What Employees Want (Other Than a Raise)

A common reason that employees seek other opportunities is they want more money. As an employer, when one of your employees come to you asking for a raise or promotion, it can be an awkward conversation. If you say yes, chances are more employees will come with the same request. If you deny, you risk losing that employee. When he or she decides to leave the company for an opportunity that provides more money, you may be tempted to extend a counteroffer. Luckily, there are other benefits that employers can offer their employees to retain them.

For small business owners, the request for a raise or promotion is one that might keep you up at night. It may not be possible to give your employees a raise when they request it, even though they may be more than deserving, due to the costs of keeping the business afloat. If you are an employer and have found yourself in this position, there are other things that you can offer instead of a bump in salary.

Bonuses

If you can’t offer a raise in salary at the moment, it is important to be honest with them and maintain open lines of communication. Is there a timeline of when he or she can expect the raise? Share that with them; your employee will appreciate the honesty and transparency surrounding the situation.

An alternate route is offering a one-time bonus. Not only will this show the employee that he or she is valued, but it also can improve his or her morale (and bank account).

Flex Hours

A popular workplace perk or benefit is offering flex hours. Popular use of this perk is coming in early to leave early, or starting later and leaving later. This provides opportunities to incorporate a healthy work-life balance which can, in turn, improve productivity in the office. Another option, according to Career Builder, is to offer four 10-hour work days instead of five 8-hour work days.

Work from Home Days

Remote working options have become increasingly popular these days. This benefit can lead to increased productivity and employee happiness. Still not convinced? Data from an OwlLabs survey revealed that employees who work from home at least once a month are 24 percent happier and more productive than those who don’t.

While remote working can benefit those who take advantage of it, not everyone can maintain productivity outside the office. Figuring out what works for you is key.

Wrap Up

It is no secret that today’s job market favors the job seeker. Candidates can search for and choose which jobs to apply for and, if offered, which one to accept. Retaining employees can be fairly competitive as career professionals are looking for the best opportunity to advance his or her career. Employees will always want more money and often times will seek opportunities that provide it. If you cannot offer a raise, there are other benefits you can offer your employees to keep them engaged and productive. For more, check out this article from our friends at Career Builder.

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When to Quit Your Job

Regardless of your reasoning, quitting your job is an anxiety-inducing and daunting experience. Often times you may feel that you’re on an island and the only person experiencing these feelings. If you’ve ever felt this way, just know that you’re not the first person to ever quit a job and certainly won’t be the last. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics nearly 3.5 million people (2.3 percent of the total workforce) quit their jobs in February 2019 alone. For many people, knowing when to quit is a difficult realization to come to grips with.

According to best-selling author, CEO and Forbes contributor Grant Cardone, the top three warning signs that you should quit are:

  • Lack of leadership – without leadership or with bad leadership, a company is doomed from the start.
  • Poor company culture – if your coworkers are miserable, chances are their misery and negative feelings will start creeping into your mind as well.
  • Zero opportunity for growth – if your career development is being stunted, and you’ve tried to take on new responsibilities or get a promotion to no avail, things likely won’t change in the future.

Are you seeing any of these warning signs in your current role? It might be time to pursue opportunities. Once you recognize the signs that it is time to quit, the worst thing you can do is stick around and hope things change. Many people do this because the fear of confrontation and not wanting to have that conversation with a boss. However, as Cardone states, “Make an exit plan immediately.”

Navigating how to quit your job the right way can be challenging (make sure not to make these mistakes!). If you’ve decided it is time to make a change, Cardone has three tips to creating your own exit plan.

Commit to Your Decision

Deciding to quit your job is not a time to second guess yourself. You need to make the decision and stick to it, because after all the chances of rescinding on your resignation are slim to none. Sometimes when you put in your two weeks’ notice, your employer might make a counteroffer. However, once you’ve made your decision, stick to it. There’s no looking back.

Actively Look for Jobs

When quitting jobs, the common train of thought is to “never leave a job without having another lined up.” Sometimes, however, you just need to get out of a bad situation. If this is the case, you must ramp up your job search for the next opportunity. If you leave a job and don’t have another one to start shortly thereafter, your job search should become your full-time job.

Don’t Treat the Job Interview Like a Job Interview

According to Cardone, “When you start landing those job interviews, you’ll want to do more than just talk about your past experiences and accomplishments. Make it a point to emphasize what you can do for the company, and not what it can do for you. Bring bold ideas that will wow them.”

This is an opportunity to show why you’re the best candidate for the job. It is your time to shine. Take advantage of it.

