6 Tips to Getting the Most Out of a Conference SHRM 2017 Edition

6 Tips to Getting the Most Out of a Conference SHRM 2017 Edition This post is sponsored by Perengo â€" A Programmatic Recruitment Platform. Be sure to connect with their Director of Sales at the SHRM 2017 Annual Conference (June 18-20). Learn how programmatic job ads can produce results for your organization. Getting the most out of a conference requires just the right balance of planning and organization. With today’s conferences boasting jam-packed speaker lineups and whirlwind networking schedules, it’s best not to leave success up to chance. The upcoming SHRM 2017 conference offers plenty of opportunities to make valuable connections, gain new leads or partnerships, and learn about the top HR trends. Our first post discussed the ways you can rock your conference preparation â€" but what happens on the big day and the week after? Let’s look at 6 helpful tips for conquering the conference and follow-up. 1. Review goals and prep your team It’s easy to get lost in the chaos of a conference and forget why you’re there in the first place: to achieve the goals you have set for your company. If you’re traveling to the conference with a team, you already have strength in numbers. Gather one last time in the days leading up to the conference to review strategies and delegate tasks based on everyone’s unique abilities. A well-prepped team will also be more adept at managing inevitable distractions. It may be worthwhile to keep the 80/20 rule in mind, which states that approximately 80% of your results come from just 20% of your efforts. Be sure to direct those efforts wisely! 2. Get in the networking mindset Many seasoned conference attendees would agree: the most important benefit of attending a major industry event is the unparalleled networking. Not a networking pro? Don’t sweat it â€" you’re not alone. If schmoozing is not appealing, try to frame it in a way that works for you. Listen more and talk less; remain genuinely interested in the wants and needs of anyone you come in contact with. You might be surprised about where curiosity takes you. 3. Stay organized and take notes You will likely amass quite the collection of business cards over the course of several days. While it’s tempting to assume you’ll remember each and every interaction, you are better off coming up with a method of on-the-go organization. Jot down key information about each contact as soon as possible after your meeting. Include what you discussed, whether or not there is potential for collaboration, and maybe even a suggestion for how to follow-up. Active note taking throughout the event will cut your post-conference work in half. 4. Make yourself visible online The digital sphere during a conference is buzzing with conversation. Be sure to tag your social media posts with the designated conference hashtag like #SHRM 2017 and offer your own perspective online. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are great tools for gaining visibility in front of an interested and engaged audience. Being active online also puts you in an approachable position for potential customers. 5. Take care of yourself A multi-day conference is like a marathon, not a sprint. Avoid burning out on the first day by taking good care of yourself. Pause for breaks when you need them, and don’t beat yourself up for missing a presentation or veering from your original schedule. Plan mealtimes into your day instead of grabbing an empty calorie muffin. Reach for green tea in place of that third cup of coffee. Go easy on the drinks during networking parties. You will thank yourself on the third day when you’re clear-headed and feeling accomplished. 6. Follow up and offer insights In the days after the conference, hopefully you will have some time to collect your thoughts and review your notes. Following up is a crucial step in your conference experience, as it’s the opportunity to turn your prospects into bona fide business partners or customers. Send thanks and personal greetings to all your contacts letting them know how much you enjoyed meeting them. If you had discussed any next steps in person, bring those up again to get the ball rolling. Blogging about your experience â€" or sharing insights you’ve gained from the event â€" can also be a great way to amplify and spark conversation in the weeks after the conference. Don’t be afraid to pass on your knowledge and get creative with any feedback you receive in return. We hope these tips have given you some guidance to conquer SHRM 2017 and any major industry conference you’ll attend in the future. Good luck, and see you in New Orleans. Don’t forget to connect learn about cutting edge recruitment technology at this year’s SHRM 2017 Annual Conference (June 18-20) in New Orleans. Connect with the experts at Perengo and see how programmatic recruitment can increase your quality applicant count significantly

