Autonomy and the Engaged Employee

Autonomy and the Engaged Employee We all have a slightly different way of working, using our varied experience, skills, traits, and preferences as to how, when, and where we complete our duties. Understanding and capitalizing on these attributes are key for managers who want to adapt, innovate and succeed. Research on employee preferences at work suggests that “autonomy and authority” and “flexibility of working hours” are key motivators for today’s employees. Few people respond well to micro-management, which tends to engender resentment and an atmosphere of mistrust. The problem is that managers, sometimes inexperienced or insecure, resist delegating and their employees interpret this as showing a lack of trust and confidence. Where there is a lack of autonomy there’s likely to be a shortfall of initiative and creativity. At 10Eighty, we like to think that we hire great people and then let them get on with doing a great job, providing the resources, support, and feedback they need without second-guessing their every move and decision. Some people like detailed direction and regular feedback, while others thrive on being left alone to do their own thing, relying on their commitment to their work as a motivator and seeking guidance and feedback when they feel the need. Focus on results As a manager, you should focus on results while enabling employees to manage their work and decide how best to achieve the required results. We favor a strengths-based approach, as taking the trouble to understand the strengths and development needs of employees allows a manager to assign projects and tasks effectively, with work allocations that you know employees will value and which will help them build on their strengths and develop new skills as part of the process. This doesn’t mean leaving employees to work in isolation it’s crucial to provide support and advice to bolster employee autonomy. Research suggests that greater levels of both control over work tasks and schedules have the potential to create significant benefits for the employee, evidenced in reported levels of wellbeing. Enhanced employee experience Sourcing employees with the right mindset and attitude will help an employer to encourage a culture of autonomy, commitment, and accountability. Businesses should take responsibility for enhancing the employee experience as improvements in wellbeing benefit the employee and provide significant benefits in respect of productivity and retention. The level of autonomy according to employees is important, it’s a key factor affecting the worker’s ability to cope with the pressure of work. The ability to control what work they do and to pace themselves and organize their workload is key to empowering and enabling a quality contribution. This is especially true of those we term ‘knowledge workers’, who need the scope and opportunity to explore options, to collaborate with co-workers, and to experiment in order to achieve innovative and creative solutions to the challenges we face in a competitive and volatile business environment. “Giving your employees more control over how they do things can make a huge difference to employee performance, productivity and commitment.” Investors in People. What constitutes ‘good work’ is a matter for debate and, sadly, many employers don’t seem to concern themselves too much with building employee-centered HR policies and procedures. This is short-sighted since sourcing and retaining talent is becoming a major challenge for the near future. We are, however, witnessing changes to the relationship between employers and employees. Professor Cary Cooper CBE, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health at the University of Manchester says: “We are currently seeing loyalty between employers and employees decreasing, which means that retaining healthy, high performing employees is even more important. Organizations of the future need to trust their employees and manage by praise and reward”.

Leverage Doing more with less - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Leverage Doing more with less - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Leverage is a popular vocabulary word in the corporate world. Why is this? Because it is strategic and allows a single person to utilize all the resources around him or her most effectively and efficiently in order to have a positive impact on the bottom line. What we leverage: People or human resources people are resources that can accomplish tasks or provide information that has already been gathered (research) Research from a known source or reporter such as Forrester or Gartner. Research could be gathered through various websites online, but they arent all trusted so be warned. Capital money doesnt buy happiness, but it can be leveraged to create value for the customer or client Ideas derived from people and can be leveraged to create a successful strategy Assets aside from monetary means, assets could be classified as a location such as a house (place of ownership) The bottom line is shaped and twisted from leveraging your surroundings. Those that can properly leverage their resources to accomplish tasks, will excel at a faster pace. It should be your goal to gather and increase the items listed above, in order to expedite the learning curve or advance in a given project.

