Five Employee Engagement Ideas - Your Career Intel

Five Employee Engagement Ideas - Your Career IntelPassion Drives Profitability Five Avenues to Employee EngagementOne person with passion is better than forty men merely interested. E. M. ForsterAs an executive recruiter, Ive learned that a passionate workforce is invaluable to an organizations success. Yet, fostering employee engagementdoesntalways receive the time and consideration it deserves. Particularly in todays candidate-driven employment market, employee engagement drives growth. Optimize your teams potential with these five employee engagement ideas.Five Employee Engagement IdeasInvite innovation. If there is one approach guaranteed to increase engagement, its this one listen to your employees Dedicated employees should know that their voices are being heard, that their expertise is valued, and that they are integral to the companys success. These individuals are more likely to invest emotionally, intellectually, and strategically in the organizations long-term goals. Inclu de employees in long-term planning to the greatest extent possible. Reward new approaches and smart risk-taking, and invest in professional development.Foster real leadership. Employee engagement begins with great leaders. The most engaging managers are aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, open to new approaches, and good at communicating not only what needs to be done, but also why each task is important. Train managers to provide constructive feedback and how to gauge the pulse of their teams effective communication goes both ways.Build an employment brand. Learn to tell the story of your organization where it came from, where its going, and why. Everyone should know where he or she fits into the big picture, and why each individual role is important to the organizations achievement. Show your employees what sets your company apart from the rest, and why its a special place to work. Then, make sure that your corporate culture reflects that philosophy.Develop a smart recrui ting strategy. One of the best ways to increase employee engagement, not surprisingly, is to hire employees who are most likely to be engaged. Look for intellectual flexibility, curiosity, and a commitment to professional development in new hires. Make it clear that your organization values those qualities, and show candidates how they can grow their career potential at your company.Dont manipulate. Your employees are smart thats why you hired them They can tell when they are being manipulated with gimmicky incentives and tedious corporate retreats. Engagement strategies should reward commitment and innovation while fostering a positive corporate culture. Drive collaboration rather than negative competition. Appeal to employees intellects and curiosity, rather than fixating on the bottom line.Devoting thought, time, and resources to employee engagement can bring huge rewards at every level of your corporate structure. With these five tips, youll help your employees perform at the h ighest level.How do you build employee engagement? What results can you share?

