hiring manager. By giving them easy-to-digest numbers they can share with the client or hiring manager, you make it much easier to present you, rather than a different candidate, for the interview.Thehiring managerwho will be interested in finding out what can this person do for me and my team in the next year or two. This person will review your resume in more detail. She will be looking for indications that you have previously solved the types of problems this job will have to deal with.Your goal is toquantifiably provethat you can. Numbers are the most persuasive friends you have in this situation. Every bullet point spent on describing historical circumstances, promotions, or scope of responsibilities is wasted and lost on a hiring manager. They already know what the roledoes they need to know if youll be any good at itEight minute s to a better resumeBy following the above, youll be in a much, much better place than with other methods of do-it-yourself resumes. Of course, theres a lot of nuance that 8 minutes cant get you, but the above is ? of the way there.If you want the full story, you can buy the Ladders 2018 Resume Guide and visit our detailedResume vorlagepage at Ladders.

Sunday, December 15, 2019

Software Engineer Job Description and Pay

Software Engineer Job Description and PaySoftware Engineer Job Description and PayGood news for software engineers The coming year is likely to be a good one for you, similar to the previous one.Demand is very high for software engineers and software developers, and IT managers often find it challenging to hire them. Top candidates may receive multiple offers and are not on the marketfor more than one or two weeks.In addition, software engineer jobs are projected to grow 24 percent from 2016 to 2026, much faster than the average for all occupations.Lets take a close look at a software engineer salary and job description.Software engineer salaryPerhaps its not surprising given the demand for these IT professionals that, according to the 2019 Robert Half Technology Salary Guide, the salary midpoint for software developers is $124,500.You can use our Salary Calculator to adjust an entry-level software engineer salary for your city.Software engineer job descriptionIf only we could all be software engineers, right? In case youre wondering what it takes to make it in this specialty, heres a list of qualificationsBroad information systems experience, as well as a bachelors degree in computer science, electrical engineering, computer engineering or a related discipline.Several years experience in specific programming languages, such as C/C++, Java or Visual Basic .NET, depending on the employer. Some employers also seek SQL skills.Excellent communication and problem-solving skills, and the ability to work well in a team environment.A typical software engineer job description includesDesigning and creating engineering specifications for software programs and applicationsWorking with quality assurance to develop software test plansCollaborating with hardware engineers to assess and test hardware and software interactionImplementing a specific development methodologyDocumenting software specificationsIts not just about the moneyA few final words of advice for software eng ineers in the job market While youre in demand, remember its not always about the money. Candidates often only focus on bonus or salary, but its also important to look at the overall strength of a firm, and the companys technology and leadership to get a complete picture.This post has been updated to reflect more current information.

Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Lies Youve Been Told About Resume Cover Page.examples

Lies Youve Been Told About Resume Cover Page.examples If you compose a generic letter and utilize it for every work program, just switching out the work title in the very first paragraph, it is going to show. Job seekers deserve to discover decent content quickly. Infographic resumes appear nice, but you also have to be concerned about applicant tracking system program. This means your teacher resume will want to incorporate the proper academic focused key terms so as to pass the system. Resume Cover Page.examples - the Conspiracy You may also become many discounts on our site which will help you to save some mora money for future orders or anything you want to spend them on. For example, you could attempt sending out a definite number of resumes each week. Make certain that you get the info youre looking for. Follow the link above to learn to compose your own. Tell the employer you are interested in getting the job, why you should have it and when youll be calling back t o check on it. In that circumstance, its more important to stick to the instructions on the work listing. While it may seem tedious, you always need to customize each letter to fit the particular job for which youre applying. For instance, a cover letter is a fantastic place to speak about a career shift or maybe to explain a long gap in employment. You can see the complete cover letter at the next link. Before you will begin writing your very first or maybe notlage first cover letter, you should know a document structure. You ought to create a resume cover page thats very clear and to the point. These pages contain absolutely free cover letter examples. If youre writing an e-mail-nachricht you may include your contact details at the close of the letter. If your are interested in getting your cover letter written by an expert, we highly suggest that you consider Resume Edge. I use the expression cover letter interchangeably with introductory email within this short article . View the complete letter here. Regardless of what engineering track youre on, your cover letter should highlight problem solving skills and the ability to fulfill quality standards. So however much experience youve got, our examples will allow you to get started. Theres, obviously, a limit on the range of pages even our finest writers can produce with a pressing deadline, but usually, we can satisfy all the clients seeking urgent assistance. In fact, the concept of resume cover sheet was not so much spread a decade ago like its today. Consult with our fantastic cover templates that can help you create wonderful cover pages. The exact same rule is all about header. The Honest to Goodness Truth on Resume Cover Page.examples If you want, I can supply you with current samples of my work. Whether youre just starting your career for a librarian or are searching for a senior position, weve got a sample that can help you tailor your own cover letter. So our site provides a resu me cover page template absolutely free of cost to download and begin creating your Sample Resumes for a superb job. Youll need the Resume Cover Page Templates while youre on the watch for a job to earn a wonderful career. Top Resume Cover Page.examples Secrets To be a prosperous community manager, an individual must be an excellent communicator, an enthusiastic personality, and a dialed-in social networking guru. If you arent comfortable writing your own, or merely feel a professional can do a better job, then there is just a single tafelgeschirr you should think about. Since customer service is such a wide category, we provide a range of letters from various regions of the area. Find out more about the enterprise to receive a feeling of the business and its needs for candidates. A Secret Weapon for Resume Cover Page.examples The concept of resume cover sheet needs to have arrived at the picture after realizing that a very good impression and presentation may also contribute to capturing the eye of a possible employer. Make certain they make an amazing first impression to offer your value Theres no use in taking all that opportunity to tailor your resume to every application if youre likely to use a fill-in-the-blank cover letter. You should have your reasons, and our primary concern is that you find yourself getting a great grade. You may feel like the document is unnecessary since youre already providing a resume with lots of information. Above all, the document must be shown in the suitable format. The template involves the whole format of the resume to get written in. The editable and printable templates can be found in PDF, word and a lot more formats.

Thursday, December 5, 2019

The Hidden Truth on Observation Essay Ideas

The Hidden Truth on Observation Essay Ideas As a result of unusual and creative character of observation essay, it is nearly impossible to offer you any observation essay program, which you ought to follow while writing. You have to compose an observation essay, which is already a fairly hard undertaking. When the first draft is completed, the author should always go over it again to make sure the circulation of the essay allows for an intriguing read. Your decision is going to be based on the aim of your paper. Many experienced writers clearly state where further research is needed in the decision of the paper. Most students simply select the simplest of topics for their paper and get started writing. Theres, clearly, a limit on the variety of pages even our very best writers can produce with a pressing deadline, but usually, we can satisfy all the clients seeking urgent assistance. You should have your reasons, and our principal concern is that you wind up getting an excel lent grade. Child observation is an expert skill which early childhood workers will need to practise and perfect as a way to improve the caliber of their work with children. Perhaps youre studying animal behavior, and you would like to view how a certain sort of monkey behaves during feeding time. Our writers make certain all your demands are met to get the voreingestellt of papers you want. Before you commence writing, you ought to do some prewriting to develop a working thesis. Observation essays are used throughout history in several types of literature. Observational essays are the outcome of all of the information the writer observes about the matter. Finding Observation Essay Ideas Essay writing is mandatory once you are in college. Its possible to easily buy unique college essays and dont neglect to tell friends and family about it. Now you can purchase genuine college essay online, one that is going to fit your financial plan and get your work done too. Very bes t quality essays are written before the deadline which is too at a very affordable price tag. How to Choose Observation Essay Ideas You ought to do that because, while reading your essay, the individual will have the ability to imagine he or she is the observer. The writer needs to be detail-oriented in order to make an illusion of readers individual involvement and total comprehension of the setting. In reality, a good writer will present a subject so well that a reader could possibly be shown certain details he or she hadnt ever noticed before. To compose a successful thesis statement, its important to determine and name the objects of the comparison to be able to clearly understand the function of the comparison. Such thesis statements show the outcome of the comparison and provide a quick summary of the paper. To compose an observation paper, its important to observe the surroundings and describe it in full detail. Make sure that each detail you opt to include is relate d to your topic. New Ideas Into Observation Essay Ideas Never Before Revealed You dont need to think of the ideal argument straight away. Any observation project ideas that you are thinking about should be things which are in your day-to-day life or otherwise easily accessible. The connection between your private experience and the topic of your observation essay must be at a high level so as to have the ability to share that certain experience with other folks. Dont select an extensive topic as you wont have sufficient things to write about. In 1 form or another, observational writing is put in a large selection of fields and subjects. Its recommended that you just opt for the topic that youre able to deal with, for instance, if youre not t sketching the personality characteristics then you need to better not elect for it. Becoming particular in your essay represents a much greater approach in contrast to including universal facets that arent very relevant. In the event t he subjects understand they are a part of a study youre conducting, it is known as a non-disguised observation.

