Why Focusing On Diversity and Inclusion Is Your Best Move

Why Focusing On Diversity and Inclusion Is Your Best MoveA successful recruitment process requires a focus on a number of different factors. Youll want to employ the proper technology in order to ensure your interviews run smoothly, while also ensuring that youve written a job description that will attract the right kind of candidates. However, a conscientious hiring manager will also put an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in order to create a gruppe that yields positive, innovative energy, while serving its customer base effectively.A Gallup study, that was published in the Journal of Leadership Organizational Studies, recently took a look at manager-employee race differences. They found that study respondents intentions to remain at their current position were the highest when the employee and managers were of different races and were working in an engaging workplace. In fact, the figures were even higher than when managers and employees were of the saatkorn race working in th e same situation.Additionally, a new report fromCatalyst shows that increasing levels of female employment could boost a businesss Gross Domestic Product by 5 percent in the United States.Its clear that building diversity and inclusion in the office offers businesses a number of perks. Beyond just job satisfaction and increased economic opportunity, developing a team of employees from different walks of life and with different perspectives on the world enables the brand to innovate on a larger scale. Lets discuss the reasons diversity and inclusion should be a focus in your hiring processInnovative processes guide successWhen you have designers who see the world in a very similar way, for example, its easy to end up with product lines that eventually grow stale. After all, these people have the same world-view and probably have similar influences. They cant help but design based on this one narrow perspective.Additionally, if youre working in a customer service role and are tasked w ith troubleshooting for clients, your team is going to find it mora challenging to attack the problem effectively when everyone is approaching the dilemma from the same mindset. Thats why having employees from a diverse range of ethnicities and beliefs enables you to serve your clients more effectively. Unfortunately, even a well-intentioned hiring manager can end up creating a cookie-cutter environment and not understand the importance of diversity in your office. At times this is due to personal biases that they arent even fully aware they possess. Are you a well-intentioned hiring manager creating a cookie-cutter environment?Click To TweetIn other instances the homogenization of a workplace happens because those tasked with hiring didnt try hard enough to target a diverse candidate pool, so they ended up getting the same type of applicant over and over for the open position. Instead of reaching out to different professional organizations and making them aware of the open position , they posted in the same forums or used the same hiring methods they had always relied on, thus providing them with the same kinds of job seekers they typically get when theyve had open positions in the past.Society demands inclusionMajor, popular companies have found themselves in hot water over diversity issues lately.Twitter, for example, recently came under fire when Leslie Miley, the only black engineer in a leadership position, announced he left the company after concerns about diversity and inclusion. Twitters only black engineer left due to a concern with diversity efforts. hr hiringClick To TweetMiley wrote a post explaining that he asked a question about increasing diversity during an engineering leadership meeting. The brands Senior VP of Engineering replied by saying, diversity is important, but we wont lower the bar.Miley went on to have a one-on-one meeting with this executive and found that the individual drastically disagreed with his own take about how to track eth nicities of job applicants. This led Miley to question how the executive could, as Miley writes, see himself as a technology visionary and be so unaware of this blind spot in his understanding of diversity. While Twitter may be an impressive brand in the technology space, its clear that this is still a concern businesses across all industries need to confront head-on.While there are plenty of factors to consider as you move through the hiring process, such as the speed with which you conduct interviews, the kinds of technology you want to incorporate into your process, and how thoroughly your job description is crafted, its essential not to lose sight of the importance of diversity and inclusion as youre hiring. Adding a broad range of job candidates from differing races, sexual orientation, and backgrounds allows for a collaborative and dynamic working environment.What are you doing to enhance inclusion and diversity efforts at your company?