4 Ways to Stop Being Jealous

4 Ways to Stop Being Jealous Ill admit it. Its happened to me.Ive been trudging along in my normal life, happily existing in a relationship that is positive, pleasant, and healthy, when WHAM Im smacked over the head with envy. Im jealous, and I know it. Im green as the green witch in Wicked, the one who is played by the woman who reminds me of the girl from Glee. (Right?)What causes a partie to be jealous?Jealousy hurts people. It ruins things. It turns the most robust lebensabschnittsgefhrteships into broken ones, marred by envy, competition, and fear. Jealousy might start out small, tiny, almost unbedrngnisiceable. So, you may be wondering, why do I get so jealous?It might look like the most imperceptible, slight downturn in your lips or scrunch of your nose when your partner or a friend mentions their new job. It might feel like a burning in your cheeks or a turn in your stomach. It could just be the silent thought, I wish I were that happy/successful/lucky/talented/fortunate/flus h with cash. But it can easily turn into bitterness and resentment. Passive-aggressively pushing your partner to pay the bill at dinner because they now make more money than you. Getting even more restless in your current position than you would otherwise. Groaning on Mondays when its hard to get out of bed and get to work. You want what they have, but you cant have it. Why not?Why should you fight jealousy?Because their story is not your story. You are not the one with the new job, fun job, lucrative job, dream job or convenient job. You have your job (or no job, right now) and that comes with its own challenges. Theres no getting around it sometimes we all wish we had a different work situation. Maybe youve felt this for a while, or maybe someone elses cushy job got you dreaming of greener pastures. Whatever the case may be, it sucks. And it hurts. And if you dont keep that jealousy in check, it can end up hurting any relationship or even ending it.How to stop being jealousHere a re a few ways to keep your envious heart in check, even in the most trying of circumstances. Though jealousy might seem impossible to wade through, you can do it. And whats on the other side is so, so much more beautiful than you can imagine.1. Celebrate success.In a relationship, your partners successes can be enjoyed just as much as your own. This is true of many types of relationships, including close friendships. When you win, you win together. Their new job or opportunity may not only mean a higher combined income for the two of you, but a more flexible schedule, more time to spend together, or a happier partie for you to come home to in the evenings. Less stress. More vacations. The chance to get to know their new coworkers and make new friends.If you happen to be in the same field, it could even mean fresh networking opportunities for you I find that the more I express joy, appreciation, and love, the more I feel those things in real time. The more you say to someone, I am so happy for you, (and actually try to mean it) the more you will begin to feel happy for that person. You will be filled up on the secondhand joy that enters the atmosphere when someone else is experiencing positivity. Youll want to throw a party Hey, throw a party. A new job is a great excuse for a party.2. Refocus your energy onto your own story.You and the other person have different, distinct life stories and paths. You are meant to have different careers, unique challenges, and separate experiences. Though we often wish they would, we cant force two lives to move perfectly in tandem. This month, my girlfriend started a new job in D.C. She travels up each week to work her dream job at a museum. Me? I still live in a different state, and Im still trying to find my best-fit workplace. I could be frustrated that she is living into her goals and dreams, flourishing in a city she loves. Or I can watch, applaud, support, and love her into her future, while still walking on my own path. Our journeys dont have to diverge. They are just thattwo very different journeys, bound together by a very big love. Its beautiful Are you crying yet?Even close friendsones who have known each other since elementary schoolhave separate and unique journeys, and you should celebrate the wins of others while focusing on your own goals and path.3. Examine your own insecurities.Why do you feel so jealous of their success? Is it because you feel unhappy in your own job, or as though your career path is moving too slowly? Are you having doubts and second thoughts about the education you chose, or the career trajectory you tischset out for yourself? The good news is, we all have those insecurities at some point in life. The even better news is, we all have the power to pivot, change direction, and make positive choices to improve our own lives.That might mean something as simple as changing up the shift you usually take or asking to try out a new role at work. It could also mean going back to school, finding a career mentor, or, heck, even quitting your job and starting all over again These are all valid options. But dont put negative energy towards your partner just because youre still figuring out your story. Youre going to be figuring it out for your whole entire life. Thats a lot of potential negativity that could be re-routed and spun into determination.4. Remember theres more to a person than a job.No matter how lucrative, unique, interesting or sexy their career may be, Im willing to bet that whatever your relationship is with the other person, it doesnt depend on their 9-to-5 (work relationships may, of course, but even these should not force you to fester in jealousy). If it wasnt the center of your relationship at the beginning, you dont need to give it weight at this point, months or years into your time together. Most things that can be displayed on the job also come out in other parts of life. Focus on other qualities or attributes of the person, such a s the things you do together as friends or partners. Go on a hike, take a trip, cook dinner together. You might be reminded of how great they are outside of the board room, classroom, office, sales floor or wherever they locate themselves during the workweek.The bottom lineIf you think about all these possibilities and still feel that little green monster welling up in your heart, it might be time to have an honest, vulnerable, face-to-face conversation with the other person about your jealousy. Sometimes, naming the beast can take all the fear and fight out of it. If youre worried about how she or he sees you because of your job situation, tell them that. If youre concerned that they dont have time for you, tell them. Or if youre just plain-old jealous that they are living their dream while youre still figuring things out in your own mind? Tell themA relationship built on trust and vulnerability will be able to weather that type of honesty. However you decide to proceed, you will c ome out feeling stronger and healthier if you can face the jealousy head-on.Do you find yourself to be a jealous person, or do you know a jealous person in your life? If you often feel jealous of your partner or someone you know or vice versa, it can be a hard hurdle to overcome. But jealous thoughts are nothing more than, well, jealous thoughts, so if or when youre feeling jealousy and envy, or people you know are jealous people, consult this advice. Overcoming jealousy isnt easy, but its doable.--Kaitlyn Duling is an author and barde who is passionate about supporting and uplifting other women. Her work can be found at www.kaitlynduling.com.

