Day: March 23, 2020

3 WAYS TO MAKE EXIT INTERVIEWS MORE EFFECTIVE

Exit interviews are a double-edged sword: Your company desperately wants information from departing employees about how to improve, but employees have little motivation to provide complete, honest reasons for their departure.
You can promise up one side and down the other that you’ll keep individual answers confidential, but the person is unlikely to believe that his former manager won’t find out if he says, “I’m leaving because my manager is a jerk.” Jerk managers are jerks about lots of things — and they don’t take negative feedback well. Your former employees want to keep their good references, so they’re not likely to speak up.
So, if your employees aren’t likely to be entirely honest, should you hold exit interviews at all? The short answer is yes. The long answer is yes, but only if you ask for constructive criticism, understand how to use the information you’re given and focus on trends. Here’s a deeper look at how to ensure your exit interviews are effective.

Cover Your Bases With the Basics

There are a few basic topics on which most employees will be very straightforward with you, and it’s important to consider what their answers indicate about your company. When you’re assessing your own company policies and procedures, honest feedback from the below categories can serve as valuable information:
  • Their new salary: Is it higher? Did they take a pay cut?
  • Their new title: Are they making a lateral move? Are they getting promoted?
  • Their new employer: Are they staying in the industry? Or becoming more specialized?
  • Their feelings on general company policies: PTO, flexible schedules, work hours
For instance, you can learn a lot about your own company’s career development process through the type of positions people are taking. If too many people are leaving for promotions, it may be time to look at your company’s performance review and promotion process. Or, on the other hand, if too many people are willing to go through the time-consuming effort of finding a new job for the same pay and responsibilities, it may be time to look into your current team structures and workloads.
In addition, feedback about your company’s policies can lead to important procedural changes. If enough people start saying that your health plans stink, then your health plans stink. If people keep saying that you don’t have a reasonable vacation plan, you don’t have a reasonable vacation plan. Believe them — or else you will continue to lose star employees.

Ask for Constructive Criticism — and Know How to Use It

Should you try to move behind the “big four” topics for more nuanced feedback? Absolutely — just make sure you use clear questions and have a process in place for following up on that feedback.
For instance, if you simply ask, “Why are you leaving?” and someone tells you she’s leaving because her boss is a jerk, it’s hard to act upon the information. Do you hold a meeting with her boss and report that information back? If you do that, there’s a good chance that you’ll ruin the future reference for the employee. Do you notify the manager’s manager that there may be a problem? Providing individual feedback is trickier than generating a report with overall performance numbers — and opens potential for personal bias.
If you want more feedback, don’t make your exiting employees feel like they’re just naming names or complaining. Instead, try asking for constructive criticism through questions like these:
  • What, if any, changes would have made to your time with us?
  • How do you feel you advanced in your career while working here? What held you back?
  • Would you ever be interested in returning to work here? Why or why not?
  • During the hiring process, what could we have done differently?
These questions are more HR-oriented and within your power to fix. However, it’s important that you do try to fix them — don’t bother asking these questions if you’re not going to take the answers into consideration. Remember, your exiting employees likely have friends that still work for your company and they’ll hear about whether changes are being made.

Take Feedback With a Grain of Salt

Last but not least, don’t take every interviewer’s feedback as gospel truth. “My manager is a big jerk” coupled with an employee’s record of coming in late and clocking out early most likely means that the manager was simply managing and the two didn’t see eye to eye.
An exit interview can provide valuable information, but it’s not a source of unbiased information. Instead of just looking at interviews on a case-by-case basis, look for trends and consistent feedback — and then use the collective information to improve your company. If you do this, you’ll be able to build a better culture and take care of problems proactively.

DIGITAL HR: THE EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE, BEYOND THE CLOUD

“Digital technologies are transforming every aspect of HR, this requires HR to engage employees using the same techniques that their company has used to engages their customers. With this shift a fundamentally different HR strategy is required. It stands to reason that no element of work is immune to digital disruption.”
Does this sound familiar? Driven by the success that companies have experienced in the last decade reaching their target audience through marketing and other digital techniques, we have by default established a new expectation in our employee experience as well.   HR now must know their employees as well as marketers know their customers.  This is combined with new calls for expertise from the HR function which extend far beyond the classic “system of record”.  
Without in-depth knowledge, HR people can’t fully engage or hire the talent required to ensure their organizations execute.  This coupled with the coming demographic tsunami of skill gaps makes the ability to differentiate in a noisy world a critical part of the HR job function.    Leadership development, culture, employee retention and engagement are at the top of the list of every CEO.  A recent PWC survey shows that 50% of CEOs plan changes to how they develop their leadership pipeline[1].  This shift is driven by the change in the abilities of the target audience from the digital experience they are comfortable with.  A vastly different set of expectations will be placed on this new leader to navigate a world of diverse laws and attitudes, to be analytical in their decision making, while ensuring their ability to distil a strategy to business outcomes and stay on message.  HR is expected to be a driving partner in these changes.
A widely accepted metric in the consumer market is that it costs 5 times as much to acquire a customer as it does to keep one.[2] By extrapolation, one can assume that these same investments in digital tools and customer satisfaction processes will pay big dividends to the organization when it comes to the employee experience.   The thinking is if we segment our target audience well through analytics, ensure the content is crisp and consumable, develop an agile HR mindset and adopt leading edge technology we can achieve our goals to reinvent HR.

Big Investment in Technology (But To What End?)