Office seating can change your life, and one company is doing something about it

Office seating can change your life, and one company is doing something about itOffice seating can change your life, and one company is doing something about itOne of the quietly fraught aspects of both modern amtsstubes and high school lunchrooms is this where will you sit?Studies show that office seat mates affect every employees mood, productivity and even health. From loud talkers to constantly-sick viral incubators to the office humorist and beloved work spouse, proximity through seating is a quiet key for office morale.One startup is going the extra mile elend to mess it up. Mobile payments startup Squareis making the art of office seating arrangements a full-time job. Dubbed a Capacity Coordinator in the job posting, this position is equal parts project manager, data analyst, and relationship builder.Not only will the new Capacity Coordinatorbe handling where new hires sit and moving teams, he or she will also be working on cross-functional seating projectsand maintaining offi ce furniture,among other things. Weve reached out to Square for comment.A manager dedicated to seating plans at the office isnt necessarily far-fetched. In fact, itfits into a larger conversation abouthow much nearby colleagues - well as the layout ofthe space- can impact employees productivity.Emotional contagion and the personality matchGetting the right fit between personalities at work almost requires its own technology. When trying to get your work done, youprobably pick up on the vibes of the person sitting next to you.A 2002 study published inAdministrative Science Quarterly found thatpeople do not live on emotional islands but, rather, that group members experience moods at work, these moods ripple out and, in the process, influence not only other group members emotions but their group dynamics and individual cognitions, attitudes, and behaviors as well.How workers feel canmake waves on your team, and influence how others feel and work together. The 2002 study calls a pers on or group impacting the feelings or actions of others emotional contagion.The most surprising part scientific studies have shown there is a financial and organizational benefit from well-arranged seating at work.Cornerstone OnDemand and Harvard Business School partnered up on research that determined the ideal seating arrangement, based on workers productivity levels.The study matchedproductive workers (very productive but lack in quality) and quality workers (produce superior quality but lack in productivity) together. It said that generalists (average in quality and productivity) should be matched separately, and thatsymbiotic relationships are created from pairing those with opposite strengths.According to the findings, placing the right type of workers in close proximity to each other has been shown to generate up to a 15% increase in organizational performance. For an organization of 2,000 workers, strategic seating planning could add an estimated $1 million per annum to prof it, the study said. There might just be a formula for this after all.Open office backlashWorkspace layout matters because open offices dont always make for greater productivity, despite their popularity.An anonymous survey of more than 1,000 peopleby enterprise software strategist William Belk found that 58% of high-performance employees need more private spaces for problem solving, and 54% of them think their office space is too distracting,according to a post on Medium.These workerswere defined as those working on the hardest problems.According to Belk, these percentages point to four conclusions distractions are badeanstalt for these workers productivity, poor productivity hurts our products and time-to-market, offices are too open overall, and that employers need to listen to the needs of high-performance employees.Forbes reported that about 70% of U.S. offices have some type of open floor plan,as found by theInternational Facility Management Association.But research says that o ur productivity goes down by 15%, were two times as likely to get sick and that its hard to focus in open offices, according to the BBC. Open offices are also stressful for introverts, who feel a need to limit their exposure to othersin order to be more creative.Thats why many startups have a variety of areas in which to work, including pods, quiet rooms, and other escape spaces. Lunchrooms, cafes and other food spaces make it less likely that people will eat at their desks, distracting colleagues with smells and chewing sounds. (Yes, some people are naturally sensitive to loud chewing.)Some organizations like marketing company Groove have started to make things easier for employees to work privately.People have different needs throughout their day - times they want to collaborate and times where they just need to think by themselves, Groove CEOEthan Giffin told The Huffington Post.The companys new office (as of a few years ago) was built with a library featuring an unspoken no-tal king rule and other places to work that were smaller and more private,according to The Huffington Post.We look forward to the popularization of a personality-matched office that welcomes both extroverts and introverts - and has plenty of nap pods, besides.

