To Stop Illegal Interview Questions, Solicit More Candidate Feedback
I've been talking to a number of job seekers lately about illegal interview questions. The topic keeps coming up, and I keep wondering why that is. When you're a job seeker, you may not realize how common illegal interview questions are. After all, you're only interviewing for one or two jobs at a time. However, from my vantage point as a career coach working with multiple professionals,...
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Can You Create an Automated Onboarding Process in House?
The current scarcity of skilled workers has forced modern HR departments to stop wasting time on paperwork and focus on the work that matters most: recruiting and retaining world-class talent. Given that as much as 20 percent of staff turnover happens during an employee's first 45 days on the job, it's clear that stronger onboarding processes must play a significant role in this...
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Move Over, Gig Economy: The Freelancer Economy Is Here to Stay
People common use the phrase "gig economy" to refer to the labor market where one can use tech to request freelance workers on short notice for a variety of services, from car rides to event staffing to data science. However, I believe "gig" undermines the careers professionals in this market build, creating a rift between employers and workers — an us-versus-them atmosphere. So, I prefer...
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Building Trust Through Transparent Leadership
We all want the brightest, most creative talent to work for our organizations — employees who are loyal and committed to bringing their best, most authentic selves to work each and every day. Recruiting these gems poses its own set of opportunities and challenges, as does retaining them. We must first understand that individuals with incredible drive and unlimited potential need to...
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Finding the Fast Track to your Dream Job
If you find yourself daydreaming at work about another, better job, it's time to make a change. That said, it's unwise to hand in your resignation letter without a plan. Below, we'll discuss how to find the most efficient path to your dream job. To do that, you'll need to understand what you're after and how to be both competitive and realistic as you embrace the journey...
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4 Steps to Building a Global High-Volume Recruiting Strategy
Creating a global high-volume recruiting strategy can be tricky. On top of trying to fill a large number of positions under tight deadlines, your recruiters are also working with people from a variety of places and backgrounds, each with their own culture and expectations. While you're likely aware of the benefits diversity can bring to a company, recruiting from a global talent market is...
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The Career Hoop, Part 3: Rising to the Top Before Age 40
Now, that you've gotten yourself on the right career track, it's time to start thinking about your journey to the C-suite. Landing an executive position before age 40 is difficult, sure, but people do it all the time. That said, it does take some hard work. You can't just sit back and keep your head down. You need an in-depth knowledge of your industry, some strategic maneuvering, and...
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The 9 Defining Characteristics of the CV of the Future
If you were to ask me today to leave the house, go to a store, rent a video, go home, watch it, and then go back to the store and return it, I would think you were living in another century. I wouldn't even remember that was exactly how I used to do it myself not that long ago. Let's take dating as another example. Remember how online dating used to require filling out dozens if not...
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7 Rules for Getting Hired in the Digital Age
When you're searching for a job in today's digital age, it is important to leverage the right tools and tips to find the role that best meets your needs. While you can go the traditional route of searching on free career sites, it may not deliver the types of roles you need to advance your career. That's because there are new rules for getting hired in the digital age, and it's time to...
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The Why and How Behind a Powerfully Strategized and Distinctively Written Executive LinkedIn Profile
While some experts might say the absence of a strong executive LinkedIn presence is a career-killer, I would not go that far. Many executives have wildly successful careers without ever venturing onto LinkedIn. That said, LinkedIn has 562 million users (and growing) around the world, and increasingly more recruiters are tapping into LinkedIn as their go-to source when vetting candidates....
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Recruiting and AI: The Symbiosis of Human and Machine
It's rare that a day goes by without new headlines singing the praises or debating the challenges of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning. Many industries have transformed, thanks to these technologies, and the recruiting industry is no exception. AI can already parse an avalanche of resumes faster than you can take a selfie — which raises the question:...
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5 Tips for Successfully Navigating a High-Volume Hiring Event in a Candidate-Driven Market
In a candidate-driven market, it's important to position your recruiting team for success by giving them the tools and tactics they need. This is doubly true in high-volume hiring events, where your recruiters will have to compete directly with other organizations for candidate attention. To make sure your recruiters land top talent at the next high-volume hiring event, follow these...
