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Archive for Opinion

Working, Post COVID

May 8th, 2020

How do we deal with work-from-home post COVID?  While there are people who can work from home and do so effectively, actually most are not wired to do so.  Look around you at work.  How many people struggle to pay attention, keep looking at their cell phones, may already dislike their work but can’t seem to move on, and/or pop up their Facebook pages and home shopping on the work computer?  How many people do you see that need people interaction, not just a Chatty Kathy, but those that truly enjoy in-person communication with others?  That only leaves about two out of every 10 people to work from home successfully. 

Most individuals are too easily distracted, already struggle to “do work” at the workplace, are actually workaholics and being in a business environment helps control that problem, and/or need the in-person interaction of others to maintain their sanity.  The COVID crisis, and so many struggling to work from home has made this quite apparent.  It isn’t just about working with your spouse or children in the same room.  Besides, can you really call it a home office if it is your kitchen table or couch.

I have had more than one colleague who worked from home and quit doing so due to time management, distraction and interpersonal engagement issues.  Additionally, I have had numerous clients fail in a business while working from home, hate doing so for an employer, or had their spouse experience the same, because of identical issues.  This doesn’t make you a bad employee – it makes you human, and a person who either wants or needs to be in a traditional work environment.  Knowing that you need a conventional office atmosphere, makes you a good employee! 

But Karen, we have video chat, IM’s, and email, etc.  Yes, we do, and this type of technology actually means more time wasting for many employees than it ever creates.  Look at those who can’t even manage their cell phone texting or emails. Understanding this fact gives us power and control, a huge benefit to our career.

Interaction, not just in the periphery, in social distancing, or via Zoom, is necessary for human beings.  From hugs during tough times to just sitting close to another human being, we ARE wired to do these things!  Certainly, our current environment has changed things, but this to shall pass. Precautions can be taken at work to mitigate risk and keep you safe. Admit it if you can’t really work from home, it will be of value to both your career and personal life.

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Careers, Human Resources, Life Coaching, Opinion, Talent Management
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Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line

November 15th, 2019
Corporate America: Stop Finding Ridiculous Reasons to Downsize, Fire or Replace Employees to Boost Your Bottom Line

Well, it just happened again, and I doubt the trend will stop. Employers firing an employee without cause (they are never told why), or just making up something despite video, performance review, or other evidence to the contrary, to downsize or replace employees. If you are going to downsize, do it formally and publicly and take the hit on your reputation. If you are going to replace employees with someone cheaper, then I encourage those former employees to go onto Glassdoor and have at it in the critique section. The almighty dollar is not so important that you must wreak havoc on an employee’s life temporarily, cause heart-harming anxiety, send them into emergency job search mode, and put them into financial chaos because you want to save a buck. The worst part – it never works out, and the company will always lose down the road in loss of clients, employee attrition due to fear and overwork, and a terrible reputation. 

But Karen, you don’t understand, we have shareholders. Yes, I do, I own stock in companies, but I don’t expect them to treat employees like cattle to the slaughter because they are too cheap to do the right thing. This is never about the average shareholder, it’s about the board of directors and the officers/executives of the company who want to make more money and are the often the largest shareholders. The “for all the shareholders good” is just an excuse.

I was hoping after the economic downturn/great recession, employers would be increasingly mindful of the harm this has done. Apparently, that is not the case.

People are not “resources” or “capital” or whatever non-human reference you use. Corporate America’s consistent exploitation of downsizing, firing and position elimination to save money is both illogical and unethical. You cannot “save” your way to profit, because ultimately you sacrifice your clients and other employees on the altar of “cost saving synergies” and your bottom line.  Complaints of lack of service due to a shortage of employees or inexperienced staff are always signs of a company that only cares about short-term gain. 

Then you must hate Corporate American, you say? Absolutely not, as there are as many companies doing things right, as there are doing things wrong. Many businesses did learn after our great recession, or hired new leadership to create a better environment. I actually love Corporate America, am an avowed capitalist (as socialism creates the ultimate in inequity), and believe in the power of companies to do great good for our society! I am also a Jobseeker Advocate and WILL NOT be silent when I see shameful behavior that negatively effects my clients. I do have the responsibility of using my social media presence, industry standing and bit of a bully pulpit, to make it clear to those employing such tactics that this type of reprehensible conduct will not be tolerated.