Wrap Up

Quitting your job isn’t exactly a fun experience that people look forward to, but the majority of us will likely have to face this unfortunate circumstance at one point or another during our career. Once you realize that it is time to quit for the right reasons, these steps will make creating your “exit plan” easier and more attainable.

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The Importance of a Timely Follow-Up

Getting a job can be an arduous process; the countless applications and cover letters, the interview stage, receiving an offer, negotiating benefits and ultimately accepting an offer. While the interview process is your time to prove that you are the ideal candidate, the post-interview stage can make or break your hiring chances.

Although it might be an after-thought, the importance of a post-interview follow-up cannot be stressed enough. Jessica Liebman, the executive managing editor of Insider Inc., came up with a simple rule when she first started hiring 10 years ago: they wouldn’t move a candidate to the next stage in the interview process unless they send a thank you email. Fast forward to 2019 and she still stands by it; if someone doesn’t send a follow-up thank you email, she won’t hire them.

Still not convinced about the importance of a timely follow-up? According to a study of 1,000 hiring managers by Robert Half International, 81 percent want a follow-up message within two weeks after initially applying to the job and 22 percent of hiring managers would dismiss an applicant who didn’t send a post-interview thank you note. Believe it or not, you can start your follow-up before the interview even ends. By asking what their anticipated hiring timeline is, you can determine how to schedule your messages.

How should you follow-up? There are three things you should do after your interview if you really want the job.

Write a Thank You Note

These days, email is pretty much instantaneous and finding someone’s email is fairly easy. However, if you want to go above and beyond to truly stand out, take the time to write a handwritten thank you note. The key with the handwritten notes is to send them no later than 24 hours post-interview.

In an article for ZipRecruiter, Nicole Cavazos highlights four things to keep in mind for your thank you note.

  • Be brief, friendly and conversational.
  • Restate your interest in the job and relevant details about how you’re qualified.
  • Thank the employer for their time.
  • Include any significant information that you might have forgotten in the midst of your interview.

Check-In

Once you’ve written and sent the thank you note and/or email (preferably both) you can sit back and relax for a little bit. However, if you haven’t heard back in a timely manner, or within the period that the company said you would, it is time to check-in.

This could be an awkward experience because you don’t want to come off as annoying. However, there is a delicate balance between being annoying and persistent. It is important to realize that this is all part of the process. If done correctly, your check-in can show your diligence and reiterate your interest in the position. Sometimes a company might even wait for a candidate to check-in before making their hiring decision. If you’re wondering whether or not you should check-in, what do you have to lose?

Stay In Touch

If you don’t get the job, you are allowed to be disappointed. However, you shouldn’t burn bridges! If the opportunity was at a company you are interested in potentially working at in the future, you should keep in touch to be considered for any future openings. As Cavazos says, “Rather than seeing your relationship with the employer as a failed job interview and lost opportunity, treat them as a valuable new colleague and contact.

It is important to remember to not overdo it when staying in touch. The occasional check-in is acceptable as long as it is genuine.

Wrap Up

The job interview is only the beginning of the conversation. If you truly want the job, you have to put as much effort into your follow-up as you did in the interview prep as it can make or break your chances at the job. There is a fine line between being persistent and annoying, but if you want to stay on the company’s radar you must tiptoe this line.

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Common Email Mistakes You’re Likely Making

The advent of email has made both our personal and professional lives much easier. Information is accessible with a few clicks of the mouse, and communication is streamlined. We can exchange messages via our laptops, tablets and phones without ever speaking a word. While this definitely makes communication easier, it can also lead to misunderstandings.

Chances are you have been in a situation where you have either gotten or sent an email and the message was taken the wrong way. Maybe you meant to say something jokingly, but due to the inability to show inflection in your words, the joke went to the wayside and the recipient took it the wrong way.  Or you have been struggling to come up with the right wording for an email that you need to send, just to do so and not get a response.

Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy spent three years studying the science of emotions and how they apply to work life. Their findings are in their new book, “No Hard Feelings: The Secret Power of Embracing Emotions at Work.” The duo found that there are five common mistakes that people make when it comes to their emails and offered up some strategies on how to fix them so your email gets read.

Assuming The Other Person Can Read Your Mind

This not only happens during in-person communication but also via digital means. If you’re emailing someone about a product or service that your company provides, it can be easy to forget that the recipient might not be as well-versed as you are. Remember to be as specific as possible in your emails, especially if you’re emailing someone you aren’t too familiar with.

