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Your #Career : How You’ll Look For A Job In 2018…Here are Three(3) Things to Pay Careful Attention to If you’re Among those Who Plan to Look for Work in 2018.

January 2, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Plenty of New Year’s resolutions include searching for a new job. And people don’t just add it to their lists because they hate their current job. Overall, ZipRecruiter found that nearly half (49%) of Americans who are actively looking for a new job said they love, or at least like, their current job. But 68% of employed job seekers believe that the types of jobs available today are better than what was available before.

For those looking at greener pastures, there’s good news. The ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey found that 21% of the over 11,000 employers across all industries in the U.S. they surveyed are planning to hire in the coming quarter. And no need to fear that AI or automation is eliminating jobs. Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends report of more than 10,000 HR and business leaders found that 77% said they will either retrain people to use new technology, or will redesign jobs to better take advantage of human skills.

So if you’re actively looking for a new position or planning to hunt in 2018, here are some things to keep in mind that will impact the way you search and land that new job.

TOP SKILLS AND HOW TO SHOWCASE THEM

Dan Shapero, vice president of careers, talent solutions, and learning at LinkedIn says, “The skills employers are looking for are changing rapidly, so it’s important for professionals to constantly learn the emerging skills in their field as well as new skills that open up entirely new career options.” LinkedIn recently added a feature that notifies members what skills are trending among people with the same job title. But Shapero suggests, “By switching their thinking from “what is my title” to “what are my skills,” professionals can broaden their job options.”

Joachim Horn, CEO of SAM Labs, says current job seekers can better position themselves for 2018 career opportunities by making it a personal goal to become more proficient in STEM. “Whether it’s taking on a specific subject like computer programming or psychology, learning how to analyze data more effectively, instructing others to use technology,” he says, “signing up for a course like statistics or basic fundamentals of coding, watching an online tutorial on argumentation, or even working on an independent project at home like a DIY kit, are all great examples of ways to build STEM abilities.”

SurveyMonkey CEO Zander Lurie contends that the soft skill that will get more play in the coming year is curiosity, especially as AI gets smarter. But it’s still flying under most people’s radar, given that only 5% of more than 13,000 workers polled by SurveyMonkey and INSEAD say curiosity “should be in the top two most rewarded employee characteristics to help your company change and adapt for the future.” Communication (36%), self-motivation (29%), commitment (28%), and professionalism (27%) were the top three soft skills listed by workers. Yet, as Lurie points out, “You know who’s really good at commitment and professionalism? Freakin’ robots.”

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WORKING WITH AI

Get really prepared to work through artificially intelligent means of searching for jobs. The 2018 Entelo Recruiting Trends Report that surveyed 1,143 talent acquisition professionals found that 62% of companies plan to spend on AI-powered recruiting software. Of those, 86% plan to spend on intelligent sourcing software.

That starts with Google. Susan Vitale, the CMO of iCIMS, notes that earlier this year, Google announced Google for Jobs. As part of that program, recruitment software providers such as iCIMS have partnered with Google to improve the job search experience through machine learning capabilities. “What this means for job seekers is that it will be much easier to quickly search and apply for a job with a simple Google search,” she says. Google’s partnership with Paysa means that it’s also easier to search for a salary range for those open positions.

But it also means there are a plethora of platforms designed to match you with jobs that you might never have considered otherwise. For example, with Leap.ai, you have to do a self-assessment that focuses on sussing out your strengths (i.e., collaboration, leadership), skills (UX design, sales, marketing), and personal values, as well as job preferences (working in teams, independent, remote). TalentWorks also uses AI to optimize your resume and application and also provides human coaching (for a fee), while Talify’s college student users take personality assessments, and SquarePeg’s users take psychometric testsdesigned to make better matches to jobs where you’d actually perform your best.

ADAPTING TO DIFFERENT KINDS OF INTERVIEWS

Elaine Varelas, managing partner of Keystone Partners, insists that video interview expertise will be a must. “Every level of candidate will participate in AI video-screening interviews,” she states. “And they will need to be skilled at answering questions with no visual cues, feedback, or encouragement.”

Lindsay Grenawalt, head of People for Cockroach Labs, says that exercise-based interviews are becoming more common for non-technical workers. “Rather than guess if a candidate can do the job based on their answers to behavioral questions,” she says, “exercise-based interviews ask for candidates to show [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][what they can do].”

That means job-based simulations in the form of case studies, individual exercises, and presentations. “Since each interview focuses on different areas, collectively, says Grenawalt, the interviews are mini snapshots of the candidate’s capabilities.

“Candidates get a clear understanding of what it would be like to work at the company and in that role on a day-to-day basis,” she says. Fear not, she says. Because they require a high degree of engagement, they are more collaborative and a better experience overall than traditional interviews in which candidates have to sweat through a series of stress-inducing questions. Grenawalt recommends taking advantage of all of the information companies are making available on their hiring and interview process to shine in this kind of interview.

Matt Glotzbach, CEO of Quizlet, says it will be important for candidates to be able to articulate and emphasize skills that allow them to work side by side with new technologies. “Showing to future employers not only that you understand the technologies of today, but also that you’re actively learning new skills, topics, and subjects will be key,” says Glotzbach. Be prepared to discuss microcredentials, boot camps, self-driven learning projects, or side hustles, he says. “Learning doesn’t stop when you receive a diploma.”

FastCompany.com | January 1, 2018

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Your #Career : How To Become Indispensable At Work This Year…You can Gain some Job Security and Maybe even a Promotion by Taking these Actions.

January 2, 2018/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Virtually every office has one: that employee who is the go-to contact and seems to knows everything and everyone. The office can’t run without her. No one wants to think about what would happen if he ever left.

Being such a critical part of the team has a number of benefits, including a measure of job security. But those indispensable team members don’t get just that way through arbitrary means. If you want to join their ranks, here are seven ways to get there.

CHANNEL ELITE ATHLETES

Elite athletes are constantly trying to improve their performance. They fine-tune the details that allow them to compete at the highest level—and that practice holds some valuable lessons for people who are trying to become exceptional at their jobs, says Porter Braswell, cofounder and CEO of Jopwell, a technology platform that helps black, Latino, and Native American students and professionals unlock opportunities for career advancement.

