How to Create a Work Dress Code

To create an effective work dress code policy, you must first understand the role it should play in your business. There are two things a dress code policy is meant to accomplish. It should:

  1. Help employees properly convey your brand and its values to customers and/or clients.
  2. Not discriminate against anyone or benefit one group over another.

Depending on your industry and company culture, you might set a business formal, business casual, smart casual, or casual dress code. You could also have a different dress code for different roles, for example, a delivery driver would have a different uniform than the chef.

Here’s how to create an effective and inclusive dress code policy.

What You Can Mandate in Your Dress Code Policy, and What to Avoid

Before you create a work dress code, it’s beneficial to understand what you can and can’t do by law. As outlined by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), it’s illegal to discriminate against someone because of their:

  • Age
  • Race
  • Color
  • Religion
  • Sexual orientation
  • Gender identity
  • Nationality
  • Disability

These rules apply to every aspect of employment but are especially important to consider as you draft your dress code policy. Not only do you want to avoid legal trouble, but you want to be sure your dress code policy is inclusive, encourages individuality (at least to a point), and treats everyone fairly (a must).

As an example, say you own a restaurant and your wait staff wears a uniform, but someone on your staff wants to wear an additional garment that expresses their religious affiliation, such as a yarmulke or hijab. You are required by law to make the exception and honor your employee’s request unless you can prove that allowing the person to do so would cause undue hardship.

Even though you must not discriminate against certain staff, you are allowed to require different dress codes for different groups of people. Perhaps your in-office staff can dress more casually than your client-facing sales team. Or maybe you’re planning to have different guidelines for men and women. In this case, it’s helpful to create guidelines that are flexible enough to allow for employees to dress according to their gender identity.

As long as your requirements don’t discriminate or cause one group to take on a much greater burden than the other, you should be within your legal limitations. It might also be helpful to have your work dress code policy reviewed by a lawyer before it’s rolled out.

How to Create a Work Dress Code Policy That Works for Everyone

Now that you understand the legality of what you can and cannot do with your dress code policy, here’s how to decide what to include. You may want to consider:

  • What dress code properly represents your brand and gives your employees the flexibility to accommodate personal freedom of expression?
  • Will your policy be strict with little to no wiggle room? Or will it be more laid back and open to interpretation?
  • Will you be requiring uniforms, or will employees choose their own outfits?
  • Do you want to provide employees with a clothing stipend and cover the cost of their uniforms?

Use these questions to flesh out your policy and clearly outline what is acceptable and unacceptable. You want your policy to be easy to interpret and follow, so be sure to give employees plenty of examples. These can be text descriptions or photos that illustrate how employees are expected to dress.

What Types of Dress Code Policies Can You Can Choose From?

Once you have a general idea of how your dress code policy will function, it’s time to choose which your business will adopt. There are typically four main categories that run the gamut from casual to formal. These categories include:

  • Business Formal: This is the highest level for business attire. It’s typically adopted by businesses that make frequent public appearances or manage high-stake clients, such as in television, finance, or law. Business formal is meant to demonstrate a neat, clean, professional appearance appropriate for formal settings. Think solid-colored or pinstriped suits, blouses or button-downs with cuffed sleeves, and classic accessories such as cufflinks or simple jewelry.
  • Business Casual: One step down from business formal, this category retains many of the formal components, but the elements are a bit more relaxed. For example, instead of matching pantsuits, men can wear a blazer or sportscoat – even sneakers as long as they’re clean and neat. Women can wear button-downs, blouses, knee-length skirts or dress pants, and sweaters. Colors in this category are typically muted, and again jewelry should be simple.
  • Smart Casual: You can think of smart casual as a step above casual work attire. It can include casual elements, such as jeans, chinos, and polos, but is elevated in terms of fit and style. For example, if someone wants to wear jeans and a polo, they might opt to wear it with leather shoes and a blazer.
  • Casual: The name of the game here is comfortable, but it should still incorporate professional attire. Casual dress should be relaxed and informal but not what you would wear around your home. For example, typically jeans are permissible but not sweatpants. Employees can also wear brighter colors and patterns but should still look neat and presentable.

These are the general guideline that you can use these as the basis of your dress code and adapt it to your business’s specific needs. Just be certain to make any exceptions clear so employees understand what they can and cannot wear.

Elevate Your Business Culture with the Appropriate Dress Code

You’re your company’s work dress code speaks volumes about your company culture. Keep on top of the latest work culture trends with hiring and management advice from Monster.

Legal Disclaimer: None of the information provided herein constitutes legal advice on behalf of Monster.

How to Keep Baby Boomers in the Workplace

Many of the working baby boomers hold leadership positions and when they retire, their knowledge goes with them. Employers need to deal with it before they’re left scrambling to fill the hole left by baby boomers in the workplace.

The good news is that you can protect your company from the loss of knowledge and experience facing your workplace. Here are some tools to keep you ahead of the curve.

Retain Baby Boomers

Keep baby boomers as long as you can. Even 12 to 18 additional months can give you time to transfer their knowledge to younger employees. Create a strategy for training younger employees to minimize knowledge gaps. Kip Michael Kelly, director of marketing and public programs at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School recommends considering:

  • How many people are close to retiring?
  • What management roles do they fill?
  • What skills and abilities will you have to replace when they leave?
  • What industry and client relationships will your company lose?
  • What institutional knowledge do your boomers have?

Keep Your Boomers Engaged

Many companies are engaging baby boomers in the workplace. A study from LIMRA Secure Retirement Institute found that 92 percent of employers were taking steps to help their employees work longer, says Deborah Dupont, LIMRA’s associate managing director of retirement plans research.