Having said the above, there are times where in order to save a company, some employees must be downsized. Likewise, when mergers or acquisitions occur, there could be many duplicate positions and not enough other positions within the company that those duplicates can fill, so some must be laid off. I am not unsympathetic in any way to those realities. Instead, I am going after those that use firings to avoid paying unemployment (I have a list), accuse employees of absolute lies in order to make room for cheaper employees, eliminate positions without putting those employees in lateral (equally paid) positions that need filled, downsize because some board member or hedge fund investor wants to see a little more profit, or any combination of the above.

But you say, Karen, how do you know these things are really happening, couldn’t that just be your client’s opinion? After 20 years in this business, I have executive, internal employee and HR contacts you wouldn’t believe, and I can always get the real story. I then combine that with proof the clients provide me from performance reviews, client letters, awards received, and other documentation to get a clear picture. If you hear the same thing over and over again… Once can be an exception. Twice can be a coincidence. Three times is a trend.

Daily, I work with companies, not just individuals, who treat their employees as people, not numbers, and as valued contributors to their organization. These will be the companies that will ultimately thrive as paradigm shifts beget a new society of workers demanding to be treated as a human being. This will be the greatest gift Millennial’s and Generation Z employees bring to the workforce. However, to the companies using these unscrupulous tactics, you have now been put on notice!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Coaching, Career Management, Human Resources, Job Search, Opinion
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50 Shades of Privacy

September 20th, 2019
50 Shades of Privacy

Let’s face it, we already knew our online public data was being used for targeted marketing purposes and for public search information (both paid and free). What about data analysis for your company’s use? Are you comfortable with that potential? What if that supposed “free data” was being used to determine if you were going to leave your current company? Well, the fact is, this is currently being done, and the courts are protecting it.

LinkedIn has recently been in a legal tiff with HiQ Labs, a San Francisco-based company that analyzes free data like public LinkedIn profiles to identify the potential of employees to leave a company. Here is what HiQ says about their Keeper technology:

“Keeper is the first HCM tool to offer predictive attrition insights about an organization’s employees based on publicly available data. The solution turns those attrition insights into consumable, easy-to-deploy action plans so HR and business leaders can retain their key talent.

By identifying risk early, addressing potential issues proactively, and deploying remedial actions quickly, Keeper drives immediate business impact across organizations – and provides a built-in feedback loop so you can communicate your retention win to management.”

Both organizations have great points in their arguments presented to the courts. LinkedIn discusses an expectation of privacy for their customers. Essentially, they are stating that their clients shouldn’t have their information harvested that they entrusted to LinkedIn. 

I also, have zero doubt, HiQ’s intention with their Human Resources program is as stated above. It is a great idea to determine if valuable employees might be wanting to leave, and why, then take action to retain them in an organization.  And their argument that they are using data in the public realm only is absolutely correct. 

What is problematic is how Corporate America will really use this technology. Just as companies troll the online world for those using Monster or Indeed for a job search, or mentioning they are unhappy with their current company on Facebook, this is yet another tool to target those that might leave with downsizings, position elimination, and dismissals (often falsified to avoid paying unemployment). Is this the fault of HiQ? No. They are merely providing a service. It does however beg the question, when is enough, enough in protection of our personal data online, public or not?  

There are other issues though that might not have been put forth in this legal tussle. First, how are rankings of employees made? Red, Yellow and Green are nice, but how accurate is the data; does it look at the age of the information or how long since it has been updated? What about inaccurate data online? While HiQ would not want to give away the algorithms that detect retention issues, it is scary to think you might be putting something on your LinkedIn profile or elsewhere online in the public realm that is problematic without knowing it. You could be a person that is in no way unhappy with your current job, but an algorithm could have you targeted for termination in some form. Please do not blame a company for coming up with technology to try to stop employee loss. HiQ does offer the ability to have your data eliminated from their database, which is comforting. Still, could having your info deleted from their system be an “alert” to HR that you might be looking? 

