Workplace 101: A Profiles Global Business Blog

There’s a famous running quote that says, “Somewhere, right now, someone is training while you are not. When you race him, he will win.” What does this have to do with business? A lot. The people on top know that if you want to be successful, you need to be working while others are not. Getting up just thirty minutes earlier in the morning could be the difference in your productivity level for the entire day.

More than likely for an employee, the first few days or weeks on the job are consumed with training, training, and more training. They must learn everything from company policies and procedures to how the computer system works; not to mention all the responsibilities of their job. However, as the months pass the training becomes less and less; eventually becoming non-existent.

Renowned businessman, political figure and philanthropist, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. once said, “I believe the real difference between success and failure in a corporation can be very often traced to the question of how well the organization brings out the great energies and talents of its people.”

For anyone who played team sports in high school or college, you know their importance for building strong leaders with solid work ethics. Even if you didn’t participate in a sport, the similarities between team sports and work life are easy to spot. They teach teamwork, responsibility and personal accountability. With the NBA Finals finished, one player stood out as an obvious example of someone who possesses all of these traits, even though his team didn't quite make it.

For recent college graduates and young professionals, the transition from campus life to the workplace can be intimidating and possibly the biggest change in their life so far. For companies, recruiting top young talent and hiring recent college graduates can be very beneficial! A study from Reagan Consulting analyzed a number of “Successful Young Producers” who are predominantly college educated 20-something-year-olds. The study identified the ideal traits for young successful new-hires. These “Successful Young Producers” are quick to adapt to new concepts and environments, and have high energy, sociability and decisiveness.

The SHRM 64^th Annual Conference and Exposition is approaching fast!

THE SHRM Conference always provides exciting, thought-provoking speakers, and this year is no different. Kicking off the conference on June 24th is former Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice. Malcom Gladwell, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, will follow her on June 25th. On June 26th, Jim Collins, author of four best-selling books, will take the stage. Finally, on June 27th, Tom Brokaw, one of the most well-respected journalists in the world, will close out the conference.

In addition to the many wonderful speakers, the conference has tons of extras, including the Tuesday Night Show, featuring comedian Jerry Seinfeld. There will also be thousands of exhibits on display in the SHRM Exposition Hall from innovative companies from around the world that are customized to the needs of the HR profession. 

Summer has officially started. It’s time to put on your sandals, grab a cooler and hit the beach for a few months, right? Well unlike kids in school, the workplace doesn’t have a summer break. With all the summertime hype and beautiful sunny days, it may be difficult to stay focused at work. But the summer is actually the perfect time to rejuvenate and get motivated. So here are 10 great tips to maximize employee motivation and keep employees happy and productive this summer.   

They say it’s the thought that counts, but employees of Torbay Hospital in England might disagree. The hospital was in the news recently after many of their employees were insulted when they were rewarded for a job well done with, wait for it, a Kit Kat.

Are you working with an exceptional team that has the potential to be even better?  Are your highly experienced and qualified employees not performing to the best of their ability? We want to help you find out why! Profiles International is proud to announce their first ever Comprehensive Team Analysis Package Giveaway. 

You’ve probably heard all about the hack of over six million LinkedIn members’ passwords last Monday and ten thousand Twitter accounts more recently. In case you haven’t, you can check to see if your password was compromised here. Even if your password wasn't one of the millions that were compromised, it's still a good idea to change it.

Work-related stress can be caused by many things; long hours, job insecurity, conflict with other employees, changes in organizational structure, or a heavy workload. It affects millions of workers in all levels of an organization. According to a recent American Psychological Association survey, two out of every five employees report they feel tense or stressed out during the workday. In small amounts stress can be good, even motivating, but it is when stress levels become high that it becomes toxic and can negatively impact productivity.

Succession planning is often misunderstood or undervalued in the workplace. A research poll from SHRM found that only 23 percent of organizations have a formal succession plan and 38 percent have some informal planning in place. These numbers are low compared to just how important succession planning is to an organization’s success. The research also found that larger organizations (with 2,500 employees or more) are much more likely to have succession plans.

Why bother getting fired over Facebook when you can lose your job on Twitter in 140 characters or less? Twitter can streamline your humiliation and cost you your job in record time. Just ask Gene Morphis, former chief financial officer of fashion retailer Francesca's Holdings Corp. He was fired on Monday after he “improperly communicated company information through social media.”

Rumors of layoffs have been going around your office for weeks, and everyone is on edge. Today is the day and at 5 o’clock you will be doing one of two things: getting ready for the next work day or packing up your personal belongings and joining the unemployment line. The end of the day arrives and you dodge the bullet; you will be returning to work the next day. Now what? Are you worried that this is only round one of the layoffs and that future downsizing will cost you your job? Has your morale and motivation level taken a hit due to the stress associated with the layoffs?

Creating a team-building culture starts with individual, engaged employees. Engaged employees are happier at work, get more done, and routinely go above and beyond their job descriptions. They also encourage other employees to be more engaged and productive. Most importantly, these employees are proud to be a part of their companies and are likely to stay long-term. There is no one simple set of actions that will create increased engagement levels. You will need to identify opportunities, simplify solutions, take action, and hold people accountable for following through with the policies you put in place. 

Last week we covered four of seven key factors that ensure your customers are aligned with your organization and loyal! Just because your customers continue to buy from you does not necessarily mean that they REALLY love your organization. Make sure you go beyond simply satisfying customers to protect and grow your strategic accounts.

Sales representatives are the people who represent a company and sell the products or services that the organization offers. The job of a sales rep can vary greatly depending on the organization and types of products and services they sell; however, sales reps are often considered some of the most important employees within an organization. Sales equal money, so without sales an organization would cease to exist. The importance of a company’s sales force cannot be understated in a competitive marketplace.

Building Blocks of Competencies…Competency Development…Integrating Competencies into an Organization…Measuring Competency Mastery…Linking Competency to Business Results…so much to learn, and so little time to learn it!

What does it mean to be brilliant? Brilliance is expressed in many different ways: dazzling, wonderful, talented, gifted, inspiring. But guess what, you don’t have to be Albert Einstein or graduate from an Ivy League university to be brilliant. Just look at Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year, which includes a variety of individuals like Mashable.com’s founder Pete Cashmore, the successful business legend Warren Buffett, NBA star Jeremy Lin, famous entertainer Chelsea Handler and MIT professor Donald Sadoway. These individuals are very different from each other, but are all brilliant in their own way.

What are you thinking about right now? You probably have deadlines to meet, bills to pay, places to be, procedures to follow and projects to complete. Life can be stressful.
Too much stress is damaging, especially in the workplace. Whether we realize it or not, stress affects our health, relationships, day-to-day activities and productivity. According to a workplace poll from Gallup, on-the-job stress is the number one reason for employee dissatisfaction in the U.S. So, it’s important to create the best environment for you and your employees to minimize and manage stress at work.   

There is no greater tragedy in the business world than hiring perfectly competent employees for jobs in which they are destined to fail. When this occurs, their potential is wasted. Hiring solutions measure essential behavior characteristics an employer needs to make the most intelligent hiring and selection decisions.