Flexibility is a key component of their employee engagement strategies. Some two-thirds of the surveyed firms implemented flexible work hours. For example, federal government agencies have been offering a phased retirement option to employees who wish to work part time. They draw a part-time salary, take partial retirement benefits, and must spend 20 percent of their work time mentoring coworkers.

About 42 percent of the organizations surveyed by LIMRA had flexible workplaces, allowing employees to work remotely. CVS, for example, hires snowbird employees who choose work in the company’s Florida stores in the winter months and in northern stores during the summer.

Make the Workplace Senior-Friendly

Another way to keep baby boomers in the workplace is to resolve the issues that commonly lead these workers to retire — even when they want to continue working. Here’s a few to consider:

  • Health problems. Can you make your workplace more accommodating?
  • Care for a family member or spouse. Do you offer eldercare services including emergency elder care? Flextime or part-time work options?
  • Lack of transferable skills. Does your organization offer employee training?

These workplace adaptations can lead to process improvements. When BMW designed an assembly line based on input from older workers, the line showed a seven percent productivity increase in a single year. Follow BMW’s lead by setting up a forum where your oldest workers can share ideas for workplace improvements.

Consider Partnership Opportunities

Over the course of their careers, baby boomers have been shown to be very entrepreneurial, according to the Ewing Marion Kaufmann Foundation.

“Older entrepreneurs don’t usually start companies out of retirement or unemployment – they are more likely to do so from a job,” the report finds. “So rising labor force participation among boomers, combined with their existing propensity to start companies, could mean a boost to rates of business creation in the future.”

To capitalize on this trend, you could discuss post-retirement entrepreneurship in your pre-retirement talks with employees and during exit interviews. Are there opportunities to keep retiring baby boomers in the workplace via a partnership or joint operating agreement?

Use Mentoring Programs to Transfer Knowledge

One of the best methods to capture your boomers’ knowledge and experience is with a mentor program, says Courtney Templin, president, JB Training Solutions, Chicago and author of Manager 3.0: A Millennial’s Guide to Rewriting the Rules of Management. “Millennials are eager to learn and they love mentors and coaches,” she says.

“Part-time consulting and coaching can be another option for transferring knowledge,” adds Templin. “Be sure you make clear guidelines and structure for the program so the new leaders can wholeheartedly step into the role.”

Other ways to share knowledge include setting up multi-generational work teams and asking employees to share their thoughts about company culture, policies, procedures, and software.

Get Your Millennial Pipeline Ready With Monster’s Cutting-edge Resources

Retirement will eventually come for those baby boomers in the workplace. However, having the right tools and strategy in place can help you weather the generational change. Get expert recruitment and management advice from Monster.

Four Ways to Engage your Top Healthcare Workers

By: Tyler Black

Many healthcare systems embrace a team-based healthcare delivery—and for good reason. In this model, a team of physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) work together to ensure patients receive the best care possible.

While beneficial, this collaborative approach has created hiring challenges when members of the healthcare team leave the practice. It’s a problem that I frequently hear about from healthcare providers.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the need for physician assistants and nurse practitioners will increase more than 30 percent during the next eight years. Because these practitioners are in such high demand, it’s easier for them to shop around for other jobs if they’re not satisfied with their current employer.

With increased demand for NPs and PAs comes the need to be more competitive when hiring and more mindful about how to retain talent.

If you are seeing high employee turnover with your PAs and NPs, it may be that their needs are not being met. And salary is often not the issue. For most clinicians money is a satisfier—not a motivator.

Here are a few things you can do to retain and engage these healthcare employees—which are often not about the money.

The opportunity to learn and grow professionally. It is critical that a positive learning environment be fostered for those who seek additional skills or experience. This can be challenging in the busy world of direct patient care but it will pay long-term dividends. PAs and NPs are looking for jobs that will provide them with new experiences, education and training. They often accept a job for the opportunity of learning a new specialty, regardless of the compensation.

Work/life balance is key. Whether they are balancing child care, school schedules or simply want more time away from work, many employees want workplace flexibility. Adding some leeway to an employee’s daily, weekly or monthly schedule is often seen as a big win and can be even more important than compensation.

Working relationships and mentorship are important for professional growth. Do your employees have mentors? Is there someone they can go to for career advice? If not, you may want to look into a formal mentoring program. Asking seasoned employees to guide those younger in their careers can help engage both the mentor and mentee.

In addition, consider offering a budget for continuing medical education and time off to take those courses. This will help engage employees and lets them know you want them to stay up on the latest practices and procedures. The added focus on professional growth will also help attract new employees to your facility.

Expanded scope of practice improves engagement. Another way that PAs and NPs can grow in their careers is by giving them more autonomy. The more clinical experience they have, the more independently they can work.

There should be a consistent growth pattern for nursing practitioner job responsibilities in relation to their collaborations with physicians and PAs. This leads to better team-based medicine, as each practitioner can fulfill their roles in concert with each other. Expanding the scope of practice in the clinical setting should occur as more trust is developed.

In time, both the PA and NP should be practicing at the top of his or her license. This not only helps these providers be more engaged, it also prevents physician burnout.

Focusing on these four steps should help stymie exiting PAs and NPs from your facility. It will also help you recruit a smarter, more engaged workforce, enabling you to achieve your business goals.

Tyler Black, VP of allied staffing at CompHealth

Tyler Black is the vice president of allied staffing at CompHealth, which places PAs, NPs, and CRNAs in permanent and temporary positions around the country. For more tips on hiring and retention, CompHealth.com.

