3 Ways to Make Remote Employees Feel Valued

3 Ways to Make Remote Employees Feel Valued Employees are working remotely more than ever today, whether that be from home, a coffeehouse, or a solar-powered van pointed at the horizon. But for all the perks of working in pajamas, there are potential downsides. Our latest study shows remote employees feel undervalued more often than their on-site colleagues. Specifically, remote employees more frequently feel that coworkers don’t fight for their priorities, talk behind their backs, make changes to projects without warning, and lobby against them. What’s more, remote employees struggle to resolve these concerns. In fact, 84% of those surveyed admitted to letting concerns persist for days, while 47% let them go unresolved for weeks. Such unresolved feelings of underappreciation impact productivity, costs, deadlines, morale, and retention. The solution isn’t to call in the troops but to foster a culture of communication, and one that reaches beyond the bounds of corporate headquarters. Our research over the past three decades proves the health and success of any team are determined by the quality of communication between colleagues. Teams that can hold candid and effective dialogueâ€"minus the emotions and politicsâ€"experience higher morale and results like better quality, shorter time-to-market, better decision making, etc. Of the 1153 workers we surveyed, 853 shared accounts of leaders especially adept at managing co-located teams. And while those responses revealed several common strategies for spurring a healthy culture of open and effective dialog, here are just three skills sure to buoy collaboration, cohesion, and feelings of appreciation among both onsite and remote employees. Convey Explicit Expectations. When expectations are clear, employees are less likely to feel in the dark and thus inadequate to fulfilling their roles. Effective managers encourage engagement by providing clear and explicit expectations for job duties, project outcomes, and deadlines. Check in Regularly. Nearly half of surveyed respondents said the most effective managers checked in regularly. And the frequency of these check-insâ€"whether daily, weekly, or bi-weeklyâ€"seemed less important than their consistency. In most cases, managers held standing meetings with their direct reports, usually lasting a few minutes to an hour. Respondents further said check-ins proved more effective when done over the phone, via video chat, or in person. Make Yourself Available. Successful managers are available quickly and at all times of the day. They respond to the needs and requests of their team and make extra efforts to keep an open-door policy. They are also familiar with and employ various apps and technologies to communicate. Rather than limiting their communications to email or the office phone, they embrace the challenge of adopting and using apps and methods that best serve their teams’ communication needs. It comes down to plain and direct communication, and managers are the frontline of this effort. When managers model stellar communication, the rest of the team follows suit. You cant overestimate the influence a manager has on his or her teams ability to engage in dialogue and create a collaborative and healthy culture. State expectations clearly, keep dialog channels wide open, and be available and responsiveâ€"these are crucial skills not just for onsite contemporaries, but also for those pioneering the landscape of remote employment. And managers who adopt these skills are more likely to keep teams engaged, connected, and feeling valued. About the author: David Maxfield  is a  New York Times  bestselling author, keynote speaker, and leading social scientist for business performance. He leads the research function at  VitalSmarts, a corporate training and leadership development company. His work has been translated into 28 languages, is available in 36  countries, and has generated results for 300 of the Fortune 500.

Tips on Writing a Dental Assistant Resume

Tips on Writing a Dental Assistant ResumeIf you are interested in writing a dental assistant resume, there are some steps that you can take to make it that much more appealing. Before you start the process, be sure to think about your goals and make sure you plan out exactly what it is you want to accomplish with your future career.The first step is always to sit down and write out a short summary of your career goals. You should do this as soon as you know what it is you want to do with your future. Some people decide to stay in this career for many years before becoming a dental assistant while others move up the ladder quickly because they want to be more involved with procedures or are just simply looking for a job with more responsibility.To be successful at writing a dental assistant resume, you need to have a realistic view of your career so that you can create a comprehensive document that will get you the job. This means that you need to plan out your goals and outline them clearly so that they are understandable. Make sure that you focus on each detail so that they are worth remembering. You also need to write an impressive resume that will stand out above the rest.You want to create a dental assistant resume that is detailed enough to catch the attention of the company. This means that it should be able to contain enough information to make the company want to contact you. If you are going to present yourself to potential employers as a competent dental assistant, then you need to be able to present yourself in a way that lets them know that you are the best person for the job.A dental assistant resume needs to be written in such a way that it reflects the work that you have done in the past. You need to include a description of what you have accomplished in the field so that it is clear that you have accomplished some real success in your area of specialization. If you have done a lot of rotations, then mention that and talk about how you handled ea ch one of them well. Make sure that you tell the story of each experience so that you will be remembered as someone who accomplished more than most.When you are creating a dental assistant resume, you need to provide a full list of your accomplishments. This includes the years that you have worked in the field and the specialties that you have worked in. You should also show how many years you have been working in different positions. Using this type of information, the company will be able to see just how much experience you have and how much more experience you can provide to them if they were to call you.You can also use the format of your dental assistant resume to make it more interesting. Write each part of the document so that it has something unique to it so that it catches the eye of the reader. It is also important to create a strong and professional looking layout so that the company knows that you are capable of handling a much larger project.Writing a dental assistant r esume is not something that you can do on your own. You need to find someone who is experienced in writing these documents and let them work with you. The end result will make it much easier for you to find a job if you hire someone who can do it for you.

