Early in my career, I worked for The Disney Channel, part of which included managing events where Disney character assets were constantly being requested. As I managed each of these events, I followed the Disney brand identity, ensuring it was implemented and executed to a tee. One of the issues I ran into quite often was people requesting events where they submitted their own Disney character art that was not approved, did not fit within the Disney visual identity, and was off-brand.
Part of Disney’s success in creating a recognizable and trusted brand is how they execute their visual identity seamlessly both internally throughout their organization and externally with all of their partners.
A brand identity is how your brand defines itself. This includes the brand’s values, beliefs, and personality. It is what you want people to feel when they interact with your brand through distinct visual and audio elements.
All of your visual and audio elements need to work together to resonate with your audience in order to tell your overall brand story in a consistent, purposeful way.
A well-defined brand identity distinguishes your company and influences the way your brand is perceived in the eyes of your consumers, in turn leading to brand loyalty.
A visual identity is a collection of visual assets that define the look and feel of your brand, making it unique and recognizable. It’s how you shape consumer perceptions and create a lasting impression.
Why is having a visual identity so important? Your visual identity is one of the first things consumers notice about your brand. It highlights your brand’s personality, helps create an emotional connection with your customers, and how you stand out from your competition. Your visual identity needs to capture your consumers' attention in a matter of seconds.
While your appearance is the first thing that people notice about your brand, your brand strategy is the foundation that guides your visual identity. Your visual identity articulates who you are, why you exist, and what you stand for.
Here are four steps to developing your brand strategy (brand strategy template) which will help pull together your visual identity:
All of the assets in your visual identity need to work together, providing a unified message that tells a story, evokes emotion, and encourages engagement. To create your visual identity, it’s important to understand the elements included:
Your visual identity is represented in a brand style guide. A brand style guide are guidelines on how to communicate your brand and deliver a consistent visual experience to your customers. Your brand style guide should evolve over time to reflect the overall brand experience as it changes.
In Summary
Brands that have effectively taken charge of their visual identity systems are recognizable, help tell their brand story in a unique way, bring order to complexity, are authentic to their brand, and ensure consistency across all marketing channels and touchpoints. Start building your brand leadership today. You’ve got this!
Over the past several years, I’ve had the honor to lead the recruitment process for 22 non-profit CEOs and have learned a thing or two about what a successful search process entails.
When recruiting for non-profit CEOs, it’s critical to have a well-defined strategy put in place before beginning the search. The strategy is typically created by the search consultant leading the search and that person must gain the buy-in from all stakeholders including the search committee and board of directors. The strategy will include, whether it’s a local, regional, or national search, the must-haves versus the preferred qualifications of the ideal candidate. The strategy will also outline the target audience, including industries, specific companies, and specific roles/positions/people at those companies.
When recruiting for a non-profit CEO, connection to the mission is critical! For example, when recruiting for a CEO of a non-profit that serves families with disabilities, we targeted people with the skill set to do the job but also uncovered their connection to the mission by finding out if they had direct ties to either serving families with disabilities or had a child with a disability and had the lived experience, or both.
Another example is when recruiting for the CEO of a non-profit that serves families who receive a Catholic education, we uncovered whether or not the candidates received a similar Catholic education or if their children had, therefore providing them with the lived experience and direct tie to the mission.
I’ve had the privilege of working with many different search committees and have found that, for the most part, these individuals are talented and dedicated business leaders who take their commitment to the organization very seriously and dedicate a lot of time to ensuring the search process goes smoothly.
The chair of the search committee is typically my main point of contact and the person who dedicates the most time to the process and is also the final decision-maker in certain situations. My job is to make the search as seamless as possible and to take as much off their plate as possible.
After recruiting in the for-profit world for many years before switching to the non-profit sector, I have found that many non-profits are in need of business leaders who are just as strong in their business acumen as their for-profit counterparts. In fact, many leaders from the for-profit sector welcome a change into the non-profit sector, bringing in a fresh perspective, while having the opportunity to use their many skills to help their community.
It’s so important for the money to go towards the mission, and not towards unnecessary or wasteful spending. Uncovering how a CEO has grown the reach of their organization and how they’ve grown the budget, while staying true to the mission, is important information.
For small non-profits, the CEO is oftentimes the primary fundraiser. As an agency grows, so does the need for a development department. No matter what the size is, fundraising is always a critical component and although many non-profits receive government funding, diversifying funding streams and bringing in revenue to support the mission is so important!
One of the best parts of my job is getting the opportunity to work with people who have used their time and talents to make our world a better place. Whether they are helping people experiencing homelessness, hunger, or violence, or helping people who have disabilities or critical illnesses, many of these leaders are angels on earth making our world a better place!
If you need to recruit for this type of position, please contact me at cneese@duffygroup.com or (602) 802-8329 or on LinkedIn.
Performance reviews can be intimidating, especially if you aren’t sure how to prepare and what will be discussed. Either way, it’s critical to spend extra time setting yourself up for success during this meeting with your manager.
Think of these meetings as a valuable opportunity to speak with your manager about growth and goals moving forward in your career. You’ve got this!
In this training, you’ll learn how to:
Join our CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and Director of Training Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this live event on Wednesday, August 24th at 12 pm ET.
CAN'T ATTEND LIVE? That's okay. You'll have access to the recording and the workbook after the session!
Whether you've just graduated from college, you're in the middle of your career, or you're in your 60s, competition for jobs is fierce. So, how can you stay relevant in today's job market?
Here are six ways to stay on top of your game...
If you want to market yourself effectively, you need to clearly understand how and where you add value. What skill sets and strengths do you have? What's the problem you solve? How do you solve it? Get very clear on what you have to offer and then start building your brand.
Once you understand how and where you add value, you need to build your brand—a marketing strategy for your business-of-one. Start building up your online presence, establish yourself as an expert in your field, and get your name out there. If people can't find you easily, it will be hard to stand out in a sea of talent.
This is one of the most important things you can do to stay relevant in today's job market. We live in a very tech-savvy world, and if you can't keep up, you risk falling behind the competition. Think about what technologies are used in your industry and take steps to familiarize yourself with them and learn how they work.
What's happening in your industry? What needs aren't being fulfilled? Look at industry news and developments so you can get a clear idea of what areas will need talent. Then, set yourself up to fill those needs using your skill sets.
If you don't get yourself out there, no one will be able to recognize your value. Join professional groups, attend industry-related events, meet people working in your dream companies, find a mentor, and so on. Grow your network early and establish those relationships. They will help you if you need to find something new down the road.
The secret to staying relevant? Upskilling. You must constantly gain new, relevant skills in order to stay ahead of the curve. Look for weak areas in your skill sets and find ways to get educated or experienced. You can take classes online or on campus, attend workshops, volunteer, or even take on part-time jobs.
Even if you're in a job you absolutely love right now and have been there for years, you always want to be prepared. Things can change with the flip of the switch and you might be out of a job tomorrow. So, think about your next step. Even if you don't plan on leaving your current job right now, the earlier you get started, the easier it will be to get your foot in the door at another company if/when it comes time.
The key to staying relevant in an ever-changing job market (and in a recession!) is to always look for ways to improve your skills. Learn to embrace new experiences as opportunities to grow, both personally and professionally. By doing the above six things, you'll stay relevant in any industry, no matter how competitive.
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This article was originally published at an earlier date.
Communication skills have become more essential than ever. Many job postings and job descriptions have a requirement for strong communication skills. The key to communicating is being able to communicate effectively. All communication is not created equal—there is good communication and better communication. How do you rate yourself?
Communication can be verbal or written. When verbal, you can see facial expressions and body language to make sure you’re sharing and exchanging information effectively. If the other person gives you a confused look, you know to stop talking and maybe repeat/explain your statements to minimize any misunderstandings. You don’t have the luxury of a “do-over” with written communication—you need to get it right the first time. So, take the time to make sure your document’s message is clear.
Here are three things to consider for effective written communications:
1. The first thing you want to do is know your audience. Are you soliciting feedback from your customers, developing training materials for the employees, or writing an audit report to the board of directors? Or is the CEO/president posting a blog on social media? You want to tailor the information to the audience.