With Baby Boomers Retiring, Who Will Fill Your Workforce Gap?

With more than 75 million baby boomers retiring sooner rather than later, it’s clear that employers will need a strong workforce plan for replacing exiting workers.

Filling the workforce gap will be a challenge. The ranks of the Gen X workers are simply not enough, while many millennials lack the needed work experience. Foreign-born workers often face immigration challenges, while flexible or remote workers aren’t appropriate for every role.

But taken together, those sources can supply a portion of the additional workers your organization will need to fill the skills gap created by retiring boomers, enabling you to improve your employee retention rates.

The Workforce Gap From Baby Boomers Retiring

A quick glance at population data shows why the retirement of more baby boomers will create recruitment headaches in the years ahead, unless the age mix in your organization heavily tilts toward young workers.

According to Pew Research, over a third of the workforce, or around 41 million workers, come from the Baby Boom Generation, born from 1946 to 1964. Geography and industry greatly influence the likelihood that an employer will face a workforce skills gap sooner and more severely.

Can’t Gen X Pick up the Slack?

Generation X spans those born between 1965 to 1980 and contributes around 53 million workers to the U.S. economy, according to Pew Research.

Unfortunately, not all Gen Xers will continue to work full time. Many in the “latchkey generation” are at a life stage that includes children and some must care for aging parents, too. For these workers, workplace flexibility and work/life balance are critical components of the decision to stay in, or step away from, the workforce.

This trend has continued with companies granting unlimited parental leave, unlimited vacation, and sabbaticals. Those benefits appeal to Gen Xers in families with two working parents, who have to make difficult decisions about when they work, how much they work, and where they work, says Courtney Templin, president, JB Training Solutions, Chicago and author of Manager 3.0: A Millennial’s Guide to Rewriting the Rules of Management.

While your company may not be able to match those unlimited offers, you may have a better chance of recruiting Gen X workers by adding telecommuting, part-time hours, compressed workweeks, short sabbaticals, job sharing, shift trading, project-based contracts, or temporary jobs to your workforce benefits.

Millennials Are Moving Up

Gen Xers aren’t the only big players in the workforce. The Millennial Generation, born 1981 to 1997, offers an additional 56 million workers, according to Pew Research. But they won’t make up for the growing skills gap as these workers fill the roles of baby boomers retiring.

If that dynamic continues, it could reduce the pool of highly educated talent in the years ahead, making it even tougher for you to find the entry-level employees your organization needs. A focus on employee training (particularly soft skills training) and early management programs may help to groom millennial employees.

Templin points out that millennials are drawn to transparent, collaborative organizations. The generation that grew up with technology likes access to information. Open organizations with open-book financial management and open-door hierarchies will be at an advantage when recruiting millennials.

Are Immigrants in Your Workforce Plan?

Immigrants also can help close the employee gap, although it’s hard to predict to what degree, given the changing nature of federal immigration policy. According to 2018 data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. workforce increased to 28.2 million foreign-born workers. If immigration slows, the recruiting pinch will be felt most by companies that rely on foreign-born workers, particularly those in the following industries:

  • Service occupations
  • Production, transportation and material moving occupations
  • Natural resources, construction and maintenance occupations

Foreign-born workers have also played a critical role in filling the skills gap already found in many STEM fields in which unemployment is near zero, according to Help Wanted: The Role of Foreign Workers in the Innovation Economy.

Can Remote Workers Fill the Skills Gap?

You may be able to fill the skills gap by recruiting remote workers. Not only will you gain access to job applicants in other parts of the country (or the world), you’ll also appeal to workers who simply prefer to work from home.

Adding the ability to work remotely can help you attract new employees and improve employee retention rates. But it will likely require a shift in company culture as well as careful planning for logistical, management and hiring challenges.

Baby Boomers Who Don’t Retire

Another way to cover the skills gap is to retain your baby boomer employees on the job indefinitely. Be warned, however. Baby boomers may say they plan to work into their 70s (or possibly forever), but by age 68, only 16 percent of people actually work full time (17 percent work part time), according to Gallup.

Your best strategy may be to create a baby boomer knowledge transfer and replacement program that focuses your senior employees on transferring their knowledge to others over a pre-retirement period of 12 to 18 months.

Are Your Baby Boomers Retiring? Get Help Filling the Gap

Sooner or later, you’re going to need workers to replace the baby boomer employees who are retiring. But what type of candidates are best for the job and where can you find them? Well, you’ve come to the right place. Monster has decades of experience reading the job market and we have expert insights to match. Stick with us to get exclusive, free access to the latest recruiting tools, from information on hiring strategies to job market trends, and much more.

5 Types of Leadership Styles That Work

In a rapidly changing business landscape, organizations need to be ready to adapt their management style at a moment’s notice. Successful managers know how to combine two or more types of leadership styles to effectively navigate shifting market conditions and workplace challenges.

Deciding which leadership style makes the most sense for you and your organization depends on the sector in which you are competing, the team you are leading, and the kinds of employees you are mentoring. Managers who are familiar with multiple approaches to leading teams have a much easier time transitioning from one that isn’t working to one that will as circumstances change.

There are countless categories of leadership. We’ve outlined some of the most common below.

What to Consider as You Select a Leadership Style

Effective leaders create efficiency and growth by making their team members feel supported and respected. There’s more than one way to accomplish this, and no one leadership style is better than any other. Instead, the types of leadership styles you employ should be implemented according to your unique working conditions.