Investment in this technology has accelerated to an estimated $40 billion in 2015 alone.[3]  This reflects the deep interest and pressure on the CHRO and team to perform differently with the new expectations that are in front of them.  From full suites to purpose-built applications and a myriad of other options, there is no shortage of solutions and providers to help you transition from a “system of record” to a “system of engagement”.[4]  The promise and potential are tremendous and many are making the digitization leap in ways that truly add to the bottom line.
But, not so fast. What if it’s the wrong technology? What if it doesn’t work? Does it really meet an immediate need?  What is real and what is vaporware?  Is digital HR really a “thing” or is it just the latest technical term dreamed up by technology providers trying to sell their own brand of transformation?

What Is Right for Your Business?

Source: Gartner, Inc.
The Gartner group has a useful way of looking at the technology landscape for a variety of emerging trends called the hype cycle.  The idea here is to sift through the maturity and scope of technologies and capture the benefits of a particular choice at the right time for your business plans.
Where to start?  I suggest you examine your own business initiatives and strategies.  How can you enable what your CEO and board are driving toward?  Where should that technology investment go?
If you are in hyper growth mode, then talent visibility (across BU, Region, Manager, etc.) and talent acquisition are a critical part of your strategy.  This would be exclusionary to many of your other initiatives because you have to be able to manage and monitor this to execute. If you find yourself in an M&A environment, then the ability to organize, segment, identify and quickly onboard are the critical components of what drives your HR life the next few years.  If you find yourself in the classic “hunker down” scenario then you are looking for the foundational HRMS functions of payroll, compliance, travel and expense as cost takeout measures.

Your Employee Is Your Customer

Regardless of emphasis, be aware that attracting and retaining employees will be at the top of your list for years to come. You will be required to differentiate yourself just as we differentiate to our customers.  Global fertility replacement rates in most developed countries continue to fall placing pressure on the talent pipeline you have to manage.[5]  Your employee has rapidly transformed to becoming your customer as we change from a buyer’s talent market to a sellers’ market.  You will need to begin to look for a broad range of Digital HR tools which include:
1)  Using Analytics and Data
  • To provide analysis and some level of prediction for risk of loss and best-fit selection techniques
  • To perform strategic workforce planning for projecting need both internally and externally
  • To listen to the “voice of the employee/customer” through social monitoring tools and brand awareness
2)  Using Development
  • To demonstrate to your employee/customer the sense of community and investment you have in their satisfaction
  • To enable your employee/customer to get what they demand at the 5 critical moments of learning need[6]
  • To create visibility for your employee/customer of what the potential paths to growth are
3)  Using New Multi-Mode Delivery Techniques
  • For short, specific moments of communication that are timely, relevant and useful
  • To ensure that the brand and organizational value statements are embedded in every interaction as a potential or current employee/customer
  • To create the collaborative environment that the modern employee/customer demands
The customer experience drives the expectation of the employee experience, regardless of the classic GenY / GenX arguments.  This means choice of employer and clear articulation of values.  Your strategy for Digital HR will be driven by those expectations.  They truly are overwhelmed as employees.[7]  The average attention span of your employee/customer has shrunk to less than 9 seconds in some cases.  How do we garner some of that “attention share”?[8]
We need to think like digital marketers. Choosing which digital techniques we employ are varied but we know we need to serve our employee/customer who in return will generate value to our business.  This means that we need to know who they are; highly autonomous, highly connected and highly efficient.  We need to serve them in the way that they have come to expect, in any channel, at any time.  As a result, if they stay longer, refer others more and are engaged in what they do – we all win.

[1] PWC Global CEO Global Survey, 2016
[2] Shankman / HONIG 2014, Diginomica 2015
[3] Bersin by Deloitte’s HCM Market Trends, 2015
[4] Josh Bersin, Forbes, 2014 – Top Ten Disruptions In HR
[5] CIA Global Factbook,  2015
[6] Learning Solutions Magazine – Bob Mosher & Conrad Gottfredson, 2012
[7] Forbes, Josh Bersin, Why Companies Fail To Engage Today’s Workforce: The Overwhelmed Employee, 2014
[8] Microsoft, How Does Digital Affect Canadian Attention Spans?,  2015 

Q&A WITH STEVE BOESE: HOW MOBILE CONSUMERS ARE DRIVING THE FUTURE OF HR TECHNOLOGY

We do so much of our jobs on mobile devices, is it possible that one day soon we’ll complete our job training, fill out expense forms or even land a new position using our phones or tablets alone? Absolutely, says Steve Boese, cochairman of the HR Technology Conference. Similar forces that have morphed consumer-oriented technology into critical business tools are driving employee expectations that their HR technology be equally simple and efficient.

What are some exciting ways companies are using HR tech on mobile devices?

Some companies have replaced the traditional time clock — where people once swiped a badge or punched a time clock. Now there are solutions that mount tablets to the retail store or factory, and instead of putting in a code or swiping an ID, they can hold up their own picture, scan a QR code, or stand in front of the tablet and the tablet recognizes their face and lets them clock in or clock out that way. 

How else is HR tech evolving in the mobile era?