A list of gifts thatll help your career

A list of gifts thatll help your career Its true that I am publishing my gift suggestions too late for the biggest gift-giving season of the year. But I think its okay, because the gifts are totally impractical. In fact, I think this is actually my wish liststuff I wish I had been given over the years to keep my career on track. 1. A hall monitor for emails. Email provides a chance to sidestep the problems of reading facial cues, which is what people with Aspergers want. And email provides a chance for introverts to collect their thoughts before they talk to extroverts, which is what introverts want. The problem with email is that the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says that emails are misinterpreted fifty percent of the time. So, people who are really tone deaf, like people who have Aspergers, they wont know theyre being an emotional idiot in email any better than theyll know face-to-face. Also, people who are the most incompetent with social skills are the most likely to believe that they are doing fine. This is why we need an emotional intelligence safety net in the form of software: Tone Check. The New York Times reports that the makers of Tone Check eventually plan to allow clients to prevent employees from sending e-mails that violate their tone policy. But really, this is already happening: People get fired for bad tone today, the verbiage is youre not a good cultural fit. 2. Off-label psychiatric drugs. Caffeine is a completely sanctioned drug at work. So if you feel like you want to curl up in a ball and sleep, if theres no company culture to support that, and no office door to shut, you should probably try caffeine instead. For the hard-core few who dont want to just stay up, but want to get a lot done in a short time, get a friend with Adderall and take it off-label. For the other end of the emotion spectrum, like if you feel a surge of energy when you imagine killing the co-workers you hate, try Xanax. Some of youprobably the ones who totally abuse caffeine and tell yourself its not a drugsnub your nose at Xanax as a go-to drug of choice. You all will be good candidates for new-to-market relaxation drinks: Slow Cow, Vacation in a Bottle, and Mary Janes Relaxing Soda. The drinks ride on the backlash of the energy drink craze; if you trade in fast food for slow food, why not do the same with your soda? 3. A company. Really. Its a trend. Parents are buying their kids a company to run, according to Sue Shellenbarger, writing for The Wall Street Journal. This makes sense. Gallup reports that 70% of kids want to start their own company, and author Scott Gerber has made a career for himself out of telling his Gen Y peers that they should Never Get a Real Job. A small franchise is relatively easy to set up, and its better than a stupid, entry-level job. And Richard Setterstens book Not Quite Adults is a great explanation of the research showing how kids benefit in both the short-term and long-term from parents being overly involved in their kids early adult life. For those of you who think buying a franchise is too expensive, Zac Bissonnette points out in his book Debt-Free U the smartest book Ive ever read about funding college that youre better off using college savings to buy a kid a business than to pay for an over-priced college education. 4. An insanely expensive chandelier. Heres the one Ive been coveting. Its $4000 at Jak Home, in San Francisco (via More Ways to Waste Time). Ive looked at it from a few angles, and I decided it would be something I could make. Then I tried to get all the lights wired together, and I nearly electrocuted myself. Then I tried to get an electrician to do it and he said he doesnt have enough insurance to cover such a cockamamie scheme. He did not say cockamamiethere are no Yiddish speaking electricians in Southwest Wisconsin. But it would have been easier for him to say that than to spend an hour-and-a-half trying to wire stuff and trying to break it to me that my idea sucks. People tread lightly here in Wisconsin. The thing is, if someone bought me this chandelier, I think I would probably return it. And get cash. Or Id get a store credit and get something more practical, like, I dont know, $4000 of light bulbs. Because Im not really sure what else this store would sell that is practical. Wait. Speaking of store credits, I just learned a new phrase:  Gift Card Laundering (via Urbandaily) Its when you have a gift card and you spend a little of it, and then you use it to buy a different gift card and you give it, fresh, to someone else. Thats probably what Id do. Id divide my $4000 credit into a bunch of gift cards and save a lot of money. (Or piss a lot of people off because theres nothing at Jak Home store for less than $4000.) When you buy someone a gift like this, what you really are trying to buy them, I think, is that feeling that they deserve to have something so gorgeous and glorious and expensive as that in their lives. Does anyone deserve that? I dont know. I know that every piece of research in the world says that buying experiences, not things, makes us happier. So I guess the gift recommendation really is to buy the experience of waking up to a gorgeous chandelier every morning. 5. A coach. Sometimes, when Ive thought my kids were going to starve or at least have to live without electricity, Ive thought, Well I could always fall back on coaching. There is a huge market, for example, for getting paid by parents to coach their twenty-something kids. But I always end up telling the parents their kids are fine, just be emotionally supportive. And I coach a lot of people, but really, the thing that makes me is a good coach is that I love being coached myself. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell talks so much about how hard work makes you great, but the hard work has to be focused and productive, which he says comes from good coaching. So I cant stand doing anything when I dont have a great coach. So you will not be surprised to hear that I found myself a coach for taking pictures. I mean, I already have an editor for my blogwith an editor I can take huge risks because the editor will always tell me if Ive gone too far. If I were a good enough photographer, Id call my coach an editor. But right now, I think shes still coaching me. Telling me what photos to throw out. (Which, by the way, is how I learned to write. I handed in a page of writing each week and my teacher would either edit it or write no at the bottom of it.) Heres how I know I have a great photography coach: one of my favorite photos from my coachs website. It inspires me to look more closely. And thats really what we should aim for in every gift we give: inspiration.