Saturday, November 30, 2019

The Ms Word Resume Template Trap

The Ms positiv Resume schablone Trap Whatever They Told You About Ms Word Resume Template Is Dead Wrong...And Heres Why As soon as you have added your details and work experience, it is possible to also save your resume as PDF if you desire. You will be able to download your favourite template for a PDF instantly, or youre able to download all your details so that it is possible to edit them in Word or Google Docs. Double check to be sure that everything on the last version of the resume is about you. A good resume would aid with that. Things You Should Know About Ms Word Resume Template Dont forget this specific template is perfect for people with some or significant work experience only. The template is totally at no charge and prepared to print. The Ms Word Template Receipt may also be structured in the way which best presents your abilities and experience. Make sure to choose the most suitable template. So it is vital to have a distinctive and clean CV before you try t o apply for any job. Youre able to say thats quite opposite of functional resumes that are very traditional. Its not worth to eliminate a job youve always wanted. Submit the same resume for every single job. When applying for employment in a big company that you may find they use specialized software to help weed out candidates. Whichever service you select, I cant overstate the worth of utilizing an expert job resume template. When teachers want to submit an application for a new job, they have to highlight their finest attributes as a teacher. Task aspirants must consider a resume template instead of a programs vitae template. Microsoft Word resume templates are the most regularly used tool in the work hunting. Employing the right resume format is crucial in quickly draw in the eye of a possible employer. There are more than merely a couple of pointers which you have to remember and fully adhere to when designing a resume even when youre employing a readymade template. T he times you need to use a creative resume are fewer than when you ought to use a formal resume. By making use of a template, you receive a feeling of what information to include in your resume and the way to arrange it. Sometimes all you will need is a traditional style template thats clean, clear and right to the point. fruchtwein resume format word file available for free download so make certain not to waste cash with the thought of getting a better choice. There are such a substantial number of templates. One of the greatest regions to get resume examples is online, since there are many sites offering templates an individual may download and use. There are lots of free resume templates readily available on the web but sometimes it can be quite tricky to decide on the best one that is most suited to you. All files are a breeze to edit MS word templates. It is possible to also alter the font if you wish (and the exact same goes for every single template in our list). Selec t your favourite template and create your resume as complete as possible in a few basic actions. Ms Word Resume Template - Overview With the most suitable look, youll greatly improve your odds of a new job. The work description for any specific position will provide you with a clue as to whats important to the employer. No matter if its your very first job resume or not, it is necessary to know that any resume should have 5 crucial elements. How well you layout your resume is essential to increasing your likelihood of getting hired. There are several resume writing guidebooks out there on the market which may help you. The most suitable format presents your work history and abilities in the very best possible light. Irrespective of your degree of job experience, your resume format is essential to making your program stick out.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

How to negotiate a larger salary from a lowball offer

How to negotiate a larger salary from a lowball offerHow to negotiate a larger salary from a lowball offerDont take a lowball salary offer personally.Many executives refer to receiving a low salary offer as being lowballed. They often feel offended at the low offer they may even abandon a salary negotiation or walk away from the job offer altogether.Related from Ladders4 tips on salary negotiation from the $20-million-plus star of Greys Anatomy, Ellen PompeoWhat to do if you know your coworker is making more money than you for the same jobThese are the best jobs in AmericaBut a low salary offer is not an insult its just a lowball salary offer and its probably just the starting distribution policy from which you can begin a salary negotiation and work toward a bigger salary.In baseball, a lowball is a worthless pitch. The pitcher hopes it will fool the batter into swinging. The batter doesnt take it personally. High ball, curve ball, fast ball, strike Its just a pitch. Even if the cat cher called it because he knows its the batters weak point, the slugger still doesnt take it personally.One client of mine, Jim, was a vice president of operations with two company turnarounds on his resume. He figured his upcoming offer would be $175,000 base salary with a 30 percent bonus plus benefits and perks. The human-resources department made an initial salary offer of $135,000. He called me, angrily. They know my last salary was $160K. Are they trying to get me cheap? Dont they understand what I can do for them? I cant afford to turn this job down. Ive been job hunting for eight months and they know it. But this is a real lowball offer. What should Jim do next?Lets look at an attitude adjustment first, then evaluate the origins of the offer and finally, determine what actions to take.AttitudeFree enterprise cuts both ways. You cant have the freedom to negotiate a great package without the company having the freedom to seek its best bargain. To be competitive, companies must negotiate the best they can, and that includes labor costs. Theyre expected to negotiate the best the market will bear, so dont take it personally if they start low with you. They want you for the lowest price possible. Understand that its a game.Dont let your self-esteem get in the way. Step up to the negotiating plate and play ball Do what the baseball player does dont get upset, just check your swing and let the umpire call, Low Ball oneOriginsLets look at why the employer might start low. After all, if youre a candidate they want, they surely dont want you to walk away. Then why dont they skip the lowball and throw a strike at the knees? Here are five reasons why they dont always throw a strike on the first pitchBlooper. Sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes even by a big margin. It can be a miscommunication between the hiring decision maker and the HR manager, a new position they priced like an old one, a calculation basing this new salary on your previous earnings, or any n umber of mistakes.Mismatch. Another kind of mistake is a miscommunication between you and them. The big job you think youre negotiating for just isnt really all that big. In this case the lowball is a good thing. Its a warning that you need to expand their idea of the size of the job to match the size of your contribution.Scrooge/Trump. They could be playing hardball negotiating as Ebenezer Scrooge and Donald Trump come to mind. Is the lowball you received a Scrooge-like starting point? No problem, you can still negotiate your full value.Parity. Sometimes a company says they just cant pay you more than your colleague. I coached an auditor from a Big Four accounting firm to negotiate for compensation as a second-year exec because he would be handling that level of responsibility. The companys stonewall reply was that anyone in their first year is paid the same. Ultimately, the company did not grant a second-year ranking, but we were able to negotiate an early review.Performance. A lo wball salary might be able to be balanced with a high incentive package. Since youre being asked to take more risk if the base is not high, then you should negotiate more reward when you hit the incentives. Secure that reward with a carefully written compensation plan.ActionsThe strategy for hitting a lowball is calmly to figure out where the pitch is coming from. By acting neutral, youll set the stage for getting intelligence to inform your negotiations. Typically, your response to a lowball offer will be a highball counteroffer, but not right away First find out what the employer is thinking.Ask for clarification about the job responsibilities first make sure youre both talking about the same deliverables.Ask for their rationale behind the number. Knowing how they arrived at the low number will help you identify which of the reasons above fit their opening gambit.Once you know the reason, you can make a counteroffer. We assume that you have done your homework and have the followin g three numbers readyIdeal. The biggest package for which you can make a case.No-go. The number where youll break off negotiations and suggest you come back later.Satisfactory. The range between your Ideal and No-go thresholds.departure with your ideal, and back it up with what the return on investment will be for the employer. If you fear the number is so large it will frighten the employer, present it as a target, not a demand, to soften the impact.What if you cant afford to say no? Do a lock down before you share your counteroffer.Something like Well, the offer is low, and Im confident we can reach a package that were both satisfied with, but it will take a little bit of creative thinking and discussion. The offer as it stands is a firm one, right? I wouldnt jeopardize the position by seeing if some things about it are negotiable, would I? Then finish your negotiations.Finally, take that job and hit it out of the park

