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Your #Career : Bulletproof Your Position: 10 Tips For Improving Job Security…The Key to Job Survival is to Find Ways to Make yourself a More Valuable Employee, So you Stand Out From the Crowd.

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Sometimes, coming to work each day and doing your job isn’t enough to protect you from being let go due to “downsizing.” The key to job survival is to find ways to make yourself a more valuable employee, so you stand out from the crowd.

Free- Time Mans Watch

Question: I’ve worked in the same job for several years, but there are rumors that our company will be laying off employees later this year to cut expenses. Is there anything I can start doing, right now, to help make sure I won’t be one of the employees laid off?

Answer: Most employment in the U.S. is “at-will,” which means an employee can be dismissed by their employer for any reason and without warning. That means the best way to decrease the odds of your employment being terminated is to create a strong relationship with your manager and to clearly demonstrate your value to the company (so your boss won’t want to lose you). Here’s how:

Understand your manager’s goals. Find out his or her objectives and priorities. What keeps your boss up at night? Think about ways you can help achieve these department goals.

Agree on your goals, objectives and projects. Meet with your manager to ensure you fully understand and mutually agree on your goals and objectives for the quarter/year as well as all projects for which you’ll be responsible. Then track and provide progress updates, asking for help or advice as needed.

 

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Create a “Goals and Objectives” document. Take those goals you agreed on with your manager and put them into a simple document where you’ll be able to track your progress. Use a simple format, like an Excel spreadsheet, and include column headers such as: ID#, Project Name, Description, Timing (due date), Goal/Objective (whatever it might be), Stretch Goal/Objective (a slightly more challenging goal or objective), and Progress (such as color coding to denote your progress). Use this document during your progress review meetings with your manager.

Learn your manager’s communication style and flex your style to his or hers. Find out how your manager prefers to interact with you. Do they want weekly, bi-weekly or monthly progress review meetings? Do they want to meet in person or receive email updates and then follow up with you if they have any questions? Adapt your communication style to best fit your manager’s style.

Never miss a commitment. Complete all your projects/assignments on time (and under budget). If you hit an obstacle, “go ugly early” as the old saying goes, by letting your boss know and asking for help.

Do outstanding work. You can’t do mediocre work – your work needs to be exemplary if you want to stand out. Look for ways you can go above and beyond the daily requirements to demonstrate how you add value to the organization.

Think of yourself as an “internal consultant.” Be more than just an employee. Consultants are hired to assess a current situation and then create action plans for improvement. They are paid for their expertise and their calm, professional demeanor, especially in times of difficulty. By thinking of yourself as an “internal consultant” you can use this same frame of reference to demonstrate how you add value to your department, to your company and even to your boss.

Become an expert in something. People turn to the experts when there are challenges and to solve problems. Look for areas in your business where you can put your skills to use and become an expert. Then, volunteer for projects that will allow you to use these skills and show them off.

Offer to help coworkers. Don’t wait for someone to approach you. Offer your help to others when it appears they might need it. Don’t expect any return favors – help others because you want to, not because you expect something in return. Always play nice with others and learn to flex your style so you can get along with any personality type.

Improve your skills every year. Become a more valuable asset by treating yourself like a product that you work on improving, year after year. Define your career aspirations, create a career development plan and then share this information with your boss and ask for his or her help and support.

Lisa Quast is the author of Secrets of a Hiring Manager Turned Career Coach: A Foolproof Guide to Getting the Job You Want. Every Time.

 

Forbes.com | February 15, 2016 | Lisa Quast 

 

#Leadership : The Surprising Ways Employee Benefits Will Change in 2016…Smart Companies are Helping their Employees Worry a Little Less about Life Transitions & the Exorbitant Cost of Education.

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When it comes to employee benefits, it’s easy to feel like nothing changes. The calendar flips to January, and you often just retain the same benefits you did the year before. You wind up feeling grateful as long as the costs don’t rise.