Teamwork vs Individual Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Teamwork vs Individual Work - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Some people prefer to work individually and others in teams. Both have advantages and disadvantages. The key is finding the rights tasks for each one. Take a look below for pros and cons of these work styles. Advantages and Disadvantages of Teamwork Working in teams increases collaboration and allows brainstorming. As a result, more ideas are developed and productivity improves. Two or more people are always better than one for solving problems, finishing off difficult tasks and increasing creativity. Everyone is unique and has different skills, backgrounds and experiences. Therefore, others in a team can help you see things from a different angle. Teamwork encourages communication between team members. For this reason, relations between employees tend to be better and over time employees learn to communicate better. In some teams, there may be members who sit back and let others do all the work. In these types of teams conflicts may occur and this can affect the mood of others in the team. Working in a team requires many meetings and these meetings, if not managed well, can go off topic and decrease the efficiency of the team. Making decisions can take longer for the sake of finding a consensus. Hence, delays occur. Advantages and Disadvantages of Individual Work You can work in your own pace not depending on someone else. You can decide what to do when. You can concentrate easier and work faster. If you are working on a familiar task, you can get it done quicker since there are no outside interactions and extra meetings. You get the whole credit for the work you do since you are working alone! There won’t be any situations where one does less but gets the same credit with others. You get to make your own decisions. You are the sole responsible for the job. If you fail, it is your fault. There aren’t any others to blame it for. You have to motivate yourself. There are no others to motivate you for getting things done. You can get bored working all by yourself. There isn’t anyone to talk to, share ideas with or get help from. When you are working alone, if you get sick or need to take days off, the work will be delayed because there won’t be anyone to continue it for you.

Giving Up the Pistol On Resume For Your First Interview

Giving Up the Pistol On Resume For Your First InterviewA putting address on resume, a.k.a. 'giving up the pistol' is one of the most convenient and least exciting strategies for losing a bet. It sounds cool, but not too many people really know what it entails.Putt Putting is an outdoor sport that is all about putting a ball into a hole no matter where it is or who's there. Because of this, some of the rules can be very complicated. So much so that some people have trouble following them.So, let's use professional putters as our example. They have a headpiece, called a putter which fits over the shoe and then they have a plastic cylinder, called a hammer, which is the projectile.The most important part of the game, the puts balls into holes, is done through practicing. You can practice putting but the real game is learned on the golf course. It is a skill that needs to be honed and perfected.In order to give up the pistol in a way that is going to get your first interview, you can giv e up the putting address on resume. When I was on the job market after college, I decided that my first few interviews would go a little like this. I got in a car and drove a few miles from my hometown and putted the top 100 resumes that I found along the way.Once I had identified the resumes that I felt would benefit me the most, I figured out where they were from. This is my method to eliminate resumes I have no chance of interviewing. I ended up driving about 12 miles down to a big city in the east coast. As I arrived at the building, I putted the first two resumes into the holes, about half a dozen of them in total.It was time to start learning the basics of putting. During my drive back home, I putted a few more resumes into the holes. This was the first time that day that I thought about giving up the pistol, because I had kept one of them from my college application.I felt extremely nervous about what was about to happen, since I was driving to the office and giving away my p ersonal information. It was an eye opening experience for me and helped me realize how important my first interview was. In the end, it was so cool that I gave up the putting address on resume and realized that my dream job could only come from someone else's idea of what it looked like.