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Testing the Market: 3 Steps to Finding the Right Role in a Hot Job Economy
The job market is hot, and you are probably in demand. This is your chance to go for the right role, at the right company, and with the right manager. Finding a great job is a job of its own. It takes planning and execution to find a job better in all respects than the one you have now. There are two common reasons why people fail to take action to find their perfect job: You...
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The Career Hoop, Part 2: Finding and Landing Your Dream Job
If your job search has been tough lately, it's not just you. The average corporate job opening attracts 250 resumes, which means you're up against a lot of competition. In the previous post in this series, we explored how to turn yourself around when your job search feels hopeless. However, that's only the first step toward job-hunting success. If you want to arrive at the job of...
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How to Stay Focused When Working From Home
If a 9-5 office job doesn't inspire you, then the flexibility of working from home might be perfect for you. When you can set your own schedule and create your own routine, you may find your productivity grows by leaps and bounds. However, working from home isn't an automatic home run. You need discipline, strategy, and boundaries to ensure you get work done and continue performing at a...
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How to Build Trust With Your Employees
A team without trust is a team without function. If managers don't trust their employees, they'll spend too much time looking over shoulders and breathing down necks, rather than empowering employees to succeed. If employees don't trust their managers, they'll be less inclined to follow directions or stay motivated through tough times. And if employees don't trust one another, you can say...
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5 Reasons Why Executive Branding Will Skyrocket Your Recruitment Efforts
With organizations struggling to acquire and retain top talent — resulting in massive recruitment costs, convoluted safety-net processes, and opportunities lost to competitors — it's quite surprising to see both startups and large corporations alike undervaluing executive branding. And yet, 75 percent of all resignations are due to causes that managers could influence, like poor...
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How to Become an Underwriter
The role of the underwriter is a key position in any organization that deals in financial services. Whether it is one underwriter or a team of underwriters, they are responsible for making the final decision over whether a customer is approved or declined for an insurance policy or loan product. When applying for car insurance, life insurance, or a bank loan, it starts with a standard...
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The Career Hoop, Part 1: 5 Reasons Why Your Job Search Feels Hopeless
Are you in the process of searching for a new job? Are you giving it your all, going to interviews, and still having no luck? The job search can be overwhelming, especially when you're interviewing but not landing a position. That can be a blow to your self-esteem which leaves you wondering, "What's wrong with me? Am I in the wrong field? Will anyone ever hire me?" It's time to get...
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How 8 Insanely Successful People Dealt With Getting Fired
Getting fired is never easy. Even if you've grown bored with your job or are actively unhappy at work, being let go hurts. It can be all too easy to respond by isolating yourself or turning inward in self-doubt. However, getting fired can also be an opportunity for immense personal and professional growth. You can take this time to learn a lesson from the past while focusing on all the...
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How an Effective Incentive Strategy Can Help Fix the Employee Engagement Crisis
Gallup's 2017 "State of the American Workplace" report found that 51 percent of US employees are not engaged, and a further 16 percent are actively disengaged. That leaves only a third of US workers engaged at work. These findings are nothing new. It feels like every annual Gallup report tells us how low employee engagement and productivity are. The fact is, the industrialized world...
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Are Job Interviews the New Hazing?
I never joined a sorority in college, but like you, I've heard the horror stories about how some Greek life organizations behave themselves. For some fraternities and sororities, hazing rituals are just a fact. You'd think this silly college tradition would stay behind when we graduate, but all too often, these rituals follow us into adulthood. In fact, hazing-like behavior can show up in...
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A Q&A with Juniper Square
Juniper Square is transforming the private funds industry, one of the largest and best-performing industries in our financial ecosystem, yet also one of the most inaccessible, least liquid, and least transparent financial markets out there. They're aiming to change all of that through software, and they're in search of passionate, high integrity, service-oriented, and highly capable team...
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4 Voluntary Benefits Likely to Gain Traction in 2019
As open enrollment comes to a close, the benefits industry is shifting its focus to planning for 2019. You don't need a crystal ball to predict that healthcare will continue to be a key concern. According to a survey conducted by the National Business Group on Health, the average spend on health care per employee will increase by 5 percent next year, from $14,099 to $14,800. Employers...
