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Friday, March 29, 2013

Links You Can Use: March 25-29

In this week's Links You Can Use, we want to highlight one article in particular that had us thinking.

Yesterday, the New York Times ran a great feature about how to get ahead in the workplace. The proposed solution may seem counter-intuitive in our competitive corporation-driven world: altruism. How would helping others make us happier with our jobs? Adam Grant, the organizational psychologist interviewed for this piece, explains it this way.
“In corporate America, people do sometimes feel that the work they do isn't meaningful. And contributing to co-workers can be a substitute for that.”
This is an echo of a sentiment we've expressed in an earlier post about job satisfaction -- that a meaningful connection between effort and reward is one of the three job factors that encourages employee retention.

Monday, January 7, 2013

Links You Can Use: Dec. 31-Jan. 4

A Happy New Year to everyone!

In 2013's first Links You Can Use, surveys show that employees are experiencing more stress but are taking fewer sick days (the bad news), but also that workplace wellness programs work (the good news). In addition, find a good breakdown on the importance of "training your successor." Managers shouldn't be worried about grooming their own replacements. Instead, they should try to maintain a level of complexity, if possible, for their staff to keep them interested in staying with the company. After all, complexity is one of the three requirements for job satisfaction.

Uh-oh. One of your more experienced staff members is leaving to pursue other opportunities, taking years' worth of institutional knowledge and experience. Read this blog post to see why managerial oversight of training and career development will help minimize employee turnover. (Triple Pundit)