Why a Strong Company Culture is Key to Employee Happiness

Why a Strong Company Culture is Key to Employee Happiness Im very passionate about our employees happiness and well-being. I also believe that having a set of shared values, as well as a strong company culture, is central to peoples happiness at work. As CEO, I take personal responsibility for my employees well-being and tied to that is the fact that our values are in front of mind in all that we do, especially recruitment. We always try to attract candidates that will preserve and enhance our culture. We have created initiatives to celebrate the company culture and these become stories shared which are cherished as the company grows. These include fun, off-site strategy away days and lunch and learn sessions on various food themes. I wish to empower and make the teams contribution feel valued and celebrated. We proactively seek opportunities to have fun. For example, we recently participated in a VR mindfulness meditation session. We also have off-site quarterly team strategy planning trips, which included a trip to Amsterdam on a modern houseboat. During our away-day trip to Amsterdam, we took the opportunity to refresh our company values together. I took my senior team, rented a houseboat on a lake just outside Amsterdam and we worked on them as a team there. We started by defining everyones personal brand, which was a great ice-breaker and team-building exercise, and then brainstormed as a team what the company values could be. We went on to cluster and prioritize these values, which helped us vote on the top five values which we believed fully represent what success means to our business. These values are now the glue that unites us to achieve collective success. To ensure they remain front of mind, we use them all the time and have had them printed on colorful canvas boards and put them in our office. 10-Year CVs We encourage everyone to have 10-year future CVs, which is a great way to encourage the team to look ahead and achieve more. If you have a plan in place, you are more likely to achieve it. Having a vision in the first place is so important, rather than simply drifting through life. This 10-year CV has been highly motivational, even for those who have been less ambitious. Food We find that food unites us. We have a fully working kitchen at work and the team is encouraged to eat healthily, cooked food at lunch. I get great satisfaction seeing the team teach each other about their culture and hidden culinary talents as they prepare and cook lunch together, rather than simply buy a sandwich from the local supermarket. I am sure the cooking standard and eating habits have improved, helped also by the slightly competitive spirit of our good eats, where the team is encouraged to bring in food on a theme eg Greek, or Thai to share for our lunch and learns. Success Celebrating success is also important, especially where it relates to company values and related behaviors that have been demonstrated. As a wise friend once said to me, your kids are on loan to you. I feel the same about the team; you cant take for granted that everyone in the team will stay forever â€" if we succeed to add as much value as we can to their future ambition and success, I will have succeeded. Career Progression We celebrate the career progression of everyone in the team, which could be evidenced by passing exams relevant to their work, a promotion or great client project feedback. We have implemented an NPS (net promoter score) in our business, which allows us to easily measure client satisfaction levels. This was initially designed to ensure we were gathering data to continuously improve the business performance and ways of working but has had an unexpected positive outcome to be highly motivational to the team to recognize their achievements. Energy levels and personal motivation in the business is very high, which makes the role of a line manager easier as the team is pushing to achieve their learning plans and aspirational career goals and other personal targets such as exam passes. Hiring for potential, not just evidenced success, and harnessing internal mentoring talent to shadow more ambitious junior team members, means overall salary costs are lower. I try to hire in anticipation of future business growth â€" not just at pain point of growth as its not realistic to expect new team members to hit the ground running, there is a learning curve of typically 3-6 months for full value to be gained. This hiring strategy results in more time for people to learn, and less fires to fight. Our time is spent on the positive aspects of what we enjoy doing. For me, the journey is as important as the end destination, so having fun along the way is something we try to schedule in as it does not always happen. In a world of mental health and stress, its important to slow down and consider employees personal lives and how they measure personal success such as buying a property or having more time to see their aging parents or newborn kids. If we can exist to make a difference beyond pure commercial gain then the world will be a better place. About the Author: Carlene Jackson is the CEO of Brighton-based tech company  Cloud9 Insight, one of the UKs top 25 SME culture leaders for 2019, according to the  recent  report by Real Business magazine. Cloud9 Insight is a Microsoft Gold Partner which has provided more than 600 UK businesses with cloud-based CRM software systems. Founded in 2010, the company has 20 staff and is also an award-winning apprenticeship provider.