Thursday, November 21, 2019

How Supervisors Can Help Employees Learn

How Supervisors Can Help Employees LearnHow Supervisors Can Help Employees LearnHow Supervisors Can Help Employees LearnHow Supervisors Can Help Employees Learn PDFNote Youll need Adobe Reader to view the PDF file above. Download Adobe Reader.Wednesday,December 12, 2012Supervisors can have a dramatic impact on employee learning. This webinar will share innovative practices for helping front line kollektivberaters build skills critical to their performance. By developing their skills using real workplace challenges, teamberaterins strengthen their ability to lead their teams and improve key business metrics.In this session, you will learn how toUse experiential, work-based learning to build skillsReinforce critical skills taught in otherbei traditional, mora formal training programsEmbed training concepts into day-to-day workplace behaviorHave a long-lasting impact on supervisorin performancePresented byPhyllis SnyderVice President, CAELPhyllis has led CAELs Philadelphia regional offi ce since 1993. She welches responsible for designing and implementing the Department of Labor funded Nursing Career Lattice program in 10 sites throughout the country. Phyllis and the workforce development staff have created many CAEL consulting products, including Educational Strategy Sessions, Workforce 2.0 tools, and Supervisor Circles. She has also served on the CAEL team that consulted with the MassJobs Council to shape the One-Stop Career Center System in Massachusetts. As part of her interest in designing initiatives for mature workers, Phyllis has conducted research for the Conference mainboard and Civic Ventures, helped to develop and implement the Tapping Mature Talent project, and created the Mentors 4 STEM program. Phyllis educational hintergrund includes a masters degree in teaching from Harvard University, a masters degree in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelors degree from Smith College.Laura WintersSenior Project Director, CAELLaura Wint ers has worked with CAEL in a range of capacities for over twenty years. In her tenure with CAEL she has been responsible for designing and implementing initiatives and projects for corporations, workforce organizations and colleges. Winters workforce development and consulting work has included a diverse group of CAEL clients including Exelon Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation, CF Industries, Northeast Utilities, Levi Strauss and Company, University of Chicago Hospitals, Inland Steel, Chase Bank, the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mayors Office of Workforce Development, DePaul University, South Seattle Community College, US West, Ameritech, Scott Paper Company, and Ford Motor Company, The Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago, the U.S. Department of Education, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, and the U.S. Department of Labor. She holds bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in psychology and communications. Winters also com pleted doctoral cursework at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for several years in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania hospital in research, editorial and administrative positions.Webinar Transcript How Supervisors Can Help Employees LearnGood afternoon. Im Jim Thompson, senior writer from Monster. I would like to thank you for joining us today for this exclusive webinar hosted by Intelligence.Todays webinar is entitled How Supervisors Can Help Employees Learn. Phyllis Snyder and Laura Winters from CAEL, the Council for Adult Experiential Learning, will be presenting this afternoon. In this webinar, Phyllis and Laura will discuss how to use experiential work base learning to build employee skills, reinforce critical skills taught in other traditional and more formal training programs, embed training concepts into day-to-day workplace behavior, and have long lasting impact on supervisor performance.Before we get started, I would like to mention a f ew housekeeping items. Todays presentation, and a copy of the recording, will be posted on hiring.monster.com within the next two to three business days. Please click on the resurces tab and navigate to HR Events to obtain a copy. All registered participants will also receive an email with a direct link to todays materials.Intelligence helps HR professionals improve worker performance, retain top talent, and enhance recruiting strategies. We analyze and collect data from over four 1000000 unique searches performed on each day. We invite you to visit hiring.monster.com and read our in-depth reports and analysis. For our latest materials, click on the Resource Center tab when you visit the site. After the presentation, therell be time for questions. Our meeting manager will help to facilitate the QA. Please feel free to schriftart your questions into the available space during the event, and well make every effort to include them in todays QA. And if youre listening to todays presenta tion via telephone, youll be placed on mute until the Q and A session begins.Now, Id like to provide some background on Phyllis Snyder and Laura Winters. Phyllis Snyder is the vice president of CAEL. Phyllis has led CAELs Philadelphia regional office since 1993. She welches responsible for designing and implementing the Department of Labor funded Nursing Career Lattice program at ten locations throughout the country. Phyllis and the workforce development staff have created many CAEL consulting products, including Educational Strategy Sessions, workforce 2.0 tools and Supervisor Circles. As part of her interest in designing initiatives for mature workers, Phyllis has conducted research for the Conference Board and Civic Ventures, helped to develop and implement the Tapping Mature Talent project, and created the Mentors 4 STEM program. Phyllis holds a masters degree in teaching from Harvard University, a masters in city planning from the University of Pennsylvania as well as a bachelo rs from Smith College.Our second presenter today, Laura Winters has worked with CAEL in a range of capacities for over 20 years. During her 10 years with CAEL, Laura has been responsible for designing and implementing projects for corporations, workforce organizations, and colleges. Lauras workforce development and consulting work has included the diverse range of CAEL clients including Exelon Corporation, Digital Equipment Corporation, Levi Strauss, and the U.S. Department of Labor. Laura holds a bachelors and masters degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in psychology and communication. Phyllis and Laura, I will now turn the webinar over to you.Well, thank you so much, and I want to tell all of you how pleased we are to be here with you today and to have this opportunity to talk to you about our approach to developing supervisors. So, as you heard Im joined today by my colleague Laura Winters, but also, and very importantly, joined by Steven Frenkel, who has been our partner in implementing the Supervisor Toolkit at Northeast Utilities. Steven is a senior leadership development consultant at Northeast Utilities, and youll be hearing from him in a little while.So, what were talking with you about today is an approach that weve created to develop front line supervisors, and its grounded in their own organization. Its leid just about learning in a classroom. So you may be wondering who is this organization CAEL? For those of you who dont know it, just a few quick points about what we do.The focus of much of our work is increasing access to learning. That is learning that occurs in all environments, at work, in the community, as well as in the classroom, and we try to connect that learning to business needs and challenges.A characteristic of all of our projects and our work is that we work collaboratively across sectors. We might begin our work with a college, or in the public sector, or with an individual business. But as the project develops, we bring in the other partners and our knowledge of the issues and challenges in each area help to inform the project and the collaboration.So we want to learn a little bit about you and how you approach supervising your training right now. Were going to ask you to just answer very quickly two questions. So the first one is right here, Your new supervisors in your organization have access to training as soon as they are promoted? So you have a simple choice there, either Yes, No, or if you dont know, then you answer Dont Know. So choose your answer and then please submit it. Since it is not a difficult question, we hope you can answer this very quickly, and then well be able to binnensee what the picture is across all the participants.Looks like we have results, Phyllis.Actually, here we go. I didnt see them right yet. And interestingly, what we see is that its pretty evenly divided. Some of you have managed to make that happen, which is admirable, but some of you are struggling with the fact that when supervisors are promoted, there are lots of other things that are on their plate. So thank you. Thanks for sharing that.We have one more question that wed like to ask you to answer right now, and that question is, Does the training focus on the specific challenges for your workplace? So in other words, the training that you give to unterstellung newly promoted supervisors, does it focus on the specific challenges in your workplace? Again, the choice of Yes, No, or I dont know. All right, so many of you have recognized the importance of doing that. A slight probably more than half of you have done that and the rest of you are they realize that its important, but havent yet been able to do this. So thank you very much, that really helps us as we go forward and talk to you about our approach.So let me begin. Laura is going to pick this up in a minute, but I want to begin by explaining to you how we have approached this issue of training newly promoted supervisors who often co me in to this new role without any background. So you heard me say that we have links to higher education but we are also very committed to the notion that learning happens in many different places, in many different environments and that the classroom is not the only locale where you can learn something. One of the things that we do a lot in our focus on experiential learning is to find ways to recognize and to help people process learning that they obtain from their work. Because we all know that as we are doing things what is the phrase thats often used just in time learning we know that we are learning lots of things as we undertake the tasks that we are faced with on a daily basis, but we often dont have the opportunity to stock and to process and to extract the learning from what weve been doing. So one of the fruchtwein important principals and which our Supervisors Tool Kit is grounded, is on this notion that I just talked about, that we take the learning that people have obtained from the work that theyre doing, the rich body of experience that all of us gain through our work, and we help people. We give people a framework which allows them to extract the learning from that experience and what really helps, is that they do that in the company of their colleagues, their peers. So that theyre not doing it on their own. Theyre doing it in the company of others who are facing similar challenges and who can help them to reinforce those lessons. So, Im going to turn this over to Laura, whos going to take us a little further in this approach.The reason that we asked you those particular poll questions is that and why we are focusing on the supervisor position, is because its a position thats fruchtwein frequently promoted from within and what practices changed a lot over the past decade or so. The person selected for promotion is often the fruchtwein technically proficient. Whether or not they have really exhibited strong leadership skills, and its often t he case that new supervisors are sent to formal training immediately after promotion. Sometimes thats too soon. Especially, when it comes to soft skills like communication and coaching employees to support their development. Alternatively, its most of the technically specific training around compliance, discipline, and scheduling. If thats postponed because of the training delivery schedule, that can be too little too late.A great verstndigung im strafverfahren of supervisor training, whether its delivered internally or externally, is not very workplace specific, even if its very participatory. The participatory exercises within the training are too generic and dont seem so relevant to trainees. This really sometimes can limit the transfer of the learning to the work place. The Supervisor Toolkit is rooted in CAELs approach to learning. And a core concept underlying the Toolkit approach comes from experiential learning theory. This research that is experiential learning is more than just experience, rather its the process of making meaning from direct experience or learning through reflection and doing. Experiential learning focuses on the learning process for the individual. Unlike continuous improvement, experiential learning is an iterative process. The experience is the basis for the learning it is not the learning. The Toolkit approach provides a way to focus and direct a supervisors ability to be mindful of their supervisory experiences, reflect upon them, consider alternatives and practice of alternative behaviors in order to achieve better results.Here what you can see is a simple diagram that demonstrates the experiential learning theory. Now we have a few more questions about your training practices and your approach to supervisor training. First, Are most of your supervisors sent off-site for training? And what were getting at here is not only are they physically not in their workplace, are they then likely not to be participating in training with t heir peer group within your organization?Organizations often send supervisors off-site for leadership for soft skill training. In many ways, this can make a lot of sense especially for smaller organizations. Many of the core concepts and skills in the organization to help the individual develop, are coming to all organizations. And developing this kind of training in-house is either impractical or seems too much like youre reinventing the wheel. It looks like that most of you dont send people off-site. So that probably means that theyre mostly participating in training if not with their peers then with other supervisors within your organization depending upon the size of your organization.The next question we have, Is every new supervisor assigned to a mentor? We asked this because coaches or mentors have proven to be an effective way to build skills, and most organizations seek to have all leaders be responsible for coaching and mentoring their employees. Mentoring is often most ef fective when provided by peers or someone outside the individual employees department unit or chain of command. Okay? We should, yes, it looks like in most cases, and the majority of you dont have supervisors assigned to a mentor. Certainly, when theres a new supervisor anyway.The last question we have is, Do you provide opportunities for new supervisors to share their experience with their peers? Again, we ask this because peer learning is a powerful tool, but its often hard for organizations to facilitate and harness the power of this learning. Part of the reason for the difficulty has to