Susan was doing well in her job. She had an eight-hour workday, great friends, a supportive family, good health, and she was paid well. Everyone around her thought she was happy and lived an ideal life.

Susan was well-compensated and appeared to have time to balance her career and personal life. But she was struggling.

But Susan’s life was actually a mess. Her overly aggressive boss thought nothing of shouting at her in front of her colleagues. Though Susan was a good performer, she was constantly anxious about the next time her supervisor would berate her. Though she was expected to work eight-hour days, her boss would call her at any time of the day or night.

Susan began to dread hearing her cellphone ring and was so worried all the time that she couldn’t even sleep. She fretted that her colleagues and friends would lose respect for her, and she lost so much confidence that she couldn’t handle even the simplest of social interactions. Susana began to spend less time with her friends and family, where she would have to put up a brave face, and instead devoted more hours to work, where she could worry freely, obsessing over every detail of her job to the point of compulsiveness.

By most traditional measures of work-life balance, Susan was doing quite well. She was well compensated for an eight-hour workday, and she appeared to have enough free time to balance her career and personal life. But in reality, Susana was struggling. What’s more, her frustrations would not be picked up by conventional measures of wellbeing, because those measures don’t take into account the quality of people’s experiences, nor do they incorporate people’s own evaluations of their lives. Instead, those measures rely on factors like income and number of hours worked, under the assumption that these factors determine the quality of people’s lives.

Beyond work-life balance

When the idea of work-life balance was first introduced, it was a revolutionary concept. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Industrial Revolution and its resulting shift to manufacturing work made it possible for employers to require workers to labor longer hours than ever before in human history. In some industries, people toiled 14 to 16 hours a day, six to seven days a week.

As researchers began to study the impact that these long hours had on stress levels, health, and family life, the idea of work-life balance gained currency, and many countries began to legislate limits to the workweek. Most developed nations now mandate 40-46 working hours per week, with a minimum of two weeks per year of holiday/vacation.

The concept of work-life balance has been instrumental in influencing these changes and bringing about an improvement in the quality of life that is assumed to accompany shorter working hours. But the concept is useful only up to a point. Globalization has undermined the relevance of reducing worker hours to achieve work-life balance and has revealed limitations; the most significant is that at some point, limiting hours further is just not sustainable.

France has mandated a 35-hour workweek, for example. But what can the country do next? The workweek can’t be reduced indefinitely, as this has implications for a country’s economic viability and competitiveness. In a globalized world, if workers in one country are unwilling to work for economically viable hours, then businesses will migrate to a country where they are willing to do so. In countries such as India and Pakistan, workers are motivated to work 10- to 12-hour workdays — and this is unlikely to change soon due to the large number of workers willing to do so to move up the economic ladder.

Another problem with the concept of work-life balance is that it takes the number of working hours into account but not the quality of the working experience. A person may spend 35 hours a week at work, but if that worker, like Susan, has an abrasive manager or is in a highly stressful job or one that is not suited to her natural talents, then those manageable work hours are unlikely to enhance her quality of life. Conversely, a person may choose to work long hours because it allows her to progress in her career or to build a social system at work.

Thus, the assumption that reduced hours at work lead to an improvement in personal life is too narrow, and probably faulty. Other factors, such as social support, health, safety, and job fit, contribute greatly to the quality of a person’s life. Since the concept of work-life balance doesn’t take into account these significant factors, it does not provide direction as to how people can actually improve the quality of their lives, except for reducing the hours spent at work. As such, it is not actionable.

The assumption that reduced hours at work lead to an improvement in personal life is too narrow, and probably faulty

How we think about and experience our lives

A more comprehensive concept-one that’s more appropriate for the 21st-century economy-is that of wellbeing, which includes factors that contribute to our experiences and our perception of our lives. Until recently, wellbeing has been seen as an esoteric concept that is difficult to define and quantify. It is most commonly understood as relating to wealth or health, perhaps because of the ease with which these things can be measured.

One reason that wellbeing has been difficult to define is that it means different things to different people depending on what they consider important. To one person, it may mean prosperity or wealth; to another, it may mean values or community involvement or the realization of one’s potential. This is why wellbeing should be measured at the individual level, though it may be aggregated for organizations, communities, and nations. And any measure of wellbeing must be broad enough to incorporate an individual’s own choices and purpose in life while being specific enough to be compared and aggregated to facilitate action that can improve it.

Gallup has developed a wellbeing metric that includes the five key elements of wellbeing: Career, Social, Financial, Physical, and Community. These five distinct factors emerged from research that Gallup conducted across countries, languages, and vastly different life situations. Because these elements of wellbeing are universal, they can be measured and reported on for individuals, organizations, cities, countries, and regions around the world.