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5 Ways to Better Manage Your Contingent Labor Workforce
Today, most organizations rely on dynamic workforces comprising salaried employees working alongside contract, freelance, and gig workers. In fact, according to a survey from the Brandon Hall Group, 90 percent of organizations use contingent labor. The rising number of contingent workers is changing the game when it comes to employee performance management, but few leaders have effective...
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4 Tips for Finding Talent in a Niche Market
What's the first thing you think of when you hear the phrase "interior design"? Probably not designing for healthcare facilities, right? However, behind many waiting rooms, reception desks, and navigation signs is a highly skilled, professionally trained healthcare interior designer. Healthcare interior design isn't just decorating — it's a skilled profession that requires proper...
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Recruiting for a Decade and Beyond: 5 Tips for Building a Unicorn Team
So many startups fail to ever get off the ground. For your business to make it through its first year — that alone is a major accomplishment. While making your way through those fledgling years is definitely a milestone to celebrate, it doesn't necessarily mean that your business has any guaranteed longevity, nor is it any indication that you're creating a "unicorn" company, which is a...
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How a Respectful Workplace Can Stop Discrimination Claims Before They Start
Respect can take many forms in the workplace, and each employee defines it through their own cultural lens and work experiences. For some, respect means having empathy for others, regardless of whether they are your subordinates, coworkers, or superiors. For others, respect is a safe and open environment where employees support one another. And, sadly, some feel respect is a matter of...
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Why You Should Be a 'Screen In' Recruiter Rather Than a 'Screen Out' Recruiter
Every recruiter can be sorted into one of two camps: those who screen in, and those who screen out. When faced with a candidate, screen-out recruiters ask: "Why?" Their goal is to take as many applicants out of the running as possible. A screen-in recruiter, on the other hand, asks: "Why not?" Screen-in recruiters are more flexible — especially when it comes to assessing the...
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5 Hogwash Reasons for Not Joining LinkedIn
Recently, I was invited to speak at a networking event about LinkedIn — to a group of people who aren't convinced of LinkedIn's value. My initial reaction was to tell these naysayers that LinkedIn isn't for everyone, but then I realized that would be the easy way out. Given that 94 percent of recruiters use LinkedIn, a job seeker would be nuts not to get on the site and leverage it...
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10 Ways to Avoid Living With Regret
We often assume that other people's successes have been easily achieved. They must be incredibly smart or lucky to do such great things, right? In reality, success is frequently the product of failure. Sheer determination to keep pushing past fears and failures is often the quickest road to success. One of the best examples I can give you is the story of the one and only Colonel Sanders,...
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How to Build a Strong Software Development Team From Scratch
In the digital age, it is increasingly challenging to make the distinction between a technology company and a non-technology company. In fact, as enterprises across industries start leveraging technology to gain competitive advantages, all companies will eventually become technology companies. For any business to remain relevant in this economic environment, it is critical to build a...
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6 Character Traits Every Startup Owner Should Cultivate
Failure is a fact of life for entrepreneurs. In fact, about half of small businesses fail by their fifth year. Even heavyweights like Steve Jobs and James Dyson suffered failures before finding success. What differentiates them — and every great entrepreneur — from the rest is their ability to better themselves and bounce back after failure. Having the correct mindset is an...
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Becoming the Executioner — for the Sake of Your Organization
Talk about the toughest reality of leadership. Todd stopped eating after only a few bites of his breakfast. His devastation was evidenced by the pale look on his face and his steaming breakfast, which sat untouched and growing cold as the impact of my words sank in. Only moments earlier I had said to him, "I'm sorry, but I am terminating you." An otherwise upbeat guy, Todd seemed to...
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To Build a Respectful, Resilient Workplace, Start Asking Questions
We're often told leaders need to give respect in order to get it, but leaders aren't the only ones who should be concerned with respect in the workplace. Those who want to be part of high-performance organizations also need to put respect front and center. But what does respect have to do with high performance? In a recent piece for the Harvard Business Review, Marquette University...
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Thinking Outside the Box? Overrated.
At one time or another, every business professional has been told to "think outside the box!" After all, that's the only way to drive innovation, right? Not exactly. Not only has "thinking outside the box" become more of a generic stock phrase than real, actionable advice, but it may have never been good advice in the first place. "Outside-the-box thinking is often valued because the...