Gender Wage Gap Are College Major Choices to Blame

Gender Wage Gap Are College Major Choices to Blame Todays post is by Maria Rainier. The reason women generally get paid less than men in the workforce may have (a little) less to do with discrimination and (a little) more to do with the fields we choose to pursue. Think about it. It’s pretty common knowledge that writers don’t get paid very much. The median salary of someone who majored in English is $51,996.98. When you cross-reference data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Digest of Educational Statistics, you see that English is a predominantly female-dominated major with a ratio is 32 men to 68 women. Women who have undergone training in real estate have closed the gap somewhat when compared with their male counterparts. Meanwhile, everyone knows that aviators are loaded$123,228.48 loaded. Aviation is a male-dominated field with 88 men to 12 women. Arguably, it may be historical discrimination and social conditioning that explain why women lean toward education, the arts, and other poorly paid occupations while men more often graduate with high-paying business and engineering degrees. On the other hand, gender discrimination may be harder at work than ever in our decision to pay men with “important” jobs like business and computer science higher wages than women in “softer” fields like medicine and sociology. Then again, it could be that genders tend to function differently and part of the wage gap isn’t about discrimination but simply about what makes more money. Whatever the case, it’s a notable twist to the usual gender wage gap discussion. Infographic by Online Degrees.org

The 5 Most Inspiring Employer Brand Videos

The 5 Most Inspiring Employer Brand Videos As we all know,  videos around employer branding can be a bit cheesy. So instead of taking them down, well give you five memorable examples that are actually worth watching. Just press play get inspired (or not)! Research suggests that people prefer to see hear content rather than read it. So, video formats  are becoming essential in the communication of your employer brand. Very few companies can afford to advertise their employer brand videos on TV. However, a well-crafted video can bring  your employer brand to life in a curious, clean and conscious way to engage with people on your career site and social channels. And if its REALLY good, people might share it across. Nothing wrong with a viral video, for (employer) brand purposes, right?! This. Is. A. Generic. Brand. Video. Theyre not kidding. This video is  made entirely with stock footage from Dissolve. Whilst proving that they can make an employer brand video from their footage, they also won the 2015 Shorty Award for Best in B2B. This video has two takeaways: Ensure the tone of voice,  look feel of the video match your desired employer brand identity, since consistent branding = everything. Period. *HINT* avoid the kind of corporate video cliches satirized  in the video above Magical Imagination at GE One of the biggest companies, General Electric, have created an interesting employer brand video. Whats interesting is the perspective, as its from a little 6-year-old girl whos fantasizing about her mothers inventions at work. Despite the fact that it seems very unrealistic, it appears to be not so far from the truth. GEs striking 60-second ad is projecting an interesting (maybe childish) perspective, that will spark curiosity. Go Places with Heineken Cheers! When you think of Heineken, surely the first thing that comes to mind has got to be BEER! But, thats not everything they do. In the video below, youll see how a big brand like Heineken is successfully presenting their full brand portfolio, without bragging or being too over-the-top corporate. Lets just say that they want employees to: Learn a craft, a trade, there’s a journey to be made. Make Greatness Happen The big German sports giant, adidas  (NO capital A), is known for their famous three stripes. But theres so much more that contains them. In their employer brand video you can see employees in various functions locations. They show great diversity in gender, age ethnicy. At first glance, this might look a lot like the stereotypical employer brand video. But thats where youre wrong. This video is made with actual employees, showing their flaws and all, instead of the ultimate boring image of perfection. Working with the adidas Group means that interesting, amazing and inspiring arent just ideas. They are the core of what we do every single day to transform the future of sport, style, and ourselves. Working at Dropbox Im sure the first thing that pops into your mind is: The Muppets! (Sesame Street is also a good second). But no, this is an employer brand video from Dropbox. Lets just say they dont mess around. Or maybe they do. With puppets. And its awesome. However, it would be interesting to know how much of the video is actually real how much is staged. We probably will never know, as this is an (in internet terms) ancient video from 2014. Lets explain. Dropbox is currently uploading under one minute clips that tell stories about both employer brand corporate brand. The thing is, I just find this old video much more interesting then the bunch of, more corporate videos theyve been launching recently. Of course, feel free to check out the new ones as well, but youll see what I mean. Lets Wrap Up So, youve seen a few inspiring ways to communicate your employer brand to the outside world. Naturally, not every company has the resources, budgets and time to produce the most amazing videos. So lets see what our takeaways are: Curious Clear Conscious With these three Cs in the back of your head, you should be fine when it comes to coming up with video concepts. In order to grab the potential candidates attention, they need to be triggered by something unusual. Something that makes them curious to continue to watch the video. After grabbing the attention, you need to quickly come in with a clear proposition. Warning: if you wait too long, theyll be gone! Together with a clean, punchy promise, you could include some conscious thoughts as well. In the form of values or a company vision about the heading into the future. Lets just say, you need to make people feel something (preferably something positive). So, if youre smiling or grinning whilst watching you employer brand video, youve got it right! Feel free to drop other inspiring employer brand videos in the comments, happy to discover more interesting stories!

