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What is the barrier between employees and untapped creativity? Could it be the fear of failure?

Anxiety is a serious deterrent for anyone; few things are more powerful than the thought of getting something wrong and facing the inevitable embarrassment and consequences that will swoop down on us after.

Many employers don’t realize how significant a barrier the fear of failure is towards achieving employee engagement.

In 2017, the World Economic Forum presented a study which revealed the brain’s unprecedented growth not through repetition, but through failure. A whopping 30% increase in employee confidence was realized just through employers adjusting the workplace mentality towards mistakes.

‍In other words, failure is the gateway to innovation and there are a few reasons why.

Overcoming Failure At Work Teaches Work Ethic

When we experience failure, we examine the path that led us to our payoff and visualize the changes we want to apply in the future. Introspection engages the subconscious and conscious parts of our brain, deepening our focus and intention. By framing failure as an acceptable outcome, you ensure these meditations are reinforcing positive thinking and optimism. 1

‍That same 2017 study also pointed out a direct relationship between optimistic thinking and personal confidence; those who had the former, inevitably demonstrated an ability to “think outside the box and overcome workplace challenges.” 2

"Our data supports the idea that confidence impacts workers' objectives and perceived success... Our results are consistent with a confidence cycle, whereby confidence and success create a positive feedback loop."

Something Innovative This Way Comes

Some of the most recognizable names in the retail market are products born from accidents. We know it doesn’t always work this way, but whoever rode a bike for the first time without falling a few times?Creativity is not a science: No one can say, “this + this = brilliant idea!”However, as an employer, you are in control of the environment in which your potential creative minds operate. Your work culture can either support creativity or hinder it and the way to achieve the former is by encouraging new ideas, no matter how ridiculous.Plan group brainstorming sessions where employees can pitch their ideas or send out an open invitation for feedback on a new project that the company is taking on. You don’t have to run with every idea that comes your way, but you may be inspired by what you hear. Ideas breed more ideas, which in turn - you guessed it - bring on more ideas.

The Time Has Come: Encourage Mistakes

The automatic psychological and physical response to a mistake is not a positive one. If your workplace culture openly encourages mistakes and communicates that mentality to every member of staff, it is possible to change this reaction amongst your employees.Drive your business forward with a team of risk-takers, whose passion and ingenuity knows no bounds. All you have to do is tell them it’s okay to be less than perfect because, in fact, you want them to be anything but.

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Discover how peer-to-peer recognition can foster a positive work environment - book your free Qarrot demo today!

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Resources

• The Learning Brain Gets Bigger--Then Smaller
• The Best Leaders Know That Letting People Fail Can Help Them to Grow and Improve
• Lifehack.org - Its All About How You Fail

This year, Sky Bet CEO Richard Flint was rated the number one CEO in the UK by the job rating site Glassdoor. Glassdoor’s reviews come from employees, making this award very meaningful and its recipient, a leader businesses around the world ought to take note of.

What is Flint doing that resonates so strongly with his staff? According to him, keeping work culture casual has opened up an invaluable dialogue between all levels of staff.

‍The managerial approach Flint takes to maximize employee engagement is actively creating an informal and collegiate environment.¹

“Be nice, friendly, and approachable […] and you’ll get the best out of your employees every single time...The best way to find out what’s really going on is to talk to people outside of the formal environment. In a formal meeting, people always want to tell you everything is really good.” -Richard Kent

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Operating with a less formal office environment is something more and more businesses are practicing, and it’s not just startups. From open-concept offices to employees working from home, flexible work structures seem to be becoming the new norm.

‍But where should the line be drawn? At what point does a casual work culture impede employee productivity?

‍Here are a couple of guidelines to keep in mind

Constant communication can kill employee productivity

Office chat platforms are incredibly effective tools for keeping staff connected. Different departments and team members can instantly get updates from one another and keep projects moving forward without having to call formal meetings.

