7 Tips for Keeping Your Employees Motivated

7 Tips for Keeping Your Employees Motivated When you are recruiting new staff, it is important not to forget to nurture your existing team. New staff will quickly pick up the habits and points-of-view of their colleagues â€" good and bad â€" so it is important to keep the office atmosphere as happy and productive as possible. Here are 7 tips for keeping your employees motivated: 1. Buy a plant A simple (and cheap!) way to increase office happiness is to invest in some greenery. Studies have shown that having just one plant per square meter can improve memory function, staff wellbeing, and productivity. An attractive office environment is not just important for impressing clients, it is important for keeping staff as well. Make the office space more appealing with a bit of color and plant-life and you should see an instant boost in team morale. 2. Plan a trip Team outings are crucial in creating a strong, cohesive working environment. You don’t need to spend a fortune on a weekend away: a fun day out solving puzzles, building rafts or even bowling can bring your team closer together. The key thing is to plan activities that everyone can get involved with, and everyone has to contribute to. Regular outings away from an enclosed office space help your employees to get to know each other and to trust one another both in and out of the workplace. 3. Schedule regular meetings It is vital that each team member feels involved in the success and progress of your company. Weekly team meetings are the perfect way to share company news, keep everyone updated, and encourage collaborative and creative idea-sharing sessions. Make sure everyone knows the agenda of the meeting in advance, so they have time to prepare, and can, therefore, contribute to a more fruitful discussion. Relaxed, open team meetings, where everyone feels listened to are some of the best ways to inspire creativity and boost team morale. 4. Listen to them As well as telling your employees what is going on with the company, it is important to listen to their feedback as well. If employees do not feel like they can share information with you, then you risk an ‘us versus them’ office, where employees only share opinions (and frustrations) with one another, and you feel increasingly alienated from your own team. As well as team meetings, make time to speak to each team member one-on-one, and encourage their feedback on the work environment and their job role. 5. Don’t overly criticize While construction criticism is vital for personal growth, persistent negative feedback will only lead to your team becoming less motivated, and more resentful towards you. Make sure you include a solution in any negative criticism and a clear plan for how your employee can move forward and improve. Include positives along with the negatives, so your criticism feels less like an attack, and more like a collaborative conversation on how you can both improve things moving forward. 6. Take them out Some of the most creative and successful businesses are those in which employees spend time together outside of the office as well as in it. Paying for regular work drinks, or treating your employees for lunch makes them feel rewarded, as well as encouraging them to talk to you and one another in a more informal environment. Often it is easier to share ideas and frustrations in this less formal setting, especially for any staff members who lack confidence or struggle to get their voice heard in the workplace. 7. Give them a bonus An annual bonus, no matter how small, shows employees that they will be rewarded in the company’s success as well. A sum that will make a very small dent in your company’s profits, can make a big difference to your employees, particularly those on a starting salary. A small financial gift at the end of the year could give your employees the boost they need to get the new year off to a good start, and to encourage a fresh, motivated outlook moving forward. About the author: Amy Durant is a career advice writer for  Inspiring Interns, a graduate recruitment agency which specialises in finding candidates their dream internship.

