Posts by Rick Elliott

According to the US Department of Labor, making a bad hire can cost you — 30 percent of the employee’s salary, to be specific, although that number can easily climb depending on position, seniority, and industry. This is an astonishing price that can have a massive impact on businesses of all sizes, yet many companies are…

You’ve got a reputation for being the best coder/editor/mechanic/whatever, but it amounts to little if you don’t work well with others. Some of the most important professional skills for workers and employers alike simply can’t be taught in a classroom or measured on paper. These traits are called soft skills and they’re more crucial to…

Purpose-led organizations are the wave of the future. Forty-three percent of workers say that finding meaning in their work is very important to their job satisfaction, and nearly one-third of job seekers say they’d be willing to take pay cuts for jobs they were more passionate about. Purpose-oriented workers tend to be loyal high achievers, but it’s not enough to stencil…

It’s hard not to get angry when you’re passed over for a promotion that goes to someone with less experience. Your head probably explodes a little bit every time someone interrupts you while you’re making an important point during a staff meeting — especially if that same person does it again and again, as if…

You may be brilliant and creative, but if you don’t manage your time effectively, you won’t be successful. “Everything you want to do at work requires time,” writes Brian Tracy in his book Master Your Time, Master Your Life. “The only way you can get enough time to do the things that can really make a difference…

Stroke survivors who participated in group-based aerobic exercise programs of a similar design and duration to cardiac rehabilitation programs saw their aerobic endurance and mobility significantly improve. Benefits were seen regardless of the type of aerobic exercise, the person’s functional ability or lapsed time since the stroke, investigators found. Researchers analyzed 19 studies and identified…

You’ve just been offered a great job opportunity and you’re thrilled… except you were actually hoping for a higher salary. The question is: Do you have the negotiating skills (and the stomach) to ask for more money? In today’s job climate, you’d be foolish not to. Salary negotiation needs to be part of your job search,…

A company, LaSalle Network, just conducted their annual hiring trends report, looking at hiring in the year ahead. This year they collected responses from more than 5,000 millennial professionals on what they [millennials] want out of a role and company to help organizations understand how to attract and retain this demographic in the tight labor…

As the record-long U.S. economic expansion continues, more seniors than ever appear to be putting off retirement. According to data from Deutsche Bank Securities chief economist Torsten Slok, the employment to population ratio for those aged 65 and over hit 20 percent in July – a record high. Employment among the demographic has been on an upward…

You may have years–even decades–of experience, and be brilliant at what you do. If you’re very fortunate, you may be charismatic and the kind of leader that people would follow anywhere. But if you don’t devote time and effort to one important behavior, you won’t be a successful leader. What’s the behavior? Being present. In fact,…

Nursing home administrators and other top executives saw larger than average salary increases over the past year, indicating a possible effort by operators to keep hard-to-find talent in-house. A relatively low 11.6% turnover rate, according to one expert, indicates such efforts are finding success. The national average nursing home administrator salary for facilities of all…

Employers have the daunting task of sifting through piles of resumes, many with poorly written work histories. Make sure yours is not a casualty. Use these tips to capture the attention of hiring managers. Hiring managers have love-hate relationships with resumes. They need resumes to find candidates to fill job openings, but they often have…

The path to accomplishing your biggest dreams and goals has never been clearer, thanks to the wealth of information on personal and professional success now available. However, just because the price of admission to the game has decreased, that doesn’t mean the journey will be a cakewalk. That said, it’s also not quantum physics. In reality, all that separates getting…

It may be hard, but there are times when it’s a good career move to say no at work. You’re often told that in order to get ahead at work you have to be the first one in and the last one to leave. You have to be energetic, positive, and always ready to say…

Hiring managers are often able to tell from the very first moments of an interview whether a candidate is the best person for the position. They know whether the work environment and team dynamics will suit the personality and working style of the job seeker who sits before them. As a job seeker, it’s your…

Many small and mid-sized businesses are struggling to stay fully staffed. With unemployment under 4 percent, the talent market is as competitive as it has been in 50 years — but unfortunately, many small businesses haven’t updated their hiring procedures in a decade. In fact, businesses often approach the talent market as if it were…

Time is a nonnegotiable, nonrenewable resource. Somehow, we all seem to forget this, especially when we become overwhelmed. However, if you learn to remove distractions and prioritize important tasks, you can do more with your time — and live a much happier life, too. Consider this: Do you proactively engage in your day or simply fall into…

Between a new boss, new co-workers, and new office culture, your first few weeks at a job should be an exciting period in your career. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Two weeks in, and a voice inside your head is shouting, “I hate my new job!” And that’s when you have to learn how to quit a…

For almost as long as modern science has been around, the idea that animals can remember past experiences seemed so preposterous that few researchers bothered to study it. Surely only humans, with our big, sophisticated brains, could be capable of “episodic” memories—recalling a trip to the grocery store last Saturday, for example. Animals, in their…

In corporate America, evolutionary change at revolutionary speed is becoming the norm, and workers are clearly feeling the brunt of these tectonic shifts. Political strife, international trade disputes, and angst over a particular industry’s or company’s health are weighing heavily on workers’ minds. Couple these concerns with a nonstop workload, demanding deliverables, and tight budget restrictions, and…

America is growing older as boomers edge closer to retirement age and natural births decrease, according to data released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau. “The nation is aging,” Luke Rogers, chief of the Population Estimates Branch at the Census Bureau, said in a statement. “More than four out of every five counties were older in 2018 than in 2010.…

Albuquerque, N.M. — Researchers at University of New Mexico researchers are working on a vaccine they hope could prevent Alzheimer’s disease, reports CBS Albuquerque affiliate KRQE-TV. UNM’s Health and Sciences Department Associate Professor Kiran Bhaskar, who’s been passionate about studying the disease for the last decade, says the work started with an idea in 2013. “I would…

Read any book or review any case study about successful change and you’re sure to find one constant: for people in organizations to accept and act on change, they need consistent and compelling communication from their managers.  Leaders and managers play different roles during change. Senior leaders’ role is to communicate the “what” (change objectives…

Deaths from falls of U.S. adults aged 75 or more years almost tripled from 2000 to 2016, according to a study published Tuesday in JAMA. From 2000 to 2016, the authors said, the absolute number of deaths from falls in the 75+ population increased from 8,613 to 25,189. During this same time period, the age-adjusted mortality…

Leaders spend a lot of time worrying about what to say. We sweat over a presentation. Carefully write (and rewrite) “informal” remarks. Print out a draft email so we can re-read it one more time before hitting the send button. It’s all important, of course, but when it comes to building trust in your organization,…

It’s the “math problem” facing every business leader today: how to turn two into four, and four into eight.G The numbers refer to average job tenure: just over four years overall, and as low as one to two years for younger professionals. It’s the era of the career nomad who moves from opportunity to opportunity with…