The issue is that those message notifications are not always arriving at the ideal time. In the spirit of open communication and in the wake of flexible work hours, employees at all levels are making themselves available much of the time - even outside of regular hours. When chat conversations become relentless, all-day affairs, employee focus and productivity take a hit from repeated interruptions.

Accordingly, management should be aware that employees crave a bit of structure for their chat rooms. A recent survey showed that as much as 81 percent of staff expressed an interest in having guidelines around communication apps. Often, a simple acknowledgment that it is okay to set your status as Do Not Disturb will alleviate any guilt from saying “I’m unavailable” and give your workforce uninterrupted time to focus.

Employee engagement for staff working from home

There are a lot of benefits to working from home - no time or money wasted on transit and a comfortable, quiet work environment to name a few. It’s no surprise that many employees are increasingly negotiating this flexibility into their employment agreements.

With this freedom comes more responsibility. Managers or supervisors need to regularly check in and maintain a connection with those staff working from home in order to prevent employee disengagement.

These meetings don’t have to be formal—you may decide to do check-ins through chat tools, email, or even over coffee—that’s Richard Kent’s preferred approach.

Whatever approach you decide on, these status updates should include general conversation to connect with the employee and most importantly, be done on a weekly basis. By keeping your employees informed on the going-on’s of the office, you reinforce the message that they are still a part of the team and their work matters to the company.²

Concrete boundaries are key

Don’t be afraid to relax your company culture and try out a more informal approach. Trading-in rigid guidelines for a more collaborative, horizontal business structure has proven to work wonders for many organizations.

The employee engagement success of these relaxed atmospheres is dependent on having an awareness of areas where a little can turn into too much. Knowing and managing counterproductive practices that can emerge from an open culture requires an understanding of employee work styles. The more you know about how your staff like to work, the more accurately you can shape a culture that will benefit them.

An “informal and open” work culture is not all about open-space offices. Employees want a work culture that allows them to express their true selves, inspire and be inspired by their teammates, and lets them walk away at the end of the day feeling connected to the success of the business.

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Here at Qarrot, we know that communication is key - learn how we can keep your whole team in the loop!

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Resources

• Britain's 'best CEO' shares his advice for getting the most out of staff
• ‍Peoplematters.in - How HR Can Engage Salespeople To Boost Their Productivity

Why do 27% of North Americans forfeit their lunch break?

‍The answer is not that employees are not given one, but rather that they electively choose to take a shorter lunch or work through it completely. By law, all North American companies are required to allot a lunchtime break for their employees, but only one-third of them are taking this opportunity to recharge. Working through lunch, staying at your desk browsing the Internet, or cutting your break short to get back to work sooner all have a direct correlation to lower engagement and productivity!We feel the effects of working relentlessly with no breaks as fatigue, increased stress, and difficulty focusing. Consider this: ten million working days a year are lost due to work-related stress.

In 2015, only 1 in 5 office employees reported taking an actual lunch away from their desk¹. A workforce that is suffering from these symptoms is undoubtedly going to be less productive.If the point of taking a lunch break is to reset and come back to work more focused, we should all be taking full advantage.

Surveys have found that the top reasons expressed by employees for not taking advantage of lunch breaks are:

1. Having too much work
2. Stress
3. Workplace culture
4. Wanting to appear hard-working to management

In the moment, choosing to continue working seems more productive: we don’t lose our train of thought and the additional work time makes us feel we’re completing our tasks more quickly. Unfortunately, this is an oversight. We don’t see the long-term and more intrinsic effects of this choice.

Kimberly Lesbach, a management professor at UC-Davis specializing in psychology of the workplace, noted that “never taking a break from very careful thought-work actually reduces your ability to be creative².” It’s not just creativity that is affected; psychologist Dr. Janet Scarborough Civitelli says that overall marginal returns are reduced when our brains are required to exert continuous pressure during long shifts. Walking in a quiet park, going for a lunch-time workout or reading a book - anything to divert your mind from its point of focus for 8 hours a day will noticeably increase your ability to engage back in the office.