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Remember These 3 Things When Building a Thriving Company Culture
After speaking to hundreds of business leaders, thought leaders, and entrepreneurs at the helm of awesome cultures, I've uncovered some common themes in their culture-building successes. To boil these themes down to their most basic expressions: Purpose inspires, values guide, and habits define. Time and time again, I find these essentials to ring true, regardless of industry. When there's...
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The 5 Best US Airports for Business Travelers
In an ideal world, business trips would always go ahead smoothly and as planned. The frustrating reality is this rarely happens. Delays and cancellations are a fact of life when you're traveling by flight. Not only can these obstacles affect your perceived reliability and professionalism by making you late to important functions, but they can also greatly impact your mood. If you reach...
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The One Question Your Resume Must Answer
In 1482, Leonardo Da Vinci wrote what many consider to be the first modern resume. To this day, resumes remain the main tool people use to apply for jobs. While there are all sorts of visual improvements and designs job seekers can use to catch an employer's attention, the content of a resume is what really matters at the end of the day. The candidates who stand out are those whose...
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How to Get the Most Out of Your Meetings
Gathering your team in one place to brainstorm new ideas or disseminate information seems like a good idea in theory. In practice, however, meetings are often nothing more than a waste of time. Employees are easily distracted — and for good reason. They may be thinking about the work they had to put on hold while they sit at the table. If workers are staring blankly at walls or...
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The Benefits of a Remote Workforce — and How to Support Remote Employees
Ten years ago, working an office job meant waking up at the same time each morning, putting on a pair of crisp slacks, and spending eight or more hours behind a desk. Today, working an office job looks more like sleeping in, skipping a shower, and watching Netflix from the comfort of the couch with a laptop sitting right where it's intended: in your lap. The concept of working from home...
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Harness the Power of the Crowd to Beat the Competition
The US unemployment rate has reached its lowest point in decades, and competition to attract top talent is at an all-time high, preoccupying the minds of many global CEOs. A recent McKinsey Global Institute study suggests that employers in North America and Europe will require 16-18 million more college-educated workers in 2020 than are going to be available. At the same time, in a world...
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Blockchain Developers: Should You Go Onshore or Offshore?
Blockchain caught the world's attention when Bitcoin, the world's first decentralized digital currency, started grabbing the headlines. Since then, however, blockchain has proven to be much more than cryptocurrencies. Once enterprises realized the true potential of this industry-agnostic, decentralized, distributed, digital public ledger, the demand for blockchain developers skyrocketed....
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How to Improve Productivity in the Workplace, Part 2: Prioritizing Tasks
In my previous article, I covered how business leaders use project-based work to boost agility and foster innovation in their organizations. Today, we're going to look at another approach companies commonly use to improve productivity: breaking down roles into activities and prioritizing those tasks. According to a report from McKinsey, 30-60 percent of a front-line manager's time is...
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Facing a STEM Talent Shortage, Many Organizations Choose to Reskill Existing Workers
From Silicon Valley to the manufacturing sector, HR and recruiting professionals are plagued by a lack of quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) talent, resulting in higher-than-normal salaries, creative perks and benefits, and no small amount of poaching between competitors. Businesses requiring STEM talent have also been forced to broaden their scopes of acceptable...
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Top Talent Won't Apply for Your Role — Unless You Tell Them What They Want to Know
It is difficult enough to find quality candidates, but securing the best of the best in times of widespread talent shortages can seem downright impossible. Luckily for your organization, it is doable — but only if you cater to the needs and desires of the workforce. Transparency about salary, benefits, and perks can be a key differentiator in the minds of applicants, according to a...
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How Transparency Can Boost Employee Morale
Everyone, on some level, wants to be depended upon. Even if you don't have the desire to lead, you have the desire to be an important piece of the puzzle, an integral part of something bigger than yourself. In the workplace, this is especially true for millennials, who are more driven by transparency and meaningful work than any generation before them. In fact, half of millennials...
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Your Next Job Offer Might Depend on What Kind of Salad Dressing Best Represents Your Life Philosophy
When it comes to job interviews, I've seen it all. Most interview processes are fairly straightforward. You do a phone screen with an HR rep, and then a phone interview with the hiring manager. Afterward, you meet the hiring manager and other folks on the team for an in-person interview. However, not every interview is so simple. Some companies ask job seekers to do presentations...
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