I see three changes. One, we’re going to see more mobile-first development or mobile-only applications for HR. In our consumer lives, we’re already completely interacting with applications like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and Yelp via mobile devices. That’s not the case yet with HR technology. Eventually we’re going to see a mobile-only recruiting application to post jobs and apply for jobs only — and perhaps we’ll see the same for learning and time and attendance.
Two, we’re going to see a more simplified employee experience on mobile and tablet devices. Applications will be slimmer and more targeted. Today’s self-service HR applications often support three dozen transactions, but the reality is that three or four of them are the most important. We’ll see applications that only do one or two things, and they will cover 90 percent of the use cases.
Lastly, we will see more HR applications that start out as consumer-based. File-sharing services such as Dropbox, Box or Evernote were originally designed to appeal to individuals and grew inside the enterprise because employees were already using them in their personal lives. We’ll see more HR-type applications that small project teams are able to demo on their own rather than wait for the centralized IT department to roll them out.

Let’s talk more about the recruiting process.

People are searching for jobs on mobile, and companies are slowly starting to take up mobile recruiting with only 20 percent of Fortune 500 companies having a mobile-optimized career site. In the next five years, that number will triple because the market demands it. I was talking to someone at a global Fortune 500 company that has a big presence in China. She told me that 80 percent of the company’s information about jobs and candidates in China comes via mobile. The only way to support those candidates is to provide them with mobile application.

How is the shift from off-the-shelf HR technology to subscription-based, cloud services shaking up HR tech?

Companies that sell software-as-a-service (SaaS) have disrupted incumbent and legacy vendors like SAP and Oracle. With a monthly subscription model, companies don’t have a sunk investment cost of up to $20 million that they’re trying to recover. Also, software-as-a-service solutions aren’t highly customized, so you’re able to pivot much more quickly to another solution because you’re not bogged down to customized code. If you’re using Cornerstone, Taleo or Workday for three years on a service contract, it’s still not easy to switch to something else, but it’s easier to switch than it used to be. Still, SaaS providers have made it easier to be disrupted themselves. Because the replacement costs have come down, the challenge is on this new set of vendors to continue to innovate and serve their customers well.

WHY TALENT TOPS EXPERIENCE IN THE RECRUITING GAME

Recruiters place too much value on job experience in their hiring process. Talent is the No. 1 trait hiring managers should be looking in top-tier candidates, suggests Jay Forte on Human Capitalist.
Recruiters are wrong to think that experience creates talent, says Forte. Experience can uncover talent, but experience isn’t synonymous with talent. Instead, it is one of three factors that define talent; the other two are interest and ability.
“What makes an employee talented is when his abilities align with the abilities needed to consistently and successfully complete the activities required by his job,” writes Forte. “Couple this with profound interest or passion for his job, and he has the potential to soar.”

Experience Doesn’t Cut it

People jump from one job to another primarily because they’re not interested in their current job or don’t feel they have the skills necessary to do it well. Forte cites his own recent encounter with a restaurant waitress who would not accommodate his food allergies. 
“She told me that I had to take the food the way the restaurant prepares it or I could leave,” writes Forte. “I then asked her what she thought that response would do for my loyalty as a customer. She quickly said she didn’t care.” The waitress, who has worked at the restaurant for 25 years, had experience but not the desire to do her job. 
To filter candidates for talent, Forte suggests that companies use behavioral and talent reviews.

Women’s Soccer Starts 2016 on the Right Foot

The Bryant & Stratton College women’s soccer team took a win and a hard-fought draw from two NCAA DIII opponents this past weekend. Senior Kai Jacobs scored a pair of goals in BSC’s 2-0 win over Cazenovia College while senior goalkeeper Megan Hagadorn made 13 saves the following day against SUNY Poly.

HR HAS THE POWER TO CHANGE ITS BAD REPUTATION

For years, human resources has been the department that everyone loves to criticize. More than 20 years ago, Tom Stewart, a Fortune editor at the time, suggested that instead of improving HR, the department should be abolished, eliminated, nuked. Unfortunately, public opinion hasn’t changed all that much since.
The complaints detailed in these and numerous other articles often focus on bureaucracy and inefficiency; on processes that do not add real value, such as those dreaded performance appraisals; and HR’s burdening of line managers with rules and paperwork that hinder leaders’ ability to do their jobs effectively.
But in the summer of 2019, a more fundamentally serious—but solvable—complaint surfaced in The Atlantic. The charge: that HR was failing at one of its core missions—to reduce the incidence of sexual harassment in the workplace. HR, the critique went, saw its role as “protecting the company” and was doing so by limiting legal liability and making complaints—and complainants—disappear.
What should HR do in the face of such valid criticism?

Rethinking HR’s Primary Function

HR needs a broader and more assertive perspective on its fundamental role—to ensure the development and maintenance of workplaces that serve to effectively attract, retain and motivate employees. Such workplaces would obviously need to be free of bullying and abuse of any kind, including harassment based on sex, race or anything else They would also need to be, to the extent possible, free from stress and conducive to increasing employee well-being.
To accomplish this, HR needs to be willing, regardless of the political climate inside the organization, to attack the fundamental causes of corporate misbehavior and punish the wrong-doers. By doing so, HR will reduce the toll—financial, legal, emotional, moral—exacted by these actions. More importantly, by taking the lead in creating a healthy culture, HR will have fixed the root causes of bullying and harassment that have persisted for far too long.