The recommended approach to decreasing sick days as an employer is to encourage a healthy lifestyle. This means: A higher percentage of employees utilizing their lunch break equals a lower percentage of disengagement and sick days. While implementing breaks throughout the day grants the opportunity to reset one’s mind, encouraging staff to take advantage of their lunch will have the same effect and more.

Time to leave the office and exercise, have a nutritious lunch, or possibly run some errands effectively minimizes stress, increases cognitive function, and just plain makes your staff happy!

As the employer, there are a few different approaches to increasing your workforce lunch-time takers.

‍First, lead by example. If employees see you taking a full lunch break, exercising, or meditating, the will likely feel more comfortable doing the same.

‍Second, actively vocalize to your staff that it is encouraged to take their lunch breaks and do whatever they feel will help them relax and reset. You could even provide healthy snacks or reading materials to entice employees away from their digital screens.

‍Lastly, ensure that your company culture is pro-breaks. Taking 20-minute breaks to practice meditation or mindfulness - even just from your seat - is a proven way to help relax and focus. Staff should take a few minutes to get up, stretch, have a glass of water or a cup of tea a few times a day. This isn’t wasted time, this is invested time.

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Book a demo with Qarrot to learn how recognition can boost productivity (without sacrificing your lunch break!)

Resources

• ‍Peoplematters - How Infeedo is Utilizing AI to Interpret Employees Emotions
• ‍Realbusiness.co - The Importance for Staff to Take Lunch Breaks
• ‍Lifehack.org - The Importance of Breaks at Work
• ‍Psychologytoday.com - Why and How You Should Take Breaks at Work
• ‍Smallbusiness.chron.com - The Importance of Employee Breaks

Thinking about an incentive program for your employees but not sure where to start?

Or, perhaps you’re not sure how to measure the program once it’s launched.

‍Both are legitimate questions.

Maybe you have seen some attractive statistics on incentive programs and are excited about the potential for your organization’s ROI, but need some clarification on what you are about to get yourself into. So, let’s jump into what exactly this thing called an employee incentive program is and how you can measure its effect within your organization.

‍Incentive programs arose as a response to common business concerns such as employee absenteeism, dropping productivity levels, and high turnover rates. These programs use positive reinforcement to convey company appreciation, comprehensively influencing company culture, employee engagement, and the staff behaviours your company values most. A critical factor in the success of an incentive program is that all recognition criteria is unambiguous and built on measurable actions or achievements. That said, the program’s malleability means no two companies must have a program that is alike.

Although their end-game intention is the same, incentive programs are flexible. While rewards programs use gifts that come at a cost to the business, recognition programs are rooted in psychological approaches such as public acknowledgment or an employee of the month board. Both approaches can extend beyond individual performance criteria to include team or department outputs, adding an additional level of specification. The customizability of your program ensures that the specific needs of your organization are directly targeted and leave room for adjustments as needed throughout the program’s life-cycle.

We talk a lot about the benefits of incentive programs, but as a business owner or company executive, you are rightfully concerned with whether you can quantify the results. The short answer to whether these programs are quantifiable is ‘yes’!When it comes to measuring the cost of your program and its benefits, the more data you have the better. Measuring your employee rewards and recognition will either validate the program’s effectiveness, reception, and profitability or address ineffective areas for revaluation. You should also be able to determine whether employees feel valued specifically from the program and the per-employee cost of the benefits.