As you decide which style makes the most sense for your workforce, consider:

  • Your own strengths and values
  • Your preferred way of working with others
  • Your team and workforce and their core competencies
  • Your project, product, or most pressing organizational challenge
  • Your organization’s place in relation to your competitors (or “situational awareness”)

All of these factors will help determine which style of leadership you choose to employ.

1. Transactional

Sometimes referred to as direct or even authoritative, transactional leaders are highly focused and results-driven. They are often described as having a commanding presence and can be highly effective, especially over the short term. Using numerical benchmarks to measure performance, these leaders motivate employees by implementing incentives for strong performance and penalties for poor performance (for example, up-or-out policies).

Pros: Transactional leaders are often good at crisis management, as they tend to implement changes quickly and efficiently without waiting for companywide buy-in or gradually testing process or policy changes on an incremental level to see what works. They’re a good fit for workers who like a lot of structure, clear expectations, and ambitious goals.

Cons: They are sometimes seen as micro managers who lack flexibility and fail to encourage collaboration.

2. Transformational

Of the various types of leadership styles, this one is considered the most “visionary” or even “disruptive.” These leaders like to focus on the big picture and take a fresh approach to the problems facing their industries. Their approach is often cutting edge, but also high risk. These leaders are often brought in to transform organizations, sometimes after periods of slow growth. They’re often charismatic, employing their personal charm and communication skills to inspire those around them and drive growth.

Pros: These leader are often very effective at modeling business communication best practices and leadership storytelling as a means of securing resources and motivating employees. Their personal connection to employees means that they can be reassuring in times of crisis. They’re often found at startups and nonprofits, where they are able to leverage company values to raise donations or venture capital.

Cons: They may take too many risks to helm an organization for the long term. They are often too focused on the big picture and future potential and lose sight of mundane details that could derail profitability and stability.

3. Bureaucratic

This one is the most deliberate, detail-driven, and methodical types of leadership styles. Bureaucratic leaders are focused on fact gathering and the careful analysis of longitudinal data. These are by-the-book managers who are policy driven and tend to want to do things the way they have always been done. If you’re looking for steady growth, stability, and staying power within your industry, this is leadership style may be the right choice.

Pros: These are often a perfect match for highly regulated industries where penalties for breaking the rules are steep and making drastic changes to policies or procedures can endanger profitability. Because they give those working for them very clear and dependable expectations to meet and procedures to follow, their employees always know where they stand with these managers.

Cons: These leaders tend to stifle creativity and innovation. They can also make it harder to recognize talent that may be hidden under layers of hierarchy and a culture where upper-level leadership can seem remote and unapproachable.

4. Collaborative

There are many labels for this type of leadership style: “democratic,” “participative,” “team-focused,” “power sharing,” “laissez faire,” and “hands off.” Whatever name you use, collaborative leaders make those around them feel like they have a say in decisions by getting buy-in from their teams before making any bold changes. This makes them a good fit for organizations that are overly siloed and need a unifying force in leadership.

Pros: This leadership style empowers innovation and achievement from teams and managers. These flexible thinkers tend to operate in a transparent fashion, mentoring and empowering their employees. This tends to increase job satisfaction and employee investment in the organizational mission, inspire loyalty, and improve employee morale and retention.

Cons: Often seen as indecisive and likely to postpone needed change while they gather data or weigh options, some employees may not clearly understand what their goals and performance expectations are under these leaders.

5. Supportive

Sometimes called servant leaders, these managers tend to listen more than they speak. They are compassionate and approachable. They help others reach their potential by ceding large projects and day-to-day supervision of processes to more junior employees without micromanaging. Rather than claiming credit for success, they allow others to shine. These managers see employees as a company’s most valuable asset and believe that happy employees are more productive and innovative.

Pros: They are adept at mentoring talent for future leadership roles. In times of crisis, these leaders can be very effective at staving off employee panic. Their strong interpersonal skills allow them to forge productive relationships with vendors, customers, and leaders within their sector and community.

Cons: This leadership style won’t work in all environments. For example, an inexperienced staff or team may crave more direction and structure than this approach provides.

One Size Does Not Fit All

It’s important to become familiar with several types of leadership styles as you may need to pivot from one to another. For example, a more transactional leadership style can motivate a sales team, whereas a more supportive style may work better with research and development.

Any of these styles can result in highly successful projects, teams, and organizations. The best leaders know how to adapt to meet the moment.

Now That You know the Types of Leadership Styles, Learn How to Implement Them

Whatever your leadership style, you can learn more about how effectively manage your team, grow profits, and attract and retain top talent with the latest hiring news from Monster.

7 Ways to Improve Work Performance

Most employees want to learn new ways to improve work performance, but it can be hard to figure out the first step. That’s where good coaching comes in. Managers can empower their direct reports to take control of their own career path. This requires employees to learn and utilize the tools that will help change their behavior and improve their performance.

Good managers can help employees develop efficient and effective behaviors by challenging them to improve. They know their stuff, focus on the right things, and build a reputation for helpfulness. Good managers give team members challenging assignments to work with others—and a lot of practice.

Remember, ideal team players are humble. They share credit, emphasize team over self, and define success collectively rather than individually. Ready to learn the best ways to improve work performance? Let’s go over seven major areas of focus:

  1. Show Personal Responsibility
  2. Develop Personal Flexibility
  3. Bring Positivity
  4. Show Personal Integrity
  5. Demonstrate Ongoing Efficiency
  6. Solicit Feedback

1. Show Personal Responsibility

The best and perhaps the hardest ways to improve work performance usually involve setting the example yourself. We often (consciously or unconsciously) model our behavior on our managers and those with seniority. It’s important to know the ropes and play by the rules, since you never know who may be watching.

A good manager meets deadlines, deliverables, and most of all expectations—how else can you expect your workforce to do the same? Respect others’ time and you’re respecting them in the most basic way. And don’t forget the positive effects of treating yourself with that same respect.

2. Develop Personal Flexibility

It’s important to be open-minded, in terms of both your workforce and change management. The danger of being right 90 percent of the time is the 10 percent where you’re not, and which you never see coming. That’s why it’s key to avoid getting stuck in old thoughts and patterns that can blind you to an innovation, solution, or even a looming issue.

We’re only as resilient as we are flexible, and that goes double both for surprises and for interpersonal stresses. Be open to others’ work styles, adapt quickly, and you’ll never be caught off guard.

3. Bring Positivity

The leader who believes is a believer who leads! Effective leadership means providing a bedrock of enthusiasm, hope and ingenuity that will sustain your employees through hard work and harder times. A leader who brings a positive and constructive outlook is often the star by which the rest of the team steers, and a leader who’s faking it can usually be spotted by the low morale of their team.

Remember, you have this effect on your workers whether your attitude is positive or negative, so you may as well keep things bright. Offer incentives, positive reinforcement, praise for a job well done and be proactive with the help and advice you offer.

4. Show Personal Integrity

Among the qualities a good manager must actively demonstrate are social skills, especially that of integrity. Overlooking or remedying gaffes is important, but so is avoiding workplace gossip. It’s a lot easier to follow a leader who has proven their character, since our belief in the mission derives from our faith in the project’s manager.

Integrity in an office setting means your word is your bond, you stand by your commitments, and you never leave work undone, or for someone else to handle. Integrity also means attending to your tasks ahead of attention-sappers and timewasting, frivolous pursuits.

5. Demonstrate Ongoing Efficiency

Efficiency and productivity aren’t just a matter of working fast—learning how to improve work performance means learning to work more cleanly, with less wasted time and movement. Strive for a low-touch experience and get it right the first time.

Especially in a remote or hybrid setting, a manager supports their employees in reaching, and modeling, efficiency. Weekly or daily check-ins, often in the “update email” style (what you’ve done today, what you’ll do tomorrow, and how it could be easier to accomplish), are a good way to keep in touch. More importantly, they’re an informal but crucial way to keep our eyes on deadlines and timelines.

6. Solicit Feedback

Remember, it’s a big part of your duties to help your team stay on track, and that means closing loops. Regular communication, constructive feedback, and check-ins are all ways to improve work performance and keep the team’s focus in sight. Only by knowing what’s limiting the work rate or productivity of your workers can you possibly hope to help ease their way, and that means actively looking for ways to help as well.

As a manager you have the benefit of perspective, not tied to a particular role or department but capable of seeing the bigger picture. Maintaining that bigger picture means never losing sight of the smaller pictures that make it up, meaning the concerns of your workers. A willing ear is often all a team member is really looking for.

7. Build and Maintain Your Focus

Focusing on both your own immediate task work and on overall team goals is one of the best ways to improve work performance in those around you. Drill down to the essentials and you can keep your milestones and to-do lists distilled to the most impactful and meaningful tasks. Likewise, you can always regain lost focus by concentrating on the essential deliverables and how to most effectively get them done.

Focus is a matter of eliminating distraction, but that’s not all there is to it. Focus means bringing the whole of yourself to your task, doing your work with character and grace, and keeping an open mind so that you don’t miss any shortcuts or possible improvements in your workflow.

Ready to Build and Maintain Your Dream Team?

Learning the ways to improve work performance and creating workplace superstars takes dedication and, more importantly, time. Monster has the information you need to recruit, train, manage and support a dynamic, self-starting group of workers.

Flexibility In The Workplace And Why It Matters

By: Pam Lassiter

Expanding access to workplace flexibility is a priority that is critical to helping working families and driving employee engagement. It can also help mitigate the war for talent.

As an HR professional, you are in the perfect position at the perfect time to make a difference in both your company and in the country. Whether it’s flex-time, job sharing, telecommuting, condensed/reduced work week, leaves/sabbaticals, or phased retirement, helping your employees with work life balance and helping your company is what we’re all about, right?

How Workplace Flexibility Increases Employee Engagement
Let’s take a look at the case of “Jane” when conside flexible workplace initiative.

Jane, who happens to work in HR for a global, internationally-recognized hotel chain, is in charge of compliance training for a billion-plus dollar corporation. She wanted to work remotely, due to a job transfer her husband received, and the company didn’t want her talent walking out of the door. So she developed a proposal.

Restructuring was going on and, given that the company had new regulations, someone had to keep management trained in the latest practices. Jane created a job. All she needed was an airport, a computer, and a tremendous amount of intellectual capital. Her proposal was granted and she’s working happily out of her home office in the mid-West, but she passes along some advice:

  • Screen on the individual as well as the type of work that goes off-site. Scheduling the individual full-time in the corporate office prior to telecommuting helps to build trust and relationships that make a difference in the long run.
  • Look for employees that are internally driven with a strong work ethic.
  • Set clear guidelines and define expectations up front. While Jane knows that she can put the laundry in, she avoids running errands during the day. How are you going to measure, evaluate and reward flexible workers?
  • Check out their offices. Is your employee at the kitchen table where there are constant interruptions, or do they have an office in the basement where they can’t hear kids, spouses, or TVs? Productivity suffers or thrives, depending on the answer. (Companies typically provide the computer, the IT training and support, and the phone line for at-home work. It’s a lot less expensive than office space!)
  • Stay in touch! This was Jane’s most important point. E-mail isn’t enough, and occasional phone calls aren’t much better. Jane has weekly web-cam meetings with her office as part of her virtual management strategy; she finds this critical not only for maintaining her own sanity, but for keeping the trust and relationships going that let her continue to get her job done as people and needs shift. Keep money in the company budget for in-face meetings of virtual workers and/or corporate rotation once a year. Research backs Jane up on the importance of getting together in-person on occasion.

