Archives for January 2019

The Best Ways To Keep Your Business Secure

January 31, 2019 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

If you own or manage a business the last thing you want is a death or injury in the workplace. This can lead to lawsuits, fines and even being closed down, so keeping your business a safe place to work in is really important. Here are a few tips to help you keep your workplace a safe environment for employees.

Protective equipment

No matter what business you are in there is always protective equipment needed. If you work in a kitchen it’s oven gloves, a building site requires a hard hat and gloves and if it’s a lab then safety goggles. No matter where you are there is always a requirement to have safety equipment on hand for anything that may happen. As said above protective eyewear is needed for anything that will have the chance to go in your eyes, like dust, liquids, and sparks. If you work in an environment that has the potential dangers of things falling then hard hats are required and so on, so any possible danger needs to have the equipment to protect from this.

As well as having the equipment to wear you also need equipment to help once a disaster has struck, so this would be fire extinguishers, fire blankets, shovels for snow and salt to de-ice any parking spaces and roads that lead to your business. All these things help to protect and prevent accident even after the incident may have already happened.

Protection Systems

Protection systems mean anything you can put in place that will help decrease or prevent an incident from occurring. So if you work on tall buildings as a builder having harnesses and fall protection systems for roofs in place can stop any danger of someone falling from the roof of the buildings you work on. Having fire alarms and any other warning devices in place would also be a great protection system, basically, anything that premediates danger occurring and has prevention in place to help stop any accidents happening.

Safety procedures

Having safety procedures in place is a great way to make sure all staff is accounted for and safe in the case of an emergency. Making sure the staff knows exactly where to go and stay if an alarm sounds or something happens means there is less panic and it is all kept more organized. It is also crucial to make sure you have appointed safety marshals who will take control of the situation, like doing a head count and name check and calling any emergency services that may be needed. Having a copy of the safety procedure and everything on the wall and labeled correctly is key to make sure there is no confusion during an emergency and everyone goes where they need to go.

Having the responsibility of keeping people safe isn’t easy but in business it is crucial to look after your staff and keep them safe. Just make sure you have these things implemented and you will decrease your chances of an accident and increase your chances of dealing with one efficiently if it may arise.

Why Are Your Employees Quitting and How Can You Retain Them?

January 28, 2019 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

Employee turnover is a major global epidemic that is plaguing companies. The workspace is not what it used to be and has changed for good.

In the olden days, there were fewer options compared to the ocean of opportunities today.

Employees often flit from one job to another as soon as they get a better opportunity. Many feel that Millennials, as a generation, are less stable and not as hardworking as previous generations. But that isn’t true, as the stress levels today are a lot higher than they used to be. There are many more challenges and complications in today’s technologically advanced world than ever before.

An ideal team of employees and management is hard to find these days. Companies are only made of humans and by default, each company has its own unique dysfunction, which the employees learn about sooner or later…often being the trigger that causes them to quit their job.

Dysfunctions can be anything from having inflexible work hours, to a manager who isn’t empathetic, lack of career advancement or promotional opportunity, unchallenging work, lack of opportunity to use their skills and abilities, company politics, overall corporate culture, unhappiness with salary and benefits, etc.

The best way to retain employees is to understand what they’re considering, and what they’re thinking.

Surveys and feedback are one figure it out.

Are they happy with their work? Are their requirements being met? Do they have the correspondence, critical thinking, input, and acknowledgment that they require from their supervisor?

Staying in touch with your employees can help you solve the issues of employee turnover faster than you think.

To know more about it you can go through the detailed infographic below on employee retention, which gives a list of reasons for employee turnover and some great solutions.

4 Tactics for Successful Career Branding

January 28, 2019 by Guest Post Leave a Comment

In today’s world, it’s important to develop a personal brand that’s as unique as you are. Whether you’re a recent graduate entering the workforce or an experienced professional looking to move up the corporate ladder, a distinctive personal brand could be the key to setting you apart from the competition.