Social Worker Resume Objective Examples - Algrim.co

Social Worker Resume Objective Examples - Algrim.co Writing a social worker resume objective can be difficult. It needs to sound confident, professional, experienced, and allude to the qualities that show you know how to perform on the job. Resume objectives introduce your experience to the reader and create a synopsis that promotes reading your resume in full. Let's jump into better understanding how to write your resume objective and what it might look like. What Makes a Great Social Worker Resume Objective? If you’re seeking a position as a social worker, your resume objective should reflect that. Usually, it means you have either post-secondary or graduate-level education which is important to note in your resume. Your experience and qualifications should be summarized in your objective along with your reasons for wanting the specific role. A Social Worker’s key skills should be active listening, communication, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence along with personal qualities such as empathy and compassion. Social workers need to demonstrate that they have the right personality for the job, the correct theoretical knowledge, and the field experience of client management, one-on-one work, and community development. Plus, a desire to make positive community change or a positive impact on someone’s life usually goes hand in hand with the line of work. Additionally, your objective can include the experience you’d like to gain in this role, how you’d like to grow with the agency or the impact you’d like to have in this particular position. Try picking out skills from the job advertisement that you might be able to include in your objective. Keywords are important and can help elevate your resume objective and overall job application. Additionally, if you have a measurable number of years of experience, include that. The more specific your objective, the better. 5 Examples of Social Worker Resume Objectives 1. An experienced and trained social worker with expertise in client management, not-for-profit work, and case management seeking a community-based role where I am able to apply my practical skills with my passion for helping others. 2. Seeking a position as a social worker focusing on the area of case management in an agency that has the opportunity for growth and personal and professional development. Eager to work alongside a team of passionate community workers who are focused on improving the lives of others. 3. Empathetic, passionate, and driven social worker looking to make a positive impact in my community in a role within an organization or agency. 4. A Social worker with experience in a variety of community settings, seeking a position with an agency where I am able to help individuals live balanced and happy lives. 5. Seeking a position as a social worker within an organization that focuses on community-based practices and human rights where I am able to apply my X years of experience in the field. Good luck with your job search as a social worker and remember to write confidently about your skills and experience in your resume objective.

Why a Recruiter is Necessary in Your Job Search

Why a Recruiter is Necessary in Your Job Search This was the 4th most popular blog post of 2013.  See the rest of the top 15 here. In 2013, hiring is becoming more of an art form rather than a run-of-the-mill activity performed by an HR Rep. There are metrics that determine what makes a viable candidate, a team of personalities who will be a part of the decision making process and more tests than you ever took in High School Geometry just to determine if you are the right employee for them. For every one job being advertised, there are close to hundreds of candidates who are fighting for that same spot and while you may think you are the perfect fit for that position, those other applicants have the same opinion. Although your resume may be ideal, it’s hard to tell the difference when it’s sitting in the middle of a pile a mile long. You need something to set yourself aside; something that puts you in front of that hiring manager and says “Here I am, when  do I  start?” Having a recruiter who has direct access to that hiring manager is the key. Below I highlight 6 reasons why working with a recruiter wil l put you at the head of the class: 1) Direct contact with hiring manager: Recruiters spend days, if not weeks, working to build relationships with the person who will ultimately decide the fate of your future employment. Recruiters devote that time to learning what not only makes someone a good fit technically but also culturally and by the time your first phone call with a recruiter is over, you already know if you are one step closer to being that company’s next employee. 