“What I mean by that is not the ability to run fast, jump high, and all the other physical attributes that come with being an athlete. But more of the tactical, being a good teammate, communicating well, knowing how to work hard, being disciplined, being able to multitask—all the things that come with that athletic mind-set. Competing: That’s the mind-set one has to be in before I believe they can perform well,” Braswell says.

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https://www.firstsun.com/fsc-career-blog/ …What Skill Sets do You have to be ‘Sharpened’ ?

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DO YOUR OWN REVIEW

You may get regular feedback and a performance review from your supervisor, but it’s also important to do your own regular review to ensure you’re on track with your own goals and expectations, says Carolyn Birsky, founder of Compass Maven, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, coaching firm. Keep track of your accomplishments, training, feedback, projects, and overall numbers related to your job. We often think we’ll remember all of these things, but it’s easy to forget pieces here and there, she says.

Then, periodically and honestly review your progress, set new goals, and look at what it’s going to take to get to your next milestone, she says. These self-checks can help you ensure you’re keeping on track with your own career development and shore up areas that may need improvement. This practice will also keep you ready for the next time you’re up for a promotion.

“One of the mistakes employees often make is forgetting to hold those all together in some sort of file. That can be some of your best leverage to put your case forward and say, ‘This is why I think should be promoted. This is what makes me really good at what I do,’” she says.

TRACK YOUR METRICS

As you set your new goals, look at the metrics that are going to matter and include them as part of your plan, Birsky says. Whether it’s bumping up a sales quota or improving efficiency or cost controls in your business unit by a certain margin, be sure to look for positive measures to which you can contribute and how you can be most productive in contributing to them. Companies value employees who are focused on finding ways to raise the performance bar.

DO AN ALIGNMENT CHECK

It’s also a good idea to ensure that the areas you’re prioritizing in your career and development are consistent with what the company values, says licensed therapist and career coach Jessica Sweet. You may have a sense of what’s important to the company, but it’s essential to actually be clear that your efforts are moving initiatives forward that the company cares about, she says.

“I would be looking at what the company’s goals are for 2018, and be looking at how my skills and experience align with those goals, and how I can set myself up on any projects that are going on, to add the most value to those upcoming projects,” she says.

SPEAK UP

When employees are afraid to show that they’re imperfect or they don’t know something, it gets in the way of their performance, Birsky says. Learning how to effectively communicate with your boss and team, including asking questions and ensuring that you fully understand assignment instructions and ask questions when you don’t is essential to ensuring you’re performing in the best possible way for your company.

Beyond that, ask for opportunities to get better. “Be vocal to your boss about the fact that you are open to learning. Ask for opportunities to collaborate with another team, or be vocal about your ideas, or you might see a training [fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”yes” overflow=”visible”][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”no” center_content=”no” min_height=”none”][you need to get better]. Make your case for it,” she says.

ACT LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE

Ownership is essential to being invaluable, says Andy Chan, founder of Seattle-based career coaching center Prime Opt. Take ownership of your work—whether it’s a project assignment or even a simple spreadsheet. Think about it in terms of the bigger picture of the company and what its goals are. When you take full responsibility and apply strategic thinking to your work, you’re immediately supporting your supervisor and team in a new and more valuable way. “Every time, when it comes to you learning new skills, it actually opens up a conversation for you to ask for a raise or a promotion,” he says. So, think about what you can take ownership of in your work environment, and treat your work as if you own the company and are acting in its best interest.

MAKE YOUR BOSS LOOK GREAT

One of the most important things you can do to be indispensable to your boss is to help them excel, Braswell says. People value those who help them do their jobs better.

“Really get in the mind-set of the person you’re working for or alongside and really figure out, ‘What are they trying to achieve?’” he says. “Through having an understanding of what they’re trying to achieve and having the context, you can then say to them, ‘What can I be doing to help you achieve that goal?’” Once you know where you fit in and exactly the metrics on which you should be focused, you can rank or prioritize your efforts on those tasks and initiatives, he says.

FastCompany.com | January 2, 2018

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#BestofFSCBlog : 4 Things Every Manager/Entrepreneur Needs to Do the First Week of the New Year.

December 31, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Now that the holidays are over and the new year is in full swing, it’s time to head back to the lab to formulate fresh, smart, and effective ideas that will grow your organization.

Whatever the size of your firm, whether you’re B2B or B2C, and regardless of the industry in which you operate, here are four must do’s that you need to launch if you’re aiming to increase profits and market share over the next 365 days:

1. 100-Day Plan.

Since the 1930’s when Franklin Roosevelt pioneered it as a means of gauging his effectiveness in the Oval Office, the 100-day plan has become a tradition for newly elected American Presidents. The plan consists of achievable short term goals that adhere to a President’s long term vision for the country. Entrepreneurs should write their own 100 day plans as blueprints for advancing their organization’s productivity and profitability. Such a plan establishes 100 tasks, and requires managers/business owners to consider the specific steps and resources that are needed to bring them to fruition.

While there’s a time and place for visionary long term planning, the 100-day plan allows managers/entrepreneurs to craft and pursue attainable objectives and start the year off with a burst of energy. When the 100-day finish line is reached mid-April, entrepreneurs will know if they should be celebrating or if they need to recalibrate their efforts.

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2. Declutter

Whether you want to improve the feng shui of your office or just make it easier to find and store your stuff, a comprehensive tidy up of your company’s work space is a laborious yet necessary task. To make it happen, set aside a Saturday when your team can come in, rent a dumpster and high capacity paper shredder, and destroy unnecessary documents, presentations and files, and toss out old equipment, brochures, books, product samples, and other unproductive items.

Once your space has been tightened and tidied, implement a cloud-based backup system that allows for fast and convenient recovery of your organization’s electronic files. The decluttering will not only allow your team to operate more efficiently, it will also help your office to look more streamlined and professional.

3. Fire the person you know you have to fire.

Maybe you’ve tried to intervene to help turn things around, or you’ve ignored the problem in hopes that it would eventually take care of itself. But however you’ve handled the challenge of having weak members on your team, you know that they’re there and that they’re dangerous the to the health of your company.