The Problem: Nothing’s Changed

In 2007, my colleague and occasional coauthor Bob Sutton published The No Asshole Rule. That book, and research by Georgetown professor Christine Porath, detailed the enormous cost—to people, from stress and ill health, and to companies, from turnover and reduced productivity—that occurred in abusive workplaces where bosses belittled, harassed and screamed at subordinates. In 2017, Sutton published a follow-up, The Asshole Survival Guide, because, sadly, very little had changed in 10 years, despite all of the literature detailing the negative outcomes.
Meanwhile, in spite of decades of training, sexual harassment remains a pervasive workplace issue. A 2016 EEOC report found that some 60% of women reported having experienced one or more specific sexually based behaviors. Other important findings: Seventy percent of individuals experiencing harassment never talk to a supervisor, manager or other representative about it, and about 90% never file a formal complaint. And for good reason: Sexual harassment reporting is often followed by organizational indifference, as well as hostility and reprisals against the victim, according to the report.

HR Is Often Complicit

Where is HR in all of this? In her article for The Atlantic, Caitlin Flanagan argued that HR is actually quite successful at dealing with sexual harassment—by creating templates of compliance designed to defend companies against lawsuits.
Because HR is often (correctly) seen as taking the company’s side, few people trust it to represent their interests, be that the issue sexual harassment or a toxic workplace environment. Taking the company’s side may preserve an HR manager’s job for the time being, but it will not contribute to creating workplaces that ultimately breed success.
As one reader commented: By covering up serious issues, punishing the people who complained and supporting senior management and senior managers, regardless of their behavior, HR isn’t actually serving the companies’ interests at all.  By not addressing the root cause of problems, the problems will just recur, and eventually the consequences will become even more serious.

Can HR Be Different?

The answer to that question is: It has to be. The movement is not going to disappear. And many younger workers are less tolerant of bad bosses and workplace stress than their seniors. 
Bad behavior tolerated in a workplace is likely to lead to more, or even worse, bad behavior. People learn by observing what others do and the consequences, or lack thereof, of that behavior. Simply put, workplaces are not going to get better on their own.
Second, we know the toll—in physical and mental health, in turnover, and in productivity—that toxic workplaces exact. Gender and race discrimination, through their creation of stress, affect the health of people exposed to it.
Third, we know that at the state, and eventually, at the federal level, laws against harassment and bullying will only be strengthened to enforce employees’ rights to a workplace free of intimidation.
Therefore, the best thing HR can do to help their employers is not to continue to help those employers dodge liability or responsibility. The most productive, economically beneficial and ultimately value-creating thing that HR can do is to push for the (appropriate) sanctioning of people who harass others. Set hiring and promotion standards that do not excuse bad behavior by pointing to other contributions. Measure the extent of bullying and other forms of abuse through anonymous surveys, such as those detailed in the EEOC report, and bring those measures to the attention of senior management and the board of directors.
And yes, in the end, be willing to leave organizations that are unwilling to take the steps required to create workplaces free of abuse. When HR begins to more forcefully and consistently advocate for healthier, less toxic workplaces, companies will experience increased levels of engagement and greater retention of talent. It will also be good for HR—to no longer be seen as an enabler of work environments that are an anachronism in today’s world.  
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

ONBOARDING: THE CRITICAL FIRST STEP TO EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT

It hasn’t been all that long since the term onboarding appeared on the talent management horizon. After all, the original, traditional “onboarding” concept was pretty matter-of-fact, to be kind: “OK, here’s your cubicle, computer, desk, phone, ID badge and a map to the closest restroom. Good luck!”
For the past several years, as bringing new people into an organization has finally been recognized for its critical connection to engagement, onboarding has taken on a new definition. Simply, onboarding today is the strategic vehicle for fast-tracking new talent into – and through – the organizational labyrinth to a progressed state of engagement and, as a result, productivity.
In other words, if you do it right, onboarding means that a new employee can hit the ground running and start out on a very positive note.
From pre-screening through hiring and onboarding, welcoming a new employee to the team can be the start of a rewarding relationship. Or, it can be the beginning of a missed opportunity. For employers who have workforces in the 500-600 range, missed opportunities translate to expensive oversights.
Consider the fact that even with that new focus on onboarding, studies show that one third of all external hires are no longer with an organization after two years. That’s an especially unfortunate outcome for smaller businesses that need to be as focused as possible on business strategies – not worried about the expensive merry-go-round of bringing on new hires

Saving Time, Increasing Productivity and Improving Retention

There are solid strategies for delivering the ultimate new candidate experience from start to finish. There also are new approaches to creating a successful onboarding program based on the strategic objectives of any organization. Using those proven strategies, combined with today’s learning and talent management software systems, you can develop a clearer picture of what needs to be done to compete for and retain talent – today and in the future. It also provides the foundation needed to help new hires succeed in their personal career development and drive optimal business results.
Using technology to help in developing and executing a successful onboarding process can:
  • Bring more structure and consistency to an otherwise decentralized process
  • Enable blended learning opportunities, combining classroom training with e-learning and social learning
  • Facilitate targeted role-specific skills training for faster time-to-productivity
  • Allow new employees to connect with their new team, peers and perhaps even a mentor via an internal social network
In addition, leveraging a system will automate the process, saving valuable time in areas such as auto-registering new hires and notifying and reminding new hires of required steps.