2. Level of formality (such as formal, business, conversational, or casual) which may coincide with who your audience is. The level of formality may depend on your relationship with the individual. Is the person your boss? Colleague? External customer? Personal friend?
3. Different document types lend themselves to different writing styles (such as expository, narrative, persuasive, or technical):
There are some best practices that typically apply regardless of the writing style:
Invest in your personal development. Some resources/tools to help you with your written communication skills:
1. Microsoft Word has several built-in features such as:
2. There are multiple books you can purchase to improve your writing. I like The Elements of Style by William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White. I think it’s such a great resource that for years I’ve even given copies of the book to my teams.
3. Take a writing class either in-person or online. Even if you consider yourself to be a fairly good writer, classes can provide good reminders, and maybe you’ll pick up a couple of new points. For example, did you know that there are email etiquette best practices?
When you’re done writing your document, re-read it to make sure it reads well. Depending on the importance of the message, maybe have someone else read it too. Being able to share and exchange written information effectively is fundamental for both your work and personal life.
For more information on the importance of written communications, follow me on LinkedIn!
Changing careers is not for the faint of heart. But there are certain things you can do to make that change a lot easier. Unfortunately, I see a lot of job seekers make this one mistake when trying to change careers.
Here's why you're struggling to change careers...
@j.t.odonnell Here's why you're STRUGGLING to change careers @uopx #UniversityofPhoenix #adsponsored #sponsoredad #jobtok #careertok #edutok #careerchange #careers #jobs #careeradvice #careermode #worklife #joblife #jobsearch #careertips #jobsearchtips ♬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell
If you are struggling to make a career change, then you need to be doing something called informational interviewing. An informational interview is not a job interview. It's an interview with people who you respect and trust, who work at the companies on your interview bucket list. It's an interview where these people help you connect the dots and figure out how you're going to take yourself from where you are right now to that new career.
Conducting informational interviews is really important because most people think they can't make a career change, and they feel trapped. The truth is, in order to successfully change careers, you need to have a game plan, and informational interviewing is at the center of it.
The University of Phoenix actually has a free resource that walks you through all six steps of the informational interview process. First, they walk you through how to figure out who to interview. Then, they tell you what questions to ask so that you can get the correct information. And lastly, they even tell you how to follow up so that you can look professional and build your network.
So, if you're struggling to change careers, try conducting informational interviews in your job search. I promise it'll make your career change a million times easier.
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The world has changed considerably since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve been going through so many changes, on various levels. Still, change is hard for so many reasons and people respond to it quite differently. The change management tips to know are about people, technology, self-awareness, and sustainability.
For enterprise-level systems or technology change projects, there are so many moving parts. Companies could forget to engage their most valuable resources, the people who will be impacted by the change. In that case, there’s confusion about why the change is valuable and how the change affects the day-to-day work.
When change is communicated properly and messaged in a clear way, it can be empowering. The stakeholders understand the purpose of the change and directly how it will influence them. This could be managed by conducting a stakeholder impact and analysis, creating a stakeholder engagement committee, and nominating change champions throughout the company.
Naturally, technology is continually changing, and change is still hard for most people. Although the business knows some changes (such as year-end upgrades) are required, it will still make some groups anxious and put them on edge. Having a strong change management process is critical to ensure the change is successful.
Identify the change details such as the purpose, impact, timing, etc. Communicate this information to make sure the business has a clear understanding. Then get the key stakeholders to approve the change. Once the change has been implemented, you want to review to make sure the desired results were achieved. Make sure you report the results (successes) to the organization. With each successful change, it will make the organization more comfortable with the next change.
Experiencing change, it’s not just for everyone else. Many times, you will experience change, as well as manage it. And it’s not as easy as we preach. We all have our own things that we hold on to and it’s somewhat surprising when you find yourself in the resistance category. Not only is it surprising, but it’s also difficult to recognize in ourselves.
Are you avoiding attendance to a training session? Are you leaving out pertinent information to messages? Or—my favorite—are you having trouble making definitive decisions related to the change? These are only a few signs of change resistance but taking a few moments to reflect on our own behavior will alert us to any of our own resistance and then we can take steps to figure out what we need to move forward.
Many times, resistance is centered around losing control of something we have invested in emotionally. Recognizing this fear helps us deal with our emotions constructively, find ways to honor our investment, and then enter into a new change mindset that is open to new emotional investments.
Building on the change—the change work isn’t done when everyone celebrates the “go live” day. To get the full value of the investment and have the change stick, an organization must plan and execute for ongoing commitment, consistency, and keeping value creation in focus. Among companies that report successful completion of change initiatives, most will report 1-2 years later that the success wasn’t sustained, or it looks measurably different from what was first celebrated. Why is that? If people don’t see and experience the promised value of changes, they have no reason not to go back to what they were familiar with before. If the new way isn’t line of sight, relatable, and delivers consistently better results for ALL the stakeholders involved, then disappointment will lead to confusion, followed quickly by abandonment.
Yet it doesn’t have to happen this way. Understanding that change is a process, not an event, and putting into place “scaffolding” that supports the right conditions for the change to take hold and visibly produce value makes all the difference. Every change project is an opportunity to build the capacity for adaptability and responsiveness within an organization because there will be more changes to come in the future. Organization leaders and project sponsors who make clear the importance of the change and remain present not just for accountability but also for engaging in sense-making conversations create confidence that the change is driven by a ”why” and not just a “what.” When people connect these dots together, they see a way to collaborate and win as a team, and who doesn’t enjoy winning?
As you can imagine, there are many leadership areas in which CDAOs focus on collaboration with HR, recruiting, and technology. In their role as the leader of the data analytics (DA) practice and as executive general manager for the firm, current concerns for CDAOs revolve around recruiting, management, and retention of DA talent.
With more firms adopting the center of excellence (COE) and practice model (often Agile at Scale practice models) for data analytics (DA), success begins with designing and implementing a world-class talent architecture.
Just as a building plan defines the elements of a house to be built, a talent architecture (TA) clearly explains the elements of the jobs to be done. TA is leveraged to understand what skills and competencies are to be recruited, how they should be managed, and what expectations new hires (and current team members) should have regarding job performance, competencies, career progress, and compensation. A finely tuned talent architecture will achieve these goals and set the practice up for organizational, business, and team member success.
Benefits Include:
A talent architecture is a living, breathing system of job families and functions calibrated in content and compensation with a market study. This architecture defines all subject areas, job functions, and categories within an overarching job family. There can be many job functions within this architecture, each with a role profile having the following essentials:
Illustrative: (There are more jobs than these two)
Title
Executive Data Scientist
Data Science Manager
Role Description
Key Responsibilities
Key Competencies
(Including COE/Practice skills, Organization and Leadership skills, and Technical skills)
Rated by knowledge level. For example:
I hope this paints a picture of some of the critical elements of talent architecture and how CDAOs help with its design. This post should also paint a picture of some of the future of work (FOW) leadership dimensions CDAOs are involved in. As always, the devil is in the details, but I believe I've left much here for you to ponder. Please send your thoughts, comments, and suggestions.
Stay tuned for future posts on What it means to be a CDAO, the critical elements of the job, and the success factors.
After a long day at work, sometimes all you want to do is sit on the couch, eat a bag of chips, and zone out watching television. The thought of attending a networking event seems so daunting. Not only do you have to give up free time, but you also may have to talk with strangers.
With this type of mindset, it's easy to see why so many people are apprehensive about the concept of networking. However, when you avoid networking, you miss out on so many great opportunities.
While networking can feel uncomfortable at first, it's actually a huge investment in yourself. Many people avoid networking simply because they're not used it, but like anything, practice makes perfect.
Here are the top reasons why you should embrace networking:
Building networking skills not only builds confidence but it also plays an important role in professional development, career planning, and potential job searches down the line.
The best way to build these skills is to embrace networking as a challenge. Like going to the gym to reach a fitness goal or taking online courses to further a career, you take on this challenge in order to achieve a long-term goal.
When you're working out at the gym you don't see instant results. You have to put the work in. Networking is the same way. The results won't be instant but every step you take puts you in a better position.
Make networking a habit. Try to attend some sort of social function each week to keep those networking "muscles" flexin'.
A simple change of attitude could go a long ways in changing your outlook about networking. The hardest part is getting started!