If you didn’t have the heart to do any purging during the holiday season, delay no longer. The costs to your firm in reduced productivity, low employee morale, additional supervision, damaged client relationships, and lost revenue that are caused by substandard employees can be as high as $190,000 per year, so make a decision now to either remedy a situation that’s fixable — or to clean house.

4. Get high or higher.

While 26 states and the District of Columbia have laws legalizing marijuana, the suggestion here isn’t that entrepreneurs should light up more. Instead, the first week of the new year is a perfect time to review and possibly raise the prices of your products or services. Too many small business owners try to compete by lowering their prices, and that’s often a mistake.

Instead, devise a plan by studying your competitive landscape; looking at your firm’s pricing history; reviewing the calendar to determine the best time to bump up your rate, fees, or prices; and thinking about how you can enhance the value of your offerings in order to justify price revisions. If you detect some white space that would allow for small yet profitable increases, you should absolutely seize it.

After the joy and frenzy of the holidays, it’s understandable if it takes a minute for business owners to snap back to attention and keep their ships moving forward, but the upside to getting started is significant. Entrepreneurs who have the discipline to leverage these four steps as an annual early January organizational “reboot” will help to energize their teams, inspire exciting ideas, and generate new opportunities for innovation and growth.

Entrepreneur.com | December 29, 2016 | Lyneir Richardson

#Leadership : 7 Steps for Maintaining Your Composure in Times of Chaos…During Times of Uncertainty and Adversity you Must Avoid Making your People feel Unsafe and Insecure. Here are Seven Ways to Maintain Leadership Composure During the Most Pressure-Packed Moments.

December 29, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Let’s face it: Uncertainty is the new normal and growing tensions between leaders and their employees are creating challenges like never before. This requires those leaders to act and face change fearlessly and authentically. They must have the wisdom and courage to step back, be a little vulnerable and then influence the outcome – all while keeping the people they answer to calm.

As a result, leaders need to show more composure than ever before in the workplace. With the change management requirements, increased marketplace demands and intensifying competitive factors that surround us, leaders must have greater poise, agility, and patience to minimize the impact of uncertainty. How leaders respond to these and other growing pressures is an indicator of their leadership preparedness, maturity, and acumen that encourages an optimistic, glass-half-full environment where employees are free to share their ideas and ideals.

The composure of a leader is reflected in their attitude, body language, and overall presence. In today’s evolving business environment, it is clear that leadership is not only about elevating the performance, aptitude, and development of people but more so about the ability to make people feel safe and secure.

Employees have grown tired of working in survival mode and thus want to be part of a workplace culture where they can get back to doing their best work without the fear of losing their jobs. In fact, the 21st-century leader sees adversity through the lens of opportunity.

When leading – especially during times of uncertainty and adversity, crisis and change – you must avoid making your people feel unsafe and insecure. Here are seven ways to maintain leadership composure during the most pressure-packed moments:

1. Stay Passionate but Don’t Allow Your Emotions to Get in the Way

Seasoned leaders know that passion is everything and burying their emotions is futile. But that doesn’t mean we can wear our emotions on our sleeves, especially when cooler heads must prevail. Don’t yell or get overly animated when times get tough. Keep positive body language. Without these things, employees interpret you as not being in control and too passionate about the situation at hand. Strong-willed leaders can maintain their composure and connection, expressing concern and care, without their emotions becoming a distraction.

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2. Don’t Take Things Personally

I know this seems ridiculous to say in light of how our Donald Trump uses Twitter but there are exceptions to every rule, even this one: Leaders shouldn’t take things personally when things don’t go their way – eventually it backfires. Business decisions and circumstances don’t always play out logically because office politics and other dynamics factor into the process. Don’t get defensive or think that you always must justify your thinking and actions when they do. When you take things personally, it’s difficult to maintain your composure and make those around you believe that you have things under control. In fact, when leaders take issues too close to heart, they allow the noise to suffocate their thinking and decision-making capabilities.

3. Keep a Positive Mental Attitude

Employees are always watching their leader’s actions, behavior, relationships and overall demeanor. During the most difficult of times, leaders must maintain a positive mental attitude and manage a narrative that keeps their employees inspired and hopeful. This is where your leadership experience and resolve can really shine – by staying strong, smiling often and authentically exhibiting a sense of compassion. Leaders set the tone for the organization they serve. A positive attitude can neutralize chaos and allow a leader to course correct through any negativity.

4. Remain Courageous

During uncertain times, leaders must remain fearless. I’ve been through ups and downs in my career and have learned that when you begin to fear adverse circumstances, you not only put yourself in a position of vulnerability, but it becomes extremely difficult to act rationally and focus. When you panic, you mentally freeze. If you begin to get fearful, ask yourself: What is the worst possible thing that can happen? When you have the will and confidence to face that, you will realize that the situation is manageable and can be resolved.

5. Respond Decisively

Donny Deutsch said it best in the title of one of his books: Often Wrong, Never in Doubt. Leaders who maintain their composure will never show any signs of doubt. They speak with conviction, confidence, and authority – whether they know the answer or not! Because they believe it and instill that belief in others – even in the darkest times.

6. Take Accountability

Leaders should be most composed during times of crisis and change and be fully committed to resolving the issue at hand. When they are accountable, this means that they have made the decision to assume responsibility and take the required steps to problem solve before the situation gets out of hand. When leaders assume accountability, they begin to neutralize the problem and place the environment from which it sprung on pause.

7. Be Willing to Listen and Remain Vulnerable

Great leaders know that one of the most effective ways to maintain composure during difficult times is to act like you have been there before. Leaders that make others feel they have been through the problem-solving process numerous times before are those with who approach the matter at hand with a sense of elegance and grace. They are patient and active listeners, and they will genuinely take a compassionate approach to ease the hardships that anyone else is experiencing. They give you hope that the problems will soon be solved – and they are affected as deeply as you are.