do with just the organization of that practice, as well as being able to take so many people at the same level off the job at the same time. Looks like that a third of you do provide that opportunity, but the majority of your organizations dont. Phyllis is now going to take you through a mini example of Toolkit training. Drawing on an example that we developed for a client in a Healthcare industr y.Thanks, Laura, and so what Im going to do in one second is put up on the screen a story, and the reason we chose to do that is that the tools are organized around stories taken from the work place. We have a mini story for you. What were going to ask you to do is to read it. Well give you a few moments to do that, and then were going to ask you three questions about that story. I hope you can make a few notes in front of you to answer those questions. Well give you some sample answers afterwards, but since there are so many of you, we couldnt have you volunteer your answers as much as we would like to. First of all, youre going to read the story, then were going to put up three questions, and we ask you to make some notes on the answers to those questions, and then well discuss them.So, first comes the story. Please take a few minutes to read this toolkit story. Well give you another few seconds, because I know Im a fast reader, but let the rest of you finish and then Im going to put the first question up in just a moment. Okay, so here comes question number one, What do you think are the outcomes of this meeting? So, just make yourself a few notes and well come back and discuss it in a minute. What do you think are the outcomes of this meeting? Or actually, you know what, maybe we should discuss it now. I think that would work better. So, write down what you think the answers are and let me tell you what some of our other participants have told us in the past. They see this as unproductive, that nothing was going to change as a result of this meeting, that it was just going to foster a low morale, that blame was placed on the wrong person, that the whole meeting was a waste of time. So Im assuming that you also saw it in a similar way.Second question, Will they help the team to improve what they are doing and change the scores? So theyre being measured. Is this meeting going to contribute to improving their situation, so that they get a better score the nex t time? So again, please make a few notes. So what weve heard in the past is that this meeting is not necessarily going to change anything if the issues arent addressed. And one of the most significant answers was, if the team isnt allowed to give input, they wont feel any sense of ownership and nothings going to change. And in fact, theyll only become more defensive. So those are the kinds of things that weve heard from others. Im hoping your answers were along similar lines.And the third question, Please suggest three changes that Carlos can make in trying a new approach. So three things that he could do to make this situation better, be very specific here. Some changes that you would suggest that could be made. So here, some of the things, some of the suggestions that people madepresent the aufgabe as an opportunity that allows the group to develop a solution,build on whats happening in that environment as positive rather than emphasizing the negative,send out material in advance so that team members come in and theyre prepared for the topic thats going to be discussed,focus on one issue at a time rather than throwing the kitchen sink at them at once,allow input which is similar to what we said already,and not have Carlos do so much of the talking.This gives you really just a tiny taste of what the Toolkit experience is like, but just for you to know, what would happen after a group has a story that is a negative, just like the story you read. It would be followed by a story that is positive. Showing how that situation could be addressed in a way that is constructive rather than destructive, and what Lauras going to talk to you about now, a little bit about how we approach the Toolkit training. How we embed it into preparing supervisors.Thank you Phyllis. Phyllis is going to talk a little bit more later about how you select tools and develop them or customize them to meet the needs of your own client organization, but Id like to share a bit more about how t he training process itself works. Training is conducted in small groups or cohorts, since learning from peers is one of the key benefits of this training approach. The training is facilitated when CAEL is involved, either by a CAEL facilitator or company facilitator, who has been oriented to the proto materials by CAEL in the trainers session. The number of training sessions depends upon the number of tools that are incorporated into a specific organizations Toolkits. Usually, organizations choose 5 to 10 topics of behavioral clusters to focus on. Training sessions are scheduled anywhere from four to eight weeks apart sometimes a little longer than that depending upon the needs of the organization and the challenges of scheduling things.During the first session, the tool kit training process is introduced. Participants read an initial situation like the one that Phyllis went through with you that embeds an issue addressed by that tool. Then a discussion of the key behaviors and t heir impact is facilitated. Participants then read a second story or a second version of the story in which alternative behaviors are employed. This is followed by a discussion that moves into a comparison of behaviors and outcomes between the two stories. Then the tool itself is introduced. It summarizes the key principals and behaviors to imply in practice. The session ends with the brainstorm of the possible setbacks and solutions and the identification by each participant of one or two behaviors to focus on in applying this to life and work situations before the next section.At the next section, they begin focusing on sharing and discussing participants experiences and practicing the strategies and behaviors introduced in the first tool. They also, at this point, start discussing how changing their behaviors and modeling behaviors help their own employees incorporate and learn how to change their own behaviors and improve their own performance and engagement. After this discussi on, the next tool is introduced, and its gone through in the similar way that the first tool was. And in those lag times between the second session and the third session, participants are practicing the key behaviors that are introduced in the second tool. Usually at the end of the session, individuals identify one or two things that they are going to work on, and thats what they focus on working on. Sometimes in a tool, there are many behaviors that are introduced that are a cluster around a specific issue like communication, and there are many, many different things that people can choose to practice. Usually participants are pretty good at identifying those areas where they are challenged. And those are the ones that they usually choose to work on. Generally, the training process itself follows this general format or as a modification of this process.Now wed like to talk about an organization we work with thats currently implementing this training. Northeast Utilities is an energ y utility with electric and gas operations in Connecticut and Massachusetts. When we began to work with them on this approach, they already had a robust supervisor training program.And now well turn this session over to Steven Frenkel, who we introduced earlier as a Senior Leadership Development Consultant at Northeast Utilities. He has a background in both organizational development in training, and hes going to share some of the companys reasons for using the Toolkit with field operations supervisors, and some of their experience so far in implementing the training. Steven?Thanks, Laura. Yeah, let me start with why we decided to roll this out. As you said, we do have a pretty robust supervisory training program, but we operate over a fairly large territory. Its all of Connecticut for CLNP, but we also have companies in New Hampshire and Massachusetts as well. The courses take up a lot of time, anywhere from one to five days of classroom time positiv travel, because people have to come from all over the state. Because we bring them in from all over the state, we try to give them a lot of information, and theyve been likened to drinking water from a fire hose. The amount that they can retain is limited, and we know that. We combine both field supervisors and professional service supervisors in ansicht classes, because theyre sort of open enrollment. Obviously, each group of participants has their own challenges and focal issues.So, with these new Toolkits, we go out to them. We do the travel. Theres two of us going out to six to ten rather than make them all come to us. Its a very respectful approach because we dont monopolize their whole day. We use two-hour chunks of time and they really are that, because they are not the ones traveling. Some folks from the Southern part of the state were coming to us, the two-hour class would cost them six hours of their day. We also like it because it gives the information bite size chunks that they can actually absorb and focus on implementing, and they get information thats specific to their needs in the field. We actually did focus groups before we launched the Toolkits session to find out what do they need help with? And then we build the Toolkits around the issues that they asked for help on.That all covered the large territory issue. The second issue is that our supervisors often feel isolated. They report to a centralized model. So they dont connect with the other supervisors in their region. When they connect with their supervisors in their hierarchy, they come back to headquarters and report here. Many of them come from the union. So, theyve come from a bonded brotherhood and then come into operate as the supervisor without the interaction and friendship that they had in their previous positions. So these Toolkits connect them to their peers. They give them an opportunity to address both relationships but also regional issues not just functional issues, because each of our service centers ha s different micro-cultures and issues between customer base and staffing levels and resources and whatnot. The Toolkits enable them to talk together about shared struggles and challenges and also offer their solutions. In these regional locations, they often come up with their own solutions. Its not something thats taught. Theyve just found a way to make it work, but they havent been sharing that with each other. And in this (coerce), they really can share those best practices as much as possible. And it really enforces the value of reconnecting with each other for helping advice, and were seeing a lot of that increase as a result of these sessions. In fact, thats something that we ask about in our evaluations. We check in with them. Are you utilizing each other more as the resources that you are? And were hearing the answer is yes, and thats increasing.The third issue to cover is that our supervisors are strong technically. So they need a little bit more help with the supervisory a nd the leadership skills. Softer skills that you might say they need, and thats what weve decided to target in these sessions. We respect their technical expertise, and then we offer them a little bit more leadership skills in these sessions. So they can use them and see if they work and coach each other.Another issue there were a bunch of them that went into the decision to move in this direction. We have supervisors, Northeast Utilities, and utilities in general have long term employees. We have life-time employees here at the company. Theyve been on the job for 20, 30 even 40 years. And when they leave, they take their institutional knowledge with them and because of staffing limitations and regulations, were not allowed to overlap people in their roles. So, we cant bring on a new supervisor to overlap and shadow and learn from a supervisor whos leaving after 30 years. Obviously, a headcount is a headcount but theres no replacing a 40 year supervisor with a newbie. Its just not t he same. So, even if they cant overlap and work with their predecessors, they can get together with the other supervisors in their region and get the help that they need. So they might not be able to benefit from the supervisor that they replace, but they can benefit from all the other experience and institutional knowledge that the other supervisors in their region have that they can learn from.So that was the why that we rolled this out. There were a lot of issues we were trying to address, and we were looking for a new creative way to approach these challenges and the Toolkit really fit what we were trying to do. We rolled it out by identifying the most likely need for leadership skills over technical skills. Again, we conducted focus groups with supervisors and their managers to hone in on these specific needs that they had, and then we narrowed it down to teams and we selected the top five. With those top five, were conducting effective meetings, communicating up and down, maki ng the most of teachable moments, making the most of change, and making data talk. All of those were repeated themes that came from the multiple focus groups that we held. They kind of were standing out at us as something that supervisors were asking help on.As I said, we go out to them in two-hour chunks and deliver these sessions, and we selected experienced facilitators to deliver this kind of content not traditional classroom trainers. Were not standing in front of the room. Were not working with PowerPoints. We have these very simple, wonderful Toolkits that CAEL helped us developed or CAEL developed for us. And we sit down with them and have a session around the table and were working on a facilitated discussion. Theyre doing most of the talking. Were asking pointed questions using the Toolkits, using the stories and the scenarios to prompt their thinking, and then theyre talking. Were just capturing their list of best practices and successes and feeding it back to them, and encouraging those who arent using some of those approaches or skills to try it and see if it works. It helps because theyre hearing from their own peers and colleagues that this stuff works.Weve seen benefits so far. Weve been doing this all through 2012. We know these are benefits from both the evaluation forms and also conversations with supervisors and managers. Weve seen strong participation. Theyre eager for these sessions. They come back. Weve just had good participation, and they show up when they could have lots of other things to do. They really appreciate the new approach. Its more beneficial for them and its less intrusive. So theres a double win there, and they really do feel respected because for the first time in a long time, they have people coming to them to offer assistance instead of making them come up to headquarters. One of the best byproducts that we hear is the tremendous appreciation for conversation with their peers. Really, they didnt often get together wit h their counterparts like they do now for these kinds of discussions. And just creating a space for them has been tremendously beneficial and valuable and seeing what they want to talk about in addition to what we raised is enlightening.And the last thing that this has really done for us, this helped us break down