Because Gallup’s wellbeing assessment measures these elements individually in addition to yielding an overall score, it is actionable: The assessment gives individuals, organizations, cities, and countries the ability to manage wellbeing by undertaking actions to improve it. If an individual has relatively low Social Wellbeing, for example, she would do well to focus her efforts on improving interpersonal relationships with friends and family.

This can be managed over time. As her Social Wellbeing increases, she may choose to concentrate on Career Wellbeing, for instance, or choose to address both elements by spending time socializing with colleagues and making friends at work. In this way, wellbeing can be measured and managed comprehensively at the individual, as well as government, state, city, or corporate levels, by taking its various components and their interactions into account.

Conventional metrics such as employment status, income, educational level, hours worked, and women’s participation in the workforce are necessary to understand an economy, but they are insufficient when it comes to understanding and evaluating overall life satisfaction. Unless we begin to use a metric of a life well-lived — as measured by one’s own experiences and evaluation — people like Susan will continue to be under the radar, aware that something is amiss, but without an idea why or what to do about it.

The Five Essentials of Wellbeing

For many years studies have been done exploring the demands of a life well-lived. More recently, due to the evolving workforce and generational issues there has been an increasing need to understand how to help our employers achieve a well-balanced life. The elements of wellbeing that transcend the global work environment that differentiate a thriving life not a surviving life are as follows:

• Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time — or simply liking what you      do every day
• Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life
• Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life
• Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
• Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live

Take a moment and enjoy all the gifts you have and it will reduce your stress and only say “YES” to the activities and life experiences that you know you want to do!

 

 

They’re young, smart, brash. They may wear flip flops to the office or listen to IPODs at their desk. They want to work, but they don’t want to work to be their LIFE. These are Millennials a force of as many as 70 million, and the first wave is just now embarking on their careers — taking their place in an increasingly multigenerational workplace. Get ready, because this generation — whose members have not yet hit 30 — is different from any that have come before them. Read the rest of this entry »

While the question sounds like the preamble to a funny punch line, the answer is no laughing matter.

According to an article last week in the Wall Street Journal, it takes many more than most employers think (or at least want to accept.) I repeat – a lot more. The actual numbers are mind boggling.

For example, infographic presented in the Wall Street article revealed that it takes approximately 1,000 online views by candidates to get 100 candidates to complete the application. Out of that, 25 applications are selected for review, and then 4 to 6 candidates are recommended for an interview. When all is said and done, companies may find their one diamond in the rough only after 1,000 candidates view the job posting. If those numbers hold up, it is clear that the impending war for talent is no longer imminent or pending. It’s here today.

Not one to rely only exclusively on hearsay, I was prompted by the article to review 25 jobs posted on our applicant processing system by clients during the last 3 months. The results don’t only confirm the findings presented in the Wall Street Journal but throw up an even bigger gauntlet to challenge employers. The best views-to-applicant scenario was 10 percent. But a more common scenario was as low as 1 percent.

Unfortunately for many companies, as good or bad as those results are, the job search does not always end when the one lonely qualified candidate is identified and offered the job. According to research presented by Talent Function Group, LLC, “the chosen applicant accepts the offer only 80% of the time.” That situation leads to two options – offer the job to your second choice (if there is one) or go back to the drawing board. Neither choice is desirable when a company’s productivity and competitive advantage are on the line and dependent on a minimum time to hire and high quality of hire.

To win the war for talent moving forward, nearly every employer will need to cast the widest possible sourcing net to attract, identify, and hire qualified candidates. In addition, operations and sales managers don’t have the time to waste interviewing candidates who can’t do the job. The competition for recruiting qualified skilled workers poses a formidable challenge for most organizations. Management has a choice: deal with a “resu-mess” which will inundate recruiting and human resource staffs, which are already running lean; or insist on applicant processing automation to build a talent pool of qualified candidates, reduce the time-to-hire, and ultimately improve the quality of employees.

 

Mobile recruiting, in its purest form, is the act of recruiting or engaging candidates on a mobile device. Using mobile devices to recruit candidates includes many different forms and involves many different devices, such as a smart phone, cell phone, tablet, or iTouch. Mobile recruiting can be the use of mobile devices for either the candidate or the recruiter, and it supplements any social and internet recruiting strategy. When making your company’s recruitment strategy, consider the many apps, technologies, and tools that are already out there and developed for the company’s benefit.

