Author: Erika Montgomery

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Steps To Building A Positive Company Culture

company culture, workplace culture

After years of research, renowned psychologists and leaders compiled enough data to determine that a positive workplace culture is the bedrock of a successful business. It’s understood that a culture that supports employees’ growth as well as values them is imperative in today’s job market. Company culture reaches far beyond the behavior of its employees; it’s more about how people interact and function within an organization when no one is watching. In this blog post we discuss six steps to help your business build a positive company culture.

1. Set Clear Expectations

What are some of the ideal characteristics that you want to incorporate into the current company culture? There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach; each company will be different based on the organization’s priorities. Developing policies and procedures around new ideas can help you get started.

2. Establish Trust

Most effective leaders know that creating a healthy work culture requires establishing trust with employees from the outset. Motivating employees to improve using honest lines of communication goes a long way. Aligning your behavior with company values will naturally reflect a top-down leadership role. Keep in mind that trust is earned over time and takes consistent effort.  Begin by determining your current workplace culture. As a leader, your perspective might be wildly different from your employee’s. It’s best to understand this from a broader perspective and invite an open discussion to help with the process. If you still face challenges, sometimes hiring a third-party consultant can offer some much-needed clarity.

3. Increase Employee Engagement

Employee engagement can be measured through quantitative factors such as loyalty, emotions and satisfaction. A recent Gallup poll notes there is a direct correlation between low engagement, high turnover and poor performance. Improving engagement helps companies outshine their competition. Creating a productive and inclusive company culture is more vital than ever. 


Take Google for instance; they employ thousands of people a year. Google sets the bar high when it comes to company culture and they track employee happiness through an annual survey on culture, salary, managers and career opportunities. Creating a positive environment where everyone feels included and important is no easy task, but when done well, every individual feels that they’re working toward something bigger than themselves.

4. Focus On Learning

A culture of continuous learning can be pivotal for keeping employees engaged. By allowing your employees to develop certain skills, you express a commitment to their development and prepare them for greater responsibilities. Scheduling one-on-one meetings or check-ins with workers to offer feedback is a reliable resource and a motivator for employees. By encouraging them to accept the idea of continuous learning, they are more likely to make valuable contributions.

5. Conduct Employee Surveys

Feedback surveys can provide valuable information as to why employees leave an organization. It’s possible that the poor performance lies with them; it’s also possible that there’s an undercurrent of dysfunction that you’re not aware of. Until you begin performing exit interviews or conducting surveys, it’s likely you’ll remain in the dark. In addition to manual surveys and check-ins, there are quite a few employee engagement tools that can offer assistance. One resource available is TINYpulse. This tool enables businesses to customize surveys and even generate analytics based on the results.

6. Set The Tone During The Onboarding Process

Sharing your company culture with employees from the beginning allows them to manage expectations and understand their role and the roles of those around them. Many organizations adopt onboarding across all departments so that workers don’t feel siloed. It’s also essential to involve new hires in team meetings from the outset. All of these strategies send a clear message to your employees that they’re part of something bigger —a part of the team. Of course, being warm and welcoming goes a long way too. 

There are also a lot of third-party resources, known as collaboration software, to welcome new hires. If this isn’t an option, you can develop your own checklist for employees to get better acquainted with the company. The principle here is to give people ample tools to feel supported and comfortable along the way.

The various constituents that make up company culture can be as narrow or broad as a company envisions. Determining how to engage employees is a win-win for workers and managers alike.

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6 Effective Tips For Making Your Resume Stand Out During The Screening Process

resume hiring process

Crafting your resume for specific jobs and companies can be a daunting task. Businesses receive hundreds of resumes at a time, so job seeker’s need to develop extraordinary resumes to be noticed during the resume screening process.

Step 1. Use Keywords From The Job Posting

The resumes that get the most attention are from job seekers who use keywords from the job posting. Some companies actually conduct keyword searches when sifting through resumes. If you want to secure an interview it’s best to err on the side of caution and include keywords from the posting, even if it may seem tedious to take on this additional task. Additionally, make sure you have a solid understanding of what the hiring manager is looking for. 