So many questions, which now in the age of AI will be even more impactful regarding privacy. I suppose this article is merely a warning, to again be careful what you communicate online. To remember that nothing you put online is private, no matter what you are told. And now, to keep your information current and without opinion regarding anything job related, lest you become the focus of unwanted attention.  

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Exploration, Career Management, Career Transition, Careers, Human Resources, Interviews, Job Search, Opinion
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What is Capacity?

June 6th, 2019
Freedom

I have recently gone on an interesting journey. One that was unexpected and quite enlightening. If you already know me, then it is obvious I have more certifications than I need, but I love learning. So, when I saw a new certification called Certified Capacity Coach, I was intrigued. My certs all surround resume writing, career coaching, interview coaching and assessments. What would I do with a Capacity Coaching cert, and what the heck did that mean? I will answer those questions throughout this article.

Admittedly, at first, I was a bit dubious. My coaching is definitely outcome focused and I border between coach and consultant. There is no “get the crystals out, light the candles, and sing Kum Ba Yah” in Karen. Regardless, I just dove in and gave it a shot. The first three weeks were rough, and I was still not sold. It felt a little “hippy dippy” and that was not my style at all. But when I allowed myself to see past my bias in my feelings, I discovered a very unique skillset I was about to add to my coaching. 

Some things were inherent to my coaching style already, but I never thought about them as part of my “style” until this coaching class. I learned to ask myself the question “what is it like when you don’t have all the answers?” Certainly, I knew this in dealing with coaching clients and in my own life, and was willing to admit it and go looking for answers. However, I never thought about various situations where it may have led me to feel inadequate or worried as to my qualifications – or as I call it – the Imposter Syndrome. This is where my classmates came in, coaching me to see the worth in feeling those emotions, and how to leverage them with my clients. While I have never been afraid to admit to a client that I have weaknesses to bolster their trust, in my personal self-assessment, I probably made it “less than” it was or used it to bash myself depending upon the situation.

Now I am set free to say, yep, I screwed that up, and here is what I learned from it, and that is just fine. After all, mistakes aren’t there to create problems, but to teach us, expand us, and better us going forward. Giving myself more compassion in my personal life will enrich my coaching and my writing, as I am probably hardest on myself with my writing of blog posts for my own site. Meanwhile, I have truly engaged my “Controller” to clear all the clutter, both in my home/office and mind, cleaning up and clearing out excess paper and stuff. With the help of my fellow coaches I have developed a more targeted set of goals, combined with compassion that doesn’t allow the Controller in me to sabotage my forward motion, and won’t allow “fight or flight” to constrain my progress.

So, what does capacity mean? It means FREEDOM. The freedom to be more connected with clients.  The freedom to be compassionate to myself and not just my clients.  The freedom to always frame failure as learning.  And the freedom to go after loftier goals that can actually create more capacity (or freedom) in my life. FREEDOM means peace, it means being more productive, it means more clarity, and most importantly it means a more abundant life. 

Oh, and as a side note, I write articles and then make myself crazy with rewriting, rereading and sometimes not posting for months (or ever). I challenged myself to write this new post on the subject of Capacity in one morning, did so in 45 minutes, didn’t initially review it, just wrote it and sent it out to my class. I even read it back to my class as well the same day (again without reviewing). Now comes the goal of only reviewing once prior to posting on my blog. Update: I only reviewed once, a couple of months later, and posted. Freedom is a blessing!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Coaching, Career Management, Inspiration, Life Coaching, Opinion
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Social Media Spammers: Why I Won’t Buy Your Stuff or Give You Free Help

May 31st, 2019

Okay, you are on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc., and you are a jobseeker, need some career advice, or are a business owner. How do you develop a relationship with someone you don’t know? Well, right now the way many are trying to develop that rapport is by spamming connections the moment we accept their invite, and often with multiple “InMails” attempting to sell us something or get free career or business help. 