Mobile recruiting involves any action or conversation regarding the job search using a mobile device. This could include an app that aids in candidate sourcing or pushes notifications when a candidate applies or schedules an interview, or even reads QR Codes for use at job fairs. According to Mashable, mobile recruiting is on rise in the job seekers mind: 19% of job seekers use mobile devices to search for jobs, but 57% of job seekers would like to use mobile devices to search for jobs. Technology will catch up to the job seeker. While best practice of mobile recruiting is still evolving to candidate behavior, it is clear that companies should have a mobile recruiting strategy going forward.

“For employers, mobile is the new paradigm shift,” states mobile recruiting expert Michael Marlatt.

Tools exist to make the hiring and interview process easy and mobile-ready for the job seeker as well. These include mobile ready web sites, audio job listings, and text message alerts for job seekers who are mobile, active, and on the go. Mobile is especially appealing for this reason. Recruiters and companies can engage job seekers anywhere and at any time. A quick text message for a recruiter to alert a job seeker offers a real-time opportunity to engage. Job seekers don’t have to wait to be in front of a computer to apply, or receive email about a job. Job seekers want to be able to easily research and apply for your position without being tied to a computer.

Creating and executing a mobile recruiting campaign doesn’t have to be expensive. It can be as simple, complicated, inexpensive, or expensive as you wish it to be. Let’s start with easy, here are three budget friendly ways to leverage mobile recruiting:

• Schedule Candidate Interviews via Text. Enterprise text message systems serve as a form of CRM. Make it easy for your Millennial candidate pool by scheduling and communicating the details regarding their interview via text. Offer to send interview location and directions via their cell phone linking to a simple Google Map. Candidates can easily create a route using their Maps app while also having the option to receive directions via emails.

• Make Applying & Research Easy. Your company must be easily accessible on mobile devices. As candidates have more choices – even in this current economic market – it’s important to make it easy for job seekers to learn more about your company, the company culture, and where they could fit in. This includes open jobs and details of what those jobs actually entail. Mobile formatted career sites make it easier for candidates to quickly view information. Also bear in mind that the traditional employee applications take an average of 45 minutes to complete. Using mobile technologies, and a professional profile, the application process can be snap, sometimes even 60 seconds or less. Consider not only the context of employee applications, but also in the context of building a talent community.

 

• Leverage Video. One of my most popular online activities via mobile is viewing video. As more people own smartphones and as smartphones get bigger and better, more and more video viewing will be on phones. Whether live streaming or a 5 minute day in the life video or employee testimonial, companies can leverage opportunities to engage their candidate base using the power of mobile video. Video provides insights into the environment and company culture that we can see and hear creating a lasting impact that goes beyond any job fair brochure.

                                                                                                                   

Scores and meanings:

10-24 You are on track! Keep it up. Notice which questions you scored higher on and think about applying yourself more to balance. You are aware of your needs. You are making yourself strong and able to continue and give your best.

25-40 You are moving in the right direction. Examine your priorities a little more closely and notice where you are getting results and what needs attention. Maybe give yourself a little break or time and space to rejuvenate and get perspective. Review your answers with higher scores and consider what you might do to move your scores down.

41-50 Congratulations! You have taken a big step. You have become aware that you have an opportunity to gain the skills to work smart. Imbalances are not irreversible. Review your goals to keep them BRIEF, applying the five factors of working smart, and use the SMART techniques to help you plan. Give yourself some rest and relaxation, and re-approach with a new, refreshed point of view, and keep abreast of your activity to build new hands to work smart.

Have you ever known someone who just seemed to “have it all together?” Maybe that someone is you, but maybe you could do even better. “Having it all together,” is what many perceive as “working smart.” But what does it really mean to “work smart?”

Is it a mysterious quality that some of us are born with, and the rest without? Or is it a skill set that can be learned and mastered? Most business and relationship experts support that “working smart” is a skill set that enables one to achieve balance in life and be fruitful.

Many women have intuitively been using these skills to successfully juggle their many responsibilities. When done effectively, the result is a general contentment and satisfaction both personally and professionally. When reflected on and analyzed, five key traits of “working smart” emerge. They may be remembered best using the acronym BRIEF for: Balanced, Results achieving, Independent minded, Energized and Fit in.

5 Traits of Women Who Work Smarter

1. Balanced: Balancing one’s personal and professional life.
2. Results achieving: Reaching a satisfactory level of results.
3. Independent minded: Considers information and opinions of others as appropriate, and ultimately makes her own mind up on her position.
4. Energized: Achieving and maintaining an effective distribution of one’s energy including reasonable breaks and vacations.
5. Fit In: Being accepted in the culture of one’s chosen environment.