Jane is hitting all of the high points that I’m finding in other companies with satisfied employees and in the research: goals, guidelines, structure and engagement.

The Proof is in the Numbers
How about Deloitte & Touche’s savings of $41.5 million in employee turnover costs alone from retaining employees who would have left if they did not have a flexible work arrangement? How about 70% of managers and 87% of employees who reported that having a flexible work arrangement made a positive or very positive impact on their productivity? Have you persuaded the top execs already?

Should senior management still be questioning whether a trial of a flexible work program is a good idea, tell them about the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s work. Your company can even win a prestigious award in this area.

Kathleen Christensen, who launched the Sloan Foundation’s National Workplace Flexibility Initiative, sponsored major research on the business outcomes of workplace flexibility. In one study of multiple large US corporations, she found that flexible work arrangements had positive outcomes on financial performance, as well as operational and business outcomes.

Their flexibility led to increased employee performance and productivity, hence increased revenue generation and better cycle time and client service. Employees who had even a small degree of flexibility in when and where work got done had significantly greater job satisfaction, stronger commitment to the job, and higher levels of engagement with the company, as well as significantly lower levels of stress.

As you roll out these initiatives, be sure that they meet the business needs of the employee’s workplace and that they’re within a structure that you can control and monitor.

“Workplace flexibility isn’t just a women’s issue. It’s an issue that affects the well-being of our families and the success of our businesses,” said Michelle’s husband.” It affects the strength of our economy – whether we’ll create the workplaces and jobs of the future that we need to compete in today’s global economy.”

We, in HR, can make a difference. Let’s get started.

Author Bio
Pam Lassiter is author of The New Job Security. As Principal of Lassiter Consulting she designs flexible work, outplacement and retention programs for companies.

Is It Time to Call Remote Employees Back to the Office?

Remote work has been the name of the work game since early 2020. According to a data analysis from the Society of Human Resource Management, four in ten employers offer at least some remote work — up from 22% before the pandemic.

But as home life returns to something that looks more normal, some experts are recommending a return to full-time office life, particularly for Millennials and Gen Z. These are workers who could benefit from in-person work interaction and instruction to advance their careers.

But these are also generations that value flexibility. About two-thirds of Millennials (67%) and Gen Z (63%) workers believe remote work leads to a better work/life balance, according to a survey from Deloitte. And about six in ten said that after the pandemic ended, they’d like the option to work from a remote location more frequently.

While fully in-person work has its benefits, many employers plan to stick with some form of flexible work. Here’s the lay of the office land:

Most employers who went remote are happy with it

Some industries don’t have the option of remote work — think food services, retail, warehousing — but during the pandemic, about a third of private sector companies increased remote work opportunities for their employees, according to a report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Of those, six in ten plan to keep the telework policies they put in place.

“We’ve been able to hire a wider variety of talent across the country, and despite being remote, we have high engagement, employee satisfaction, and virtually no turnover,” says Lauren Schneider, senior public relations manager for HR tech company Compt, which went fully remote at the start of the pandemic.

For Millennials and Gen Z workers, fully remote work gives them, among other things, the opportunity to work for high-profile companies while living in lower-cost areas. “Providing employees with the flexibility to work when, where, and how they want, shows them that you value their input and respect their time management skills,” says Kirill Sajaev, executive director and founder of digital marketing firm Auq.io.

Hybrid models are trending 

Employers understand that work flexibility drives worker retention — but many would still like to see their employees’ smiling faces now and then. Those are the companies asking workers to report to an office on at least a part-time basis. That meshes with a 2021 survey by McKinsey that found that nine out of ten companies planned to be hybrid post-pandemic.

“Personally, I think a hybrid model has the best of both worlds,” says John Frigo, eCommerce manager with Bestpricenutrition.com, which is bringing remote employees back to the office a few days a week. “It gives employees more flexibility and takes away some of the burdens of commuting, packing lunches, having work clothes ready to go, while also having the benefits of in-office work, such as people having relationships with one another and building rapport.”

Hybrid models allow workers to meet and collaborate as needed, but also to avoid some of the expense of full-time commuting, particularly as prices continue to climb, and allow companies to save on office expenses.

Fidelity Investments reports that a quarter of the company’s associates are participating in voluntary re-entry programs across all offices. During the next phase of re-entry, the company is asking teams to come to the office one week a month. And last fall, American Express introduced Amex Flex, a new work model allowing workers to choose a hybrid or remote work schedule.

“The majority of our colleagues in the U.S. have chosen a hybrid schedule, which means they come into the office an average of two days per week and work virtually for the rest,” says Claire Hogan, vice president and head of global talent acquisition at American Express. “More than 40% have opted to be fully virtual, a percentage that has doubled since before the pandemic.”

Remote work doesn’t work for everyone

Remote work isn’t a miracle setup for all companies, and some see the benefit of bringing everyone back to a central spot, particularly for new employees. For one thing, when you’re working remotely, you can’t pop your head into the partner’s office for a quick discussion or interrupt a manager near you with a question.

“Companies have found it difficult to reproduce this online,” says Rahul Vij, CEO of WebSpero Solutions, a digital marketing agency that is calling all its employees back to the office. “Clients and management notice the difference since new employees aren’t learning many essential aspects of the job, such as how to ask follow-up questions, or people skills in general.”

Other companies see the benefit of in-person camaraderie — something that requires real creativity to reproduce in a virtual workplace.

“We gain something when we interact with someone in person,” says Marcus Hutsen, business development manager of Patriot Coolers, which is returning to a full-time in-person model. “[It’s] something that can’t be duplicated by other modes of communication. If we need to go remote again sometime, we will, but for me, the default is to be working together in an office, as a team.”

The bottom line

It may be true that full-time, in-person work is beneficial to robust career development, but after two years of flexible work options, remote work may be a tough knot to unravel from company benefits.

“Flexible work schedules support the mental and physical health of employees, which in turn encourages and bolsters productivity,” says Sarah Hawk, COO of software firm Discourse. “If businesses recognized that the benefits of trust-based relationships outweigh the archaic need to micro-manage, productivity and health would soar.”

Why Employers Should Consider a “Right to Disconnect” Rule

With many people still working from home and technology available at our fingertips, the lines between work and personal life are becoming increasingly blurred. Add to that, ever-increasing expectations for productivity and revenue growth, and the pressure to be available for work at all hours of the day continues to build along with it. In fact, working after hours has become so prevalent in today’s society, that 80% of workers reported working beyond their scheduled shift, with 35% doing so every day, according to a recent Monster poll.

But people need downtime — time away from their work to recharge and attend to their own personal obligations. “The most democratized thing is time,” says Barbara Palmer, a leadership coach and founder of Broad Perspective Consulting. “We all get the same 24 hours, and in that amount of time, we have to figure out how to do everything we need and want to do. If I over-index the time that I work, that time has to come from somewhere else… If everyone is consistently working nights and weekends, that means employees have to forgo rest, recovery, family and friend time, self-care, hobbies, and interests.” Without that crucial time away, employee engagement and productivity takes a nosedive, burnout becomes rampant, and absenteeism and turnover skyrocket.

So, what can employers do to help ensure employees are prioritizing work-life balance and not engaging in work during non-working hours? Implementing a “right to disconnect” rule could be a good place to start.

What Does Having the “Right to Disconnect” Mean?

First implemented in France in 2017 as part of the broader “El Khomri” law, other countries as well as companies around the globe have since enacted their own “right to disconnect” rules. As the name implies, these policies protect employees from working outside of their set hours, meaning employees do not have to respond to emails, calls, or other work-related matters during that time. It can also prohibit employers from communicating with employees outside of defined working hours, except in emergencies or for scheduling changes.

Benefits of Adopting a “Right to Disconnect” Rule

The constant responsibility of being “always on” can certainly take a toll on the wellbeing of a workforce. Numerous studies, including Monster’s poll, have shown that excessive work demands and the inability to disconnect at the end of the workday can negatively affect an employee’s work-life balance, mental health, sleep schedule, and quality of work.

Implementing a “right to disconnect” rule can help alleviate that pressure of being available around-the-clock. In fact, the majority of workers said they anticipate benefitting from decreased stress levels and improved mental health and work performance if they were to work for an employer that offered them the right to disconnect.

“Adopting a ‘right to disconnect’ rule significantly boosts employee morale and plays a key role in reducing turnover,” says Kristie Tse, founder at Uncover Mental Health Counseling. “I’ve seen how giving team members freedom to unplug leads to increased job satisfaction. When employees feel their personal time is respected, they tend to develop a stronger loyalty to the organization. This approach allows them to recharge, ultimately enhancing creativity and productivity when they return to work.”

In addition to retaining top talent, actively promoting a “right to disconnect” policy can help attract candidates, especially in today’s tight labor market. After all, in Monster’s 2024 Work Watch report, candidates agreed that more flexible work hours is one of the most important benefits that employers can offer.

How to Implement a “Right to Disconnect” Policy

Implementing a “right to disconnect” rule can go a long way toward preventing burnout and helping employees achieve better work-life balance. “To effectively communicate and enforce a ‘right to disconnect’ rule, I recommend that employers take a proactive approach by integrating this principle into their company culture,” Tse says. “Clearly outlining this policy in onboarding materials and holding training sessions can help set expectations from the start.” Additionally, employers can encourage managers to conduct regular check-ins with team members to review their workloads and discuss work-life balance. Employers can also establish a designated communication platform for non-urgent matters or consider using technology to restrict after-hours communication.

But simply creating these types of rules is not enough, and that starts from the top down. “Employees are typically not on duty around the clock, but may feel they are if role models and leaders in the organization communicate regularly outside of work hours,” Palmer says. “While leaders may not expect a response, making a request or throwing information back to an employee may signal that it is now the employee’s obligation to respond quickly. Modeling behaviors, such as pre-scheduling emails to send only during work hours, taking vacation and unplugging during PTO, taking sick days where you are not working, and being loud about being present for your kids are all ways that show — not just tell — employees what is valued.”

Employers also need to be mindful of employees in roles, such as IT or healthcare, that often require constant availability and where having the “right to disconnect” might not be an option. In these instances, Maria DeLorenzis Reyes, executive coach and founder and CEO of MDR Brands, says employers can consider:

  • Implementing rotating shifts to distribute the burden of being on call.
  • Offering compensatory rest or additional pay to acknowledge their availability.
  • Providing robust support systems, including mental health resources and flexible scheduling.

As organizations like Monster have realized, employees are your most important asset, so it’s imperative to find ways to help them do their best work. As outlined above, doing so can help strengthen your employer brand, bolster recruitment and retention efforts, and so much more. For employers looking for additional insights on how to ensure your employee support initiatives are reflected in your branding and recruitment marketing, turn to Monster Hiring Solutions where you’ll receive expert recruiting advice and gain access to best-in-class tools.

Write a Job Description that Stands Out

Your business is growing, and now it’s time to hire a few more people to take it to the next level. You need professionals with the right skills, experience, and attitude to make it happen. To attract the right applicants, you’ll need to understand how to write a job description with flair and purpose.

You may feel like you know exactly what you need, but developing a formal job description will help you more fully understand what you’re looking for. A good job description will even do some of the hiring work for you by encouraging candidates who aren’t a good fit for the job to self-select out of the process.

It’s a little like online dating and requires balance. You’ll want to put your company’s best foot forward and explain why your workplace is better than all the other potential suitors out there. But, you also want to be specific about who it is you’re looking for so you’re not overwhelmed by applicants who aren’t the right fit.

Writing a winning job description involves these critical steps:

  • List the essentials, in order.
  • Help applicants visualize what it’s like to work at your company.
  • Define what it means to succeed at your company.

Learning how to write a job description that achieves the right balance is one of the first steps to hiring a team that will help your business reach and exceed its goals. Here’s how.

Cover the Basics, in the Right Order

Your job description needs to be simple and clear. This will increase the likelihood that job seekers will read it from top to bottom and come away with a clear understanding of the job. Include some colorful details and follow a logical format, starting with the job title and ending with a call to action.

Our extensive collection of occupation-specific job description templates can help you learn how to write a job description in no time. Monster’s hiring experts recommend that you structure the information in the following order:

1. Job Title

Avoid “made-up” titles that include uncommon words which will negatively impact your job’s ranking in search results. Even if you call your senior writer the “Top Wordsmith,” no one will be searching for that term and you’ll come up empty. When you post a job on Monster, the job title field will prompt you with recommended titles to help you make the best choice.

2. Summary

This is your opportunity to communicate your company’s value proposition, an important part of your employer brand, which also should be reflected on your web site, social media channels, and other company communications. What exactly does your business do, and what makes you special? Cater your pitch to your ideal candidate so they can imagine what it will be like to work for your company.

3. Responsibilities

Think of this as a high-level overview of the job’s main responsibilities that will help the job seeker know if the position is right for them. Include relevant keywords to help your posting be found in search results, making sure that the main responsibilities are listed first.

4. Requirements/Preferences

Requirements are the “must-haves” for the applicant to get the job; preferences are the “nice to have” qualities. Providing both will help candidates gauge how their own skills and experiences measure up to your vision of a superstar employee. Be specific about the skills and education that are required for the role and where there’s some flexibility.

5. Benefits

Include primary benefits (healthcare, 401k, etc.) as well as secondary benefits that are unique to your company (flexible work options, child care support, etc.) These will help set your company apart from the competition.

6. Salary Range

Pay transparency is increasingly important, with many cities and states, such as New York City, requiring it. Providing salary information can attract a broader range of applicants and build trust. Learn more about salary transparency laws.

7. Call to Action

Make it super easy to apply to the job by including a direct link to the application. This will encourage users to apply and make it easier for you to track applicants on Monster. With a Monster job posting, the “apply” button is pinned to your job in both the desktop and mobile view so the seeker always sees it. By looking for ads in the same field or location as yours, you can get a sense of what your competitors are seeking.

Bring Your Job to Life

A key part of knowing how to write a job description that delivers is to keep your ideal applicant in mind. Provide enough information and descriptive language to help them visualize themselves in the position. The better you can articulate the desired characteristics and experience you want, the more targeted potential candidates will be. That will help simplify and potentially shorten your recruiting process.

Candidates want to know what they will do from day. Why not feed their curiosity with detailed, colorful descriptions? Be accurate. Include information about who the position reports to, who they would work with daily, what tools they’ll be expected to use, and what their output should be. If there’s a training period, explain how long it will be and what it entails.

If you’re looking for someone to wear multiple hats, note that as well. For example, small or startup companies may note “other duties as assigned,” which can be a plus for entrepreneurial-minded Millennials who are hungry to know how business works. If that’s the case, be open about this opportunity to let interested applicants know that they need to be flexible and adaptable to succeed in this role.

Finally, as a small business, you may not be able to compete for talent with larger companies on pay so think about what aspects of your culture might be appealing to a candidate and talk about those in the job description. For example, if your management style is such that you give employees a lot of ownership of their work or you allow for a lot of flexibility in schedules, say so.

Define Success at Your Organization

Your company is a unique community of people and values. Knowing how to write job description also means expressing those unique characteristics to help set seekers’ expectations. Even if they possess the hard skills needed for the position, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll fit within your company culture.

As you start jotting down the attributes of the job, describe your ideal candidate. This includes the behaviors they will need to fit into your culture in addition to the experience, education and skills they possess. For instance, if your company’s culture places a value on people who don’t take themselves too seriously or have a work-hard/play-hard value, spell that out in the job description.

To really make your job description shine, include some details about how the candidate can advance in six months to a year. If applicable, include specific metrics that the person in the role should accomplish, as well as information about potential growth opportunities for greater autonomy or leadership.

Knowing How to Write a Job Description is Just the Beginning

Now that you know the basics of how to write a job description that attracts the right people to your organization, it’s time to put that knowledge to the test. Find relevant, engaged candidates in less time and post your job on Monster today!