Crafting a strong personal brand requires time and effort, though, and you need to identify the appropriate tactics for building a brand that will help boost your career. If you are pursuing a career in music or some other form of entertainment for instance, then your personal branding efforts will likely entail custom merchandise that can help you become known offline like enamel badges as well as your online efforts. But if your line of work is mostly digital, then you’ll be looking to leave your imprint in as many places as possible across the world wide web.

There are a plethora of tactics you can you employ to bring your personal brand to life; the key is to finding what works best for you. Be open to trying and testing new tactics to find the ideal branding strategy.

To help you get started, we’ve pulled together four proven tactics for successful career branding.

Define your elevator pitch

Every brand requires a brand statement, and your personal brand is no exception. In order to resonate with your target audiences, you need to identify and define your own personal brand. Be introspective and objectively assess your core strengths and weaknesses. Ask yourself the following questions:

In what areas of work do I really excel?
In what areas or topics am I most knowledgeable?
What type of projects do I most enjoy?
What type of projects seem to be most stressful or unenjoyable?
What characteristics do I have that make me good at my job?
In what ways do I differ from my peers?
What type of role or projects would I like to be associated with in the future?

Once you’ve asked yourself these questions, it’s time to develop your elevator pitch. This succinct pitch should sum up who you are and what differentiates you in about 15-30 seconds. While this may seem like a daunting task, remember it’s important to find your niche. Your personal brand, like many corporate brands, will change as you evolve in your career. The best elevator pitch will focus on a specific area and evolve over time.

Establish your expertise

Your personal brand isn’t only a reflection of who are you today, it’s also a roadmap for where you’d like to be in the future. Assess where your current expertise lies and how it relates to the industry or career you’d like to take on next. By doing this, you’ll be also be able to uncover areas where you can improve your knowledge or training.

Take advantage of your current employer’s training resources or research local job career training programmes in your area. Another great option is to participate in trade associations, which can help not only expand your network, but also offer impressive training resources and events.

Create great content

Once you’ve established your area of expertise, it’s time to share and market your knowledge. Consider starting your own blog and commit to regular posting. There are plenty of website builders available that make it easy to build your blog, such as Wix, WordPress and Squarespace. The key here is to focus on quality, rather than quantity. While it’s important to keep your blog up-to-date, you should strive to create content that’s informational, educational, and highlights the depth of your expertise. Offer fresh insights and unique perspective on industry trends that will showcase your expertise. Also, make sure that the content itself is easy to digest and make it simple for readers who enjoy your content to share it via their social channels.

An excellent way to further your reach is by writing guest posts. Identify blogs that align with your area of expertise or industry and offer up your content, free of charge. This is a great way to expand your audience, while also improving the discoverability of your own blog.

Source: Breaking Into Startups Blog

Make the most of your social profiles

Make sure that you’re active on key social channels, such as LinkedIn and Twitter. Hiring managers almost always look at a candidate’s LinkedIn profile, so it’s crucial to ensure that your profile is in order. This also provides a prime opportunity to communicate your personal brand message! Consider sharing your blog posts on your LinkedIn profile and asking former colleagues for a recommendation.

Source: LinkedIn

Pursue public speaking

Public speaking opportunities are a great way to promote your personal brand! Speaking at industry events, local business chapter events or trade shows and expositions allows you to be seen as a subject matter expert and helps boost your personal brand. To maximise your speaking opportunity, consider videoing it to use on your blog, website and to be shared via your social channels. As you build your personal brand, it’s important to realise that it is something that will continue to evolve. While these four tactics are a great place to start, the potential for building your personal brand is limitless. Don’t be afraid to try new things and adjust your career branding strategy as you grow in your career.

Shocking Economic “Surprise”

January 23, 2019 by Mike McRitchie Leave a Comment

Unemployment ticked higher…up to 3.9%

Now that might seem like a bad thing, but it is an indicator of good things to come, and a tremendous opportunity.

What it means…

Before I share that, here’s the other related numbers that tell us a rift in the universe has opened up and it is time for you to jump in.