Balanced: Personal and professional life balance is a key part of working smart. Whole life aspects such as exercise, proper nutrition, and constructive support from family, friends, community and more provide a strong basis from which to draw strength. Feeling capable in one’s work approach is built from many sources, not only success at work.

Results achieving: Reaching a satisfactory level of results is a subjective call, and is important because it is a reality check. If the results do not show and goals are not met, it is hard to say one is working smart. A widely used technique to help achieve results is the SMART approach to goal setting. Ask yourself, “Are my goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, and Timely?”

Independent minded: Although she considers the information and opinions of others as appropriate, she makes up her own mind. She chooses with her own free will to associate with people, places and things or not. She takes responsibility for her decisions.

Energized: Achieving an effective energy distribution depends on one’s ability to monitor their body and their feelings and have the self-discipline to get enough sleep, and take enough breaks and vacations to allow themselves to restore and replenish. The kinds of activities that refresh a person are as individual as their finger prints. Do you work smart, or do you need to improve?

Fit In: Fitting into one’s chosen environment is a sign of working smart. Drawing healthy limits that others respect and appreciate so that there is a harmony is important. It helps one to perform better and it indicates effectiveness.

As you prepare for the day ahead, consider are you working smarter?

 

 

• You’re right, but I’m the boss!
• Just do your job!
• I remember when …
• The kid wants a promotion after six months on the job!
• No!

How did you react? Were you offended? Were you okay with the comment? Did you understand, or not understand, why someone would say these words? The words and your reaction, as well as the reactions of others, reflect generational differences in the workplace.

If you don’t think generation makes a difference, think of this example. When asked to recall how and where Kennedy died, the Traditionalists and Baby Boomers would say gunshots in Dallas, Texas; Generation X remembers a plane crash near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; and Millennials might say, “Kennedy who?”

There is a serious new problem in the workplace, and it has nothing to do with downsizing, global competition, pointy-haired bosses, stress or greed. Instead, it is the problem of distinct generations — the Traditionalists, the Baby Boomers, Gen X and Millennials — working together and often colliding as their paths cross. Individuals with different values, different ideas, different ways of getting things done and different ways of communicating in the workplace have always existed. So, why is this becoming a problem now?

The Power of Four Generations

This is the first time in American history that we have had four different generations working side-by-side in the workplace. Remember, if you are old enough, when older workers were the bosses and younger workers did what was asked of them, no questions asked. There were definite rules as to how the boss was treated and how younger workers treated older workers. No longer: Roles today are all over the place and the rules are being rewritten daily.

At work, generational differences can affect everything, including recruiting, building teams, dealing with change, motivating, managing, and maintaining and increasing productivity. Think of how generational differences, relative to how people communicate, might affect misunderstandings, high employee turnover, difficulty in attracting employees and gaining employee commitment.

Each generation has distinct attitudes, behaviors, expectations, habits and motivational buttons.

Research indicates that people communicate based on their generational backgrounds. Each generation has distinct attitudes, behaviors, expectations, habits and motivational buttons. Learning how to communicate with the different generations can eliminate many major confrontations and misunderstandings in the workplace and the world of business.

Let’s try an analogy to help understand the issue. What often happens when a family gets together for a holiday or a vacation? Four generations — you (let’s assume you’re a Boomer); your children (Xers); your grandchildren (Millennials); your brothers and sisters (Boomers); and your parents (Traditionalists) — all trying to get along together. How long does it take before someone mentions “the good old days” and another says “I remember when … ?” Is that when things become testy? How many times is so much friction created that family members leave the gathering saying never again? Do you usually attribute this to “your family” or do you find yourself saying, “that’s just what we’re like whenever we get together?” Could this be due to generational differences and not just be “the way the family is?”

Whether at a family gathering or in the workplace, how do you manage intergenerational groups with conflicting work ethics, dissimilar values and idiosyncratic styles? How do you get them to stop snarling at each other? How do you motivate them to get along or work together?

Every generation has created its own commotion as it has entered into the adult working world. And, every generation says the same things about other generations — “They don’t get it” or “They have it so much easier than we did.”

Unlocking the Mystery

To begin to understand how individuals in different generations act and react, one must first start with understanding oneself. Begin by seeing which generation you are part of based on your DNA (year of birth) then see if based on your generational personality you might identify with more than one generation. The generational timeline represents a conglomeration of many views, the starting and ending dates (birth years) of the generations are subjective, not scientific or fully agreed-on time spans. However, this subjectivity poses no real problems since the variation of years is not significant enough to impact the big picture of a generation’s description.