The basic methodology for evaluating your program’s ROI is as follows:

1. Decide what metrics you’ll evaluate—these should be based on your program’s goals. For example, if your goal is employee retention, then determine your current retention / turnover rates and the associated costs. This will be act as your baseline for evaluating future improvements. For metrics such as employee engagement, you may need to complete a pulse survey before launching your program.
2. Determine your annual costs. Calculate the cost of rewards given to employees separately from those related to program. Add the total amounts expended for cash awards, incentives, bonuses and other payments and divide that figure by the number of employees to determine the per-employee cost for your company's employee rewards and recognition. For example, if your company awarded 10 employees each an annual bonus for $2,500 and your employee base consists of 150 full-time employees, the average cost budgeted for rewards is $25,000 divided by 150, which equals approximately $166 per employee.¹
3. At the time intervals appropriate for the metrics you are measuring, compare any improvements to your baseline. Have your costs of employee turnover gone down? If so, by how much? Now divide this improvement by the cost of incentives awarded over this period to get your ROI.

Remember to regularly evaluate your program and stay open to shifting things around. At the end of the day, you are aiming to make your staff feel more appreciated and motivated, so there will always be human factors to be addressed as you go.

‍Looking to spruce up your existing incentive program? Qarrot can help you with that!

Resources

• ‍Inc.com - Employee reward and recognition systems
• Incentivemag.com - Best Companies See More Value in Incentives
• ‍Forbes.com - Using metrics to prove the ROI of employee recognition programs

In our twenties, we jump into the workplace with the ambition to realize our career aspirations and an excitement for professional work environments. When we think of our lives twenty years down the road, we often think of ourselves as having achieved our goals and despite a few grey hairs and wrinkles, we imagine ourselves happy.

Why is this so often not the case?

‍A recent study found that one in six workers between the ages 35 and 55 are unhappy, more than double the number for those under 35.  While the number of “happy” workers between the ages of 18 and 34 (a whopping 92%) is something to celebrate, the high rate of discontent amongst older workers is scary.

For those outside of this bracket, aged 55 and above, things are not much better statistically. Nearly a third of people over 55 don’t feel appreciated, while 16% say they don’t have friends at work.

‍What is happening in the lives of workers that by age 35, satisfaction at work takes such a significant dive? There are a few answers to this.

First, an awareness of how far one has or has not come. If the goals we set for ourselves have not come to fruition, the disappointment of this combined with the knowledge that the clock is ticking leaves many feeling unfulfilled. Corinne Mills, a joint managing director of Personal Career Management, puts it this way, “A feeling [we have] around that age, [where we think] ‘shouldn’t I have made it? Shouldn’t things be more sorted by now? Is this it?”

Another change in the life of a 35-year-old to that of a 20-something-year-old is that our priorities can dramatically change. This is the time when many have started a family or, at least, begun seriously thinking about it. Ten years earlier, the grind of working long days was less physically draining and felt consistent with career priorities, but this lifestyle isn’t as alluring to many workers after the age of 35.

"There comes a time when either you haven’t achieved success, work has burned you out, or life experience tells you family is more important…You ask yourself: ‘What am I doing this for?" - Cary Cooper, a workplace researcher at Manchester Business School. 

Avoid the pitfall

Midlife dissatisfaction can also be the by-product of stress. By 35, many people have achieved higher positions of seniority and feel heavier stress-loads from the increased responsibility and pressure. Compound this with the impression of not being appreciated, and one can understand why an employee would be unhappy.

As an employer, the awareness of how your employees are feeling should be used as an opportunity for you to change the statistics within your company. By 2024, one in four people in the labor market will be 55 or older, meaning a significant portion of your workforce are at risk of being unhappy and unengaged.

The best solution is prevention, and there are many ways for you to easily ensure your staff are happy, no matter their age.

Simply put, show your employees some love.‍

This can be as simple as in-person recognition, granting more autonomy to demonstrate your trust, or investing in growing your employee’s skills. The best part about this is that you don’t have to guess at what they would appreciate: Ask them! The question itself already serves as recognition that they are appreciated.

Beyond recognition, it’s important to simply be aware that older employees have a different lifestyle than younger staff. Check in with them to see how their work-life balance is going and create a channel of communication where employees will feel comfortable expressing feeling overworked or overlooked. These are confident employees who have been in the workforce for years and know what they are good at: Make them aware that they are assets to your business and they will bring everything they have to the table, happily.