8 ways to build a strong social media presence without distractions - Debut

8 ways to build a strong social media presence without distractions - Debut This piece was written by an external contributor.  Lucy Skoulding‘s latest article is all about boosting your online presence without social media swallowing you up. Social media is an amazing tool. Having somewhere to document your life experiences, share your opinions, and keep up with topics which interest you, no matter where you are in the world, is definitely a gift. Even better, social media is now becoming a key element of our career journeys, from finding jobs to showcasing your skills to impress employers. However, social media does have the potential to be overbearing. I have definitely been guilty of checking on a Facebook notification when I am sitting at the dinner table, or scrolling down Twitter when I really should be working. This is when social media can start impacting your life in a negative way. It’s important not to live too deeply in the virtual world. Luckily, there are simple ways to strike a healthy balance. Read on for some tips I use when I realise I’ve looked at my Instagram feed so much I’ve seen the same photo ten times.   Schedule social media time in your day I am the first person to admit that no matter how busy I am, it’s hard to resist a notification which flashes up on your phone. ‘It will only take a few seconds to look’, I tell myself, but then the inevitable happens and I get distracted by something else on the site. Before I know it I have been scrolling down Twitter for five minutes and I’m behind with what I should be doing. Instead of checking and updating social media constantly, it’s better to allocate specific time in your day for it. Perhaps you could spend half an hour on it over breakfast, or while relaxing in the evening? And if you want to post more than once a day, schedule short 5-minute slots and don’t exceed them. Turn your internet off when you don’t want to get distracted Got a deadline at uni or work? Being distracted by a funny cat video your mate sends is not what you want. Equally, if you’re spending quality time with others, or you’re at an important event, it could be considered rude to be checking your social media. In these situations, remove your access to the internet. This may mean switching your mobile data off, putting your phone in another room, or disconnecting your laptop from the internet. Find whatever method works for you. If you really need to keep an eye on your phone, allow yourself a short break every half an hour to do so. Decide how often you will post. And stick to it. Everyone has preferences on how often they want to post on social media. Perhaps you need to post regularly if you have started doing so for your blog or YouTube channel. Whatever your preferences, it’s best to maintain a pattern and if you want to change this, do so gradually. If you usually post once a day then suddenly post 10 times in an hour, people may quickly hit the unfollow button on your account.   Once you have decided on your number, you can choose how to manage your posting. If you only want to post about once a day, it’s easy to do so as and when you want to. However, if you hope to post multiple times, using a scheduling tool is efficient. On Hootsuite or Tweetdeck, you can write out posts then schedule when you would like them to go out. This way, you can stick to the social media session idea described in tip 1 while still appearing to be regularly active.   Don’t use it just because you’re bored This is so easy to fall into. I find I’m particularly prone to this if I’m procrastinating, feeling lazy, or waiting for something like a bus. Unfortunately, with so many tempting articles and videos out there, it can be easy to get stuck in the social media abyss if you just scroll aimlessly. Scrolling through feeds is absolutely fine; it’s a way of reading news, learning about topics which interest you, and interacting with others. But try to do it with a purpose in mind if you can, whether it’s one of the mentioned reasons or something else entirely. For instance, you could look at Linkedin with the aim of reading an interesting article then commenting on it. Find a productive alternative If you do often find yourself spending unnecessary hours on social media, have no fear, there is a solution. Whenever I feel tempted to go on a Twitter spree, I turn to my ‘productive alternative’ list. I have formed a list of a few activities which can be done in the same circumstances as looking on social media. Activities could be linked to your personal interests. For instance, I’m learning Spanish from a languages app, I keep an ‘article ideas’ tab in my OneNote where I jot down potential things I could write, and I have e-books on my phone. If you’re bored and waiting for something, one of your chosen activities might be the best use of you time. Once you have found a healthy balance in using social media, you can focus on building a strong online presence. You must decide on which platforms you want to focus on, but whether it’s one or all, the following tips will help you forge a personal online brand.     Keep content useful relevant It can be difficult to strike a balance between personal and professional when building your own social media profiles. LinkedIn may be one exception, as most people focus on showing their professional selves. But with other sites, it can be harder. There is no reason why you can’t blend personal with professional and still build an enviable online profile. However, there are some important points to remember. I’m sure that you’ve heard this many times, but remember to never post offensive or rude content, or anything which may portray you in a bad light to potential employers. Other than this, make your profiles your own. You might choose to post content mainly related to your career path, or mix it up, the decision is yours. Showcase your skills Social media is a fantastic way to show off your skills, knowledge, passions and creativity, especially now that some employers are asking for Twitter handles and the like. Think of your profiles as an opportunity to show what you can offer, as well as proving your digital skills in general. This could be anything, from sharing links to your writing, vlogs, and photography, to posting original comments on trending topics, to retweeting funny and interesting content. Prove your ability to create unique, popular posts, interact with people online, and engage in what’s happening in your areas of interest. Let your personality shine through Finally, remember your social media is YOURS. When employers look at applications or invite you to interview, they are keen to see who you really are, and the same applies for your social profiles. So don’t be afraid of showing your true interests, opinions, and humour on your profile. If you’ve got a particular hobby, shout about it. Or, if you have thoughts on something going on in the news, why not share them? Equally you don’t need to pretend to be interested in something just because everyone else is posting about it. Be real and be you. Connect with Debut on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn for more careers insights.