silos, because they were functional reporting. There are functional reporting relationships. One supervisor may work with another supervisor in this same area work center and never get together. Never talk. Never cross those silos. Their always reporting up their own chain and not interacting with their peers, and with these sessions weve broken down silos between not only departments, but also companies. We had both our gas teilen and our electric division supervisors from the same region in the same room, and they were learning a lot from each other, and they had never met and never gotten together even though they were working out of the same area work centers. So were getting a lot more cross-functional collaboration and a much better sense of team. All as a bi-product in addition to building skills and supervisory capabilities.So I think that about covers what we talked about Phyllis and Laura, but thats really what weve seen, thats how weve approached it, why weve approached it that way and what were getting out of it.Well, Steven you are as always a wonderful presenter and youve highlighted, I think some of the key elements that wed like to conclude, by emphasizing youve done just a great job of setting that up for us.And I was taking notes as you were talking, because you highlighted so effectively the points that I wanted to make in this final slide. I think what is so important, and what Steven did is to emphasis how much the tools are developed from this specific environment, where were working. So its the issues that take place there that people are facing. The stories are drawn from focus groups that we conduct at the beginning from me etings that we have with managers to let them know what were trying to do to understand where they see supervisors struggling. We approached it with a lot of respect. Steven really emphasized that. We listen to the employees and we allow them to do a lot of the talking rather than talking, just trying to fill that for knowledge into their heads is sometimes starting these sessions, we really give them the opportunity to talk, to respond, to share with one another and then to reflect on what is the learning that theyve gained in doing it. Steven referred to the specific tools, and you saw it on your screen, the tools that they use because the issues that Northeast Utilities was focused on with the communication, the meetings, change, teachable moments, and they can gain a talk. Those are common across many work places, but we have other tools as well, and it depends really where each work place sees the need.The Toolkit has a distinctive approach, which Laura talked about as kind of an armature, but the specific content really is driven by what are the urgent needs and challenges in the work place where were working. We do this collaboratively and Steven explained to you, CAEL can come in. We always develop the tools, and we do the initial focus groups, and we listen and meet. But we can deliver, or in a case like Northeast Utilities, where theres a skilled body of facilitators who have a background to be able to listen and to work with employees. We can work with them to prepare them to do the delivery themselves and really to make it their own. So, it can be either way, the trainer approach or a CAEL-driven approach, but what we are sure to do in the beginning is to make sure that the stories that we develop are the focus that reflects the culture and the challenges of the particular environment where the tools are being used. And they have been used in public sector as well as private sector environments. Everyone struggles with as you know, the same kinds o f issues. Im going to stop talking at you, which is what we say we dont do in the Toolkit and allow you to ask some questions. Probably this is a new and different approach, and as youve been listening hopefully youve been thinking of some questions, and wed really love to hear from you and try the best we can to answer them.Thank you ladies and gentlemen. If youd like to register for a question, please press the one followed by the four on your telephone. You will hear a three-tone prompt to acknowledge your request. Your line will then be accessed from the conference to obtain information. If your question has been answered and youd like to withdraw your registration, please press the one followed by the three. If youre using a speakerphone, please lift your handset before I turn in your request. One moment please for the first question.And if I could interrupt, I do have a question here standing by from our end. Ill just jump right into it. Do we need to work with CAEL in order t o implement the approach youve discussed this afternoon?Laura, do you want to take that or do you want me to take that?No, we dont think that you have to work with CAEL to implement the approach. We think the concepts that we employ are general. We certainly would love to have opportunities to work with organizations, and we presented this material as kind of how we approach this, and how weve approached it with in a particular case study. But we think that weve that the concepts are general, and that we do offer some ideas around how to embed more truly grounded experiential learning in the kind of training that you do. Take it out to the people, give them opportunities to work with peers. Embed the learning in situations that are very real and resonate and then build in a practice session and a feedback session so that people practice those skills. Phyllis, I dont know if you want to answer that in a different way or add to that?I think you covered it.Or add at all?No, thank you. Were taking this inaudible to the next question. Thanks, Laura.Ladies and gentlemen thanks very much for that.As a reminder to register for a question, press the one, then four. And we do have a question from the line of Alex Ross. Please proceed with your question.Yeah, hi. Thank you so much for the presentation. I was just curious if a PDF version of the slides that were shown would be made available to us?Hi. This is Monster. Yes. A PDF version will be sent directly to you if you registered. It will also be available on our site within two to three business days on hiring.monster.com.Okay, excellent. Thank you all very much.Gentlemen, I have an additional question here on hiring from Monster. Question number two, much of todays webinar was focused on changing supervisor behavior. Can you relate this to strategies supervisors can use to help their employees learn?Phyllis, you want to take that one?Yeah. Ill start and you can fill in. Great. No. Its a great question. Let me just su mmarize the question, which was about this focus on changing behavior, and then how do we link that and translate into helping them learn? And I think that what I would say in response is that there is a readiness factor here. If theres resistance, if the supervisor is not able to work with his or her team in a way that they are listening, that theyre interacting, that theyre open to discussion, then there wont be any learning that can take place. So, weve put a lot of emphasis on the behavior because the behavior allows that team to come together to communicate openly and get ready for the learning that needs to take place. So, I would say that this is the first step in the learning process, that it creates the climate, the receptivity, which allows the learning to happen. And Laura, you feel free or Steven, to add anything you want to that response.Well, I guess the only thing I would add is there are some pieces that we build into the actual tool itself with each tool that gives some guidance for supervisors on fostering, as their behavior changes to foster the development of these skills and the people who report to them as well. In some of these sessions, where a couple of the tools for example that Northeast Utilities used, where one is focused on making data talk and the other one is on helping people cope with change. Both of those also specifically have some very clear cut guidelines around how a supervisor can help his or her direct reports, checking reflect on their own behavior and a cope with the kind of changes that seem to be more and more rapid and frequent within organizations in the 21st Century. As well as, for example, the making David talk gives helps the supervisor breakdown information that they are receiving in a data form and really help not so much. It isnt focused on the hard scale in and of itself of what does a particular data mean, but it really focuses on understanding why different kinds of data are important in order to measur e organizational effectiveness and team performance.Thanks very much, and operator do we have any additional questions on your end.Ladies and gentlemen, as a reminder to register for a question, press the one, then four.And if we do not, Ill proceed with the questions we have here on our side.We do not have any questions at this time.Okay. All right, one additional from us. When discussing this topic with colleagues, what is the best way to communicate the benefits of your approach?You know, I would love to have Steven answer that. Steven if you dont mind, because youve been in this situation of having to do that in your work environment. So if you wouldnt mind giving an answer to that? And we can always follow up if needed.Would you repeat the question one more time for me.Sure. How do you youll correct me. I think its, how do you if youre talking to your colleagues, how can you communicate the benefits of the Supervisor Toolkit approach?I believe what were getting at, I think, is the kind of a teach meeting internally to proceed with this type of a program.Right.Sure. It was not a hard sell. Our managers really understand the you know, I dont want to put it this way, but limitations of their supervisors. They understand their opportunities for growth and whats possible in terms of relationships with their workforce if we can successfully skill up our supervisor team. What we did was a mini road show for all of our managers and all of our supporting directors to explain to them what were trying to do. Why were trying to do it. What the possible benefits could be and what support we need from them. And they were actually saying to us, Can you copy us on the summary e-mails, so we see what theyre learning? Can you give us a heads up when theyre coming in so we know what theyre working on? And so what weve done is establish the process where a couple days before each Toolkit session, we send out an e-mail to the supervisors copying their managers saying, Were co ming. And then a separate email to their managers giving them access to the tools, and saying, This is what your supervisors going to learn about. Please have a conversation with him or her before they walk in the door about why this is an important skill and if theres any type of feedback, or anything you want them to focus on to build, please do that. Please read through the Toolkit, model the behavior that youre asking them to exhibit, ask them about it after the session, and see what kind of coaching they need to reinforce what theyre learning. And theyve been extremely supportive the whole way through.Thank you, Steven.Thats great. And I do have one final question on my end. Can you discuss how this approach may be more effective than some of the other types of the employee training are currently available in the marketplace?Sure, Ill start and I know my colleagues will be happy to supplement. So I think weve tried as weve been going through this to make the distinction between the Toolkit approach and some of the more traditional supervisor training models. So couple of things that I want to highlight are the fact that this is not generic in any way. Its very much grounded in the specific issues, challenges, culture of the company and the organization with whom were working. So thats number one.Number two, it is highly participatory. The sessions are not taught. They are facilitated. There is essentially a discussion leader but most of the talking, most of the engagement, comes from the supervisors, the participants, and they are doing it in consent with their peer. So theyre learning from each other. Theyre sharing with each other. Steven mentioned how often they share innovations that they have developed themselves. And they also have their peers to go back to reinforce the learning that they may have gained.Third, what were teaching, we use specific situations, and weve definitely developed a tool around the challenges that a company will talk to us a bout, and that we hear about in the focus groups that we conduct initially. But really, what were teaching, what were helping to develop is a new way of approaching their work and their challenges with the supervisor to be able to step back, to be thoughtful, to reflect, to involve their team in the conversations in coming up with solutions. So it is as you pointed to in one of the earlier questions, were developing a change in how the supervisor behaves. How he or she is prepared to address new challenges that will come up and that will help them to engage the team, to help them do their best, rather than to be critical and to even when theres a problem, you heard one of the tools thats been most popular has taking advantage of teachable moments and when a teachable moment is a problem something that went awry and how does a supervisor take that situation where something didnt go as it should have and use it to help the team think about how they would behave the next time it happ ened? What could be done differently? So, it is about what were helping people to develop is a new way of approaching their work that can be applied to a diverse array of situations. And Laura and Steven, I dont know if you have anything else you want to add?The only thing that I would add is that I dont think that the way to think about it is as necessarily more effective to all other kinds of supervisor training. I think that its more effective particularly in developing behaviors and interpersonal skills and some organizational skills and communication skills. I think that its really worked very well as a complement to more standardized training, or if you only have so many resources to spend on building the soft kind of leadership skills or soft skills, even in non-supervisory positions, that this is an effective way to do so in a way that will immediately be grounded in the workplace and in day-to-day situations, and immediately have a behavioral component.Excellent. Thanks ver y much for clarifying that. We do have time for one additional question. I have one on my side here. So, Ill go right ahead. How often do you suggest holding-gesellschaft the individual Toolkit sessions?That really depends on the organization. The typical gap between sessions is four to six weeks, but it could be shorter. It could be a little longer, probably not too much longer. Probably up to two months, but nothing longer than that. But typically its four to six weeks.Excellent, thank you. Well, this time Id like to thank Phyllis, Laura as well as Steve, for sharing their insight and knowledge with us today. This concludes our webinar. A recording of this event will, as well as the presentation materials, will be available shortly on our hiring site, hiring.monster.com. Just look under the Resource Center tab. And thanks again for joining us, please join us again in 2013 for additional webinars from Monster. Thank you and have a great day.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Just Make Up Your Resume