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Recognized employees are happy employees - book your free trial with Qarrot today!

What Staffup Weekends Can Teach Us About Better Recruitment

The internet provides us with endless articles on the art of the interview:

• Dress according to the vibe of the office
• Mirror your interviewer’s body language
• Be engaged and ask questions
• Don’t mention an interest you have in something that no one else in the office can appreciate—Wait, what?

This last one may seem a bit ridiculous, but it’s true.

Multiple studies have shown us that traditional hiring practices put too much weight on an applicant’s academic pedigree, pre-formulated answers to rigorous questioning, and whether the individual “fits” with the company. Why is this? Human nature.

All human beings are subject to unconscious biases, which can result in certain applicants being passed by for a role they may be well-suited for. Generalizations often play a role in forming our biases. For example, we may perceive that someone with certain interests will be a better fit within our team or that an Ivy-league education correlates to a stronger skill set.

‍Companies around the world are noticing the effect of biases within flawed hiring processes: Its effect on employee turnover and the costs of hiring and training is significant. In 2012, consulting firm Leadership IQ revealed that from 20,000 new hires, 46% of them had failed within 18 months. In 2013, Google also discovered the inconsistency between acing interviews and job performance:

“We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationships. It’s a complete random mess.”

— Laszlo Bock, Senior Vice President for Google’s People Operations

How do we combat biases that we aren’t consciously unaware of? What can we do differently?

Enter Staffup Weekends

Brooke Allen launched Staffup Weekends with the hope that the event might help companies hire in a less biased, more effective and more humane way. Allen advocates that the solution to hiring resides in a call-to-adventure, not an advertisement: Bring together all job-seekers for a hands-on, skill-testing weekend so they can show their skills, not just talk about them.

‍At the end of the 48-hour adventure, not all who first walked through the doors will remain. Many simply can’t hack it: their degrees, the name of their university, and their extra-curricular interests won’t help them conceptualize and complete the project. Those who do have the opportunity to present the product of their weekend efforts in small teams to potential hiring managers in the room.

For hiring managers, this is a chance to see what a person can do, how they think, what their work style, strengths, and weaknesses are, without anyone having to convince them. Instead of talking about their qualifications, the applicants demonstrate them firsthand! The weekends also allow recruiters to scope out candidates at a fraction of the cost of traditional recruiting.

“The fact that people stayed for 48 hours to work on something put them head and shoulders above the thousands of applications we receive because the participants are people who show up and see things through.”

— Chris Nicholson, Head of communications and Recruitment for FutureAdvisor

At this point, the idea of Staffup Weekends is new and not commonly used, but there is a lesson from innovative hiring practices here: “Seeing is believing.”

This is good news for you and your potential hire: You get to see that your candidate is capable of what their resume boasts they can do, and your new employee feels confident stepping in to work on their first day because they know you already believe in them and value their skills.

‍If employee engagement is heavily based on keeping your team feeling valued, this shift in hiring strategies is gold. Think of the energy your recruits are bringing into the company! Gone is the pressure to prove themselves and, in its place, is an invaluable confidence knowing they bring something needed to the team.

That sense of value is going to translate into greater creativity, better communication, and higher work quality earlier on.

This shift in hiring practices could be a platform for initiating powerful relationships between companies and their employees. You no longer need to wait for your recruits to start work to confirm that they can deliver or work well with your staff: find a way, whether it be through a Staffup Weekend, or another hands-on approach, to put applicant skills to the test. Get to know them, chat with them, work alongside them, and be more confident in your recruiting process than ever before.

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Effortless onboarding is just one way Qarrot can streamline your recognition process - book your free demo here!