Step 2. Include A Captivating Resume Objective  

Objectives can be used anytime but are especially important when changing careers or applying for work in a different industry. Objectives provide the hiring manager with some context behind your decision for change. A resume objective is usually no more than two sentences and can be extremely useful for hiring managers to learn about you quickly. Including a resume objective is also an opportunity to express your motivation for applying and can also fill in any gaps that may be in your resume.

Step 3. Leverage LinkedIn 

It is common practice for hiring managers to perform a search on Google and social media as part of the resume screening process. LinkedIn has the potential to be a powerful tool when optimized for recruiters. Begin by choosing a professional photo for your profile, preferably a headshot with a simple background. Be sure your work history is up to date and that your profile headline and summary reflect the type of work you’re searching for. Doing these simple tasks makes it possible to create opportunities for jobs you haven’t even applied for yet. 

Step 4. Impress Hiring Managers With Your Skills 

When it comes to listing skills on your resume, it’s essential to convey moments from past experiences that prepared you for this role. As a job seeker, contemplate why you think you’re a good fit and include skills that are appropriate for that position. It’s likely you have more tangible skills than you realize. 

Remember to make adjustments to ensure that your most marketable skills are front and center. It’s wise to avoid listing subjective skills that don’t relate to the job. A good resume will include specific accomplishments throughout your career.

Step 5. Make A Splash In The Resume Screening Process Using Visual Appeal

Avoid redundancy and try to keep your resume to one page if possible. A concise resume gives the job seeker an edge over other candidates. 

Getting creative with your resume will certainly make an impression but remember to keep it aesthetically pleasing. Although visual elements can get the hiring manager’s attention, they shouldn’t distract from the overall content. Use appropriately sized fonts and color choices; most templates have built in color themes. Hyperlinking to your portfolio or LinkedIn profile is also an easy way to preserve space.

Step 6. Research Company Culture 

Take your efforts the extra mile and do some research on the hiring company. Traci Schweikert from POLITICO suggests looking on a firm’s website to start. The careers page and mission statement can tell you a lot about a company. Once you have a sense of the culture, consider including information about yourself if there’s a common thread. 

For example, if you see that the company is involved in charitable events and you’ve done a fair amount of volunteering, then you would want to include that. In fact, as a job seeker, you want to include this type of information anyway. There is a consensus among hiring influencers (employees who have the ability to influence the hiring process), that there is a correlation between volunteer experience and leadership ability. By creating an exceptional resume and following these six steps, you can greatly improve your chances of being seen during the resume screening process.

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Outlining Successful Step-By-Step Interview Tips For New Hiring Managers

Interview tips for new hiring managers.

How First-Time Hiring Managers Can Prepare To Maximize Results

As a first-time hiring manager, the interview process can be daunting. Although it may get easier over time, you need a blueprint to be certain you’re diligently accomplishing your goals. Whether you need to improve existing methods or it’s your first time hiring, there are key components that will help eliminate bumps in the road. It begins by identifying what success looks like to your team and aligning your goals with your recruiting team and department manager. You must know the duties as well as the hard and soft skills necessary to fulfill the expectations of the role. Also, establishing a targeted deadline for filling the position will provide you with necessary benchmarks to meet along the way.   

First-time hiring managers can begin by reviewing resumes. This allows hiring managers to study the applicant before the interview even begins. Here are three specific things to watch out for:

  • Is the resume accurate and up to date? Look for formatting and any inconsistencies with grammar, spacing, font and color. 
  • Does the resume contain any red flags? Inconsistencies with gaps in employment or discrepancies with social media profiles will provide more insight. 

Step-By-Step Blueprint For First-Time Hiring Managers 

First-time hiring managers need to be aware of questions that are off limits. Avoid topics that involve race, religion, age, family and in many states, salary history. Of course, having structured questions and a scoring method is foundational to the process, but it’s also vital that hiring managers actively listen and go beyond the standard format. It’s okay for hiring managers to be improvisational, as this can often be a defining moment in the interview process. If you have a general gut feeling, it’s best to dig deeper and prepare to ask more clarifying questions. Even if a candidate may say something that seems odd, don’t write them off entirely; ask a follow-up question and give them a chance to explain further. 

First time and seasoned hiring managers need to lay the groundwork for success. Here are a few simple steps to keep you on track. 

