Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom Are You Strategic About Military Hiring

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom Are You Strategic About Military Hiring Many organizations have prioritized the hiring of military veterans in recent years. This is commendable, as military hiring requires a different strategy than civilian hiring because veterans do not have exactly the same needs as traditional hires. For instance, they are often attracted by different things during the recruitment process, and sometimes respond better to alternative training and development approaches. The Talent Activation, the Employee Experience, and Skill Development survey, conducted online within the United States by DeVry University on behalf of the Career Advisory Board in August 2018 examined how organizations are currently designing and executing specific employee experiences at the recruitment, onboarding, learning and development, and performance evaluation stages. Survey respondents included 505 US-based individuals (53 percent male, 47 percent female) with full-time positions at the supervisor level or above, in companies with more than 500 employees (mean company size was large at 15,000). Our respondents’ primary job responsibilities include the hiring, development, and management of employees. In parts of the survey, we looked specifically at military hiring and development practices. Specifically, we asked our respondents how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statement:My company has implemented a successful military veteran hiring strategy.Sixty-four percent agreed, confirming that not only do such strategies exist, but also that they have been honed in a majority of organizations. We also asked the participants how much they agreed or disagreed with this statement:My company has implemented a comprehensive talent development program that capitalizes on the professional strengths military veterans bring to the workplace. Refreshingly, 67 percent agreed. And, according to our respondents’ verbatim responses, material is often customized to resonate with veterans’ unique perspectives. On the subject of the verbatim responses, the survey inquired about where respondents were focusing their thoughts and energies with respect to military veteran hiring and onboarding. Some of the initiatives they cited in the verbatims included: Hiring talent acquisition staff with military backgrounds Matching current employee veterans with new hires Engaging with Military Transition Centers Using regional military outplacement centers effectively Performing outreach to veteran groups in relevant locations Maintaining strong relationships with local VAs Holding veteran-specific job fairs Partnering with military recruiters Sourcing talent from military leaders who have commanded troops Participating in military-sponsored job events Offering interview and hiring preference to veteran candidates Creating onsite affinity groups for military Providing tuition assistance and educational incentives Emphasizing how military experience translates to work experience Understanding and communicating about PTSD and other symptoms veterans experience Placing veterans into supervisory or leadership jobs Developing veteran-specific onboarding programs to ease the transition to civilian work For more survey results, check out the DeVry WORKS website.

Best Free Resume Writing Websites - How to Find Them

Best Free Resume Writing Websites - How to Find ThemThere are a ton of sites that claim to have the best free resume writing websites available online, but it can be difficult to weed out the truly great sites from the ones that are just a sham. With so many sites claiming to have the best free resume writing websites available online, how do you know which ones to trust? Here is a short list of some of the best free resume writing websites.To find the best free resume writing websites, the first thing you need to do is sort through all the sites and see which ones look like they could be useful to you. This will help you know where to look for useful information on resume writing and how to apply for jobs.Before you go looking for a website, it's important to figure out what type of resume writing you are going to be doing. You need to determine if you are going to be applying for employment as a professional writer or if you are going to be a general resume writer or something in b etween.If you are going to be writing resumes for professionals, then the best place to look for resume writing websites is on their job listings or in job postings. If you are going to be submitting resumes to an employer, then you should look on other resume writing websites such as EzineArticles or ArticlesCrib.Once you have decided which website you want to start out with, you need to find the best free resume writing websites that are truly free. There are plenty of companies that offer free services and it's important to determine which websites are the best for you before you spend any money.If you are interested in online job databases, then it is important to get free resume writing websites that are not affiliated with the databases. There are plenty of legitimate online resume writing services that provide great services for free.The only downside to using a free website is that they cannot provide much free advice, especially if you are working on a project. However, if you are submitting resumes on your own, then free services are just a waste of time.In conclusion, we have looked at a few of the top free online resume writers and paid services. Hopefully this article has given you a few ideas on how to find the best free resume writing websites online.

Career Advice No One Tells You

Career Advice No One Tells You When it comes to growth and your career, it  helps to read as many self-help and career books and blogs as you can (says the career blogger.)  They are written to help you figure out how to achieve your goals, whether its to become wealthier, be more productive,  or decide if side gigs are the right option for you. Raghav Haran, founder of  Land Any Job You Want,  has collaborated on some great  career hacks in this infographic created with  Visme.