Part Time vs Full Time How To Know Which You Are - Algrim.co

Part Time vs Full Time How To Know Which You Are - Algrim.co Most people are wondering how many hours they need to work each week in order to be considered full-time employment. Here’s the tough response, there is no strict legal definition of what constitutes part-time employment over full-time employees in terms of your weekly working hours. Table Of Contents Fair Labor Standards Act, The Bureau Of Labor Statistics & The IRS Weigh In How Many Working Hours Is Full-Time? Can My Employer Be Penalized For Not Classifying Me As Full-Time What If I Work Overtime, Does This Make Me Full-Time? Fair Labor Standards Act, The Bureau Of Labor Statistics & The IRS Weigh In Both the Fair Labor Standards Acts (FLSA) and Bureau of Labor Statics, who would have the most control over these types of laws and definitions in the workforce say that there is no legal definition for what constitutes full-time employment based on working hours. The harsh reality is that your employer will define whether or not you are full-time or part-time. And this is not usually determined based on your working hours. This is because full-time may have health benefits, salary pay, vacation time, stock options and other factors that constitute full-time. But these options are the only differentiator that considers you full-time, not your working hours. Some part-time jobs do offer these types of benefits. In which case, you may still be part-time with benefits. Though, the Internal Revenue Service has defined full-time, in terms of working hours as: A full-time employee is, for a calendar month, an employee employed on average at least 30 hours of service per week, or 130 hours of service per month. But this doesn’t necessarily mean that if you work this amount of hours, your employer must consider you full-time. How Many Working Hours Is Full-Time? The reality is that there isn’t a clear definition of this. Your employer won’t define whether or not you are part-time or full-time based on your working hours. Here is what might constitute knowing whether or not you are full-time: Signing of an employment agreement. Receiving health benefits. Receiving stock compensation. Receiving dental or eye care benefits. Receiving salary compensation vs. hourly. Can My Employer Be Penalized For Not Classifying Me As Full-Time This is a complicated subject. Your employer may not be penalized for not constituting you as full-time based on the number of hours you are working. But they can be penalized if they are misclassifying you as part-time. So for example, if you are full-time (and considered full-time) but are not receiving certain benefits, the Applicable Large Employer (ALE) under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) may penalize this employer for not providing their full-time employees the proper benefits. If an employer at least 50 full-time employees on average, then the employer is an Applicable Large Employer. Which means, if they are not providing their employees with the proper benefits, they could be at risk of facing fines or penalties. What If I Work Overtime, Does This Make Me Full-Time? Overtime hours are considered overtime hours. And usually follow the FSLA overtime laws on behalf of the U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime hours are usually compensated at a higher hourly rate. But these additional hours don’t constitute you as full-time. In fact, most overtime hours are applicable to those who work part-time. Full-time employees, who are compensated on an annual salary basis are rarely compensated for overtime hours. Part-Time Job Resources Learn about the best part-time jobs - 5 Best Part-Time Jobs Plus 14 Other Easy Part-Time Jobs Learn about part-time job cover letters - 2 Best Part-Time Job Cover Letter Examples Learn how to gracefully resign from a part-time job - 5 Easy Steps To Quit A Part-Time Job Learn how many hours in a work week constitutes part-time employment - How Many Hours Per Week Constitutes Part-Time? The Answer Here Learn what the difference between full-time and part-time is - Part Time vs Full Time Explained Do part-time employees get holiday pay? Learn about the laws, rules, and regulations - The Laws On Part Time Employees & Holiday Pay Learn what the best paying part-time summer jobs are - 10 Best Part-Time Summer Jobs By Highest Pay (Salary)