Free- Women at Luch

But in a few important ways, the benefits you’ve come to laconically accept will be changing in 2016. Bruce Elliott, manager of compensation and benefits at the Society for Human Resource Management, says the main trends pertain to worker education and family-leave time.

Whether you similarly change your own array of offerings this year or not, it’s vital to stay up on what’s coming down the pike. Not only might it help you better attract and retain top talent, you might actually get wind of cost-savings you never knew about. With this in mind, the following is a look at the latest benefits trends poised to give you something to consider in the new year.

Education and Leave

More employers will follow the lead of PricewaterhouseCoopers, says Elliott. The giant accounting firm announced last year that it would pay up to $7,200 in student debt for employees–as much as $1,200 a year for six years. He also sees companies emulating partnerships like the one Starbucks has with Arizona State University, in which Starbucks will reimburse part- or full-time employees’ pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.

As for family leave, Elliott expects companies to go the route of private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, which recently extended paid leave for new parents, and announced it would let employees take both their babies and their caregivers on business trips–on the company’s dime. The parent-friendly moves are part of a larger trend that began to make waves in 2015. Netflix, for example, now gives new parents unlimited maternity or paternity leave during the first year after the child’s birth or adoption. Amazon, Microsoft, and Adobe also extended their leave policies, though none went as far as Netflix.

Why is all of this happening now? Two reasons. First, notes Elliott, benefits like this help in recruiting and retaining female employees. Second, it’s election season. “The candidates on both sides of the aisle are talking about this more, and you can bet it’ll be a campaign issue later on,” he says.

Of course, large companies aren’t the only ones that need benefits to win recruiting battles. Often, it’s fast-growth, entrepreneurial companies that are on the cutting edge of new benefits offerings, since they are adding talent at a breakneck pace to keep up with the burgeoning demands for their services.

 

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Mobile Health

Lyft VP of people Ron Storn knows all about the pressures of adding staff quickly. At the end of 2014, the car-sharing startup had about 380 employees. Today, it has more than 700. What’s more, it’s a dispersed group of 700. Whereas the company was once based only out of its San Francisco headquarters, it’s now building offices in Nashville (customer service) and Seattle (engineering), not to mention 10 to 15 other regional offices.

When Storn thinks of benefits that will emerge in 2016, one of the first trends he thinks of is health care benefits that are mobile-friendly. For example, Lyft is partnering with a company called One Medical Group, a provider of technology-enabled primary care. The partnership gives Lyft employees 24/7 access via mobile app to a virtual care team, which can help them treat allergies and renew prescriptions without an office visit. One Medical also offers same-day appointments with doctors in more than 40 cities. A benefit like that is ideal for Lyft, Storn says, because there are so many employees who are either traveling or new to a particular city. “It’s great for our employees because of the convenience,” he says. “They can go to a new city and have fewer distractions, not worrying about what doctors to see.”

Mind and Body Fitness

Joris Luijke, VP of people at Grovo, is another human resources expert who knows all about recruiting and retaining in fast-growth environments. Grovo, which is based in New York City, creates employee-training videos for clients like Sotheby’s and SurveyMonkey. It has 190 employees, raised $15 million last year, and has raised more than $20 million overall. Mind you, Luijke has only been at Grovo for three months. But he was previously vice president of human resources at Squarespace, which has raised more than $80 million. Before that, he was vice president of talent at Atlassian, which had one of the strongest IPOs of 2015 ($460 million). So he knows what it’s like to compete for high-stakes talent.

Ask Luijke about benefits you’re likely to see more of in 2016, and the first thing he speaks about is a new, more specialized focus on employee fitness and emotional well being. For example, a standard fitness benefit might be something like reimbursement for a gym membership. But Luijke sees companies making a focal point of fitness–going out of their way to make sure a stressful, full-time job doesn’t come at the expense of exercise and eating right.