Handshake to Set Yourself Apart - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Handshake to Set Yourself Apart - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career When Richard Maracinko, author of several books on the NAVY SEALs, shakes hands, he uses two. The left is to check your pulse to see if you’re nervous meeting him and then he acts accordingly. A famous restaurant owner in New York lets people know what their status is with her based on her choice of greeting: Newcomers get a nod of the head, semi regulars get a handshake, regulars get a peck on the cheek, and favored few get a stand-up kiss and hug. Probably better than a Time Magazine article reported on a tribe in Papua, New Guinea, where men meet each other with a genial clasping of each other’s genitals instead of a handshake. The Center for Nonverbal Studies reports on the “latest” touch to seal the deal: the bump. That’s what we witnessed when Michael Capellas of Compaq and his counterpart Carly Fiorina of Hewlett-Packard signed off on their merger proposal. We also see bumped fists on the athletic field, on television, and in the movies. Say you choose to stick with the traditional good mutual handshake: Start with your good posture when approaching the person. Pause before you reach out so as not to get too close too soon. Plus, it makes the handshake gesture feel special and directed to the person. Clasp palm to palm. Women should pay particular attention to not letting their fingers be what the person grasps. Palm to palm helps avoid squishy shakes or painful ones with your fingers squashed. Hold on a split second longer than necessary. Three pumps versus one. Retrieve your hand. Check your distance: eighteen inches in New York, twenty four inches in Cheyenne. You’ll be disliked instantly if your distance is wrong. Adjust if necessary. You can put your left hand on the person’s wrist, elbow, shoulder, or even hug. Pelvises don’t touch. Clavicles can. Bad technique is too sweaty, far away, close, late in release, early in the release, high, low, many pumps, or few pumps. The two-handed shake, hug, backslaps, pats on the back, pat on one cheek while kissing the other, bumps, grasps can be done with anyone at anytime based on the effect you want. If you want to avoid being the recipient of a hug or hand kiss, get your arm/hand out on your approach. The person may still try it, but you’ve set the stage for the stiffer arm shake, and you’ll more likely succeed in getting it. While you avoid the physical contact you don’t wish to engage in, you still have to maintain the person’s self-esteem and not leave the other person feeling rebuffed. There are times you do not want to bond with the shaker. And you choose to do the opposite: Give a brief, brusque, flea-flicker shake, with no eye contact. Everything depends on the effect.

High School Student Writing Resume Advice

High School Student Writing Resume AdviceIt's not always easy to know what to include in a high school student writing resume. This is especially true if you are in the process of applying for college scholarships, because this application usually requires your whole life story, which could be difficult to write in such a short space of time.As a high school student, you will probably have already written a few other essays, but if you are starting fresh, you may not have any previous experience in writing resumes. If this is the case, it is important to be clear about what you want to say about yourself on your resume. Here are some ideas to help you figure out what you should be including in your high school student writing resume.First, you should be thinking about why you want to go to college, and what skills you will need to use in order to do so. Although you might have come from a family with an education background, if you just want to be like everyone else, then you might w ant to consider the school as an opportunity to build your own identity. That is why you should be thinking about your skills.Next, you will need to provide some experiences that show you have some degree of self-motivation. Some students will not be able to write a resume unless they feel they are being interviewed by the school or by someone from it. In fact, they may not even like it when they do get to meet someone from the school. If this is the case, try to find some examples of where you have succeeded and failed, or shown how you have handled failure.For students who like to be engaged, try to highlight your motivation and interests through the four areas of responsibility and some demonstrated proficiency in certain character traits. You should also try to include some specific experiences that you can list out on the back of your resume. The good thing about these experiences is that they show you have some perspective or depth of knowledge about certain issues, even if yo u haven't talked about them yet on your resume. For example, you might want to list in your resume that you have worked in the emergency room or volunteered for a community organization work, even if you haven't done any of those activities yet.However, this is not the place to go into your entire life story. You should be more specific about your experiences. Try to provide examples of things you have done, or that have helped others, and give examples of when you were inspired. For example, if you got a lot of mileage in a car in a certain time period, try to list this experience in your resume.Finally, you should make sure you put your best foot forward in your high school student writing resume, listing examples of your best work and abilities and telling stories about how you gained those skills. You should make sure you put your efforts into good deeds and projects, rather than bad ones. Try to put your best foot forward so you don't get penalized for that at all.The final pie ce of advice I will give you is to focus on your writing resume. Do not be afraid to include lots of data and examples to back up what you are saying. However, if you can only show what you have done for others in a sample job application, then you shouldn't be worried.