It’s easy to lose composure during times of crisis and change if you let concern turn into worry and worry turn into fear. By maintaining composure, the best leaders remain calm, cool and in control – enabling them to step back, critically evaluate the cards that they have been dealt and face problems head-on. A show of composure also puts those you lead at ease and creates a safe and secure workplace culture where no one needs to panic in the face of adversity.

Entrepreneur.com | December 28, 2016 | GLENN LLOPIS

#Leadership : 3 Ways to Guide Your Employees Toward Empowered Decisions…Traditional Top-Down Management can Create a Single Point of Failure within Each Department: a Middle Manager Held Accountable for his Team’s Projects and Products.

December 24, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

According to a Harvard Business Review analysis released in September, U.S. companies are wasting more than $3 trillion every year on excess bureaucracy and management — which is equivalent to 17 percent of our country’s GDP.

That’s an astonishing amount of money, and I believe one of the keys to reversing this trend is addressing a structure that has been an American business mainstay for decades: the corporate ladder.

Today, traditional top-down management can hold companies back. It slows down decision-making, holds back brilliant talent from making an impact and can create an unnecessary single point of failure within each department: a middle manager who is held accountable for delivering all directives and approving all of his or her team’s projects and finished products.

Now that many mass communication and collaboration tools exist to facilitate real-time company-wide work, it’s time to remove the excess layers of approval from your business and thoughtfully empower each individual contributor to take action based on his or her skills and capabilities. Here’s how:

1. Modernize your company through empowerment.

In today’s fast-paced world, a company’s decision-making process needs to be streamlined, swift and agile. The traditional corporate hierarchy hampers all of these things. Its numerous layers cause traditional companies to move at a snail’s pace when making decisions and reacting to market conditions.

Embracing employee empowerment won’t just accelerate your company’s rate of innovation; it will lead to happier teams and attract free-thinking and creative job-seekers to your brand.

That’s important because many of those job-seekers will be millennials. In one study, 76 percent of millennials surveyed reported being more satisfied within a creative, inclusive work culture, while only 28 percent felt that the companies they worked for were making full use of their skills.

The message? You currently have a huge opportunity to attract these future all-stars.

Not that that opportunity will be easy: It takes hard work and dedication to create a culture of autonomous, empowered employees — and that certainly won’t happen overnight. My organization, Lifion, is devoted to achieving this type of atmosphere in our own workplace, and we are excited to help others do the same as we learn what works and what doesn’t.

These three strategies are our focus areas as we progress on this journey:

1. Showcase your mission, vision and values early and often.

An alarming 61 percent of employees say they don’t know their company’s mission. How can these individuals ever feel empowered to make smart decisions without first seeking approval from a manager?

Go out of your way to make your mission, vision and values apparent to your entire team. These three foundational elements describe what you do, where you want to go and how you want to get there — and if employees don’t intimately understand them, empowered autonomy is nearly impossible to achieve.

Put up posters in your office that highlight your values. Frequently refer to your vision when interacting with your team. And post your mission statement on your website for the entire world to see. Then, take it a step further by building tools that help your employees assess whether they’re successfully embodying these principles.

For example, we’ve created surveys of self-reflection for our team that break down our organization’s values into simple bullet points and ask how frequently employees believe they practice each concept.

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2. Develop a decision framework.

A decision framework teaches employees how to make decisions that benefit the company without first seeking approval from their managers. In its most basic form, the framework can be set up like this: If you have high confidence that your initiative will be successful — and the actions you want to take are low-risk — go ahead and make the decision. However, if you’re looking to make a high-risk decision that you have low confidence in, make sure you talk it over with other people and seek approval.

Of course, not all situations are cut and dried, so there should be a gradient of low-, medium- and high-impact/confidence built in.

The key to instilling this framework is to lead by example. Articulate your thought process to your team when you make a decision. This will build their confidence and show (not tell) them how to act autonomously. As a bonus, in doing this, you’ll be coaching your younger employees to become better leaders themselves. Ninety-one percent of millennials aspire to be company leaders, so they’ll appreciate this training.

3. Shrink the approval process.

If employees are accustomed to seeking managerial approval before taking action, it’s going to take a little time to break them of this habit. Consider this a weaning process in which they learn what types of initiatives are guaranteed to be approved and which ones tend to require discussion.

When employees come to you seeking approval during this transition period, ask them why they’re feeling unsure about their project, and then provide your input on whether you agree with their concerns. Eventually, this will help them understand your thought processes and priorities, making them more capable of anticipating what does and doesn’t require approval.

When approvals occur only on an as-needed basis, key decisions and pivots won’t be delayed — and this will lead to growth. A recent study shows that when employees are given the autonomy to make decisions, the companies they work for grow four times faster than companies with traditional management structures. These companies also experience a third of the turnover.

In modern times, the traditional corporate hierarchy can be highly inefficient and wasteful. The business world moves a lot faster than it used to, so it’s essential for today’s companies to streamline their decision-making processes as much as possible — and thoughtfully empowering each individual contributor is a giant step in the right direction.

Instill your values and goals in your employees, and empower them to make decisions that propel your company into the future.

Entrepreneur.com | December 23, 2016 | Amit Maimon

#Leadership : The Top 5 Ways Work Changed In 2016…From Minimum Wage Hikes to Higher Health Care Costs, 2016 was a Year of Big Changes for the American Worker.

December 20, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

It’s probably an understatement to call 2016 a year of turning points. The U.S. presidential election, culminating in Donald Trump’s upset win in November, thrust labor and employment issues into a more prominent place in the news cycle.

But it wasn’t just politics that fueled major shifts in the world of work. Here’s a look back at some of the most consequential ways the workplace has evolved over the past year, and where it might be heading next.

1. WORKERS GOT A PAY BUMP (SOME OF THEM, ANYWAY)

2016 was the year the “Fight for $15” movement scored its biggest victories yet. In April, New York and California both enacted legislation to progressively raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next few years. That proposal gained prominent support on the campaign trail, notably by Bernie Sanders during the Democratic primary fight, and later by Hillary Clinton, who advocated for a $12 national minimum wage that would eventually climb to $15.