4 Ways to Be More Concise in Your Job Search

4 Ways to Be More Concise in Your Job Search4 Ways to Be More Concise in Your Job SearchIts a skill some people possess and others have to work toward, and its important to be aware of no matter which category you belong to the ability to be succinct. Some people are stream-of-consciousness talkers and writers, while others are briefsometimes too brief,so that the main idea is bedrngnis conveyed. Some people are a hybrid clear and concise talkersbut long-winded writers, or vice versa.There are ways to train yourself to get to the point quicker verbally and in writing, which can help you through the job search process and in your career.Job Search. There is so much immediately accessible information available now that its hard to cut through the clutter. Its difficult to know which job search resources are worthwhile. Almost no one has the time to sift through all that data and figure out whats useful and whats not. How can you work mora efficiently when searching for the right job? Set up free job alerts on several sites that will email you relevant postings at your specified frequency. You can do this on HotJobAlerts, Monsterand CareerBuilder, among many others. HotJobAlerts aggregates jobs from many different sites so that you can catch postings from some of the larger job search sites. Dont rely exclusively on the Internet for your search. Get out and meet people socially and professionally. There are postings you will never see online and jobs you will never know about until you start meeting people.Rsum. More is not better. Quality wins over quantity. This applies here as well as in your cover letters. A one-page rsum does not mean you have less worthy experience than someone with two pages. It usually is a positive sign to have fewer pages, because it tells hiring managers you can write concisely and apply what is relevant from your background to the job youre applying to. Hiring managers will look less favorably at a person with a lengthy rsum that in cludes unnecessary information. They want to know immediately that you can sift through a massive amount of data to highlight only the important accomplishments and value you bring to the organization. It makes sense Youll likely be required to do the same in your job, no matter what field youre in. Of course there are exceptions. In CVs for academic and medical fields, you are expected to include more information about your work as well as your publications. It can also benefit you to include more details of your work history when applying to federal government jobs. Cover Letter. Brevity does not mean ignoring the cover letter. It is mucksmuschenstill very important, and it is not a retelling of your rsum. If the hiring manager likes your rsum, hell read your cover letter. However, this doesnt mean it shouldnt be succinct. Rarely should a cover letter go past one page, unless youre in a more academic field and have the background to warrant it. A way to instantly attract someo ne to read your cover letter is to use bullets in part of the letter to showcase the accomplishments and qualities you offer. You should write the letter thinking, what do they want to know? Employers want to know how you can solve their potential problems and be a good fit for their team.Based on conversations youve had and the job description, who do you think they want as anemployee? Address the value you bring to the company and job. Interviewing. An interviewer, or even a person you just met at a networking event, is nottypicallyinterested in your whole life story. This person wants to know, how can you help me/our company? Not every answer you give will be along those lines, but try to remember that during the interview. Youll want to make sure that based on your answers, the interviewer has a good grasp of how you can help the firm. As you answer questions during an interview, try to use one or two specific examples to demonstrate a personal quality or situation theyve aske d about. You dont need to include every detail. Theyre most interested in the task you had, the action you took and the result. And as you speak, try to leave space. Just as your rsum and cover letter should have some white space and reasonably sized margins, so too should your speech. Practice taking pauses at the end of a statement or idea as you prepare for an interview. It gives you a chance to think (and breathe) and your interviewer a chance to process the information youve shared. The key in all unterstellung aspects of the job search process is to practice. The more you search, the more you write and the more you talk to other professionals, the better youll get at creating space and being brief. These are skills that extend beyond the job search and will help you tremendously at work as well. The best researchers know how to cull the right data the best presenters know how to get to the point and pause during speeches and the best communicators know how to convey a messag e clearly and concisely in fewer words. Its all in a days work. Marcelle Yeageris the president ofCareer Valet, which delivers personalized career navigation services. Her goal is to enable people to recognize skills and job possibilities they didnt know they had to make a career change or progress in their current career. She worked for more than 10 years as a strategic communications consultant, including four years overseas. Marcelle holds an MBA from the University of Maryland.