  1. For virtual interviews, as a first-time hiring manager you should test your technology to assure that you don’t experience any glitches. Confirm that your audio is functioning properly, lighting is optimal and background scenery is appropriate. 
  1. As the hiring manager, you should give your candidate a warm welcome and be sure they feel comfortable. If the interview is in person, you can offer them water.
  1. Seasoned hiring managers avoid ineffective or open-ended questions like, “So, tell me a little about yourself.” Remember you want to ask questions that yield answers of relevance and real substance, cutting through any extraneous information. 
  1. Both first time and experienced hiring managers need to be prepared to answer questions about the company: mission statement, company culture, perks for the job and any options to grow within the organization. 
  1. Now, the first-time hiring manager will have a much clearer picture of the candidates: their personality, motivations, long- and short-term goals and specialized skills. Ideally, hiring managers can now envision the candidates you potentially see thriving within your company. 
  1. The first-time hiring manager’s next step is to schedule a time to discuss candidates and examine interview notes with the direct supervisor for the open position and your hiring team. 

First-Time Hiring Managers Can Achieve Successful Outcomes

Laying the groundwork with these effective steps can allow first-time hiring managers to embark on this process with confidence. It’s not always about finding someone with perfect credentials and work experience, it’s also being an organization they can see themselves working for and want to invest in. Ultimately, you’re building a team that adds value and represents your organization in the best way possible. Hopefully these tips eliminate a few of the challenges of being a first-time hiring manager. 

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Effective Ways To Successfully Market Yourself For Potential Job Opportunities

market yourself, job opportunities

Knowing How To Create Your Individual Brand

Knowing how to market your brand seems like something that’s only necessary when you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, however this practice is becoming more common as of late. Spurred on by the advancement of technology, people want a competitive edge and know it’s essential to stand out in order to achieve this. Knowing how to accomplish this strategy is key. Here are some helpful tools to get you on your way.

Begin with setting achievable goals and keep reasonable expectations in mind. It could be something as simple as increasing your social media presence or creating awareness for your small business. What are you trying to accomplish? Is it to become more attractive to potential employers? Be sure to brainstorm all of your thoughts and narrow them down to no more than three goals. This will provide you with a helpful framework for your personal brand and keep you from getting sidetracked.

Identify Target Markets

Next, it’s important to identify your unique sales proposition (USP); what do you have to offer? Combining your niche market with your passion will provide more focus while you’re developing your individual brand. If you stray too far from your personal niche, you risk diluting your efforts and slowing the process. However, once your individual brand is established, then you can begin to dip your toe in more unfamiliar territory. But don’t stray too far from your target market.

Who would benefit from seeing your content? What are the demographics and interests of your target market? For instance, if your personal niche is web design and SEO, then you’re likely going to target people who are interested in marketing and web design. Find out where they’re networking and whether they are attending business conferences or symposiums. Make it a point to attend the same conference and start networking. Identifying your target market is worth the effort and should be done methodically and thoughtfully.

Use A Website To Tell Your Brand’s Story

Another way to put your brand out there is to create a personal website. Featuring an online portfolio helps potential employers see the quality of your work. A website can offer more granular detail, allowing the employer to uncover more information about you than a resume. It’s also a unique opportunity to reveal your brand’s personality. Having an industry-specific blog on your website also showcases a breadth of knowledge and experience.

Attracting Your Target Audience

Always strive to write engaging and useful information that people are interested in and want to interact with. This will carry a lot of momentum for attracting your target audience and gaining their trust. Be sure to include a detailed biography in the “about” section of your website. Write a summary of your bio and include it on each one of your social channels. Your biography can include your history, goals, accomplishments, professional affiliations and hobbies.

Create your social media presence and curate content for each social channel. Posting on Facebook or Instagram is more casual and can amplify your brand expression. Whereas, posting on LinkedIn demands a more professional tone and more serious content.

Networking Is Important To Showcase Your Brand

Attend business conferences to develop relationships with other people in your industry. Networking is a key component for expanding your contacts and a great way to build your reputation. It also gets you in front of people looking for the type of content and insights you provide. If business conferences aren’t an option, social media is the perfect place to showcase your brand, build rapport with industry leaders, collaborate and become a part of that online community.