Grovo, for example, employs a full-time personal trainer. Employees can sign up for one-on-one advisory sessions with him, or simply take his classes at the in-office company gym. The company also has a dedicated nap room for relaxing, meditating, or actually napping. “There’s this real movement to making emotional and physical health more of an explicit part of the employee benefits,” he says. Luijke further makes the case that your company will see a lasting ROI if you make a large investment in the health of your employees.

Flexible Hours

When it comes to family leave, he also sees a trend in which employers do more than just provide paid time off. Like KKR, which pays for employees to take their babies and their caregivers on business trips, Luijke envisions a benefits scenario in which companies become more thoughtful about employee reintegration into the workplace, after an extended time away. One possible solution he foresees is simply allowing employees to work three or four days a week before returning to full-time schedules.

If, after reading all this, you find yourself wondering what steps to take to attract talent with novel twists on your benefits, both Luijke and Storn have some straightforward advice: Ask your employees. Survey them. Talk to them. Do it regularly. Lyft, for example, found out about One Medical because a handful of employees were using it on their own anyway. After learning about it from employee surveys, Storn became convinced that it was the right thing for the growing company to do.

PUBLISHED ON: JAN 25, 2016

#Leadership : How To Be A #Boss: 7 Tips For Hiring — And Firing — A Friend…The Really Hard Part was, & Has, Been Deciding Whether or Not to Hire Friends at All.

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There are Still some Rules-of-Thumb for Managers/Founders Who are Considering Hiring Folks they Have a Relationship With.

When I first became a boss, one really tough thing was supervising my former co-workers and friends.  Kind of makes sense – right? You have to be a jerk sometimes and your erstwhile pals don’t take kindly to it. The bad: I lost a lot of party invitations. The good: the pay was better.

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It's important to realize that you don't actually need to like an employee's personality.

Whether to Hire a Friend or Not ?

But the really hard part was, and has, been deciding whether or not to hire friends at all. A lot of managers/entrepreneurs, for instance, do this during the startup phase. I did it at larger organizations, but still…it wasn’t a great when things went wrong. (Even when things didn’t go wrong,  you were always worried that things would go wrong – and how it would reflect on you.)

You don’t quite have that problem – you run the whole business after-all. But there are still some rules-of-thumb for managers/founders who are considering hiring folks they have a relationship with.

1. If you have to hire a friend, only Hire “A” players. That means folks at the top of their game. Yeah, I know. You do that all the time. But you tend to cut your friends some slack. That’s life. But it only creates a lot of problems. Your better employees resent cleaning up after your talentless buddies – and may look elsewhere for work. Customers will be annoyed. Even if the “A” player is a jerk, at least he or she is a talented jerk.

 

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2. Don’t Supervise Friends. If your “A” friend really has the chops, let your co- founder or a trusted employee run them. It isn’t always convenient, but it gets pretty uncomfortable directly supervising friends. And someone will always think you’re cutting them slack or paying them more or both.

3. Keep Your Door Open. I hired a friend to help me run a small magazine. He eventually left. When he did, a stream of folks came into my office to describe unspeakable stories of management malfeasance. I asked: “Why didn’t you tell me?” They replied, all of them: “Because he was your friend.” Jeez. The solution? Make sure all your employees know they can come to you if they have a problem.

4. Avoid the “Favor Syndrome.” Here’s how it goes. A friend will call you asking if you could give their friend, who “is really good,” some work. I have to tell you: This never, ever turns out well. If someone is calling you, that means their pal has been having trouble finding work. And you know what that means? More often than not often, that means they’re not very good.

5. Test Drives: See the “favor syndrome.” It doesn’t hurt to dole out a tryout assignment. If it doesn’t work, you may have to ghost your friend for a while. But it’s a lot better than friend-divorce. And speaking of which….

6. No Hard Feelings. I love this one. You tell your friend they have to agree that that the working relationship might not end well. And if it doesn’t, they have to leave and still like you. Well, it won’t work out just that way. But talking about it upfront helps.