Using Too Many Emojis

It is important to remember that work emails and your personal emails or texts should be approached differently. In your casual conversations with friends or family, you might throw in the occasional emoji or bitmoji. Although you might be tempted to include them in your work correspondence to lighten the mood, you should probably leave them out as they can undermine your professionalism. Once you know the other person a little better, you can include them since you’ll likely understand how he or she will receive them. Along the same vein, you don’t need to overuse exclamation points to show your excitement.

Failing to Proofread

The quickest way to lose credibility is by having a bunch of careless errors in your email correspondence. If you forget to include a comma, the whole meaning of your message could be misinterpreted. You should always proofread then reread your email before pressing send.

Don’t React, Respond

Given the fact that your communication is blocked via a screen and keyboard, it becomes easier to react to a message instead of taking the time to respond. It can be hard to reel in your emotions when responding so you fire off an email that you might regret later. Luckily, most emails are not time-sensitive so if you aren’t sure how to respond or if you are afraid your emotions are going to run high, you can take some time to cool off and revisit the message later. In doing this, you will be responding instead of emotionally reacting.

Asking Over Email

Similar to the above, it may be easier to ask something via email because of the comfort factor. Want a meeting with your supervisor but am afraid to get rejected in person? Chances are you’ve resorted to email for this request. In this case, that is acceptable. However, asking for a raise or promotion is something that should be reserved for an in-person discussion. Research has shown that an in-person request is 30 percent more successful than an emailed one, as people see emailed requests as “untrustworthy” and “non-urgent.”

Wrap Up

You likely use email everyday in some aspect. If you’ve ever sent an email just to get no response, maybe you’re making these mistakes more often than you think. Before you send your next email, either for personal or professional reasons, be wary of these mistakes!

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What To Do When You Make a Mistake At Work

Let’s face it, mistakes happen nearly everyday at work. We’ve all been there. Sometimes you have so many things going on and are trying to get everything done in a timely manner that your focus wanes and you slip up. These mistakes are usually not life and death (unless you’re in the medical industry, then disregard this), but in the moment they feel monumental. You may feel that you let your team or supervisor down and maybe even that your reputation is ruined.

These are very common thoughts and could be detrimental to your psyche. If you’ve made a mistake at work, it is imperative to turn the negative experience into a positive one and realize you can learn from your mistakes. Chances are you’re not the first to make a mistake, and you will definitely not be the last, although you might think otherwise in the moment.

If you’ve made a mistake at work, there are some things that you should do in the aftermath. Bestselling management author and CNBC contributor Suzy Welch has three things you should do immediately after you mess up at work.

Own Your Mistake

According to Welch, the first thing you should do is own the fact that you messed up. If you admit to your mistake, you have a better chance of figuring out how to make it right. On the other end of the spectrum, if you blame everyone else for your mistake your coworkers might lose respect for you.

Welch says, “Even if you aren’t the only author of the mistake – and you probably aren’t – you still have to take responsibility with your boss, colleagues and subordinates.” In doing so this, “is how we demonstrate that we’re grown-ups, that we get it and that we feel remorse.”

By taking responsibility of your mistake, all parties will be able to move on and get past it. Additionally, by owning up to it you show remorse and can get a second chance.

Get To The Bottom Of Your Mistake

In order to learn from your mistake and hopefully not make it again, the next step is to understand why and how you made the mistake. One way you can do this is by asking your supervisor for some guidance and advice on how you can do things differently. This might be a bit uncomfortable for you at first, but it might be the easiest and most direct method to learning from your mistake.

Welch echoes this sentiment, “[this process] will definitely take you out of your comfort zone. It’s also going to show your organization that you have the guts and integrity to grow in ways that ensure your error never happens again.”

Rebrand Yourself With a Win

One of the best ways to get over the mental anguish that you’ve been dealing with after making a mistake and to have your colleagues and bosses forget about it, is to knock the next task out of the park. If you follow up a mistake with a job well done, or a major win, you will likely get back into the good graces of everyone involved.

The ways you can do this vary. Maybe you come up with a new project that can bring in additional revenue to the company, or you close a big sale for a key account. Either way, you can use this opportunity and “win” to show that you’re still an asset to the company and can bounce back.

Wrap Up

Everybody makes mistakes, regardless of the magnitude. While you generally want to avoid the big mistakes, the smaller ones are bound to happen. Once you change your mindset to realize that mistakes happen and it usually isn’t the end of the world to viewing mistakes as a learning experience, you will become more productive. Just remember, as Welch says, “Everybody screws up sometimes. But one mistake isn’t the end of the game for you unless you let it be. There are three ways back to the winner’s circle. Grab them and run.”

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