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Common myths about employee handbooks
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementEmployers are not required to have a handbook. That is true. State and federal regulations do, however, require employers to provide a variety of information to their employees. The easiest way to do this is often via some sort of handbook. Yet, for those organizations without a handbook, it can be easy to find excuses not to create one. Here are a few myths about handbooks and the corresponding reasons why it is a good idea for every employer to have one.
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How to build confidence in the board chair
Robert C. Harris Association ManagementBefore the first meeting, the incoming board chair confessed to the executive director, "I don't feel confident about my boardroom skills. I'm nervous. What can I do to improve my competency?" It's a fair question. It is better to be honest than to fake confidence that will quickly be recognized by the rest of the board. Try these ideas to instill confidence and find the balance between the elected chair and paid CEO.
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Amazon prepares to disrupt the travel industry
Bambi Majumdar Travel, Hospitality & Event ManagementThe partnership between Amazon and Indian travel firm ClearTrip, announced earlier this year, revealed some of Jeff Bezos' vision for disrupting the travel industry. While this is not the first time that Amazon has made a foray into travel, the approach is radically different. The company's travel experiment in 2015 did not work, but that did not stop Amazon from thinking about travel. Its reentry into the online travel business could have far-reaching consequences for all.
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10 do’s and don’ts for church communicators’ sanity
Mark MacDonald Religious CommunitySummer's winding down and the fall is taking over discussions. In this short lull before the chaos of programs starting back up, it's a good time to decide you'll do certain things and put others on a don't list. The church communicator juggles a ton of responsibilities, and our personalities are different from others we work with. That means we can go crazy if we aren’t careful! Here are do's and don'ts to remain sane in our crazy communication world.
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How to build a good rapport with online influencers
Joseph Brady MarketingThe most powerful marketing tactic that has worked wonders for small and large businesses alike is word of mouth. Online influencers have gained instant popularity as they can spread the word about a brand to a large number of people immediately. This is why it’s predicted that, by 2020, influencer marketing will become a $10 billion industry. Finding and collaborating with influencers for your business is a big task by itself but establishing a relationship with them is as important. Follow these practices to build a good rapport with online influencers.
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Is there still a line between our personal and work lives?
Catherine Iste Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementImagine if company handbooks included policies governing what personal information employees could and could not share. While there are topics that are generally discouraged, like politics and religion, we usually do not provide hard and fast rules around conversation topics and often allow the culture and the employees to create the standard. This can further blur the line between personal and work lives, which can have interesting implications for leaders.
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ADA CareerCenter upgrades online tools for job-seeking dentists
Tammy Hinojos Oral & Dental HealthcareAre you a recently graduated dental professional looking for the perfect place to start your career? Or an experienced dentist looking to make a move to another practice? Your job search may have just gotten a whole lot easier. Dental professionals looking for the right job could always turn to the American Dental Association’s CareerCenter, the ADA’s official online job board. But on July 17, the ADA CareerCenter debuted its upgraded website, which now offers even more tools to improve the user experience and personalization of job searches.
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5 tips to improve past performance ratings
Lisa Pafe Civil & GovernmentContractors often struggle to define a discriminating value proposition. While a value proposition is certainly comprised of your service or product solution, it also incorporates your past performance. A proposal demonstrates to the government a company’s prospective ability to perform the work. How does the government gain confidence in your prospective ability to deliver your solution at high quality and low risk? By examining your past performance both on relevant contracts as well as trends across time.
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Infographic: Why employee satisfaction drives company performance
Raunak Pandey Business Management, Services & Risk ManagementStatistics show that employees’ happiness is greatly dependent upon their levels of engagement and contentment in the workplace. Friendly interaction and teamwork are signs of a positive workplace with minimal absenteeism, which ultimately results in a thriving organization. On the other hand, a negative workplace shows signs of little or no communication between people, lack of passion, and high levels of absenteeism. To improve workplace morale, a company should go the extra mile towards increasing employees’ satisfaction.
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Reading and L2 acquisition
Douglas Magrath EducationLanguage skills can develop naturally. Language acquisition comes under the field of psycholinguistics: Children learn L1 without any active intervention. It is a natural process. But materials may not always be available. A case in point is a Korean student, Sodam, who excelled in English, winning awards and speaking with native fluency, according to her teachers. "Sodam had no special advantages...She had never lived in an English-speaking country. The difference was that Sodam was a reader."
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