Just Make Up Your Resume Just Make Up Your Resume Thats Lee Stranahans advice but dont worry. Hes not suggesting you lie: But you are going to make up your resume. I mean it’s what you do anyway, isn’t it? Every time you decide to take a job, project or gig of any kind, you’re adding to that list of things you’ve done. So start making some conscious choices about your goals and then create jobs and projects for yourself that give you the experience you need? This is such great advice. Not long ago, I received a question from someone who had been asked to take on extra work without a guarantee of a salary raise or title change. She asked should I accept the extra work, or hold out for the raise before I agree to do it? To me, this is a no-brainer. There is no way you should be turning down work that will help you advance down the road. Years ago, I worked as an HR Manager for a company that didnt have any HR execs. This meant I wound up working with the executive management team, even attending their strategy meetings and basically acting as the HR VP. My salary still stayed at the manager level and sometimes that bugged me, but I knew a promotion to the exec level was out of the question as the company wasnt in the best shape financially plus frankly, I was too young and inexperienced, so I just did the work. I learned so much in those few years, and when I finally did move on, I instantly got a huge jump in pay and in seniority. And within just 18 months, I was a Vice President making almost 3 times my former salary. That wouldnt have happened if I hadnt had the opportunity to work at a level far above my actual qualifications. Taking on new assignments to broaden your experience is even more important in a down economy. First, you will make yourself more valuable to your current employer and second, youll be more competitive if you do look for another job. So dont wait around for someone to give you more responsibility or the experience you need go get it now!

