What Benefits Do Employees Really Want

What Benefits Do Employees Really Want A new trend that’s been hitting the workplace in recent years is extreme employment perks. From in-house yoga classes to free lunch, companies in many industries are going above and beyond when it comes to providing employee incentives. However, these perks don’t come cheap. Some professionals wonder whether extreme incentives are being provided at the expense of more practical benefits like higher pay, more vacation time and better health insurance.  We’ll take a look at what type of benefits employees really want, and how you can make sure you’re providing the best perks for your workplace. Perks? What perks? If you’re looking around your office and wondering where the free massages or free gourmet meals are, you’re not alone. Most average businesses don’t offer those kinds of extreme perks. So â€" where are the perks? Think Silicon Valley. Big companies in tech pioneered extreme employee benefits, and they’ve continued to lead the way in recent years. Google employees get massages, free childcare and places to nap, while people who work for Scripps Health receive health insurance for their pets. AOL focuses on perks for parents, with services like prenatal classes as well as access to onsite daycare. Workers at Netflix, Best Buy and Evernote get unlimited vacation days. Those employed by Dropbox have Razor scooters to zip around the office more easily, not to mention fresh-squeezed juice, yoga classes and a made-to-order stir-fry bar. To attract the top talent, a number of companies are also beginning to offer game rooms that include physically and mentally engaging activities. People can take an hour to play foosball, darts, pool, or video games. They can bowl, play ping pong, or start a pickup basketball game. One extreme example? Employees at Quicksilver’s Huntington Beach can take time off during the workday to go surf. What employees really want These extreme perks certainly don’t hurt â€" after all, no one is going to say no to free lunch. But are they what employees really want? According to Entrepreneur, employees really value more basic perks. They want great medical insurance, including dental and vision plans. They want generous life insurance and retirement policies. Paid vacation time, sick time, and flexible scheduling are also important benefits. What else do employees want? Opportunities for professional development and continuing education. Salary raises and bonuses. More vacation days, and discounts on products and services. While most workers won’t turn down a free trip to a fabulous ski resort or lunch from a gourmet restaurant, employee surveys report that these over-the-top perks aren’t the reason people show up to work. A 2014 Mercer survey reports that employees attach the most importance to extra time off and fatter paychecks. Adding money into retirement accounts and decreasing healthcare costs also made the top of the list. Less important? Gym memberships, financial planning assistance and tuition reimbursement. What  you can do Companies use perks to keep morale high and employee turnover low. Elaborate benefits also impress top potential applicants, as well as help companies appeal to a larger pool of job seekers. The key? Making sure you’re providing the benefits that your employees want â€" not what you think they’ll want. Think of your unique workforce and what they value. Do you employ a lot of working parents? They’ll likely value childcare, paid time off and other related benefits. Young people, on the other hand, may be more attracted to “fun” benefits like exercise classes or games. The only way to tell what your employees really want? Ask. Before implementing a new benefit or perk, poll your employees on what they want. That way, you know you’re spending your money on things your employees really value. They’ll be happier â€" and you may even find yourself saving money. Have you ever worked at a company with extreme benefits? What benefits and perks do you value most? Author: Abby Perkins is Managing Editor at Talent Tribune, a SoftwareProviders.com blog dedicated to all things HR.

Lessons You Will Learn the Hard Way Before You Succeed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Lessons You Will Learn the Hard Way Before You Succeed - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career There are some lessons you can learn by reading books and some that you can only learn by experiencing. Unfortunately, those are the ones that you learn the hard way. Sure, you can also learn these lessons by listening to old and wise because they have already been where we are but most of the time we ignore them or don’t listen to them carefully and forget their advice. Thus, we learn some of these lessons by living our lives and generally these cost us unpleasant experiences. Below you can find 3 of these lessons. Have a Clear Direction: You can succeed in anything you want but you need to have a clear direction. You need to know where you are headed. In this way, you can use your skills and abilities towards that direction. Also, be %100 committed to your goal. If you want to get what you want, you need to commit all of your time and energy to it. Otherwise, you cannot succeed. For example; if you think that you will try out your new idea for a few months and continue only if it works, then, you cannot be successful because you are not committing all of your mind to it. Don’t Trust Everyone: You may be a kindhearted person and think everybody has a good heart like yours. Unfortunately, this is not true. People will always disappoint you especially the ones that are close to you the most. People are selfish and jealous by nature and therefore, once they find an opportunity to stab you in the back, they will probably do it. Still, you need others throughout your life so you need to learn how to manage your relationships and whom to trust for what. Money cannot be your sole motivation: Money is just an intermediary to help you reach your needs and it cannot be your major motivation. A lot of people want to be successful because they want to be very rich. However, this cannot get you far. You can only be successful if you solve other people’s problems. If you create a value for others, then you get your reward which is earning more money and getting rich. However, you have to focus on helping others first. The most successful organizations in the world are the ones that make a change in other people’s lives. If you can touch others’ lives, then, you can become very successful and get your reward for it.