How I Handled a Co-workers Public Scandal - The Muse

How I Handled a Co-workers Public Scandal - The Muse How I Handled a Co-workers Public Scandal The storm began to swirl the day we returned from winter vacation. The head of the language arts department at the school where I teach failed to come in for work. Her unexplained absence sent the administration scrambling. They called her phone with no results. They couldn’t locate her at area hospitals. She was in the wind. By early afternoon, thanks to the local news, the entire faculty knew what had happened. She’d been booked into jail. The charges? Eventually they’d boil down to six felony counts for having sexual relations with a student over a long period of time, to which she’d plead “not guilty.” The details would grow more sordid in the coming weeks. To say that I was stunned would be an understatement. I worked with her for seven years. We weren’t close, but we were respectful and cordial. And while she always had teens hanging out in her room during lunch and after school, I shrugged. I had kids around all the time, too. However, I felt like kicking myself. I’d seen this particular student exiting my former colleague’s car on two different occasions. It’s against the rules to drive students anywhere. But I’d been informed, when I was going to report it that the administration already knew and was speaking with her about it. I was also furious. How could she place all of us in this vulnerable position? Throughout the rest of the day, the story gained traction. Media crews were perched outside the school like crows, hoping to catch students, parents, and teachers on camera during dismissal. That evening, I was unpleasantly surprised to see two of my own students on the news. One of them had never even taken a class with her. That’s the moment that I made some decisions. Twice before in my life, peers have committed shocking crimes; both are now in prison (one for life). I learned from them that a situation like this doesn’t go away overnight. Any new developments and, if it gets that far, a trial, can reignite media coverage, re-spark watercooler gossip, and fan fallout. No matter what job you’re working in, when a colleague is accused of a crime, the alleged offense can become a rain cloud that pours down on the entire business and everyone associated with it. It’s not fair, but that’s reality. If you find yourself in that situation, I know from experience that it’s imperative to gird yourself and guard those you care about. So protecting myself, my record, my students- and because I was in a position of responsibility, my entire department- became a priority. The next day, I gave all my classes a brief lecture on manipulations of the media and the infinite length of the internet’s memory. The first rule of thumb, I told them, is not to give interviews to media. Your quote will be pulled out for online news stories, where your name will be forever connected to misconduct- sometimes without the nuance or context you intended. “I never had her as a teacher but she was always so nice to me when I passed her in the hallway” can be truncated into “She was always so nice to me.” I asked them: “Which one is more insinuating?” Before long, I began to see people I knew posting articles about the incident on social media, along with their horrified, snarky, and sometimes smug comments. My sympathies lay entirely with the victim. Still, I couldn’t help but want to defend my workplace. But I refrained. Any argument I engaged in would be unwinnable. And given the nature of the supposed transgressions, I absolutely did not want my views to be misconstrued, especially not in a public forum. Even in personal communications, I was circumspect, because this is no longer a world where we can expect privacy. As my boss found that out the hard way when he sent a contentious email to a parent, assume everything will leak. Whether or not someone chooses to remain friends with a colleague who’s been accused of a crime is a personal decision, of course, and also depends on the nature of the misdeed. Not all co-workers who’ve erred will be immediately fired. Not all will be arrested and booked in jail. Some will need your support. I find empathy to be a standout trait. It doesn’t cost you anything but time or labor to listen, to help someone move to a less expensive apartment, or even to take care of pets while someone’s dealing with the justice system. Still, there’s a line. I’d be wary about lending anyone money for bail or legal fees, especially someone who’s no longer employed. Don’t volunteer or agree to be a character witness for the defense. Don’t offer a room in your home; you might find that they’ll never leave. In my case, my boss specifically warned all of us in a faculty meeting: We were to have no contact with the accused teacher. If we did and he found out, we’d be fired. In the end, I only paid real attention to two things: court dates, which helped predict when we might expect another onslaught of negative attention, and my performance at work. It was difficult but imperative to continue a regular routine for me and for my students, especially those who felt betrayed by this woman. I allowed them a few minutes each day to express themselves, but eventually we’d get down to business. I also continued my regular administrative duties and kept up with my professional development. Still, I prepared myself for another future as well. When an organization is continually discolored by one person’s scandal, the reality is that it might not recover. So I updated my resume. I consulted job listings. I sent out inquiries. All the while, my colleagues and I carried on with our jobs, doing our utmost to ensure we were still following through on the mission that had attracted us there in the first place. I probably won’t have to put my exit strategy in motion. But as I see crises unfold at different types of organizations every week, it reminds me that no matter what industry you’re in, disaster can strike at any time, for any reason. If you love your job or your company, it’s both painful and enraging to watch from the inside as one unfolds. But there’s also opportunity during times of calamity. If you don’t allow your work ethic to flag and continue to offer your best to the people you work with, your efforts will be appreciated and could become watershed moments in your career. In the end, how a colleague’s scandal affects you really depends on you.