Start by putting yourself out there and attending local networking events reach out to a well-connected colleague to help introduce you to other professionals both in and outside your field.
The more this is done, the easier it becomes. Soon, you'll see your network slowly grow. Having a large professional network can lead to new friendships and mentorships.
Most importantly, this network could eventually turn into future job references, LinkedIn endorsements, and job opportunities.
You never know when you'll be looking for a new job. So, get off the couch, meet some new people, and see where your network takes you.
Don't be a selfish networker. While networking can work to your advantage, remember that it's important to help others, too. This is especially true when connecting with someone on LinkedIn. Don't ask for favors right away. Show your value as a connection first.
Take inventory of your networking habits. There may be simple ways to improve.
No matter where you are in your career, you shouldn't pass up networking opportunities. We hope these tips help you embrace networking, instead of fearing or dreading it.
“Do more with less.”
This seems to be top management’s mantra these days. Contact centers’ performance is intensively measured, often down to the second, with KPI data such as average handling time (AHT) or first contact resolution (FCR).
With so much data available, the pressure is on to shave seconds off of call lengths and solve more problems the first time around.
You can use your quality team, their expertise, and their technology, to do this. The tried and tested Lean Six Sigma process improvement methodology can be applied to such problems. It can be summarized with the handy acronym “DMAIC.”
Here’s how we would use this approach to make systemic reductions in AHT.
In this stage, you define the aim and the scope of your project. For our example, the aim is to reduce AHT, so reducing the cost per call and the number of agents to handle a specific call volume.
The scope of the project might be for one team as a pilot project before rolling it out across the contact center.
This is also the stage where you recruit your project team. You will want a couple of agents, someone who can get hold of and analyze data, and a senior sponsor who should take a “hands off” role but win you the co-operation of team leaders, etc.
In our example, our aim is to reduce AHT by 10%. We are using a small team of 10 agents for the pilot, and the project team consists of two experienced agents, a data analyst, and the facilitator.
Our critical to quality KPI is AHT. We want to reduce this by 10%. Now we need to figure out what might be the root causes that are making the calls so long.
We ask our agents to map out the call flow and after-call work process as they experience it. It’s tempting for the facilitator to use a flow diagram from IT. Agents often use multiple applications which don’t fit easily into a flow diagram. Agents often develop “workarounds” when things don’t work. They start as temporary measures, but then balloon into permanent institutions.
It’s best to have these discussions with agents without management being present. Agents may not be willing to express themselves so freely in the presence of someone who can fire them.
Start by creating a simple process description with a “SIPOC” diagram. If need be, you can flesh it out with more detail.
Once you have defined the process, then you need to brainstorm all the possible reasons why the calls might be long. For details on how to brainstorm, please see “further reading” below.
Now you have your top 10 suspected root causes. You will decide how to measure them.
You will probably use them as evaluation criteria on a call listening form. For more details on creating such a form, please see “further reading” below. If you have speech analytics technology, you may be able to automate some or all of these measurement activities, which will give you a much larger sample size.
Calls are either longer than or shorter than AHT, so we want to select two sample groups, one longer and one shorter
We listen to the calls and count the presence of the suspected root causes in them.
Once you have listened to your sample, count how many times evidence of each root cause is found in the sample of “long” calls and how many times evidence of each root cause is found in the sample of “short” calls.
Where the evidence mostly appears in the longer calls, these are likely to be the real root causes. Where the evidence appears equally in both samples or mostly in the shorter calls, then these will not be the root causes of the calls being longer.
You have now identified your root causes based on data.
If the verified root cause is the result of agent behavior, then you can correct it with appropriate training.
If the verified root cause is the result of some system issue—for example, agents are using an application that loads slowly—then you may need to look into improving the application’s performance.
If there are specific steps in the process that are slowing the agents down, then you may need to adjust the process.
There should be some scope for improvements.
After taking corrective action, you will want to see if you have reduced AHT by 10%.
It’s not hard to get those results.
You will now want to see if the change in AHT was the result of the root causes you identified.
Run the same measurement program for calls longer or shorter than AHT again. If the longer calls contain evidence of the same root causes in the same proportions as they did before, then your efforts may have been for nothing, and you did not find the root causes.
Do you need to get a grip on your KPIs and “Do more with less”? Perhaps this might help. If you’d like to know more, I’d love to hear about it!
Further reading...
Here is my article on brainstorming: How To Run A Brainstorming Session
Here is my article on quality standards: Creating Quality Standards For Contact Centers
For the first two quarters of 2022, we have seen the market contract. This is considered a sign of a recession. To shine some light on what this means for you, we asked our leading executives how their industry reacts to a shifting economy.
Here are their responses...
For my industry, we are playing things very simply. The aerospace market is rebounding, and our business follows this trend. We are continuing with a growth mindset; however, we are more prudent with capital outlay. As more orders are released, we will make more investments. We are simply being more mindful of what and how we spend until the economy shows an improvement.
Jim Black is an engineering professional focused on the development of technical professionals. He is also a professional bass player.
The fashion industry is focused on sustainability. It's not only good for the environment but helps during tough market conditions. For example, White House Black Market is having a denim recycling event this month. They are rewarding customers for donating jeans they don't wear and receiving credit dollars on their accounts. Other brands are offering similar incentives. This helps fewer clothes end up in landfills and gives shoppers the opportunity to spread their shopping dollars further.
Consignment shops have become quite popular. Clothes, shoes, bags, and jewelry can be sold to stores, and the seller walks away with cash in hand. Jewelry stores have vendors that will buy silver and gold so clean out your jewelry box.
It's a win-win situation for everyone. Prepare for a recession by cleaning out your closet.
Carla Biasi is a personal stylist living on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. She currently has her own business and works part-time at an upscale women's boutique and as a virtual and kit stylist for a women’s specialty brand.
Learning and development isn’t a necessity (or so they say), so when profits are down, this expense generally gets cut. The learning and development industry usually doubles down on the retention investment argument, which is important but lacks the change in focus to win the battle. Good leaders already know that learning and development can really be an asset, but during lean times the argument loses priority.
What we really need to do is become a partner in adding to the bottom line. If you need to cut staff, the learning team should partner with employees to increase resilience. If you need employees to take on extra responsibilities, the learning team should partner with employees to help them manage their time really well. If you need leaders to take on unique challenges, the learning team should partner with each leader to strengthen the skills they need for that challenge.
In lean times, we sometimes forget the capabilities of learning and development and only remember the regular training and cadence that has been in place. Learning teams can continue that regular cadence staff are used to, which creates stability in a changing environment; while offering new content, specifically designed for the issues at hand.
Melodie Turk is a learning experience executive with a unique background in the learning and development arena as well as change management. She is passionate about bringing change to the workplace—change that is meaningful and change that will last.
I recently joined a Boutique BPO (business process outsource) provider that caters to small to mid-sized organizations to affordably supplement back-office processes and upscale frontline service, support, and sales.
Here are three ways they give agility and insulate operations in volatile times:
1. Enabling seamless restructuring for staffing
Seamlessly transitioning essential W-2 front line to mid-management staff to 1099s in their respective roles, achieving needed P&L adjustments and business continuity.
2. Delivering the workforce agility of a race car
Swiftly standing up and activating technology, flex staffing, and workforce management for virtual or hybrid operations on demand, seasonally, or ongoing.
3. Facilitating re-envisioned and re-tooled or optimized operations
Delivering efficiency and service excellence in one of two ways:
Lynn Holland is a business development executive with 18+ years of experience taking operational, IoT & retail technologies, products, & consumer engagement to market with a focus in petroleum & convenience retail.
Recessions are never fun, but it forces marketers to think outside the box, looking at innovative solutions and cost-effective strategies while juggling resources. Here are three strategies to consider during a recession.
1. Don’t Cut Spending
Many companies will cut their marketing spending during a recession. Fight the urge to cut your spending. In fact, look to increase your spending. Companies that advertise during a recession saw 256% higher sales. Doing so will help you stand out from the competition.
2. Focus On Analysis & Reporting
With the pressure of longer sales cycles and budget constraints, tracking, analysis, and reporting become even more critical during a recession in order to ensure you prove your marketing ROI.