3 Reasons LinkedIn Is NOT the Only Resource for Job Seekers - CareerEnlightenment.com

Reason 2: The Boring Personality ProblemThe first thing I teach clients is to have a very clearly defined personal brand before writing their online profiles.And when crafting a value statement, make sure to take yourself from commodity and into personality.There is always going to be someone smarter, more educated and more qualified than you. Especially these days. (Don’t worry, you are still the prettiest/handsomest person ever.)So the sooner you can take yourself out of simply listing your skills and into demonstrating your value, the better.LinkedIn’s framework is limiting. Yes, there are now ways of uploading videos and slideshows.Xing.com offers users many more application features, such as mind mapping, document sharing (free), car-pooling, Wall Street Journal and more. These combine to create much more personality online then ever before.Reason 3: The Unwritten Rules of LinkedInThere are some unwritten rules that make networking with large numbers of people difficult.For example, if you decide to add someone to your network that you’ve never met, they are perfectly encouraged to say, “I don’t know you” and ignore your request. If this happens too many times, you get a polite wrist slap from LinkedIn.In response to this, LinkedIn Open Networking was created.I would encourage you to join this group and take advantage of thousands of people willing to accept your invitations and help you get out there and meet possible job opportunities.

The Key for Unemployed Job Seekers - Hallie Crawford

The Key for Unemployed Job Seekers If you are an unemployed job seeker, your job search might be more difficult because you dont already have a pre-existing schedule to help you establish a structure for your search. There are pros and cons to being an unemployed job seeker. You have more time than those who are employed, but you also have to create your own structure and schedule from scratch to ensure youre effective in your job search. I recently spoke with a career coaching client, Andrea, about this exact issue. She was finding it hard to structure her days in a way that she was effective in her job search. At the end of each day, she felt like she had taken action, but wasnt sure if it was the most effective action. She didnt have a sense of accomplishment. Every day and every week I suggest having a basic template for your job search that creates your own schedule. Go by the hour if needed. For example, every day you start your work by 9 am and from 9-11 you work on networking, and searching online job boards. Take a break for lunch, and an additional hour for working out/doing personal things if needed. Then get back to your job search from 2-5. During that time you can work on applying for jobs, revising your resume, updating your LinkedIn profile, making connections in LinkedIn or reaching out to recruiters. You can set your schedule however you want to. The key is to have a structure in place so that you know when you want to be working on specific things. This will help you establish what goals you want to achieve each day and each week. Having a schedule will help ensure youre using your time and energy wisely and that youve accomplished what you want to each day. Atlanta Career Coach P.S. Be sure to sign up for our upcoming FREE TELECLASS: How to Tell if Career Assessments Can Clarify Your Career Direction Which Ones Are Really Worth the Investment!