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Resources

• ‍Wired.com - The way we hire is all wrong
• ‍News.ycombinator.com
• ‍Linkedin.com - Unconventional recruitment methods that actually work
• ‍Ascendantrecruitment.co.uk - Four unconventional recruitment methods that get results

“…how startups attack problems and mobilize talent make them unique.”

— Forbes

Beyond the trendy work spaces, quirky perks, and flexible work hours, startups have something big businesses lack: an extremely efficient use of their talent.

Because of their small size and tight budgets, startups rely on innovative, passionate, and focused employees to push their business to new heights. Not only is there an expectation of collaboration and creativity, the testing-out of new work strategies and constant self-analysis means efficiency is always being pursued.

‍Many big companies can learn from this.

Regardless of the size of your company, actively supporting employee autonomy and idea sharing will result in a workforce that is both accountable and creative. It’s time to take a queue from your startup next door - commit to hiring the right kind of talent and gain the know-how to build an open and trusting workplace culture!

It starts with the talent

In a startup, smaller teams place a huge emphasis on hiring the right person. New hires need to mesh well with the current team, have diverse capabilities, and bring in a self-starter attitude. If the applicant isn’t as passionate about the company’s objectives as the rest of the team, it may not be the right fit. Passionate people are accountable, are more focused, and aren’t afraid to push beyond what they know, making them versatile assets to the company.

If you are a large business, you have many advantages. With a bigger name and opportunities for employees to earn promotions and pay raises, you could simply watch for the cream of the crop up-and-comers and make an offer to pull them onto your team. But that’s not always the best strategy. Finding candidates with a passion for your business and an openness to work across a range of responsibilities with a deep sense of accountability may be the better approach. But finding the ‘right’ hire often takes time and isn’t always easy when so many candidates apply for an open position. Patience and persistence are often required.

Once you have these gems in your ranks, make sure you keep them. Establishing a culture where employees feel valued because they can see they are personally responsible for organisational success is something startups excel at.

Give your employees autonomy and space to create!

Startups exist because someone took a risk.

Big businesses can become rigid, choosing the safe option and calculating everything to the point of restriction. Startups often don’t have the data to validate their ideas, so taking risks becomes a necessity. Calculated risks are the product of creative employees seeking out new ways of doing things, working on solutions to big problems, or spotting a gap in the market and taking the dive to fill it.

‍New ideas can be brought to life on a regular basis by putting a bit of backing behind the right area: make creativity a focus. From sales to product development to customer service, encourage your employees to propose new ideas and take risks! Startups are not afraid to fail; from the little things like allowing employees to try their own work methods to the large-scale endeavours like conceptualizing and launching a new product, these sparks of innovation are the blood of the business.

“While large companies can’t necessarily pivot or introduce new services with the same ease of a startup, they can research new developments in the field, encourage an active research and development department, develop rapid prototyping methodologies, and pilot proof-of-concepts and minimal viable products.”

— Microventures

As your team starts to share their findings and inventions, give them space to pursue the work autonomously. Often in startups, employees are expected to work on side projects with minimum supervision; there are simply not enough resources to have constant managerial staff hovering over everyone’s shoulders. But, this works because employees feel like they are making a significant contribution to the company and are trusted to do so on their own. Autonomy and trust are huge motivators. Combine that with listening to their ideas and you have the recipe to a seriously productive workforce.But we know that too much of a good thing can lead to problems. Inefficiencies can multiply when there is an absence of structure and focus on the overall objectives of the company. Again, do like startups and continually self-evaluate to ensure that your team or organization is on track.

Encourage Adaptability

Startups are masters at continually assessing themselves as individuals and as an organisation to see where improvements can be made. As unexpected shifts in your marketplace arise, how do you respond?  Just because what you are doing now has worked in the past, doesn’t mean it will benefit you forever. Don’t let the comfortable place you are sitting in be an excuse not to experiment. Do and be better.Startups constantly test, assess the data, and adjust. This mindset can be adopted by your business and keep you competing with companies of all sizes.Keeping creativity and adaptability momentum year-round is simpler than you think. Organize brainstorming sessions for your departments, assign team leaders to head and oversee projects, and have informal self-analysis exercises to keep everyone looking for ways to be better, faster, and more efficient.You may be the big guy in town, but you can think like the little guy.