Heres a Great Team Building Icebreaker for Meetings

Here's a Great Team Building Icebreaker for Meetings Here's a Great Team Building Icebreaker for Meetings Try out this always successful, laughter-generating, team building icebreaker. It’s a good icebreaker for a meeting because it takes so little time, yet gives you the exact results that you require from a team-building icebreaker. It also produces great results for the facilitator. Your attendees pay you back with the warmth that their conversation generates. Not even the shyest participant is wary about finding what he or she has in common with the other people in the group. Conversations tend to concentrate on items external to the employee. Consequently, employees can relate and share without feeling as if the group conversation is too personal or invasive. It has a positive effect on the interaction of the group members. Team Building Icebreaker Steps Divide the meeting participants into groups of four or five people by having them number off. (You do this because people generally begin a meeting by sitting with the people they already know best, especially their closest coworkers and people from their departments. Its a natural comfort zone thing.) One of the key expectations for any icebreaker that you offer is to help people from different departments get to know each other. It helps you build more effective teams and reinforces camaraderie and cooperation across departments. In a public meeting, you want to foster the same goodwill in the group so that the conversation flows freely throughout the day. When attendees start by finding commonalities, no matter the attendees group assignment, he or she  is comfortable participating. Tell the newly formed groups that their assignment is to find ten things that they have in common, with every other person in the group, and that the commonalities they identify must have nothing to do with work. It helps the group explore shared interests outside of the workplace. (Youll want to tell the people that they may not select body parts that they have in common or use types of clothing as commonalities.)Tell the group to find the ten things that they have in common with the other people at their table. Groups  take no more than ten or fifteen minutes to do the exercise from experience using this team building icebreaker. Tell the groups that one person must take notes and be ready to read the groups list of ten commonalities to the whole group upon completion of the assignment.Ask for a volunteer to read their groups whole list of things in common first. (This works better than having the facilitator select the first group to share as it does not take an employee out of their comfort zone. The first group sharing their list volunteered.Then, ask the other notetakers, in turn, to share their groups whole list of commonalities with the whole group. Because people are your best source of laughter and fun, the reading of the lists always generates a lot of laughter and discussion. Attendees also enjoy finding one of their ten things in common on another groups list of things in common, too. You can also catch the drift of the conversations that took place in the small groups based on the transitions made from item to item. Participants love to compare their list of items with the lists generated in the other small groups. You will want to allow a free flow of conversation, laughter, and sharing. Your audience is your best resource for making this icebreaker a fun part of your training, meeting, or team-building event. Problem Solving Facilitation Recommendations This team-building icebreaker takes 10-15 minutes, depending on the number of groups. To keep the activity ?down  to ten minutes, after seven minutes of brainstorming together, tell the groups that the lists that they have created are perfect, no matter how many items they have on their list. Then, debrief the activity. You dont want to make the rest of the participants wait with their eyes focused on the slower groups- waiting. It also makes it harder for the already slow groups to finish because they become self-conscious and squirmy when all eyes are on them. It is not good for building camaraderie and a sense of group cohesion. It is a tip for any meeting. You will frequently have a group or two that is slower than the others, and this is a way to address this issue.

