At an HR conference this week with a focus on wellness, the topic of work-life balance is bound to come up. It is and continues to be a buzz phrase in the field. How do we as individuals balance work and “life” and how do companies and HR professionals help employees find and gain balance in order to promote wellness and avoid stress and burnout which ultimately hurts company performance? As I sit here writing this at the conference, my eight week old is with me. So is my mom who is here to help and also hear some key
At a lunch meeting yesterday, one topic of discussion was the “everyone gets a trophy” generation. The millennial generation – of which I am barely a part of based on my date of birth, but rarely admit to being – seems to have a problem with feeling entitled. And the negative outcomes this creates in schools and int he workplace is a hot topic. A couple of issues cited in this discussion were: Lack of respect for consequences of one’s actions. For example, a star pitcher not getting to pitch in a game when scouts were there because he missed
Last week, we discussed the importance of networking because Computers Don’t Give People Jobs- People Do. If you still aren’t convinced of this based on the data presented last week, then here is another tid-bit of data for you: According to this chart, networking encompasses almost half of the way that companies fill job openings. So the proof is there. If you want to get a job, the best way to do it is to network. But how do you do it? Here are some steps along with a Networking Log to help you track this process: Set a networking
A recent LinkedIn group posting by a job seeker asked the question, “Tons of applications vs. networking (in a new place) – Which might work best?” While applying online for openings is a necessary component to job search, I think this chart and table answers the job seeker’s question clearly: Mark S. Granovetter, a sociologist at Harvard, investigated how people get jobs. His study included professional, technical, and managerial workers who recently found jobs, and the chart shows the methods by which jobs were obtained. Granovetter’s data also indicated that of the people who found jobs through personal contacts, 43.8%
In my first “real” job out of college, I had no idea what managing upward was and had no idea how to do it. More importantly, I didn’t know why it was necessary. In hindsight, I got passed over for a job opening in the department that I wanted because I didn’t manage upward, I got more work than any other person in the department thrown on me because I didn’t manage upward, and I ended up being pretty miserable because I didn’t manage upward. In my personal experiences and in coaching middle managers, I’ve learned that the topic of