The Planning Workshop How To Create Your Annual Plan - Classy Career Girl

The Planning Workshop How To Create Your Annual Plan Since 2010, I’ve helped thousands of overwhelmed working moms plan out how to find their perfect career so that they can be happier, have more time with their family and provide for their family. As the CEO of one of Forbes 35 most influential career sites, Classy Career Girl, and founder of the PLAN course, I’ve been helping women of all ages identify, plan and find dream careers in pretty much every type of industry. And through it all, I’ve discovered a few small steps that most women miss in career transitions and business startups that can make the biggest difference between finding the career you were meant for and getting stuck in another dead-end job. In this workshop, I’ll be teaching you the best way to stay focused on your goals and find direction so you can make your perfect career and life happen. Subscribe  on  your favorite platform below: iTunes Google Play Music Stitcher Radio TuneIn iHeartRadio Sound Cloud How To Create Your Annual Plan I want to take you deeper into this area and I’m going to show you how to know what to focus on first and how to set attainable goals that you actually complete so you can find your perfect career. We’re going to be covering a lot of ground today, so be sure to download the PDF, The Annual Plan Roadmap, on this page so you can follow along and take notes. To get started with creating your annual plan the first thing to do is to write today’s date. See, that was easy. This doesn’t have to be hard!! Step 1: Write down 3 goals for the next year. Now you’ve already done the hard work that is going to make this task so easy. Go back to what you wrote down in your vision journal. What do you want to create in the future? When you imagine completing your goal, what does your life look like?   Step 2: What the heck do we need to do and when to reach those goals? Here’s the thing, we can’t do it all at one time. We need to work in focused sprints to reach our goals. We need to know what is our priority for each quarter to help us reach those goals. So here in our planning system, we work in 90-day increments. So we break down the next year into four quarters. So go ahead and write down the dates of the next four quarters, so three months.   What about a lot of people telling me that they weren’t born productive so this might not work for them? No one is born productive. Instead, think about how being more productive is a skill that you can develop. I’ve also heard from people who fear that they aren’t disciplined enough to reach their goals. But here’s what I have to say to that, Working in your passion doesn’t require much discipline when you love what you do. Spend your time focusing on doing work you love, discipline comes easy. And lastly, I also heard that you’ve tried to reach your goals before but it didn’t work. Me too! I’ve failed much more than I have succeeded. You absolutely cannot give up no matter what. Change things up. Try different things. Ask for help. You can get better results by trying something different. Other Podcast Episode You Might Like: 4 Things We Did To Grow Our Classy Career Girl Brand How This Busy Mom Made a Plan To Quit Her Job and Become a Life Coach 4 False Beliefs About Reaching Your Goals

Take more risks to make life more fulfilling

Take more risks to make life more fulfilling Im driving to the Madison airport to pick up Ian, my new partner in my new secret startup. Im wearing the sunglasses that Melissas boyfriend said make her look too rich and too Type-A. The glasses are perfect for today. I am also wearing a new, green shirt that I got at JC Penney. Did you read about how the new CEO overhauled womens fashion and alienated all the loyal customers? This makes me think its okay that I like the shirts they sell. (Or used to sellsince he just got fired for selling clothes I like.) I email Melissa a picture of me driving with the shirt on. Then I call her. I forgot to get approval for this outfit before I left for the airport, I tell her. So dont tell me its terrible. Its okay. Where did you buy it? Forever 21. Oh, I love everything at Forever 21. I know. 1. Taking risks is an important factor in your happiness levels. I am nervous that I havent had to meet a business associate in person in a long time. I do everything online. And I wonder if Ive lost my zing since I started living on the farm. Everyone I called for advice told me not to do another startup. They reminded me, You have what you need. You earn a good living from your blog. All startups are a mess. When my brother told me I was going to get myself into financial trouble again I told him about the article that I read in the Atlantic about how people need meaning in their lives, not happiness, and while setback doesnt make our lives more happy, it does give our lives more meaning. My brother said, Tell me that when you run out of money and you cant get funding. My brother buys startups for a huge rich company. He is blown away by how many entrepreneurs put their house on the line to build their company. I dont tell him that if I owned a house Id borrow against it in a minute. I tell myself that I am smart to mess up my life because people who are happy expose themselves to the possibility of huge loss and disappointment. I tell myself that if I have to do this, its better to do this with my career than my personal life. 2. Process matters more than results. Ian sees my car and walks toward me. He is tall which is good because  tall people make more money  and we are making money together. He is also Irish Catholic, which is comforting because the kids I grew up with were from large, boisterous Irish Catholic families that took me to church on Christmas and let me stay seated when they ate a wafer. Ian dressed down for the farm, but its still too dressed up. So I take him to Target to buy farm clothes. On the drive home we talk about our life stories like we are on a date and I thank God I am not dating anymore because I have heard my story so many times that I bore myself. At the farm,  Im worried that its hard to be professional and be with a family in the same place. Im worried that people who are older are worse at taking risks and maybe I am too old for this. Maybe Im like those people who wear clothes that are not appropriate for their age. Ian puts on his Target clothes, I put on my going-out-to-the-pasture clothes. Then we go out to the pasture with Matthew and the boys. You cant keep your guard up when youre dressed for the farm. Ian is almost my opposite: friendly and easy-going. He talks to Matthew about cattle, he treks through tall grass that scratches his legs, and he laughs when he steps in cow poop, though the boys laugh harder. I want to spend my days with my sons and have a startup, too. I think I want this more than I want a lot of money from a startup. I want the process to be good. I want my days to be interesting. Ian strikes me as the type of founder who succeeds because so much of his definition of success is about process.  Process over outcome. Essential to everyones happiness, but especially everyone in a startup. We eat dinner and Matthew puts the kids to bed so Ian and I can work. I have a weird faith that I will be able to handle the extra workload because Ive done it so many times before. In Psychology Today I read that    the best way to create happiness in your life is to take risks. And the more risks you take the more risk-tolerant you become. Doing another risky startup is almost low risk for me, because I know, even if I crash and burn, it will make me happy. Crash and burn is interesting. Ian is an ex-finance guy. His spreadsheets are gorgeous with no broken formulas and fonts that dont vary, even from tab to tab. I am happy that I will never be the person to manage the spreadsheets in this company, which is a big deal because in a startup, there are no right answers for financial projections, so they change every day. The next morning, the boys go into Madison with the nanny and Ian settles in for a long day of work. I am back in startup land so easily. The rhythms of founders searching for a business model feel like intellectual home base for me. Ian leaves and were a solid team. 3. Know the difference between risky and reckless. Until I get a call from Ryan Paugh,  a week later. Ryans one of my co-founders at Brazen Careerist, and  Ian called him to get a reference. What? When? Are you fucking kidding me? Relax, Ryan says, It was a few days ago. What? Thats ridiculous. He already committed to me way before that. He already had me pitch to his investors. I hang up. I call Ian. How could you call Ryan without asking me? Hes a close friend. What could he possibly tell you that would make you stop working with me now? Its already been a month of working together. Ian says that hes sorry, that he hears me, that it will not happen again. I say, Fuck you you fucking asshole youre a jerk. I dont call him for two days, but I miss him. I love working on a new idea. I love the urgency of having to get money right now before everything implodes. I love not knowing what were doing but having to move fast anyway. Ian is good for me. He is very good with people, and calm when Im screaming. He never screams. He never gets side-tracked by irrelevant topics. He told me no name calling because it hurts his feelings so I can choose to do it, but he wants me to know that its hurtful to him. Okay. Fine. It turns out that Im the only person who thinks his furtive reference check was a huge transgression. I call Ian from the garden center at Home Depot. Perennials are half off and the only way I can do a startup and homeschooling is if I buy perennials while Im on the phone. Lets just move on, I tell him. I pause at the bedraggled daylilies that are not even worth 50%. I tell him, Also, I want you to know that Ryan said youre a really good guy and that I need to get over my trust issues and stop having a fit when someone does something I dont like. Ian says, Thats nice. And I want you to know I learned a lot from calling those two. You called two? You called the other Ryan also? Yeah. They both said that you did so much for them. One of them said that he would not be where he is today if it werent for you. Both of them said you were extremely loyal and caring. I am surprised. And so happy that I leave with no plants. Im saving my money for when the startup runs out of funding and I have to live off of savings. Not that Ill have savings. Its not my style. So I use the money for the weeks groceries instead, and Ive settled into the startup trenches.