5 degrees that make you suitable for graduate marketing jobs

5 degrees that make you suitable for graduate marketing jobs It seems like everyone works in marketing these days. But with so many job descriptions filled with jargon and buzzwords, do you ever wonder what marketing actually means? And whether any of these graduate marketing jobs are right for you? From copywriters to social media managers, graduate marketing jobs include a wide range of roles. Many of these jobs will equip you with skills that will make you employable in other sectors too. Although some choose to study a Marketing degree at university, you certainly don’t need one to get a graduate job in the industry. Marketing requires skills that can be developed across a wide range of degrees, from Maths to Psychology, Economics to Business. So even if marketing doesn’t seem like your obvious graduate career path, read on to see if your degree will make you a suitable candidate and what you could be doing. Psychology Marketing, believe it or not, is all about psychology. It’s about tapping into the brain of your target audience, figuring out what appeals to them and how they interact with the world around them. You can then use that information to effectively market a product. As a Psychology graduate, you already have years of experience in analysing behaviour and seeking to understand what makes humans tick, making you a perfect candidate for a graduate marketing job. With a background in Psychology, you would probably suit a graduate job as a Market Researcher. This involves carrying out surveys, organising focus groups, and studying human behaviour, all things you will have done regularly on your course. Mathematics If you want a job that combines people with numbers, then getting a graduate marketing job could be the perfect solution (sorry, terrible pun). Marketing involves lots of spreadsheets and budgeting, making sure that all the numbers add up and the company is making a profit. Your daily tasks will put your mathematical skills to the test. There are plenty of suitable jobs out there, but working in advertising as a Media Buyer is a great shout. You’re responsible for buying advert space, which involves producing costings, negotiating the best deal and tracking profit margins. It’s not all about the figures though. You’ll also be expected to develop relationships with clients and communicate effectively too. Its the perfect way to put all the skills you gained at university into practice. IT and Computer Science It’s 2017 and that means, just like everything else on the planet, marketing is going digital. Employers are desperate for graduates with skills in digital advertising, social media and software development, and if you can show that in an interview, you’ll be a cut above the rest. Working as a Digital Marketer involves using social media effectively, and developing knowledge in search engine optimisation and pay-per-click advertising. It’s a rapidly changing industry where nothing stays the same for long, but if you’re up for the challenge, it’s the perfect way to develop those digital skills. English, History or other Arts subjects “But what are you going to do with a degree in English?”, you get asked at least twice a week. But before the post-graduation panic hits, why not consider a graduate marketing job? With versatile and transferable skills in independent research, written communication and source analysis, Marketing is the perfect industry for Arts and Humanities students to get into. Copywriters do everything from writing blogs, social media posts, e-books and web pages, as well as working with photographers, designers and web developers to help deliver a finished product. The job will allow you to combine your creativity and love of writing, with a strong consumer awareness and business focus. Business You’ve got your degree and now you mean business. But what’s the next step? Your knowledge of effective management, consumer awareness and brand development make you the perfect graduate for a marketing job. You could easily work well in any job in the sector, but as a Public Relations Officer, you’ll be running the show. Organising press conferences, developing strong relationships with clients, using social media and commissioning market research are just a small taste of the range of jobs you could be doing in the role. So if you like being in the thick of it and know how to manage big projects, then this could be for you.   So don’t be put off if you don’t have experience in Marketing, or even if you don’t exactly know what it means. Take some time to get to grips with the language, and you might find the perfect job for you, no matter what degree you have. Connect with Debut on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for more careers insights.

Customer Returns Process Hurting Your Profits [Infographic]

Customer Returns Process Hurting Your Profits [Infographic] Youve seen stores with excellent return policies.  Stores like Nordstrom and Costco come to mind. No hassle returns.  And it keeps high end purchasers returning again and again as the barriers to purchase are removed. But this has been ratcheted up even more. The area of retail has been turned upside down in the wake of E-commerce and its never been a more difficult space for a (brick and mortar) retailer to make an impact. That is not to say that all is lost because it is not; the key is that the brick and mortar retailer must provide a heightened experience for the customer in order to ensure that they return. How they achieve this will depend on many factors but they must 100% focus on providing excellent customer service because nothing else will do. To achieve this, staff needs to be well trained and there needs to be a staff discussion on how everyone can learn from different customer service situations. Not all customer service and returns queries will be the same so its important that staff understand when to escalate a situation to management in order for it to be dealt with well and in a timely manner. This infographic from Storetraffic explores the area of customer returns in brick and mortar retail and highlights some interesting aspects. It looks at what the retailer can do to ensure their customer returns policies are totally robust and ready for every eventuality.