3. Protect Existing Customers
The cost of retaining customers is much lower than the cost to acquire new ones. During a recession, focus your efforts on your biggest asset, your current, loyal customers.
Lisa Perry helps companies build leadership brands, driving loyal customers & delivering profitability. She does this through a process that builds brands consumers love. Her goal is to help companies develop, monetize, and grow their brands.
I’ve seen considerable changes to the learning and development industry during Q1 and Q2 of 2022, especially around hiring and strategy. Companies are restricting hiring on certain levels. They’re also being more purposeful when making hiring decisions to find the right mutual fit. Another trend is to hire for the role, rather than hiring for future roles.
I’ve noticed changes in the strategy and overall company goals. Companies are concerned about the fiscal and political climate. There tends to be a focus on shorter-term projects, rather than to prepare for future projects that don’t have an exact start date.
Dr. Hannah Hartwell is a learning and development executive and change management practitioner with 15+ years of business transformation experience in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, higher education, and professional services industries.
Historically, market contractions have served as a bell weather for potential layoffs in the high-tech corporate communications field (analyst relations [AR] and public relations [PR] fields). Until recently, the old adage about PR and AR jobs during a downturn was that these roles were almost always “first to be fired, last to be hired (back).”
However, that’s becoming less and less true as corporate communications professionals are finally being recognized as essential and strategic to the business, something that the professional has worked very hard to establish.
I’ll use the AR function as an example: for too long, AR work has inaccurately been seen as very tactical—teams of people that set up briefings, wordsmith research notes, and act as glorified relationship managers. Nothing could be farther from the truth, but education (in any market) can take time. Great strides have been made over the past two to three years as many companies now see AR not as a cost center but one that can help drive sales by educating and leveraging their network of tech purchase recommenders (aka the analysts!)
Sarita Kincaid is a tech media executive with a demonstrated ability to build and grow award-winning programs. She brings a data-driven approach to influencer relations with a focus on developing strong brand advocates and aligning them with sales programs.
How is your industry reacting to a shifting economy? Join the conversation inside Work It Daily's Executive Program.
Most companies use a form of “business process outsourcing” (BPO) or “outsourcing,” tapping someone else to perform operational, logistical, service, support, or sales-related functions as a primary or supplementary resource vs. depending solely on in-house infrastructure. Nearly every individual with a pulse is also well acquainted with outsourcing aspects of their personal life.
This could be the CPA, attorney, marketing agency, or consultant that you retain, an answering service, mechanic, your dentist, dry cleaner, or nanny. The list goes on.
So why “Niche or Boutique BPO”? You might think of it as the “Goldilocks” fit for small to mid-market organizations, new ventures, and secondary or emerging corporate divisions.
The following are (5) ways “Niche or Boutique BPO” scales perfectly, delivers exceptional service, and uniquely insulates and equips mid-market executives to pivot amidst uncertainty.
Have you ever anticipated a luxury purchase? If so, you appreciate the sensory EXPERIENCE of stepping into an exclusive store to interact with an exceptionally made product, refined staff, and brand that places immense importance on your mere presence, affinity for their brand, and investment. Every detail anticipated and carefully addressed in a polished fashion to help you acquire an enduring product, perfectly tailored to your preferences, delivered with an exceptional customer experience, followed by unwavering and responsive AFTERCARE, continuing the exceptionalism after your purchase.
As you consider appointing added resources to supplement operations or upscale your customer journey, expect a luxury experience with amenities such as:
It is an understatement that our times are very uncertain, yet most organizations simply do not have the resources or specialization to scale infrastructure up or down quickly as headwinds or new demand come unanticipated, and the business climate grows more complex with factors such as:
If pressures call for quick moves to transition front-line to mid-management from W-2 to 1099 in their respective roles, move brick-and-mortar service and support to 100% virtual or a hybrid of the two, supplement in-house resources with on-demand flex staffing, or upscale the customer experience altogether, “Boutique BPO” tailors full-time, part-time, or quick turn gig back office, service, support, or sales activities to deliver results.
If it’s your style, bring-your-own operational process flow, training curriculum, and tech stack, and consultative experts will leverage high-visibility BI and analytics with professional recommendations to dial efficiency and service excellence into your operations.
Or go part or full custom with a hand-tailored customer journey, onboarding, training process, and tech stack from a suite of proven technology options, formulated by industry experts to deliver prompt, professional service, well-received self-help options, and speed to resolution, delivered by highly engaged agents, personally invested in customer care.
Want representation from users of your product, those who already have an affinity for your brand, or that fit the demographic of your target audience? You decide who you want on the end of your service and support line, engaging and serving your customers.
A supportive team surrounds every front-line agent, fostering a distinct service culture with high engagement, willingness to go beyond the expected, passion for the work, and personal pride in winning customers for your brand, taking initiative, proactively problem solving, and delivering a positive customer engagement.
In a sea of uncertainty, insulate your outcomes from the unanticipated with your own “Boutique BPO” operations, service, and support team who stands ready to cater and dynamically adapt to your business needs as other internal or contracted infrastructure cannot.
I’m Lynn Holland, an 18-year business development, sales, and marketing executive helping corporate boards and executive leaders to solve gaps in the customer journey, dynamically manage new and uncertain demands, seamlessly reappoint staff on a contract basis, upscale the customer experience, and deliver operational excellence. Like or follow me on LinkedIn.
Building workplace relationships is an important component of being successful in your career. This doesn’t mean you need to be completely extroverted in every situation, but it does mean you need to make an effort to get to know the people with whom you work and learn about what skills and abilities they bring to the table.
Although you are at work to do a job, it will be a much more pleasant experience if you enjoy the company of the people on your team or in your department, so try to get off to a good start.
The expression about only getting one chance to make a first impression is absolutely true, so make sure you put your best foot forward each and every time you have an opportunity to build new workplace relationships. If you’re giving your best effort every day, your co-workers will begin to realize they can depend on you to do a good job.
Also, as hard as it may be sometimes, try to have a good attitude at work. No one likes to work with someone who is constantly negative and complains about every little task.
Here are a few additional tips to encourage positive workplace relationships:
Do you have the job search blues? Have you been searching for your next opportunity without any luck? AND aren’t sure what obstacles are getting in the way?
Not only are you NOT TAUGHT how to properly job search, but things are changing all the time!
It’s exhausting to stay on top of all the latest trends and techniques. But, you still try job searching anyway. You try and try—and apply and apply—and still get NOWHERE…
Well, we’ve got a solution: It’s our upcoming live event!
Join our CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and Director of Training Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this live event on Wednesday, August 10th at 12 pm ET.
Join us for Career AMA! Come get your career & job search questions answered by our team every Tuesday at 11 am ET / 8 am PT.
What to expect:
Can't make the live session? No worries! A recording will be available.
We hope to see you there!
Join us for Networking Masters (think Toastmasters but for networking)! During this interactive group session, you'll exercise your networking and presenting skills so you can be a more confident connector!
Our virtual event takes place via Zoom where you're able to share unique experiences and exchange information, advice, and referrals with a group of like-minded professionals.
Join our CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and Director of Training Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this live event every Friday at 1 pm ET / 10 am PT.
Job interviews can be intimidating, especially if you're not prepared. There are a number of ways to prepare for a big job interview, but one of the best ways to simulate the actual interview process is by doing a mock interview.
Mock interviews provide candidates with an opportunity to test out their job interview skills with someone who isn't evaluating them for an actual job.
If you're a college student, mock interviews may be offered through career services for students or recent alumni. If you're already in the professional world, a mock interview could be done with a trusted colleague, professional connection, or friend. Never do a mock interview with a family member.
Here are some of the major benefits of a mock interview.
If you're not sure how to answer typical job interview questions, mock interviews provide a great opportunity for you to "test drive" your answers. The person conducting the mock job interview can give you feedback on whether or not your responses are suitable.
Whoever is conducting the mock job interview can point out your strengths and weaknesses as the interview process goes along, which gives you time to address the weaknesses and build on your strengths. By having confidence in your skills, you will perform better during the actual job interview.
No one is the perfect candidate, so mock interviews help you clarify responses to certain questions and help you work on areas where you may have weaknesses. In an actual job interview, you don't usually get feedback about your interviewing abilities, so a mock interview is a perfect opportunity to find out why you may be having some difficulty in landing your dream job.
Many companies use behavioral-based interview questions. If you're not familiar with this type of interviewing, it may be advantageous to give it a practice run in a mock interview.
Practice makes perfect! Even the best athletes struggle without practice, so you should never assume that you could just wing a job interview unprepared.
Take advantage of mock interviewing opportunities even if you think you're skills are at a very high level. There are things that we can all improve upon when it comes to making a great impression on a prospective employer.
While mock interviews are an important part of preparing for an actual job interview, there are many other ways to practice when you're alone. This includes writing down and answering as many potential interview questions as you can think of and practicing over and over again. When practicing alone, it also helps to visualize as much of the interview process as possible.
This post was originally published at an earlier date.
You receive a patch (with release notes) to fix a couple of bugs in your ERP. Do you really need to test, or can you just install the patch? If you install without testing, then you introduce the risk of having unintended results/consequences. Does that risk outweigh the time savings of not testing?
IT is responsible for understanding how the system is intended to be used and will do some of the testing but not all of it. IT performs testing such as unit, integration, and system testing. The business is responsible for deciding what/how to use the system. Since the business owns the system, they have testing responsibilities too and are responsible for user acceptance testing (UAT).
The testing effort involved will vary depending on the type and size of the change (e.g. patch/bug fix versus major upgrade/release), but the testing process is typically pretty consistent. There are three (3) key components:
1. It starts with having a test environment separate from the production environment. Individuals can enter different practice workflows without affecting production. Not only can the test environment be used for testing, but it can also be used for training purposes if it’s not cost-effective to have a separate training environment.
3. You need to have sufficient data (corresponding to the test plans/scripts) in the test environment to test properly. You can create data manually or use an automated test data generation tool to create test data. Another option is to copy production and obfuscate (aka obscure or scramble) any sensitive data.
Issues discovered during testing should be logged on an issues list, tracked, and remediated. Once the business has completed user acceptance testing (UAT), they should formally sign off that they approve. “Show stopper” issues are to be remediated prior to UAT signoff. Then the change goes through change management, and IT loads the change into the production environment during the next scheduled maintenance window (unless it’s an emergency).
When you have the three components, then you can continue building on them. With each change, you add/clone more test plans/scripts to the testing documents library. Over time, you’ll have an expansive testing documents library. So, the next time you have a single patch to install, does the risk of not taking the time to test really outweigh the possibility and inconvenience that a potential outage would cause?
For more information on the value of testing, follow me on LinkedIn!
A logical place for recruiters to search for information online about candidates is Google, the largest search engine on the internet. So, when recruiters search for you, what will they see? Good stuff? Bad stuff? Nothing?
Find out what your search results are saying about you:
If you are not present on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, recruiters will never see you at all. That means you could miss out on job opportunities as a result. A Google search will show results for your name from these different social media sites, but, of course, if you haven't completed a profile, you are invisible to recruiters.
You may be present on different social media sites, but if the information there is negative, you are in a worse position than if there was no information at all. A sloppy profile filled with typos is negative press for you. And, if you have responded with a comment to a video or article with profanity or other negativity, this can show up on Google as well and hurt your professional image.
If you have been intentional about your online presence, what Google says about you can give recruiters a reason to take a second look at you. Here are some pointers on what you can do:
If you follow these tips, then you will have Google singing your praises.
The first time I realized this topic (virtual leadership) was important was about 15 years ago when the organization I worked at implemented a virtual platform for internal collaboration. It has cropped up many times since then but really exploded as an issue during the COVID-19 pandemic. Almost overnight virtual meetings became the way to work and many leaders just didn’t, and still don’t, know how to operate this way.
The big difference is that interaction doesn’t happen organically and has to be planned intentionally.
Since most leaders don’t know how to facilitate a virtual meeting in this way, meetings have become a huge drag on time and energy. People are attending more meetings, but interacting less which causes frustration, burnout, and eventually turnover.
Leaders know how to communicate (mostly), but the game has changed. You can no longer walk down the hall and drop in on an employee, you can no longer catch up with an employee at the coffee pot, and you can no longer linger after a meeting to check in with an employee. To really be good at communication now, you must be INTENTIONAL. You have to plan those drop-ins, those catch-ups, and those linger times. Employees still want your attention and, just like before, they will notice when they don’t get it.
So, do schedule 1:1s with each of your direct reports, do schedule skip level meetings, and do schedule check-ins with your teams. Get strategic with your calendar—figure out your priorities and the people you need to meet with to support those priorities and then schedule that time.
No one is comfortable in that meeting where the leader doesn’t know where the share button is or how to let someone else share. It gets frustrating for people when they click the “raised hand” feature and the leader never calls on them. What about the question in the Q&A section that the leader never sees and addresses?
Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, Skype, etc.—all these virtual meeting tools have special features that can bring collaboration and interaction to life in a virtual meeting, but one has to know how to use those features and when and why.
Employees are more comfortable in a meeting that has some structure. A meeting where they know how they are expected to participate and also how they can participate. To provide that experience in a virtual meeting, you need to learn what features are available in your technology platform and learn why you might want to use them.
A great way to learn about technology features is to practice with your team. Schedule a meeting to learn about the technology and how to use its features. It will create unity within your team as you share in a learning experience that will help all of you.
Have you had those meetings where no one offers any comments, where people don’t turn their cameras on, where there is no chatting in the chat section? These all could be signs that people don’t really want to be there.
Employees have different schedules than their manager and I often hear that a manager will put meetings on the calendar without taking into consideration other time constraints of their team. This leads to frustration. Employees have to move around recurring meetings or other project meetings to work around the schedule of the manager, which often leads to them doing work during that meeting that was scheduled.
Then, the frustration is compounded because the meeting turns out to be informational only. This isn’t a productive use of time. Employees want information and need it to do their jobs, but scheduling one more meeting to share information they can read on their own seems wasteful.
A better way forward is to assess what information is really read-only and what information they may have feedback on, or you need their input on. Send the one-way information by email and then schedule an interactive meeting where a two-way conversation can take place in a beneficial manner for both sides. You’ll also want to survey the team and find the best time that works for their schedules before putting that meeting on the calendar.
In addition, learn how to facilitate a virtual meeting. Interaction doesn’t happen in the same way as an in-person meeting, and you need and want that input from your team. One way to do this is to add an ice breaker such as a show-n-tell. Have each person share one item in their home office that helps them stay on track. You’ll get them to turn on their cameras, share personal information which builds trust, and start the two-way conversations. Another great addition to a virtual meeting is assigning roles, like a moderator to monitor the chat and Q&A sections, so you don’t miss them; a timekeeper to make sure you don’t run over; and an online scribe to notate decisions and action items the group agrees to. The online notes can be referred to during the meeting and be used as a great closer where everyone can review, update, and agree—in real time—on what’s going to happen after the meeting.
Many of us have become de facto virtual leaders due to the new remote workplace, but that doesn’t mean we’re good at it. It’s time to check your skillset and make sure you’re the virtual leader every employee wants.
This might be the most important lesson you ever learn about talking to recruiters.
I was in the recruiting industry before I flipped to the other side and became an advocate for you, the worker. So what I love to do is share the tips, tricks, secrets to working with a recruiter, and what it's like to be one, so that you can better communicate with them.
With that in mind, this is the biggest mistake I see job seekers make when trying to talk to recruiters...
@j.t.odonnell #1 Mistake People Make Talking With Recruiters #learnontiktok #interviewtips #recruiter #jobsearchtips #careertiktok #careermode #careeradvice #jobtok #jobsearch ♬ original sound - J.T. O'Donnell
You're probably checking your email every day for messages from recruiters, especially if you're in the middle of a proactive job search. But what you're not thinking about is that when that recruiter emails you and says, "Hey, do you have some slots available?" they messaged 20 to 30 other candidates as well, all with the same skill sets as you. So when you respond and they never message you back, it's easy to think that they ghosted you. But in reality, you just weren't one of the first people to get back to them.
The people who respond to recruiters that same day, usually that same hour, are the ones who get the phone screens. And as soon as recruiters have three to five viable candidates, they're done. So you need to check your email several times a day and you need to respond quickly if you want to get on that recruiter's list.