As a business owner, and as someone who provides help to jobseekers and business owners, I am sensitive to the need to cultivate business or garner valuable networking contacts. On the other hand, no one likes the person who just wants free help or tries to get you to buy their service or product from the get-go. The issue has become so obnoxious on the business side (people wanting to sell me products or services) that I have resorted to providing a free coaching moment or a very nice refusal via the particular social media venues InMail or messaging service. Here are the two things I say, depending on the situation:

Coaching Moment Email:

I know you are anxious to build your business or career and would like to offer you a free coaching tip to help you expand your network in a way that cultivates a relationship. I truly appreciate your inquiry but will tell you that networking is always and will always be about establishing a bond with the other party first. Networking is NEVER ABOUT YOU or your needs, but the other person. It works because you are offering them something of value that has nothing to do with your work or what you want. It’s also not an item or article you or a person you are in business with created. This “value” could be a networking contact you think might be useful to them (outside of your business partnerships), a referral, tip, hint, lead, etc., to open the door to an initial conversation, and then you can approach them after a real affinity is developed, but not until then.  
Linking with someone and immediately asking for referrals, business or connections without the foundation of a relationship is no different than walking up to someone on the street and asking them for any of the above. It is the rapport that builds trust and gives a person the proper context to offer help, and it is both give and take. 
While I understand the reason for the InMail, many won’t be as understanding, and it could ultimately work to alienate you instead of creating a connection. Since I coach people on how to network, I wanted to share this free tip with you. I am hoping this will assist you in building a dynamic and worthy network of connections and create a true rapport with others that could lead to your next opportunity. Best wishes and many blessings, Karen Silins

Nice Refusal:

I am very happy in my current business, and love what I do, and do not desire to increase my workload at this time. I greatly appreciate your inquiry and wish you many blessings in your business. Karen

Believe it or not, most are very kind about it or don’t respond, though we remain connected. Sometimes they even reach back out to let me know they are changing their approach. However, I did recently get a response from someone saying. “I know you are a business woman!!  But I would be a jerk for not sharing this!!! Can’t you afford three minutes to help your clients, etc., etc.” Hmm, snarky and unpleasant – not going to get my positive attention that way, oh, and I disconnected from you. This whole exchange started with a common ruse of “I need your help, can I get a few moments of your time” or something similar. My colleagues and myself must respond to these requests, as it could be a person wanting to discuss services or just has a very quick question that we can help them with, but too frequently it is a spammer. Nevertheless, the initial trick of needing my help is not an introduction to do business. No relationship has been developed.

Remember, the acceptance of a connection is not an tacit invitation to start asking people to help you without formation of at least an initial rapport. Immediately sending out an article, white paper, software trial, etc., that you, your friend or business upline/connection authored is not a proper way to cultivate a client either. The resource or other help you provide must always be external to what you want to sell or the advice you seek. Furthermore, the initial contact email or InMail saying you are looking to connect with “like-minded” coaches, business owners, or wanting to learn more about my business, etc., is not a relationship builder either, it’s just spam if all you want to do is sell them something. 

Know that wanting help or business immediately and for free from a new contact is improper and will definitely get you uninvited/unfriended from many a social media connection. Finally, please consider that you are taking people’s valuable time when you ask them to read your marketing email or want help, but in no way want to repay them for the help. Furthermore, the supposed “I will pay you later after I get a new job or you just have to see this business venture I am offering you,” is not a payment. In most cases you are chasing away leads and losing links to others because many of my colleagues, clients and acquaintances just delete you. That is no way to run a business or a job search. Help yourself by helping others first, and be of value, it will result in your business and/or career thriving!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Business Coaching, Career Management, Careers, Job Search, Networking, Opinion
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Kindness: A Daily Event

February 22nd, 2019
Kindness:  A Daily Event

Random Acts of Kindness Day was Sunday, February 17 and Valentine’s Day just occurred a few days prior.  What have you done recently to make someone else’s life better, happier, or just to brighten a stranger’s day?  Money has nothing to do with this challenge.  Just smiling at those you meet and saying hello to those that smile back can make a person’s day.  All it cost you was a facial expression.  For those of you wanting to do more, donate all those excess clothes or some old but still useful furniture, or pay for the person’s order behind you at the coffee shop, fast food restaurant or the dry cleaners.  See a struggling Mom or Dad in a store with a child who is fussy.  Of course, everyone else seems so “annoyed” that a child might act like a child and be grouchy.  How about being the one to sympathize, empathize, or even try to entertain the child a bit with a smile.  How about a handwritten note or handmade card for someone you care about who needs a pick-me-up? 