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Take a tour of Qarrot and see for yourself how powerful recognition can be!

Resources

• ‍Emirates247.com
• ‍Microventures.com
• ‍Forbes.com
• ‍Businessnewsdaily.com

With every job, there are bound to be days where things are less than perfect, and you head home at the end of an 8-hour grind feeling deflated and unrewarded. At least you can take solace in knowing this kind of a day is a one-off, an occasional occurrence, and a good sleep will likely be enough to reset and make tomorrow better.

But, what happens when it’s not just the occasional day that has got you down? What do you do when work leaves you unsatisfied more days than not?

The first reaction many of us have when work is making us unhappy is to start packing-up and looking for a new job. Of course, jumping into a new role at a different company is likely to make you feel engaged and rewarded for a while, but the novelty and excitement can quickly wear off.

What this habit does to your resume and, most importantly, your long-term sense of fulfillment, however, should have you considering your current situation more carefully.

Before you go the route of “I’m out of here!” consider what this response will look like to potential future employers. Every time you are unhappy at work, your instinctual habit will be to start looking for something new, because hey, it must be the job that isn’t right. Right? Job after job, your resume will begin to look more like a directory than a professional CV and would-be employers may be concerned about hiring someone who has bounced around so much. And you still haven’t found that perfect position…

This doesn’t have to be your situation.

There is an old saying that knowledge is power. How true! However, you need to put that knowledge to work to truly benefit. Accordingly, the more you can dissect your situation and your feelings, the more power you will have. By identifying the specific things you find irksome and those things you need in your job to feel rewarded, you can reduce the risk of being a job-hopper.

Over the course of a week or so, make a list. This list can include the things you find frustrating, the work-life balance you wish you had, the inefficient work processes around you - anything.

When your list is completed, ask yourself:

Is it my job, or is that just part of it?

‍There is usually some part of our job that we don’t love as much as everything else. The good news is, you can work with that! The next step is to identify what element of the job is bringing you down. Brainstorm some solutions to the problem - decreasing the number of tasks, sharing the work volume with a colleague, or changing the approach to the work could all be viable options. If you find yourself in a job that doesn't let you do what you do best and enjoy most, try to be creative in finding ways to do more of those activities. Making time for these tasks, even if just in small bursts or brief times over the day or week, can have a significant impact on your energy, engagement, and happiness.

If your list reveals to you that your general state of discontent is coming from missed lunches, extra hours, or an absence of appreciation, think about what changes need to happen for you to feel valued or to achieve a work-life balance.

Next, bring your insights to your manager and let them know you’re not feeling as engaged as you have been previously. This isn’t just a meeting for you to complain, though. Initiate a conversation about what you need to feel fulfilled at work and provide constructive solutions to help you both make that a reality. Remember, your employer is not a mind-reader, they can’t know you’re unhappy or help you out if you wait until you quit to inform them!

If, after your conversation, you ultimately decide to leave your job, at least you will know it was an informed decision; everything you have learned about what you need as a person and professional will help you to find and negotiate future job offers.Just remember: don’t make your career choices a guessing game. Knowing yourself better will ultimately lead to finding the right job.

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Don't wait any longer to engage and motivate your team - book your free demo with Qarrot today!

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Resources

• ‍Forbes.com - Unhappy at work: either change what you do or change how you do it
• ‍Themuse.com - What to do when you hate your job and you don't have anything else lined up yet
• ‍Experience.com - Ten things to do if you really really hate your job
• ‍Forbes.com - Five ways to get unstuck and break out of a career funk

Is stress affecting your work? Or perhaps you’re seeing warning signs that others in your workplace may be buckling under the pressure of too much stress?