6 Reasons to Give Employees More Holidays and PTO

6 Reasons to Give Employees More Holidays and PTO How much paid time off does your company offer? If you fall within the average, your employees have seven or eight paid holidays, eight floating vacation days and eight PTO or sick days per year. That adds up to a measly three weeks a year to recover from illnesses, take trips and attend to personal projects and responsibilities. Now that the new 40-hour work week is 50 hours long, the average just isn’t enough. Read on to discover six compelling reasons to give your employees more breaks. Then be sure to lead by example and take a vacation yourself. Productivity It may seem counterintuitive, but a generous vacation package can actually boost productivity. For today’s white-collar workforce, the day rarely ends at 5:00. Most weeks call for at least one day of overtime, if not multiple days when a deadline demands late nights. All of that extra work adds up to sleep deprivation over the long term. Employees still need to meet their personal responsibilities regardless of how many hours they work in one week, and sleep is usually the first thing to go. What does sleep deprivation look like for the brain? Six percent less glucose, or fuel, reaches the sleep-starved brain, resulting in a 12 to 14 percent productivity lapse in areas of the brain that perform critical thinking and other higher functioning skills. Giving employees more vacation days â€" so that they can take a week off more than once a year, or schedule more three-day weekends â€" gives them time to recover and rest. That means a sharper, more productive workforce for your company. Recruitment and Retention In addition to the productivity benefits to your company, a better-rested workforce is a happier workforce. Ample time off makes employees feel less stressed and more satisfied with their jobs. And every worker you can retain instead of replace saves time and resources for the company. A generous holiday policy also gives your company a competitive edge in the job market. Most places offer the same underwhelming benefits package combo of meager time off and costly health insurance. You don’t need to be as radical as Netflix, but any gesture that sets you apart from the rest â€" such as giving employees their birthdays off or shutting down the office for the week between Christmas and New Year’s â€" makes your company more attractive to potential hires, giving managers their choice of top talent during the recruitment process. Separation of Family and Workplace When employees are distracted by personal matters, the quality of their work suffers. For example, a father who wishes to attend his child’s parent-teacher conference but is afraid to say so will likely spend the day of the conference wondering what his wife and the teacher are discussing. This may lead to time-wasting activities like internet surfing or simply result in an inferior performance because the man isn’t focused on his job. Offering a flexible PTO policy, such as the ability to make up lost time during evenings and weekends, allows employees to balance work and family life without constantly choosing between the two. Even employees without children or spouses may have dogs that need walking at lunchtime, health matters to attend to or other family members in need of care. Since technology makes it so easy to work outside the office, there’s no reason not to give your employees flexibility in managing their workloads. The Rest of the World Does It The U.S. lags embarrassingly far behind other developed countries in paid time off. In a recent list of the 20 countries with the most generous vacation packages, America was nowhere to be seen. Some people argue that generous time off makes these countries’ economies less competitive, but Germany, a model of economic health and competitiveness, claimed the eleventh spot. Perhaps it’s time we learned from our European allies that the greatest efficiency does not always stem from the greatest number of hours worked. Employee Health Employees in poor health place a burden on companies ranging from higher health insurance costs to reduced productivity and performance. This doesn’t mean you should fire everyone with chronic health conditions. Instead, create a corporate culture that encourages good health. For example, studies show a correlation between annual vacations and mortality among men at risk for heart disease. Men who skipped vacations were more likely to die of heart attacks than their vacationing counterparts. Creativity Even in an age of measurement, some things can’t be measured. Creative thinking is one concept that eludes tracking. But we know it’s essential for innovation and other in-demand workforce traits. Ask a creative person how their mind works and you’re likely to receive many different responses. But most artists prescribe both discipline â€" a regular schedule, working even when feeling uninspired â€" and experience â€" the free time provided by vacations â€" to recharge the mind. Creative people also know that ideas can come at any time, even during mundane activities like commuting. An expanded vacation and PTO package gives employees time to experience, daydream and recharge. They will return from time off with new ideas and inspiration to put into their jobs. With so many important factors on the line â€" from productivity and retention to employee health and creativity â€" there’s no good reason to be average when it comes to time off. Unveil a new vacation package tomorrow and you’ll soon be yielding the benefits of a well-rested office. Are you getting enough holidays and PTO? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments!