Alexandra Levits Water Cooler Wisdom The World of Compensation is Changing with Far Reaching Consequences

Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom The World of Compensation is Changing â€" with Far Reaching Consequences Two big pieces of salary-related news hit the Internet recently. Credit card processing company Gravity Payments’ CEO was forced to defend his decision to standardize all employee pay to $70K, and the SEC finalized a long-delayed rule forcing businesses to sharetheir “pay ratio,” or how CEO pay compares with that of the average company worker. How might these developments affect businessproductivity? $70K Salary Policy Does More Harm Than Good First up, Dan Price. Thirty year-old Price is the founding CEO of Gravity. He made headlines when he decided to fight income inequality by raising the minimum salary of his 120 employees to $70K. About 70 people got raises and another 30 had their pay doubled instantly. It might have seemed like a good idea at the time. But, problems were apparent immediately. For one thing, a lot of talented mid-level and senior-level hires quit right away. Entrepreneur’s Steve Tobak can see why: “An entry-level newhire who just clocks in and out is suddenly making almost as much as a veteran supervisor who busted her hump for years.” “Leveling the playing field all at once as he did breeds resentment and virtually eliminates the merits of meritocracy. You simply can’t raise the minimum salary that high without it having a negative ripple effect throughout the organization.” From a productivity standpoint, I don’t know that raising people’s salaries when the act has nothing to do with achievement will have the hoped-for effect. Some employees may be motivated to work harder for a CEO who has proved himself to be a nice guy, but those who got jacked up salaries likely have no incentive to push themselves or do more on any given day. Junior-level employees want to be rewarded, but the purpose of the reward is important. I believe that most people are more satisfied and engaged at work when they are recognized for actual accomplishments. And when they are satisfied and engaged, they are more productive. If I were a mid-level manager, on the other hand, I think that unconscious negative feelings associated with income fascism would either directly or indirectly decrease my productivity. After all, why should I go out of my way to share my expertise and acquire new expertise on behalf of a company that doesn’t really value it? Someone should do an experiment on this, ideally before any other companies pull the trigger on standardizing pay. For the other controversy impacting the world of pay, head over to Intuits Fast Track blog.

Googles Social Graph API The Future of Personal Brand Management - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Googles Social Graph API The Future of Personal Brand Management - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LabCylbapuM] This video gives a glimpse of the future of our personal brand management.   Ive talked before about how many social networks there are and how people quickly join them and secure their name.   There is far too many social networks and more are added each day.   We really need to be cautious about which ones we join and give our information to.   Ive said before that I feel that there are three piece of criteria for selecting which to join and which to hide from:   volume, credibility and relevancy. Many of us participate in some of the social networks that fulfill this criteria, such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.   Google announced today that they are opening up a Social Graph API for developers.   They are clearly targeting and competing with Facebooks internal social graph, which is a digital representation of our social networks in real life. On Googles site and in the video above, this might come off a bit technical for many, including me, so let me take a stab at it.   Basically, our participation on social networks has links to various other networks that weve registered in.   Google has found a way (and they said it was easy), to make these website talk to each other.   Therefore, developers can create applications that integrate the networks together.   The benefit to us is that youll be able to see which of your friends are on other services, forming a global neighborhood of your friends. Why your personal brand should care: Discover your friends that are using the same services as you. Start to make sense of social networking and your participation on each website. Be prepared for more social networks that integrate with your brand, which may be spread across many sites

5 CV Red Flags Which Employers Hate

5 CV Red Flags Which Employers Hate As a recruiter, selecting the right candidate to match your clients’ specification is essential. But it’s not just about finding that perfect candidate. You need to be supporting them in putting their best foot forward to the employer, too. A combination of compelling CV content and a well-defined structure is key to your candidate landing plenty of interviews. However, if left unchecked, even the most minor of CV errors could result in them falling at the first hurdle with employers. With that said, check out these five CV red flags you need to be aware of when you’re helping your candidate secure their dream job: It’s not tailored to the job A CV shouldn’t merely document a candidate’s career and educational history, but should instead showcase their suitability for the sector they’re pursuing. Encourage candidates to adapt their CV to match the job description, including keywords and core strengths that are required within their industry. They should look to reserve room within their CV by shortening role descriptions for less related or older positions and may even benefit from removing less applicable qualifications. This will allow them to provide more depth to applicable experience, emphasizing the value they had in previous roles and displaying the core skills they’ve acquired. Urge candidates to be unique and detailed within their CV, featuring why they’re the ideal candidate for the specific role in question. Help make the decision process easier for employers by supporting candidates to tailor their CV to every position they apply for. It focuses on duties rather than achievements Encourage your candidates to focus on the impact they had within previous organizations within their CV, highlighting key accomplishments. Whilst role descriptions should list the core duties a candidate carried out in each position, advise them to include plenty of sector-specific achievements to prove their value. Incorporating facts and figures into examples will help strengthen these accomplishments and give more context to employers. For example, if a candidate states they “Brought in 5 new clients within my first month” rather than merely stating they have strong lead generation skills, it’s sure to stand out far more to employers. Documenting purely the duties within each position will make a CV blend into the crowd rather than accentuating why that candidate should be hired. And it doesn’t end at your candidate’s role descriptions make sure they’re adding accomplishments throughout their CV. It’s packed with clichés Overused phrases add nothing to a CV and merely take up valuable space. Instead, guide candidates to be descriptive, giving specific and unique content rather than stating they are “a strong team player” or they “always give 110%.” Statements such as the above will result in employers easily forgetting an application, whereas a custom matched CV will make them want to find out more. Inform candidates of the need to provide definitive details about their experience, displaying exactly why they’d make the perfect candidate for the job. Its poorly formatted CV structure is equally as important as the content within a CV. A clear, well-defined format will enable candidates to highlight key information to employers. Candidates should facilitate ease of reading by breaking up large blocks of text, using bold headers, bullet points, and distinctive sections. A strong structure will allow employers to simply navigate a candidate’s experience, helping them determine why they’re the right applicant for the post. A cluttered or messy structure will only distract employers’ attention, causing them to miss critical information. Encourage candidates to incorporate the most significant elements of their experience at the top of their CV, enticing employers to read further. Advise them to draw employers’ attention with a punchy opening and record their career and educational history in reverse chronological order. This will make it easier for employers to flow through a CV. Ultimately, a poorly formatted CV won’t do justice to a candidate’s experience, so it’s essential they adopt a structure which features their relevancy. It contains unexplained gaps If a candidate has any gaps within their career, whether they went traveling, were caring for a family member or were even pursuing other personal pursuits, being honest about these gaps is vital. Ask the candidate to add context to explain these gaps to employers, helping them understand the reasoning behind any employment breaks. Unexplained gaps may lead to employers discounting a CV, whereas being open will mean employers are more likely to continue with their application. Employment gaps shouldn’t be seen as a negative, but by not providing any explanation, employers will start to question whether there was an adverse reason behind these gaps. Explain to candidates, that if there is a more complex reason behind a career gap, then they should at least add a short description, enabling them to give more detail once they progress to the interview stages.