Remember this tip when trying to talk to recruiters in your job search. Because really, that's the biggest hurdle—starting a conversation with a recruiter. Once you start talking to the recruiter and they get you in front of the hiring manager, the rest is history and you can get a great new job.
But those recruiters are the gatekeepers. They're the people that screen you out before anyone can see you. So you have to learn how to get them to talk to you. And it starts with you responding quickly to their messages.
As a sales trainer and observer, I have watched many sales presentations.
Inexperienced sales professionals often tell customers everything they know about their product as if they were being examined at school. The problem is customers don’t want to hear everything. They lose interest. Then they buy from a different vendor.
They key is to focus on the customer, not on the product.
Unless you’re selling a luxury product, such as a Rolex watch or a Ferrari, customers do not really want your product. They want what the product can do for them. This is why we say customers buy the hole, not the drill. So how do we apply this to making sales presentations?
Unless you have been recommended, or you use advertising, you need to attract your customer’s attention. You do that with a “hook.” Mention what your customers usually want, then offer to tell them how they can get it.
Why do most people buy broadband packages? They want to call relatives in remote locations, consume entertainment through streaming services, or work from home.
Ask your customer something like this: “Mr. Jones, how much does it cost you to call your daughter in Alaska? How about if we could cut that down to only twenty-five dollars a month?”
Suppose you’re selling speech analytics to a bank. Start by asking the contact center manager: “Do you worry about compliance?” Then ask: “What percentage of calls do you monitor in an average month?” Follow that up with: “And how many non-compliant calls do you think you miss?”
Now you have your customer's attention. You need to find out what they really want. Look for your customer’s top three requirements. Prepare your questions in advance. You should be able to identify her needs with three or four open questions.
For the broadband scenario, you can ask: “How many people live in your house other than yourself?” Follow that with: “What do they like doing with the internet?” Your final question will be: “Suppose you had the best internet connection in the world. What would you use it for?”
For the speech analytics scenario, you can ask the contact center manager: “How many contact center agents are there?” “What kind of calls do they handle?” “How do you monitor compliance now?” and “What would you investigate if you could listen to every single call that is handled?”
In both cases, your questions will reveal the current situation, the desired future situation, and the size of the solution required.
Now it’s time to tell the customer what you have to offer.
Surgeons often killed their patients in the past. They made massive incisions into their bodies. The shock and trauma they produced were often deadlier than the problem they were trying to solve.
Inexperienced sales professionals kill just as many deals by telling their customers more than they need to know about their products.
Before starting your presentation, restate their top three needs and confirm your understanding.
Tell the customer “This is how you can <> with our product.” Then tell, or show, the customer how they can meet the first need with your product. At this point, ask the customer if they have any questions. Stay silent and give the customer a moment to think, and respond.
If they have doubts, it’s better to get them out into the open where you can talk about them.
Questions show interest and engagement. If a customer isn’t asking questions, he is probably not interested. This works slightly differently in Asia, where you may find that the questions come later, and from a third party.
Move on to the second need and repeat the procedure. Instead of asking if the customer has any questions, ask what their thoughts are at this stage. Once more, give the customer time to think and respond.
Use the same procedure to talk about the third need. Once you have shown them how your product meets their needs, you can ask them: “Have I met your needs with our product?” Give your customer time to think and react.
The close and objection handling stage are beyond the scope of this article.
When talking to customers, don’t forget to watch them carefully. Don’t just listen to the words that they say; listen to and watch how they feel.
How closely are they paying attention? Is the customer listening or looking at his phone?
How would you describe the expression on the customer’s face? Does she seem interested? Does she seem friendly?
Is the customer asking questions? In most parts of the world, an unengaged customer who does not ask questions is not a good sign.
If you are dealing with a “poker-faced” customer, look at how closely she is paying attention to you. Is she taking notes? If she is going to ask you detailed questions later through a third party, she will need to listen very carefully to do so.
Do you present your products or services to customers? Do you present your ideas to your colleagues? Either way, I hope this article will give you some food for thought. Tell me what you think. How do you present your product/service/ideas?
Learn how to improve your persuasive skills by writing: Why Writing Is The Foundation Of Persuasion
Learn how to build business cases: “What’s In It For Me?” The 3-Stage Guide To Answering This Question
One of the most common reasons candidates get rejected after a job interview is that they don't provide enough relevant, tangible examples of what they've done in their current/previous job that would be relevant to the position they are seeking.
When you're looking for a new job, you need to provide specific concrete examples of the competencies listed on a job description—whether it is problem-solving, influencing, taking initiative, or managing change.
A lot of job seekers will give generic examples or just talk about what they've done—but without mentioning specific accomplishments. You could be very good at your current job, but if you struggle to effectively demonstrate your expertise and value in a job interview, you may miss out on your next career opportunity.
Here are a few tips to help you overcome any blocks you might have about talking about your achievements:
One of the reasons candidates shy away from talking about their accomplishments is because they don't want to sound arrogant. However, the job interview isn't the time to be too humble. Talking about your accomplishments and using facts and numbers isn't bragging—it's telling a story.
You have to remember that a potential employer wants you to do well in an interview. They are literally looking for an excuse to give out the job! So, tell them what they need in a clear, factual manner.
A great way to answer questions while highlighting your skills and accomplishments is by using the "Experience + Learn = Grow" model and/or the STAR technique (situation, task, action, result).
What was the situation/problem? How did you solve this problem/overcome this setback? What did you learn from this experience? How did you apply what you learned to your career?
These methods are particularly beneficial when you're answering behavioral interview questions that hiring managers ask to see if a candidate has enough self-awareness to know what they're good at, and what skill sets need improvement.
Numbers are great for demonstrating your skills and expertise. Did you increase revenue, or save time/money? Did you improve a procedure and, if so, how much time did you save? How many clients did you win in your last job? Don't just tell the employer what the result was. Tell them how you got the result and what your decision-making process was.
Prepare several examples of quantifiable results for your next job interview and you'll significantly increase your chances of getting that job offer!
Need more help preparing for your next job interview?
We'd love it if you joined our FREE community. It’s a private, online platform where workers, just like you, are coming together to learn and grow into powerful Workplace Renegades. More importantly, we have tons of resources inside our community that can help you prepare for your next job interview.
It's time to find work that makes you feel happy, satisfied, and fulfilled. Join our FREE community today to finally become an empowered business-of-one!
Does it feel like some days you can’t seem to catch a break, and you just want to throw your hands up in the air? Stop, close your eyes, take a d-e-e-p breath, and count to 10. There will be good and better days and having a positive attitude will help get you through those difficult times.
Whether you believe in fate or luck, I believe everything happens for a reason. When something bad happens, I may not understand why, but know that the universe will take care of me, and everything will be ok. Sometimes it’s a matter of being able to put things into perspective.
Here are three things you can do when you’re feeling stressed and overwhelmed:
1. Clear your head - take a walk around the block, play some music (and dance like nobody is watching), download a relaxation app like Calm, etc. Being able to take a time out and come back calmer will do wonders to energize your mindset.
2. Think of three (3) things you’re grateful for daily – your health, having a roof over your head, eating dinner together with your family, being able to pay it forward to someone who needed help, etc. There are others who probably had a worse day than you.
3. Talk to a friend who can give you a dose of optimism – get a perspective different than yours. That positivity can be contagious.
I was going through a tough time early in my career, and my mom told me that life was like the four seasons. When I was at my lowest (winter), it would get better (spring), and then I’ll hit a high (summer), which will eventually slow down (autumn). Although my mom has passed, I always remember her words of wisdom when I’m faced with that next winter.
Nothing lasts forever. I know that being determined and persistent will make me keep my eyes on the prize and that I’ll get through those tough times. You can too!
For more information on the power of a positive attitude, follow me on LinkedIn!
Are you struggling to fill out job applications for opportunities that excite you? Are you constantly getting rejected for any and all jobs that you apply to?
If so, we're here to show you the right way to effectively fill out job applications!
Most companies will make you apply through their online application process. However, the technology that’s used to organize applicants, the applicant tracking system (ATS) is flawed.
Unfortunately, the ATS can miscategorize applicants if they don’t fill out their online applications effectively.
Join our CEO, J.T. O'Donnell, and Director of Training Development & Coaching, Christina Burgio, for this live event on Wednesday, August 3rd, at 12 pm ET.