Look up from that phone, or even better, purposely don’t make calls or texts while you are running around on errands, and spend time noticing who might need cheering up.  Random acts of kindness should be every day, not just on a special day of the year or around Christmas and New Years’ time.  Take time for someone else today, it will make your day too!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 20-50+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Inspiration, Opinion, Personal Branding
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Get a Clue Corporate America!

October 4th, 2018

With the recent spate of executives merging, acquiring, downsizing and closing companies for their own financial benefit, and often under the guise of “cost savings synergies,” it’s quite apparent that ethical leadership training is more necessary than ever. Justifying their behavior because they think that “those lowly employees we have on staff” will find a job since it is a good economy is ridiculous and foolhardy. Their lack of compassion and foresight will ultimately mean more dissatisfied employees and an increase in those thinking Corporate America is devoid of any principles. No wonder our workforce is overworked and over-stressed!

While the economy is indeed in good shape, replacing a high-paying job isn’t always that easy. The more the salary, typically the fewer of those jobs that exist. The worry that goes along with the constantly unsettled environment in many companies merely makes everything worse. Companies are actually complaining because attrition rates are so high due to the stress and uncertainty, but offer nothing to stop the bleeding. According to many a recent article, employees are actually up and quitting jobs now without another one ready in the wings due to the anxiety-ridden atmosphere of so many organizations. Additionally, those over 40 years of age continue to be a target, since they often “make too much.” The real discrimination in age comes from the downsizing of so many that are inherently valuable to a company due to their experience and mentoring of younger employees. Yet, that very value is seen as too expensive or “bad for the bottom line.”

Get a Clue Corporate America

Many a high paid corporate executive has sold their soul and become like the Robber Barron’s of the 1890’s, using questionable methods, nepotism, and creating monopolies to accumulate wealth while leaving staff members miserable or unemployed.  We, as a society, have passively acquiesced to this treatment and it is time we stop putting up with the abuse. Certainly ample ethical leadership training will help those who are starting on their leadership journey. However, making sure those that are currently causing these problems have a bright light of shame shone on them will be necessary to curb the issues in the here and now. Get a clue Corporate America or you won’t have a glowing financial report to fret over anymore, talented employees will just leave you and your company in the dust, and ultimately to fail.

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers, executives and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, executive/career management coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Careers, Human Resources, Job Search, Opinion, Talent Management
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Millennials: The Generation Bringing Meaningful Change to the Workplace

January 15th, 2018

Millennials: The Generation Bringing Meaningful Change to the Workplace

Millennials are a different breed of worker, and overall, I am here to tell you that is a positive for our future work environment. The Millennial generation has watched their parents dedicate their “lives” to companies at the expense of their health, watching children grow up, attending children’s events, marriages, and many other negative trade-offs. All of this for organizations to overwork them, have zero loyalty to their workforce, while expecting complete allegiance from their staff, then downsizing the most dedicated employees.

Millennials aren’t about to put up with it, and I say AMEN! Oh, but they complain too much, or are entitled, you say. Yes, there are a few that are entitled or don’t quite get it, yet, but if you listen to most of them, they want to work, but don’t want to give up a personal life to do so. Working 70 hours a week just won’t cut it, and neither will day-to-day drudgery. This generation and I believe Generation Z as well, will be willing to take less money to have work-life balance, see their children grow up, maintain their personal relationships, and live a more stable life. This trend has been evident in many of my millennial clients.

The day of the stockholder ruling how a company does things and executives and owners who constantly treat their employees as indentured servants and call them “resources” will soon lose its appeal. The up and coming generations won’t put up with being treated poorly, they will quit a job in a heartbeat to get another one, knowing the company wasn’t going to be loyal to them anyway.

Companies must change how they do things if they want to retain and grow employees, particularly Millennials and Generation Z.  Work-life balance will become key, inclusive of flexible work schedules, enhanced employee benefits to reduce out-of-pocket costs and save time, and an effort to make the work environment itself a more enjoyable place. Wellness initiatives, volunteer opportunities for community involvement, and a true open-door policy for ideas must become commonplace.  Furthermore, companies will need to significantly expand training offerings, not just offer sexual harassment and compliance webinars, but a combination of in-classroom, teleconference, web-based, and even gamification training. The workplace of today will be changing. Get on board Corporate America or you will find yourself without anyone wanting the jobs you post!

Karen Silins is a multi-certified, award winning resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses. After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm. Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals. She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, blogging, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 30-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area. She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Human Resources, Opinion, Talent Management
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The Beatings will continue until Morale Improves! (Part One)

February 18th, 2016

The Beatings will continue until Moral Improves! (Part One)

 

Okay, I am about to seriously irritate some executives and other corporate/institutional higher-up, but let’s start to talk about the true issues surrounding Employee Engagement and the farce it has become.  Yes, there is the rare company taking it very seriously, but for the most part it is window dressing that sounds good on paper and means absolutely nothing!  According to a 2015 Gallup survey, almost 70% of Americans are not engaged or actively disengaged in their work (see http://tinyurl.com/2015GallupPoll) and the worst part, Gallup was promoting this survey as a three year high of 32.9% engagement – that is simply put, pathetic!  As a Glassdoor.com article from 11/12/15 asserts in discussion of the above Gallup survey “this lack of engagement and motivation costs the U.S. economy billions of dollars annually.”  Why is the happening?  Based on interviews with clients, and peer observations, allow me to give you a plethora of reasons for this above number and the upsurge in job-related stress and dissatisfaction:

–50+ hour workweeks, mandatory overtime, and employees forced to be on-call with their cell phones and laptops 24/7.

–Companies beholden to the stockholder or investor in every decision, or hiding behind the mantra of “we are doing this for the benefit of the shareholder.”  Newsflash:  unhappy employees and clients mean less benefit for shareholders.

–Promoting employee engagement by having staff participate in hangman and tic-tac-toe contests to show how much you “love” them, but not really embracing a culture of employee satisfaction or listening to what the employees are telling you in those annual surveys.

–Performance reviews, goals and annual raises done for the benefit of the company and management/executive bonuses, not the employee.

–The new and increasing crisis of anxiety and job-related stress as FMLA and potentially ADA issues.

–Taking away employee vacation or sick time benefits or creating a new schedule that actually means more hours and less time off to save a little money.

–Stating you have an open-door policy for employees to express opinions when that really isn’t true.  Then, when an employee comes to your office and says something is wrong with product or service quality, a project, or employee morale, they are soon to be out on the street looking for a new job, or at the very least persona non grata with management.

–Promotions of people into new management positions based on prior job performance and not management and leadership ability.

–Making up reasons to let employees go so you don’t have to pay unemployment, or using age and salary discrimination to downsize or fire employees while making the newly unemployed staff sign paperwork saying you didn’t discriminate against them.

–On the flip side – allowing toxic employees and managers to stay for fear of accusations of racial, age, or any other type of discrimination or because they brown nose.

–Permitting micromanagement, meaning that the manager doesn’t ever trust their employees, are nosy and can’t help themselves, or have nothing better to do.  There is a difference between being a manager who is “on top of things” and those that insert themselves into every aspect of employee work and are never satisfied with anything their staff does.

–Managers constantly taking credit for their employee’s hard work.

–Companies (or management) not allocating resources to reward their employees for going above and beyond the call of duty, like spot bonuses, meals, gift cards, or awards.

–Employees made to feel guilty for taking vacation time or companies requiring them to be “accessible” during their entire vacation.

–Creating a culture of no-accountability for certain employees because their management is reluctant or unwilling to do their job, or the company wants to “engage” these employees and holds the view that making them accountable might be seen as “mean.”

–Complaining that mid-level management needs to manage and not do the day-to-day work, but not allotting enough staff to get everything done, meaning managers must perform day-to-day staff tasks and all of their management responsibilities just trying to keep up.

–Allowing business analysts or accountants to determine how many employees should be in a given area, and setting ridiculous performance objectives for the remaining employees.

–Downsizing by attrition and making excuses not to fill those job slots, creating overburden on existing employees.