2) They know the ins and outs of the job description: When you are reviewing a job description what are you doing first?  Identifying if you match with the bullet points being advertised.  You read the first seven bullet points and you think  â€œwell I match 5 of the 7 so I should be perfect!”  What if what you didn’t know was that the two you don’t match are the two that are the most important to the hiring manager, and without it they won’t consider you? The Recruiter knows that. A good recruiter will know what areas of the job description are most important and which ones are secondary. By knowing this ahead of time you automatically can get yourself to the front of the line. 3) Provide career advice: The recruiters job is to interact with thousands of job seekers a year. Recruiting is much like a batting average in baseball. Unfortunately success is determined by failing more than winning. They know what a bad interview looks like, and how it can be prevented. If you are an average job seeker chances are you are only interviewing a few times a year. Which means you only get a few shots at getting things right. Working with the recruiter allows you a chance to learn from others mistakes. If you can spend even 10 minutes with a recruiter finding out what makes a job applicant attractive to hiring managers, it can save you hours of wasted interviewing time. 4) Up-front honesty: Unfortunately the true fact is that companies do not want to tell you why you are not a fit for them. They would like to have you believe “there was a better applicant”. And while that may be true, that still begs the question: what made them better? More experience? Better aptitude to do the job? Would they accept a lower salary? Hiring managers aren’t afraid to tell recruiters these answers because they know they do not have to tell the applicant themselves. So, as such, there is no fear of backlash by sharing this information with a recruiter. On the flipside the recruiter is not afraid to tell the applicant this information because ultimately they are not the ones who feel this way, it comes from someone else. When you are working with a recruiter you can get the black and white truth, no matter how harmful it may be. 5) Interview preparation: To go back to point 3, the average job seeker is no expert at interviewing at least you probably should not be (if you have job security). The recruiter, on the other hand, is. They know if the hiring manager prefers someone who dresses down, shows up 15 minutes early or has a firm handshake. These things are important in this day and age. Personally, I have had a candidate be declined a VP of Human Resources job because they did not send a proper thank you note. If you are interviewing on your own, how are you supposed to know that? Working with the recruiter allows you to know what will set you apart from the rest of the applicants. Maybe this hiring manager will only hire a team player, and while the candidate before you was unaware of that you walked in prepared to talk all about how you were part of a 10 person team that had to work together, and you brought examples to prove it. 6) Resume assistance: Whilst you may be an excellent writer, unfortunately you cannot have 15 different versions of your resume on hand to fit every job you apply for. And if you are like most professionals you have acquired a multitude of different skill sets throughout your career. Although it would be nice to label all of it, there just isn’t enough room. The recruiter knows what is most important to that hiring manager and what they look for first on a resume and they will ensure  that the first thing the hiring manager reads is the same things that he/she is looking for. Conclusions: Ultimately working with a recruiter will get you closer to that dream job you’ve been trying to land more than you could think, by separating yourself from the herd. Knowing what a hiring manager wants to see on a resume and what will set you apart once you land that interview will put you that much closer to acing the test. But don’t just work with the first recruiter who calls. Understand their market, clients and industry. If you are an IT Director looking for that executive level position it makes no sense working with the Financial Recruiter who specializes in tax accountants. The recruiter/ candidate relationship should be one of understanding what the two of you can do for one another. After all, this is your life were talking about. RELATED:  How Much Does a ‘No Recruiters’ Policy Cost You?