The year was 1996. I was 19 years old and living in Orlando, Florida, working at a vacation destination helmed by a certain murine mascot. As you might expect with a Florida August, my coworkers and I might as well have been working on the surface of the sun. But to this day, it’s not the heat I remember most (I’ve grown accustomed to that after all these years), it was the grating question emanating from the loudspeaker and the coworker with the mic in his hand:
Would all wheelchair guests please stay to the left?
Nails. On. A. Chalkboard. Even now!
You see, working for that particular vacation destination meant a lot of training—training on company tradition, on customer service and recovery, cash handling, operations, cultural sensitivity, and more. But also among those topics was training for providing customer service to people who might use a wheelchair, who might be hard of sight or hearing, or who might have no visible disability at all. They were people with disabilities—not disabled people or, heaven forbid, wheelchair guests—because they were people first, not defined by whatever physical or motor or mental disability they might possess. What that coworker should have asked is:
Would all guests using wheelchairs please stay to the left?
That simple reversal of words addressed them as human beings first. And it's with that spirit in mind that you as a business owner should consider your website or app.
Is text on your website large enough or do colors possess high enough contrast, such that content can be easily read by someone who is hard of sight?
Can screenreader technology successfully “read” your website’s content to a prospective customer who has been legally blind since birth and cannot see your website at all?
Are “targets” like buttons sized appropriately to make them easily clickable by someone with arthritis who struggles to use a mouse?
Are form fields programmed to be successively tabbed from one field to the next by a website visitor with a motor disability who cannot use a mouse at all and can only use their tab key?
Are fancy animations purposeful and programmed to be toggled off and on by those whose condition, such as epilepsy, may be aggravated by the animations?
Have you previously engaged in any kind of accessibility audit on your website or app and publicly professed the results of that audit?
If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure” to any of those questions, it’s incumbent on you to find answers and quickly remedy any issues. Read on for why this matters and what you can do now.
That WWW you type (but shouldn’t have to) in front of web addresses? It stands for “world wide web,” and among the globe’s more than 7 billion inhabitants—your potential website visitors—one billion people live with some kind of disability according to The World Bank.
In the U.S. alone, the CDC cites 61 million adults living with a disability. That’s one in four American adults.
Firstly, and most importantly, website accessibility is the right thing to do. Put yourself in their place and imagine needing to look up your doctor’s office hours. Or wanting to check out a book from your local library. Or wanting to order takeout. Or simply wanting to buy the newest smartphone. Much like we’ve made room for parking spaces for those who are handicapped or closed-captioning on TV or doors wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair, your website, too, must be user-friendly and provide an experience as closely akin to that experienced by those who are not disabled.
Secondly, you also need to know there are legal ramifications for website owners. According to the American Bar Association, more than 8,000 web accessibility-related lawsuits were filed or removed between 2017 and 2020 in federal courts across the country. Three states—New York, Florida, and California—accounted for a great many of these lawsuits. But no website owner in any jurisdiction should consider themself immune to the possibility of legal action when their website fails to approach, much less meet, common accessibility standards.
Lastly, many of the best practices related to accessibility, like image alt tags, are also SEO (search engine optimization) best practices. In other words, the investment you make in website accessibility can also have a positive impact on how Google and Bing see your website. Being thoughtful and proactive in making your site accessible can result in the site being ranked higher on search engines.
Know that web accessibility can be a complex topic. There are loads of different initialisms, acronyms, and numerical naming conventions—W3C, WCAG, 2.0, 2.1, 3, AA, AAA, and more.
But your foremost job is simply operating and marketing your business. And that’s OK. This is where it’s key that you have a trusted web developer who has a firm handle on all of the current standards and continuing evolutions in the world of web accessibility. Ask this web developer at least a few of the following questions:
Want to check your existing website? There are a number of steps you can take to begin improving the accessibility of your website:
Finally, you can always reach out to digital marketing leaders like myself. While I’m no attorney and cannot advise you on whether or not your website or app will pass muster in a court of law, I and many of my peers would always be happy to answer your accessibility-related questions. We’re here to offer direction however you may need it.
So go out and start building a better, more accessible world starting with your very own website. We’ll be collectively improved for it, including that coworker from so many years ago. Don’t be that guy.
Many employers now use behavioral-based interview questions to learn more about a candidate’s past experience as a predictor of future performance. These behavioral interview questions are usually the "tough" interview questions that interviewers use as a method of determining whether or not a candidate is a good fit for the open position.
While you can’t predict every question you will be asked during the interview process, it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the more common tough interview questions.
There’s really no easy answer to this tough interview question, but it helps to be honest with the interviewer. No one is perfect and if we’re truthful, there are certain things that we can all improve. Try not to provide too much damaging information like an inability to arrive at work on time or at all. This is definitely a loaded question, so tread lightly, but perhaps mention an area that you are working to improve.
Interviewers are generally looking for an answer that indicates you can handle multiple priorities and projects at the same time. An answer stating that stress is a natural part of life and you feel equipped to handle the challenges of the job and balance them with the rest of your life may be just the answer that earns you the job.
The interviewer is probably not as concerned with the actual decision, but rather how you handled the situation and the outcome. This question is asking about your problem-solving skills and ability to fix an issue.
Employers want to hire ethical people with integrity, so don’t feel like you’ve been thrown a curve ball if an interviewer asks you a tough interview question about whether or not you’ve ever lied or been faced with a moral dilemma. As is the case in most situations, honesty is the best policy in answering these questions.
This seemingly easy interview question is harder than it may seem for many candidates. It’s easy to ace this one if you have a prepared and practiced “elevator speech” that includes a few highlights from your career history. This is an opportunity to emphasize your best career accomplishments, so take advantage of this question if you are asked during the interview.
Sometimes an interviewer will ask a question about what you didn’t like about a former supervisor or colleague. These questions are asked to gauge how well you work with others, so be diplomatic in your answer and don’t throw anyone under the bus with negativity.
Another great way to prepare for tough interview questions is to ask your friends about the most bizarre and off-the-wall questions they have been asked. You may be surprised at the type of responses you receive!
I have been coaching for more than a few years now and I hate to say it: this has been one of my more challenging years. In facilitating in-person whole staff training, for example, I have noticed more than a few teachers sleeping in the back of the room, coming late to training and continuing to engage in telephone conversations as they enter, refusing to collaborate/work with each other, and not engaging in conversation even when prompted by me or their teaching peers. Others have giggled and laughed while watching TikTok videos as their peers were trying to speak. Video trainings have been even worse with teachers turning off both their microphones and cameras and then walking away from the computer. I know because participants are not responding to prompts or going into assigned breakout rooms.
However, I do get it. Teachers are simply overwhelmed and, increasingly, are feeling like their needs are not being met and that they are not valued as professionals. Indeed, according to a recent Challenge Success survey, only 65% of teachers reported being involved in making schoolwide decisions. The after-school trainings that I mention above may also be the only time when teachers have had the chance to chat with their colleagues all day or even week.
Here are five specific reasons why some teachers still are behaving badly, even as the pandemic ebbs, and what we might do to return positivity to our school buildings:
Forty-four percent of teachers leave the occupation within their first five years (NSBA). Additionally, a poll recently conducted by GBAO strategies—a democratic polling firm commissioned by the NEA—has found that 55% of all teachers, administrators, and other staff are now considering leaving the education field sooner than planned due to the increased stress brought on by COVID-19.
In my recent WID article, "3 Reasons for the Big Quit in Teaching," I discuss, specifically, the negative impact that increased teacher expectations, political discord, teacher pay, and the combination of all these factors is continuing to have on teacher retention post-COVID-19. Indeed, when staff leaves, teachers left behind must pick up even more duties thereby only perpetuating the cycle of burnout. As discussed by me and many others, schools can do more in providing mentorship support to new teachers and invest in third-party one-on-one coaching for all teachers regardless of their time in the profession. What is encouraging is that many states, regardless of political bent, are indeed using ESSER III funding for teacher training and support so that teachers stay in school.