The issue’s prominence during the election likely helped boost support for the idea. A Huffington Post/YouGov survey earlier this year found just over half of Americans back a minimum-wage hike, and a Rasmussen poll found nearly three-quarters support raising it from the national rate of $7.25 an hour, even though some consider $15 too high a target. After years of little action on the issue, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, and Washington all passed ballot proposals in November to raise their state minimum wage.

Federal action on the issue may be unlikely in the near term (Trump’s pick for Labor Secretary, Andrew Pudzer, has been a vocal critic of efforts to raise the minimum wage). Still, the idea is gaining support among influential stakeholders in the business community, and the S&P published a report in September echoing the argument that a minimum wage hike would boost the economy.

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2. WORKPLACE GENDER ISSUES BURST INTO THE NATIONAL CONVERSATION (AGAIN)

Not since Anita Hill’s testimony in Justice Clarence Thomas’s 1991 confirmation hearings has sexual harassment gotten so much national airtime. Roger Ailes resigned as the head of Fox News in July after several women employees accused him of sexual misconduct. Then in October, a now-infamous 2005 Access Hollywood tape surfaced, revealing now–President-elect Donald Trump boasting about getting away with sexual assault.

While many found his remarks shocking, they largely corresponded with what journalists had already uncovered about Trump’s past behavior, particularly in the workplace—where a woman’s appearance and her career in one of Trump’s companies were often closely intertwined.

But this wasn’t the only story line on women in the workplace over the past year. Hillary Clinton’s historic nomination as the first woman chosen to represent a national party broke one glass ceiling shy of the presidency. Clinton’s failed candidacy succeeded in convening a national dialogue on women in leadership. It became something of a Rorschach test for Americans’ attitudes toward women bosses, their trustworthiness, competence, stamina, and more.

None of these issues were resolved on Election Day, and they won’t be settled on Inauguration Day, either; the morning after Trump is sworn into office, activists are planning a Women’s March on Washington to protest his presidency. And with millions of American workers still excluded from state or federal sexual harassment protections, get ready for this debate to continue.

3. MORE PEOPLE PICKED UP SIDE GIGS

Short on money, more U.S. workers are freelancing on the side. According to a new analysis by LinkedIn, younger professionals in particular are gravitating toward part-time freelancing.

“Men are doing more part-time freelancing than women, and millennials are doing so more than any other age group,” says LinkedIn’s Gyanda Sachdeva, in an exclusive review of the data for Fast Company in November. Some 20% of professionals who list freelance work on their LinkedIn accounts have full-time jobs as well. “That means full-time freelancing still dominates,” Sachdeva concluded, “but the side-gig model is quickly catching up.”

But while 2016 saw side-gigging accelerate, it wasn’t the year employees left their companies to go it alone in the workforce en masse. A survey by the Freelancers Union and Upwork found that while a whopping 81% of traditionally employed workers are interested in picking up freelance work, only 37% of those who already freelance on the side are thinking seriously about leaving their day jobs. What’s holding them back? In short, stability, a predictable income, and benefits.

Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel has called for more federally funded research into the freelance workforce, which numbers up to 55 million people by his company’s last count. It remains to be seen whether government support will be forthcoming, but it’s clear in the meantime that cash-strapped workers are finding more ways to support themselves out of sheer necessity.

4. MORE WORKING PARENTS EARNED PAID LEAVE

Paid leave benefits continued to expand in 2016. Leading tech giants like Apple, Facebook, and IBM now boast much more extensive family leave offerings than other employers, but even the most ambitious expansions of those policies this year have tended to be most generous to birth mothers.

Lately, there have been some signs of a shift toward greater equality. Just last week, Ikea rolled out a new paid parental leave program covering both men and women who work full- and part-time for the company, Other generous policy changes at companies like AmEx extend leave benefits to adoptive and surrogate parents for longer than the traditional 12-week window.

To be sure, these expansions are occurring mostly (though not exclusively) in the rarefied heights of the tech sector. Currently, only an estimated 10–12% of U.S. workers get paid leave of any kind from their employers. But this was another issue that got ample airing during the election, where expanding paid leave was a major piece of Clinton’s platform. More recently, Ivanka Trump has embraced the issue as a policy change she claims she’ll be advocating for during her father’s administration.

That would put her on the right side of the trend lines, since according to a recent poll the overwhelming majority of Americans (82% of both Republican and Democratic voters) support some form of paid family and medical leave. Paid leave is also good for business, as companies that expanded their leave policies in recent years have seen boosts in both recruiting and employee retention.

5. EMPLOYEES PAID MORE FOR HEALTH CARE, BUT GAINED NEW BENEFITS

According to recent data, U.S. workers’ contributions to their employer health insurance plans are actually growing more slowly than in years past, but incomes aren’t keeping up fast enough for many employees to benefit. The average family paid more than $18,000 in health care premiums in 2016, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Over the past year, some employers have been experimenting with ways to entice top talent with health perks while also adding programs to hold down employees’ medical expenses. Instacart, Visa, and Slack, for instance, all rolled out programs to subsidize certain forms of genetic testing. By arming them with foreknowledge about their risks of developing cancer, the thinking goes, employees can seek potentially life-saving treatments earlier and more cheaply.

Corporations are beefing up their wellness initiatives for many of the same reasons, a turn of events that Fitbit found itself the unlikely beneficiary of this year. IBM, Kimberly-Clark, BP America, and others have handed the wearable-maker’s devices to employees as part of health programs meant in part to tamp down insurance costs.

So with the Affordable Care Act’s future uncertain in Washington, it’s likely that more businesses may take a greater lead in helping employees live healthier in 2017.

There’s no telling how the year ahead will transform the workplace further, but if the changes that impacted employees over the past 12 months are any guide, at least one thing is certain: A lot can happen in a year.

FastCompany.com | RICH BELLIS | 12.20.16 5:00 AM

Your #Career : Five Annual-Review Mistakes You’re Probably Making…Performance Reviews Shouldn’t Be One Awkward Conversation every December. Here are the Common Missteps to Avoid.

December 18, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Companies like Accenture, Microsoft, and General Electric are ditching annual performance reviews for more frequent feedback sessions, but for many others the practice is a way to end the year with a keen plan for the future.