It seems that few want to set the trend of taking care of their employees; instead they set the trend of making changes and putting programs in place to the detriment of long tenured and highly productive employees.  Organizations then try to pass these off as an engagement initiative or new corporate philosophy.  Employees are no longer “people,” but called resources, and manipulated through endless office moves, organizational restructurings, and stretched to the point of breaking in their job as they are given the responsibility of two to three employees, and most likely the pay of less than one.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg!  The sad part is, as I was writing this, the list just became longer and longer from items in the news and difficulties my clients are experiencing in their workplaces.  Obviously I can’t tackle this entire list in one article, as it would be a short book.  However, I can start the discussion, and create several blog articles offering some detail of the above issues over the next several weeks, and some suggestions for organizations to implement to “stop the bleeding.”

The problem is not just in Corporate America, but the non-profit sector, certain academic-related jobs, and governmental institutions.  It is across the board.  We need to have a candid conversation about the above problems and how to solve them.  I am not promoting a lackadaisical type of work ethic with too much time off, everything is a medical issue, never more than 40 hour workweeks, and I need a hug mentality.  I am promoting that organizations make employee and client satisfaction number one, thus ensuring investors and stockholders earn ample money, without creating the current sweat-shop atmosphere that inspired the title of this article.  In Part Two or this multi-part article, I tackle the following:

–50+ hour workweeks.

–Mandatory overtime.

–Irrational investor and stockholder indebtedness.

–24/7 on-call employees via cell phone access.

–Ludicrous employee engagement initiatives that treat staff like children.

I realized before ever putting fingers to keyboard I would be opening up quite a conversation, but that conversation needs to happen.  We must take an honest look at existing employee engagement issues, then implement real strategies that produce results.  Meanwhile, organizations should avoid the creation of more programs for programs-sake, and “group hug” initiatives that look great on paper and go nowhere.  Happy and motivated employees who understand how they contribute to the bottom line, are treated as human beings, and are rewarded for their real contributions will absolutely be engaged.  Increased engagement will skyrocket your client and stockholder satisfaction as service/product quality increases and investors and stockholders will reap a nice return on their investment.  Stay tuned for Part Two…

 

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Careers, Opinion
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Your Career and the Social Technology Trap

October 23rd, 2015

Your Career and the Social Technology Trap

Daily I read articles about the use of social media and related activities in the workplace, where employees are spending time on Twitter and Facebook feeds, online games, texting, personal emails, and Pinterest posts rather than working.  If you are on break or at lunch and want to view your Facebook and Twitter, play Candy Crush Saga or Words with Friends, or view other personal social media and email, then do so.  However, going through your social media or texting during a work meeting is unprofessional, playing a game while someone else is giving a presentation is rude, and any of the above while you are supposed to be working is cheating the company that you work for out of their money.

Consider the following two scenarios.  If you were given the chance to present a product you created to the business owners on Shark Tank, attempting to gain their funding, would you want them to pay attention to your presentation or to their phones and tablets instead and play games and check their social media?  If you were a business owner paying your employees out of your own pocket, would you expect your employees to actually do their work during business hours, or text and email friends?

You cannot offer your full attention to two things at once; no matter how much you want to multitask.  The term multitask came from the computer industry, and a computer can actually multitask but not a human.  You either pay attention to your Twitter feed at a particular moment or you pay attention to what is going on in the meeting at that moment.  Distracted is distracted!  My advice on social media, texting, and all other personal technology use, is to use it sparingly in the workplace.  Do your career a solid, and make sure while you are at work, work is your focus.

Karen Silins is a multi-certified resume writer, career, business and personal branding coach working with individuals and small businesses.  After graduating with degrees in education and vocal performance, she made her own career transition into the Human Resources realm.  Karen left Human Resources to become an entrepreneur and help jobseekers and fellow entrepreneurs achieve their goals.  She keeps current regarding trends in the resume writing, coaching, HR, small business and marketing industries by working daily with individual clients on resume development and career coaching, consulting for small businesses in business plan development, marketing, hiring and overall HR processes, and providing 50-70+ seminars and workshops annually to a variety of organizations in the greater Kansas City area.  She can be reached via her website at www.careerandresume.com.

Categories Career Management, Careers, Opinion
Comments (0)
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