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

The one thing to keep in mind before investing your money

The one thing to keep in mind before investing your money The one thing to keep in mind before investing your money Investing money is one of the easiest ways to both save money and grow wealth. Rather than keeping your money stashed away in a savings account, you could invest it and watch it potentially grow. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?But wait - before you start Googling investment apps and transferring money into a new account, there’s something you need to keep in mind. Not all investment firms have the client’s best interest in mind. We know, why wouldn’t a big bank want to help its clients invest money and grow their wealth? Unfortunately, sometimes financial advisors or stockbrokers have other items on their agendas (like their own personal compensation desires).So the main thing you need to keep in mind  before investing your money  is whether or not the investment firm you’re wanting to work with is a fiduciary.What is a fiduciary?Fiduci-what?  A fiduciary (pronounced  fid-u-shi-ary) is a person, like an accountant or a financial advisor, who acts on behalf of another person to make decisions for them. They are ethically bound to act in the best interests of the other person.You may think the accountant or financial advisor you use is a fiduciary, but you may be wrong. And you’re not alone. According to a  2017 study conducted by Personal Capital, 46 percent of Americans responded that they believe financial advisors are required by law to act in the best interests of their clients. However, they are not. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Labor began rolling out what they call the “fiduciary rule,” which would have required financial advisors to keep their clients’ best interests in mind at all times. Unfortunately, by June 2018,  the rule was officially considered dead  and no such law was put into place.So what does that mean for you, the client? It’s time to ask  a lot  more questions before handing your money over. This includes your retirement, tax, investment and any other accounts you may have. Not sure what to ask your current or future financial advisor? Here’s our list to get you  started.Are you a fiduciary?How do you charge for your services?How much do you charge?What types of clients do you specialize in?Do you have a sample financial plan I could look at?Will you solely be managing my money, or will your team be involved, as well?What’s your investment strategy?How much communication will there be between us?Why should I work with you and your firm?With these answers stuffed into your back pocket, you’ll have a much clearer understanding of who is working with your money and in what ways. And that knowledge means power (not to mention much higher chances of growing your personal wealth). Happy investing!This article was originally posted on Swirled.com  in the Thrive section, which covers valuable  career and personal finance content  for millennials.