How to Manage Your Social Media Presence with Apps

How to Manage Your Social Media Presence with Apps If your business or your personal brand is on social media, you probably understand that although social media can bring tons of business, its also a lot of work to maintain and do well.Fortunately, there are a number of tools that have come out recently that can help you manage the process more effectively. These tools allow you to track your efforts, make the process easier and generally take steps toward building a successful social media campaign.evalFurthermore, most of these tools are free or very low cost meaning your company can be a social media success story for a few bucks a month.By now I bet you’re probably curious which tools I’m talking about and how to use them to make your social media pages better and make managing whem a whole lot easier.Well I won’t keep it from you, without further ado, here are five great tools you can use to manage the different aspects of running successful social media pages.1.BufferevalIt can be a pain to login to all of your social me dia pages at the right time of day to post the same message over and over. Fortunately, there is a tool called buffer that can make this part of managing your businesses or personal social media accounts a whole lot easier.Buffer is a great and simple tool that allows you to schedule social media messaging and distribute it to multiple platforms at the ideal time.The service is used by over 3 million people according to their website which means it must be good.A good starter plan will set you back a mere $10/month and ranges up to a couple hundred dollars if you want to get really fancy.2.Adobe SparkevalOne of the most time consuming and difficult tasks of running a social media page is editing images to go along with your posts. Unless you’re a photoshop wizard Overall, Adobe Spark is a great tool for your social media editing needs.3.Bit.lyYou don’t want a long and ugly url taking up space in your awesome social media post, right? But it can be an absolute pain to shorten lin ks on your website and in some cases, not possible.That’s where bit.ly comes into play.You can put any link into the service for free and get a much shorter link that you can use in your posts. Simple but very effective.In addition, the service will allow you to track and measure link performance over time which can help you optimize your postings and become smarter with your social media.Overall, Bit.ly is an effective and simple service you won’t want to miss. And did I mention that it’s free?4.BuzzSumoIf you’re not tracking your efforts on social media or paying attention to current trends your essentially throwing darts at the wall and hoping something sticks. It could work, but odds are you’ll invest a lot of time with little to show for it.We recommend using an analytics platform and BuzzSumo is a great option that allows you to get some insight into what is working and not working on your social media channels.It can figure out relevant information like what content is being shared the most, what has been shared in the past, social backlinks, trending content and influencers, and more.evalUsing this information will allow your company to create better content at the right time ensuring you’re able to make the most of your social media presence.BuzzSumo starts at $79 per month and goes up from there depending on the size of your organization. However, an effective social media strategy is easily worth the cost.5.VenngageevalInfographics are extremely popular and widely shared on social media because they can communicate information effectively and in a fun way.But making infographics can be hard, really hard. Don’t believe me, give it a go. Even if you know how to use editing software you may still struggle.But don’t worry, Venngage can solve all your problems Venngage allows you to easily create beautiful infographics in no time at all.The service is also affordable ranging from $19/month up to $49/month depending on your plan and will s ave you that much money in time each month.ConclusionThe 5 apps above will automate 80% of your social media work while simultaneously improving your social media strategy.However, if there are other tasks that are time consuming or if you have special needs, just try Googling around. There are now tons of tools designed specifically to automate all aspects of the social media process.

Ill be a Guest DJ this Saturday...