Job Search Tactics That Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Job Search Tactics That Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career In today’s business world, a college degree does not automatically lead to a great job the way it typically did in the past. Today, in addition to that college degree, one has to learn how to find a jobâ€"and be good at it. This additional challenge represents a significant barrier to some job seekers and especially to more-mature people who have a hard time keeping up with fast-developing technology that requires new skills. So, following are a few tips regarding both what to do and how to do it. Online and in-person networking Beyond LinkedIn, recruiters use Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to find, select, and qualify talent. Those new toolsâ€"which 10 years ago were either nonexistent or in their infancy stageâ€"are absolutely essential for today’s job seekers to be familiar with. A job seeker who does not show up on recruiters’ screens is simply ignored. This is a huge punishment for those who need a job. To be found and deemed qualified, candidates must learn how to use social mediaâ€"and then use it extensivelyâ€"beyond the three mentioned here. Social media are not only the venues for finding jobs but also tools that establish a positive reputation and credibility. Just remember that there are many, many applicants for just a few openings. In-person networking supplements other social media networking. In-person networking should be considered a business transaction and not just social interaction the way many job seekers practice it. When networking in person, ask for opinions, introductions, and referrals. Don’t be bashful; be slightly aggressive but still tactful. Most people are willing to help if asked. Tools for job seekers Because technology has changed the job search system for both employers and job seekers, the latter group needs to quickly catch up. Employers use technology to source for talent. The majority of medium-size companies use some type of recruiting management system. Companies were forced into using such systems so they could become able to deal with larger and larger volumes of applicants, so they could save money, and so they could speed up the process. Most of the different kinds of applicant-tracking systems (ATSs) have become Web based, which extends access to the system by anyone in the organization who’s involved with the hiring process. This means that job seekers need to appeal to those people in the organization and not exclusively to human resources as in the past. Regardless of which system recruiters use, job seekers need to improve their ranking in order to be found. Think about a Google search. Here are a few tips for improving ranking: Use TagCrowd.com to visually match your résumé and the job description. Match your résumé to the keywords used in the job description. Use Microsoft Word to format your résumé, and avoid textboxes, tables, and graphics. Under the heading PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE, list first the name of the company where you most recently worked; then, to the right of that, the dates of your tenure there; and then under the company name, the name of the position you held. Add a line or two of responsibilities or job duties, and then a bulleted list of a few specific and preferably quantifiable accomplishments. Then do the same for the job previous to that one. The new ATSs incorporate social media tool functionality to reach passive candidates, to advertise job opportunities, and to build talent communities for specific industries. Therefore, to generate multiple options for themselves, job seekers must at all times deploy diverse approaches to job seeking. Candidates need to learn how various ATSs work in order to get high enough scores to be found by a particular company’s system. A description of familiarizing oneself with the systems is vaster than can be accomplished here and will be the topic of one of my future articles.