Using A Content Calendar For Your Brand

Now that you’ve established a core strategy for marketing your individual brand or business, it’s vital that you stay active with the process. Posting content to your website and social media is necessary to remain top of mind with your existing audience and will serve to attract new followers to your brand.

Create a schedule of your actions with specific and measurable goals. Using a content calendar can be a tremendous help when it comes to consistency. They should be flexible and be updated as you evaluate your results. Highlighting posts or blogs that received favorable responses can help you determine the type of content to expand on as you move forward.

We’ve covered a lot of effective methods to help with your brand expression. Remember to be authentic when curating content for your website and social media. Your personal brand will have a lot more influence when you’re able to showcase your personality, values and mission.

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Get Introduced To Game-Changing Methods To Improve The Hiring Process

New ways to improve the hiring process
Taking the right steps to ensure your hiring process is thorough and transparent will maximize your hiring goals and improve the recruitment process overall.

Reasons to Reevaluate Your Hiring Process

The hiring process can be long and arduous, and often doesn’t produce the results employers desire. In fact, most traditional interview processes are flawed at best. A company’s ultimate goal is to reduce turnover and increase retention. New hires cost money, so most organizations are looking for ways to ensure a successful and transparent interview process. The objectives should be simple: your hiring process should help you find talented people that bring value to the culture, produce good quality work and stay long term. In this blog post we discuss encouraging the job seeker to provide authentic responses, using video conferencing to conduct interviews and best practices for post-interview discussions. 

Improve The Hiring Process By Encouraging The Job Seeker To Provide Authentic Reponses

There are several categories of inquiry to find qualified employees who will eventually move on to the next stage of the hiring process. The first is to ask the candidate what they can share with you about your company. Their response can easily set the tone for the rest of the interview process. 

Another way to improve recruitment is by testing critical thinking skills. This can be done by asking how the job seeker would perform a certain skill or function or how they might improve upon an existing function within the company. This provides the employer a revealing glimpse into a job seeker’s thought process and could determine if they move on to the next stage. 

It’s also vital that a potential candidate has excellent listening and communication skills. You could ask them to speak on an unrelated subject, one they consider themselves to have a great deal of experience with, and have them teach it as if the hiring team knows nothing about it. 

The latter two categories permit the job seeker to choose the topic of discussion, hopefully making way for a stimulating conversation. It’s good to note that these questions can also be sent to the candidate ahead of time, giving them ample opportunity to prepare.

This format for conducting job interviews has been successful because the job seeker has a chance to do their own research and draw on personal knowledge. This sets the stage for more transparency, as the candidate is not merely coming up with things they think the employer wants to hear; it encourages them to dig a little deeper. Of course, your process can vary depending on the skills you’re seeking from each candidate. Be sure to give them an opportunity to demonstrate those skills.

Conduct Job Interviews Over Video Conferencing

Conducting interviews via video conferencing has become a very common practice. There are certain advantages to conducting job interviews this way. One is that it allows the interviewer to determine a candidate’s technical proficiency with platforms like Zoom or Google Meet. It also gives the interviewer a chance to see how the job seeker presents themselves over video. Presentation etiquette may include sufficient lighting, a nice background, neat appearance, no technical glitches and good audio. Because so much business is conducted online, this provides employers with an idea of how the candidate will interact with clients and other colleagues and improve the recruitment process. 

Best Practices To Handling Post-Interview Processes

When it comes time for the post-interview evaluations, they are best held off until the interview process has gone through all stages. This removes any temptation to discuss the job seeker prematurely, thereby avoiding bias or other conflicts that could potentially arise. When the interview process draws to a close, an open discussion can be scheduled once all employees have had a chance to complete the survey or feedback form.

Improve Recruitment By Getting Rid Of Outdated Methods

Although it can be tempting to accept that hiring is not a perfect science, that’s no excuse to rely on older, possibly outdated methods. Unfortunately, companies that don’t address outdated interview processes continue to experience high turnover rates. Most businesses can’t afford to take a chance on bad hires. It is highly possible, however, to develop an interview process that outlines a concise assessment of a job seeker’s aptitude, technical skills and the potential to fit within the company culture.

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How To Use Social Media For Recruiting Top Talent In 2022

Recruit employees using social media

Social media is everywhere. In this peak time of technological revolution, your business should prioritize the best practices to ensure your relevance. In 2022, recruiting through social media remains one of the most effective ways to reach high-quality candidates. Explore this article to learn how to use social media for recruiting employees.

Why You Should Use Social Media To Recruit High-Level Employees

What are the benefits of using social media platforms to reach potential candidates? As 79% of job seekers use social media for their job search, utilizing social media for recruiting is one of the most efficient means to reach serious job applicants. Here are some more benefits of recruiting through social media.

Social Media Recruiting Reduces Hiring Costs

Recruiting employees through social media platforms saves both time and money. Social media posts are consistently visible to potential applicants at any time, allowing potential candidates to find your company at any hour of the day. Furthermore, recruiting through social media often requires far fewer resources than through other platforms. Setting up and maintaining a social media presence doesn’t have to be an expensive endeavor!

Social Media Recruiting Reaches Passive Applicants

Passive job seekers aren’t actively looking for another opportunity, but they’d happily accept a better offer. Eighty percent of employers find more passive candidates from recruiting on social media. There are often many more passive job seekers than active candidates, so social media is a powerful way to reach more of your target audience.

Use Social Media To Recruit Top Talent By Building Your Brand

Building your brand on social media doesn’t just help find customers: it can help potential job applicants learn more about your company. Use your social media to highlight your company culture. Show off your work values, celebrate your employees’ victories and showcase any charitable activities.

Engage Your Candidates For Successful Social Media Recruitment

To effectively recruit on social media platforms, make sure to engage job seekers. Engaging your online audience is important for any business. By interacting with potential applicants, the company builds trust, comfort and a positive reputation. Engaging with your potential employees can be particularly effective for targeting passive job seekers.

Recruit More Employees On Social Platforms With Appealing Images

Visuals are powerful: content with relevant images receives up to 94% higher views. Apply attractive images to improve your reach on social media platforms and reach more potential applicants. Creating strong imagery can be a simple way to optimize your social media recruitment strategy.

Which Social Media Platforms Should My Business Use To Recruit Employees?

Social media sites differ from each other. When choosing which social media platforms to recruit with, consider your brand and your target audience. Here are some more things to consider about recruiting on each major social media platform.

Social Media Recruiting On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is the most popular platform for social media recruiting. More than 90% of recruiters search for potential applicants on this platform, cementing LinkedIn as one of the most prominent means of reaching possible employees. Develop a company profile on LinkedIn to start looking for candidates, join relevant industry or skill set groups to showcase your company’s worth and appeal to interested individuals in your field or utilize LinkedIn ads to target a specific audience and find applicants quickly.

Social Media Recruiting On Facebook

Facebook holds a high user retention rate that spans a vast audience. This means Facebook is a great platform to build a brand and engage passive job seekers! By interacting consistently with your audience and winning their trust, you will improve the application rate of passive applicants. Encourage your employees to interact with your Facebook presence to further improve engagement. Facebook ads are another effective practice for recruiting on this social media platform.

Social Media Recruiting On Twitter

With a limited character count, building your brand on Twitter can be deceptively challenging! To engage potential employees, employ a captivating, relevant image with your tweets. Also, make sure to use the hashtag system to target relevant keywords for your industry.

Social Media Recruiting On Instagram

Instagram is among the most engaging social media platforms. Recruit employees through Instagram by utilizing appealing imagery combined with Instagram’s effective hashtag system to catch the attention of potential job applicants. Posting on Instagram is an effective way to build your company brand and attract the attention of more potential employees at the same time!

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Incentives Or Ownership: How to Best Motivate Your Team In 2022

Team motivation is important for success.

Team motivation is essential to a well-running organization. Whether you work in retail, education, health or any other field, team members motivated to perform to their highest potential are a cornerstone ingredient of any successful company. How can aspiring managers effectively inspire team members? Here are some helpful hints for cultivating a motivated team atmosphere.

Offer Educational Opportunities To Inspire Team Motivation

Providing educational opportunities is an effective way to encourage employees and offer options for team members to grow. Encouraging further growth allows each employee to invest in their own future while empowering each individual to strengthen their skills. Presenting paths for further development is a powerful incentive to motivate your team.

