The Importance of Giving Employees Autonomy

There are numerous positive reasons to grant your employees autonomy. To be clear, this doesn't mean providing free rein. Instead, it means allowing your employees to make their own decisions within a narrow, well-defined area of responsibility.

By doing so, you help your employees become more productive and effective at their jobs. Added autonomy increases ingenuity, sparks higher job satisfaction, improves accountability and allows for higher-level thinking.

Increased Ingenuity

Daily Habits to Set You Up for Success

Your daily habits set you up to reach your long-term goals. Here are some tips to help make you more successful:

Get Plenty of Sleep

Every good morning starts the night before. To start your day with energy and enthusiasm, you must get ample sleep at night. This means putting away your laptop and saving those last few emails for the morning (or skipping the last couple episodes of your Netflix binge).

Start the Day with a Good Sweat

The Importance of Communicating Progress

Communicating progress is key to achieving long-term goals, and it is imperative to check in frequently to review progress. Here are five steps you can take to more effectively tackle the critical task of communicating progress with your staff:

Set a Long-Term Timeline

How to Turn a Work Setback into an Opportunity

Every career has its setbacks. However, don't get caught up in keeping score. It's not about those raw numbers; it’s about turning those failures into opportunities.

Maybe someone else got that big promotion you were vying for. Perhaps you were left off a project that included a conference in Hawaii. Or, maybe you had to move your office to a windowless cubicle and can’t remember the last time you saw the sun. In short, things aren't going your way.

Here are four ways to turn your work setback into a long-term opportunity:

Keep Moving Forward

6 Ways Managers Can Motivate Their Employees

All managers want to motivate and inspire their employees, and how you do so is crucial. Here are a few ways to help you accomplish your goals in this regard:

Provide Rewards

Nothing motivates like personal gain. If you want employees to go beyond expectations, you must incentivize them to achieve. Offer bonuses and other rewards for stellar performance.

Remain Even Keeled

Five Benefits of Working with a Staffing Agency

Let's be honest: hiring is a drag. And not just in the colloquial sense. It can cause a literal drag on time, profits, and growth. While bringing in top-notch talent is pivotal for success, the process of finding that talent creates near-term costs and distractions.

If only it were possible to maximize the long-term benefit of bringing in top team members while minimizing the near-term disruption that comes with the hiring process. Good news: it is possible.

How to Properly Screen Candidates Over the Phone

Picture this: you publish a job posting, full of anticipation and excitement. But quickly, as resume after resume starts pouring into your inbox, your mood begins to change. Excitement at the prospect of finding a brilliant new team member transitions to dread, as you suddenly face the question: "How am I going to screen and vet all these potential hires?"

Why You Should Be Conducting Pre-Employment Background Checks

Background checks bring up sensitive concerns. After all, every candidate has a past. You aren't in the business of punishing applicants for previous mistakes. You simply want to find the best people for your available positions.

Tips to Maintain a Healthy Work-Life Balance

If you're not careful, work can become all-consuming. Before you know it, seemingly never-ending work duties and challenges take up excessive amounts of your time.

But it's important to remember that work isn't everything. Even if your overall goal centers on long-term career advancement, having outside interests and nurturing a healthy support system will only help you. Your off-the-clock activities will actually keep you from burning out and will provide lessons that will ultimately help you at work.

How to Tell You’re a Good Fit for Your New Job

Congratulations! You passed the hard tests, braved the multitude of interviews, and scored a quality job offer.

And now? Challenges await as you start your new gig. There’s no way around it, you will have to make it through those awkward early stages as you try to become oriented and attempt to fit into a whole new corporate culture. It’s almost enough to trigger PTSD flashbacks to the first day of junior high.