Has Your Job Been SMACed If not Yet, It Will! - Career Pivot

Has Your Job Been SMACed If not Yet, It Will! - Career Pivot SMAC â€" Social Mobile Analytics Cloud SMAC is here…and is disrupting our careers. If you think you are immune from SMAC, I want to take the rest of this post to convince you differently. S is for Social or Social Media If you are a PR or Marketing professional, you know your world has changed. All you need to do is look at the demise of the local newspaper and local broadcast news. Most of the population 30 years of age get their news from Facebook and other social channels. We are entering the 2nd phase of Social Media marketing. It is called Pay to Play. Effective marketing of your product or service on Social Media is no longer free. The organizations that are most adversely affected are non-profits, which have little or no budget for Social Media marketing. You already know that Social Media has become a prevalent way for employers to find talent. The days of finding a job posting on Monster, CareerBuilder, or in the newspaper are largely over. Companies are out looking for talent, and do not care whether you are looking for a job! It is your responsibility to make yourself attractive as a passive candidate. Will Thomson of Bullseye Recruiting wrote a great guest post, 5 Key Traits Recruiters look for in a Passive Candidate, which explains this change. The S in SMAC is changing everything. M is for Mobile Mobile is changing everything! Even Google is scared of what mobile can do to their business. Google recently changed their search algorithms to favor those websites that are mobile friendly. If you own or work for a small business and your website is not mobile friendly, well…good luck! When I look at my phone, I will find my calendar, contacts, email, social apps, maps, and other apps that you would expect. I also have Audible so that I can listen to books in the car or at the gym. ESPN and ESPNwatch so I can watch sports. I have two of my local radio station’s apps, so I can listen to them at the gym. Car2Go so that I can find and rent a car. Kindle so that I can read a book anytime anywhere. CNN and Al Jazeera America so I can read the national news. Podcasts so I can listen to podcasts at the gym. WOW! If I walk out of my condo and do not have my iPhone, I feel naked. Mobile is changing how we: Shop. Find things. Pay for things! Are found. That is the scary part. If your career has not been affected by mobile yet, it will! Listen to the most recent episode The M in SMAC is changing everything. A is for Analytics More data has been collected in the last few years than was collected in the previous century. A lot of it is coming voluntarily from our activities via Social Media and Mobile. How we shop, where we shop, what we pay with, where we go online, and even how long it takes to get somewhere are some of the things that inform this data. Earlier this month, it was reported that Texas Department of Transportation is using Bluetooth devices in the cars to determine how long it takes to get from point A to point B. Do you remember the movie Minority Report where Tom Cruise walks through a mall and hyper-customized ads displayed everywhere? Analytics is here to stayâ€"and we allow it. Analytics will affect how you are hired. There will be so much data on you, that the employer will be able to run all of it through an algorithm to determine whether you are a good fit. The A in SMAC is changing everything. C is for Cloud Cloud is changing everything in the technology world. Most of the major technology hardware vendors are seeing portions of their business collapse. A classic example is IBM, who missed the shift and is seeing massive changes in their business. Their hardware business is collapsing. Cloud computing is sometimes referred to SaaS (Software as a Service). Cloud (SaaS) is causing massive shifts in the background for many businesses. Small businesses can now have access to resources that they only dreamed about in the past. Whether it is email marketing, disk storage, photo editing, or e-mail, you have no need to install software. This change has also allowed for data to be shared with anyone and at any time. For example, every receipt I get is now electronic. Places like Office Depot e-mail me receipts. I save the receipts in a folder in Dropbox. My bookkeeper can access the receipts from Dropbox and enter them into a spreadsheet or even Quickbooks in the cloud. She can be anywhere in the world, and we rarely have to talk. This has made it so much easier for freelancers to service clients, but also for companies to offer their services to customers worldwide. The C in SMAC is changing everything. SMAC and Your Career SMAC is eliminating jobs and is creating new jobs. It has made it easier for you to offer your services to anyone in the world but it has also made it easier for others to compete with you. How has SMAC affected your job? Marc Miller Like what you just read? Share it with your friends using the buttons above. Like What You Read? Get Career Pivot Insights! Check out the Repurpose Your Career Podcast Do You Need Help With ...

An Honest Letter to Students with Lessons about Real Life - CareerEnlightenment.com

Don’t take this too hard. Everyone goes through it. You are in the process of defining your professional self. In my case, it took nine years!Ask your elders for advice. Anyone who’s been out of college as long as I have can probably help you through the rough times.Remember to celebrate what you’ve already accomplished. This is one I still struggle to incorporate in my life. Hey, after all, I went to Brown, one of the hardest colleges to get into. That should say something.Find your guardian angels. No one wins alone. No wealthy person ever became a millionaire through just their own efforts (unless they won at poker). Find a mentor who will advocate for you when you need it.The faster you can accept the realities of post-college life, the sooner you will find success in life.If I had read this letter sooner, my life may have taken a very different tack. But even after struggling for 9 years to find my professional self, I still did it, and I consider myself successful. So the good news is that it’s never too late.If there is just one piece of advice I would add to this letter it would be this. Your career isn’t going to fall in your lap just because you graduated school. If you know what you want, do whatever it takes to get there. If you don’t know, do whatever it takes to find clarity, even if that means trying something out for a while.

How To Decide Where To Start

How To Decide Where To Start If you are just beginning to realize that you need expert help to find a job or further your career, it can feel pretty overwhelming. Do you start writing a resume? Maybe you should look at the want ads or get one of those professional packages, but which one? When you look at the A La Carte Services, they seem like a cheaper way to get something, but the packages have more stuff. Right? Or maybe a completely do-it-yourself method would be cheaper. Just do the research and get it done because you have the time, but not the money to pay for it. No, wait! Thats where we started this, at the realization that expert help is what is needed. Where should you start? Start With Expert Advice When you look at any page on the Professional Resume Services website, a little contact popup opens up with an opportunity to set up a time to talk. You can look at the calendar and designate a day and time, call the phone number, or leave details and we will get back to you. That opportunity to talk to a person who is completely familiar with the services we provide doesnt obligate you to buying something, but it gives you all the benefit of a short personal consultation to see what might work. Theres also a lot of information on this blog to give you a bigger perspective on things. The more you are familiar with different aspects of what affects your career, the easier it is to see how every aspect fits together and creates the whole picture.