Encourage Employees With Leadership Opportunities

Everyone wants to feel valued. By providing pathways for leadership development, organizations inspire employees to take greater responsibility in their workplace environment. Offering opportunities for leadership development shows employees they are valued and that their contributions to the organization are noticed.

Motivate Employees By Prioritizing Work-Life Balance

Burnout is one of the greatest threats to a motivated team environment. Burnout happens when employees feel overwhelmingly stressed with their workload. To ensure employee satisfaction, engender a company culture that promotes a work-life balance. Employees will feel more motivated to work when they aren’t entirely exhausted by what they do. To create a strong work-life environment, make sure your employees have a manageable workload, clearly defined expectations and effective support from supervisors.

Raise Team Member Morale By Implementing An Incentive Program

Employee incentive programs are an effective tool to target team motivation in a positive way. These programs are powerful ways to reward employees for their efforts. According to the Incentive Research Foundation, a study found that incentive programs increase employee performance by as much as 44%. A few types of incentive programs are points-based recognition, social recognition and tuition reimbursement.

Encourage Ownership To Motivate Team Members

Want to further improve team morale? Encourage employees to take ownership of their work! Studies show work autonomy significantly raises employee satisfaction. In other words, employees are happier when they feel empowered to make meaningful choices. Allowing employees the freedom to work the way they prefer as long as they get the job done is a powerful way to motivate your team.

To Empower Ownership And Inspire Team Members, Explain Why The Work Matters

Everyone wants to feel their work makes a difference. To inspire your team to take proactive action, explain why their work is important. How do their duties contribute to the overall success of the company’s vision? By thoroughly showing our employees that their work matters, we motivate team members to take responsibility for their own piece of the puzzle.

Want A More Motivated Team? Ask For Feedback

Listening and responding to feedback is a powerful method to motivate a team. Show the team that leaders listen by gracefully accepting feedback from your employees. What works? What doesn’t? Is the team satisfied with the implemented incentive reward program, and why or why not? Are team members satisfied with the work-life balance?

Opportunities for feedback allow employees to feel heard and to provide work-changing ideas that might have gone unnoticed otherwise. Furthermore, team members feel valued when they can see their feedback makes a difference in the workplace.

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How To Negotiate A Salary Increase Confidently In 2022

Talking about pay is difficult. You can negotiate salary with confidence using JPS' tips

At some point in your career, if it hasn’t already happened, you will want to be paid more. Maybe a new job offer involves living in a city with a high cost of living. Perhaps after a few years with a company, you’ve tangibly contributed to its success without a corresponding boost in pay. At the same time, in light of International Women’s Day last week, the gender pay gap still exists. For every person looking for a boost in pay, it’s time to become familiar with how to negotiate a salary increase. 

Keep track of personal contributions

When you come to the table to negotiate a salary, you need to prove that you are worth it. If you’re currently working, maintain a log of accomplishments as time goes on. If there’s growth in the company, track how you directly contributed. When you take on a heavier workload, show how you performed afterward. With so much data available, you should leverage every statistic you had an impact on when it’s time to negotiate a salary increase. 

Research the salary ranges for your position

Where do employees at your level of expertise land on the salary spectrum? After a quick search of pay ranges, you can find out where you stand relative to others in your position. This range may vary depending on where you live and what company you work for. The same position in a different city can pay differently depending on the cost of living. Finally, look at other companies in the industry to see how your pay compares. All of these ranges provide justification for a higher salary.

Rehearse how to negotiate a salary increase

Preparing your talking points is crucial to successfully negotiating salary, but you need to articulate them confidently in order to maximize your chances of getting what you want. This is where practicing with a trusted individual comes in handy. Practice your argument until it’s practically memorized, and ask your partner to play an unpredictable role as your manager. The more variations your partner delivers, the better prepared you’ll be when the real negotiation begins and the pressure is on. 

Respond confidently to other compensation options

When you negotiate a salary, your manager may offer other forms of compensation besides a pay increase. Whether it’s an improved retirement plan, commuter benefits or more vacation days, by considering these options in advance, you’ll feel more confident in responding to them. 

Preparation leads to a confident decision

After compiling previous accomplishments, salary range data and rehearsing your negotiation with a friend, you’ll start to see clearly how valuable you are. In the event that the company doesn’t agree you need a salary increase, feel free to take some time to consider your options. If the facts speak for themselves, though, be confident in your decision to negotiate a salary with another company. Despite the tension and potential consequences, knowing how to negotiate a salary increase confidently is a vital skill you should start developing today.