7. Fire Fast. Yup, fire your friend if things aren’t working out. If you let problems linger, you’ll look bad to your co-founders, your employees, and your customers. You’ll lose your friend in the process, but so be it.

Your business, you know, is your only real friend.

Forbes.com | August 11, 2015 | Hank Gilman 

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#Leadership : Top Signs Your Colleague Is An Empty Suit…Is your Manager, Employee, or CoWorker an Empty Suit? And How Would you Know If They Were? Here are Some Tell Tale Signs You are Working with an Empty Suit.

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Unfortunately, They Lack Knowledge of What They are Doing in Their Work Role. In the Worst Cases the Empty Suit Can’t Manage to Explain the Goals of the Department. In a weak attempt to do so will say something similar to one or more of the following:

The Office

There is nothing wrong with dressing well for the office, but the problem comes when it’s all style and no substance. Expensive suits from Hugo Boss or Armani are no substitute for business acumen. Women and men are each just as guilty in this. Such people could be found in any company from the largest like Apple AAPL -0.1% andMicrosoft MSFT +0.28% to small entrepreneurial offices. Nowhere is immune from this scourge, unless you work alone.

Here are some tell tale signs you are working with an empty suit.

1. Thinks fine clothing is a substitute for brains. They might dress in clothing they perceive as superior and frequently demean your appearance with snooty comments.

For instance: “OMG, why are you wearing those single buckle monk strap shoes, that’s so last season.”

Unfortunately, they lack knowledge of what they are doing in their work role. In the worst cases the empty suit can’t manage to explain the goals of the department. In a weak attempt to do so will say something similar to one or more of the following:

“You know, we do awesome things.”
“We’re the glue that holds the company together.”
“Optimize processes for better efficiency.”
“We’re like the people people.”
“It’s like we forward the empowerment goals of the company.”

 

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2. Talks primarily in platitudes. For instance, in response to “why aren’t any of the computers in the department working today?” says one of the following:

“These things happen.”
“It is what it is.”
“I can see that being a problem.”
“It’s nobody’s fault.”
“It’s a pity.”
3. Parrots the company line even to the extent of unwittingly sounding foolish to others.

On Monday, says: “Oh yes we are committed to providing our employees with the best training in the industry.”

On Tuesday, says: “No we can’t possibly spend money on training because we have to cut costs.”

When confronted about the obvious dichotomy will say one of the following to deflect:

“Not my decision.”
“We are all together in this.”
“My hands are tied on that one.”
“It’s the same everywhere else.”
“I’m doing what my boss told me to do.”
4. Never takes responsibility for errors. For instance, fails to purchase the necessary beverages for the office party, despite multiple requests from the boss to do so. In defense, says one or more of the following:

“I agree we could have done better.”
“Things take time.”
“These things happen.”
“We can’t always get it right”
“I don’t recall being asked.”
Note the lack of “I screwed up” or anything else taking personal responsibility.

 

5. Shows no original thought. Just when you think your empty suit colleague might have provided an insightful suggestion, you actually realize that you’ve heard it before. Where? Likely one of the following:
You made the same suggestion last week (now its being passed off as new.)
It’s recycled from the CEO’s group webcast.
Your colleague suggested it yesterday. The “suit” now takes ownership after ridiculing the idea previously.
The idea has failed many times but the empty suit is too dumb to understand.
The suit saw the idea watching reruns of Seinfeld; thinks no one will notice.
By now you should have identified if there are any empty suits in your work group. If it’s your boss there is no alternative than to find a new job or else suffer in silence as the empty suit leads your department down the road to well deserved obscurity.

If it’s one of your coworkers then be sure not to work on any teams with them if you can help it. And if you are lucky enough to have no empty suits in your team then pray that it stays that way.

In the meantime, don’t forget to plug your brain in as you put on your business clothes.

Simon Constable is a New York-based writer.

 

Forbes.com | July 14, 2015 | Simon Constable