Small Investment Delivers a Big Return

You may have noticed that employee engagement is receiving a lot of attention in mainstream and trade media. After all, an engaged workforce is a productive, happy workforce. Well, it should come as no surprise that onboarding is the catalyst, the place where engagement really begins when someone joins your company. The good news is that effective onboarding requires a relatively small investment to deliver a big return.
Below are some tips on developing an effective onboarding strategy:
  • Be sure to have a clear understanding of what competencies are required for success, and how those competencies link to business outcomes. 
  • Provide structured development support in the first few weeks.
  • Remember to support both managers and new hires throughout the process.
  • Establish a clear roadmap for success early in the onboarding process.
  • Do your best to have an understanding of what drives and motivates any new hire. Work out how you are going to increase his/her level of engagement.
In the end, successful onboarding requires micro-engagement based on what matters to the individual, more than anything. Also, the most successful companies don’t end their onboarding program after a week or two. To work, onboarding should span well into the early stages of employee development. In some leading companies, in fact, onboarding is a two-year process – a strong indicator of its importance.
Clearly, onboarding today must be a much deeper, more meaningful effort than just providing an easy route through new hire paperwork. If it doesn’t serve as a prime driver of employee engagement – getting the new hire jazzed up and productive from the get-go – then it’s time to rethink your process and move to onboarding that works.
For more onboarding best practices, check out the recording of the Cornerstone OnDemand webinar, \”Onboarding Success: Tools to Engineer Experience for Optimal Business Outcomes.\” 
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

Instructor Blog: Overcoming Writer’s Block in the Classroom

You’ve researched, read the directions, set yourself up with a coffee in a nice, quiet place. Time to create a paper. Nothing happens.
Your open Word document stares at you, smirking.  Now what? How do you beat writer’s block? Below are some strategies for doing just that.
Multitasking is the Enemy
Many people think they work better listening to music, and the temptation to check in on social media or respond to texts can be irresistible. Th is article has great insights about how inefficient multi-tasking is and how to be more focused: http://blog.strideapp.com/2014/05/how-to-have-laser-focus-without-caffeine/
Smarthinking
Campus-based students have learning centers, and online students have access to the Smarthinking tutorial. This is an excellent way to get extra guidance. This does take time, so it’s great motivation to begin assignments early.
Mix it Up
If you’re stuck on the introduction, skip it. Start with just a thesis then work on your main points. It may be easier to write the introduction last.  As an English instructor, I recommend beginning with sources, in-text citation and the reference page. This ensures that you do not forget, and can also help you see your support more clearly.
Run!
Maybe that’s not your thing. But when you get stuck, step away from the computer and do something else.
Exercise is great for the brain. 
Doing another activity allows your mind to work on what you’re stuck on while engaged in something else. Go for a walk, do some laundry, and try to work through what you are stuck on.
Talk to a Friend
If possible, explain to a friend the assignment and what you are stuck on. Talk through what the assignment needs to accomplish (argue, explain, etc). This may help you identify what you are struggling with. Perhaps your research is not strong enough, or perhaps you need a better grasp of a course concept.
Learn from your Mistakes
If it’s 11:30 on Saturday night, it will be too late to create a quality paper. Remember all of the end of session reflections when you said you would start projects earlier? How can you ensure that this happens?  If Saturday is a difficult day to get assignments done, aim to complete an assignment on Friday. This allows an extra cushion for final polishing and checking your work against the rubric. Beginning an assignment early in the week allows more time for asking instructor questions.
Take it to the Workplace!
These strategies will not only help you finish assignments, they are great strategies for the workplace. Learning how to solve problems and seek guidance will help you succeed in any career.

QUIT THE JUGGLING ACT: WHY MULTITASKING, FOR MOST OF US, IS A MYTH

Have you interviewed promising job candidates who talk up their skills as master multi-taskers? You might want to take a closer look at their true abilities to get things done — or to simply pay attention. In a recently released research paper from the University of Utah, psychologists David Strayer and David Sanbonmatsu throw cold water on the notion that multitasking is for overachievers.
The exhaustively reported study of over 300 college undergraduates (\”Who Multi-Tasks and Why? Multi-Tasking Ability, Perceived Multi-Tasking Ability, Impulsivity, and Sensation Seeking\”) asserts that those who identify as strong multitaskers surprisingly tend to be impulsive, sensation-seeking and overconfident — and that they generally mutitask primarily as a means to win praise from colleagues — not to deliver results and meet higher-level goals. 

Attempting More, Doing Less

Psych 101 and brain research factor into the multitasking myth. \”There\’s a small number of people who are decent multitaskers,” explains Arthur Markman, a psychology professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “But at best, it\’s maybe 10 percent of the population, so chances are, you\’re not one of them.\” Emotions play a role as well: Because workers believe they are getting more done by attempting more tasks, they receive an emotional boost. They may also engage, explain Strayer and Canbonmatsu, because, just grow bored of focusing on one thing at a time.
“Workers commonly listen to music or news while performing a boring job even though it may be distracting and detrimental to their performance,” the authors explain. “A personality trait that may be associated with multitasking because of the stimulation that multiple tasks afford is sensation seeking.” So while the work may suffer, multitaskers get a jolt from the feeling it provides — and the juggling act quickly becomes a bad habit. 