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How Businesses Managers Can Retain Employees During The Great Resignation

Business managers must learn how to retain their employees

As waves of workers walk out on their employers, business managers need to understand how to retain employees during the Great Resignation. Consider the immense cost of replacing an employee. Advertising job openings, interviewing and selecting the right candidates, training and waiting for them to reach the same productivity level as the previous employee all requires a large amount of time and money, not to mention the added stress to you and the other employees who need to pick up the slack after every job vacancy. Hiring new employees is much more expensive than retaining employees who are experienced and fully trained. So what’s required of businesses to prevent employees from leaving? Below are some practical tips for how to retain employees during the Great Resignation.

Increase compensation

It’s imperative that your employees receive the right amount of money for their services, especially as the cost of living increases. If raising hourly or salary wages seems infeasible for your company, Harvard Business Review writers recommend paying out bonuses, student loan reimbursements, work-from-home stipends, travel compensation or other valuable benefits as strategies to retain employees.

Offer benefits for employees and their families

The past two years have put tremendous burdens on families. Consider an employee who needs to cover child care costs and medical insurance for their family. Offer subsidized day care, medical and dental coverage and additional paid time off if you want to retain employees. 

Provide opportunities to grow during the Great Resignation

Rather than starting from scratch with a less experienced new hire, offer a path forward for your current employees. Perhaps some of your employees have other skills they want to utilize in their role. Instead of searching for another job to realize their potential, offer opportunities for your employees to grow where they are now. Additionally, provide upskilling training for ambitious employees looking to expand their repertoire.

Improve company culture to retain employees 

Despite the shift to remote work, it’s crucial that you maintain positive relationships with and amongst your team. Per Boston Consulting Group’s research, “employees who reported satisfaction with social connectivity with their colleagues are two to three times more likely to have maintained or improved their productivity on collaborative tasks.” Team-building activities and celebrating achievements are additional ways to improve company culture and retain employees.

Be flexible with your employees’ needs

Before the next employee turns in their resignation notice, sit down to learn what they need to stay at your company. You might discover how to retain employees during the Great Resignation by listening and adapting to your current employees’ needs. They have the answers; it’s time to be flexible with your team in order to sustain your business.

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How Informational Interviews Help You Learn About Possible Career Paths

A young woman learns about different career paths through informational interviews

There’s been a big shake-up in the workplace in the past two years, and you might be asking yourself how you may be able to transfer relevant skills and experience to a different industry. Perhaps you’re looking to work in the same general field, but are curious about possible career paths in different organizations. Or, maybe you’re seeking career progression for the sake of better pay, greater responsibility or both. 

Wherever you find yourself in your career path, it’s always beneficial to have more information before you make any professional changes. Informational interviewing can help you learn more about any possible career paths you may be considering.

What Is Informational Interviewing?

In an informational interview, you ask a knowledgeable professional for information about their career. That’s right – you become the interviewer. These discussions tend to be informal in nature and should not be seen as an opportunity to ask for a job. Most likely, the professionals you ask to share their career path story will not work in HR and will not be looking to dole out any favors to someone they just met. 

The person you speak with will, however, be excited to explain their professional journey, daily tasks they are responsible for and any advice they deem applicable to your particular career goals. 

While this counsel is useful, if it doesn’t directly result in landing a job then why should you spend time setting up these informational interviews?

What Are The Benefits Of Informational Interviews?

The knowledge you gain from informational interviews will be invaluable as you begin mapping out possible career paths. The interviewee will be able to share the realities of the workplace not only through their personal experiences but possibly even through their own network connections. 

If you chose a mid- or senior-level professional to interview, you might learn how they climbed to the top and some practical tips on how to land your first position in this journey. Additionally, the professional might be inclined to share how they  might have done things differently if they could restart their own career path. 

Ultimately, you may realize the industry or organization does not belong on your own career path; one or two interviews can save you potentially years of learning the hard way! At the very least, you now have a new business connection who can point you in another direction or set up an interview with someone in their network.

Informational interviews provide indispensable knowledge when researching possible career paths and bring you one step closer to landing a new job.