Today, on average, a teacher has 1-3 years of classroom experience compared to 15 years of experience 30 years ago. In addition, less than half of new teachers are over 29 years of age and just 19% are older than 40 (NSBA). To address teaching staff shortfalls, many states also are lowering the requirements to get into the teaching profession. Teachers in Arizona, for instance, can now teach with only a high school diploma if they are at least enrolled in college. Eleven other states also are considering lowering entry standards. New Jersey has not only removed testing requirements but also has developed a pilot program for teachers entering with low GPAs.
What does this mean? This means that some teachers may not have "yet" developed the professional maturity to successfully navigate the everyday challenges and expectations of teaching. While only requiring a high school diploma to teach may be a debatable policy, it is, at least, encouraging that Arizona does require teachers with only a high school diploma to be concurrently enrolled in college. Should we wish to draw upon new teacher talent sources that are not, perhaps, prepared to teach in a traditional sense, it will be important that K-12 school administration partners with higher education in training teaching staff not only on the college campus but also embedded at the teacher's assigned school. We also should continue to explore teacher micro-credentialing programs; as teachers earn micro credits, they can be given increasing amounts of teaching responsibility without waiting for a degree in its entirety.
Let's face it. To varying degrees, teachers are held accountable for how well students do on end-of-year state exams as well as on other student achievement benchmarks. However, just because we are once again testing, this does not mean that students have mastered the content/skills on which they are being tested. Studies do show, in fact, that students learned less during remote pandemic learning and are now playing catch-up. Teachers are therefore helping more students individually to catch up while also trying to move their classes forward in meeting grade-level standards. This just adds stress to an already stressful time for teachers. At least states are using ESSER III funds to support tutoring programs. Still, while we could be using the pandemic as an opportunity to consider less "high stakes" and other authentic “low stake” approaches to assessment, I do not currently see many states moving in this direction.
There are a host of reasons why teachers may not feel supported by administrators; these reasons can range from feeling micro-managed to having large class sizes, to leaders not ensuring appropriate student behavior—such as having a consistent student cell phone use policy for one—and/or a safe campus environment. In an anecdotal LinkedIn poll I recently conducted, a whopping 91% of participating educators stated that they had never been asked by their supervisors what their priorities were for the week and if the supervisor could help. Wow! While this survey was informal, it is still telling. Further, supervisors can’t support staff if they don’t exist. Even prior to COVID-19, research indicated that one out of every two principals is not retained after their third year of leading a school. COVID-19 has only exacerbated the demands placed upon school leaders.
As with teachers, if we must continue to bring in less well-qualified school leaders, we must develop micro-credentialing opportunities so that school leaders can gain exposure to core concepts within school administration as well as consider how schools might partner with leadership development organizations—institutions such as New Visions for Public Schools, the Center for Educational Innovation, and/or Fordham University’s GSE Office of External Partnerships, each of which offers leadership coaching around systemic school improvement, strategic planning, and communication/outreach. For instance, CEI is drawing upon the organizational improvement work of Anthony S. Bryk and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. At Fordham, where I also consult, I have had the fortune to facilitate the growth of teacher leadership teams that provide peer support alongside that of administration using the equity framework of Dr. Gholdy Muhammad.
Just read some of these sobering statistics provided by the School Culture and Climate Initiative:
While most districts did have a school counselor in the 2020-21 school year, only 14% met the ratio of one school counselor to 250 students as recommended by the American School Counselor Association. New issues, connected to COVID-19, also are bubbling up. Nearly half of school and district leaders said in an Education Week survey that their school or district is getting more threats of violence by students than in the fall of 2019. Two out of three teachers, principals, and district leaders also say students are misbehaving more now than they did before the pandemic.
As a result, schools need to become more creative in recruiting counselors from outside traditional school settings and explore virtual support. Additionally, one way to give staff a break and to potentially improve overall school/life balance might be to move to a four-day work week; however, a four-day schedule is not without its challenges. Still, other schools are increasing teacher training in SEL practices with yet others prioritizing restorative justice practices over that of traditional discipline measures.
Please feel free to reach out to the author at John Schembari, Ed.D. | LinkedIn.
If you want to land your dream job, you have to be proactive.
Here are five basic strategies to follow that will help you improve your job search results:
Recruiters read hundreds of resumes on a daily basis. They only have time to skim the top of them, so if you don't give a clear message about what you can do for them, then it is not a good resume. Since this is the most important document in your career, you need to give it the attention it deserves.
Job boards have less than a 5% effectiveness rate while networking has over a 50% effectiveness rate.
Start by selecting your bucket list of companies where you would love to work. Do a company search on LinkedIn and identify the decision-makers and their staff. Then, see who you know who might know someone who can then make an introduction for you. Follow the company and connect with people on LinkedIn, join their groups and conversations, comment on their blogs, and become known.
This is how you move from a passive job search, waiting for the right job to appear on the job boards, to a proactive one where you're an active job seeker targeting the kinds of positions you really want.
If a recruiter was searching through LinkedIn to find people for the position you are seeking, would you show up? Try it and if you are not on the first or second page, go back to your profile and optimize it with the right keywords to get yourself a higher ranking.
Many employers will Google your name to learn more about you. Make sure you look good on LinkedIn and review your activity on Facebook, Twitter, and any other online accounts. Take down or change any comments that reflect poorly upon you. Use your own blog, online exchanges, and testimonials to showcase your professional knowledge. Your social media plays a huge role in the job search process.
Searching for a job is like any other project and you must stay disciplined, so set firm goals for yourself. For example, "I will make 10 networking calls and have two meetings per week."
Make sure you are focusing on high-impact efforts like networking versus job board submissions. Keep a record of your efforts so if an employer calls, you can quickly determine when and how they were contacted.
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Does your help desk support team feel like it’s “Groundhog Day” and they’re answering the same questions over and over again? Yes, that’s what they do, but is there a way to make this process more efficient? What if we enable the end user to be more self-sufficient which will make them more efficient? This will also reduce the number of “basic” tickets so the help desk team can focus on the “complex” tickets and do more proactive tasks.
The process starts with the end users so give them the information they need to be more efficient and self-sufficient, which will help them resolve their “basic” issues faster. Here are four things you can do:
1. Create a knowledge base of common issues with resolutions so the end user can try to troubleshoot and resolve basic issues themselves.
2. Give end users the ability to reset their own password once authenticated. There are tools to do this such as the self-service password feature within Microsoft 365.
3. Teach end users how to submit a “good” ticket, which details important information such as specific error messages, providing screen prints, etc. This information helps the help desk team troubleshoot more efficiently, which translates to a faster resolution.
4. Make it easy for end users to submit issues/problems:
When end users are experiencing a problem, they may already be stressed. So, it’s important to make it easy for them to use the ticketing system. It has to be easy to get the data entered (correctly) so that the issue can be resolved as quickly as possible.
1. Default certain fields within the ticket (since the end user is logged in and you know who they are) such as date opened, end user’s name, title, department, location, phone number, etc. Not only will this save time, but this reduces typos.
2. Can default the issue’s criticality (typically high, medium, and low) to medium and the end user can change if needed.
3. Set up the ticketing system so that it sends out automated emails to the end user when the ticket is opened, a technician is assigned, the technician updates the ticket, and the ticket is completed/closed. Keep the end user updated with the status—they will appreciate this.
4. Give the end user the ability to look up their tickets (both open and closed).
There are multiple benefits to having all of the ticketing information in one central location. One key benefit is the ability to mine the data. Export and analyze the data and turn it into meaningful information! Share the information with the end users to help them be more self-sufficient.
1. Look for trends and try to determine recurring issues. For example, one specific printer that has been repaired three times in the last five months. Or you notice several password resets on Monday mornings.
2. Have the help desk team proactively take that extra step for common process errors. For that problematic printer, figure out if it’s more cost-effective to replace versus continually paying repair bills.
3. Post tips/FAQs on the intranet. List the password conventions for the different systems, which will make it easier for end users when they need to change their passwords. Also, since most systems warn end users that their password is going to expire in x days, have a tip that says try not to change their password on Fridays. This should help reduce the number of end users calling on Monday that they forgot their password.
Making the end users more self-sufficient regarding “basic” issues not only makes them more efficient but also allows the help desk team to focus on more “complex” tasks. It’s a win-win for both sides.
For more information on creating an efficient help desk ticket process, follow me on LinkedIn!