The first thing to consider is the individual and his or her underlying values, or personal and lifestyle characteristics, which seem to correspond with each generation,

Not every person in a generation will share all of the various characteristics shown in this or the next table with others in the same generation. However, these examples are indicative of general patterns in the relationships between and among family members, friends and people in the workplace. Individuals born at one end of the date range or the other may see overlapping characteristics with the preceding or succeeding generation.

You may now easily see why Millennials cannot understand what their grandparents mean by the traditional family or what fun it was to spend Christmas together as a family. Are you worried about the possibility of your Baby Boomer children being unable to retire or having to move in with you or their children as they reach the latter years of their lives? Possibly you should be.

Do you now see why your view of education might differ from your children’s views? Do you understand why your children may not want to go to a movie with you? Can you see how generational issues, like what to do for entertainment, can create friction on those family vacations or at holiday get-togethers?

Understanding these characteristics about individuals makes it easier to look at workplace characteristics and how they manifest themselves in business

An example, based on these traits, would be to think about how words are received differently. When a Boomer says to another Boomer, “We need to get the report done,” it is generally interpreted by the Boomer as an order; it must be done and done now. However, when a Boomer says to an Xer, “This needs to be done,” the Xer hears an observation, not a command, and may or may not do it immediately.

Getting Back to Work

With these observations in mind, let’s look at a few work situations and how one might handle them.

• At annual appraisal time, a manager from the Veterans generation gives out a nice bonus for a project well done. The Generation X employee is ungrateful and says, “Why didn’t I get this six months ago, when the project was completed?” A Millennial wants instant gratification, whereas a person in the Traditionalist generation is happy to get money anytime. The solution here may be for the company to explore reward plans geared to the different generations, or things like monetary rewards and recognition given at the time when it is earned.

• A Generation X manager tells a Boomer he has been working too hard and should take time off to take the family on vacation. Instead of saying thanks, the Boomer replies, “I work to get ahead, to get a promotion, not for a vacation.” The next time that situation comes up; the manager might elect to give this particular employee a bonus, rather than suggest a vacation.

• A top-notch, cross-functional team with individuals from several different generations has been set up to recommend a solution to a nasty manufacturing problem. After a couple of weeks, the manager responsible for the team cannot understand why there is constant bickering and nothing is getting done. If the manager were aware of just one characteristic of each individual relating to communication needs, he or she might understand the stalemate. The Traditionalists on the team are looking for handwritten notes and direct, specific requests for work to be done. The Boomers do not like to work independently, and they expect to have meetings any time, any place — and it is fine if they are called day or night. Xers do not want to hear about the project outside of work, and don’t dare call them at home. And the Millennials don’t want any meetings at all, they only communicate via voice mail and e-mail. Is it any wonder that the team is having trouble getting motivated toward the goal? At the beginning of any team formation, an effective leader should consider spending time learning how team members wish to communicate.

• A Boomer is working for a Millennial individual, and there is nothing but animosity between the two. Why? Millennial individuals, born since 1977, have many different traits than the Traditionalist. They are not like their parents. They are curious, goal-oriented and loyal. Solution, consider having Boomers work for Traditionalists rather than a Millennial.

There are more pronounced differences between the generations today than ever before. What can one expect with the dramatic changes in our world in the last 60 years? Being aware of these differences can help individuals tailor their message for maximum effect, regardless of the task, or the relationship — family, friends, workplace peers. Good business is based on understanding others. The majority of us think the correct way, and the only way, is our way. In business, as well as in personal life, that is just not true. To work effectively and efficiently, to increase productivity and quality, one needs to understand generational characteristics and learn how to use them effectively in dealing with each individual.

How do you know if the person you hire should be classified as an independent contractor or employee? Does it really matter? After all, he/she is performing a service and you are paying for the service. Oh, if only it were that simple. Unfortunately, employer liability can be huge when workers are misclassified. Penalties can include years of unpaid employment taxes, workers’ compensation unpaid premiums, reimbursements for work-related expenses and potential unpaid overtime compensation, not to mention liability for not providing employee benefits such as health insurance and retirement. That said, it’s not a problem until it’s a problem, right? If you subscribe to that philosophy, keep reading… Read the rest of this entry »

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On April 12, I’d like to invite you to join me for the Leadership and Learning Lecture series sponsored by Tenet. I’ll be speaking from 1-2 p.m. about generational differences. The title of the speech is “Collaboration vs. Collision: Bridging the Communication Gap Between Generations.”

I hope to see you there!

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If you think Social Media is a fad or has no implications for your business, you couldn’t be more wrong. Particularly if your target market is Generation Y, otherwise known as the Millennials, your business needs to invest in an agressive social marketing strategy immediately. Take a look at this video to understand why: