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.

Plugging the Brain Drain

The statistics are breathtaking: according to the Pew Research center,  every day from now until 2030, ten thousand Baby Boomers will turn 65. (1) Every day.

In other words, hordes of working people are retiring, planning to retire, or thinking about retiring.

Who are these people? Very often, they’re the people in your organization who best know the whys and wherefores of your projects and procedures. They’re the ones who have so internalized tasks and deliverables that they’ve never even written the steps down. They’re the ones who remember why a certain project succeeded and why another failed and how that affected the company’s direction. In short, they are the holders of what’s known as organizational memory.

And they’re retiring.

What can you do to capture their knowledge? How can you make sure they don’t take the organizational memory with them?

Links You Can Use: October 8-12

With the ongoing presidential debates, conversations about politics may come up at work--but we would all like to avoid open conflict if possible. Below are some ways to prevent heated arguments in the workplace. Also, find out how to be more efficient, start conversations (even if you're a bit shy), and deal with co-workers who just aren't picking up the slack in this week's Links You Can Use.

With Election Day just a few weeks away, people can get emotional about their beliefs and ideologies, but here are four ways to preemptively address any potential political conflicts in the workplace. (Memphis Business Journal)

Links You Can Use: September 24-28

Sometimes, even with a fancy smartphone or tablet lying around, nothing beats a pen and pad of paper. But advances in technology are definitely causing some office items to get phased out. LinkedIn has a fun infographic showing survey participants' opinions of which common workplace objects they think are becoming extinct.

Speaking of LinkedIn, check out a great slideshow below about 12 underrated features that are available on the business networking site and app. In other news, discover whether there is a certain time of day where people are most productive, how reading hand signals can help you understand a speaker's state of mind, and some essential email marketing tips. All this and more in this week's Links You Can Use.

Are tape recorders and rolodexes becoming extinct in the office? Will they be replaced by more technologically advanced tools like cloud storage? (LinkedIn)

LinkedIn has over 33 million members, so chances are you're on it. But did you know about these 12 cool features available from the website and app? (CIO)

Links You Can Use: September 17-21

This week's Links You Can Use focuses on handling constantly complaining coworkers, impactful and impressive introductions, and dealing with down days.

The perpetual whiner. There's one in every workplace. Unfortunately, nodding and smiling to their rants may actually hurt you in the end, according to experts, so here are some alternative ways to handle grumps and bellyachers at work. (Wall Street Journal)

Making a good first impression is an important skill in business, so check out four solid tips on how to introduce yourself. (Inc.)

Slow day at work? Here are five suggestions on what to do when your workload is low. (The Daily Muse)

* The opinions expressed at these linked websites do not reflect the opinions of Harris, Rothenberg International, Inc. (HRI). HRI is not responsible for the accuracy of any of the information reflected on these sites.

Short & Tweet: (Mostly) Managerial Advice Under 144 Characters

Twitter didn’t invent the brief message; people have been saying important, useful, and even inspiring things in under 144 characters since humans started talking. Most, though not all, of these quotations are relevant to being a manager.

Abraham Lincoln: I do not think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday.

Albert Einstein: Imagination is more important than knowledge.

Albert Szent-Gyorgi: Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought.

Annie Lennox: Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.

Darrell Royal: I try not to make the same mistakes today that I made yesterday.

The One Big Secret to Changing Your Habits

Pursuing a goal like losing weight or putting an end to procrastination can start off great but then fall apart as time goes by. Usually, the big challenge is overcoming a bad habit and turning it into a good one. Easier said than done.

Fortunately for us, one journalist, Charles Duhigg, wrote a book on how to do just this. In The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, Duhigg uses real-life examples from past business strategies and his own life on how to permanently change behavior.

According to Duhigg, “some habits are more important than others.” You start major changes in your life by concentrating on an important habit, known as a keystone habit, which will go on to influence other behaviors.

So far, so good. So what is a keystone habit?

Links You Can Use: September 3-7

In recent years, news stories of fraud, insider trading, and other dishonest business activities have prompted the question: are we doing enough to teach business students about ethics? In other news, human resource staff are struggling with filling in the gaps left behind by retiring Baby Boomers, and a worker survey reveals that job retention is largely the result of very personal preferences. All this and more, in this week's Links You Can Use.

Are business schools effectively teaching ethics to their students? Experts are saying no, but there are some ways to improve business ethics training. (Slate)

According to the Workforce Retention Survey, "Work-Life Fit" and "Enjoying What I Do" were two of the top reasons why people chose to stay with a job. These findings echo some of the points from our post about the requirements for job satisfaction. (American Psychological Association)

Improve Your Productivity a Million Percent in Just One Step

Okay, maybe not a million percent. But a lot.

In fact, a high-powered executive once paid an efficiency expert $25,000 in thanks for making him aware of this one step.

There are many versions of the story, and they cite a range of sources. But they all seem to agree that the efficiency expert was a man named Ivy Lee, that the executive was Charles Schwab, who was the president of Bethlehem Steel at the time, and that this happened in the 1910s or 1920s.

But the details don’t matter. Here’s what matters:

5 Reasons Why People Ignore Emails

“Didn’t you read the email?”

We’ve all been there, whether we’re the one who didn’t read the message or the one who got ignored by colleagues. However, if people frequently disregard your emails, the problem may have something to do with the way you are communicating.

Have you committed blunders that make co-workers tune you out? Here are some reasons why others might be giving your emails the cold shoulder:

1. You write too many emails.
Email is an amazingly convenient medium, but it might not be appropriate for all situations. If you needlessly email colleagues, they will soon learn to ignore you. The same can occur if you CC too many people. Those individuals who do not need to be kept in the loop may also start skipping your messages altogether.

Links You Can Use: August 13-17

This week's Links You Can Use includes a few tips for managers and organizations interested in enhancing the workplace.

Staying productive at work during the late summer season can be tough, so here are some guidelines for managers to help keep their teams focused. (Forbes)

This article provides insight on managing workers from different generations. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Here are some helpful tips to spot signs of stress in your work life. (MSNBC)

How to Develop Professionally With This One Tool

Full-time employees spend hundreds and hundreds of hours at work each year. Understandably, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of the day-to-day and see whether you are reaching your long-term goals, or figuring out how a crisis began or developed.

Let’s say you kept running into the same problem that held up your productivity. Or during a busy time of the year, you were struggling to remember things to write down for your yearly self-evaluation, even though you know you have a lot to say.

Your workplace may provide a system for tracking billable hours or shifts—but do they record your milestones or special achievements? That responsibility is ultimately up to you. Fortunately, there is an easy way to monitor and work on your personal and professional growth.

Links You Can Use: July 30-August 3

Whether you're looking for easy ways to enhance your health or your wardrobe, or you're wondering how to troubleshoot customer service problems, we've got links you can use.

Lifehacker has 10 suggestions for reinvesting your health insurance rebate check, but really, it's a top 10 list for things you can do right now to improve your health and well-being. (Lifehacker)

One encouraging sign of how diversity helps companies: a study suggests that public companies do better with female board members than companies that do not have them. (LA Times)

Why So Tongue-Tied at Meetings? Neuroscience Might Have the Answer

Ever had a lot of ideas before walking into a meeting, and then effectively becoming a mute when it was time to contribute?

There might be a physiological basis for clamming up. Neuroscientists have a term, “expression of IQ,” which is an outward display of intelligence. The Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute conducted a study to see whether small group settings had any effect on people’s expressions of IQ.[1] And, boy, did they ever.

The methodology was simple. A standard intelligence test was given to 70 people individually. Then the test takers were put into groups of five, and were given the same questions in a different sequence. This time, however, participants saw how well they did in relation to others in the group, by being given a “ranking score.”

Initially everyone did worse than before. After a while, though, about half of the participants got the hang of it and eventually scored roughly the same as the first time. But the other half never bounced back.

Why Employers Should Care About Employees Who Are Caregivers (Part 2)

In our previous blog post, we talked about why some workers caring for children with special needs may require more health care and lose time and focus at work. But demanding caregiving needs are not just limited to parents of children with special needs.

An increasing number of employees are now also caring for older adults. In fact, nearly 55 million Americans care for an older adult, and 42% of workers reported caring for an older loved one within the last five years. (1)

Research from the MetLife Mature Market Institute and National Alliance for Caregiving (2) revealed the following:

• Each year, employers lose up to $33.6 billion in lost productivity as a result of full-time workers having to provide care to older adults.
• Employers lose an average of $2,110 annually per each full-time employed caregiver.
• The costs are due to employee replacement, absenteeism, partial absenteeism (coming in late, leaving work early), workday interruptions, eldercare crises, supervisor time (supervisors spending more time at work), unpaid leave*, and workers going from full-time to part-time.

*The Family and Medical Leave Act entitles eligible employees to job-protected, unpaid leave for a certain number of days per year. However, employers still have to pay for temporary employees and reassignments.

General population trends show that the aging Baby Boomer generation will continue to require care from loved ones, including those who work full-time or part-time. And many workers experience a knowledge gap when it comes to managing and paying for care.

Links You Can Use: July 16-20

Happy Friday! Here is your week's Links You Can Use.

Unsure about a grammar rule or the correct use of a phrase? Grammar Girl gives you great writing advice via blog posts and podcasts. (Quick and Dirty Tips)

A study on job benefits reveals that employees may need to be educated more about 401(k)s and other types of employer-sponsored savings benefits. (Employee Benefit News)

Why Employers Should Care About Employees Who Are Caregivers (Part 1)

What could be causing millions of people to be called away from work, decrease their work hours, or force them to leave the workforce altogether? Research shows that it’s caregiving for children with special needs or older adults.

Today, caregiving needs have become more demanding, and the costs to businesses come in the form of higher healthcare claims and lost productivity.

In this special two-part post about caregiving, we’ll talk about employees’ caregiving challenges, costs to employers, and what employers can do about it. Part 1 will focus on the challenges unique to caring for children with special needs.

Caregiving for Children With Special Needs

Almost 14% of all children under age 18 in the United States have a special healthcare need (a chronic or severe health or mental health problem that requires more intensive or specialized care than children normally require), according to a 2008 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (1)