May 11th, 2012
There is no one “right” way to overcome sloppy work habits and increase personal productivity. Some people can’t function without a to-do list; others find them overwhelming. For one person, a clear desk clears the mind; for another,if work is out of site, it’s out of mind. You may prefer jotting notes in a personal planner, while your cubicle neighbor sings the praises of the latest and greatest calendar software or app. In this Blue Paper™ we’ll look at seven of the most common personal productivity challenges—the things that lead to sloppy work habits—and offer tips and tricks to manage them.
April 25th, 2012
When it comes to communicating about your business with your key audiences, chances are you’ve worked hard to brand your company. You’ve built a website that is engaging. You’ve developed collateral that is on message and on brand. And maybe you’ve even branched out into the world of social media, to tap the wealth of information it avails you as well as the opportunities to deepen customer interaction with your brand.
Yet there’s one more thing you can—and should—do to reach your current and potential customers on a deeper level. If you’re already so busy, and the thought of adding one more ongoing task to your to-do list has you thinking in terms of four-letter words …we hope you’re thinking “blog.”
April 9th, 2012
Internal company gatherings—from companywide training and retreats to employee appreciation and holiday parties—are a necessary part of any business or organization, but they aren’t always a success. Well-planned events serve to educate, promote the company, build camaraderie
and reward employees for a job well done. Poorly planned events are costly in terms of time, money and morale.
No matter the size of the business or the reason for the event, planning an internal event is a challenging and time-consuming task. This Blue Paper™ is a beginner’s guide to planning and promoting internal company events, outlining steps from forming a (hopefully nontoxic!) event team, and completing an evaluation. Are you ready to party? Then get ready to plan!
April 4th, 2012
We don’t want our employees to leave. But if they must go, we want it
to be on good terms. Better employee exits set the stage for continued
relationships and create growth opportunities for both employee and
employer.
April 4th, 2012
A culture of candor means creating a safe work environment for employees to report ethics violations, legal issues and other inappropriate behavior. It means managers may need to offer honest job performance feedback, without tempering it so much that it loses its truth. And it means tearing down the walls that leadership builds to protect information that they worry will be misused if it falls into the so-called wrong hands. At its core, a culture of candor encourages truth across all communication points, for the betterment of the company.
March 6th, 2012
Though still in its relative infancy, social network analysis can hold great potential for marketers who wish to better target specific audiences with particular interests through marketing—both on- and off-line.
But what is social network analysis? Simply put, social network analysis is the examination of relationships between people, their interests and any entities. Also known as SNA, social network analysis is a school of thought that says it’s possible to visualize people and their connections to enable us to identify how to best share information with them.
February 20th, 2012
Traditionally, organizations pursue employee development through in-house training programs, education reimbursement, external courses and on-the-job learning. Many of these training options focus on hard skills like technical aptitude, better writing, technology or finance. More rare are the training options that build soft skills—things like teambuilding, conflict resolution and creating consensus. That’s where employee volunteering can make a difference. By contributing time and talents to the community, employees gain learning opportunities that may not be available within the organization.
February 8th, 2012
Most consumers can easily recall a time when they journeyed to the store to get a single, necessary item and came home with a trunk-load of goods they hadn’t originally intended to buy. At first thought it’s something that just happens: We simply want to treat ourselves to something nice or new or we happen to see something we forgot to put on the list. But behind the scenes, it’s a whole different story. Enter the science and psychology of consumer buying habits, and specifically, the art of product placement.
February 3rd, 2012
Bird flu, swine flu, what’s next flu? That’s the question many businesses are asking as they develop flu preparedness plans to respond to the next big epidemic. Even though flu hasn’t grabbed many headlines this year, a report from Harvard University’s School of Public Health says employers are still concerned about absenteeism from a possible flu outbreak. How well your company plans its flu response will directly impact productivity and profits in the face of an outbreak.