Breaking the Habit

Think your own habits might suggest the same? One way to keep yourself focused, writes Margaret Heffernan (author of Willful Blindness), is to place more value on production quality over time spent. “Make sure you\’re measured on output, not hours,” Heffernan explains on Inc.com. “If you are rewarded for the quality of the work you generate, then you can reasonably argue that how you get that work done is your business.” Another way to escape multitask insanity is to lead by example. If senior level executives make a point of leaving their phones at their desks during meetings or voice mono-task successes, employees will feel less expected to juggle so many assignments.
\”The people who are most likely to multitask harbor the illusion they are better than average at it,\” says Strayer, \”when in fact they are no better than average and often worse.\”
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCzOJDJZHoBttdHAjJsnN9w?sub_confirmation=1

A Taste of Place: 6 Traditional Oaxacan Recipes

The Oaxaca region is rich in culture, diverse topography, and fertile agricultural land. Teotitlán del Valle is a small weaving village outside of Oaxaca City, world famous for its artisanal rugs and natural wool products. Its weavers are internationally recognized masters. Their carpets, or tapetes, are hand-loomed from naturally dyed wool using local materials and methods that have been developed over hundreds of years or longer.
The town also boasts numerous artisans who specialize in elaborate candle-making. Their sculptural, museum-quality candles and wax flowers are found throughout the churches of the valleys.
The Teotitlán region is also renowned for its unique, flavorful cuisine. Many of the traditional dishes of the region require fresh ingredients that have been used throughout Oaxaca since pre-Hispanic times.
A group of Zapotec women who belong to a Women’s Weaving Cooperative, Vida Nueva in Teotitlan, generously shared with students of the UVM Semester in Oaxaca* the following six recipes, from mouth-watering Tamale Frijoles to the delectable Salsa Verde.

6 Oaxacan Recipes you can Try at Home

Tamale Chepil25 servings

Ingredients:
  • 8 corn husks
  • 3 c. water
  • 2 lbs. Masa or 2 lbs. dried maize (masa mix)
  • ½ lb. Asiento (lard)
  • ¼ c. fresh or dried chepil (herb)
  • 1 ½ t. salt or to taste
Directions:
  1. Cover corn husks in water and soak for 15-30 minutes.
  2. Separate husks into individual leaves and rinse using fresh water. Put corn husks aside.
  3. Then stir asiento into the masa. Slowly add water into mixture until the consistency looks like cottage cheese (it is possible that not all water will be used.)
  4. Add chepil and using your hands scrape the wall of the bowl with a scooping motion and press down in the center. Spread mixture into bottom half of corn husk.
  5. Fold right side of the husk in over the mixture and then the left side in on top of the right. Then fold the top down.
  6. Place finished tamales fold side down on a steamer for 40 minutes.

Mole Rojo

Ingredients:
  • 1.5 cups prepared black mole paste
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 4 t lard
  • 3 roasted tomatoes
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 1 t cumin
  • 4 avocado leaves
  • 8 mulato chiles
  • 8 pasilla mexicano chiles
  • 2 cinnamon sticks
  • 4 t sesame seeds
Directions:
  1. Clean the dried chilies with a damp cloth. Open the chilies by making a lengthwise slit down one side of each. Take out the seeds, veins and stems.
  2. Heat 3 t of the lard in a saucepan, and then lightly fry the chilies in it.
  3. In another pan, heat the remaining lard and sauté the raisins in it until they puff up and brown a bit. Add sesame seeds and lightly brown.
  4. Roast until browned the tomatoes, onion and garlic on a cast iron frying pan without fat.
  5. Place the spices, tomato mixture, chicken broth, mole paste, chiles, and avocado leaves into the blender. Blend until smooth. Heat entire mixture in large saucepan over low/medium heat until thickened.
  6. Place in bowl. Season with salt to taste. Serve on cooked rice.

Tamale Frijoles25 servings

Ingredients:
  • 50 avocado leaves
  • 3 c. pureed black beans
  • 8 corn husks
  • 2 t. salt or to taste
  • 2 lbs. masa (masa mix)
  • 3 c. water
  • Plastic bag
Directions:
Soak corn husks in water for 15-30 minutes.
  1. Separate husks into individual leaves and rinse using fresh water. Then slowly add water into masa until it forms a moist dough.
  2. Form golf ball size balls of masa dough.
  3. Prepare the tortilla press by cutting the plastic bag at the zipper seam.
  4. Place the seam side of the plastic toward the hinge of the tortilla press.
  5. Place one ball of dough in between the plastic.
  6. Press down and then flip plastic with the tortilla and press again. Slowly peel off plastic.
  7. With tortilla resting in hand, place about 1 ½ tablespoons of bean puree and an avocado leaf inside the tortilla. Fold in sides to cover the puree.
  8. Flip the now formed tortilla. Using the bean puree as a side, put another avocado leaf on the backside. Place filled tortilla into corn husks.
  9. Proceed to fold sides over filling and the top down.
  10. Place fold side down on a steamer for 40 minutes.

FrijolesProduces around 3 Cups

Ingredients:
  • 2 ½ cups black beans
  • 1 cup reserved bean liquid
  • ½ small yellow onion diced
  • 4 arbol chilies
  • 3 avocado leaves
  • 1 garlic clove crushed
Directions
  1. Dice yellow onion and garlic clove.
  2. Blend all ingredients together in blender.
  3. Add bean liquid as necessary to achieve cake batter consistency.
  4. Serve as a side dish or use for the inside of tamales.

Salsa Verde (for the Sopa de Elote)

Ingredients:
  • 9 fresh green chiles de arbol (can substitute for serranos)
  • 5-6 garlic cloves
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons water
Directions:
Dry roast the chilies until aromatic; avoid scorching the skin. Pour boiling water over chilies and allow them to soak for 5 minutes. Remove any scorched parts of the skin, stems, and seeds (optional: keep seeds for extra heat). Put chilies, garlic, and salt in a blender, adding water to facilitate blending. Serve in a small dish.

Quesadillas con Flor de Calabaza y EpazoteMakes approximately 16 quesadillas

Filling:
  • 16 squash blossom petals, torn into thirds
  • ¾ cup of epazote leaves, torn in halves
  • ¼ pound of Oaxacan string cheese (quesillo) thinly shredded
Tortillas:
  • Instant- Follow instructions for 1 pound of dough OR
  • Homemade- Go to your local tortilla factory and buy 1 pound of dough *(see below for further instructions) OR
  • Premade- Purchase 16 5″ tortillas
Heat griddle on med-high. Place uncooked tortilla on griddle and add a few petals of the squash blossom, a pinch of epazote and a handful of quesillo. Fold tortilla into a half-moon shape and let sit on griddle to let cook and melt cheese. Flip quesadilla. Cook approximately 5 minutes on each side, or until slightly brown.
This post was adapted from field journal collections by students of the Food Systems track of the UVM Oaxaca Semester Program.
*The University of Vermont offers a semester study abroad program in Oaxaca, a city located in the state of the same name about 300 miles south of Mexico City. The program offers three academic tracks: Arts & Sciences, Food Systems, and Global Health

About ResearchReady

ResearchReady teaches and assesses students’ critical thinking and research skills through its standards-aligned content. ResearchReady provides the tools to support students as they apply these skills through their research process.
Together these tools can prepare students for 21st-century critical thinking and research.

How to Run Effective Meetings

There are times when that “Meeting Monday” feeling lasts all week. Meetings can be time consuming and expensive, especially when you factor in salaries for the number of people around the table. Learning how to run meetings effectively is an import skill that is key to leadership development.
Using these 10 best practices, you’ll manage your meetings better, and bring people and ideas together in meaningful ways that meet deadlines and further your goals.
1. Understand your goals. This should be established before you set the agenda. Do you want participants to come to a decision? To generate ideas? Be clear about your overall goals before you set the agenda. Make sure the agenda items include only the most important and urgent items that need to be addressed.
2. Limit the agenda to 3-5 actionable items that match the mission or a goal shared by all members around the table. If the agenda item only matters to a subset of the group, save that conversation for a separate, specific meeting.
3. Share your objective-based agenda at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting to allow people to add necessary items, or think about how items fall within their frame of interests/values. Giving members advanced-notice enables more introverted people to share their ideas in ways that they may better be heard by the group. This will also prevent the same voices from dominating the conversation.
4. Check in with people at the start of the meeting. Use an open question to get to know people better and build trust. To build accountability and continuity over time, the question could relate to the goals established in the previous meeting. For regularly scheduled meetings, rotate the leader of the opening question to take attendees’ engagement to the next level.
5. Manage People and Time. If there are new faces at the table or if anyone is calling in via teleconference, be sure that everyone is familiar with the names and roles of people in the meeting. If certain voices are chiming in louder than others, be sure to ask for other opinions.
6. Set a time limit and focus on specific items that are urgent and important. Other “conversation” items can be addressed via email, phone, shared online documents, or in passing at the coffee machine. Effective meetings are as short as possible, while still engaging the attendants in meaningful ways and establishing clear, action-based outcomes.
7. Document the meeting clearly and effectively. Assign someone to take notes and email to the group or post to a shared content site so members can reflect back on the notes. This will also help you to track goals and understand how well you are achieving them over time.
8. Use action words and assign people with goals and deadlines. After an effective meeting people leave the room with a clear idea of their next steps and how their actions will support the overall project. These “next steps” should be noted in the meeting minutes in a clear and obvious way, with deadlines and responsibility delegated to specific people and/or particular teams.
9. Reflect actions/tasks back to overarching goals. Set action items that relate each person’s work to a goal. Even the most menial seeming tasks are critical to how well a project comes together.
10. Ask for Feedback. Employees will be more engaged with the work if they feel personally connected to the mission and the process. End the meeting by asking for feedback on two important metrics:
  • “How satisfied are you with what we accomplished during this meeting?” (scale 1-10)
  • “How satisfied are you with the way we accomplished these items?” (scale 1-10)
Follow these steps and you’ll enhance your skills as a leader. Being consistent and following these simple steps will increase the work you will be able to achieve during meetings and improve employee engagement in the process.

Want a Career that Helps People? Get a Criminal Justice Degree

There is no higher calling than helping others in need. A Criminal Justice Studies degree is one avenue towards becoming a victims’ advocate, and working as part of a societal solution. Students who enroll in the Criminal Justice Studies program at Bryant & Stratton College receive the education, preparation, and training required to work in a variety of career fields dedicated to protecting the rights of the innocent, as well as rehabilitating criminals who are often victims of their circumstances.
A Criminal Justice Studies degree, and related diplomas or certifications, will enhance your resume, and show prospective employers that you are dedicated to the field of victims’ advocacy. Here are examples of careers available to those with a degree in criminal justice. All median salary information, as well as projected job growth statistics through 2020, is provided by O*NET Online
Social and Human Services Assistant Jobs opportunities in social and human services often involve working with those who have been directly affected by the criminal justice system. You might work with convicted criminals and/or their family members through multiple support venues. Your work may involve child protective services, or connecting your clients with substance abuse programs, as well as job training and counseling services. Social and human services assistants also work inside the court systems as a child or court advocate. Projected job growth is higher than average.
Police Patrol Officers The primary duty of a police patrol officer is to protect the rights and safety of the general public. Police officers are usually the first responders to the scene, whether it pertains to a criminal act, an accident, or a situation involving human safety. At the scene, a police officer’s words and actions can restore the peace, create order out of chaos, and ensure medical aid and assistance is offered to those in need. They work closely with social and human services assistants to protect children and family members before, during, and after an arrest of a parent, spouse, or guardian has been made.
Correctional Officers and Jailers It is the responsibility of correctional officers and jailers to protect the rights of inmates and those who are being held on criminal charges. They must keep prison cells and common areas in good working order to ensure inmates are given access to secure housing, food, shelter, and exercise. They are also responsible for protecting the safety of civilian visitors and guests who enter the jail or prison facilities.
If you are interested in a rewarding career, dedicated to serving others, contact the Admissions Office at Bryant & Stratton College.

Questions to Ask in an Interview

Learn tips on the topics you should focus on when preparing questions that you will ask of a prospective employer during your next interview.
So, you have a job interview. You show up early in a well-pressed suit. You greet your interviewer with a firm handshake and friendly smile. You rattle off articulate and genuine answers to questions like “what are your top 3 strengths?”, “tell us about a time you failed and what you learned,” and highlight all your employability skills. You think you are in the clear and then the interviewer hits you with “do you have any questions for me?” And, you draw a blank.
Forgetting to spend some time preparing questions to ask during an interview is a common misstep job seekers at all levels make. It can seem inconsequential to say “I don’t have any questions,” but you\’re not only communicating a passive lack of interest to your prospective employer you are also missing a final opportunity to showcase why you are a good fit for the company.
Before your next interview, spend some time thinking of four or five questions to ask. If it’s your first interview, be sure to stay away from questions about salary, benefits or vacation (these are better discussed during a second interview or after an offer has been made) and opt for questions that highlight your knowledge about the company, passion, experience or cultural fit. Below are several types of interview questions that could impress a potential employer.
Show ‘em what you know
Doing some research on a company before you interview (as well as before you apply) is a great way to stand out. You can ask about a recent company announcement or product launch. Asking about competitors, company responses to new trends in the industry or company culture are also good options. By asking these types of career management questions you are able to learn more about the company and highlight how much you already know.
What about you?
Another option is to find out more about your interviewer. Asking the person interviewing you about why they joined the company or why they stayed will tell you about employee morale. Questions about their personal goals for the future and plans for the team (if they are the direct supervisor for the position) can also help you learn more about how the position you’re interviewing for may grow.
If I were hired
Along the same lines, questions that demonstrate you are serious about the job will help communicate your high level of interest. Asking questions like “What do you want the person in this position to accomplish in the first 30 days?” will show a prospective employer that you are ambitious and goal-oriented. Or, try asking about the qualifications of top performers in the company and use their answers to highlight your own similar characteristics.
Prospective employers want to know the candidates they are considering are interested in the position. By researching the company and asking good questions after an interview you’ll be able to show you will be an invested team member and are worth hiring.
Bryant & Stratton College aims to help students maximize their employability skills for career success through its Employability Series. This set of core competencies is integrated in to the College’s online degree programs, to complement occupation-specific training and help graduates get hired.
Interested in learning more about the online degree programs offered by Bryant & Stratton College? Call 1.888.447.3528 to speak with an admissions representative.
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WHAT SHOULD YOUR PTO POLICY LOOK LIKE?

Vacation, sick time, personal days—it\’s enough to make your head spin when you\’re trying to come up with a perfect paid time off (PTO) policy for your company. While there isn\’t a \”perfect\” solution that all businesses should adopt, there are some guidelines that will help you make the best PTO policy for your business.

What Do Your Competitors Do?

While it\’s important to look at your direct business competitors, what you really want to look at here is competitors for your talent. What businesses are your new hires coming from? When people quit, where are they going? People highly value vacation as one of their benefits. If your \”competitors\” are offering more vacation, or more flexibility, you\’re going to find it difficult to attract the best people.

Incentivized Yearly Vacation

This may seem an odd concept—we\’ll pay you to take time off!—but it\’s increasingly common for startups and tech companies. Why? People are more productive if they take a break once in a while, and investing in down time could prevent burnout, disengagement and turnover.

Separate Sick and Vacation Days or One PTO Bucket?

There are pros and cons to both systems. If you live in a state that has mandatory sick days, then you\’ll definitely want separate buckets. But, otherwise, it\’s up to you. People who don\’t get sick often really enjoy having the ability to use all their days off for fun things, but people who are prone to illness find it frustrating that they can never take a vacation because they\’ve used all PTO up for the flu. I come down firmly on the side of separate buckets, precisely because I want people who are sick to stay home and recover, rather than worrying that this illness will use up all their vacation days.

Unlimited PTO

Some businesses—most notably Netflix—have adopted an unlimited vacation day policy. The theory is, as long as you\’re getting your work done, you can take whatever time you want. In practice, this requires a high caliber of worker and a higher caliber of manager. How can you be sure everyone is getting things done and receiving the time off that they so desperately need? Some studies show that people with unlimited PTO take fewer vacation days than people who are under a strict limit.

Should Vacation Rollover?

Lots of government jobs allow people to accrue vacation with no limits. So, people do. When they quit they receive a huge vacation payout. This means your books are full of unpaid liabilities, which isn\’t good. Additionally, your employees never get the breaks that they need. Instead, limit the amount of time someone can rollover to the next year, and encourage everyone to use their vacation time
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