Students Greed is Good

Students Greed is Good [one_fourth last=no]as a Placement Officer you have to look at the bigger picture and recognise that your responsibilities lie not just with your students.-Placement Officer[/one_fourth]As a Placement Officer, you look forward to your students informing  you that they have secured their placement. These are the precious moments where you know that you’ve done a good job and can move onto the next student who requires your assistance. Or at least that is what you hope. Multiple Interview Opportunities After offering congratulations and finding out all the relevant details of the placement, my next line of questioning relates to any outstanding applications that the student has made. For the vast majority, this is simply a question of tying up loose ends. If an employer contacts them for an interview, politely decline explaining that they have now secured a placement elsewhere and so are no longer available. This leaves things on good terms for the future, particularly if the student wants to pursue opportunities with that organisation later on in their career. Where my stomach turns, is when a student says they have interviews coming up in the next couple of weeks with Company B and Company C, despite already having signed a contract with Company A. This is a scenario that is thankfully uncommon, but is one that presents a dilemma for a Placement Officer. The Bigger Picture On the one hand, you want your students to find the right placement for them. For the next 12 months they will be undertaking the first steps in their professional career and the experience should be one in which they can flourish. However, as a Placement Officer you have to look at the bigger picture and recognise that your responsibilities lie not just with your students. If an employer has a negative experience from one of my students, it does not reflect well on the University. We build relationships over the long term with placement providers to ensure that our students have a wide range of opportunities available to them. If one of our students performs a u-turn after signing a contract, it could easily sour the relationship with the employer. At a time when universities across the country are branching out into placements ahead of the 2012 tuition fees, these are employers that we can dearly afford to lose. Worth The Risk? For the student, it is also a question of professionalism. Were the roles to be reversed and a company continued to interview until they found a better candidate, the student would rightly be outraged at having their placement taken away from them. I am sympathetic towards students who find themselves in this situation. In a perfect world, having spent long hours making applications you obviously would want to see all of your options before making a decision. However, once you have accepted a placement offer and signed that contract, it is time to step back from the recruitment process. At this early point in their career, is it worth the risk of getting blacklisted by recruiters for the sake of touting for a better offer? I would say not. Comment below what you think about attending interviews after one has been offered a placement. Is it being competitive or ethical? 3

How to Coach Yourself to Success - Classy Career Girl

How to Coach Yourself to Success Professional coaching is growing in popularity. Some of the most successful people you know most likely have coaches. In fact, I’ve heard it said that Oprah Winfrey has four coaches. She has a coach for every area of her life she wants to improve upon. From health coaches to life coaches to career coaches and more you can undoubtedly find a professional with the expertise to help you transform your life. I wholeheartedly believe there is value in partnering with a person who is committed to your success and trained to help you accomplish your goals. But what if you’re in between coaching sessions or just not ready to take the plunge? Don’t fret. I’ve outlined my top three techniques designed to help you coach yourself to success. I use these very strategies with my clients and  you can use them too. How to Coach Yourself to Success 1. Dig Deeper The first technique is what I call Dig Deeper. Sometimes we can’t quite pinpoint what we want or why we want it. Dig Deeper will help you get to the root of your issue. Here’s how it works: Think about an area of your life you want to improve. Write it down. Next, ask yourself, “And what else?” It would go something like this, I don’t like my job. And what else? I’m bored and I don’t feel challenged. And what else? I used to feel engaged and challenged at work before I switched teams. And what else? I miss the work I used to do. You keep digging until you’ve “emptied out” as we like to call it in the coaching field. You keep going until there is nothing else. Again, this helps you identify what you really want. This technique was used with a woman who originally said her problem was her weight. The Dig Deeper exercise revealed that she was unhappy in her marriage and was overeating to compensate for that dissatisfaction. Hopefully, you can see how important it is to understand what’s hiding beneath the surface. Without this exercise, this woman would have put a ton of energy into weight management when her primary focus should have been centered around improving her relationship with her husband. 2. Ask Yourself 3 Questions As you start to coach yourself, ask yourself these three questions: What worked well? What didn’t work so well? What will I do differently (or similarly) next time? This works well as a check-in for a recurring activity. If you’re actively interviewing, immediately after you leave an interview you can write down the answers to these three questions. The same thing applies with sales calls. You leave a sales appointment and you answer the three questions. Or maybe you are looking to lose weight. At the end of each day you can journal your responses to the questions. This is super valuable because you have a record of your strengths and weaknesses that you can refer to at any time. Before your next interview or sales call you can review your notes from the last time. It positions you to improve with each interview, event, or milestone. As time goes on the things that used to show up in the didn’t work so well category will shift to the what worked well category. Your habits and skills naturally improve as you pay diligent attention to them. 3. Right Now Technique The last technique is Right Now. It’s not uncommon to hear someone say that they are stuck. However, there is always something you can do that does not depend on anyone but you. There are things that you don’t need any money for. You don’t need another person’s buy in or contribution in any way. In these instances, the only thing holding you back is you. Whenever you feel stuck ask yourself, “What can I do right now to move my situation forward?” Your answer might be to apply for jobs or to make a phone call. If you keep doing what you can do, you will consistently be making progress little by little. Little progress develops into big progress. There you have it my top three techniques for coaching yourself to success. I want to leave you with one last tip. If you were to work with a professional coach you would have regular, scheduled meetings with him or her. As an example, I meet with my fitness coach every Saturday at 10am. That’s our schedule. Since you’ll be coaching yourself you will want to have a standing appointment with yourself. You will use this time to stay on top of your goals, monitor your progress, map out action items, and make adjustments to your plan. I like to start these appointments with the 3 Questions exercise. So I’ll start with, “between the last appointment and now what worked well?” Congratulations! You are ready to coach yourself towards success. Go ahead and schedule a standing meeting with yourself. Put it in your calendar and commit. This is a must for accountability and structure. Buy a notebook to keep track of your progress and to complete the exercises. And lastly, go do something to move your life forward right now. Yes, right this moment!

College Restaurant Resumes

College Restaurant ResumesIt is important to find the right college in order to help you master the skills needed to become a great resume writer. While there are many career paths available, only the right ones are being taken by the right people. So when looking for the right college, you need to consider many things. First of all, you need to decide if you are going to major in English, Communications, Advertising, Marketing, or other related area of study.English majors will find many careers in a variety of fields including sales, management, business, and writing. Students in this major can write for magazines, newspapers, advertising, or websites. People in this program have opportunities to choose from a variety of media including web design, print publications, television, radio, and video production. These people can choose from many different career options including freelance writing, copy editing, research, and more.Communication majors will be employed in many areas of media including radio, television, web site, corporate writing, advertising, and even music. This area of study has students participating in many different types of projects. Those in this program include TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, and more. They can choose from several different jobs ranging from staff writer to the director of communications at a company.Marketing students are often used to create promotional materials for companies. They can be hired by a marketing firm to put together brochures, flyers, posters, and more. This area of study offers many employment opportunities including press release writers, graphic designers, and the vice president of marketing. There are many job opportunities available in the field of marketing.There are many people who do not take the time to create a personal online resume. They spend a lot of time looking through hundreds of resume sites, spending their time and money to try to get a job. A personal resumecan make all the difference in the world, so make sure that you get it done right the first time.As a college student, you will need to choose a class that best fits your interests and abilities. This is an important step to consider, as you will not want to waste time learning something that does not interest you. If your major is advertising, you may want to choose the marketing courses, as they will help you achieve the degree that you are looking for.Before you even start attending classes, it is a good idea to consult with a guidance counselor who can help you decide which classes will meet your needs. This will help you narrow down the type of education that you will receive and allow you to choose the classes that best fit your goals. The guidance counselor can also be a great resource in finding the right school in order to get the degree that you want.Once you have chosen the school that will help you graduate and earn your degree, it is time to start your search for college restaurant resumes. Take some time to learn about the school and make sure that it will suit your needs. Then you can begin to send resumes out to employers.

New Jobs and the Hottest Job Markets

New Jobs and the Hottest Job Markets New Jobs and the Hottest Job Markets New Jobs and the Hottest Job Markets November 20, 2008 by Career Coach Sherri Thomas 6 Comments It’s time to ditch all the negative media going on right now, and focus on the positive news.   There are thousands of new jobs opening up every week, people getting hired and promoted, and companies getting stronger and thriving.   But it’s easy to miss all of this because all the media is focusing on what’s going wrong â€" instead of what’s going right. If you’re looking to make a career change (or just need to hear some good news!) then below is a list of 7 facts to help you stay motivated and on track for getting into your new career.     TheLadders.com reported that in the past ten (10) days, 70 new companies have signed up to post job openings.   Plus(!) 1,400 new jobs have been posted in the past two weeks by the