The surprise that also happened was 312,000 jobs were added last month versus economist predictions of 180,000 – a 73% increase over expectations.

The other useful tidbit is wages grew 3.2% year over year – the highest monthly gain since 2009.

All that is good news for you. More jobs equals more hiring which often means a robust economy. And higher salaries means you have an opportunity to push yours higher.

So why is the unemployment rate increase good news?

Well that means more people are jumping into the job hunting world. And they did it in December – a time where classically no one is hiring.

And that brings us to today.

Maybe you’re bored with your job. Or didn’t get the review you expected. Or your company isn’t giving hefty raises and bonuses due to a rough P&L result last year. Or you’ve stopped learning and growing. Or your project is ending. Or a myriad of other issues are causing you to check out LinkedIn to see what’s out there.

Well if you’re in that situation. Maybe it is time to look…a little harder.

But before you do start looking seriously, you need to have your personal marketing documents updated. And it can’t be some shoddily thrown together version you created yourself by just adding a few bullet points to your 3 year, 5 year or 10 year-old resume from the last time you needed one. Resume standards have changed. And if your resume looks old or old-fashioned, you could be excluded before you even start.

Same thing with LinkedIn. Is your profile a kick-butt marketing document that sells you and attracts recruiters? One that when a hiring manager pulls it up to check you out (and they will), doesn’t make them think you’re NOT the one?

Well here’s the other piece of information that’s important to you if you find yourself considering looking for that next job.

January and February are the best times all year to be searching.

Why?

Because that is when the most hires happen. Late January the purse-strings open up when budgets are completed and client PO’s start to be released.

In December no one is hiring. So pent up demand is released in the new fiscal year (usually calendar year) in January.

After recruiters and hiring managers cull through their email backlog from the holidays, hiring becomes front and center.

So I have to ask you. Is your resume and LinkedIn profile up to par?

What are the Most Dangerous Jobs?

January 22, 2019 by Contributed Post Leave a Comment

Most people don’t have to think about how safe they are when they go to work. It’s just a given that there’s no great threat lurking around the corner. This is the default thought process for people who work in offices, which is most people. But this isn’t true for all jobs. Some bring with them a hint of danger, while some can be considered outright dangerous. Below, we take a look at some jobs that contain an element of risk. If you like to live life on the edge (and get paid), then you should consider one of the below.

Exploring the World

The world is mostly safe for people who live and spend the majority of their time in urban areas. Of course, there are risks, but they mostly come from other humans: the things that contribute to basic survival are taken care of. This isn’t true, however, of the whole world. Once you’re out in the wild, things get a lot more dangerous. If you’re an explorer, then this is just the chance that you take. Of course, the world is pretty well mapped at this stage, and there’s not all that much “exploring” in the original sense going on. But people are still leading groups up Everest and other dangerous zones, where the chance of death is relatively high.

At Sea

You can never be sure what the ocean is going to throw at you. While you might have a calm blue sea one day, the next might bring a ferocious storm. And make no mistake, no matter what type of vessel you’re in, this brings with it danger. There’s a reason why many first-time fishermen end up requiring the services of maritime accident lawyers: there’s a high chance of injury when you’re working out at sea (thankfully there are laws to protect these workers). Jobs on ships are often well-paying, especially fishing-related jobs, but the reason workers are so well compensated is because there’s great risk involved.

On the Front Line

Imagine getting called to a job, and having no idea what was waiting for you when you arrived. And not only that, but that you knew that what was waiting for you wasn’t going to be a positive surprise, but a negative one. This is life, more or less, for people who are on the front line of the emergency services. While they’ll have the basic information about what’s going on, there’s always an element of danger, especially when talking about police officers and firefighters. Those are two professions where workers have to throw themselves into dangerous positions just as part and parcel of their work.

Into Deep Space

Many jobs are dangerous, but at least there’s some sort of precedence that’ll guide the way, and offer some sort of framework of expectations. In the case of astronauts, there’s sometimes not much to go off. They throw themselves in the unknown and hope that everything works out. Definitely a job for the brave hearted!