The perfect morning routine how to look polished every day

The perfect morning routine how to look polished every day Every night you go to bed convinced tomorrow will be the day you finally nail your morning routine. You’ll wake up early, giving yourself so much spare time you’ll be able to make a skin-boosting smoothie, hit the gym and spend an hour fixing your hair and makeup before calmly walking into the office like the flawless girl boss you are. But then your alarm goes off and, once again, you’re hitting snooze and attempting to escape your responsibilities in the comfort of your cosy duvet. The truth is you love sleep, and there’s no shame in that. You just need to figure out how to streamline your morning routine so you can get the maximum shut-eye possible without sacrificing quality grooming time. We’re sharing a few quick steps that’ll help you do exactly that.   Follow them and you’ll be strolling into work polished to perfection. Pick the right hairstyle Picking a simple signature hairstyle is essential. Don’t aim for super straight locks or a sleek chignon every day.   They take far too much time and effort to get right. Instead, try a deliberately messy bedhead style that doesn’t require hours of grooming. Treat yourself to a pick and mix wand curler from Mark Hill and, before bed, use the interchangeable barrels to create a mix of tight and loose curls. In the morning, you’ll be left with Serena-esque tumbling waves that’ll last you right through till after-work cocktails. Simplify your beauty look A fully contoured face, complete with smoky eyes and defined brows, isn’t a feasible weekday look. As well as demanding a lot of upkeep, it’ll take a good hour to put in place first thing in the morning. Embrace a more is less approach to keep your makeup flawless all day long. A few quality products, like a BB cream and long-lasting mascara, are all you need. You should also moisturise daily and increase your water intake. In no time, your natural complexion will be looking and feeling so fresh you won’t feel the need to bother with makeup at all. Get to grips with outfit planning We all know that pressing snooze one too many times is a recipe for a fashion disaster. After all, there’s not many of us that can handle the pressure of trying to pick out a stylish, coordinated ensemble in under two minutes. Save yourself the dreaded morning wardrobe panic by planning your outfits in advance. Before you head to bed and get started on binge-watching your current Netflix obsession, decide on an outfit for the next day and leave it lying out so it’s ready and waiting for you once your alarm goes off. Do you have any other time-saving styling tricks that’ll help make our mornings a little easier? Leave a comment and let us know.