What exactly should your resume look like - Margaret Buj - Interview Coach

What exactly should your resume look like Your resume is what you make out of it. What it looks like will depend on how you curate it. The appearance of your resume will depend on the format you use to fashion your resume. While factors like the font style, font size, spacing, formatting, structuring, and the information you choose to show or omit are important, your resume format is the most important element in all this. It helps you write a standard resume which reeks of professionalism. Your goal here is to write a standard resume which will be recruiter-friendly and efficient in the way it communicates information and advances your job application We will begin this blog with a discussion of the latest resume formats followed by an objective analysis to help you choose the resume format which will help you compose a standard resume â€" and in turn help you decide what your resume should look like! Latest Resume Formats When it comes to making a conscious decision on what your resume should look like, your resume format proves to be a major contributor in ensuring that you get the look that you are going for. A lot has changed in the resume writing industry and the number of resume formats that have proliferated over the years has continued to shoot up. The top 3 latest resume formats are mentioned below: Reverse Chronological Resume Format: A reverse chronological resume format is the most widely-used and accepted resume format amongst recruiters around the world. It approaches time from a reverse order. Using this format, your most recent work experience comes first, followed by the second most recent work experience, and so on and so forth. Composing your resume using this resume format makes your resume look more professional and relevant. Since your most recent work experience is the most relevant work experience of your career, the reverse-chronological resume format helps you enhance the relevance of your resume. It also has a great look and makes your resume stand out like fireworks on the 4th of July. Functional Resume Format: The Functional Resume Format is a resume format which gives more weightage to your skills vis-à-vis the timeline of your professional engagements. In this resume format, you have to simply make a summary of your skills without getting into explicit details of the timeline of your work Where you worked and when you worked is not the focus of this resume format. Instead it focuses on your key skills. That’s the beauty of this resume format: it hides potential gaps in your work experience and is thus seen as an ideal format for those with gaps in their employment. Combination/Hybrid Resume Format: The combination or hybrid resume format, as the name suggests, is an interesting combination of the resume formats that we have mentioned above. In this resume format, equal weightage is given to your skills work timeline. In this resume format, you have to compose your work experience section using the  reverse chronological order and replace your conventional summary with a summary of your key skills. Standard Resume: What your resume should ideally look like should not depend on a blatant use of the resume format which you think would look nice, but should depend on the utility of that resume format for you. Now that you know what the different types of resume formats are, all you have to do is pick the resume format that revolutionizes your job application process. This will help you compose the standard resume that is viable for you. The standard resume that is ideal for you may not be the same as the standard resume that may be ideal for someone else. For example, whether you use the reverse-chronological resume format, or the functional resume format, or the combination/hybrid resume format, will depend on if the resume format is able to optimize your job application process. Mentioned below is the standard resume for different professionals based on their professional needs: Professionals with steady work experience: If you have a steady flow of work experience without evident gaps in your career, you should pick the reverse-chronological resume format. As discussed above, it is designed to bring out the relevance of your resume. Moreover, it is easy to compose and is easily parsed by any ATS system in the world. This means that by using this resume format, you have a very high chance of ranking well in the ATS system. An ATS system is a filtering mechanism that companies use to optimize their recruitment needs. The reverse chronological resume format helps you rank high in the ATS. The higher your rank in the ATS, the higher is your chance of getting shortlisted. Thus, professionals with steady work experience should use the reverse-chronological resume format. Professionals with employment gaps: If you are a professional who has employment gaps for some reason or another, how do you justify these gaps? It’s tricky and you might not be very successful at it either. The two resume formats mentioned below can help: Functional resume format Hybrid/mixed resume format While the functional resume format is fantastic for hiding employment gaps, it is not ATS-friendly. Your target here is to write a resume that cleverly conceals the gaps in your employment while simultaneously standing a fair chance of getting parsed by any ATS system in the world. The mixed/hybrid resume format addresses this issue. As discussed above, it gives equal weightage to the timeline (which helps it become ATS-targeted) and the professionals’ skills abilities (which helps hide employment gaps). Thus, if you have bought a one-way ticket away from the employment island for a year or two (or more), you should really consider using the mixed/hybrid resume format to compose a standard resume format that is ideal for you! Conclusion: Given below is a list of the key takeaways of this blog: What exactly your resume should look like, should not depend on the resume format that you think looks pleasant, but it should depend on the resume format that can advance your chances of getting shortlisted the most. For those with no employment gaps, the reverse-chronological resume format is the ideal resume format. On the contrary, for those with gaps in their employment, the hybrid/mixed resume format is the ideal resume format. About the author: On a quest to help professionals across the world land their dream jobs, Aditya lives and breathes Hiration â€" a platform to help job-seekers find their way in the treacherous job market â€" where he’s a Co-Founder and the unofficial CPO (Chief Problem-solving Officer). He likes to code away his days and nights when he’s not busy disrupting the career space.