Skills That Recruiters Need To Master

Skills That Recruiters Need To MasterKathleen Steffey from navigaservices weighs in on skills recruiters need to masterClick To TweetIn the 17th episode of The Recruiting Reel, Kathleen Steffey, Founder and Chief Talent Officerat Naviga Recruiting and Executive Search, provides insight on the skills that recruiters need to master to be successful in todays market. Heres the transcriptJosh Tolan Hey everyone my name is Josh Tolan and I am the Founder and CEO of Spark Hire, theleading video interviewing platform used by thousands of organizations around the world. And, this is the Recruiting Reel, a video series in which we discuss real recruiting challenges with prominent recruiting experts, so you walk away with actionable tips you can apply to yur own recruiting.We have an awesome guest on todays show in Kathleen Steffey. She is the Founder and Chief Talent Officer at Naviga Recruiting and Executive Search. Naviga places sales candidates in jobs all across the country spanning a wid e range of industries. Before launching Naviga, Kathleen racked up a ton of corporate recruiting experience and today we are thrilled to have her on the show so she can answer the question what are the skills that todays recruiters need to master?Take it away KathleenKathleen Steffey I thought about three things. This is the cool question, because it is something that were going through right now. And, all of the recruiters across the nations in the United States likely can relate.So whether youre a corporation, a very large corporate recruiter, an agency or a staffing and retained firm it is relevant. The market is good. The market has completely and utterly changed. Candidates are happy. Theyre being paid well, the economy is good, actually the economy is great, comparatively. Candidates have choices. Theyre in the drivers seat, bedrngnis like it was before. Theyre earning their commissions, theyre earning their bonuses, theyre getting merit increases based on how they are perform ing these days. Employers are cooler. Theyre noticing and are mindful about work-life balance, right? So, theres a lot more perks in todays landscape in order to recruit and retain. So, people are sticking around right now.What that means is these three things in my world The first one, is as a recruiter, you have to show resourcefulness and you have to show good sourcing skills. So, in our world that means pipeline development. You have to be able to be very creative and how you go and develop your pipeline, and generate the right amount of volume of candidates to solicit. If you have too little of candidates to solicit, youre not going to get the return. Right, the ROI wont be good. You have to make sure theres enough candidates that you are soliciting.Right now job descriptions and postings are the least effective way to recruit. You can get lucky, Im not saying you cant hire from a job description. It happens. You know, good. However, right now if you want to achieve top talent, consistently, you have to be resourceful and source. Actually show your sourcing skills and what do you do to find contact details with a candidate. If you dont have it, if you dont have their email, if you dont have their phone number, how do we get it once we identify them. Youve got to have a system to do that. The second thing is consistency. Okay. We have many different ways that we do things to get candidates here, right. We text, we email, we hit people up on LinkedIn, we call. The landscape has changed, right. So everyone is looking at their, you know, iPhone in order to make decisions and communicate with the world today. The phone has become the least effective way for recruiting. So, what do you do when that happens? You know? You have to do things differently. You have to hit them up in different ways so they can binnensee you faster and quicker. Where? On their phone, okay. Theyre not in front of their desktops responding to people personally anymore. Its on their phon e. So you have to show consistency with reach outs in different channels. I will give you an example of what I mean. It takes us, these days, more than five times to get a candidate. We are not settling on one reach out and one method. We are not settling on just calling a candidate and then waiting for them to call us back, and saying nope. You know its a lose, lose here. We have to do texting, we have to email, we have to call, we have to hit them up on LinkedIn, we have to be creative and go to social functions in groups. You know over on LinkedIn. We have to become brand experts on things. So, we dont give up. We get so excited when we get a candidate after five hits that makes us feel like, man youve got some muscle man. Weve got skin in the game. Finally, grit. Grit you cant give up, period. Youve got to show your grind in this landscape grit supersedes skill with a recruiter. Its a pretty strong statement. Grit supersedes skill with a recruiter. The grit to be creating you kn ow more and more numbers. The grit to never giving up. The grit to consistent reach out. Grit is critical in this landscape. So, if you want to play the game right, youve got to put on your big boy a big girl pants. You really do right now if you want to play the game and go get top talent, youve got to step up, show your resourcefulness, show how much pipeline you can develop, show consistency with your reach out, and show grit. Its pretty killer right now, but its achievable were having great success. Thanks for the question, I love itJosh Tolan Awesome stuff, Kathleen. So many great takeaways for our audience right there. One thing that Id like to add is unique messaging. As Kathleen said, todays recruiting landscape is extremely competitive. Therefore, its important that youre standing out when youre reaching out to candidates. I believe that every recruiter should be investing a lot of time into researching and learning about effective copywriting, so that way your outreach isn t just consistent, but its also engaging and unique. When you reach out to a candidate, whether it be an email or an inMail, you want that message to stand out amongst all the other messages that theyre receiving from recruiters reaching out to them. Thank you so much to Kathleen Steffey for joining us on the show today. I encourage everybody to follow her on Twitter salesjournal and check out her company website at Navigaservices.com. Thank you so much for watching this episode of the recruiting reel. For additional HR and recruiting related content, head over to hr.sparkhire.com and subscribe to our newsletter. Also, follow us on Twitter sparkhire and subscribe to our YouTube channel to be the first to know about the newest episodes ofThe Recruiting Reel.Thanks again for watching and happy recruiting