A Healthy Work Environment = Productive Work Environment CareerMetis.com

A Healthy Work Environment = Productive Work Environment â€" CareerMetis.com Even though boosting productivity isn’t an exact science, there is a piece of statistic claiming that a happy worker tends to be 12 percent more productive. This means that for every 25 people in your employ, you get the work equivalent of having 3 members of your staff more, which is definitely a significant boost.Now, making your employees happier isn’t an exact science, but there are several factors that definitely play their part in this and providing your workers with a healthy work environment is definitely one of them.evalHere are a few examples of how this works, as well as few tips through which you can turn the tide in your favor.1) Less Sick-LeaveevalFirst things first, the most obvious way through which a healthy work environment gives you a productivity boost is through less sick-leave days taken by your employees. This particular feature is always noticeable, but the smaller your team is, the easier it is to grasp its full significance.Imagine a scenario where you h ave a 5-member team and suddenly 2 of these people decide to take a day off due to illness on the same day. This would mean a fall in productivity of a staggering 40 percent. Reducing the chance of this happening can sometimes make all the difference.2) High Hygiene StandardsThe best thing about making your work environment healthier lies in the fact that it sometimes makes your workers more efficient in more than one way. For example, a messy environment is not only a hygiene hazard, but it is also highly distracting. Having clusters of unnecessary files, consumable containers and similar non-essential office accessories everywhere can prevent you from focusing on your own work, which is definitely something you shouldn’t allow. There are three ways to deal with this and the choice is yours.The first one is the most frugal, but also the least efficient one- having everyone take care of their own workstation. The advantage of this method is that a) it doesn’t cost you a dime and b) if there is a mess somewhere it is easy to determine a culprit. However, not everyone will be as vigilant in their cleaning effort, which means that although some people may work hard on maintaining a high hygiene standard, having just a few slackers on your team will nullify all their effort.The second option is to hire in-house cleaners, which are reliable and efficient, but not very cost-effective.First of all, it means adding non-essential personnel to your payroll, as well as equipping them with adequate cleaning equipment. This is why most people decide to go with the third option and outsource the maintenance of their premises to companies offering office cleaning services.3) Adequate WorkstationsevalAnother thing you need to work a bit on is the issue of workstations and the way in which they affect your staff. For example, seeing how an average office worker sits for 8-hours straight, the quality of their chair might just have an immense effect on their back and their p osture. Apart from being incredibly comfortable, trying to do a job that requires any level of focus or creativity while experiencing a back-pain is not an easy thing to do.The next issue on this list is that of the angle at which one looks at the computer screen. The height of the monitor needs to be adjusted to the position of the one looking at it. Otherwise, this bad practice may cause issues with vision In the very end, you need to keep in mind that the mental wellbeing of your employees is equally as important as their physical health. Breaks are vital and the sooner you realize this the better. You see, no matter how close the deadline is, overworking your employees is a trend that is bound to backfire, which is why you need to focus on not allowing this to happen.Organize your break room so that it is as relaxing and as far away from the rest of the office as possible. In this way, you will give your employees a brief mental getaway and allow them to return back to work reju venated.In ConclusionevalAt the end of the day, productivity is not the only thing that matters. Sure, some managers prefer looking at the world as if it was displayed in numbers, but then again these are the people that usually don’t get very far in the business world.Apart from making your work more efficient, providing a healthy work environment for your employees is a humane thing to do and your responsibility as their employer. This is something you should never lose from your sight.