The key to doing it successfully is not confusing performance evaluation with performance management, says Christine M. Riordan, president of Adelphi University and leadership development expert.

“Typically, organizations ask that performance be formally evaluated once a year,” she says. “A performance evaluation form commonly assesses the accomplishments, strengths, weaknesses, and development needs of an employee.”

The key to doing it successfully is not confusing performance evaluation with performance management.

Performance management, on the other hand, is a continuous process of assessing and developing the performance of an individual to align with the strategic goals of an organization, Riordan continues. “It is a constant process of discussion on progress towards goals and how the employee is performing,” she says.

A year-end review, then, should be different than periodic check-ins. Sit down with your employees, and make the most of the meeting by avoiding these five common mistakes:

MISTAKE #1: EVALUATING TRAITS INSTEAD OF BEHAVIORS AND RESULTS

One of the most common mistakes is evaluating personal traits, such as leadership, motivation, conscientiousness, and attitude, according to the American Management Association (AMA).

The problem with traits is that they are internal and subjective— almost impossible to evaluate on a fair basis, according to the AMA.

Instead, year-end reviews should focus on behaviors and results. Behaviors are actions that you can observe directly, such as completing tasks. Results are also observable, such as achieving a sales quota or increasing revenue by a certain percentage.

MISTAKE #2: BEING TOO LENIENT WITH YOUR FEEDBACK

Performance evaluation can be uncomfortable for most people -– both for those giving it and those receiving it, says Riordan. “Because of the discomfort, when there is a performance problem, managers will often avoid difficult conversations or be too vague in the evaluation,” she says. “Because managers often don’t want people to feel bad, they may rate everyone the same or just use the more favorable ratings on the scale.”

“Because managers often don’t want people to feel bad, they may rate everyone the same or just use the more favorable ratings on the scale.”

Giving everyone the same score or only favorable scores can become a norm and create problems for the organization in terms of differentiating among employees for raises or dealing with performance problems particularly when an employee has been rated average or higher, says Riordan. Avoid this mistake by being firm on your ratings, understanding that the foundation of your company depends on it.

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MISTAKE #3: WAITING UNTIL THE END OF THE YEAR TO GIVE ANY FEEDBACK

The secret to effective year-end reviews is laying the groundwork throughout the year, says Elissa Tucker, principal human capital management research lead at American Productivity and Quality Center (APQC), a nonprofit human resources research organization.

This includes clearly defining performance goals, measures, and rating criteria; scheduling frequent check-in meetings to update performance goals, discuss progress, and address challenges; collecting feedback and performance examples on an ongoing basis; and having informal conversations with employees daily or as often as possible to recognize small accomplishments and open the door for low-stakes questions and coaching.

APQC’s 2016 People Challenges at Work Poll found that the top-two challenges people have with their managers are:

Does not share enough information
Does not provide enough direction

“These findings show that managers would benefit from making communication a New Year’s resolution,” says Tucker. “The end-of-year performance review is the perfect time for managers to get a jump start. Then, they can follow through by having regular – weekly, monthly, or quarterly – meetings with each employee.”

The annual review should not be a shock, adds Bonnie Hagemann, CEO of Executive Development Associates, a talent management and research firm. “It should be a documentation of an ongoing conversation that has been happening between the manager and the employee all year. If the time ever comes that a manager needs to fire an employee, the employee should not be surprised because he or she had many opportunities and support to get the situation turned around.”

MISTAKE #4: ACTING LIKE A JUDGE INSTEAD OF A COACH

When providing feedback, it is helpful for a manager to think and act like a coach, says MaryAnne Hyland, professor of human resource management at the Robert B. Willumstad School of Business in Long Island, N.Y.
“The ultimate goal of the performance review is to improve employee performance, and managers are more likely to get the results they are hoping for by focusing on how to improve, rather than being punitive,” she says. “While many employees do not like constructive feedback, giving specific recommendations on how they could improve their performance is likely to be better received than more general comments about needing to improve.”

“Managers are more likely to get the results they are hoping for by focusing on how to improve, rather than being punitive.”

Focus on the behavior, not the person, adds Hyland adds. “For example, it is better to say, ‘The accuracy of the line items on your budget proposals needs improvement,’ rather than, ‘You are bad at budget proposals,’” she says.

If employee have performed poorly, good managers investigate. People don’t perform poorly without a reason, according to the AMA. There are always causes, and it’s a manager’s job to make finding those reasons part of the review process.

MISTAKE #5: NOT BEING ABLE TO EXPLAIN YOUR RATING PROCESS

The performance review process should be transparent and well documented. A study done at the London School of Economics and Political Science published in the Spring 2016 issue of Academy of Management Discoveriesfound a good degree of consistency in the weight individual judges assigned to different factors from one appraisal to another. When asked to rank factors by importance, however, answers often varied, with most mangers having difficulty explaining their approach to others.

“Although participants adopted a consistent judgment policy across different performance-appraisal situations, they showed little insight into their own judgment policy,” write study coauthors Hayley German of the London School of Economics and Political Science, Marion Fortin of the University of Toulouse and Daniel Read of Warwick Business School.

“The fact that experienced administrators differ sharply in how they evaluate the fairness of the same appraisal suggests why this can be a potential minefield for employers. On the basis of our findings, it comes as no great surprise that annual performance appraisals have been losing favor.”

FastCompany.com | STEPHANIE VOZZA | 12.16.16 5:54 AM

Your #Career : 5 Components of an Attention-Grabbing Resume…You Only Get a Few Seconds for your Resume to Make the Cut, but That’s All you Need When you Know What Hiring Managers are Looking For.

December 15, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

A resume is one of the most important documents you attach your name to. The content on these few pages can drastically change your life, presenting you with new opportunities or taking you down a new career path altogether.

With 2017 right around the corner, many “career change” New Year’s resolutions will be made. If you are seeking new opportunities or testing the job market, make sure your resume isn’t missing any of these components.

1. Flowing story.

Your resume tells your story, so make sure it is easily understood and has a great flow to it. Hiring managers have hundreds and sometimes several thousand resumes to scan, so if they are confused at any point while reading yours, it will quickly end up in the trash.