How to Separate Good Clients from Bad

How to Separate Good Clients from Bad As a sales recruiter, you don’t want to find yourself stuck with clients who place little value on the recruiting process, or worse yet, fail to treat employees and that precious talent you’ve been working so hard to build trust with the respect they deserve. Unfortunately, far too many recruiters allow themselves to fall into this trap. It’s no walk in the park working with a client who doesn’t value recruiting or understand the needs of their employees. High turnover rates and other hiring issues are sure to follow when you’re stuck with a bad client, and in these situations, everybody loses. So how do you avoid landing a lousy client? Here’s how you can spot the wolves in sheep’s clothing: Why many commonly fail to understand recruiting There’s no denying that recruiting can be a complicated process, but unfortunately, many companies (especially startups) fail to understand just how important this process can be. Weak recruiting efforts can have a huge impact on a company’s overall well-being. Whether a startup is unable to fill a position for several months or is only able to hire a weak candidate, the potential fallout from weak recruiting can lead to costly delays and decreases in output. While many companies attempt to alleviate this problem by hiring a professional recruiting agency to identify top candidates and evangelize on their behalf, they fail to realize that recruiting involves much more than getting candidates to walk through the door for an interview. In reality, the recruiting process should be fully engrained in everything a company does. Think about it. Company culture and values have a direct impact on every aspect of a client’s businessâ€"from the way they treat their sales staff to how they approach the candidate interview process. If they don’t treat your employees fairly, that will bleed over into recruiting, and top candidates will flee. Far too many companies fail to take this “big picture” approach to their recruiting efforts, and as a result, they tend to focus on the wrong priorities or even mistreat candidates during the interview process. When you’re on the dark side The aforementioned failure to understand recruiting lays the groundwork for disaster. This is the root cause of many of the issues recruiters face with their clients, which leads to a bad experience for everyone involved. While it isn’t always easy to spot a bad client from the get-go, there are a few warning signs that should always set off alarm bells in your head. Poor clients often have terrible communication skills, a problem which stems from their unwillingness to prioritize the recruiting process. They may not be transparent about what they need and why, are frequently unable to discuss (or even consider) ways in which they might need to improve, and are prone to flipping the script at the drop of a hat. In short, they have no interest in collaborating with you to create a cohesive, positive recruiting experience. Not only does this make it more difficult for you to do your job as a recruiter, it also tends to result in a negative candidate experience. Too often, these bad clients don’t really care about the candidate experience at all. They might low-ball their candidates to try to save a few bucks or play mind games during the interview process to gain an imagined competitive advantage. When this happens, it doesn’t matter how skilled you are at approaching potential candidates. You probably won’t have much success in helping your client onboard new talent when every other element of recruitment is terrible. When you’re in the good zone The above situation is an absolute nightmare for recruiters. After all, recruiting is so much more than the evangelizing you do on behalf of a client. It’s about creating a seamless process that carefully guides top talent into a job where they’ll be the right fit. This isn’t something that can be accomplished 100% on your own. That’s why the best clients are generally those that already have a decent understanding of how the recruiting process should work. They know what kind of talent they’re looking for. They’ve worked hard to create a strong company culture, and have taken efforts to engrain that culture into the candidate experience to help potential employees feel valuedâ€"regardless of whether they’re hired or not. These clients don’t view recruiting as drudgery, but rather, as a crucial part of what drives their company forward. At the same time, however, they’ve recognized that they can’t get the results they need on their own. A quality client is so much more than the mere opposite of the “dark side” clients described earlier. These clients value open and direct communication, providing you with helpful insights regarding what they need, while at the same time, being willing to listen and adapt their recruiting approach in order to achieve better results. They understand that they don’t know everything, and are willing to rely on your input to make changes for the better. Even more importantly, however, these quality clients have created a work environment where candidates want to stay around for the long haul. They offer engaged leadership, fantastic growth opportunities and of course, fair compensation. They do their absolute best to demonstrate their commitment to their employees during the recruiting process to create a positive candidate experience and find the right fit. The best clients realize that recruitment is a collaborative effort. It’s about working together to identify and approach top talent, and then providing a meaningful recruiting experience that will draw talent to the company. Why this matters It’s tempting to think that the success or failure of any recruiting effort depends entirely on the quality of a recruiting specialist, but this simply isn’t the case. Experience has shown, time and time again, that this is a partnership. When your client values recruiting and makes an active effort to understand what their role is in this process, you’ll be in a much better position to successfully reach out to top candidates. As you collaborate to set achievable recruiting goals in line with your client’s values, you’ll also be able to bring in the right talent. Long story short: when this happens, your client will be happy. Their new employees will be happy. But most importantly, you’ll be successful in accomplishing what you’ve set out to do. Wrapping up Identifying the wolves lurking in the woods of the recruiting world will save you a lot of headaches and a lot of wasted time. As you identify the good clients from the bad and choose to only work with the best, you’ll be better equipped to lay the foundations of your own successful career as you work together to create a strong recruiting platform. About the author: Amy Volas is the founder and “Chieftain” of Avenue Talent Partners.

She Gets Hired as a Professor and What Happens Next Will Surprise You - Classy Career Girl

She Gets Hired as a Professor and What Happens Next Will Surprise You In 2012, I was thrilled to become a Professor of Career Development at a national University (Ill keep the name anonymous. Why? Keep reading). I was excited to share with the students what I had learned from working in HR at a top consulting firm. I had seen many mistakes made my new hires and I didnt want others to make those same mistakes. At that time, I had been blogging for three years and I was extremely honored to get this job offer. I was jumping for joy when I got that acceptance letter. I knew that teaching and coaching others fulfilled me and I wanted more of these opportunities. I wanted to  teach students how to figure out what their dream job was, get hired at their dream job and then have successful and happy careers. But, I had many worries and fears. How was I going through the entire material and teach them everything they needed to know? How was I going to be the expert? What if I didnt really know my topic and I failed at helping these students find their dream jobs. I had to push through these fears. I was so sick of my day job and I needed an outlet. I had just made a really scary decision to go part-time at my day job to find new opportunities for my career. People thought I was crazy to go part-time and sabotage my next promotion and huge raise. But, I knew that wasnt the right path for me. This was my new opportunity. I completed the new hire orientation and was handed the book by the Dean. That was when everything changed. The textbook was 6 years old. SIX YEARS OLD! I couldnt believe that this was what students were supposed to be learning from. I skimmed the book and there was one word that was missing from the entire book. LinkedIn. Yes, the one social media platform that is the most important platform to job searchers today was entirely missing from the textbook. Not only that, there was also no mention of using social media to find a job or any of the stuff that I had used myself to find my dream career. It was ironic because the only reason I got this Professor job was because of my blog listed on my resume.  I was proof that you can use a blog to find a job. How could this be missing from the curriculum? I realized I had to re-create this course myself for these students to actually get their dream jobs in the modern digital world. I put the textbook aside and didnt look at it again. I created my own curriculum. My own worksheets. My own frameworks. My own grading and review process. Each night, I graded the students off finding a job in the real working world. I was starting from scratch. It took a lot of work and time. I was conflicted because I knew I could make this a lot easier for myself and them. I didnt have to teach them about LinkedIn and I could have just given them an A. I was in my first trimester of pregnancy and this was so much work. I felt sick all the time. What was I doing! I was getting paid pennies for the hours I was putting into this course. Why pour so much into this little class that would be over in a few short weeks. I didnt even know how long I would continue working at this university. But, these students deserved to be prepared and ready after graduation. They deserved more than what this university was providing them. After 4 years of education, to be left without knowing how to actually find their dream job after college was wrong. The students thrived and loved it. I kept getting invitations from them on on this new site Linkedin that they became experts at. Their networks were opening up and they were getting more confident. They created online websites and digital portfolios. They said I was instrumental in helping them face the workforce with all the right tools. They got their dream jobs and they were motivated to see brighter futures for themselves. And most importantly, there was one thing that stood out by the feedback I received when the class was over. They said I cared about them.  What if all students had this experience. What if all students had caring professors, career centers and career counselors that really cared about helping EVERY SINGLE STUDENT find the right career fit and get hired. Well, thats my dream. This experience changed everything for me and inspired a bigger mission for me. I left the University later that year to focus solely on creating my own curriculum online. I was a different person. This was not just about helping 10 people in my classroom find jobs. This was about helping the entire world find career fulfillment. I now want to change the entire job search process for everyone including every career center, university, HR department and even every working mom stuck in her current career. My confidence soared because I saw this need. My curriculum was already prepared and tested. It worked. Instead of staying frustrated that universities like this were not teaching the most up to date job searching methods, I realized it was me who had to step up and make change happen myself.

Twitter Personal Branding Time-Saving Tips - Executive Career Brandâ„¢

Twitter Personal Branding Time-Saving Tips How to tweet wisely in about 10 to 15 minutes a day, a few times a week. In my practice, I rarely come across executive job seekers who are actively leveraging Twitter to help them land jobs. The few who even have Twitter accounts put up a few tweets initially, and then let it go. Their Twitter stream stopped dead months or years ago. This doesnt look very good, and could be detrimental to them. A Twitter account that’s collecting cobwebs says “I don’t really know much or care to know about social media and the new world of work.” Understandably, theyre busy people strapped for time, trying to juggle demanding full-time jobs with a full-time job search. Theyve heard too many people say what a time drain Twitter can be. Theyre right. Without a solid Twitter strategy, each visit can easily eat up an hour or more. They just dont have that kind of extra time. If they would tap into the research they’ve done on the companies theyre targeting, they could reap plenty of benefits from Twitter in just 10 to 15 minutes, a few days a week, especially because the majority of job seekers aren’t doing anything with Twitter. 3 Strategies to Leverage the Value of Twitter . . . Without Devoting Too Much Time 1.   Stay Focused on Your Job Search and Your Personal Brand Dont start or engage in conversations not related to your job search. No one really needs to know what you had for breakfast or what movie you saw last night. Keep the majority of your tweets relevant to your personal brand, industry, areas of expertise, and value to your target companies. That doesn’t mean you can’t tweet off-topics and humorous tidbits, when you have extra time. 2.   Do a Lot of Retweeting Simply the act of tweeting again a tweet that someone else has tweeted, retweeting (abbreviated as “RT”) is one of my favorite ways to use Twitter and one of the best ways to save time there. Even if you do nothing else on Twitter, posting relevant retweets can be a powerful way to build brand evangelism, a quality Twitter following, and get on the radar and stay top-of-mind with people you want to notice you. First, gather up a long list of the right people to retweet. Who are these people? Colleagues, industry thought leaders and subject matter experts, top-level executives (or hiring decision makers) at your target companies, and executive recruiters in your niche, to name a few. Search for them on Twitter, follow them, and start retweeting them. It’s as easy as that! It’s critical to include in your retweet the @username of the person who originated the tweet, because they’ll see the retweet on their “Notifications” page. Chances are you’ll get noticed, if enough of your retweets show up there for each person you’re retweeting. If a good retweet doesn’t mention the original author, take the time to track them down and include their @username. Retweeting Strategies To Help You Get Noticed: Don’t automatically retweet something containing a link without first checking it, to make sure it’s not a bad link and doesn’t lead somewhere you don’t really want to send people. Structure your original tweets so that they’re short enough to allow for more than one retweet by others, without alteration. Take the time to tweet a thank you to people who RT you, even if you’re not the tweet originator. It’s always nice to include your own brief supportive comment with a re-tweet that’s especially good â€" something like “Great advice!” or “Excellent!” Don’t change the wording of the original tweet, except to abbreviate for space. But use abbreviations sparingly. A jumble of single letters and numbers can be confounding and doesn’t give a professional impression. If you’re not already following someone you want to retweet, coincide retweeting with following them. They may notice your @username showing up twice on the “Notifications” page in that short span. Retweeting using the retweet button that sits under each tweet and on many websites at the top or bottom of an article or blog post make retweeting easy. But sometimes these retweets don’t include the @username. Take a few moments to add it in. Use hashtags in your RTs when you can. The hashtag symbol (#) is used before a word or phrase (with no spaces) to mark relevant keywords and topics in tweets. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages. Clicking on a hashtagged word in a tweet shows you all other tweets marked with that keyword. 3.   Organize Your Twitter Strategy Use Hootsuite, Tweetdeck or another Twitter app to help you organize your time, the people you follow, the people you want to retweet frequently, and to set up retweets in advance. Do your thank you’s for retweets, #FollowFridays (#FF) and other mentions all in communal tweets, every few days. No need to thank each person in a separate tweet. Consult the Twitter Help pages for specifics on using re-tweets, hashtags, and other things. Bottom Line Chances are, most recruiters and many employees at your target companies are active on Twitter, posting job openings and information related to the jobs you want. Isn’t it worth carving out a little time each week to spread the word on Twitter about your personal brand and value to your target employers? This article was first posted on Job-Hunt.org, for my Personal Branding Expert gig. More Information About Twitter and Personal Branding How to Use Twitter for Personal Branding and Executive Job Search 10 Best Ways to Build Your Personal Brand Online The Biggest Mistake Twitter Newbies Make 14 Reasons I Won’t Follow You On Twitter [Revisited] 00 0