Ill be a Guest DJ this Saturday... Ill be a Guest DJ this Saturday Ill be a Guest DJ this Saturday August 4, 2013 by Career Coach Sherri Thomas Leave a Comment This Saturday, I’ll be the “guest DJ” on RadioFreePhoenix.com Sherri Thomas practicing to be a Guest DJ on http://RadioFreePhoenix.com on Saturday, Aug 10th, 5PM PST My career has been full of U-turns. Some people have a very straight path in their career, but mine has been a series of ups, downs, U-turns, more ups, more downs and a few hairpin lefts. I certainly don’t plan it that way. But as I look back, I wouldn’t have changed one single thing. One U-turn came when I was in college at Arizona State University. My dream was to work in television. Growing up, I use to watch the Mary Tyler Moore show and loved how she produced the news. In my eyes, she was what made that news station “click” and I wanted to be just like her. So I focused my sites on becoming a TV news producer. During my last semester in college, I was interning at the local NBC-TV station, when I was approached by a friend (the now hugely popular DJ “Larry Mac” in Phoenix and Tucson.) We were friends in college and while I interned at three local TV stations, he was a DJ at the campus radio station. He invited me to take a shift as a disc jockey. I politely turned him down. I didn’t see the whole DJ thing fitting into my career plan. Fortunately, he asked me again, and through his encouragement, I said yes! Now, I wasn’t the smoothest or coolest DJ. I stumbled. I fumbled. I flailed. but, man was I having fun! That is, until the very last day of my last semester. That’s when the radio station’s operations manager, another ASU student named Danny who was also the Assistant Manager at a nearby Warehouse Record and Tapes store, called me into his office for a final one-on-one exit interview. He bluntly blurted out that I was the worst disc jockey he’d ever heard. I remember him saying, “Nobody in Phoenix will ever hire you.” Ouch. Granted, I wasn’t very good, but c’mon, the worst DJ he’d ever heard? Seriously? Right then and there, I put my Mary-Tyler-Moore career plan on hold and made it my mission to get hired as a DJ in Phoenix. Six months later, I had 10,000 listeners on KUKQ, a small hip hop station in Phoenix where I played hits from artists like Robert Palmer, the Pet Shop Boys, the Bangles, and Kool and the Gang every Saturday night. One year later, I switched to an oldies station, KOOL-FM, and talked to 30,000 listeners every Saturday morning. Three years after that, I was in Monterey, California as the new morning show jock at the rock station playing tunes from Van Halen, Bob Segar, Stevie Nicks and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I became one of the few women in the country to host my own morning radio show. I’m writing this article as a thank-you to Danny. Although I didn’t know it at the time, he was a blessing in my life. Had it not been for him, I would never have taken such a huge risk and experienced the magical, exhilarating, adrenaline-chasing world of being a DJ. Some people are put in your life to support and encourage you. Others are there to challenge you to be better, stronger, or to simply take a different path. As I look back in my career, I’m grateful to those career-changers in my life. They’ve pushed me out of the nest, pointed me in new directions and helped me find new strengths and talents I never knew I had. Join me this Saturday, August 10th at 5pm PST as I “guest DJ” on RadioFreePhoenix.com and again for an encore presentation on Sunday, August 11th at 3pm PST. I’ll be hanging out with one of my favorite gal pals DJ Liz Boyle and station-owner-rock-star Andy Olsen to reveal my personal all-time TOP 15 favorite songs, plus share a few stories from my DJ days â€" like the time I met Billy Idol ?? â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"â€" Sherri Thomas is a Career Strategist. She teaches others how to think differently and more proactively in their career. Her book, ”The Bounce Back” is the 2013 winner of “Best Career Book” by Indie Book Awards for independent book authors. Her first book is on AMAZON’s TOP 10 LIST for personal branding books, “Career Smart â€" 5 Steps to a powerful personal brand.” As the Founder/President of Career Coaching 360. Sherri specializes in providing one-on-one coaching to professionals and executives who want to change, reinvent or advance their career. For a limited time, you can download the three FREE chapters of “The Bounce Back” at http://www.MyBounceBack.com

Looking For a Sample Resume With Gaps in Employment?

Looking For a Sample Resume With Gaps in Employment?When you are trying to find a job, one of the things that you want to consider is finding a sample resume with gaps in employment. There are many websites on the internet that will help you do this.The first thing that you should do is go to someone's website that can help you do this. You can use such sites as job boards or online search engines.You want to see if they have anything that matches the particular position that you are looking for. This way you know that it is not a scam and that you are not going to waste your time.Once you find a website that has samples for samples, you can then take a look at the samples for a sample resume with gaps in employment. You want to make sure that you are doing this in a place where there are no other resumes that you have to look at as well.You also want to look at the pictures carefully. If the sample doesn't match what you are looking for, then you want to go back and start over with a new resume.Now you will have an idea of what a sample resume with gaps in employment looks like. This will help you narrow down the list so that you can find something that you can use.Now you can take a look at the samples and determine if it matches what you are looking for. The good news is that most websites that you can find online will have samples for samples.With the sample resume with gaps in employment, you can have a better chance of finding the position that you are looking for. This is important because you want to be able to get the job as soon as possible.