22% of managers say workers who lunch break less hardworking

22% of managers say workers who lunch break less hardworking 22% of managers say workers who lunch break less hardworking While it can be hard enough to figure out what to eat for lunch at work, it turns out that some employees feel like  taking a lunch break tarnishes their manager’s perception of them.close dialog Advertisementclose dialog/* effects for .bx-campaign-1012257 *//* custom css .bx-campaign-1012257 */.bx-custom.bx-campaign-1012257.bx-type-agilityzone .bx-close { z-index: 2;}@-ms-keyframes bx-anim-1012257-spin { from { -ms-transform: rotate(0deg); } to { -ms-transform: rotate(360deg); } } @-moz-keyframes bx-anim-1012257-spin { from { -moz-transform: rotate(0deg); } to { -moz-transform: rotate(360deg); } } @-webkit-keyframes bx-anim-1012257-spin { from { -webkit-transform: rotate(0deg); } to { -webkit-transform: rotate(360deg); } } @keyframes bx-anim-1012257-spin { from { transform: rotate(0deg); } to { transform: rotate (360deg); } } #bx-close-inside-1012257 { top: 0; right: 0; } /* KD - Remove padding from video wrapper and set height to 100% */.bx-custom.bx-campaign-1012257 .bx-row-video .bx-video-wrapper { padding-top: 0!important; height: 100%;}.bx-custom#bx-campaign-1012257 #bx-creative-1012257 .bx-wrap { height: auto;}/* KD - Change positioning to static as that was not necesaary and here you can adjust the height of the video element */.bx-custom.bx-campaign-1012257 .bx-row-video .bx-video-wrapper video { position: static;}/* rendered styles .bx-campaign-1012257 */.bxc.bx-campaign-1012257.bx-active-step-1 .bx-creative *:first-child {width: 100%;}.bxc.bx-campaign-1012257.bx-active-step-1 .bx-creative {background-color: transparent;border-style: none;max-width: 900px;}.bxc.bx-campaign-1012257.bx-active-step-1 .bx-close {stroke: white;background-color: black;border-style: solid;border-color: white;border-width: 1px;}.bxc.bx-campaign-1012257 .bx-group-1012257-AFvXB OB {padding: 10px;display: block;width: auto;}.bxc.bx-campaign-1012257 .bx-element-1012257-J0EiS8Y {width: auto;}.bxc.bx-campaign-1012257 .bx-element-1012257-J0EiS8Y *:first-child {padding: 2px 4px;font-size: 10px;color: rgb(255, 255, 255);text-transform: uppercase;background-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.34);}Tork‘s “Take Back the Lunch Break” survey - out last month - showed that it’s not all in our heads, finding that  22% of managers in North America consider workers who do so are “less hardworking.” And other findings mirror this data - almost 20% of employees in North America “worry” that their managers won’t consider them “hardworking” if they break for lunch regularly.KRC Research and Jennifer Deal, Senior Research Scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership and Affiliated Research Scientist at the Center for Effective Organizations at the University of Southern California (USC), worked together on Tork’s research. They surveyed 1,600 workers in Canada and the United States.The benefits of breaking for lunchAccording to the infographic, while 81% of employees who break for lunch each day are people with “a strong desire to be an active member in their company.” Almost 90% of North American employees report that giving themselves this time to eat during the work day “helps them feel refreshed and ready to get back to work.”It also says that employees who break for lunch at work each day “are more likely to be satisfied with their current job and feel valued by their employer.”What happens when lunch breaks take a back seatDeal  commented on the findings in a statement.“Reluctance to take a lunch break is often perceived as a display of dedication to the job … In reality, taking time away for a lunch break can help to reduce stress, increase engagement, and restore energy levels, making employees feel more effective and productive back at the office,” she said.In other words, the on ly person you’re hurting by not taking a lunch break is yourself - but there are many reasons why you might avoid doing so.While 13% of employees think that those they work with “will judge them” because of their lunch break, 38% report that they “don’t feel encouraged to” have one.But the research also shows that they play a role in performance reviews, with 34% of managers in North America saying that they factor in the frequency of a worker’s lunch breaks during their assessment.Tork has  designated the third Friday in June “National Take Back the Lunch Break Day” as part of its efforts.

4 Office Tips for Skype Interviews

4 Office Tips for Skype Interviews 4 Office Tips for Skype Interviews When you prepare for a Skype video interview, you already know to be dressed as if you’re going to be in an in-office interview. But beyond dressing to impress your interviewer, look around your home office. Unlike a phone interview, you need to style your office when you have a video interview. So what does your background say about you? Cast a discerning design eye to your surroundings and style it using these tips for Skype interviews: Declutter A cluttered desk or stacks of magazines behind you do not a good first impression make. It will automatically make your interviewer think that you’re disorganized and it can reflect poorly on you. So be sure to clear all extra items from the background, and clean the space as well. Make it interesting Decluttering doesn’t mean that you should film your interview against a blank wall, either. An interviewer will want to see some character in the room, so keep some books or a pretty lamp behind you. You want the room to reflect your personality and professionalism, not be a sterile space that doesn’t give the interviewer an idea of who you are. Keep it light In terms of lighting, make sure that you- and the room you’re in- are well-lit. Turn on lamps for a warm and inviting feel. You can always open the blinds for a natural and flattering light. Stay centered You (not your room) should be the focal point of the video. Make sure that your camera is not zoomed in so close as to see every pore in your skin, and not zoomed so far out that the interviewer can see the entire room. Check your camera to make sure that it’s at the right focus. Clearing, cleaning and redesigning your home office will help set the stage for a successful video interview. Readers, how do you prepare your home office for a video interview?