‍In many work environments, being busy and under pressure is a sign of importance and stress is all too often worn as a badge honor. For this reason, many workers are often reluctant to let others know they’re stressed or suffering from the pressure. However, if you’re feeling too much stress, it not only affects you, but it can impact others around you as well as your company.

Here’s why:

Eustress, which experts define as “good stress,” helps to keep you motivated, focused, and push you through some challenging projects. On the other hand, distress can be crippling.

Distress is an overload of Eustress, where the good stress stacks up to become more than you can cope with.

‍So, what are the signs that your Eustress has tipped over into the danger zone?

‍You might notice symptoms manifesting in your emotions, behavior, thoughts, or physical wellness. For the sake of your long-term mental and physical health and for that of your employees’, it’s important to notice signs of high-stress levels as soon as possible.

Your Brain Just Isn’t The Same

One of the first things to go when we are experiencing high-stress levels is our cognitive functioning. If you find you are experiencing abnormal anxious thoughts, an inability to concentrate, or are having trouble remembering things, your body is likely responding to stress.

Emotional Slump

Your coworkers may notice emotional irregularities before you clue into them, but it likely won’t take long for you to ask yourself, “what’s going on with me?”Emotional symptoms can include feeling depressed, irritable, lonely, pessimistic, or anxious. In the office, these intrinsic shifts will quickly affect the way you carry yourself, interact with others, and the quality of your work.

Bad Habits Creep Into Your Routine

Last week, you were a healthy, responsible creature of habit with a great diet and regular workout routine. This week, you couldn’t be more different.Stress hits our eating habits hard. For some, stress may result in a loss of appetite while for others the release of cortisol produces intense cravings for anything fatty or full of sugar and salt. Your use of alcohol and cigarettes may also increase as your body attempts to relax.Sleep and work habits fall victim to stress too; Sleeping too much or too little and uncharacteristic procrastination are indicators of a body and mind being plagued by stress.

You’re Crashing

Numerous studies have shown that stress has a strong correlation to health problems like obesity, depression, and asthma - to name a few. Hopefully, you will notice the more immediate symptoms and avoid these serious health conditions.

Many people report having aches and pain throughout their bodies, often followed by catching a cold or the flu. With or without a cold, you may see other cold-like symptoms emerge like dizziness, nausea, a loss of sex drive, diarrhea, constipation, and chest pain.The perceived magnitude of the events stressing you out is not a reliable indicator of how stressed you actually are - your body can react just as strongly to an argument with a co-worker as if you’re facing a true life-or-death situation.

Choosing to push through stress, regarding it as a temporary state that you will leave behind in a week or so, is not an advisable choice of action. The more your emergency stress system is activated, the easier it becomes to trigger and the harder it becomes to shut off.

Conclusion

The real key to minimizing the impacts of stress is to catch it at its initiation and examine what you could be doing differently to help out your body and mind. A full day at the spa may have you on a cloud for a few hours, but come Monday - when you are back to your everyday routine- your triggers will be waiting for you.

Take some time to research techniques for stress prevention and management that you can use inside and outside the office. You may find breathing exercises, meditation, or a lunch-hour workout does wonders for providing mental space and inner calmness.

If you manage employees, be sure to check-in regularly with them about their stress levels. Remember that recognizing your staff for their hard work helps them feel valued and can infuse them with positivity and appreciation. You may also consider programs to promote recognition and wellness in order to boost overall morale.

Many organizations are getting an immediate ROI from investments in these types of programs in the form of a happier, healthier and more productive workforce.

Let Qarrot take the guesswork out of employee recognition for your team - book your free demo today!

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Resources

• ‍Personal Branding Blog - How to Reset a Bad Work
• DayForbes.com - 12 Ways to Eliminate Stress at Work
• ‍Snacknation.com - How to Reduce Stress at Work
• ‍Mayoclinic.org - Stress Symptoms