Your story should be very clear. The person reading your resume should be able to quickly understand who you are, what you currently do, what you have done in the past, when and where you have done it and how good you were at doing it.

If you need guidance, consider using a free resume builder to help tell your story using a pre-made template.

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2. Strong top-third.

The top third of your resume needs to quickly grab the attention of its reader enough that you get placed in the “review for consideration” pile. It’s important that you sell yourself strongly in the beginning, as nobody is going to read every word of your resume on the first round.

The average resume receives only six seconds of review time, so take that into consideration when you are putting it together. Determine how much of your resume can be read in six seconds, and make sure you are building a strong argument for yourself in that small window of time.

3. Formatted for easy reading and skimming.

Your resume will receive more attention if it’s broken down into bite size bullets and sections, rather than long drawn-out paragraphs of information. If you have a lot to say, that’s fine, just break it up into an easy to digest format.

Nobody wants to sit there and read massive blocks of text. Highlight your key points through creative formatting that allows a reader to skim through it and still retain the important parts. Nobody has time to read a resume top to bottom — use formatting to your advantage — selling yourself without writing a novel.

4. Use descriptive keywords especially in the beginning.

Regardless if an actual human or software is reading your resume, the right keywords will make yours stand out. Many human resource departments use an applicant tracking system, or ATS, which allows them to filter applications based on keywords, skills, former employers, length of experience and education. Using descriptive keywords in the beginning of your resume will help you get the attention of this software, or catch the eye of a human, if the company has someone manually scanning applicants.

5. Be specific when describing your success.

Saying you were “good” at something isn’t enough — you need to be specific. Why were you good at something? What did you specifically accomplish? Include measurable success to back up your claim of being good.

What is going to draw more attention?

Increased sales and production while managing a large sales team.
Increased sales by 218 percent while managing a team of 32 in-house sales representatives.

“Providing specific examples to what you have accomplished makes your resume much stronger and adds the supporting evidence that employers want to see,” advises Hannon Legal Group founder, James Hannon. Don’t be afraid to include impressive accomplishments — these are your selling points, so don’t think of this as boasting and bragging.

Entrepreneur.com | December 15, 2016 | Jonathan Long

#Leadership : The Better Way To Break Bad News…The Bad News is That you’re Probably Breaking Bad News the Wrong Way. The Good News: These Four Steps can Fix That.

December 14, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

Here’s some bad news: You’re probably delivering bad news the wrong way. Every company, team, and manager hits setbacks, and it’s always somebody’s job to break the unpleasant news to others. But the way to talk about even the toughest turns for the worse isn’t simply to put a falsely positive spin on what went wrong and what it means.

Sharing upbeat stories is easy, after all. We like giving and receiving praise. So it makes sense why some leaders tend to downplay the consequences of bad news or withhold it altogether until it’s too late. Instead, there are ways to have difficult conversations with your team that leave them with an accurate grip on the facts while still motivating everyone to take the initiative and bounce back. Here are a few tips.

1. LIMIT YOUR NEGATIVE LANGUAGE

When you’re discussing setbacks with your team, be careful not to use negative expressions—like “can’t” or “won’t”—that sound too categorical. For instance, instead of announcing, “I can’t get the budget for this project,” try, “Our current funding levels mean that we’ll all have to be more resourceful, starting with the project we’re working on right now.” Both convey the predicament accurately, but one frames it like a dead end, while the other points the way forward.

This goes for news concerning individuals, too. Rather than saying, “I won’t be promoting you into this new position,” you can simply say, “I’ve thought about it, and keeping you in your present role makes more sense to me right now.” Between the lines, it’s the difference between, “Sorry, deal with it!” and “This is where things stand for the moment, but they can change.”

Another word to watch for is “no”—as in “no way,” “no problem,” “no good,” “that’s a ‘no’,” or “I have no idea.” Instead, use “yes” and other positives like, “yes, there’s a way to do it” and “I do have an idea about how to work through this.” Instead of talking about “problems,” talk about “challenges”; instead of “obstacles,” “opportunities.”

Again, this doesn’t mean cloaking bad news in euphemisms—it means focusing on their consequences and your collective response to them.

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2. MAKE SURE IT ISN’T PERSONAL

Always avoid personal barbs. Most managers know it’s totally unprofessional to tell a direct report, “That was stupid of you,” but many express their displeasure with phrases like, “you disappointed me” or “you let me down.” Fair enough—you’re only being honest.

But don’t forget that these expressions can still hurt people and make it harder for them to do better. They subtly brand people as untrustworthy and tear down the very self-confidence they’ll need in order to do better next time. Personal insults, however watered down, are counterproductive. You’ll more often than not end up with angry team members who function well below their potential.

Don’t throw darts at other people who aren’t in the room, either. It may be tempting to find a target to criticize when things go wrong (and sometimes it really is your client’s fault), but if you offload the blame to others, you immediately undercut your own team’s ability to take ownership and fix the problem. Saying that a customer who didn’t accept your team’s proposal is a “jerk” or “power hungry” sets a bad example in organizations where cooperation is paramount.

3. SPEND MORE TIME ON THE HIGH GROUND

Think of every conversation as covering a certain amount of “terrain.” It’s okay to spend some time wandering around on the low ground, but you’ll want to scramble up to the heights eventually—and loiter there longer. During tough times, the negative tends to dominate, getting bigger and bigger as it all rolls downhill.

That’s all the more reason why leaders need to keep the negatives to a minimum and keep the conversation firmly rooted to the higher ground. Naturally, you want to be open and transparent if there’s been a problem. State the situation as clearly as you can (without being accusatory), but once you’ve identified the issue, focus on the solutions, teamwork, collaboration, and what the future can look like if you pull together.

When crafting your message, start with the negative and end with the positive.

Here’s a good rule of thumb: Keep the negatives to a quarter or, at most, a third of the conversation. And don’t let others draw you back into the weeds. Your team members may need to express their frustration and pessimism at first, but it’s your job as their boss to help everyone pull themselves up by their bootstraps. By the end of the conversation, all parties should be looking ahead.

4. END ON AN UPSIDE

When crafting your message, start with the negative and end with the positive. You might say, “Last year was tough —with our sales numbers were below what we’d expected—but I’m confident we can make up that loss and reach our goals for this year.” Similarly, if you’re heading into a client pitch, you’d be foolish to say to your boss, “That’s one tough customer. He’s never open to any of our new products.” It’s better to say, “This will be pretty challenging, but I’ll give it my all.”

Never forget to make this transition. If you’re announcing layoffs, don’t hit your listeners with, “This is a really hard day for all of us—for you, for me, and for our company.” Indeed it is! But statements like that may only make a bad situation worse; after all, is it really equally bad for the people who are keeping their jobs as it is for those who are losing them?

Instead, realistically present the situation, and then move toward a solution, ending on a positive. For example, “I have some sobering news to share that will affect all of you. But I want to share it with you myself so we can work through it together as a team.” The difference here isn’t dramatic—bad news is bad news—but it helps to lay the groundwork of encouragement and openness to talk honestly about what’s happening and why.

That’s something the best leaders always do—in good times and bad.

FastCompany.com | JUDITH HUMPHREY | 12.14.16 5:00 AM

#Leadership : 7 Beneficial Tips for Managing Your Virtual Work Team…Add These Tips to your Work Routine and your Team Will Run Like a Well-Oiled Engine.

December 14, 2016/in First Sun Blog/by First Sun Team

When I began doing most of my work online as the head of a virtual team, I realized that the first problem I needed to resolve was a personal one — and kind of an embarrassing one: I would lounge around on the sofa with my laptop perched on my knees, as I drifted between work and sleep. And I always shuddered at the thought that my virtual team was doing the same.

Having a virtual office isn’t different from having a physical one, or at least it shouldn’t be, if you want any semblance of success. So, it should make no difference that you’re online.

But there are differences. Consider the issue of security: You don’t leave your office unlocked, and in the same way, you don’t leave your virtual office unguarded. My first piece of advice, then, is that if you are going to make or receive online payments, you’ll want to invest in a virtual private network (VPN); if you can’t afford the big boys, choose a cheap VPN service and stay protected. This is vital.

Next, if you’re working at home, create a special space where you can focus on work. Better yet, set up a workspace away from home. Once you, as the manager, have created some order at your end, you’ll have the moral high ground to demand the same from your virtual staff.

A virtual staff is understandably more difficult to handle for obvious reasons: no direct supervision, no structured workplace, different geographical locations which may cut across nations and time zones. Given those constraints, the following tips will help you manage your virtual work team better in spite of the constraints.

1. Be specific and detailed in your demands.

I kept getting such a variety of quality in delivered jobs that I would often fight off a migraine just trying to harmonize them. Using emails to correct errors didn’t seem to work, because often a different kind of error would then crop up.

I soon realized that the problem started with me, so I took time to put together a detailed guideline covering all aspects of the business, from minor to major. I accompanied this with a proper sample of what I expected.

This move dramatically improved the quality of the work that the staff did in a short time. If you expect a clear outcome, then give a clear example. The aim is to set professional standards, because setting professional standards contributes to being efficient and puts people into the right mindset. The devil is always in the details.

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2. Specialize your team.

Talk about trying hard to fit round pegs into square holes! In fact, that is exactly what many virtual team managers try to do, and it is usually nearly impossible to make things work this way.

The virtual nature of your staff leaves little room for close supervision and teaching your team how to do particular kinds of jobs.

After working a while with my team members, I began recognizing their individual weaknesses and strengths and the kinds of jobs that each of them did with ease. According to those observations, I switched up positions and started delivering specialized jobs. This yielded a noticeable rise in the quality of the work done and reduced my stress considerably.

The advantages of such specialization are numerous, Team members enjoy their work, and I have less need to stock Aspirin.

3. Create a virtual meeting place.

Emails are a good way of communicating and receiving instructions and job orders, but are a poor means for proper discussions. To get around this, I created a group on WhatsApp, where I added all my team members. Other options are available, and the choice will vary from manager to manager, since online platforms, social media and instant messaging apps abound.

Investing in video conferencing may be another very reasonable option if your budget can manage it. The idea is to remove the impersonal feeling that email gives, and instead bring some personality to your communications.

For me, creating a virtual meeting place was a life saver, as it seemed to revitalize my virtual workspace. There is a strange power in seeing someone’s face for the first time; happily, the internet now allows for that too.

4. Utilize the overlap in working hours.

It is often a struggle when your virtual team works in different time zones; it’s difficult to make demands that are binding on all team members. It is also difficult to fix meetings or get urgent communications responded to quickly.

I had to study the time zones for all staff and determine the time of my day that overlapped with their work hours. We mutually agreed to always be online at a certain period of the day because it was generally convenient. You should do the same and utilize those few hours, fix regular meetings and send urgent correspondence across.

5. Set up reward systems to motivate your team.

I began paying slightly higher when I made a greater demand, like a demand that required a job to be done in much shorter time. I would also give extra stipends and encouragements to team members who showed consistent quality work. Trust me, people don’t want to sit before their computer for hours on end, but they will if you give them a reason to.

Setting up a kind of meritocracy is a good idea. It worked for me.

6. Give more jobs to the best of your team.

The good thing about virtual teams is that oftentimes only you are aware of how much work you give each team member and how much each is paid, so there is little room for the rancor and jealousy that may brew in a regular office workspace.

There is no need to be masochistic, so reduce your headache quotient by giving a greater volume of jobs to the people who show consistent quality.

7. Establish some order in your personal work systems,

Working with documents on your computer can get messy; you need to create proper systems and arrange jobs for different clients and team members in different and properly named folders. You also need to avoid the mess that emails can bring. So, explore the various ways you can manage your emails for greater productivity. Tools like Hiver can help you keep a sane email box.

Also, set up reminders for jobs so you can send reminders and alerts to your team and avoid failing a client or forgetting the time demands on your team members. This saved me a lot of stress and made the job much easier. It’s like having a efficient file cabinet.

Add these tips to your work routine and your team will run like a well-oiled engine.

Entrepreneur.com | December 14, 2016 | Chidike Samuelson