Monday, November 18, 2019

Learn How to Stop Being Miserable at Work

Learn How to Stop Being Miserable at Work Learn How to Stop Being Miserable at Work Are you miserable at work? Do you feel awful about getting up and heading to the office every Monday? Do you feel unchallenged, unhappy, or out of control? Is your boss the worst? Do your coworkers engage in unjustifiable complaining all day long? Is no contribution ever good enough? If you continue to wallow in these attitudes and situations, you only ensure that you will continue to hate your job and hating your job is a recipe for a miserable life. Why go there? You have the power to change your attitude and/or remove yourself from toxic situations. Read on for tips on handling unpleasant situations and changing your career mood from miserable to fulfilled. Toxic Work Situations and What You Can Do Situation: Your coworkers are always finding fault with the company, management, customers, employees, and just about everything else about the job. You find yourself hanging out with these people and worse, participating in the griping. Solution: Legitimate concerns that are actually addressed aside, if you wallow in misery and listen to unhappy, difficult people, it cant help but bring you down as well. Unhappiness and criticism are contagious. Move on and stay away from these people to avoid catching the bug. Situation: You stay in a job that is unchallenging, boring, and unrewarding. Day after day, year after year, you are numbing your mind and heart with work that doesnt fulfill you. Solution: Understand that you have options. See a career counselor at your local community college, technical school, or adult education program. Or, find out if your company has opportunities for growth or other positions that interest you. Seek out other job opportunities; find ways to use your current skill set differently, and take tests and talk with a mentor to identify work you might find more exciting. If you are a college grad, keep in mind that your college career services office may be able to help you, regardless of when you graduated. Situation: Youre not developing in your career and no one is giving you feedback. Solution: You must take responsibility for your own life and career development. You can wait forever for a non-communicative boss to give you feedback about areas to improve and your personal and professional growth. In fact, in some organizations, you can wait years for a performance appraisal or performance feedback. Why wait for someone else? No one will ever care as much about your personal and career development as you do. And no one else has as much to gain as you do from your continued growth. Situation: You hate your boss; he or she is just a bad boss. But you continue to work there. Solution: Bad bosses, whether abdicators of responsibility  or just plain nasty people, rarely change without some life-transforming event occurring. The event may happen, but how long are you willing to wait around complaining about how unhappy you are at work? Even with feedback, bad bosses rarely change. Cut your losses, transfer and/or move on to something better.Situation: You work for a company that has business practices you dont respect. They lie to customers and make promises to employees that are never kept. Solution: Bail as quickly as you can. The culture that enables those practices is a tough one to change- if any of the leaders even want to change the culture. Since executives and company founders largely drive the culture, dont hold your breath. There are better, more ethical, companies where you can seek employment. Situation: Your company is constantly in danger of going under and you live in fear about getting fired or laid off. Solution: Many good companies experience temporary woes. But a company that is constantly operating near bankruptcy can wear out your optimism and enthusiasm. This is especially true if you are not in a position to have a big impact on the companys budgeting, spending, or financial performance. It may be time to move on.Situation: You are staying in a job in which you feel stuck. There are many reasons why you may feel stuck. Your company may be small, and there is nowhere for you to go. Perhaps youve been passed over for promotion because of a lack of education, experience, or mentoring opportunities. Solution: If youve sought additional responsibilities and an expanded job, but havent had any success, or if youve talked with your boss and the problems appear to be insurmountable, its time to go. Its OK to be ambitious and seek to expand your knowledge and career- so go do it. Situation: You try to make contributions and come up with ideas to improve the work or work environment, but your ideas are never implemented. Worse, they go into a dark hole, and you never hear a response to your suggestions at all. Solution: Staying in a work environment that fails to respond to employee suggestions will eventually make you question the value of your suggestions. Any environment that promotes you questioning your value or your contribution is toxic to your self-esteem and self-confidence. Find a more supportive work environment. Situation: You are tired of living paycheck to paycheck. Your current job is never going to pay you more than minimum wage and you dont want to wait years to make a decent living. Solution: Find the facts. Learn about comparable positions and what they pay. Make a decision: For how much money and how long are you willing to work? You have options. Explore a better-paying future. You want to live your life as if the glass is half full, not half empty, so consider each of these described situations carefully. Are you settling for less than you can have or be? If so, you may want to consider other options. A happier life is worth it!

Sunday, November 17, 2019

Looking for Work Abroad Check Out These 4 Tips

Looking for Work Abroad Check Out These 4 Tips Looking for Work Abroad Check Out These 4 Tips 2With an estimated 6  million Americans working and living abroad, either working remotely with American companies or through local jobs, Americans are no stranger to the expat life. Due to the rise in remote work opportunities, its no surprise that American professionals are looking for work abroad and taking their work to some of the most beautiful destinations in the world. Many professionals choose to incorporate travel into their professional life by staying in one location for a couple of weeks or more, and others choose to settle down, create a local community, and find work that way. Whatever path is chosen, there are a few tips you should know before embarking on a global work journey. Here are four tips to successfully find work abroad: 1. Create your community. First and foremost, find your community. It is easier now than ever to find expats using tools such as Meetup.com and Facebook. So get the ball rolling on this before you leave American soil. Expats can help connect you with other travelers and working professionals, help you get the lay of the land, help you find  American comforts abroad, and keep you grounded by providing you with some perspective when living abroad gets tough- which it inevitably will. 2. Learn the language. Traveling somewhere for a week and moving somewhere are two very  different beasts. You can manage a week in a foreign country without speaking the language, but if you plan on working abroad, its best to have a least  a basic understanding of the language. There are a wealth of online resources, online tutors such as italki, and courses at community colleges that are all very affordable ways to either brush up on or completely learn a new language. Dont underestimate the importance of this when looking for work abroad.   3. Understand the culture. Working in a new country means that you will have to understand the basic culture of the country in order to succeed professionally. Educational, degree, and licensing expectations are bound to differ, as well as application materials, such as a cover letter and resume. Its important to understand the differences in expectations before applying for a job. In many foreign countries, applicants and employers are required to justify why a foreign citizen is better suited for a job than a resident. If your potential or current employer is able to help you with this step, you will save a considerable amount of time and money. 4. Find a job. There are several options for finding a job.  The first is to check with your existing company to see if they offer any overseas opportunities. Companies will take care of your documents (such as a work visa) and sometimes travel arrangements and costs. Another  option is teaching abroad- many companies such as InterExchange  and TeachAway  offer programs. Check to see if you need a TEFL certification. There is plenty of money to be made, unlimited travel opportunities, and the support of the teaching organization. This is a great way to test out a country and the expat life, and it could also be a segue for a more permanent job in that country. You could also search for a remote work opportunity. has a work-from-anywhere  jobs page that lists hundreds of freelance, telecommuting, and part-time jobs that can be done from anywhere in the world. Most jobs require an Internet connection, so if youll be working in public, check out the WorkFrom  website to read reviews on cafes and their Internet speeds, noise levels, outlet access, and many other important factors to consider when working  in public.   Lastly, many people wait until they are actually in the country to try to find work. Sometimes, companies will not hire unless you are in the country and it can be a lot easier to make connections in person. If youre a risk-taker and have the savings to back it up, this might be the path for you.   Search for a Remote Job